To find the best card readers for your small business, we looked at a variety of factors, including processing fees, features, ease of use, and customer reviews. We also considered whether there were any monthly or yearly fees or whether a contract was required. We rated the importance of each factor and came up with a list of the 7 top-rated card readers.
Here are some of the categories we used to rank providers:
price
We compared the processing fees that each company charged and looked for the lowest fees possible. We also looked to see if there were any monthly or yearly fees and whether a contract was required. Ideally, for a small business, there would be no monthly or yearly fees. We also looked to see if each company required a contract and, if so, for how long. Ideally, for a small business, the contract period would be short. The final pricing factor we looked at was whether the provider offered anything for free, whether the plan itself was free, and whether there was free hardware. Price made up 30% of the weighted score because this is a very important factor to the bottom line for many businesses.
Features
We considered the features each company offered, such as whether there was an offline mode in case of a power outage or internet problems. Other features we considered must-haves included access to a mobile card reader (if your plan includes a free card reader, even better), built-in payment processing, inventory management, software integrations, etc. We weighted features at 35% of the total score.
Expert Analysis
In our expert analysis of the best card readers for small businesses, we looked to product reviews by real customers to evaluate providers on things like ease of use and customer support. For example, we wanted to know if the customer experience matched the company's promises.
For ease of use, we looked at how easy each card reader was to set up and use, and the support options available. We then looked at additional metrics like detailed or noticeable features, popularity, and value for the price to provide a final rating for each card reader. In total, this final section accounted for 35% of the total score.
