8 Best Virtual Terminals for Small Businesses in 2022

While ecommerce and online ordering have stolen the show, there are still times when you’ll need to accept an order over the phone or by mail. A virtual terminal lets store owners manually key in credit card numbers when they receive phone or invoice orders. The best virtual terminals also let you send invoices and create recurring payments, making them good for billing.

Secure virtual terminals are available from almost any payment processor, and they require no special equipment. Transaction fees are higher than in-person transactions, though—it’s usually 3.5% plus 10 cents to 15 cents per transaction.

The best virtual terminals are:

• Square: Best overall virtual terminal for small businesses with occasional or steady sales
• Helcim: Best for retailers, especially those with high-volume, low-ticket sales
• Payment Depot by Stax: Cheapest option for high-volume, high-ticket sellers that don’t mind a monthly fee in exchange for lower rates
• Chase Payment Solutions: Best for B2B sales
• PaymentCloud: Best for high-risk businesses
• Payline Data: Best for medical businesses, educational services, and nonprofits wanting low rates
• Clover: Best for businesses that want to choose their merchant service
• PayPal: Best for freelancers and tradespeople who need a simple system, plus businesses that do sales across borders

Best Virtual Terminals Compared

*Includes all fees required to use the virtual terminal. For example, Chase requires businesses to have a Chase checking account to use the virtual terminal and Clover requires a POS subscription, and Payline charges an extra monthly fee for virtual terminal functionality.

All of our picks also include invoicing and recurring payment tools.

How We Evaluated Virtual Terminals

We’ve looked at dozens of payment processors that offered virtual terminals and narrowed them down to the best 15 for virtual terminals. From there, we took a close look at the pricing, toolset, and ease of use. What you’ll find here is the cream of the crop, offering the best value for the price while being easy for most managers and employees to work day-by-day.

We found Square to be the best virtual terminal for small businesses. It beat the competition for pricing and has excellent sales and inventory features. Its fees are higher than you’ll find with interchange-plus companies like Helcim, but it offers free tools and can grow with your company.

Click through the tabs below for our full evaluation criteria:

Square: Best Overall Virtual Terminal

Square is an excellent choice for small businesses, from the hobbyist to the shop with a physical location and an online store—even restaurants and salons. You’ll find a variety of tools, from a free POS to affordable payroll processing. Of all the products we’ve reviewed, here and elsewhere, it encompasses the most aspects of small business life—and does it well. In addition to offering the best virtual terminal, Square also offers some of the best solutions for POS software, merchant services, salon and spa software, and mobile payment processing.

With 4.56 out of 5 in our review, Square was well ahead of the pack in scoring. It topped our scores for feature set, checking off our full list of tools for handling one-time and recurring bills, managing customers and invoices, and taking payments. It’s easy to use on both web and mobile, although the limited customer support hours brought down its score in ease of use.

Square Pricing

The downside to Square’s extensive feature set, especially for those businesses that do high-volume sales, is the transaction fee, which is the highest on our list. If you have consistent sales of over $5,000/month, do a price comparison against Payline Data, Payment Depot, or Helcim, which offer interchange-plus pricing. (Payline Data has a monthly calculator on its website so you can quickly compare pricing.).

As you consider costs, however, keep in mind all the tools Square provides that you may otherwise have to pay for. As your business grows and you’re processing over $250,000 annually, you can apply for lower, custom rates through Square. Here are the standard fees:

• Keyed-in (virtual terminal) transaction fees: 3.5% + 15 cents
• In-person (swipe, dip, tap) transaction fees: 2.6% + 10 cents*
• Invoice transaction fees: 2.9% + 30 cents
• Ecommerce transaction fees: 2.9% + 10 cents
• ACH/bank transfer fees: 1% with $1 minimum

*You can link a card reader to your virtual terminal to take advantage of swiping cards when possible.

Square Features

Square comes with free POS software for handling inventory and managing customers, which integrates with the virtual terminal, so you can itemize sales, calculate taxes, input discounts, and save customer information. Most of the other virtual terminals on our list are more basic, requiring you to manually input the items and the price unless you tie it to a POS system. Chase, in particular, says it will integrate inventory, but does not provide a POS system.

Like most Square products, the virtual terminal is free, easy to set up, and user-friendly. Plus, it’s fully integrated into Square, so inventory gets updated, and changes in your online store are also reflected in the virtual terminal. If you integrate with QuickBooks or other accounting software, the information from the virtual terminal is tied in as well. The free mobile app comes with a card reader, so you can take advantage of the lower in-person transaction rate.

In addition to features, Square stands out in chargeback protection by waiving chargeback fees of up to $250 each month. Square itself does not charge fees, but other payment processors, such as PayPal or the financial institution in question, may. Payline Data and Payment Depot have comparable chargeback programs.

What Square Is Missing

If you do high-volume sales, Square may be cost-prohibitive, even when considering POS software and membership fees charged by some payroll providers. We suggest checking into Payline Data, Payment Depot, and Helcim. In addition to virtual terminals, some offer free POS software with specific plans.

Square does not deal with high-risk businesses. We recommend PaymentCloud if you have a high-risk business. For other high-risk merchant account providers, check out our recommendations here.

Finally, if you already have a merchant account or payment gateway, they won’t integrate with Square. Clover would be your best bet in this case.

Visit Square

Helcim: Best Virtual Terminal for High-Volume Retail

Helcim is on our list of best merchant services and is No. 1 for best retail credit card services. Like Payment Depot, it offers interchange-plus pricing. However, its structure is a little different, with a percentage-plus-flat-rate but no monthly fees. As such, it’s a better choice for retailers that have high volume (over $5,000/month) but lower-ticket sales.

Earning 4.31 out of 5 on our evaluation, it lost points for not catering to high-risk businesses (check PaymentCloud for that) and lack of 24/7 support. Nonetheless, Helcim earned high scores in all categories. The virtual terminal handles phone sales, invoices, and recurring payments. Like Payment Depot and Payline Data, Helcim also has a chargeback reimbursement program.

Helcim Pricing

Like several payment processors on our list, Helcim offers interchange-plus pricing. However, it has no monthly rates. Instead, its transaction rates are a little higher: 0.3% + 8 cents per transaction. Payment Depot, for example, charges only a flat 7 cents to 15 cents per transaction. However, when your average transactions are less than $23, Helcim offers a better deal, especially since there’s no monthly fee. (This is compared to Payment Depot’s cheapest plan.)

Helcim Features

Helcim offers a simple virtual terminal that lets you put in credit card information. You can also store it to look up later. All the services on our list share this feature, but many of those we evaluated did not. In addition to one-time sales, you can easily send invoices or set up recurring payments to automatically bill customers at a schedule of your choosing.

Helcim has a mobile app and a free POS system that can work on any device. The virtual terminal also works on any device, making it a great tool for taking payments on the sales floor as well as at the register. Finally, it accepts ACH payments, something you don’t find with some of the payment processors on our list, like Payment Depot.

Helcim tokenizes credit card information in the card vault so that sensitive card information does not touch your system, providing better security for your customers. The platform itself is PCI compliant, which is necessary for businesses. In some cases, like with Payline’s Start Plan, you need to provide that compliance yourself. Helcim’s Fraud Defender analyzes each transaction before it happens to give you a score on perceived risk. You can even set it to automatically decline transactions below a certain score. It does not always charge for chargebacks, and when it does, the cost is comparable to that of PayPal.

What Helcim Is Missing

Unlike Square, Helcim does not seem to tie inventory to its virtual terminal. It’s also not suited for high-risk businesses like PaymentCloud is. You cannot use Helcim’s virtual terminal with a different merchant account—for that, look at Clover.

Like all interchange-plus merchant services (including Payment Depot), Helcim has an application and approval process. It’s designed for existing businesses that already have a steady processing volume. If you’re just starting out, you’ll likely want a service that’s designed for new businesses, like Square, which doesn’t have an approval process.

Visit Helcim

Payment Depot by Stax: Cheapest Option for High-Volume Sales

If you do high-volume sales, then a payment processor with interchange-plus pricing can save you hundreds to thousands of dollars, even when considering a monthly fee. Payment Depot is our top pick for the cheapest credit card processing companies, and that includes virtual terminals.

We’ve also liked Payment Depot for general merchant services and restaurant payment processing. While it does not work for high-risk businesses or businesses outside the US, it is worth considering for any business with high-ticket sales. It offers a choice of free third-party virtual terminals and makes our list on the strength of the payment processing.

Payment Depot earned 4.15 out of 5 in our evaluation. The virtual terminals generally don’t include inventory or customer management—check Square for that. Like most on this list, it loses points for not supporting high-risk businesses. Payment Depot lost the most points for its monthly fee. However, chargeback protection is included in its membership price, and it fares well for ease-of-use, integrations, and reputation.

Payment Depot Pricing

The best thing about Payment Depot’s price is that there is no percentage markup. You only pay a flat fee of 8 cents to 15 cents per transaction, plus the interchange price that every processor charges. No other virtual terminal on our list does this. (Some, like Square, Chase, and PayPal fold the interchange charge into their rates.) If you process high-dollar-value transactions, you could save thousands of dollars. It offers a calculator to help you determine how much you’re paying.

The plans run from $59 to $99 per month, depending on your monthly processing, and the transaction fee goes down with higher plans. These are the highest monthly fees of any option on this list, but plans include a free virtual terminal and may include equipment as well.

Payment Depot Features

Unlike most of the products on this list, Payment Depot does not have its own virtual terminal, but gives you a choice of several, depending on your plan. Usually, you get Authorize.net or SwipeSimple. For higher plans or specific situations, you may do better with PayTrace or NMI. Your sales representative will help you find the best one, along with POS software and equipment.

Because of the choice of virtual terminals (something you also find with Payline and Chase), the specific features will vary. However, Payment Depot itself integrates with QuickBooks, POS systems, and other software. It reprograms your POS equipment for free.

We give Payment Depot kudos for customer support. I sent a question via the contact form and got a call minutes later. The support person was friendly, helpful, and did not try to hard-sell me anything. Other FSB reviewers have had similar experiences, and the user reviews also call out the great service.

While we prefer Chase Payment Solutions for B2B sales, Payment Depot also offers credit card processing with Level 2 and 3 rates. It does this through PayTrace, and you need the $99 membership.

What Payment Depot Is Missing

Unlike the virtual terminal providers on our list that have straight rates, Payment Depot’s charges vary by interchange rate, which is determined by the financial institution issuing the credit. Thus, you may see variations in your credit card fees. This is also true with Helcim, PaymentCloud, and Payline. While the interchange-plus pricing model is a more affordable option for high-volume businesses, it makes the fees a little more unpredictable.

Payment Depot itself does not have a virtual terminal, POS software, or inventory management. Rather, it integrates with third-party systems, some of which it may provide free with higher plans. Nonetheless, consider that you will need to pay for such software if you go with this provider. Naturally, for the best virtual terminal system with a POS, we suggest Square.

Visit Payment Depot

Chase Payment Solutions: Best Virtual Terminal for Businesses Doing B2B Sales

We recommend Chase Payment Solutions (formerly Chase Merchant Services) for businesses that do B2B sales as well as for those that need the support of an established bank, including checking, credit cards, and even loans. Square now offers banking, but Chase has hundreds of years of banking history and 5,100 branches in over 100 countries. As the sixth-largest banking firm in the world, it has a lot to offer businesses looking to grow.

Chase earned a 4.13 out of 5 in our evaluation, coming in just below Helcim and Payment Depot. Chase can work with some high-risk businesses where Helcim does not. Chase does not specialize the way PaymentCloud does, however, which is why PaymentCloud is best for high-risk. Chase also lost points for the chargeback fee (where Square waives it, for example).

It also requires you to have a Chase checking account, which is one of our top picks for the best small business checking accounts. Nonetheless, Chase offers excellent features, including the potential for international sales.

Chase Payment Solutions Pricing

Chase provides payment processing for its business customers, so you have to start with a Chase Business Checking account. This comes with a $15/month fee unless you keep a daily balance of over $2,000, purchase over $2,000 on your Chase Ink business card, take in over $2,000 in deposits from Chase Payment Solutions transactions, or link to a Chase Private Client checking account.

The transaction rates vary by platform, but for virtual terminals, they are 3.5% + 10 cents per keyed-in transaction, which is slightly less than Square’s keyed-in rate.

Like PaymentCloud (and possibly Payline Data), there may be room to negotiate for better rates. Some influencing factors are volume of sales and whether or not you process B2B sales, which are more secure and usually have lower rates.

Chase Payment Solutions Features

Like Payment Depot and Clover, you can have a choice of payment gateways, which means that, like Payment Depot, you can also choose a different virtual terminal. However, Chase has its own—Orbital Virtual Terminal. It lets you process purchases and refunds. It also allows splitting of shipments, something we did not find in other virtual terminals, but which makes it well suited for sales that might need a deposit.

Unlike many of the virtual terminals on our list, Chase supports Level II and Level III card processing. This gets you better rates. Like PayPal, you may also be able to process international currencies and electronic checks. You need to discuss this when setting up your account.

One advantage Chase has over other merchant services is that, with a Chase bank account, you can get your funds the same or next day. Square charges extra for this, while PayPal will send money immediately but only to your PayPal account.

What Chase Payment Solutions Is Missing

Like Clover and PaymentCloud, you may have to sign a long-term contract. This is not true for every case, but if you want quick month-to-month service, consider Square, which has similar rates. Also, Square does not require a bank account like Chase does.

Chase does not have a POS system like Square and Helcim do, but integrates with most POS software. It does have card readers and POS terminals, some of which can also be purchased on Amazon and elsewhere.

Visit Chase Payment Solutions

PaymentCloud: Best Virtual Terminal for High-Risk Businesses

Like several of the virtual terminals on our list, PaymentCloud also rates high on other lists as well, such as for best merchant services. While it can serve traditional merchants, PaymentCloud specializes in high-risk merchants, whether those in industries like CBD sales or those with a greater risk of chargebacks, like Mail Order Telephone Order (MOTO) businesses.

Because of the nature of its clients, PaymentCloud takes security very seriously. It also does not charge for chargebacks and works with you to prevent or resolve them. Because of this and its strong feature set, it earned 4.1 out of 5 on our evaluation. Non-transparent pricing and lack of 24/7 customer service brought the score down.

PaymentCloud Pricing

PaymentCloud is the only virtual terminal on our list that does not have any publicly disclosed pricing. However, this does not come as a surprise—most high-risk merchant account providers do not disclose pricing because rates are customized to each business. PaymentCloud negotiates with its partner banks to get you the best rates it can; plus, it does not charge application, setup, or annual fees.

PaymentCloud Features

PaymentCloud’s virtual terminal is typical of those on our list in that it processes credit card information but does not let you ring up itemized sales. You can use it for invoices and recurring sales. Unlike most of the virtual terminals on our list, PaymentCloud is specifically designed to connect with CRM software like Salesforce.

Like PayPal and Chase, PaymentCloud accepts electronic check payments as well as credit and debit cards. Some of the virtual terminals on our list, like Square and Helcim, process ACH transfers instead.

PaymentCloud has relationships with over 10 banks that can handle high-risk customers. When you sign up, you go through a step-by-step application process to make sure you have all the documents needed to get approved by one of their partner banks. It can take longer than other virtual terminals, such as Square or PayPal, which are sign-up-and-go, but that’s because of the nature of being a high-risk business.

PaymentCloud provides PCI compliance, fraud protection, data encryption, and multiple security verifications such as Visa 3D Secure, Mastercard SecureCode, JCB International J/Secure, and American Express SafeKey.

What PaymentCloud Is Missing

Unlike many of the virtual terminal providers on our list, PaymentCloud does not have a POS system, although it will integrate with one. Its pricing is not transparent, so you need to call and undergo an application process.

Visit PaymentCloud

Payline Data: Best Virtual Terminal for Medical, Nonprofit & Educational Services

Payline Data services a wide range of businesses but has a particular focus on the medical industry, with HIPAA-compliant tools, ACH transfer, and special pricing. It also has special considerations for nonprofit and educational services. Like Payment Depot, Payline also offers strong fraud and chargeback protection.

With 3.84 out of 5 in our evaluation, it earns much of its score on the strength of Payline as a payment processor. While the virtual terminal works as well as most and can handle invoices and recurring payments, it is not as fully featured as Square or Clover. It incurs a monthly fee but offers interchange-plus pricing, which makes it a better deal than most for high-volume businesses.

Payline Pricing

Payline has a monthly fee in return for which it offers low interchange-plus pricing. The fees run $20 for online transactions and $10 for in-person transactions. The virtual terminal has a one-time fee, after which it costs nothing. Payline has a free one-month trial.

For online and virtual terminal sales, it charges interchange + 0.4% + 20 cents. (Compare this to Payment Depot, which has only a 7 cents to 15 cents transaction fee but a higher monthly membership.)

Payline stands out from the rest, however, in its special pricing for medical facilities, nonprofit organizations, and educational institutions.

• Transaction fee for medical: Interchange + 0.2% + 10 cents
• Transaction fee for nonprofit, educational: Interchange + 0.1% + 10 cents

Payline Features

Payline’s focus on medical, nonprofits, and educational services goes beyond reduced rates. The virtual terminal is HIPAA-compliant to protect patient data, something we did not see in other virtual terminal software. It also has invoicing software. Nonprofits and educational services can benefit from the ACH transfer capability, which was not found in most terminals. Nonprofits also get a free hosted payments page.

Payline uses Verifi for chargeback protection. In addition to data to help you discover fraudulent transactions, it alerts you to chargebacks faster and gives you 72 hours to resolve the dispute before it becomes a chargeback.

The Payline Data website says it provides payment processing for high-risk businesses; however, according to a Payline rep, it actually refers high-risk merchants to PaymentCloud, which is on this list. It adds a 0.1% per transaction fee for high-risk charges.

Payline Data offers virtual terminals through CardPointe, NMI, Transax, and Authorize.net. All provide tokenization and PCI compliance. Some offer customer management and allow for subscriptions, recurring payments, and electronic invoicing.

What Payline Is Missing

Payline does not handle international sales. For this, consider PayPal or Chase. It also does not handle inventory. Look at Clover, Square, or PayPal for this.

Its customer support hours are limited: 8 a.m.–5 p.m. Central time, Monday–Friday. The online support consists of a brief FAQs page with no how-to guides. In general, we’ve been able to get in contact with Payline customer support and sales representatives easily.

Visit Payline

Clover: Best Virtual Terminal for Choosing Your Own Merchant Service

Clover is a highly popular POS system because it’s offered by so many merchant services. As such, you can shop around for the payment processor that works best for your business. In fact, Payment Depot on our list offers Clover products. You’ll find Clover on our list of the best mobile payment processors and best POS systems. Clover’s systems come with a free virtual terminal.

Clover rated 3.73 out of 5 on our rubric. It’s a feature-rich system and, with the right merchant service, extremely affordable. It lost points for not accepting ACH payments or monitoring its resellers, so you get a mix of great and terrible. However, the virtual terminal integrates with the POS system, handles invoices and recurring payments, and is generally easy to use.

Clover Pricing

Clover’s pricing is difficult to pin down because it has hundreds of resellers, many of whom offer discounted or even free Clover systems. The transaction rates similarly vary. When purchased directly through the Clover website, POS prices are $9.95 to $39.95 per month, depending on your system, plus transaction fees of 3.5% + 15 cents for keyed-in transactions, which is on par with Square.

Clover Features

Like the other virtual terminals on our list, you can access Clover from any device over the web and process payments or refunds on the spot. It only processes credit or debit, unlike Square and Helcim, which handle ACH payments, or PayPal and Chase, which can accept e-checks. Like PaymentCloud, you can request payments via email and receive payments online.

Clover is unique in that you can use its virtual terminal with hundreds of different payment providers. (Chase and Payment Depot, on the other hand, require you to use them as a merchant service and select a virtual terminal.) Like PaymentCloud and Chase, Clover can integrate with some CRM software, like Zoho.

Clover provides needed security features like AVS and CVV recording, PCI compliance, and some fraud tools. You can store card information on your system for recurring transactions. Any other fraud protection is dependent on the merchant service. However, it does offer $100,000 in liability protection in case of a data breach, something we did not find with any other virtual terminal provider.

What Clover Is Missing

It’s important to note that most of the complaints about Clover are not about the terminal or the Clover systems so much as the payment processor. Clover does not monitor its resellers, so it’s vital that you do your homework. Many tempt you with free systems in return for long-term contracts that are expensive to break, for example. While this does not apply to a virtual terminal, per se, Clover systems are keyed to your merchant service, meaning if you change providers, you need to change hardware.

Visit Clover

PayPal: Best Virtual Terminal for Individual Operators & Occasional Sales

PayPal is by far the most recognized payment processor in the world with easy integrations that let you put a payment button just about anywhere. It makes our lists for mobile credit card processing and merchant services. Anyone can use PayPal, but with PayPal Payments Pro, you can process credit cards, and this comes with a virtual terminal.

With PayPal virtual terminal, you have the advantage of instant access to your funds through your PayPal account, which—while not as easy as a regular bank account—is still faster than any of the virtual terminals on our list, even Chase. It also handles transactions in hundreds of currencies, including Bitcoin.

We gave PayPal’s virtual terminal a score of 3.53 out of 5. It’s a simpler tool, lacking inventory and POS like Square, although you will get these free with a regular PayPal account. It does have the advantage in international scope and its many integrations with other popular small business software. It takes a big hit for not processing ACH payments or having chargeback protection, although its dispute management program is strong. PayPal generally does not work with high-risk businesses.

PayPal Pricing

PayPal charges $30 per month for use of the virtual terminal as part of the Payments Pro program. Compare this to Square, which offers similar tools (POS, payment processing) for free. Square has a higher transaction rate, however.

For keyed-in transactions on the virtual terminal, it charges 3.09% + 49 cents. The rates are higher than Payline, Payment Depot, or Helcim, which offer interchange-plus pricing.

PayPal processes international payments, and those rates are different. Refer to its pricing page for more details. It offers discounts for nonprofits.

PayPal Features

Like with Square, when you sign up for PayPal, you have access to a lot of free tools, like its POS software, Zettle, and its mobile app. It’s also remarkably easy to add a PayPal button to online stores, social media, and more. It also has an application that lets your customers make payments rather than paying in full. Combined with the virtual terminal that comes with PayPal Payments, you have a system that can take payments in any currency and through any venue.

It’s a simpler terminal than you can find with Square or some of those offered by the interchange-plus pricing services like Payment Depot, Payline, or Helcim. It also does not seem to integrate with PayPal’s POS solution, limiting its ability for inventory tracking or itemizing sales. However, you still have access to these tools through PayPal and a multitude of other third-party apps.

Two of PayPal’s strengths, of course, are its international reach—200 currencies, with an international exchange—and how quickly you can access your funds. If you have a PayPal account or credit card, you will be able to use your profits in minutes. Transferring money to your bank takes four or more business days. Compare this to Chase, which also does international payment processing and can transfer funds into your Chase account the same day or next.

What PayPal Is Missing

There have been complaints by users that PayPal is quick to hold funds that it deems suspect, such as if you have a sudden increase in sales or go well beyond your average sales earnings. It’s also been known to freeze accounts without warning, a potentially disastrous thing for a business that depends solely on PayPal for processing.

PayPal charges nearly 50 cents per transaction in addition to the percentage. If your sales are generally small and frequent, you may find this more expensive than Square, and for high-volume sales, you’ll probably benefit from an interchange-plus payment processor like Helcim, Payment Depot, or Payline, who all charge a monthly fee as well but offer much lower rates.

Visit PayPal

Bottom Line

Virtual terminals are a great addition to any business, allowing you to take orders over the phone or by email. Most payment processors offer these for free or with a small monthly fee. The best handle multiple payment types, including cryptocurrency and ACH transfers, and have some form of fraud or chargeback protection that goes beyond PCI compliance.

Overall for small businesses, we like Square. It provides reasonable rates, has a free POS system and a virtual terminal, and is super easy to use. Plus, its wide range of products, including payroll, makes it a solid choice for growing businesses. Best yet—it’s free to use! You only pay a by-transaction rate. Sign up for Square today.

Visit Square

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