The Best Mobile Credit Card Processing Solutions of 2025

PayPal is one of the few processors that allows both businesses and individuals to accept payments, making it a popular choice for freelancers, consultants, solopreneurs, and other very small businesses. It also offers flat-rate pricing and no contract, so you only pay for the processing services you use, and you can close your account at any time without paying a penalty.

A huge name in the payments industry, PayPal serves more than 434 million customers in more than 200 countries and regions. With a PayPal Business account and the PayPal Here app, small businesses can accept credit, debit, and PayPal payments online, in-store and on the go.

PayPal is transparent with its pricing and you can find all of its rates and fees posted on its website.

Accepting credit card payments in person using PayPal Here

• 7% of each transaction for credit cards, debit cards, and contactless payments you accept in person using the PayPal Here app and a card reader.
• 5% + $0.15 of each transaction for the credit and debit cards you manually key or scan in using the PayPal Here app.

Accepting payments online or by invoice

• 9% + $0.30 of each online transaction for credit and debit cards you accept through your website or digital invoice.

Accepting credit and debit card payments using a virtual terminal

• 1% + $0.30 of each transaction for the Visa, Mastercard and Discover payment cards you accept using PayPal’s virtual terminal (such as payments you accept over the phone, by fax or by mail).
• 5% of each transaction for the American Express cards you accept using PayPal’s virtual terminal, PayPal Payments Advanced or PayPal Payments Pro.

You’ll notice that PayPal’s transaction fees are somewhat higher than those of full-service processors. However, it’s still more cost-effective if your monthly processing volume is low, because you aren’t paying account fees.

If you use a full-service processor, you pay around $20 per month in account maintenance fees and have a monthly minimum of $25, which can be difficult to meet if you process less than $2,500 per month.

Here are the fees you won’t pay using PayPal:

• No application fee or setup fee
• No monthly fee for statements and customer support
• No monthly minimum processing requirement
• No gateway setup fee
• No annual fee
• No annual or monthly PCI compliance fee
• No early termination or account closure fee

Here are some more optional services PayPal offers that carry fees:

• Chargebacks: $20 per incidence
• Recurring billing service: $10 per month
• Advanced fraud protection services: $10 per month plus $0.05 per transaction
• PayPal Payments Pro: $30 per month (allows you to accept payments directly on your website and includes a virtual terminal)
• Virtual terminal: $30 per month
• Cross-border fee: 5% is added to the transaction fee when you accept payments from customers outside the U.S. If your cross-border payments require currency conversion, it costs an additional 3%.

Our favorite PayPal features include the following, which are helpful for new and very small businesses just getting started with credit card processing.

Free Basic POS Software

To accept payments in person at your business or on the go, you install the PayPal Here app on your phone or tablet and attach a credit card reader. This mobile credit card processing app includes point-of-sale features that help you run your business.

• Accept credit and debit card payments
• Record checks and cash payments
• Create an inventory list and add photos of items
• Add multiple users to your account and manage their access
• Set taxes, suggest tip amounts, apply discounts at checkout
• Email, text or print receipts
• Refund sales
• Generate sales reports
• Transfer funds from your PayPal balance to your bank account or your PayPal Business Debit Mastercard

Card Reader Options

PayPal has several EMV compliant card readers that connect to your phone or tablet via Bluetooth.

• Chip and swipe reader: $24.99. You can accept magstripe and chip cards with this reader.
• Chip and tap card reader: $59.99 (or $79.99 with charging stand). This model accepts magstripe, chip, and contactless credit and debit cards. It also accepts mobile payments from Apple Pay and Google Pay.
• Chip card reader: $99.99. This reader accepts magstripe, chip, and contactless cards as well as mobile wallets. It’s the only model with a screen and a built-in PIN pad.

PayPal Integrations

Some of our favorite PayPal integrations include:

• POS systems like Revel Systems, TouchBistro and Vend
• E-commerce platforms, such as 3dcart, BigCommerce and Shopify
• Accounting software, including QuickBooks, Xero and Zoho Books

Online Payments

PayPal makes it easy to accept credit, debit and PayPal payments online.

• PayPal Checkout: There’s no monthly fee for this plan; all you pay are the processing fees for your online transactions. On this plan, you place buy buttons on your website that redirect your customer to a checkout page hosted by PayPal.
• PayPal Payments Pro: This plan costs $30 per month. With it, you can design and host the checkout pages yourself. It includes a virtual terminal that you can use to key in credit card information for sales made over the phone or by fax or mail.
• Payflow (payment gateway): Payflow allows you to accept credit and debit card payments as well as PayPal payments on your website for $0.10 per transaction with no setup or monthly fees. If you require a fully customizable solution, you can get Payflow Pro for $25 per month, but this option has a $99 setup fee.
• Pay in 4 and PayPal Credit: These programs pay you upfront but allow your customers to pay for their purchases over time, either in four payments or over a set period.
• Sell on Social: This feature lets you create shopping links for your product listing that you can share on social media channels, chat and email.

Online Invoicing

You can create and send invoices by logging in to PayPal’s website with your business account credentials or by using the PayPal Business app on your phone or tablet. There’s no cost to send invoices, but when receiving payments from your customers, you pay 2.9% + $0.30 for each transaction.

• Invoicing with Messenger: If you and your customers use Facebook, you can create invoices in Messenger to send to your customers. Your customers can click on the invoice in your message to pay it using their PayPal account.
• PayPal Commerce: Startups with online marketplaces, crowdfunding platforms and other e-commerce solutions can use this advanced payment platform to allow their sellers to accept payments from buyers around the globe.

If your small business sells to customers in other countries, PayPal is a good processor for you. It accepts payments made in over 100 currencies around the world.

PayPal is a great solution for low-volume businesses, as it allows you to accept credit, debit, and PayPal payments in person and online on a pay-as-you-go basis, with no monthly or annual account maintenance fees and no long-term contract. However, if you go beyond the basic credit card processing services, there are lots of little fees to keep track of, and they could add up quickly.

Another issue to be aware of is held funds and frozen accounts, which is the cause of many online complaints. This problem isn’t exclusive to PayPal – you’ll find similar complaints about other payment facilitators online – as this type of payment processor tends to be more wary of fraud than traditional processors, and irregular patterns in your processing, such as spikes in transaction amounts or frequency, can raise red flags.

PayPal is a great solution for low-volume businesses, as it allows you to accept credit, debit, and PayPal payments in person and online on a pay-as-you-go basis, with no monthly or annual account maintenance fees and no long-term contract. However, if you go beyond the basic credit card processing services, there are lots of little fees to keep track of, and they could add up quickly. To PayPal’s credit, it lists these fees in full on its website.

Another issue to be aware of is held funds and frozen accounts, which is the cause of many online complaints. This problem isn’t exclusive to PayPal – you’ll find similar complaints about other payment facilitators online – as this type of payment processor tends to be more wary of fraud than traditional processors, and irregular patterns in your processing, such as spikes in transaction amounts or frequency, can raise red flags.

Following PayPal’s best practices for sellers reduces the likelihood of having your money held in a reserve account. Also make sure that the products or services your business provides are within PayPal’s acceptable use policy; otherwise, your funds may be frozen or your account closed without notice.

For e-commerce businesses that open up pop-up shops and need a way to accept credit cards in person, we recommend Shopify Payments, the in-house credit card processing service offered by Shopify.

It’s our choice as the best mobile credit card processing service for online businesses because it makes it easy for you to accept payments across multiple channels: on your website or blog, on social media, and in person at various locations using your phone or tablet.

Shopify Payments has competitive flat rates, 24/7 phone support and no long-term contract. Its credit card payment app comes with point-of-sale features, and you can choose from two mobile card readers, both of which are EMV compliant.

It usually takes one or two business days for Shopify Payments to transfer your processed funds into your business bank account, which is on a par with other top credit card processing companies. You receive an email alert when your funds arrive. If you prefer to receive your funds weekly or monthly, you can set up a payout schedule.

Shopify Payments uses the flat-rate pricing model and offers competitive transaction fees, especially on its higher-tier plans.

Rates

Here’s what it costs to accept credit and debit card transactions using Shopify Payments on each of Shopify’s main pricing plans. Custom processing fees are available for large, high-volume businesses through the Shopify Plus plan.

Shopify Lite and Basic Shopify plans:

• Cards you accept in person using a card reader: 2.7%
• Cards you accept online or manually key in: 2.9% + $0.30

Shopify plan:

• Cards you accept in person using a card reader: 2.5%
• Cards you accept online or manually key in: 2.6% + $0.30

Advanced Shopify plan:

• Cards you accept in person using a card reader: 2.4%
• Cards you accept online or manually key in: 2.4% + $0.30

Fees

Unlike most mobile payment facilitators, Shopify charges a monthly fee to use its services. Although this fee is technically for Shopify’s POS and e-commerce software, you can’t use Shopify Payments without it.

The monthly fee varies, depending on which plan you choose. If you pay upfront rather than month to month, you receive a 10% discount on an annual plan or a 20% discount on a two-year plan.

• Shopify Lite: $9 per month. You can accept payments in person, on social media and on an existing website or blog.
• Basic Shopify: $29 per month. In addition to the sales channels included with the Lite plan, you can accept payments on your Shopify online store. This plan supports two staff accounts.
• Shopify: $79 per month. This includes all Basic plan features and supports five staff accounts.
• Advanced Shopify: $299 per month. This includes all Shopify plan features and supports 15 staff accounts.
• Shopify Plus: Custom pricing is available for high-volume merchants.

Some of Shopify’s optional services carry extra costs, as well.

• Custom domain names start at $11 per year. If you don’t already have a domain name for your website and prefer not to use the free MyShopify.com domain name that comes with your Shopify subscription, you can purchase one from the company.
• Some integrations, available through the Shopify App Store, carry monthly fees.
• If you choose to use an external payment provider or payment gateway instead of Shopify Payments, you will be charged a fee of 0.5% to 2%, depending on your plan.

Shopify has two mobile apps, and you’ll use both to get the most from your Shopify Payments account.

• The Shopify POS app is for processing payments in person, and you can accept all major credit and debit cards with it.
• The Shopify app is for managing your sales data, orders, products, customers and staff.

Here are some examples of things you can do with these apps:

• Accept credit and debit cards, including contactless cards and mobile wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay
• Record cash payments and checks
• Split tenders (accept two or more payment types for a transaction)
• Accept partial payments or deposits
• Accept tips
• Issue refunds
• Email or print receipts
• Set discounts and taxes
• Create customer profiles
• Manage products, add photos, organize into categories, track inventory

Hardware

There are two mobile card readers available for use with Shopify Payments. Both options are EMV compliant, so you can accept chip cards and avoid liability for counterfeit fraud for the cards you accept in person.

• Chip and Swipe Reader: $29. This mobile credit card reader connects to your phone or tablet via Bluetooth, and is compatible with Android and iOS devices. With it, you can accept chip and magnetic stripe cards.
• Shopify Tap and Chip Reader: $49; charging dock: $39. This EMV- and PCI-certified mobile card reader connects via Bluetooth, and is compatible with Android and iOS devices. With it, you can accept chip cards, contactless cards and mobile payments like Apple Pay and Google Pay.

If you want to connect a receipt printer or barcode scanner to your phone or tablet, you’ll need to subscribe to the Shopify plan or higher.

Dashboard

The dashboard shows you an overview of your sales, and if you also have an online store or sell on social media, you can monitor your traffic. You can see which products sell best and which ones underperform. You can generate reports and export them to a spreadsheet or send them to your accountant.

Integrations

More than 1,200 apps are available in the Shopify App Store. You can add advanced features to your account and connect to third-party business applications that you may already use, such as accounting software like QuickBooks and email marketing services like Mailchimp.

Security

Shopify keeps your data secure by complying with Level 1 PCI data security, which has the most stringent security requirements for payment processors. Its card readers are EMV-certified, which has proven to be an effective tool against counterfeit fraud.

Additionally, the company provides fraud prevention tools for Shopify merchants, including fraud analysis indicators that identify potential issues, such as incorrect CVV codes or attempts to pay with multiple cards. It assigns a fraud recommendation for each order and flags orders it considers to be a medium or high risk on the Orders page for you to review.

Consider these potential drawbacks before selecting Shopify Payments as your mobile credit card processor:

• Adding users to your account can be expensive. The number of staff accounts you can add corresponds with the pricing plan you choose.
• You’ll need to subscribe to the Shopify plan or higher if you want to connect to a receipt printer or barcode scanner.

Although you can ring up sales and accept payments using an iPhone, iPad or Android device, you’ll need an iPad if you want to access every feature, as some are lacking on the iPhone and Android versions of the mobile app.

Square has the best mobile credit card processing app because, in addition to the register features that you use to accept payments, it includes full-featured POS software that tracks inventory, manages customer information and runs sales reports. The app is free to download and use – all you pay for is processing. It works on both Apple and Android smartphones and tablets, and you can add more business features by subscribing to paid services like payroll and email marketing or by integrating with third-party applications you already use, such as accounting software.

When you accept credit cards using one of Square’s card readers with your phone or tablet, you pay a flat rate for each transaction. Square has next-day funding and takes one or two business days to deposit your money into your account. In case you need it faster than that, same-day and instant deposit funding is available for an added fee.

There are no monthly, payment gateway, setup, annual, PCI compliance or early termination fees. It doesn’t even have a chargeback fee, which is rare. Square’s lack of account-based fees makes it an affordable option for small businesses and individuals that don’t process enough credit card transactions to justify paying account fees each month.

SumUp is our choice as the best mobile credit card reader for Apple devices because it’s inexpensive and accepts magstripe, chip, and contactless payments. It supports the Apple Watch and connects to your iPhone or iPad via Bluetooth so you can use it on both new and older devices. Although it’s our pick as the best iPhone card reader, it can also be used with Android phones and tablets, as can its mobile app.

Like other top mobile credit card processors, SumUp has transparent, flat-rate pricing and no monthly or annual fees, so you only pay for the processing you use, making it a great option for new, small and seasonal businesses. There’s no long-term contract, so you can close your account at any time without incurring any type of account closure fee, such as an early termination fee.

Here’s what you’ll pay when you use SumUp as your payment processor.

Processing Rates

Whether your customers pay using debit or credit, regular or rewards, personal or corporate cards, the transaction fees you pay are the same. The only variable that affects the SumUp’s credit card processing rate is how you accept the cards.

• Credit and debit cards you accept in person using a card reader: 2.75%
• Credit and debit cards you accept using the virtual terminal (card-not-present transactions): 3.25% + $0.15

Fees

There are no setup or hidden fees with your SumUp account. There are also no monthly fees, monthly gateway, statement or annual PCI compliance fees. There is only one incidental fee to be aware of, which is the $10 chargeback fee. The only time you’ll be charged for it is if you have a customer who disputes a transaction.

Payout

SumUp deposits money from your transactions, minus its fee, into your bank account within two business days. You set the frequency of your payouts to daily, weekly or monthly. After it deposits money into your bank account, it emails you a list of transactions included in the payout. You can also track payouts using the SumUp app and your account dashboard.

SumUp’s mobile app is available for iPhones, iPads and Android devices. Its features are more basic than those offered by some of its competitors, like Square, but here are some of the things you can do with it:

• Accept credit and debit card payments, including Apple Pay and Google Pay
• Issue refunds
• Print, email or text receipts
• Create a product catalog
• Add and edit sales tax rates
• Track sales and payments in real time
• Send customers SMS texts with a payment links

Hardware

SumUp offers only one card reader, but you can use it to accept magstripe, chip, and contactless credit and debit cards as well as mobile wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay. It connects to your smartphone or tablet via Bluetooth, and the company says that with it, you can process more than 500 transactions on a single charge.

It costs $19, which is the most affordable EMV/NFC card reader we’ve seen. Shipping is free, which is a nice perk, and it takes between two and three business days for the unit to arrive.

Dashboard

When you access your SumUp account online, you can find your account details and a dashboard that gives you a graphical overview of your transactions. You can see your sales revenue by day or week, by amount or number of transactions, and by payment type (credit card, debit card, cash).

It also shows the most recent payout to your bank account. Your sales history is filterable and downloadable, making it easy to search for specific transactions. It also allows you to drill down to the sales details for each transaction.

Virtual Terminal

If you need to run a card-not-present transaction, such as when a customer gives you their credit card number over the phone or by email, you can use SumUp’s virtual terminal. This feature isn’t automatically provided with your account – you’ll need to call the company and fill out an application that requests some additional information about your business before you can have it set up, but there is no setup fee and no monthly fee if your request is approved.

Employee Accounts

From your SumUp account page, you can add employees to your account. Each employee has their own login credentials, and can accept credit card payments and view their sales histories. They can’t access your account, add or organize products, or add a separate bank account – all payouts are transferred to your bank account. From your account, you can review the sales histories for all the employees connected to your account.

Integrations

SumUp has an API and SDK, so your developer can integrate the service into your website or mobile app. Test accounts are also available for developers.

SumUp is simpler than some of its competitors and lacks nicer features like recurring payments and inventory tracking. Still, for small businesses that want a solid, basic payment processing solution to accept in-person credit card payments and don’t need advanced features, it’s a terrific option.

Like other mobile credit card processing services, some industries are prohibited, so you’ll want to read the terms of service and make sure your business type is supported before you sign up for an account. If your business type isn’t supported and you sign up anyway, you risk having your funds frozen or your account shut down without warning.