Best Mobile Card Readers for UK Businesses

Barclaycard’s £29 SmartPay Anywhere card reader came out on top as the best overall mobile card reader, just edging out the £19 Square Reader. The SmartPay Anywhere is compact but still comes with a PIN pad, plus Barclaycard offers low transaction fees of 1.6% and comes with great security tools.

The Square Reader came in second place, in part because it’s one of the few readers on this list that doesn’t come with a pin pad. That said, it still has its merits. At £19, it’s still the cheapest card reader out there, and, in our experience, is one of the easiest to use. This makes it a great choice for new vendors.

Price and ease of use aren’t everything of course. Mobile card readers are the preferred card machine for small businesses that operate on the go. We’ve made sure to take into not just account fees and ease of use, but also connectivity and battery life, among other factors, when making this review.

The Best Mobile Card Readers: Side-by-side

Here’s a quick side-by-side comparison of the best mobile card readers for UK businesses:

1. Barclaycard SmartPay Anywhere: Best Overall Mobile Card Reader

Edging out the Square Reader by just one and a half percentage points, Barclaycard SmartPay Anywhere earned the highest overall score across our five testing categories of hardware, software, support, pricing and usability.

Why we recommend the Barclaycard SmartPay Anywhere card reader

During our usability testing, we were appreciative of how simple Barclaycard’s payment processing software was to use. After setting up a float to start the day you are straight into selling your products in the Barclays app – unlike, say, SumUp which requires you to scroll down on its app to find your inventory.

The Barclaycard SmartPay reader and the app can also be configured to match your business. When we tested it, we had it set for a cafe/restaurant, so we had separate areas for things such as starters, mains, and snacks all with imagery making navigation easy.

However, another setup is possible for retailers or tradespeople.

Taking payment is painless too: each item has a pre-set price setup on it (setup via your POS portal on PC or tablet) which is then added to the basket before you click pay to finalise the bill. You can remove an item or cancel the sale in one click to start over, too, and easily issue a refund using the ID number found on a receipt (although if there was also an option to select a recent transaction that would be beneficial to businesses working at pace).

The hardware itself also impressed us. The Barclaycard Smartpay Anywhere device is compact, but still features a button pin-pad, something that’s increasingly becoming a rarity. This makes it easy for customers to enter their PIN safely.

Barclaycard also offers quite low transaction fees. On its default pay-as-you-go model, businesses get transaction fees of 1.6%, below the UK average of 1.75%. However, businesses with a high card turnover can also get custom transaction fees.

Barclaycard also provides up to £3,000 in switching fees for merchants trying to exit a current contract, which is an appealing signing-on bonus.

Elsewhere, Barclay’s active fraud security monitoring transactions gave us peace of mind and should be especially valuable to businesses making high-value sales.

You also get 24/7 customer support to help when you need it. Barclaycard’s support options aren’t as extensive as Square’s, which adds live chat and a forum to Barclaycard’s phone, email and knowledge centre options, but we think having 24/7 availability on limited lines is preferable to the former’s eight-hour weekday coverage. Only Tide matches Barclaycard for its any-hour help.

How could the Barclaycard SmartPay Anywhere improve?

There isn’t a whole lot wrong with the Barclaycard SmartPay Anywhere, however, it does look more dated and old-fashioned than a lot of its competitors.

The varied amount of colours on the app home screen was a bit overwhelming for some testers and gave the interface a busy look – though whether this is an issue will inevitably vary depending on you and your staff’s preferences. I found it functioned well, even if it’s not as aesthetically pleasing as SumUp’s card reader.

Meanwhile, a lack of an offline mode with this card reader could pose a problem for businesses without reliable internet connectivity or 4G connectivity, such as festival vendors.

We found Barclaycard’s smartphone app a little more limited in one area, too: you can’t use its smartphone app for tap to pay on either Android or iPhone – unlike Zettle, Square, SumUp and Tide.

And perhaps crucially for some merchants, Barclaycard doesn’t supply a full, native POS system with the respective hardware, from countertop terminals and cash drawers to scanners and printers. It integrates with third-party POS systems, so you should be covered if you need anything beyond its handheld POS devices pictured above. However, it’s worth checking before you purchase to see if your hardware makes a good fit.

Who is Barclaycard’s card reader for?

Since it is only operational with a Barclays bank account, this card reader is best suited to merchants banking with Barclays.

It’s zero monthly fees and low transaction fees make it a great option for small businesses, especially those who take payments on the go since the Barclaycard SmartPay Anywhere is a mobile card reader.

That said, its lack of offline payment support means those requiring functionality even when offline should look at Square instead.

2. Square Reader: Easiest Mobile Card Reader to Use

During our testing sessions, we found Square’s software to be the most user-friendly of all the products we tested by a significant margin, and the £19 Square Reader is no exception. It’s also the cheapest mobile card reader on this list, making it highly accessible for new businesses.

Why we recommend the Square Reader

The Square Reader itself is highly compact and light, making it great for taking payments on the go since it can fit in a shirt pocket. It also has a sleek design, looking almost like an Apple product.

Like all mobile card readers on this list, it needs to be paired with the Square smartphone app. The app itself looks much more modern than the Barclaycard equivalent.

We particularly loved how you can switch between the product and price input screen with ease, as well as make quick sales amendments without needing to cancel an entire order. The layout is nearly identical across all Square hardware, too, so you’ll always be in familiar terrain.

The card reader is fully functional when offline, too. It goes into offline mode when it loses connection (after initially being enabled first) and automatically processes payments when you get back online.

Besides Worldpay – not listed on this page since it is best suited to business operations dealing with large transaction amounts and turnover – Square also offers the fastest payout rates at just one working day. The next fastest rates are with Barclaycard and Zettle, transferring funds in one to two working days, although it is worth saying that Zettle does offer near-instantaneous payouts for those with a PayPal Business bank account.

All transactions are monitored in real-time for your peace of mind too, with the platform also boasting PCI compliance and holding an ISO 27001 certificate, showing Square’s commitment to data protection.

How could the Square Reader improve?

The Square Reader doesn’t feature a PIN pad, unlike most of the other mobile card readers on this list. This means that customers who need to enter a PIN to make a payment must do so on the merchant’s phone. Not all customers, or merchants, are comfortable with that, so the Square Reader is best if only used for low-value transactions where contactless payments are accepted.

And, while the Square Reader is the cheapest card reader around, you’ll be paying back to the merchant account provider in the form of some fairly average transaction fee rates of 1.75% for in-person payments. They aren’t bad rates by any means, or we wouldn’t recommend Square at all, but Barclaycard, SumUp and Tide all have lower potential transaction fees.

Square also doesn’t allow you to accept multiple currencies, but you can set up accounts in each of the countries your business is located in to accept the local currency. For an easier bet in this regard, Zettle has this included. And you won’t be able to integrate Square with any other POS systems either since that isn’t supported.

Who is Square’s card reader for?

Square’s full POS, payments and e-commerce support make sense for businesses that want to use Square’s free EPOS software alongside the card reader and create a customised and comprehensive system.

Likewise, its offline payment functionality means it is a great pick for businesses with spotty internet.

If you require a mobile data connection for your hardware, however, Square is lacking on that front. And if you already have a POS software system and you don’t want to change, we’d also recommend looking towards the more integrable Zettle.

3. SumUp Air: Best Mobile Businesses Seeking An Easy Set Up

The £34 SumUp Air is well-suited to small mobile businesses looking to set up quickly and easily. The reader charged in under an hour, allowing us to start taking payments almost immediately.  Downloading the SumUp app and creating an account was very easy since SumUp is a zero-contract provider and requires minimal documentation.

Why we recommend the SumUp Air card reader

We were impressed with the SumUp Air’s functionality. Likely due to its pocket size, the device charged quicker than others at under one hour, compared to 2 hours for the Zettle Card Reader 2.

Thereafter, we began taking payments almost immediately after connecting to our phone via Bluetooth. We just needed to download the app, create an account and sync the reader before going to the sale tab, inputting a price and clicking “pay by reader”. 

Alternatively, you can take payments directly from an Android or iPhone with their ‘tap to pay’ feature, as with all the other options on this page besides Barclaycard. This eliminates the need for any hardware or upfront payments whatsoever, which could appeal to startup businesses. 

In general, we found the interface was clean and modern, avoiding the clutter of other providers via a more bare-bones UI. Still, the black and white colour scheme might not be appealing to all users, as sometimes colours can be good indicators of what to click and when.  

Elsewhere, payouts can be speedy at between one and three business days, matching the top fund transfer rates of other providers tested here. They also offer weekend payouts and the ability to customize your deposit schedule to match your own.

SumUp’s 1.69% transaction fees are competitive too, especially when accounting for the low hardware costs and zero contract commitments. The SumUp One subscription, available for £19 per month, is an appealing alternative to get even cheaper transaction fees of 0.99% if you are selling at high volume or high value.

Read more about SumUp pricing for more details.

How could the SumUp Air improve?

While it charges fast, the SumUp Air only has a battery life of around 500 transactions: the shortest duration we’ve tested. 500 transactions isn’t small by any means, but it is something high-volume businesses should be aware of.

SumUp also scores the second lowest total of our top five picks for customer support, as it lacks a forum and, perhaps more importantly, only has support lines open from 9 am to 5 pm on weekdays. Still, its range of help and support options is appealing, with live chat, email, phone and a knowledge centre all present and correct. That matches Zettle and Tide while beating the extent offered by Barclaycard.

Who is SumUp’s card reader for?

We recommend SumUp for small businesses that are on the move and don’t process more than 50 transactions in a day, such as tradespeople or other merchants who offer services. The SumUp Air is a solid choice for on-the-go operations since it’s highly portable and works offline if you lose connection.

4. Zettle Card Reader 2: Best For PayPal Business Account Holders

For PayPal Business account holders, the Zettle Card Reader 2 is an obvious choice. PayPal Business account users benefit from near-instantaneous payouts.

With all other options on this page, you’ll need to wait at least one or two business days, and that’s the case with Zettle if you have any other kind of business bank account. But by syncing your payment processing with your bank account, you can access your business income in just a few minutes.

Why we recommend the Zettle Card Reader 2

We loved how easy it is to get set up and instantly begin selling with the Zettle Card Reader 2. This small device didn’t cost a lot to purchase at just £29 + VAT and thereafter, we could easily link to our PayPal account and sell for free without any contract commitments.

The reader itself linked to the Zettle Go app, which meant we could easily charge people what we wanted directly from there or we could manually add the price in ourselves and the haptic buttons gave us great touch feedback, as you see below. Our users felt that the interface was modern and well-suited to all types of businesses.

Zettle also offers strong reporting capabilities, including sales forecasting, inventory management, and staff hours. Zettle offers the second-highest number of reports in our research, after Tide.

And we were fans of Zettle’s 24/7 transaction monitoring for security and fraud protection. With its expensive experience in the virtual payment space, PayPal-backed Zettle is one of the most reliable options for security.

How could the Zettle Card Reader 2 improve?

We had no problems in taking payment, though the small size of the card reader and the lack of privacy when inputting a PIN could put off older customers due to the lack of a “secure feeling”. This may be something to consider, depending on the average age of your customers.

While Zettle’s strengths are in its features, Zettle charges some of the highest transaction fees of any provider on this list. It charges 1.75% per card transaction and 2.5% for payment links and invoices, level with Square. The transaction fee impacts every transaction your business processes, so it’s an important consideration that could put off businesses of all kinds.

Who is Zettle’s card reader for?

Besides being the clear pick for PayPal Business account holders, Zettle is suitable for businesses that want to focus on processing card transactions with the ability to access EPOS features, such as inventory tools.

This should appeal to businesses such as food trucks or mobile businesses that don’t need a comprehensive EPOS system. For more all-encompassing EPOS features, Square is a solid bet.

5. Tide Card Reader: Best For Reporting

When it comes to reporting tools, Tide has some of the widest array of data visualisation dashboards. You can view all the financial and transaction data from its £79 Tide Card Reader on your account via the connected application or a web browser.

Why we recommend the Tide Card Reader

The Tide Card Reader and app offer extensive dashboards with advanced reporting tools to view sales by employees, card types, or items. This can be a helpful tool to better understand your business finances live on Tide’s platform.

Despite some usability issues, as we’ll come to shortly, we were impressed with Tide’s hardware, too. Its Card Reader has a battery that lasts all day on one single charge, bettering SumUp’s card reader, and its interface is attractive to the eye. Plus, it comes with a built-in 4G SIM, for optimal connectivity, even when paired via Bluetooth to the Tide app.

When it comes to pricing, Tide receives the lowest score of the providers on this page. That’s largely down to the relatively high cost of the Tide Card Reader, which is Tide’s cheapest card machine. At £79 + VAT, it’s double the price of most competitors.

However, we think this could be worth the price given it also has the lowest transaction fees of the options listed here, at just 1.5% for in-person transactions.

How could the Tide Card Reader improve?

Compared to the card readers we’ve tested, Tide’s Card Reader falls some way behind in terms of usability. While we found it relatively easy to input a price and charge customers, changing the price required us to cancel the entire payment rather than make a quick edit.

Even more complex and time-consuming is the process of issuing a refund. We had to navigate away from the card reader to the mobile app for starters. Then, we could only request a refund online rather than process one immediately. The refund was only processed around three days later which is quite a lengthy period compared to the instant refunds of other mobile card readers.

Customers who want their refunds processed immediately are likely to be concerned by this delay and it may put them off becoming repeat customers should you be using Tide in a refund-heavy industry such as fashion and retail.

Who is Tide’s card reader for?

Merchants who need a long battery life on their hardware will struggle to find a better option than Tide’s mobile card reader. Equally, those requiring extensive reporting tools on a free plan (thereby reducing monthly costs) should be happy with what Tide has to offer.

If you require efficient offline payments, we’d recommend taking a look at Square’s mobile card readers instead.

How We Test Card Machines for Small Businesses