/Best Restaurant Card Payment Machines in the UK (2026)

Teya is a strong first choice for many UK restaurants, cafés, pubs and takeaways that want a modern card terminal without the opaque contract culture of traditional merchant acquirers. On its UK pricing page, Teya markets no lock-ins, next-day settlements including weekends, 24/7 UK-based support, and integration with 50+ EPOS systems — the combination hospitality operators usually need when payments must keep working through a busy service.

Best for: Independent and small multi-site hospitality operators that process enough card volume to avoid low-turnover fees and want a credible standalone payment provider with broad EPOS compatibility.

Not ideal for: Restaurants that already run Square or Flipdish end-to-end and would benefit more from keeping POS and payments on one platform; very low-volume seasonal sites that may trigger Teya's £29.99 monthly fee when monthly card turnover is under £2,500 on applicable plans (per Teya's published terms).

Key strengths: Transparent plan positioning; portable and countertop hardware including Teya Go and Teya Pro; tipping support; optional instant settlement via Teya Business Account; free business account and cashback debit card marketed on all plans.

Key limitations: Transaction rates are plan- and volume-dependent rather than one public flat rate for every business. Using a non-Teya settlement bank adds 0.10% to transaction fees per Teya's FAQ. Hardware costs and exact blended rates should be confirmed at signup.

Pricing approach: Tiered plans (Start, Boost, Thrive, Custom) with published positioning on teya.com/pricing. Exact transaction percentages are quote- or application-dependent; Teya invites operators to share a recent statement for comparison.

Integration considerations: Teya positions itself as compatible with major hospitality EPOS systems. Confirm your specific till, whether you need pay-at-table or pay-at-counter behaviour, and whether tips flow back into the EPOS cleanly.

Restaurant-specific suitability: Strong fit for counter-service takeaways, cafés, pubs and casual dining where staff need reliable contactless acceptance, tipping prompts, and next-day cash flow. Less compelling if your priority is a single-vendor POS-plus-payments stack rather than best-of-breed terminals.

Verdict: Teya earns the top spot in this guide because it balances hospitality-relevant hardware, EPOS integration breadth, settlement speed and contract flexibility better than most standalone UK terminal providers — provided your volumes justify the plan structure.

Dojo is widely used in UK hospitality and should be on any shortlist alongside Teya. Its differentiation is not just the terminal hardware — though the Dojo Pocket portable device and Dojo Go Max countertop option are clearly aimed at busy venues — but the Pay at Table and Pay at Counter integration modes that push totals from compatible EPOS systems to the card machine, reduce manual amount entry, and support tipping configuration for integrated payments.

Best for: Full-service restaurants, busy cafés and pub dining rooms that want integrated payment flows and resilient connectivity (Dojo markets built-in 4G with Wi-Fi fallback).

Not ideal for: Operators who refuse to manage an EPOS integration project; businesses that only need a simple standalone reader with no till linkage.

Key strengths: Dojo claims 450+ EPOS integrations at enterprise level and documents pay-at-table and pay-at-counter setup in its support centre. Hardware range covers portable, countertop and Tap to Pay on iPhone. Dojo also markets no fixed contracts on its consumer-facing site, with exit-fee coverage up to £3,000 subject to turnover conditions.

Key limitations: Pricing is quote-based; effective rates depend on your card mix and plan. Integration requires coordination between Dojo and your EPOS partner — not instant plug-and-play for every till. Dojo is a payment provider, not a full restaurant operating system.

Pricing approach: Quote-based. Dojo's website emphasises bespoke plans rather than a single public rate card. Model total cost using a recent processing statement.

Integration considerations: Confirm whether your EPOS supports Pay at Table or Pay at Counter, whether split bills and gratuity behave as you need, and how tips export for tronc or payroll. Dojo's support articles distinguish standalone tipping from integrated tipping setup.

Restaurant-specific suitability: Excellent for table-service and high-throughput QSR where payment speed and integration matter. Weaker if you need branded online ordering, kitchen display and marketplace aggregation in the same contract.

Verdict: Dojo is the strongest alternative to Teya for hospitality operators whose priority is integrated in-venue payments rather than an all-in-one POS. For many busy restaurants, Pay at Table alone justifies the evaluation.

Square is the most straightforward option for operators who want restaurant POS and card payments from one vendor with published UK pricing. Square for Restaurants offers a free plan or Plus at £69/month per location (after a 30-day trial), with in-person card processing at 1.75% for UK cards on standard pricing and 1.4% + 25p for UK online orders — figures published on squareup.com/gb at the time of writing.

Best for: Cafés, casual dining rooms, bakeries and smaller restaurants that want fast setup, transparent fees and an upgrade path from free to Plus without changing payment provider.

Not ideal for: Large multi-site groups with complex tronc rules, enterprise EPOS requirements, or operators already committed to a specialist hospitality till that Square cannot replace.

Key strengths: Unified POS, payments, online ordering, tipping, kitchen display and reporting; no long-term contract on standard plans; tipping presets and settlement tools in Square Restaurant POS; custom pricing available above £200,000 annual card sales per Square's UK site.

Key limitations: Square is a platform choice, not a neutral terminal for an existing non-Square EPOS. Ingredient-level inventory and some enterprise hospitality workflows are lighter than specialist systems. Offline payments have exclusions (contactless and some methods may not work offline).

Pricing approach: Published software tiers plus published processing rates on squareup.com/gb/pricing. Hardware sold separately.

Integration considerations: Native integration only within Square. Deliverect or similar middleware can aggregate delivery orders, but card rails remain Square.

Restaurant-specific suitability: Excellent for independents and small groups standardising on Square. Less ideal as a standalone card machine if you only want to keep your current EPOS.

Verdict: Square wins the combined POS-and-payments category honestly: not because it has the cheapest terminal in isolation, but because it removes the integration problem for operators happy to run Square as their till.

SumUp is the most flexible option in this guide for operators who dislike lock-in. Its pay-as-you-go plan charges 1.69% per in-person transaction with £0/month, no minimum turnover requirement, and no contract — pricing published on sumup.com/en-gb/pricing at the time of writing. Restaurants processing £3,000+ per month can consider Payments Plus at £19/month (excl. VAT) to reduce in-person fees to 0.99% on debit and credit cards, with American Express still at 1.69%.

Best for: Seasonal venues, pop-ups, smaller takeaways, coffee carts and secondary sites where monthly fixed costs should stay minimal.

Not ideal for: High-volume full-service restaurants that need deep pay-at-table EPOS integration or enterprise reporting from a standalone acquirer.

Key strengths: Genuine flexibility; affordable hardware from around £34 for SumUp Air; SumUp Terminal with printer for busier counters; tipping configurable in reader/POS settings; POS Plus at £29/month adds hospitality features such as floor plans and staff PIN access.

Key limitations: Third-party EPOS integration is not SumUp's strength. Pay-as-you-go pricing is simple but not the lowest headline rate at scale. Online payments via Payment Links and similar products are charged separately at 2.50% per SumUp's pricing page.

Pricing approach: Published pay-as-you-go and Payments Plus tiers; tailored pricing for £10,000+ monthly processing.

Integration considerations: Works best as SumUp POS plus SumUp reader. If you run Lightspeed, Toast or another till, confirm whether SumUp is viable or merely a backup device.

Restaurant-specific suitability: Strong for small QSR, cafés and market-led businesses. Acceptable as a secondary terminal; usually not the long-term answer for a complex dine-in operation.

Verdict: SumUp is the safest no-contract fallback in this list — ideal when you want to start taking cards quickly without betting the business on a three-year terminal lease.

Flipdish Pay is a credible hospitality payment option — but only in the right context. It is designed for restaurants that already run, or plan to run, Flipdish POS, giving a single view of in-store and online payments, tips, refunds and payouts inside the wider Flipdish platform. Flipdish markets low transparent fees, consolidated reporting, built-in tipping, handheld tableside payments, and optional instant payouts on flipdish.com/gb/pay.

Best for: Takeaways, QSR and multi-site groups on Flipdish that want online ordering, in-store POS and payments reconciled without exporting CSV files from three systems.

Not ideal for: Any restaurant that wants a card processor or terminal to integrate with a different EPOS provider. Flipdish Pay is not a standalone acquirer you can bolt onto Toast, Lightspeed, Square or Epos Now.

Key strengths: Unified reporting across direct online orders and in-store sales; branded card readers; tableside payments via Flipdish handheld POS; fraud and chargeback tooling marketed as built-in; no separate PCI bolt-on narrative on Flipdish's site.

Key limitations: Platform dependency. Flipdish Pay delivers most value as part of the Flipdish stack, not as a card machine comparison in isolation. Exact transaction rates are quote-based on Flipdish's public pages rather than a full public rate card at the time of writing.

Pricing approach: Quote-based blended rates; confirm hardware costs and any platform subscription separately.

Integration considerations: Native to Flipdish only. Do not assume third-party POS compatibility.

Restaurant-specific suitability: Strong for Flipdish customers growing direct orders while consolidating in-store payments. Irrelevant to operators outside that ecosystem.

Verdict: Flipdish Pay belongs on a hospitality payment shortlist for Flipdish users, not as the default winner for every restaurant. We rank it fifth overall — but first if you are standardising on Flipdish POS.

Zettle by PayPal — now increasingly branded as PayPal Point of Sale on paypal.com — is the simplest entry point in this guide. Zettle's UK pricing page lists 1.75% per in-person transaction, no monthly fee, and no long-term contract, with card readers from £29 excl. VAT for eligible new businesses (additional readers £69 excl. VAT) at the time of writing.

Best for: Very small cafés, market traders, cake shops and side businesses already reconciling through PayPal that need basic counter payments quickly.

Not ideal for: Full-service restaurants with split bills, integrated kitchen workflows, complex tipping/tronc distribution, or high-volume sites where 1.75% without volume tiers becomes expensive.

Key strengths: Low hardware entry cost; flat published rate; tipping on the reader; familiar PayPal settlement for existing users; no rental model.

Key limitations: Phone- or tablet-paired readers are not restaurant-grade integrated terminals. No meaningful pay-at-table EPOS story. Settlement timing and support are typically less hospitality-focused than Teya or Dojo.

Pricing approach: Published 1.75% in-person; hardware purchase pricing on zettle.com/gb/pricing.

Integration considerations: Minimal EPOS integration depth. Treat as standalone counter acceptance, not a hospitality payments strategy.

Restaurant-specific suitability: Acceptable for micro businesses and pop-ups. Most growing restaurants will outgrow it.

Verdict: Zettle fills the "start tomorrow with minimal commitment" niche — not the "run a busy dining room for five years" niche.