Card reader / mobile POS · United States

United States card readers and mobile POS costs for a shop taking $2,000 to $10,000 a month, by share of card sales

At $5,000 of card sales a month, the 6 published plans we hold take between 2.67% and 6.98% of everything the shop takes.

The lowest is PayPal (Zettle) Point of Sale (in person) at 2.67% — advertised at 2.29% + $0.09 — which leaves 97.33% with the shop.

At this size, in order

Every figure is the plan's own published rate applied to $5,000 a month, with the monthly fee added and any hardware spread across 36 months.

Every plan we hold that a shop of this size could buy, ordered by the share of card sales it takes over three years. Ties are broken by the advertised rate, then alphabetically. Nothing else affects the order, and no position on this page is for sale. 6 plans, checked 2026-09-18.
Provider and plan	In person	Monthly fee	Hardware	Effective at $5,000	Cost a month	3-year cost
PayPal (Zettle) Point of Sale (in person)	2.29% + $0.09	none	$29 once	2.67%	$132	$4,799
SumUp Pay-as-you-go	2.60% + $0.10	none	not stated	3.00%	$150	$5,400
Square Free	2.60% + $0.15	none	free	3.20%	$160	$5,760
Square Plus	2.50% + $0.15	$49.00	free	4.08%	$204	$7,344
Square Premium	2.40% + $0.15	$149.00	free	5.98%	$299	$10,764
SumUp POS with Connect Plus	2.60% + $0.10	$199.00	not stated	6.98%	$349	$12,564

Scroll sideways on a phone.

How that is worked out

transactions = monthly card sales / average sale processing = monthly card sales x rate + transactions x per-transaction fee monthly cost = software fee + terminal rental + PCI fee + processing (never below the provider's monthly minimum) three-year cost = monthly cost x 36 + hardware bought outright effective rate = three-year cost / (36 x monthly card sales) what you keep = 100% - effective rate

The average sale is an assumption of this site, not a published figure: $25.00 in the United States and £20.00 in the United Kingdom. It decides how heavily a per-transaction fee lands, so the calculator lets you change it. Interchange, chargebacks, refunds, currency conversion, sales tax and VAT are not in any figure on this site, because the pricing page does not price them for a given shop. Every figure here is a floor. The full method is at Method.

Where does the answer change?

The order above holds only under these conditions.

3 of these plans charge a monthly fee whether the shop trades or not. At this volume it is already in the figures; in a quiet month it is the whole of the bill.
Do not decide yet if the shop is growing, but the order holds: PayPal (Zettle) is still lowest at $25,000 a month, at 2.65%.

Who this is not for

This is not a list of the best card readers and mobile POS. It is every plan we hold that a shop of this size could buy, in price order. We have not used these products and we do not rate them.

Sources

PayPal (Zettle) pricing page. checked 2026-08-25
SumUp pricing page. checked 2026-08-25
Square pricing page. checked 2026-08-25

Written by Kaz (pen name). Figures are copied from providers' published pricing pages on the dates shown. We have not used these products. Corrections: contact form.