The 5 Best Credit Card Readers & Terminals for Small Businesses

Running a small business means accepting payments from customers. You provide an excellent and useful product or service, and the customer pays you for the opportunity.

But these days, customers often avoid conventional methods—like cash and checks—to pay for things. In fact, when researching the best mobile credit card readers for small business, we learned that half of customers don’t carry cash at least half the time.1 That means you need to accept credit and debit cards. And with more and more customers using digital payments and chip cards, you need to take the newest types of credit card payments: NFC and EMV. But what are those?

• Near field communication (NFC): Also called contactless payments, NFC technology allows customers to pay with smartphones and other devices using software like Apple Pay and Google Pay.
• Europay, MasterCard, Visa (EMV): EMV is an internationally standardized method for making payments with microchip-enabled credit cards. EMV technology allows for greater security than traditional magstripe payments.

Of course, the traditional method of storing information on magstripe cards hasn’t disappeared entirely. Customers swipe magstripe cards through card readers that use magnets to read the stored data.

But how do you know which credit card reader is the best for your business and point-of-sale (POS) system? We looked at the best credit card readers for small business in 2021 to help you keep your customers shopping and swiping.

There’s a reason we picked Square as the best mobile credit card reader and app for small business—actually, there are several reasons. Square readers connect to any iPhone, Android phone, or tablet to accept payments from just about anywhere. And our favorite Square credit card reader is the $49 Contactless and Chip Reader. It’s light, it’s compact, and it can accept EMV chip cards and NFC payments.

No magstripe reader, you ask? Square also throws in a free swipe reader with your contactless and chip reader purchase. One potential drawback: you’ll need to use Square’s free mobile app to use the reader and pay Square’s transaction fees, which are 2.6% + 10¢ for swiped, dipped, and tapped transactions or 3.5% + 15¢ for keyed transactions.

If you run a brick-and-mortar shop and are looking to upgrade from a simple mobile credit card reader and app, we recommend the Shopify Complete iPad Kit. It’s the best all-in-one solution for accepting credit cards, securely storing cash, and printing customer receipts. The package includes a swipe-ready and NFC- and EMV-enabled credit card reader, a cash drawer, a receipt printer, and an iPad stand.

Shopify’s POS software works on iOS and Android, but the kit only comes with an iPad stand, which means you’ll need to have or purchase an iPad. And at $539, the kit equipment is much more expensive than our other credit card reader picks. But if your store needs just one permanent solution for taking every type of customer payment, it’s an excellent value.

Moving from all-in-one with Shopify to one-and-done with PayAnywhere, the PAR-1 Mobile Card Reader is a simple and cheap way to take customer payments on the go.

One potential drawback of this reader is that it’s out of production. There are still a number of them left in inventory on Amazon and other sites, but the PayAnywhere website is no longer promoting the reader.

The reader also isn’t as sleek or functional as the Square device—you’ll have to pay extra for a chip and NFC reader, for example—but it comes with a price tag below $30 and an affordable 2.69% transaction rate. These low costs make the PayAnywhere PAR-1 mobile card reader a smart choice for food trucks, boutique storefronts, and pop-up retailers.

If you want the cheapest POS device, you better pick one of these up before they’re gone.

Mobile credit card readers and apps may be the fancy new kids on the block, but that doesn’t mean more traditional credit card terminals are entirely out of fashion. Ingenico is a reputable manufacturer of POS solutions, and its iCT220 Dual Com Terminal is one of the best credit card readers available. Customers can use EMV-enabled cards, use contactless payments like Apple Pay, or swipe their traditional magstripe cards.

The reader features a bright display, easy-to-read buttons, and a PIN-obscuring privacy shield for debit card transactions. You’ll pay more for a terminal than for most mobile card readers. But you can connect the iCT220 to almost any existing POS system—via ethernet cable or cellular communication—and use any major credit card processing provider.

For a simple, affordable, and versatile way to receive payments using a PC, Mac, or existing POS terminal, consider the MagTek 21040145 SureSwipe Reader. This credit card reader connects to any USB-enabled device (like a PC or POS terminal) and gets power through the same connection.

Setup is just as simple: simply plug in the six-foot cable and launch your POS software—no separate drivers required. The biggest downside? The reader is for swipes only—no EMV or NFC payments allowed. Still, the SureSwipe is durable and flexible, and it can upgrade to just about any mobile POS system.

Our five faves we picked above aren’t the only credit card readers out there—they’re just our favorites. But if you’re looking for more options, we uncovered four more swipe-only credit card readers that might work with your POS system.

A credit card reader is any device that can translate the encrypted data on a credit card into information that your POS system can use to process a payment.