UK card terminal reviews

Portable countertop terminal · Dojo (in-house)

Dojo Go is the strongest UK card terminal for hospitality and retail at £10k+ monthly card volume in 2026. Blended pricing 1.4% to 1.9%, 12-month minimum contract, hardware free with a monthly fee. Same-next-day settlement (including weekends) is the cashflow win that justifies the contract for any venue trading Friday to Sunday peaks.

Portable terminal with built-in receipt printer (Solo Lite is no-printer) · SumUp

SumUp Solo is the strongest no-contract UK card terminal for sole traders, mobile businesses and sub-£15k monthly card volume in 2026. £99 to £149 hardware, 1.69% flat per transaction, no contract, no monthly fee, free 4G SIM. Same-day or next-day settlement. Locked to SumUp as the acquirer; uncompetitive above £15k monthly because the flat rate stops winning vs blended-rate contracts (Dojo, Tyl).

iPhone XS or later running iOS 16.4+, no separate terminal · SumUp, Square, Zettle, Stripe, Tide, Revolut all offer it on UK iPhones

Not a hardware terminal but covered here because it is the most disruptive UK card-acceptance product of 2025-2026. Take contactless card and Apple Pay payments directly on a compatible iPhone with no separate reader. Best fit for trades, mobile beauty and pop-up retail.

All-in-one countertop terminal with receipt printer · Square

Square Terminal is the strongest all-in-one no-contract UK card terminal for independent retail and small hospitality in 2026. £149 to £199 hardware with built-in receipt printer, 1.75% per transaction, no contract, no monthly fee. Tighter integration with the Square stack (online store, invoices, inventory, payroll) than any other UK no-contract terminal. The 1.75% rate is uncompetitive above £20k monthly card volume.

Compact card reader (pairs with phone or tablet) · PayPal Zettle

Zettle Reader 2 is the cheapest UK card reader to start taking card payments in 2026, on hardware cost. £29 to £69 one-off, 1.75% per transaction, no contract, no monthly fee. Pairs with a phone or tablet over Bluetooth rather than running standalone. Best fit for sub-£8k monthly volume and existing PayPal merchants; settlement is slower than Dojo or SumUp and the rate is uncompetitive above £8k monthly.

Touchscreen handheld terminal with built-in receipt printer · Stripe

Stripe Reader S700 is the strongest UK card terminal for businesses already running on Stripe online in 2026. £329 hardware, touchscreen with built-in receipt printer, WiFi + 4G + Bluetooth, custom checkout flows via the Stripe Terminal SDK. Pricing is bespoke per Stripe account. Best fit for hybrid online-plus-in-person SMBs with developer resource; not a plug-and-play choice for non-technical small retail.

Multiple terminals; mostly platform-bundled · Adyen

Adyen is the enterprise-grade acquirer used by larger UK merchants and platforms (Just Eat, Deliveroo, Booking.com, Klarna). Premium pricing transparency and global coverage; not a small-SMB product. Worth knowing about because larger UK SMBs sometimes need to consider it.

Compact handheld with touchscreen · Stripe and other Stripe Terminal SDK partners

BBPOS WisePOS E is the hardware behind Stripe Terminal and many white-label acquirer terminals. Solid Android-based platform, customisable via the acquirer's SDK. Best when you need card payments inside an existing software stack rather than as a standalone POS.

Compact Bluetooth-paired card reader (companion to Stripe Reader S700) · Stripe

Stripe Reader M2 is the smaller mobile reader in Stripe's in-person line-up, companion to the larger S700. Pairs with a phone, tablet or POS via Bluetooth and runs through the Stripe Terminal SDK. Cheapest Stripe-branded hardware option for SMBs already on Stripe.

Android-based handheld with receipt printer · Multiple (commonly used by Take Payments, Paymentsense, BoonPay, ISOs)

PAX A920 Pro is one of the most-deployed payment terminals in the UK SMB market via independent sales organisations and brokers. Android-based, robust, supports a wide range of acquirer apps. The hardware is solid; the experience varies entirely with whichever acquirer it is configured for.

Compact Bluetooth-paired reader (similar to Zettle / SumUp) · Tide / partner

Tide Card Reader is the in-app card-acceptance product for Tide Business banking customers. Cheapest mainstream UK rate at 1.5% per transaction. Best fit if you already bank with Tide; less compelling otherwise because the ecosystem-lock-in has no upside outside the Tide stack.

Compact Bluetooth-paired card reader (no screen of its own; pairs with phone, tablet or POS) · Stripe and other Stripe Terminal SDK partners

BBPOS WisePad 3 is the smaller mobile-first reader in the BBPOS family, white-labelled by Stripe and other Stripe Terminal SDK partners. Pairs with a phone, tablet or POS rather than running standalone. Cheapest entry point into the Stripe Terminal estate.

Countertop and portable terminal options · NatWest

Tyl is NatWest's SMB-payments product, repositioning the bank into the modern card-acceptance market. Pricing competitive on paper for higher-volume merchants; lower headline rates than legacy bank acquirers but on shorter contract terms than Worldpay.

Compact Bluetooth-paired reader · Revolut Business / partner

Revolut Card Reader is part of the Revolut Business stack. Headline rate is among the cheapest in the UK SMB market, but conditional on holding a Revolut Business subscription. Best fit for Revolut Business users with international payment flow; less compelling as a standalone choice.

Compact Android-based handheld smart terminal (no built-in printer; companion to the A920 Pro) · Multiple (UK ISOs and acquirers including Take Payments, Paymentsense and others distribute PAX hardware)

PAX A77 is the smaller, printer-less Android smart terminal in the PAX line-up, sitting below the A920 Pro. Distributed in the UK via the same ISO and acquirer channels. Suits mobile traders and counter-side acceptance where a printer is not required and digital receipts are the default.

Countertop and portable, multiple models · Worldpay (now part of GTCR / FIS)

Worldpay's terminal estate covers a long tail of older Verifone and Ingenico hardware plus newer PAX deployments. Pricing is rarely competitive vs the modern fintech acquirers. The case for staying with Worldpay is usually inertia or specific PoS-system integration.

V200c countertop with built-in printer; V400m portable handheld with printer · Multiple (Worldpay, Elavon, Barclaycard, AIB Merchant Services and other UK acquirers distribute Verifone hardware)

Verifone V200c and V400m are workhorse UK terminals deployed by traditional acquirers across hospitality and retail. Hardware is reliable and the estate is broad; the customer experience is set by the acquirer rather than Verifone, so pricing and service vary widely.

iWL250 portable with printer (legacy estate); Move 5000 portable handheld with printer (current generation) · Multiple (Worldpay, Barclaycard, Elavon, Lloyds Cardnet, Global Payments and other UK acquirers distribute Ingenico hardware)

Ingenico iWL250 is the long-tail portable terminal across UK retail and hospitality; Move 5000 is the current-generation replacement. Hardware is the dominant traditional-acquirer estate alongside Verifone. Customer experience is set by the acquirer, not Ingenico.