Mobile POS Terminals Compared - Top Card Readers In The Market

Mobile POS Terminals Compared - Top Card Readers In The Market

A Point-of-Sale system helps you accept card payments easily. A mobile POS terminal ensures easy portability. Carry it with you anywhere, and use it to process card payments on-the-go. Here, we take a look at the top mobile POS terminals in the market.

The Best Mobile POS terminals

In this age of multichannel sales, you sell in your physical store and you sell online. You also sell through mobile commerce (mCommerce) and through social media shops. You may also setup temporary kiosks or pop up shops at local events or big trade shows. In these temporary shops, you need to be able to accept cashless payments too.

Many ecommerce platforms like Square and Shopify as well as payment processors like PayPal, can provide you with a nifty mobile POS terminal. mPOS systems can provide the flexibility you need to meet the demands of customers, many of whom may not carry cash, and only cards. While the POS systems you use at your store might be fixed setups connected to other equipment, mPOS readers are easily portable and use wireless technologies to connect with your backend system.

PayPal Here

PayPal, being the leading online payment processor, provides you with a large number of payment options, letting you accept any form of payment, including checks. You can get card readers that accept swipe or chip cards, or readers that can handle swipe and chip as well as NFC contactless payments like Google Play or Apple Pay. The mobile reader works with iOS or Android as well as with Windows. You pay a transaction fee of 2.7%. The mPOS system from PayPal integrates smoothly with PayPal's merchant services, giving you the flexibility to sell and accept payments anywhere.

GoPayment

Do you use Intuit QuickBooks for your business? Then QuickBooks GoPayment mobile POS terminal can be a great choice, to seamlessly integrate your POS system with your business accounting solution. You can either choose the non-subscription option where you pay 2.4%  plus $0.25 for each transaction, or you can choose the subscription-based plan where you pay $20 per month, and the transaction cost come down to 1.6% plus $0.25.

PayAnywhere

This may probably be the cheapest mPOS solution. Without a monthly subscription, you get charged 2.69% per transaction. No additional cost like the $0.25 you pay for each transaction with GoPayment. With a monthly subscription plan, your per transaction cost comes down to 1.69%. Read customer reviews and check the features and other details to see if this POS system can be the answer to your requirements.

Square

Square POS systems mobile card reader connects with your iOS or Android device. There is no monthly subscription. Your per transaction cost is a flat 2.75%. You get a free swipe card reader, but you can also buy an EMV reader. Contactless payments need the NFC reader. You can also buy a three-in-one reader that handles all three, and connects to the mobile POS app through Bluetooth. Square POS terminal can handle all major credit cards. The POS system can handle inventory, and multiple users. Square’s high-end encryption and security ensures safe transactions.

Shopify POS

Shopify POS plans start at $29 per month. For this you will get a Chip & Swipe card reader free, and you can connect to the POS system using the iOS or Android App. With the Basic plan, you pay 2.7% for each transaction. If you just put up physical shops occasionally, at trade shows, local fairs etc, this can be a good option.

If your volume of in-person sales will be higher, you can choose a better plan. While the monthly cost goes up, you get more features and your per transaction cost goes down. The Shopify POS terminal can be easily setup using the card reader and iPad or Android tablets. Or you can just use the card reader paired up with your smartphone, while you’re on-the-go. Shopify is an ecommerce platform, and you can integrate your in-store, on-the-go and online channels seamlessly.

All the above POS systems ensure fast processing, enabling you to get the funds within 24 to 48 hours. POS systems are more than cash registers. Good POS terminals like those from Square, and Shopify (whether your in-store system or portable POS terminals) connect with the backend seamlessly to provide inventory management, tracking employee data, record customer information and order details. They come with safety and security measures builtin. 

When you buy mobile POS terminals, make sure you get card readers that can read chip cards as well as the traditional magnetic stripe cards. The use of the more secure chip embedded cards is growing, so you need to make sure your POS terminal has an EMV (Chip) card reader.