SumUp Review: Is It Right for Your Business?

SumUp is a favourite among small businesses looking for a quick way to accept card payments, and for good reason.

Based on our experience with SumUp products, we can say that it was one of the easiest payment systems to set up that we tested. One of its card machines even earns a spot on our list of the best card readers for small businesses.

Besides processing payments, SumUp also offers a simple EPOS system, and a free online store builder, making it a handy one-stop-shop for new and small businesses. However, given its lack of negotiable transaction fees, and the lack of advanced features for its EPOS system and online store, SumUp isn’t an option we’d recommend to high volume sellers.

We’ll get into why in our review. But, if you’d like to skip ahead and just be matched with a payment processing provider, we can help. Just tell us about your business using our free comparison tool, and we’ll match you with suitable providers who’ll contact you with tailored quotes.

SumUp’s Pros and Cons

Here’s a quick look a the pros and cons of using SumUp for taking payments:

✔ Pro: No monthly fees

One reason small businesses like SumUp is because it comes with no monthly account fees or monthly card machine rental fees, since SumUp sells its card machines outright. It’s not the only provider to do this, with Square, Zettle, and Stripe all doing the same.

Monthly fees and card machine rental fees can cost between £10 and £20 per month, each, so you’ll be saving a lot with SumUp.

✔ Pro: Zero-contract and easy setup

Because SumUp is a zero-contract provider, it’s quick and easy to set up an account with them, since you won’t be fussing around negotiating the terms of your contract.

Once you’ve ordered your chosen card machine, it’s also very quick to get up and running. We were able to charge our SumUp Air card machine in under an hour, and didn’t have much trouble downloading the SumUp app and connecting the reader to it.

✔ Pro: Free EPOS system and online store

SumUp has other free tools besides payment processing, which include a free EPOS app and free online store builder. This provides small businesses an affordable way to build a complete solution for taking payments and managing sales and products.

Once again, SumUp isn’t the only provider to offer a free EPOS system and online store builder, with Square and Zettle offering the same. Still, with EPOS software costing an average of £50 per month, and online store costing £20 per month, you’ll be saving a lot with SumUp’s free tools.

X Con: Limited EPOS hardware range

Own downside to SumUp is that it has quite a limited range of hardware to support its EPOS system. It only has one countertop terminal model, one type of cash drawer, and one type of receipt printer. Along with its card machines, one of which comes with a built-in receipt printer, that’s pretty much it.

This won’t be an issue for all businesses, but restaurants or cafes that do table service might find they’re missing a card machine that gives them access to the EPOS system, along with menu items. Retailers might want a barcode scanner, also missing from SumUp’s kit. Providers that do offer these tools include Clover and Square.

X Con: Support team not available 24/7

Another downside to SumUp is that its customer support team is only available Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm. This means that during the hours and days when most businesses are the most busy, after 5pm and on the weekends, SumUp isn’t available to help with quick troubleshooting.

For a provider with more availability, we recommend Worldpay, whose phone lines are open 24/7, or takepayments, who are online at weekends as well as weekdays.

X Con: Transaction fees add up for high volume sellers

To make up for its lack of monthly fees, SumUp, like most providers of its type, charges slightly high fixed fees of 1.69%. These aren’t the highest fees we’ve seen, with Zettle and Square both charging 1.75% per transaction, but they’re not the cheapest either, with Revolut charging just 0.8% + 2p per transaction.

If you’re a high-volume seller (you process over £2,000 in card payments per month), you might want to consider going with a provider that offers negotiable and competitive transaction fees, like takepayments or Worldpay. Although these providers also come with monthly fees, in the long run they’ll cost you less, since high transaction fees can eat into profits.

How Much Does SumUp Cost?

SumUp’s pricing is very straightforward. Card machines cost from £39 + VAT, and in-person transaction fees with a free account are 1.69%.

Here’s a quick overview:

SumUp offers excellent value for money for small businesses overall, largely thanks to its lack of monthly fees and free EPOS and online store software. Its card machines are also some of the best value, with its £39 + VAT SumUp Air only beaten by Square’s £19 + VAT Square Reader.

When it comes to transaction fees, compared to other fixed-fee zero contract providers SumUp falls somewhere in the middle. Its 1.69% fee is cheaper than Square and Zettle’s 1.75%, but more than Stripe’s 1.4% + 10p.

Here’s some additional information you should know about SumUp’s pricing:

• You won’t be charged for any payments that don’t go through
• You won’t be charged for any cash payments you log with SumUp
• No VAT is levied on SumUp’s transaction fees
• PCI compliance is included at no extra cost
• There are no setup or early termination fees

If you’ve been wondering what is PCI compliance, read our in-depth article to learn everything you need to know. And, for a full breakdown of all SumUp’s costs and fees, go to our guide.

What Are SumUp’s Card Machines Like?

SumUp has three types of card machines:

• SumUp Air: has a flat pin pad and needs to be paired with the SumUp app in order to take payments
• SumUp Solo: a standalone card machine with a touchscreen
• SumUp Solo and printer: like the regular SumUp Solo but with a built-in printer

The SumUp Air

At £39 + VAT, the SumUp Air is the most affordable of SumUp’s card machines. Its lightweight and compact design, and its long battery life make it a good solution for selling on-the-go if you’re a tradesperson or market vendor.

For £10, you can get an additional charging dock, which can turn it into a countertop device, but since the battery lasts up to 12 hours, it’s not strictly necessary.

One minor inconvenience is that the SumUp Air has to be used with the SumUp app on your phone, which could make processing transactions while standing slightly awkward, because you need to use both hands. The flat pin pad might also be a bit disconcerting for some customers, since when we tested it we noticed that there’s not really a response to confirm you’ve pressed a button when entering a pin.

If you’d prefer a traditional card machine with buttons, we’d recommend providers such as Barclaycard or Worldpay, since SumUp doesn’t offer them.

All that being said, the SumUp app was relatively easy to navigate, since it was free of jargon and didn’t have an overwhelming number of tabs to navigate through before getting to the checkout screen.

The SumUp Solo

The SumUp Solo and the version with a printer are SumUp’s standalone card machines, which means they can operate independently of the SumUp app.

They both come with a built-in free unlimited SIM card, which means they can operate in areas without Wifi. That said, we don’t think they’re as suited to on-the-go selling as the SumUp Air, since both Solo models are a little clunkier (especially the one with a printer), and the battery doesn’t last as long (approximately 8 hours).

Both the standard Solo and the Solo and printer lend themselves better to countertop use, since the standard Solo comes with a mount, and the Solo and printer sits upright thanks to its design.

Our one criticism of SumUp’s overall offering is that none of its card machines can be used as standalone EPOS devices. Providers like Square and Clover offer larger, touchscreen card machines, from which you can access their EPOS software. These are very useful for hospitality businesses that do table service.

What payments method does SumUp accept?

Whatever SumUp card machine you have, you’ll be able to accept the following payment methods:

• Contactless and chip and pin
• Visa, Mastercard, Maestro, Amex, VPay, Discover, Diners Club, Union Pay
• Google Pay, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay

SumUp accepts a very wide variety of card types – more than competitor Square, but less than Zettle. Being able to take cards from providers like Union Pay that are popular outside the UK puts you at an advantage if you have international customers.

Is SumUp’s EPOS System Worth it?

SumUp’s EPOS system is a good option for small hospitality businesses, such as takeaways, pubs and bars, or food trucks. However, based on our testing, we don’t think it quite has the tools to support larger business with complex operations.

SumUp has two EPOS systems:

• Free POS app/POS Lite (£0/month): these are essentially the same system, except that the POS app is run on iPad, whereas POS Lite can be accessed from a physical terminal.
• POS Pro (£49/month): A more advanced EPOS system that comes with table and staff management tools.

The features you get access to with SumUp’s free EPOS software are quite basic, but still include essentials like basic sales reports, inventory management, and accepting tips and issuing refunds. On the paid POS Pro plan, you’ll get access to additional features like bill splitting, table management, staff shift hours logging, and online ordering.

While not a bad EPOS system, you can get better value for money with SumUp’s competitor Square. It also offers free and paid EPOS software, and its free software comes with features missing from SumUp’s, such as discounts, multi-location management, and table management. Square also has EPOS software designed for a variety of businesses, including hospitality, retail, and salons, whereas SumUp’s EPOS software is heavily tailored to hospitality.

What Types of Online Payments Are Available with SumUp?

SumUp offers businesses several ways to take payments online and remotely:

• Online store builder (free)
• Online payment gateway (free)
• Payment links and QR codes (free)
• Invoices (free-£7/month)

All in all, SumUp offers a holistic set of tools for accepting remote payments, and has a similar offering to Square. Most traditional payment processing provider aren’t as focused on remote payments and only offer a few of these tools, but not all. takepayments, for example, doesn’t have an online store builder, while Barclaycard only offers an online payment gateway.

Online store and ecommerce integration

There are two ways to get paid with SumUp through an online store. You can either build an online store using SumUp’s tool, or integrate SumUp’s online payment gateway into your existing online store.

SumUp’s online store builder is free to use, and has no paid upgrade version, as is the case with Square’s online store builder. It’s quite a basic website builder, and doesn’t offer any options for customising the design. It’s purely for listing products or menu items for online ordering.

Since you can’t upgrade to a more advanced version of SumUp’s online store builder, it’s also not an option we’d recommend to businesses looking to start an ecommerce business, due to its lack of scalability. For that, we’d recommend Shopify or Wix, which both feature in our picks for the best ecommerce platforms for small businesses.

Luckily, you can still use SumUp as your payment processor on both of these ecommerce platforms, with SumUp’s online payment gateway. It can be integrated into any website through API, and more easily into select platforms through a pre-built plugin. This flexibility earned SumUp a spot in our list of the best payment gateway providers.

Payment links and QR codes

If you don’t want to bother creating an online store, you can instead sell through links.

In the SumUp app, you can generate payment links, which you can send to customers through any messaging channel, including WhatsApp, Instagram, text, and email. Customers are then taken to a secure payment page, where they can enter their details.

You can also use the payment link function to generate QR codes, which customers can scan to be taken to a payment page. This is a useful feature for businesses like food trucks or pubs, who want to avoid delays and make it easier for customers to pay.

Invoicing

SumUp has a free and paid version of its invoicing tool.

You can send unlimited invoices for free using SumUp’s free invoicing tool. However, you have to have signed up for a free SumUp Business Account to receive transfers.

For £7 per month on the SumUp Pro invoicing plan, you can send unlimited customised invoices in 14 different languages, and accept transfers to any bank account. The transaction fee for online invoices also goes down to 1.25% from 2.5% with free invoicing.

The £19 per month SumUp One plan includes SumUp Pro invoicing software, with the added bonus that invoicing transaction fees are only 0.99%.

What Kind of Business Is SumUp Best For?

SumUp’s affordability and a wide range of tools to facilitate taking payments, both in-person and online, make it best suited to start-ups, small businesses, and mobile businesses.

The SumUp app is an easy platform to navigate, which means it won’t be overwhelming for entrepreneurs and small business owners. Plus, the compact design of its card machines make them great options for on-the-go sellers, like market vendors, tradespeople, or taxi drivers.

Its online store builder will suit small artisans, since you can link to it from social media platforms, or cafes and food trucks looking to accept online orders. These last types of businesses can also benefit from SumUp’s EPOS system, although we recommend opting for the paid version, since the free software is incredibly basic.

SumUp Customer Support and Reviews

SumUp’s customer support team is available only on weekdays, between 9 AM and 5 PM. This isn’t the ideal time for most merchants, who tend to be busiest after 5 PM and on the weekends, but SumUp isn’t the only provider with these hours – Square and Zettle have similar opening hours.

If you’d rather use a provider who’s open when you are, we recommend Worldpay, whose customer service team is available 24/7, or takepayments, whose team is available on weekends and bank holidays.

When it comes to points of contact, you can get in touch with SumUp via phone, email, or live chat. The provider also has a help centre that can help you through simple troubleshooting.

If you’re wondering what SumUp customers are saying about the provider online, its’s generally positive. SumUp has a score of 4.2 out of five stars on TrustPilot, and 4.5 out of five stars on Capterra, which is as good as most businesses can hope for, although nowhere near takepayments’s impressive score of 4.9 stars on TrustPilot.

Customers are generally happy with the service, praising SumUp products for their ease of use and low cost. Those who left poor reviews, however, mentioned poor customer service and hardware not working after just a few uses.

How We Reviewed SumUp