Zettle Review: Is It Right for Your Business?

Zettle is the best payment terminal provider we came across in our research into this market. Its low cost and lack of contract make it a great choice for startups and small ventures – especially those struggling to battle the rising costs of doing business. Plus, its practical Reader 2 topped our best card machines ranking.

We concluded this through an in-depth field analysis – which looked at 11 providers – and aided by our nearly 15 years of experience covering B2B services. Overall, it boasts an impressive overall 4.8/5 score in our research, the details of which we cover in more detail in this review.

If you’re unsure if Zettle is right for you, just give our free comparison tool a try. It allows you to get bespoke quotes from our trusted providers so you can compare them. However, if you’d like to know more about Zettle in the meantime, read about our findings below.

Zettle: At a glance

• No signup fees
• 1.75% transaction fee
• Two options of hardware (which you can buy outright)
• Comes with an invoicing tool and generates checkout links
• Allows you to create and integrate with an online store for free
• Highly-rated customer support available through phone, email, and live chat

How much does Zettle cost?

Zettle offers its software for free and, once you sign up, you can start taking payments right away provided you have a compatible hardware to use. With Zettle, this means either buying its own hardware or even using your mobile phone to take payments. Conveniently, you can also use the provider’s EPOS system for free.

Zettle’s main hardware are two PDQ machines: the basic Reader 2 and the advanced Terminal, which combines its reader and EPOS system in one piece of equipment. The provider’s PDQ machine costs range from £59 + VAT for the former to £149 + VAT for the latter.

Scoring 4.1/5 for price in our research, Zettle is one of the cheapest ways to take payments we came across. That said, its hardware costlier than Square’s, which offers its cheapest reader for £19 + VAT. However, Zettle is way cheaper than Tyl, which charges monthly subscriptions for access to its reader (the cheapest of which is £6.99 + VAT).

As Zettle offers two services in one go (merchant account and EPOS system) for a very low cost, it offers good value for money. SumUp also offers these services, but it charges more than Zettle for them. Stripe Payments, on the other hand, doesn’t offer an EPOS system at all, despite having pricier hardware than Zettle.

Read more:

• SumUp Review
• Tyl Review

That said, a quote is the best way for you to gauge costs and, since you’ll be looking for quotes, why stop at Zettle? Fill in our free quote tool and you’ll be comparing several providers in no time!

Zettle’s pros and cons

✔️ Fast payout times

Zettle has one of the fastest payout times among the mobile merchant accounts we researched. Zettle transfers funds to your linked bank account within two working days. In comparison, its competitors Revolut, SumUp, and Stripe Payments can take between three and seven working days to transfer funds. As is true with all merchant accounts, your bank still needs to process the amount to release it to you. With this knowledge, it is clear that Zettle’s speediness is a definite plus if you need quick access to your funds.

✔️ Plentiful third-party integrations

Zettle integrates with 21 software partners – one of the highest number of integrations we’ve seen in our research. Most of these are EPOS integrations, which are useful if you already have an EPOS system and want to use Zettle only for payments. Some of the compatible platforms include Epos Now and Lightspeed. Besides that, it links up with ecommerce platforms, like Shopify and Woocommerce, and accounting powerhouses, such as Xero and QuickBooks.

❌ Transaction fees can build up

Low cost is one of provider’s biggest selling points, but there’s a catch: at 1.75%, Zettle has the highest in-person transaction fee of all the 11 merchant account providers we researched. When it comes to keyed-in transactions, online payments and invoice payments, Zettle charges 2.5%, which is the same as Square and SumUp. However, this transaction fee is higher than what Stripe Payments charges for invoice payments (0.4%). This means Zettle isn’t ideal for businesses that deal with high sales volume (like coffee shops) or medium to large ventures, as the fees are poised to build up and bite off a big chunk of your income in the long run.

❌ Only sells one reader with mobile data

Connectivity is a major concern for businesses trying to take payments with an internet-powered machine. Unfortunately, Zettle only really addresses this with its priciest piece of hardware, Terminal, which is also the only one that comes with mobile data. Its Reader 2 depends on an external source of internet, be it a wifi connection, your smartphone, or tablet. This limits Zettle’s hardware options for individual businesses that operate on the go and street-based ventures, such as food trucks.

Zettle’s key features explained

EPOS functionality

One of Zettle’s key assets is the fact that it doubles as an EPOS system. You can start using it as soon as you start using it as a merchant account – no further sign up or purchase needed. That’s a massive win for businesses that are keen on combining these two features while saving money. For startups and individual businesses that have yet to secure an EPOS system, Zettle kills two birds with one stone.

Also, for online business owners, it packs a virtual terminal – an essential piece of software through webstores. Its ease of use made our experts deem it one of best payment gateway providers in the market.

Reporting tools

Zettle offers insightful reporting tools, which made it score 4.9/5 in features, topping this category in our mobile merchant account research. It’s unique in offering a sales forecasting report, beating SumUp and Stripe. A quick glance at your dashboard gives you a comprehensive overview on sales and transactions, allowing you to plan ahead as well as manage your inventory. However, Zettle doesn’t report on team management data, which Square and Revolut do.

Read our Square Review.

Customer support

Zettle offers customer support from 9am to 5pm on weekdays, through email and live chat. These opening hours are similar to Tyl’s, although that provider doesn’t have an email option.

Zettle provides support over the phone for longer hours, with agents available from 9am to midnight on weekdays – something Square doesn’t do. This, combined with Zettle’s resourceful knowledge base, led to its perfect 5/5 score in customer support in our research.

What kind of business is Zettle best for?

Zettle’s insight tools and third-party integrations with accounting and ecommerce providers, combined with its low-cost hardware and free software, make it particularly suitable for small businesses. That’s because they’ll mostly benefit from Zettle’s free reports and EPOS system.

We corroborated this with our research, interviewing Zettle users and comparing its features to its competitors. The overall 4.8/5 score it receives makes Zettle the best mobile merchant account for small businesses.

Zettle’s high transaction fee could become a huge expense for large businesses dealing with a high volume of sales. If yours fits this bill, you’ll be better served by Revolut or Stripe, which have lower fees.

How does Zettle compare with its competitors?

Zettle fares greatly against its competitors. In our research into mobile merchant accounts, it ranked second, only losing to Revolut. That said, Zettle received the highest scores in features (4.9/5), compliance (4.8/5) and customer support (a perfect 5/5).

Price

Zettle’s free software befits the current market of mobile merchant accounts, putting Zettle in the same league as Tyl and SumUp, which score 4.8/5 and 3.6/5 in price, respectively.

With its basic reader costing £59 + VAT, Zettle has more expensive hardware than Square, which charges £19 + VAT for its equivalent. However, Zettle’s hardware is cheaper than Revolut and Stripe. In fact, its hardware is more affordable than many of its competitors we looked at, which came across in our merchant accounts comparison.

Also, it’s worth mentioning that Zettle and Square have the highest base transaction fee within the companies we researched: 1.75%. With that, Zettle’s base fee is higher than Stripe’s (1.4% + 20p) and Revolut’s (0.8% + 20p).

Features

Square is the runner-up in features in our research, scoring 4.7/5 against Zettle’s 4.9/5. Like Zettle, it offers an EPOS system service. That said, Square produces reports on team management, which Zettle doesn’t. Square also has more integrations than Zettle as well as any of its competitors we looked at. However, Square lacks the multi currency support that Zettle offers.

Revolut scored 4.5/5 in features. It doesn’t offer an EPOS system service like Square, so it can’t be compared with Zettle on that front. Overall, Revolut offers less reports than Zettle and lacks the sales forecasting and inventory management features that Zettle has. Revolut supports 30 currencies, which is five more than Zettle. However, Zettle integrates with 21 third-platforms, which is five more than Revolut.

Does Zettle have good customer reviews?

Zettle’s customer reviews are largely stellar, focusing on the provider’s ease of use and convenient, integrated EPOS system. It scores 4.6/5 on three major online review aggregators: Capterra, G2, and GetApp.

The negative reviews we came across are easier to find on Trustpilot, where Zettle scores a low 2.6/5. The main complaints raised highlighted the provider’s connectivity issues and fund transfer delay.

On Trustpilot, Zettle replies to 65% of negative reviews. To the one above, the provider apologised and asked the customer to contact its support team so the issue could be investigated.

How We Reviewed Zettle by PayPal