The 5 Best Credit Card Readers for iPhone in 2024

The best credit card readers for iPhones are:

The statement “iPhones are popular products” might be a bit of a truism, but there is at least one not-so-obvious implication with some value. Popular products tend to be well served in a market, with plenty of peripherals and software designed to work with said products. For example, mobile POS card readers.

Top iPhone card readers comparison

We’ve gone ahead and made a few core assumptions while putting this list together. For one, if you’re just looking for a mobile card reader, specifically iPhone-compatible ones, you’re likely wanting one or more of the following qualities:

• Hardware that’s untethered from a stationary location.
• Favorable transaction fees.
• Card readers that can accept a variety of payment types.

Based on those guidelines, we’ve highlighted some of the core features and capabilities of our picks and compared them side-by-side in the table below:

	Our rating (out of 5)	POS device cost	Lowest transaction fee	OS compatibility	Payment type limitations
Square Reader	4.58	$59	2.6% + $0.10 per swipe	iOS/Android	No swipe
SumUp Plus	4.36	$54 (or free with subscription)	2.6% + $0.10 per transaction	iOS/Android	None
Shopify Tap & Chip	4.20	$49	2.4% + $0.10 per transaction	iOS/Android	No swipe
Clover Go	4.13	$59	2.6% + $0.10 per transaction	iOS/Android	None
Stripe M2	4.05	$199	2.9% + $0.30 per transaction	iOS/Android, React Native	None

Features

• Every account comes with a free card reader.
• Flat processing fee for all in-person transactions.
• Accept payments via nearly every available channel.
• A wide selection of business services available as add-ons.

Pros and cons

Pros	Cons
Least expensive card reader in the list (free peripheral, no subscription fee).	Free reader only takes magstripe swipes (no chip, dip, NFC, or mobile wallet).
Leading POS and payment processing provider for in-person transactions.	Add-on services can become expensive quickly.
Base subscription cost for paid plans is lower than most.	Hardware requires Square payment processing.
Reliable hardware, trusted brand.	Transaction rates much less favorable for online, keyed-in, or invoiced payments.
Favorable in-person transaction rates.

Features

• PIN pad on every card reader.
• Accepts all major payment types and methods.
• Lengthy battery life for those who need it.

Pros and cons

Pros	Cons
POS software available.	Higher transaction fees for online and manual entry transactions.
Accepts nearly every payment type.	No free tier.
Easy to set up, easy to operate.	Slightly higher than average subscription costs.

Features

• Reliable card reader with lengthy battery life, that accepts most major payment types and methods.
• Lower-than-average hardware price and subscription fees, to get you started faster at an affordable cost.
• Get access to extensive ecommerce tools and solutions, and upgrade to leverage advanced features at any time.

Pros and cons

Pros	Cons
Get started for less than most, and try it first for free.	Transaction fees much higher for Starter plan subscribers.
Upgradable subscription to reduce transaction fees, add ecommerce functionality, operate multiple locations, and more.	No free tier, no free hardware.
Card reader accepts all card payments except magstripe, with a day-long battery life.	3rd-party payment processing only available for online transactions (and comes with a hefty fee for most subscription tiers).
	Reader does not accept magstripe payments.

Features

• Can work with any processor on the FISERV network.
• Affordable subscription and transaction costs.
• Accepts tap, dip, mobile wallets, and more.
• Optional features for rapid deposit, payroll integration, sales reports, loyalty programs, and more.

Pros and cons

Pros	Cons
Premium POS functionality.	Individual products (Clover Go, other POS devices) cost more than most in this space.
Software features designed with in-person transactions in mind.	Less equipped to facilitate online/ecommerce transactions.
Completely payment processor agnostic (i.e., Bring Your Own Merchant Account).
Inexpensive subscriptions and in-person transaction fees.
One of the largest POS hardware catalogs in the market.

Features

• Reasonably affordable pricing for both device and transaction fees.
• Go anywhere with impressive battery life and offline mode.
• Accept cards in every way they might be used, and digital wallets beyond that.
• Flat transaction rate for all types — not the least expensive, but well below the less favorable rates of other vendors in this list.
• Complete developer documentation and open API access to build your own iOS payment app or other processing solution.

Pros and cons

Pros	Cons
Flat rate transaction fees, at better rates than most.	Fees are still slightly higher than some competitors, if all you take are in-person transactions.
Take Stripe M2 anywhere, and even use it offline.	Payouts are customizable and predictable, but not the fastest in the industry.
Accepts all payment types.
Stripe’s open APIs and developer documentation allow you to create a custom iOS app

How do I choose the best iPhone card reader for my business?

As we mentioned up at the top of the article, we figure your web searching led you here as the result of one of three things:

1. You need a simple, inexpensive, and reliable card reader for your new/growing business.
2. You’re tired of the awkward shuffle that happens when you’re selling and the customer doesn’t have Venmo/Square/[insert app of choice here], and you don’t have a way to take their card.
3. Your business is of a nature that’s radically untethered from static and traditional locations, and you need a way to take payments even when the internet, power grid, and astrological signs have all turned their back on you.

There’s more, certainly, but the majority of customer and user feedback online points to the use cases above (or something adjacent to them). Which means that, excluding general points of product value and friction, people looking for a mobile card reader are hunting for three qualities above all others:

• Affordability.
• Versatility.
• Portability.

We judged our list primarily off of these core attributes and how well they delivered on them. Let’s take a quick look at each.

Affordability

You need something, anything, that will enable you to take card payments. But you don’t have any room in the budget. Or any budget for that matter. Your product line is promising, but you haven’t made any sales as of yet, and you’re not exactly positioned to put down hundreds or thousands for a business that might take a bit to get rolling.

If that sounds like you, this is where you’re at. You’re looking for products that you can get for free, or nearly free, and POS service that you either a) don’t pay for beyond transaction fees or b) can get at a low price, possibly with the device payment plan rolled into it.

For businesses in this demographic, we recommend you start by hunting for the solutions that best accommodate your current financial needs, and work outward from there to meet your other use case needs.

We’d like to caution, however, that you should always read the fine print. Many vendors will present a lower base cost or entry fee by jacking up other prices elsewhere in their cost structure. Running afoul of those pricing pitfalls can really eat into your profits to an unnecessary degree.

You’re always better off working with a brand that’s transparent with their pricing and cost format than those that offer a lower price on some things but keep their steeper fees behind the curtain.

Versatility

You’re already doing business, and the limitations of other forms of payment have started to shift from “minor inconvenience” to “major roadblock for business growth.” Maybe you have a little room in the budget to be a bit spendy, maybe not, but for whatever reason, you’re not all that keen on picking up a full-fledged register, kiosk, or terminal.

You just need something for the card swipes — or, more likely nowadays — taps.

Should this describe you and your current enterprise, then what you’re looking for is a card reader that isn’t chained to the floor, and can take all the payment types that are applicable to you. So make those characteristics your top priority.

Be aware that many of these vendors will reduce the cost of their devices by limiting some of their functionality. Square’s entry-level card reader only takes swipe payments, for example, while others might take everything but swipes. Make your buying decisions accordingly.

Portability

You don’t care so much what the reader costs or how it can enable voice-activated, double-helix, quantum entangled bypass payments. What you need, though, is something that can take a card payment from a retired couple on vacation that decides to pay for add-on products for their private boat charter…after you’ve already cast off and sailed out into the harbor.

If your guiding star here is “can it go where I go, and will it still work when I get there?”, then we strongly recommend you look for explicit statements regarding the hardware and software capabilities.

What is the battery life like? Does it work when offline, or will it always need an internet connection? Shucks, how durable is the device? Can it be dropped, splashed, scuffed, jostled, etc., and still perform reliably?

Some businesses “get out” more than others, and you’ll want your tools and solutions to reflect that.

Oh, and as a final point, you’ll probably want to find a card reader that’s compatible with the smart device you plan to use (like, say, an iPhone) on top of any other critical needs you have for the device. That is, of course, unless you’re looking to justify a new business phone as a tax write-off. In which case, knock yourself out.

Related: Best smartphone deals 

Methodology

In our search for iPhone-compatible card readers we felt confident recommending, we built a list of candidates and graded said candidates based on critical core factors, including pricing, software features, hardware options, user experience, and reliability. We consulted branded marketing, review aggregator sites like G2, hands-on demos, and free trials, as well as feedback and reviews from current and past users.

It’s always difficult to get a comprehensive picture of what a tech solution has to offer, especially when you’re not in a position to field test it directly or explore how it performs in different niche use cases. We’ve done our best to close that gap here and “fumble in the dark” on your behalf, testing many of these solutions ourselves to help you avoid doing the same at a much greater opportunity cost.

This article and methodology were reviewed by our retail expert, Meaghan Brophy.