Dojo Review: Fast Transfers But Is It Worth It?

Dojo offers transaction fees as low as 1%, 24-hour fund transfers every day of the week, and extensive EPOS integration. However, the hardware doesn’t support offline payments, and you’ll potentially face more ongoing fees than you would with other providers.

Even though Dojo didn’t quite crack our list of the best merchant service providers in the UK, it still has plenty of appealing qualities.

Read on for an in-depth look at its pricing, hardware, features, and customer support compared to other top options on the market. But if you’re short on time, you can use our free quote tool to get free, no-obligation quotes from top providers. After all, many providers have custom pricing options, including Dojo.

How Much Does Dojo Cost?

In 2025, Dojo changed its pricing structure to a new, more flexible custom model that allows businesses to choose how they pay, their rate option, and their contract terms.

Nevertheless, there are two pricing paths:

• One for businesses processing more than £100,000 in card payments per year
• One for businesses that process less than £100,000 in card payments per year.

Here’s a quick summary:

What are Dojo’s hardware costs?

There is now a choice for either paying monthly or paying upfront for Dojo’s hardware (although validity for the former depends on business turnover):

• Pay monthly, ongoing
  • From £15 per month (only available for businesses with an annual card turnover of £100,000 or more)
• Pay once, upfront
  • From £179 with no ongoing hardware costs (available to any business)

Whether you pay monthly or upfront for your Dojo card machine, the cheapest device is the Dojo Go model, according to our research (there is no public pricing for any other hardware devices Dojo offers, such as the Dojo Pocket, as these require you to get a pricing quote from the supplier). Alternatively, you can also purchase this hardware outright for £179 and not have any more ongoing costs to consider.

By comparison, you can purchase hardware outright for around one month of Dojo’s monthly fee via providers like Square (£19 + VAT). In other words, there are cheaper options than Dojo for hardware on the UK market. However, that low-cost hardware is much less capable than the Dojo Go, as we’ll detail in our hardware section further down this page.

What are Dojo’s platform fees?

With Dojo, businesses with an annual card turnover above £100k pay a base rate of £10 per month for the use of its cloud-native payments platform. This price is in line with providers like Worldpay’s £9.95 per month costs.

For businesses with an annual turnover under £100k, the platform is included in the £39.99 per month base fee they pay for transactions.

Although Dojo has dropped its fees in recent years, it’s worth mentioning that many other providers don’t have monthly fees at all. That includes the likes of Zettle, Tide, Square, and SumUp.

Does Dojo have any hidden fees?

Dojo isn’t very transparent with its pricing, so it most likely has hidden fees.

For example, it’s likely businesses will pay higher transaction fees on certain types of cards, such as Amex, commercial, or international cards, than they would on standard UK personal cards.

If you have a store with multiple locations, it is also worth reiterating that you’ll have a £10 per month charge per location to access its cloud-native payments platform.

Are Dojo’s Card Machines Any Good?

Dojo offers three card readers: the Dojo Go, which costs from £15  per month, the Dojo Pocket, and the Dojo Wired, both for an additional, unknown cost.

Dojo doesn’t support third-party card readers, so these are the only options you have on that front. That means no tabletop machines or any smartphone-centric readers.

Still, the readers themselves are of excellent quality, with reportedly fast speeds and a modern interface. The price points are more expensive than some options out there, especially providers that have a one-time fee, but they aren’t outside of industry norms (Tyl by Natwest has a similar price for its main reader).

1. Dojo Go: Portable Card Machine

Price: From £15 per month, or from £179 upfront

The Dojo Go is essentially a must-have if you opt for a Dojo merchant account.

That’s not just because it is Dojo’s most feature-rich card machine, but down to it being the only option you have. Dojo doesn’t support third-party card reader hardware, and the Dojo Pocket – a slimmer card machine accessory– is only available to you after you’ve purchased the Dojo Go for your business first.

Those limitations aside, let’s detail the key features of the Dojo Go and what we think about it compared to other top card readers.

Dojo Go key features

• Connectivity: Equipped with both Wi-Fi and a built-in 4G SIM card to ensure reliable connectivity anywhere.
• Touchscreen interface: Features a high-resolution touchscreen for intuitive navigation and ease of use.
• Battery life: Long-lasting battery designed to last a full trading day on a single charge.
• Security: Fully PCI DSS compliant with point-to-point encryption (P2PE) for secure transactions.
• Built-in receipt printer: Allows for immediate printing of customer receipts after transactions.
• Weight: 458g

What do we think about the Dojo Go?

Dojo states that the Go card machine can take payments 58% faster than the market average, according to an independent study by Savanta (2023), which is an impressive claim that seems to bear out in reality, according to our additional research.

We believe the Dojo Go is very user-friendly, with a speedy touchscreen interface that allows staff to navigate and process transactions efficiently. At 458g, it’s not the lightest card reader in the world (that role is saved for the Dojo Pocket), but it’s still eminently portable, with a sleek design that looks professional, too.

The dual connectivity options of WiFi and 4G provide reliable performance, which means you can accept payments even if one connection type is unavailable. On the other hand, that’s not useful if you are selling outdoors in a remote region without either, nor is it an apt table-top option given it forgoes ethernet connectivity. But for most businesses, it should still work well.

Likewise, the built-in receipt printer saves you from purchasing one separately and improves convenience for both staff and customers when taking payment. Not all card machines offer a built-in receipt printer, for instance, Zettle’s Card Reader 2, so it shouldn’t be taken for granted.

Battery performance appears solid, promising 10 hours of use from a single charge, which is above the industry standard of eight hours. The SumUp Air can do better than this and be used for 12 consecutive hours, though it doesn’t have a screen and instead connects to a smartphone.

2. Dojo Pocket: Compact Card Reader

Price: Custom

Only available after purchasing the Dojo Go, the Dojo Pocket is a more slimline alternative that offers many of the same features, minus the ability to print physical receipts.

Dojo Pocket key features

• Ultra-portable design: Small and lightweight, it is designed to fit comfortably in your pocket for ultimate mobility.
• Same connectivity as Dojo Go: Both WiFi and 4G are supported on the Dojo Pocket.
• Smartphone connectivity: Pairs with smartphones via Bluetooth to use it with the Dojo app (available on iOS and Android).
• Digital receipts: You can send receipts directly to customers via email or text message through the app (there’s no in-built receipt printer).
• Battery life: Built to last through a full day of transactions on a single charge.

What do we think about the Dojo Pocket?

We think the Dojo Pocket is ideal for businesses on the move, such as market traders, food trucks, or mobile service providers, due to its compact size.

Customers can simply tap their card/smart device for any sale or refund amount. If the payment is over £100, the device will display a virtual PIN pad to use without the need to insert a card. There’s also the ability to pay via a QR code if a customer has a smartphone.

Speaking of which, pairing the device with a smartphone is pretty seamless by all accounts, and the Dojo app itself offers an intuitive interface, making it easy to manage transactions and send digital receipts to relevant email addresses or phone numbers.

Our main annoyance about the Dojo Pocket is that you can’t opt to purchase it without the Dojo Go. If Dojo allowed it to be purchased individually, the Pocket could take centre stage rather than be a sideshow to the Go model.

Of course, it is also not the best choice for printing physical receipts regularly, since it doesn’t have this built in. But since you would need the Dojo Go to purchase it anyway, which has this functionality, it is something of a moot point.

3. Dojo Wired: Traditional countertop card machine

Price: Custom

Dojo has replaced Dojo One with the Dojo Wired, a new and updated wired countertop card machine that uses Wifi or Ethernet, so you would never lose connection to the internet.

Dojo Wired key features:

• Connectivity: Wifi and Ethernet
• Interface: Traditional button PIN pad with screen
• Charging/battery: Wired device, so it does not require charging to maintain battery
• Integration: Integrates with your chosen EPOS system through Cloud Connect integration

What do we think of the Dojo Wired?

The Dojo Wired is a great option for businesses that only do counter service, such as retail stores or takeaways, and need a customer-facing card machine.

The card machine accepts both contactless and chip and PIN payments, and has a large bright screen and button PIN pad, making it easy for customer to see the amount they owe and enter their PIN securely.

It connects to your EPOS system using Dojo’s Connect Cloud integration, and operates on both Wifi and Ethernet, making it a reliable option for stationary checkouts.

What Software Features Does Dojo Offer?

Now you know what the prices are, and the sorts of top card machines you can get with Dojo, you next need to consider the features you are getting for your investment. Here’s a run-through of the areas we considered as part of our extensive, impartial research and the results we found with Dojo.

Does Dojo integrate with EPOS systems?

Another big boon of Dojo card terminals is that they can integrate with an almost endless number of EPOS systems via API integrations. Dojo collaborates with several top EPOS providers directly so it can offer seamless integration of data with relevant software, such as Lightspeed.

These integrations allow for inventory control and management directly through an EPOS, as well as syncing transactions and sales data between your hardware and EPOS system.

Perhaps why Dojo has gone to great lengths here is that it doesn’t have its own native EPOS platform, so it requires external parties for this functionality. Still, this can be a benefit if your business is already using a particular EPOS software, as you won’t need to transfer over existing data.

What reporting tools does Dojo offer?

Dojo provides reporting capabilities for transaction breakdowns, peak trading times, and top-selling products. You’ll have easy access to real-time transaction data through the cloud-based platform and specifically, its overview dashboard. Plus, you’ll get notifications for things like when funds are transferred.

You can filter reports by date, time, and transaction type.

However, should you want to track employee sales performance or generate detailed reports on sales, customer behaviour, and inventory, you’ll need to integrate Dojo with a compatible third-party EPOS system. That’s because it doesn’t provide these more advanced reporting tools as part of its software. If you want more detailed reporting built in, takepayments is a better fit with a similar monthly fee and contract commitment.

Do Dojo card machines work offline?

As discussed in our hardware section, Dojo’s card machines utilise WiFi and are supported by a 4G SIM card should they be out of range of a WiFi connection.

However, if you are in a remote region where you can’t get reliable connectivity via either of those options, Dojo’s hardware can’t function. It has no offline mode and requires some kind of connection to work, meaning it’s not a great choice for on-the-go businesses in areas without strong 4G service.

Does Dojo offer a mobile app?

A modern merchant account, Dojo does have applications for both iOS and Android devices titled “Dojo for Business”. After you pair your card readers with the app, you can see live updates on transactions and sales performance over time as part of an intuitive and attractive user interface.

You can also manage refunds and voids on the app, as well as access customer support should you need quick assistance.

How secure is Dojo?

Dojo is PCI DSS compliant, and the process to become compliant is fairly straightforward. You’ll just need to read two documents and answer two questions. After this, you’ll be compliant via the app or your Dojo account online.

We’d say Dojo’s compliance process is the easiest and cheapest out of all the providers in our research. For instance, takepayments, our highest-rated provider, has a self-assessment questionnaire of up to 300 questions. In other words, Dojo is a good choice for businesses that want to ensure PCI compliance without paying extra or dealing with lengthy processes.

Dojo also offers Point-to-Point Encryption (P2PE) of card data at the point of interaction to ensure secure transactions. Plus, it offers assistance with handling and/or disputing chargeback claims, should you need it.

Does Dojo Have Good Customer Support?

Dojo offers fairly extensive help and support options, including phone and live chat lines. Customers get tech support every day of the week between the hours of 8am and 11pm. The support team is UK-based, so you’ll be getting agents who understand your queries from a UK-based business standpoint.

Impressively, if you need immediate card machine support, Dojo technicians can log into your device remotely to assist with any problems. And it also offers 24-hour card machine replacement if a device is unrepairable, too.

Dojo’s online help centre means you’ve got a lot of additional documentation to help you find answers quickly yourself, too. As part of our testing, we tried looking for answers to five common business problems across all of the top merchant account providers. With Dojo, we were able to easily find answers to all five of our test queries within Dojo’s help centre, in one click.

The only thing missing from Dojo’s help and support armoury is a user forum and, perhaps more importantly, an email line.

How Does Dojo Compare to Its Competitors?

We’ve tried to offer a comparison throughout this Dojo review to other big names, but sometimes it is easier to compare key attributes of each provider side-by-side. Here’s a table to do just that.

Dojo’s monthly fees versus competitors

Dojo sits in the middle of the market with monthly platform fees, charging £10 per location for businesses with over £100k in annual turnover. While it beats the fees our research tells us to be true for the likes of takepayments or Worldpay (reaching as high as £20 and £40 respectively), it is more expensive than the likes of Square, Zettle, and SumUp, which remove ongoing monthly costs entirely. Still, Dojo’s modest fee may be justified by its extra features.

Dojo’s hardware costs versus competitors

Dojo’s hardware cost is competitive but not brilliant, with a monthly rental fee for hardware that is lower than takepayments, similar to or slightly lower than Worldpay. Still, its outright cost of £179 + VAT is far higher than the outright purchase prices for Square, Zettle, and SumUp (£19 to £39 + VAT).

Dojo’s transaction fees versus competitors

Dojo’s fees are flexible and can be negotiated to be even more competitive if your business has a higher turnover (where custom rates come into play). This makes it hard to compare to competitors.

For many very small businesses that process low volumes, it’s system of charging £39.99 per month for monthly card turnover under £3,999, and 1% for transactions after that makes it hard to calculate what you’ll pay per transaction exactly. The simplicity of the flat rates offered by Square (1.4% + 25p to 1.75%), Zettle (1.75% to 2.5%), or SumUp may be more attractive (1.69% to 2.5%).

Dojo’s integration capabilities versus competitors

Dojo is known for its strong integration capabilities and can integrate with over 600 major EPOS systems. This native compatibility means that Dojo can form the backbone of an integrated retail solution with advanced reporting and real‑time transaction tracking. This compares very favourably with providers like Clover and Square, which also emphasise full‑system integration.

Dojo’s fund transfer time versus competitors

Dojo’s 24‑hour turnaround is solid, beating out the likes of Zettle, SumUp, and Clover, which could take as long as two or three days. Worldpay’s ultra‑fast transfers of under 30 minutes are also noteworthy (but may come at a premium).

Dojo’s contract lengths versus competitors

Dojo’s 12‑month contract may be seen as a downside for very small or start‑up businesses when compared with the no-contract options offered by Square, Zettle, and SumUp. However, many businesses with higher transaction volumes may be willing to trade contract commitment for lower negotiated fees that Dojo offers.

Methodology: How We Reviewed Dojo