8 Best Credit Card Payment Apps 2023

Payment Processing

• In-person: 2.6% + 10 cents per transaction
• Keyed-in: 3.5% + 15 cents per transaction
• Online: 2.9% + 30 cents per transaction
• Buy-now-pay-later: 6% + 30 cents with AfterPay
• Volume discounts: Custom pricing for businesses processing over $250,000 in credit card sales.

Square’s fees are somewhat higher than many apps for credit card payments on our list. For example, SumUp’s 2.75% for in-person transactions may seem higher, but Square’s additional 10 cents per transaction can add up, especially if you have low-dollar-value transactions.

POS

• Basic POS: $0 per month
• Square Plus (Appointments): $0–$69 per month
• Square Plus (Advanced Retail and Restaurant): $60 per month
• Team Plus: $35 per month
• Invoices Plus: $20 per month
• Payroll: $35 per month plus $5 per employee
• Marketing: Starts at $15 per month
• Loyalty Program: Starts at $45 per month

PayPal Zettle and SumUp are similarly free but without the “expansion packs.” Meanwhile, Payanywhere also has a free plan, plus custom pricing plans with monthly fees and lower transaction rates.

Fully Functioning Register App for Ringing Payments

Square has a fully functioning register that works on smartphones, tablets, and POS devices and includes inventory tracking, taxes, and discounts. It also has an integrated online store. Offline mode lets you keep selling even when the internet is down.

What’s New: Square’s mobile app now includes tap-to-pay for iPhone users

Highly Rated Mobile App

Square ranks number one on our lists of best free iPhone credit card readers and leading mobile credit card readers. In the Apple App store, it has a 4.8 rating out of 5 based on nearly 348,000 reviews. For Android, it has 4.8 stars and more than 177,000 reviews.

Versatile, Flexible System

While Square’s free POS and reasonable transaction rates make it great for those selling at the occasional farmers’ market or conference, it can also grow with the ambitious entrepreneur. You can add other features, from loyalty to payroll, through Square, or add third-party applications like QuickBooks, BigCommerce, and more.

Chargeback Protection

Square is unique among the credit card processors on our list because it waives up to $250 a month in chargeback fees. This should be sufficient for a small business or solopreneur. Most credit card app providers charge per unsuccessful transaction, although SumUp charges per dispute to pay the bank fees.

• Monthly fee: $0–$40
• Card-present fee: 2.29% + 9 cents
• Keyed-in fee: 3.49% + 9 cents
• Chargeback fee: $20
• Card reader: $79, first discounted $29

PayPal’s in-person transaction fees are the cheapest on our list of apps for credit card processing. However, its rates vary for online sales, virtual terminal sales, donations, and country. You can learn more about these on its pricing page.

Zettle’s entire POS system is free with the use of PayPal’s payment processing. There are no premium plans like Square.

PayPal Zettle

Zettle replaced PayPal Here for merchants accepting payments in person. The mobile app is free but requires pairing with the Zettle card reader to start accepting credit card payments. You can also manually enter your customer’s payment details on the app, but the fees are higher.

Accept Cryptocurrency Payments

In the tradition of leading the innovation of the payment processing industry, PayPal is among the first of the major payment processors to support cryptocurrency. Each PayPal account (personal and business) comes with its very own digital crypto wallet. This is integrated with PayPal’s Zettle payment app, so your customers can opt to pay with cryptocurrency.

Learn more about accepting cryptocurrency payments.

Social Selling

Like others on our list, PayPal lets you include links for social selling, and you can create payment buttons and payment links directly from the mobile app. PayPal, however, has the best reputation and name recognition among consumers. Adding a PayPal option to your sales increases your chance of making a sale.

• Monthly fee: $0–$14.95
• Card-present fee: 2.3% + 10 cents to 2.6% + 10 cents*
• Keyed-in fee: 3.5% + 10 cents*
• Card readers: $49

In general, payment processing for Clover Go will depend on your preferred payment processor and the third party retailer where you purchase your Clover Go card reader. By default, Clover runs on Fiserv merchant processing rates.

Flexible Payment Methods

Clover Go allows you to process a wide range of payment methods such as chip, contactless payments, and digital wallets. It also offers expanded payment types like gift cards, scan-to-pay, layaways, and Buy-Now-Pay-Later options.

Hardware-free Transactions

You can use Clover Go without a card reader with the help of Clover’s virtual terminal. This allows you to key in your customer’s credit card information to process payments in person. The default keyed-in rate with Fiserv is 3.5% + 10 cents and will require you to subscribe to the paid plan ($14.95/month).

Multichannel Sales Management

Clover Go gives you access to ecommerce integrations. It lets you integrate the system with your existing online store and maintain a single dashboard for both in-person and online sales. A website builder is available as an optional add-on.

Highly Rated for Both iOS and Android

The Clover Go app is highly rated by both iOS and Android users. It scored a 4.6 out of 5 from about 2,500 reviews in the Google Play Store, and 4.8 out of 5 from nearly 23,000 reviews on Apple App Store.

To use Shopify’s credit card processing, you need to purchase its ecommerce software. Plans run from $39 to $399 per month, depending on your desired features. If this is more than you need, look at the other processors on our list. There is also a Starter Plan for $5 a month that enables you to sell only on social sites and messaging.

Your transaction fees depend on the plan you purchase—the more expensive plans have lower rates. You can use your own payment processor, but Shopify adds a fee to do this, which could negate the advantage. Only Shopify offers discounts on shipping. This chart explains the pricing:

Multichannel Sales, Including Social Media & Online Marketplaces

Shopify makes it easy to integrate with channels like eBay, Facebook, and other social or online venues. The credit card app itself allows you to create payment buttons and links to send via email or add to a social media post. Several of the apps on our list, like PayPal, can do the same, but Square allows full integration like Shopify.

Shipping Discounts

The Shopify payment app also gives you access to logistics management (shipping and delivery). If you process mail orders, sell on eBay, or ship a lot of your products, then Shopify is worth considering for the shipping discounts alone. No other credit card processor on our list offers this, and depending on your volume, you may pay for the software in your savings.

Fraud Protection

Shopify’s machine learning tools analyze transactions for suspicious charges and bring them to your attention. It’s one of the best fraud prevention tools for POS. It does charge for chargebacks, however. If that’s a concern, look at Square, which waives up to $250 in monthly chargeback fees.

Rent POS Hardware

Credit card payment apps are best for businesses looking for a hardware-free solution. However, Shopify allows you to rent a system by the day. This is a great tool for those times when you may need to up your game, such as for a big convention with high-traffic sales.

In addition to card processing with a basic POS system, you can send links, create QR codes, set up an online store for free (Shopify charges for this), and even create digital gift cards.

• Monthly costs: $0
• In-person transaction: 2.75%
• Online transaction: 3.25% + 15 cents
• Virtual terminal processing: 3.25% + 15 cents
• Gift card processing: 3.25% + 15 cents
• Invoice processing: 2.9% + 15 cents
• Chargeback fee: $0
• Card readers: $35 (connects to a mobile app); $129 (standalone card reader)
• 30-day money-back guarantee

SumUp’s 2.75% card-present fee is a little more expensive than those on our list, but the flat percentage, as opposed to percentage-plus-cents, makes it a better deal for low-ticket sales. In this way, it’s like Shopify and Payanywhere, though they have lower rates.

Cheaper for Low-ticket Sales

Like Payanywhere, SumUp offers good rates for low-ticket sales. Compared to Square, your transactions are cheaper with SumUp if the total is less than about $67. And, compared to Zettle’s current rates, SumUp is cheaper for transactions under $20.

Mobile App Features

The accompanying mobile app doesn’t include a lot of bells and whistles that take memory on your device and time to learn. But it’s equipped with tools to manage inventory with categories and variants, program in taxes, and create customized receipts. It also has a virtual terminal and can generate sales reports.

Basic In-app Invoicing

SumUp also offers a free invoicing tool with customizable invoices, embedded payment links, and automatic reconciliation between payments and open invoices. You can create and monitor invoices right from the app, including re-sending overdue invoices.

POS

SumUp offers its own POS system; however, unlike Square, this is a separate add-on service that will cost you $199 per month with a one-time $400 installation fee. Payment processing fees are slightly lower than when using the mobile card readers. It’s 2.6% + 10 cents for in-person, and 3.5% + 15 cents for online and keyed-in transactions.

On the free plan, transaction fees run 2.69% for card-present sales and 3.49% + 19 cents per transaction for keyed-in sales. These are competitive, especially for low-ticket sales with card-present payment.

• Monthly fee: $0
• Card-present fee: 2.69%
• Keyed-in fee: 3.49% + 19 cents
• Card readers: $59.95 (3-in-1)
• Inactivity fee: $3.99/mo after 12 months of inactivity

Payanywhere also has a free option and custom pricing plans that you need to contact Sales about. The pay-as-you-go option is free but has a higher swipe rate. It also has a $3.99 monthly inactivity fee that starts after 12 months of inactivity. If you process more than $10,000 per month, you may be put on a custom plan with a contract.

Cheaper for Low-ticket Sales

Payanywhere charges 2.69% for card-present transactions, with no extra cents. (Square, for example, adds 10 cents per transaction.) If your transactions are generally around or below $110, Payanywhere is cheaper than Square. Compared to Zettle’s current rates, Payanywhere is cheaper for transactions under $22.50.

Restaurant Features

Payanywhere offers open tabs, split payments, and tip functions that make it a good choice for restaurants—and a good alternative to Square for Restaurants. It also integrates with self-ordering kiosks like GRUBBRR. If your tickets are smaller, like in food trucks, you may save money with Payanywhere. Offline mode means your restaurant doesn’t shut down if the internet does and can take your food stand anywhere.

Employee Management

Unlike most of the apps for credit card payments on our list, Payanywhere includes employee management tools through Homebase at no extra charge. This includes hiring tools, time clocks, scheduling, and tracking employee sales. It’s a great asset for a small business or a restaurant that deals with high staff turnover.

Next-day Payout

Payanywhere has next-day funding with a 10 p.m. cutoff time. However, if you have later hours, you can get a “same-day” funding option with a 10:30 a.m. cutoff time, so your transactions from overnight will be deposited later that day. (Saturday and Sunday deposits will appear on Mondays.) This is the fastest turnaround of the systems on our list and, even better, comes with no added fees. Compare this to Square, which charges an additional 1.5% of the transaction for same-day funding.

Using Chase’s merchant services is free, and its payment processing rates are competitive, although, unlike Square and PayPal, it charges a monthly fee for processing ACH. Chase’s main advantage is its free same-day funding, ideal for new merchants that also need a bank account, or for those who already use Chase as a banking service.

• Monthly account fee:
  • Merchant services: $0
  • Chase bank account: $0–$15 ($2,000 monthly maintaining balance)
• Transaction fees:
  • In-person transaction fee: 2.6% plus 10 cents
  • Online transaction fee: 2.9% plus 25 cents
  • Keyed-in transaction fee: 3.5% + 10 cents
  • Automated clearing house (ACH) processing fee: $25/month for 25 transactions, $0.15 for additional
  • Chargeback fee: $25 to $100 per transaction depending on dispute volume
• Same-day funding: Free

Note that there is no monthly fee for owning a Chase bank account provided that it maintains a minimum $2,000 balance. Custom rates are also available for larger transactions.

Mobile Checkout

Chase Mobile Checkout is available for merchants without a Chase bank account. It comes with an image-based product catalog and a range of credit card payment methods supported by Chase 3-in-1 mobile credit card reader (sold separately for $49.95). Free next-day funding is available for deposited funds.

Chase QuickAccept

Chase QuickAccept is similar to Chase Mobile Checkout except that it offers same-day funding and is only available for merchants with a Chase bank account. It also works with the same 3-in-1 card reader that you can get for free with QuickAccept.

Mobile POS

Chase has its own mobile POS solution for merchants who need a more robust inventory management capability. You can create catalogs with categories, assign different units of measurement (including time units for service-based businesses), and add custom taxes and discounts.

While Chase does not have industry-specific POS tools that Payanywhere has, it does provide more reliable payment processing features that can scale with your business.

Free Same-day Funding

Free same-day funding is available for merchants with a Chase bank account. Merchants without a Chase bank account have access to next-day deposits at no extra cost.

Customer Insights

Every Chase merchant account comes with a business intelligence platform that provides analytics for key metrics such as daily sales and trends. On top of that, it also provides robust customer data profiles and peer benchmarking based on Chase’s rich merchant-acquiring and card-issuing data.

SimplyPayMe does not require a mobile card reader to accept payments—everything is contactless through its card scanner. However, it’s a bit of a struggle to identify its exact rates and subscription plan for US businesses (SimplyPayMe is a UK-based company) so it’s best to give SimplyPayMe a call to clarify.

• Monthly Fees (US): Terms and Conditions indicate that US-based merchants are automatically subscribed to its Invoicing Plus Plan (the pricing page shows entirely different plans).
  • Basic: $1.99
  • Starter: $4.99
  • Growth: $9.99
• Payment processing:
  • In-person: 2.9% + 30 cents
  • Online (for payment links): Not specified

Note that while it does away with the need to invest on additional hardware, SimplyPayMe’s in-person rates are similar to online rates for most of the providers in our list like Square, PayPal, and Chase, so there are no significant savings involved.

Hardware-free Payments

SimplyPayMe uses card scanner technology built into its mobile payment app so merchants can accept payments without a physical mobile card reader. Customers can confirm the transaction by entering their three-digit CVC for in-person payments. Remote customers can pay through payment links and digital invoices.

Built-in POS Software

Like Square, the SimplyPayMe mobile app includes a point-of-sale software that allows merchants to manage their products or services, invoices, customer list, and sales on their smartphones. It also comes with job scheduling software for managing and tracking job statuses and employee performance.

Invoicing

Every SimplyPayMe plan comes with an invoicing feature that allows businesses to manage transactions from start to finish right on their smartphones. The software allows you to create, copy existing, send, and remotely get approved quotes with an “accept quote” button. It can also generate status reports, send detailed invoices with payment links, and send digital receipts.

Team Management

Most popular credit card apps for small businesses carry a full-featured invoicing software, but team management is often an add-on. SimplyPayMe makes both available on its mobile app without extra fees, which makes it, in part, stand out among its competitors.

We find Square to be the best credit card payment app for small businesses. Not only is it affordable and easy to set up and use, but Square also offers the most reliable payment app and credit card readers in the market. Learn how to accept credit card payments with Square.

Mobile credit card processing is done by downloading a credit card processing app on your mobile device. This often comes with a mobile credit card reader that links with your smartphone and allows you to process credit cards with the usual swipe, tap, or dip method. Learn more about mobile credit card payments.

Credit card payment apps are often free, but what makes one provider stand out from the rest are the additional products that come with the payment app. Point-of-sale (POS) systems, ecommerce, and accounting tools, for instance, either come as free or paid with a monthly subscription. You will also want competitive processing fees, fast payout times, and account stability from your payment processor that provides the payment app.

Credit card processing apps are popular for their convenience in offering cashless transactions. It allows merchants to accept credit card payments on the go, whether around the store, out for deliveries, or client visits. Credit card payment apps are also often automatically synced to POS systems so it updates sales, inventory, and cost data in real time.