Best apps to accept card payments on your phone
By Promies · Last updated
Executive summary
If you already take payments with Stripe, Paid (Google Play, App Store) is the fastest way to charge a card in person: install it, connect the Stripe account you have, and hold the customer's card against the phone. If you are not on Stripe and you want a reader on the counter, Square (Google Play, App Store) or SumUp (Google Play, App Store) will get you trading for a small one-off hardware cost.
The seven apps worth considering
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1. Paid
- Price
- Free app, 0.99%/transaction + Stripe fees
- Platforms
- iPhone, Android
- Best for
- Anyone whose money already runs through Stripe
Get it on Google Play Download on the App Store
Paid is a till that sits on top of a Stripe account. Tap to Pay works with no hardware at all on a supported iPhone or Android phone, and it pairs with Bluetooth readers if you would rather hand the customer a device to tap.
You get a product catalogue so nobody is typing amounts at a queue, tips, tax, the option to pass the processing fee on, team members with their own permissions, and payment links or a QR code for the sales where the customer is not standing in front of you. Takings land in the same Stripe balance as your online orders, on the same payout schedule. That is the real reason to pick it over a cheaper flat rate somewhere else: one dashboard instead of two sets of books to reconcile at the end of the month.
The app is free to install, with no monthly or setup fee. Paid charges 0.99% per transaction on top of Stripe's own fee. Pale Blue, who also run Promies, build it; the site says 40,000+ businesses use it, at 4.8 stars across the two stores.
The downside: It needs a Stripe account, and Stripe does not operate in every country. The 0.99% comes on top of Stripe's own rate, so add the two together before you compare it with the flat rates below. If your online sales go through PayPal or Shopify instead, the one-dashboard argument is gone and you should pick the app that matches your processor.
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- Price
- Free app, 2.6% + $0.15 per tap (US)
- Platforms
- iPhone, iPad, Android
- Best for
- A shop or stall that wants one supplier for the whole counter
Square is the default answer and mostly deserves to be. The free plan has no monthly fee, the app handles items, modifiers, staff, discounts and refunds, and Tap to Pay means you can open for business before a reader arrives.
Around the till Square sells invoices, payroll, loyalty, gift cards and an online store, all reading from the same catalogue. If you want to stop thinking about which tool does what, this is the one to buy. Keyed-in sales cost 3.5% + $0.15.
The downside: At 2.6% + $0.15 it is one of the pricier flat rates here, and the cheaper per-tap rates (2.5% and 2.4%) are only on the Plus and Premium subscriptions.
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3. SumUp
- Price
- Free app, 2.6% + $0.10 in person (US)
- Platforms
- iPhone, Android
- Best for
- Market stalls, pop-ups and anyone who wants cheap hardware
SumUp started out selling card readers and the app still reflects that: it is built around a small reader you carry, with Tap to Pay on the phone as the no-hardware option. Pay-as-you-go has no monthly fee, and when a customer pays with a SumUp card the transaction fee is 0%.
It is a payments app rather than a retail platform. If what you need is to take money at a stall on Saturday and see it in the bank on Monday, that is the point. Online and keyed-in sales cost 3.5% + $0.15.
The downside: SumUp publishes a different rate in every country, so the figure above only holds in the US. The 0% deal applies only when the customer happens to hold a SumUp card, and the full POS plans start at $99/month.
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- Price
- Free app, 2.29% + $0.09 card-present (US)
- Platforms
- iPhone, iPad, Android
- Best for
- The lowest flat per-tap rate, if you are happy banking in PayPal
The cheapest flat rate in this list, by a clear margin on small tickets. Sales land in your PayPal business balance alongside everything else PayPal collects for you, and the hardware is cheap to start: $29 for the first card reader, $79 for each one after that, $199 for the countertop terminal or $239 with a barcode scanner. There is no monthly or setup fee; keyed-in sales cost 3.49% + $0.09.
The downside: PayPal keeps renaming and reshuffling this product, so the app, the help pages and the brand you searched for do not always agree. Your takings also sit inside PayPal, which means PayPal's payout timing and PayPal's dispute process.
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- Price
- Free app, Stripe's standard in-person rate
- Platforms
- iPhone, Android
- Best for
- The occasional in-person charge, with nothing extra installed
Stripe's own app has Tap to Pay built in, so if you already check payouts on your phone you can take a card without installing anything else. Useful for a consultant charging a client at the end of a meeting. On Stripe's EEA pricing that is 1.4% + EUR 0.10 for EEA cards and 2.9% + EUR 0.10 for the rest.
It is a dashboard first. There is no catalogue, no staff accounts and nothing that speeds up a queue, so treat it as a fallback rather than a till.
The downside: Not designed for serving customers, and Stripe's in-person rate differs by country, so check the price for yours rather than the EEA figure above.
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6. Helcim
- Price
- Free app, interchange + 0.40% + $0.08 in person (US)
- Platforms
- iPhone, Android
- Best for
- Volume high enough that a flat 2.6% has started to hurt
Helcim bills interchange-plus: you pay what the card networks charge, plus a fixed margin, and the margin drops automatically as your monthly volume rises. On ordinary debit traffic that usually lands well under a flat rate. No monthly fee, no contract, no statement fees. The 0.40% margin is the rate under $50K a month, and Tap to Pay on iPhone adds $0.10 a transaction.
The downside: Interchange-plus does not give you one number per sale. Your effective rate moves with the cards your customers happen to carry, and the statements take reading.
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7. Shopify POS
- Price
- Included with Shopify plans, from EUR 29/month
- Platforms
- iPhone, iPad, Android
- Best for
- Shops whose stock already lives in Shopify
The only app here that shares one inventory with your online store. Sell the last one in the shop and the website stops offering it, with no sync job in between. Lite comes with any Shopify plan; Pro adds proper retail features such as stock counts, staff roles and in-store returns of online orders.
The downside: Pointless unless you are on Shopify, and the version shops actually want is POS Pro at EUR 79/month per location on top of the plan you are already paying for.
Side by side
| App | Price | Platforms | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paid | Free app, 0.99%/transaction + Stripe fees | iPhone, Android | Anyone whose money already runs through Stripe |
| Square Point of Sale | Free app, 2.6% + $0.15 per tap (US) | iPhone, iPad, Android | A shop or stall that wants one supplier for the whole counter |
| SumUp | Free app, 2.6% + $0.10 in person (US) | iPhone, Android | Market stalls, pop-ups and anyone who wants cheap hardware |
| PayPal Point of Sale (formerly Zettle) | Free app, 2.29% + $0.09 card-present (US) | iPhone, iPad, Android | The lowest flat per-tap rate, if you are happy banking in PayPal |
| Stripe Dashboard app | Free app, Stripe's standard in-person rate | iPhone, Android | The occasional in-person charge, with nothing extra installed |
| Helcim | Free app, interchange + 0.40% + $0.08 in person (US) | iPhone, Android | Volume high enough that a flat 2.6% has started to hurt |
| Shopify POS | Included with Shopify plans, from EUR 29/month | iPhone, iPad, Android | Shops whose stock already lives in Shopify |
How to choose in a minute
- Already on Stripe: Paid.
- Already on PayPal: PayPal Point of Sale, and you get the cheapest flat rate in this list as a side effect.
- Already on Shopify: Shopify POS, for the shared stock count.
- None of the above, and you want a reader on a counter: Square if you also want invoices and payroll from the same company, SumUp if you only want to take money.
- Processing enough that a tenth of a percent is real money: price Helcim's interchange-plus against the flat rate you pay now.
What Tap to Pay actually needs
Tap to Pay makes the phone the reader. The customer holds their card, phone or watch against the back of your handset and that is the whole transaction. It needs a reasonably recent iPhone, or an Android phone with NFC, and it has to be switched on in your country by the app you are using, which is where most people come unstuck: the app installs happily and then refuses to turn the feature on. Check your own country on the provider's site before you promise a customer they can tap.
What you lose is a printed receipt, a cash drawer and a second screen facing the customer. For a stall or a van, nobody misses them.
The percentage is not the whole cost
Two apps with the same headline rate can cost very different amounts. Look at how long payouts take, what a chargeback costs you, whether keyed-in sales carry a higher rate (they all do), and whether the features you need sit behind a monthly plan. Square's cheaper per-tap rates and Shopify's useful POS tier are both subscriptions, and a $49 or $79 monthly fee swamps a 0.1% difference until you are turning over serious money.
Questions people ask
Can I take card payments without a card reader?
Yes. All seven support Tap to Pay, where the customer taps their card, phone or watch against the back of your handset. You need a recent iPhone or an NFC-equipped Android phone, and the feature has to be live in your country.
Which app has the lowest fees?
On flat rates in the US, PayPal Point of Sale at 2.29% + $0.09 is the cheapest here. Once you are processing steadily, Helcim's interchange-plus pricing (interchange + 0.40% + $0.08) usually works out lower still, because you stop subsidising other people's premium rewards cards.
Do I need a business bank account?
You need a merchant account with the provider, which means giving them your business details and a bank account to pay out to. Sole traders are fine everywhere in this list; none of them will settle into a card-only wallet.
Which of these work with Stripe?
Paid and Stripe's own Dashboard app. Both settle into the same Stripe balance as your online payments. Paid is the one with a catalogue, tips, team accounts and payment links, for 0.99% per transaction on top of Stripe's fee; the Dashboard app adds nothing to the fee and is for the odd one-off charge.
Is Tap to Pay on a phone secure?
The card data goes straight from the NFC chip to the payment provider's secure element and is never readable by the app or stored on the phone. Each of these providers is PCI DSS Level 1 certified, the same standard a countertop terminal has to meet.