How SMBs Can Easily Accept In-Person POS Payments with No Monthly Fee
By Clifford P
This is a reference guide to help you quickly narrow down and choose your Point of Sale (POS) system for your small business.
You might be used to sending an invoice that allows someone to pay by clicking a link. That’s a payment request link or “click to pay” link.
A POS system allows you to take in-person payments where the customer has a physical card or digital payment device like Apple Pay. We’ll go through several options, all of which are quick, easy, and inexpensive to implement!
Besides the options presented below, you might have considered CashApp, Zelle, Venmo, Wise, and Payoneer. These options do not support in-person payments but are good, simple choices if you don’t need an in-person POS solution.
AbleProApp is TourKick’s own app that has so much more than payments in it: telephony (calls and texts), email newsletters, CRM, eSign, websites and funnels, social media post scheduler, and even eCommerce.
With AbleProApp you don’t need WordPress, Wix, Shopify, Mailchimp, Klaviyo, or a dozen other softwares. Plus, you can send invoices, send click to pay links, and even take in-person payments.
If you have existing products in Stripe, you can import them to AbleProApp, including their existing price in Stripe.
Here are some payment features in AbleProApp:
Capture in-person payments without additional hardware via our native mobile app on your smartphone or tablet and when the customer uses a chip card or their digital payment device, such as an Apple Watch with Apple Pay
Log cash and physical check payments against invoices, store cards on file, and other features of Stripe
Add a custom tip amount at checkout
Capture payment via a calendar booking or a regular webform, such as for collecting donations or deposits
Text or email a one-time or recurring invoice
Text or email a tap-to-pay link to one customer or up to 50 customers in bulk
Add one or several tax rates
Percent or flat amount coupons, optionally restricted to specific products
Support for full or partial refunds
Fire no-code automations triggered by a payment
Integrations with QuickBooks, Shopify, Printful, Google Ads, Google Business Profile (GBP), and more
AbleProApp has a single monthly fee. There is no additional monthly fee to support eCommerce or POS functionality. You only pay additional for “consumables” like telephony or AI credits (i.e. the fewer texts you send, the lower your cost, even zero if you never use that functionality).
PayPal Zettle
If you already use PayPal and have a PayPal Business account, PayPal Zettle is an excellent choice because it’s the lowest cost option and some customers prefer paying via PayPal. Then again, some customers won’t buy from you at all if they must pay through PayPal.
There are times when the customer and merchant don’t see eye-to-eye and a dispute is initiated if the merchant does not agree to refund. All payment processors struggle handling disputes in the fairest way. Many merchants have been vocal about PayPal not siding with them, even when that makes no sense.
How to get started with PayPal Zettle
Create PayPal business account (might take 1-2 days)
After approved, download the PayPal Zettle mobile app and sign in with same username and password as your PayPal Business account
Submit the app’s required verification of the business owner via Photo ID and wait 2-3 business days for review and approval
Then you can use the PayPal Zettle mobile app to take POS payments
If you don’t want to require a staff member to use their personal smartphone or tablet, you can also purchase your first mobile card reader for only $29 (battery lasts 8 hours or 100 transactions) and additional card reader devices for $79 each.
If you have your PayPal Business account connected to your accounting software–such as QuickBooks, Zoho Books, Xero, or Wave–one of the benefits of using PayPal Zettle is that your transactions will come through to your PayPal Business account.
Square Terminal
Square has been around many years and is very well respected, even more so than PayPal by some people. Square is part of the same company as CashApp (which many people love) but their two systems aren’t really integrated. To be clear, it is not part of H&R Block even though Square’s parent company is called Block, Inc.
You’ve surely seen Square Terminals at small coffee shops, boutiques, and other retail establishments. Over the years, Square enhanced its payment processing with a free Customer Directory (a simple CRM) and optional add-ons like calendar appointment bookings and payroll.
If you’re already in the Square ecosystem–or want to be because you like its brand so much–then it’s an excellent option. Just know that their software is primarily designed to work with its own apps. It does have many integrations and API access but is not as plug-and-play friendly as Stripe (the default used by AbleProApp) or PayPal.
Square is slightly more expensive than PayPal:
Free
Sign up for Square payments
Choose between free processing on your first $1,000 in sales (within 180 days), or get $20 off Square Hardware.
We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.
How To Choose
There are additional POS alternatives with monthly fees and higher processing fees like Clover, Shopify POS, and possibly one offered by your existing software. These might be great options to keep things simple and integrated, even if they cost a bit more than the other options presented in this article.
If you’re looking for a nearly all-in-one system that can run your business telephone (calls, texts, VMs, call recordings, and more), no-code automations, CRM, social media scheduling, eCommerce, and more, including in-person payments–then you’ll benefit from signing up for our AbleProApp to get things all-in-one!
If you already have PayPal integrated with whichever systems you’re using, implementing PayPal Zettle is your best option because it won’t add extra overhead for logging payments to your existing accounting system, it’s the least expensive to accept in-person card payments, and there’s no monthly fee.
If you want to go all-in on Square’s systems, it’s an easy-to-use system that should be hassle-free for many years.
How SMBs Can Easily Accept In-Person POS Payments with No Monthly Fee
This is a reference guide to help you quickly narrow down and choose your Point of Sale (POS) system for your small business.
You might be used to sending an invoice that allows someone to pay by clicking a link. That’s a payment request link or “click to pay” link.
A POS system allows you to take in-person payments where the customer has a physical card or digital payment device like Apple Pay. We’ll go through several options, all of which are quick, easy, and inexpensive to implement!
Besides the options presented below, you might have considered CashApp, Zelle, Venmo, Wise, and Payoneer. These options do not support in-person payments but are good, simple choices if you don’t need an in-person POS solution.
Table of Contents
AbleProApp by TourKick
AbleProApp is TourKick’s own app that has so much more than payments in it: telephony (calls and texts), email newsletters, CRM, eSign, websites and funnels, social media post scheduler, and even eCommerce.
With AbleProApp you don’t need WordPress, Wix, Shopify, Mailchimp, Klaviyo, or a dozen other softwares. Plus, you can send invoices, send click to pay links, and even take in-person payments.
If you have existing products in Stripe, you can import them to AbleProApp, including their existing price in Stripe.
Here are some payment features in AbleProApp:
AbleProApp has a single monthly fee. There is no additional monthly fee to support eCommerce or POS functionality. You only pay additional for “consumables” like telephony or AI credits (i.e. the fewer texts you send, the lower your cost, even zero if you never use that functionality).
PayPal Zettle
If you already use PayPal and have a PayPal Business account, PayPal Zettle is an excellent choice because it’s the lowest cost option and some customers prefer paying via PayPal. Then again, some customers won’t buy from you at all if they must pay through PayPal.
There are times when the customer and merchant don’t see eye-to-eye and a dispute is initiated if the merchant does not agree to refund. All payment processors struggle handling disputes in the fairest way. Many merchants have been vocal about PayPal not siding with them, even when that makes no sense.
How to get started with PayPal Zettle
If you don’t want to require a staff member to use their personal smartphone or tablet, you can also purchase your first mobile card reader for only $29 (battery lasts 8 hours or 100 transactions) and additional card reader devices for $79 each.
If you have your PayPal Business account connected to your accounting software–such as QuickBooks, Zoho Books, Xero, or Wave–one of the benefits of using PayPal Zettle is that your transactions will come through to your PayPal Business account.
Square Terminal
Square has been around many years and is very well respected, even more so than PayPal by some people. Square is part of the same company as CashApp (which many people love) but their two systems aren’t really integrated. To be clear, it is not part of H&R Block even though Square’s parent company is called Block, Inc.
You’ve surely seen Square Terminals at small coffee shops, boutiques, and other retail establishments. Over the years, Square enhanced its payment processing with a free Customer Directory (a simple CRM) and optional add-ons like calendar appointment bookings and payroll.
If you’re already in the Square ecosystem–or want to be because you like its brand so much–then it’s an excellent option. Just know that their software is primarily designed to work with its own apps. It does have many integrations and API access but is not as plug-and-play friendly as Stripe (the default used by AbleProApp) or PayPal.
Square is slightly more expensive than PayPal:
Choose between free processing on your first $1,000 in sales (within 180 days), or get $20 off Square Hardware.
We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.
How To Choose
There are additional POS alternatives with monthly fees and higher processing fees like Clover, Shopify POS, and possibly one offered by your existing software. These might be great options to keep things simple and integrated, even if they cost a bit more than the other options presented in this article.
If you’re looking for a nearly all-in-one system that can run your business telephone (calls, texts, VMs, call recordings, and more), no-code automations, CRM, social media scheduling, eCommerce, and more, including in-person payments–then you’ll benefit from signing up for our AbleProApp to get things all-in-one!
If you already have PayPal integrated with whichever systems you’re using, implementing PayPal Zettle is your best option because it won’t add extra overhead for logging payments to your existing accounting system, it’s the least expensive to accept in-person card payments, and there’s no monthly fee.
If you want to go all-in on Square’s systems, it’s an easy-to-use system that should be hassle-free for many years.