Dojo Review: Good for Scaling Businesses?

Dojo takes fourth place in our in-depth research, scoring 4.3/5. Our research found that Dojo is best for scalability, plus, it covers any exit fees from your previous provider. So, it’s a good fit for businesses that want to cheaply switch providers.

Our research team compared ten traditional payment processors to find the best on the market. We compared Dojo against its competitors, scoring them in various categories including, price, features, and customer support. We also scored how well each provider takes payments to ensure we could find the most reliable and easy-to-use reader.

If you’re short on time and want to compare providers, you can use our free quote tool. By giving us a few details about your business, we can match you up with the right providers. These trusted suppliers will then contact you with obligation-free quotes.

What is Dojo?

Dojo provides two readers: Dojo Go and Dojo One. Dojo Go is a mobile, one-the-go device and the Dojo One is a countertop terminal. The Go is suited to mobile business and the One is a better fit for brick and mortar businesses.

How Much Does Dojo Cost?

Dojo scores a 3.7/5 for its price, taking third place for this area in our research. Dojo’s transaction fees are beaten by Retail Merchant Services (RMS) a solid 5/5 for its price. Retail Merchant Services’ fees start from 0.4% to 0.79%, much lower than Dojo’s 1.4%.

However, If your business takes in over £150k a year, the transaction fees are bespoke, so they could be even lower than Retail Merchant Services fees. Dojo’s monthly account fees are a minimum of £24.95, higher than RMS’ minimum monthly fee of £10.

Dojo offers the benefit of covering exit fees from £500 to £3,000 to make it easier to switch, plus, your first three months with Dojo are free. Retail Merchant Services also offer a similar benefit and can cover cancellation fees. RMS  is still the cheaper provider and if you’re cost-conscious, it makes sense to choose them over Dojo as their account and transaction fees are much lower.

Dojo’s hardware starts from £20 per month, whereas Retail Merchant Services don’t disclose these figures, even so, based on our research, hardware costs aren’t typically extortionate and RMS  will most likely still be the cheaper provider.

If you want to compare other providers to Dojo, you can use our free quote tool. Our tool can match you up with trusted suppliers who’ll then contact you with obligation-free quotes.

Extra Dojo Card Payment Fees

Dojo charges business, corporate and premium cards a higher rate of 1.8% +5p per transaction. Plus, a secure transaction fee incurs a 20% VAT charge.

Dojo Review: Pros and Cons

Pro –  Funds transferred within 24 hours 

Dojo’s fund transfer time is the second fastest out of all the providers we looked at, with Worldpay transferring funds within 30 minutes. Worldpay has a better overall score than Dojo in our research (4.7/5) providing over 100 integrations compared with Dojo’s measly one integration (Quickbooks).

This gives Dojo a solid extra edge against competitors, as highlighted by the owner of A Pinch of Salt, a restaurant in Old Street, London. When we spoke to them about their experience with Dojo, they praised this short payout time: “They pay on the next day by 11am at the latest, but usually around 10am. Every day, even Sunday. It's very reliable.”

Pro –  Can cover your cancellation fees and make switching easier

Dojo is suitable for businesses who want to switch to a new payment provider quickly and cheaply as Dojo covers your cancellation costs and gives you the first three months free.

If you choose Dojo’s fixed rate plan of 1.4%, you can claim up to £500 and if you choose Dojo’s bespoke plan, you can claim up to £3,000. Retail Merchant Services can also cover your exit fees if you’re switching and don’t appear to limit this to a specific number. While Dojo offers a faster fund transfer time of 24 hours than Retail Merchant Services, which transfers funds within three to five working days, we recommend RMS to cost-conscious startups or small businesses.

Con –  Minimum monthly account fees are steep 

Dojo’s minimum monthly account fees are £24.95 which is fairly steep when compared with providers in our research such as Worldpay. Worldpay’s minimum monthly fee is £9.95 +VAT and scores a 4.7/5 in our research, taking the spot above Dojo. Dojo’s fee is steep for businesses that might not process a lot of transactions, whereas Worldpay’s fee is more affordable for businesses that may only process a few transactions per month.

Dojo can only process card and checkout link payments, whereas Worldpay also takes online and telephone payments, so you’re already limited with the number of transactions you can process with Dojo. If the steep account fee is a concern, Worldpay is a better option as its fee is £15 cheaper and they transfer funds within 30 minutes compared with Dojo’s transfer time of 24 hours. This is especially helpful for startups or small businesses who need the cash flow fast transfer times offer.

Con –  Lack of integrations 

Dojo only offers Quickbooks as an integration, which is helpful if you use Quickbooks as your accounting software or you only want to integrate an accounting program into your payment provider. However, many businesses will want to integrate other programs such as an ecommerce store.

Worldpay, which takes third place in our in-depth research with a score of 4.7/5, offers over 100 integrations, the highest out of all of the providers we looked at. These include CRM (customer relationship management) systems, invoicing, and commerce platforms.

Dojo's Key Features Explained

Reporting and integrations 

Dojo provides reporting capabilities for transaction breakdowns and transfer notifications. That is the least amount of reporting options out of all of the providers we compared. takepayments, which takes first place in our research with an overall score of 4.8/5, provides around 8 reporting functionalities, including real-time card processing, employee sales tracking, and accounting.

If you want detailed reporting, takepayments is a better fit, although its contracts are a minimum of 12 months, compared with Dojo’s 6-month contracts or monthly rolling contracts for businesses with an annual turnover of over £150,000. If you’re a startup or small business, you might not want to be tied into a long-term contract, so Dojo is a better fit. But if you want more detailed reporting, takepayments could be a better option.

Dojo only offers one integration, Quickbooks, which is limiting for businesses that want to be able to incorporate several aspects of their business together, such as an ecommerce store and point of sale systems.

Security 

Dojo is PCI 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.

Dojo’s compliance process is the easiest and cheapest out of all the providers in our research. takepayments, which is our highest-rated provider, has a self-assessed questionnaire of up to 300 questions and Retail Merchant Services, which takes second place in our research, isn’t PCI compliant as it is reliant on you doing this yourself.

Dojo is a good choice for businesses that want to ensure they’re PCI compliant without having to pay extra or deal with lengthy processes.

Payments 

Dojo has the second-fastest fund transfer time of 24 hours, after Worldpay’s record time of 30 minutes. Worldpay is a better overall provider, however, and offers more ways to take payments that Dojo lacks such as online transactions. Dojo’s contracts are a minimum of 6 months, much shorter than Worldpay’s 18 months, so if you’re not willing to be tied down for a long time, Dojo is a better fit. However, if you want the fastest transfer time, Worldpay is more suited.

When it comes to actual act of taking payments, Dojo has an asset in Dojo Reader, its straightforward card reader. The users we interviewed were enthusiastic about the device's features and ease of use.

What Kind of Business Is Dojo Best For?

Dojo is best for businesses that want to switch providers without dealing with expensive exit fees. This will typically be small businesses or startups, especially taking into account Dojo's 24 hour fund transfer time which is helpful for businesses who need the cash flow.

These businesses can also benefit from the flexibility of Dojo's short contracts, which last for a minimum of six months and then work as rolling monthly contracts after that. This arrangement means entrepreneurs can go about establishing their new ventures without worrying about being stuck with a provider for a long time.

A Pinch of Salt's owner told us: “The best thing about Dojo is that you don't need to be in the contract for two or three years. You can cancel next month. […] Somebody can offer you a better deal, so you can switch [from Dojo], but I wouldn't.”

How does Dojo compare to its competitors?

Price 

Dojo isn’t the cheapest provider in our research, scoring 3.7/5, giving it third place for pricing out of the six providers. Retail Merchant Services scores 5/5 for its price, as its transaction fees are the lowest in our research. Dojo charges 1.4% per transaction, RMS charges 0.4% for debit cards, 0.8% for credit cards, and 0.79% +10p for online transactions. Dojo doesn’t process online transactions so if you have an online store, RMS is a better option. At £24.95, Dojo’s minimum monthly account fees are the most expensive out of all of the providers in the research. This monthly fee is steep, especially if you don’t process a lot of transactions, Retail Merchant Services’ minimum monthly fee of £10 is more affordable.

Overall, Retail Merchant Services is a cheaper provider and is rated better than Dojo in our research with a score of 4.7/5 compared with Dojo’s 4.3/5.

Features 

Dojo has the lowest score for features with a 2.9/5 in our research. It only offers one integration, Quickbooks, compared with Worldpay which offers over 100 integrations. Worldpay scores higher than Dojo in our research with a 4.7/5 and its high number of integrations makes it suited to businesses who want to combine several aspects such as an ecommerce platform or CRM system.

Worldpay’s reporting is, however, hidden behind a £4.99 paywall. This is a monthly fee that will give you access to reports on card sales, invoices, and transaction history. Dojo’s reporting is limited but included with the account. Dojo’s reports consist of transaction breakdowns and transfer notifications. If you want detailed reporting, takepayments provide the higher number of reports in our research and take the number one spot with a score of 4.8/5.

Dojo is the only provider in our research that doesn’t accept multi-currency, which is limiting for your business as it could mean missing out on sales. Worldpay offers over 120 currencies and accepts online transactions, so you can expand your business globally. If your business is mobile and only takes transactions locally, such as a food truck, Dojo will work well but if you also have an ecommerce store, it makes more sense to go with Worldpay.

Does Dojo have good customer reviews?

Dojo has a 4.2/5 for its customer score, the second-highest score in our research. Dojo’s customer reviews are mostly positive, with customers applauding the ease and swiftness of setting up. Some customers found that the customer service team would take a long time to get back to them or that some of the sales team were incredibly pushy.

Our Methodology

Our research team deep-dived into 11 different payment providers, splitting them into two: traditional and mobile. Dojo falls under the traditional payment providers, placing fourth out of the six we compared.

We scored each provider against the following categories:

• Price –  we looked at the various fees associated with each provider such as transaction, account, and hardware fees.
• Payment options –  this took into account the payment options the provider offered such as a card machine, ecommerce, and payment links.
• Features –  we looked at the number and comprehensiveness of the features offered such as invoicing, integrations, and reporting.
• Customer score –  this takes into account the average of online customer reviews and scores.

We combined these scores to provide an average score for each provider.