Best card machine for a café or coffee shop

The short answer

For a café the machine that wins is the one with the lowest cost on a £3 to £5 sale, which means any pence-per-transaction charge counts for as much as the percentage. Beyond that you want fast contactless at the counter, a tipping prompt if you take tips on card, and settlement the next day so the weekend's takings pay Monday's milk delivery.

Low card volume points to a pay-as-you-go reader with no monthly fee. Higher volume points to an individually quoted contract terminal, and the only way to tell which is lower for your café is to put a quote next to your current statement.

Why pence matter more than percent on a coffee

A flat percentage scales with the sale. A fixed pence charge does not, so on a small ticket it can double the real cost. The table works each published rate through a £3.50 sale. Rates were checked August 2026 and apply to standard UK consumer cards; premium, business and international cards cost more with every provider.

Revolut has discontinued its Reader in favour of the Lite Terminal (£129 + VAT) according to reviews checked August 2026; the rate is shown for comparison. The underlying interchange fee is capped at 0.2% on consumer debit and 0.3% on consumer credit, and everything above that is the provider's margin. More on the pence element: what is an authorisation fee.

Counter speed and the contactless limit

Nearly every café sale is a tap. The FCA confirmed the £100 single-transaction contactless limit and the £300 cumulative limit in March 2021, and £100 is still the typical figure even though banks have been allowed to set their own limits since March 2026. What slows a queue is not the limit but the terminal: a reader that takes a second to wake, or a phone-paired reader waiting for the app, adds up over two hundred morning customers.

For a fixed counter the Dojo Wired runs on mains power with Wi-Fi and Ethernet and has a physical keypad, so there is no battery to go flat mid-rush. For table service or a hatch, the Dojo Go has a 4G SIM as backup to the Wi-Fi and a built-in printer. Square's Terminal (£149 + VAT) and SumUp's Terminal (£135 ex VAT) both print receipts too. Which is right depends on whether the terminal ever leaves the counter.

See Dojo Wired, Dojo Go and the contactless limit explained.

Tips, receipts and settlement

Not every terminal prompts for a tip. Some show a gratuity prompt before the tap, some only through a paired till, and reporting of tips for staff distribution varies. Ask the provider to show you the prompt and the report, not just tell you it exists.

Receipts are mostly digital now, but a printer still earns its place for business customers claiming expenses. Both Dojo Go and Dojo Wired print; the Dojo Pocket does not and sends receipts through the app instead.

Settlement timing decides whether Saturday's takings are in the account for Monday's suppliers. Dojo's terms commit to transfer by the end of the business day after the transaction is processed, with business days excluding weekends and bank holidays, and independent reviews report next-day settlement including weekends on qualifying accounts. SumUp states 7am next-day payouts including weekends into its own business account. Get the timing for your account in writing.

When a contract terminal is not the right choice

• Card takings are small. At a few hundred pounds a month a flat 1.69% to 1.75% costs a few pounds, and no monthly fee beats a lower percentage.
• You trade seasonally. Dojo's minimum term is set in the application documents and ending the agreement takes at least one month's written notice, so a summer-only kiosk is better served by a reader you own outright.
• You are not sure yet. Dojo states there is no early account closure fee if you tell it you want to end within the first 30 days, but other fees are still billed. A £19 to £79 reader is a cheaper way to find out how much card trade you actually take.
• You already have an EPOS you like. Check it integrates before changing terminal; a fast machine that does not talk to the till creates a second queue at the counter.

Common questions

Related: card machines for restaurants, fee comparison and calculator. If the café is a limited company or LLP and you are looking at funding for a refit or new equipment, we can introduce you to lenders: see café funding.