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PayPal’s card reader and point-of-sale (POS) system Zettle has no monthly cost, but it does charge per-transaction and this starts at 2.29 percent of the sale, plus nine cents. The service is one of the more affordable options available to small business owners right now. For those exploring cost-effective alternatives, the best free POS software for small businesses might also be worth considering.
Our researchers scored PayPal Zettle across a range of areas, from software to support, and Zettle’s low pricing was the best thing about it. Zettle has a free plan that offers more features than most, along with easy-to-understand transaction fees and reasonable one-time hardware costs. For this reason, it’ll best suit pop-up stores, market traders, food trucks and small retail startups who want to keep their POS costs down.
That being said, Zettle doesn’t offer great features or support when compared with other POS systems, such as Square, Lightspeed, or Shopify. If those choices sound better, consider taking a minute to gather quotes from all of the best POS competitors. All you need to do is give us a few details about your business and our trusted partners will get back to you with obligation-free quotes.
In this guide:
| Plan | Transaction fees | Fees for 10 sales, averaging $20 each | Fees for 50 sales, averaging $20 each | Fees for 250 sales, averaging $20 each | Fees for 600 sales, averaging $20 each | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | | | | |||
| Fee w/ Card | Fee When Keyed In | Invoice Fee | Cash Transaction Fee | |||
| 2.29% + 9¢ | 3.49% + 9¢ | 3.49% + 49¢ | None | |||
| $5.48 | $7.88 | $11.88 | $0 | |||
| $27.40 | $39.40 | $59.40 | $0 | |||
| $137 | $197 | $297 | $0 | |||
| $328.80 | $472.80 | $712.80 | $0 |
PayPal Zettle Fees & Transactions Explained
PayPal’s Zettle has no monthly fee and there are no plan tiers. However, Zettle does offer several types of per-transaction fees, so it isn’t completely free to use.
Zettle is owned by the popular payments service, PayPal. This means it wants as many customers as possible to make PayPal transactions. It just makes sense for it to drop the monthly fee from the service. The Square POS is also free for a similar reason.
Zettle’s transaction fees can be broken down into four types. First, Zettle charges 2.29% + 9 cents for card-present transactions, when a credit or debit card is swiped or inserted (QR code transactions are included for the same fee). Second, Zettle charges a higher fee (3.49% + 9 cents) for keyed-in transactions. This is when a card number is physically typed into the system. Third are invoice fees, which are a little higher, at 3.49% + 49 cents for PayPal payments and 2.99% + 49 cents for cards or alternative payment methods. Finally, Zettle charges no fee for cash transactions.
Our team scored Zettle across six research categories, and the service earned a strong 4.2/5 score for pricing, due, in large part, to the generous free plan and reasonable transaction fees. As we said in the intro, this means Zettle will only really be a good fit for small retail businesses and pop-up stores since the per-transaction fee becomes prohibitive with numerous transactions.
Similarly, while it’s a great POS for food trucks, established restaurants will want something more advanced. Our researchers gave Zettle fairly low feature scores – it doesn’t contain things like built-in email marketing or even an offline mode – and its support earns a mediocre 2.7/5 as there is no customer forum.
Square and Clover POS both offer more features while remaining competitively priced, however, so were awarded slightly better pricing scores than Zettle.
Card readers are an inexpensive way to start selling through Zettle. Image: Zettle
Card reader
The first card reader will cost $29, plus tax, and each additional reader after the first will cost $79, plus tax.
Zettle currently sells the Zettle Reader 2, which supports chip cards, contactless (NFC) cards, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and Google Pay. With a battery life of eight hours or 100 transactions, it connects via Bluetooth and promises to process credit cards in 10 seconds or less.
Zettle’s charging docs can keep a card reader up and running around the clock. Image: Zettle
Card reader dock
If your operation sometimes processes more than 100 transactions in a day, or stays in operation longer than eight hours at a time, the battery life of Zettle’s card reader won’t be enough. There’s a fix: a card reader dock, which costs $49, plus tax. The reader will stay charged through a micro USB port as long as the dock is plugged in.
Zettle’s terminals are large but not easily moved. Image: Zettle
Terminal
If a card reader is too small and simple, you can opt for the versatile, non-portable solution: a Zettle terminal. Several different configurations are available:
- Terminal only: $199
- Terminal with built-in barcode scanner: $239
- Terminal kit with printer and dock: from $269
Terminals will take an hour and a half to charge, for a battery life of twelve hours or 4-6 hours with “intensive use.” It can accept everything a card reader can, and will accept QR codes without requiring a smartphone or tablet like the card reader does.
Users will see a view similar to this when an order is placed through PayPal Zettle. Image: Tech.co
Does Zettle Have a Free Plan?
Zettle is only available as a free plan. With PayPal Zettle, businesses are not charged a monthly fee at all: just the one plan is available and users have access to all of its features and functionality.
Developers can set up a demo account in Zettle to test a software development kit, but that’s likely not helpful for the typical customer who just wants to test out Zettle’s interface and features. For that, we’d simply recommend setting up a free account.
Discounts can be set up within the PayPal Zettle POS. Image: Tech.co
Does Zettle Have Any Extra Fees?
Zettle doesn’t have much in the way of unexpected fees. You won’t pay a software subscription fee, so there’s no chance of an unexpected renewal cost or a deal running out without warning.
However, you will need to have hardware, and some price changes could catch you by surprise: the first card reader will just cost $29, for instance, compared with the $79 charge for each additional one purchased. In addition, you’ll have to pay taxes on hardware devices.
What’s new with Zettle’s fees?
August 2024: Zettle has only made one price hike in 2024 so far. The cost for PayPal invoice payments was 3.49% + 9 cents per transaction at the start of the year, but has now increased to be 3.49% + 49 cents per transaction. We’ll keep an eye out, and update this section if Zettle’s prices increase again.
How Does Zettle Pricing Compare With Other POS Providers?
Zettle does have great pricing, but it only offers a few features with low-end support, which places it below most of the top services we’ve looked at, including our top three picks: Square POS, Lightspeed, and Epos Now.
Here’s a table to further highlight the differences between all of the best POS systems on the market:
| Best Retail POS for Tech.co's verdict to help you identify the most suitable choice for your retail business | Price from The typical lowest starting price. The lowest price available for your business will depend on your needs. | Transaction fees from The lowest possible fee that will be incurred with each transaction. | Key benefits | Drawbacks | Get started | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  |  |  | |||
| Best for a managing sales on-the-go free option | Best for all-round retail POS tasks | Best for managing multiple stores | Best for startups and small retail businesses | Best for managing in-store and online sales | |||
| Free (but transaction fees apply) | Free (but transaction fees apply) | ||||||
| 2.29% + 9¢ |
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| 2.6% + 10¢ for card payments | 2.4% + 30¢ | |||
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| Compare Prices | Try Square | Compare Quotes | Compare prices | Compare Prices |
Final Thoughts - Is PayPal Zettle Good Value?
Zettle is free to get started, making it a potential pick for smaller operations that want to get off the ground quickly. However, it doesn’t offer more than what the Square POS system gives you – it’s also free and our research team ranks Square much higher overall. When compared with Square, Zettle lacks email marketing, offline mode, or loyalty tools.
Even though our researchers ultimately rank it low on our list of the best POS systems, Zettle isn’t bad. Overall it still offers great pricing options – including its hardware and transaction fees.
You can read more about the system’s pros and cons in our full Zettle review, or you can see how all the top providers compare with our handy quote-matching tool.
How We Rated POS Providers
Our team of researchers combed through every feature and benefit of all the top point-of-sale systems on the market today. To gain an accurate understanding of how they compare, the team broke down each POS brand into six research categories: hardware, software, help & support, customer satisfaction, pricing, and usability.
Every relevant feature within each category was rated for all the top brands, allowing them to be easily compared and contrasted against each other.
Finally, Tech.co’s researchers compiled every brand’s category scores to create a single overall score. This way, our experts can stack each service against the others across any of these categories as well as in general. You can read through our full list of the best retail POS systems for the full examination.
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