Best Mobile Credit Card Readers Of 2024

Square POS is a mobile POS solution that’s free to use and includes a free magstripe mobile reader. You can purchase a chip mobile reader for $49 to accept contactless payments in person or online—you only pay a flat processing fee on each transaction. Square POS includes inventory management, low-stock alerts, email and text receipts and sales reports. It is one of our favorite credit card readers for Android and iOS for its affordability, feature set and usability.

You can use Square POS to handle multichannel sales, so you can sell online and in person with no monthly fees. The POS software syncs your online and in-person sales, so you can take payments from your website or your mobile app with the reader. Transaction fees vary depending on how you accept payments.

• In-person transaction fee: 2.6% + 10 cents rate
• Online transaction fee: 2.9% + 30 cents rate
• Keyed-in transaction fee: 3.5% + 15 cents rate

Square is easy to use, and with just the free magstripe reader, you can get started accepting payments with no upfront costs. To accept Apple Pay or chip cards, you will have to fork over $49 for the EMV reader, but it’s still one of the more affordable options.

There are some limitations to using Square as your mobile credit card reader and POS. Support is only available 24/7 for customers that opt for a paid plan. The POS software is missing important features, such as purchase orders and vendor management—for these features, you’ll have to upgrade your plan.

Learn more: Read our full Square review.

Who should use it: Square is ideal for new businesses just getting started. It’s easy to start accepting payments right away, and for free, online or in person with Square’s free magstripe reader—all you pay is a processing fee on each order.

Small businesses that want to offer more flexible checkout methods should consider adding a Clover Go reader to their store. It costs $49 and lets your customers “swipe, dip or tap” to pay. You can accept credit and debit cards, gift cards or contactless payments wherever you are. It’s a great choice for brick-and-mortar owners who want to sell at pop-up events. Using Clover Go can help with line busting, too—take payments from customers standing in line at your store to reduce wait times. The company’s intuitive mobile apps make it one of the better solutions for your Android POS on the market today.

Clover Go works best for those already using a Clover register as their main point-of-sale (POS) system. The Clover Go seamlessly connects to the Clover dashboard, so all your data syncs up, including sales and inventory. If you only need Clover Go to accept payments, there’s no monthly fee. However, if you want extra features, you might want to choose one of the paid plans.

Fees and features vary with each plan:

One major issue is that Clover charges a monthly rate for features that rivals provide at no cost. There are also some concerns related to contract transparency, which is why it’s good to ask questions and have a complete understanding of your needs and payment obligations upfront.

Once you find the right Clover monthly software subscription to combine with your Go reader, you’ll be able to quickly and easily accept payments while maintaining your preferred mobile business style.

Learn more: Read our full Clover Go review.

Who should use it: The simple and nimble style of Clover Go makes it best for small businesses, especially owners already using Clover terminals, or for small businesses that only require the most basic payment processing.

PayPal is best known as an online payment system, but it also offers a free POS solution and an affordable mobile credit card reader. The card reader costs $29 for the first one and $79 for each additional reader you need. It’s a chip reader, so you can take contactless credit card payments, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay. Similar to PayPal Zettle’s competitors, you can also take payments over the phone (keyed-in or manual payments) and custom gift cards.

The most unique feature of the PayPal Zettle POS and mobile credit card reader is the ability to accept PayPal and Venmo payments. You can create a QR-coded invoice for customers to scan on your phone’s PayPal Zettle app and pay via online payment systems. Transaction fees are some of the lowest flat-rate fees around.

• In-person transaction fee: 2.29% plus 9-cent rate
• Keyed-in transaction fee: 3.49% plus 9-cent rate
• QR-coded transaction fee: 2.9% plus 9-cent rate

PayPal Zettle’s POS features help you manage your inventory, sales and staff with no monthly fee. There are multiple merchant fees that go up to 3.5%, such as for American Express payments.

Learn more: Read our full PayPal Zettle review.

Who should use it:

One of the best use cases of PayPal Zettle is when you expect to take alternative payments, such as PayPal and Venmo. Plus, PayPal Zettle’s in-person transaction fees are lower than most of its competitors.

Shopify is a popular all-in-one e-commerce solution that lets you build a website, online store, and includes POS software to manage your business. It also offers a way for online sellers to take payments in person with a mobile card reader. The card readers cost $49 each, and your sales through the mobile app sync with your Shopify POS app.

The mobile card readers available are the same price, but one only accepts swipe and chip payments, while the other accepts swipe, chip and tap payments. To use one of Shopify’s readers, you have to subscribe to a Shopify plan, which starts at $29 per month. The transaction fee for each charge varies based on which plan you choose.

• Basic Shopify in-person transaction fee: 2.7%
• Shopify in-person transaction fee: 2.5%
• Advanced Shopify in-person transaction fee: 2.4%

If you’re not using Shopify, it might not make sense to use the Shopify mobile card reader because of the monthly fee requirement. The only way to benefit from the low 2.4% transaction fee is to pay $299 per month for Advanced Shopify. If you prefer to use your own merchant services provider (MSP), Shopify makes up the difference on their end by charging you a 0.5% to 2% added transaction fee.

Learn more: Read our full Shopify review.

Who should use it:

If you’re already using Shopify, there’s no reason to use another mobile card reader. You’ll get decent in-person transaction rates that drop even lower if you’re paying for a high-tier Shopify plan.

Payanywhere offers a three-in-one mobile card reader that processes contactless payments (Apple Pay and Google Pay) for $59.95.

Using Payanywhere’s mobile card reader with the app lets you issue digital receipts, manage inventory, staff and customers and lets you track sales. Plus, Payanywhere offers 24/7 customer support. The low flat transaction fee is only 2.69% and, while the percentage is higher than some of its competitors, there’s no cents-per-transaction cost on in-person charges.

• In-person transaction fee: 2.69%
• Keyed-in transaction fee: 3.49% plus 19-cent rate

Payanywhere is the only service with a mobile card reader on this list that charges an inactivity fee. If you don’t use the service for a year, you’ll have to pay a $3.99 fee. Also, you’ll have to wait a day to get access to your funds or pay a 1% fee to get same-day access to your money.

Who should use it:

Payanywhere’s free mobile card reader is a good option for those who expect to only take credit cards in person. It’s an affordable option, thanks to the flat transaction fee with no cents-per-transaction fee, but you won’t get your money until tomorrow (unless you pay an additional fee).