Restaurant POS · United States
SpotOn card processing fees: what a shop actually pays
On its cheapest published plan, SpotOn charges 2.79% + $0.20 on a card taken in person. For a shop taking $5,000 a month on cards, that plan costs $180 a month — 3.59% of everything it takes once the monthly fee and the hardware are counted across three years. The shop keeps 96.41%.
That is 0.80 percentage points above the advertised 2.79%. The difference is the $0.20 charged on every sale.
What does the provider publish?
SpotOn publishes the plans below on its own pricing page; the last column quotes the conditions in the provider's words.
| Plan | Monthly fee | Hardware | In person | Online or keyed | Effective at 5,000 a month | As published |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All-In | none | free | 2.79% + $0.20 | 3.79% | 3.59% | $0 per station per month; card present 2.79% + $0.20, keyed 3.79% + $0.20. |
| POS Essentials | $55.00 | $415 once | 2.45% + $0.15 | 3.45% | 4.38% | $55 per station per month; card present 2.45% + $0.15 (Amex 3.19% + $0.15). Station 10 $550, discounted to $415. |
| Build Your Own | not published | not stated | not published | not published | — | Custom pricing and custom rates. Core bundle add-on $50/month plus 20bps of card volume, capped at $200. |
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Chargeback fee: not stated in the provider's published pages (checked 2026-08-25).
Contract length: not stated in the provider's published pages (checked 2026-08-25).
Time to payout: not stated in the provider's published pages (checked 2026-08-25).
What does it cost at the size of shop you actually are?
The same plan is a different price depending on how much goes through the card machine, because the fixed part does not move.
| Plan | $1,000 | $2,000 | $5,000 | $10,000 | $25,000 | $50,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All-In | 3.59% | 3.59% | 3.59% | 3.59% | 3.59% | 3.59% |
| POS Essentials | 9.70% | 6.38% | 4.38% | 3.72% | 3.32% | 3.18% |
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How that is worked out
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.
What is fixed and what moves with sales?
SpotOn publishes both the percentage and the per-transaction fee. On POS Essentials the fixed part is $55.00 a month before a single card is tapped, which is 1.10% of card sales at $5,000 a month and 0.11% at $50,000. checked 2026-08-25
A percentage on its own says nothing about what a small shop pays. The monthly fee, the terminal and the per-transaction fee are fixed amounts, so they land hardest on the shops with the least card volume — which is the opposite of how the headline rate reads.
Who owns it?
Who owns this company is not stated on its own site, and we could not confirm it from a primary source. We have left it blank rather than repeat what other sites say.
Where this leaves you
- Do not decide yet, but a quiet month will not change this one: the plan holds at 3.59% of sales whether the shop takes $5,000 or $50,000 a month, because there is no monthly fee to spread. Chargebacks, refunds and foreign cards are in neither figure — what the headline rate leaves out.
Who this page is not for
This is not a review. We have not used SpotOn, we hold no opinion on its hardware or its support, and nothing here is a recommendation. It answers one question: what the published price turns into as a share of card sales.
Sources
- SpotOn pricing page — every figure on this page. checked 2026-08-25
- data.json — the row behind this page, with the source URL and check date on every figure.
Related
- Every provider we hold, and which publish a rate
- Work out your own effective rate
- The three numbers behind a card rate: the fixed fee, the flat fee and the floor
- How these figures are produced
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.