A card machine for a small UK business costs £19 to £159 upfront and takes 1.2% to 1.75% of every payment, with no contract required by any of the five providers below. The upfront price is the number everyone compares and the least important one on the page: at £3,000 a month of card takings, the gap between a 1.75% and a 1.2% rate is £198 a year, every year, which buys the most expensive reader here with change. So compare rates first, payout speed second, hardware last. Here is the whole market on one table.
| Provider | Reader | In-person rate | Monthly fee | Money arrives |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SumUp | £25 Solo Lite | 1.69% | None (optional £19 plan) | By 7am the next day |
| Square | £19 Reader | 1.75% | None (Plus software from £29) | 1 to 2 working days free |
| Dojo | £149 Go Max (or £25/month) | 1.2% blended | Software free (Plus £11.99/location) | By 10am the next working day. |
| Zettle (PayPal) | £29 first reader | 1.75% | None | Into your PayPal business account within minutes |
| Tide Card Reader | £159 + VAT | 1.5% + 5p | None (or £17.99 plan) | Within 3 working days as standard |
Cheapest credible starter kit, and the only next-day payout that includes weekends
Solo Lite £25, Solo £79, Terminal £135, all excluding VAT with a 30-day money-back window. Tap to Pay on iPhone costs nothing at all. 1.69% on in-person payments pay-as-you-go; online payments 2.5%. The optional Payments Plus plan at £19 a month cuts domestic in-person payments to 0.99%, with premium, international and Amex cards staying at 1.69%.
Get a SumUp readerThe strongest free software: POS, invoicing and an online store on the £0 tier
Square Reader (2nd generation) £19 plus VAT, the cheapest reader on the market; campaign promos have shown it lower. 1.75% on in-person UK cards, plus a 1.5% surcharge on non-UK cards. Online 1.4% + 25p for UK cards; keyed-in payments 2.5%.
Get a Square readerThe lowest published rate of the five, plus up to £3,000 towards buying out an old contract
Dojo Go Max £149 upfront on launch offer (was £229) or £25 a month; Pocket £239 or £20 a month; Wired £179 or £15 a month. Tap to Pay on iPhone is free. Dojo's pricing page does not state VAT treatment. A published 1.2% all-in blended rate for businesses under £100k annual card turnover; custom rates above that on a 12-month fixed or 30-day rolling basis.
See Dojo pricingTakings are spendable within minutes if your business already runs on PayPal
PayPal Reader from £29 for your first one as a new business user, then £69 each; Terminal from £149. Prices exclude VAT and delivery. 1.75% on all major cards and mobile wallets in person; invoices 2.5%.
Get a Zettle readerThe lowest pay-as-you-go percentage here, settling straight into a Tide account
Tide Card Reader £159 plus VAT; Card Reader Plus £199 plus VAT. 1.5% + 5p on domestic consumer debit cards pay-as-you-go. The Sell In-Person plan at £17.99 a month drops that to 0.89% + 3p, which starts paying for itself above roughly £2,900 a month of card takings.
See the Tide card readerEvery pound your business ever takes by card passes through this percentage, which is why a half-point of rate outweighs a £100 difference in hardware. Worked through: a shop taking £3,000 a month by card pays £630 a year at Square or Zettle's 1.75%, £608 at SumUp's 1.69%, £561 at Tide's 1.5% + 5p, and £432 at Dojo's 1.2%. The £130 extra that Dojo's reader costs over Square's is recovered in eight months, and the saving then repeats for as long as you trade. Below roughly £1,000 a month the arithmetic flips: the rate gap is worth pennies and the cheap reader with no monthly costs wins.
Dojo rebuilt its pricing in the past year: the rental-only model is gone, hardware is sold upfront with a published 1.2% blended rate, and payouts land by 10am the next working day. Most comparison pages still quote the old £20 a month rental and custom-quote-only rates, so they rank Dojo as the expensive option when it now publishes the lowest rate of the five. Rates and hardware prices on this page were read from each provider's own pricing page, not from other roundups, on the date shown above.
Between £19 and £159 upfront, excluding VAT. Square's reader is £19, SumUp's Solo Lite £25, Zettle's first reader £29, Dojo's Go Max £149 on its launch offer and Tide's reader £159. The bigger cost is the transaction rate of 1.2% to 1.75% taken from every payment.
Dojo, at a published 1.2% blended rate for businesses under £100,000 of annual card turnover. On pay-as-you-go pricing Tide is next at 1.5% + 5p, then SumUp at 1.69%, with Square and Zettle at 1.75%. Subscriptions change the order: SumUp's £19 a month plan cuts domestic payments to 0.99%.
No. All five providers on this page sell pay-as-you-go with no monthly fee and no fixed term. Dojo offers optional pay-monthly hardware and Tide and SumUp offer optional subscriptions that lower the rate, but none of them locks you in the way legacy terminal leases did.
Zettle settles into your PayPal business account within minutes. SumUp pays out by 7am the next day including weekends, Dojo by 10am the next working day, Square in 1 to 2 working days, and Tide within 3 working days unless you pay £2.99 a month for next-day.
Yes. SumUp and Dojo both offer Tap to Pay on iPhone at no hardware cost, so the phone is the reader. You still pay the normal transaction rate, and Android support varies by provider, so check before relying on it.
No. Dojo moved away from its old rental-only model and now sells hardware upfront (Go Max £149 on launch offer) or on optional monthly plans, alongside a published 1.2% blended rate for smaller merchants. Many comparison pages still describe the old £20 a month rental, which no longer matches Dojo's live pricing.
Figures checked 4 July 2026; confirm details with the provider before applying. We may earn a commission through links on this page.