SumUp vs PayPal Card Reader: Which Is Cheaper?

SumUp wins the sumup vs paypal card reader UK comparison for most small businesses: the reader costs less, the standard transaction rate is lower, and payouts land in your account the next morning rather than several days later. PayPal still makes sense if you already run your finances through a PayPal Business account or want funds available in minutes rather than overnight.

Fees at a glance

Both providers publish their fees openly, so there’s no need to guess. Here’s how the headline numbers compare before we get into the detail.

If you’re weighing up other card machines too, our best payment terminals UK roundup covers the wider field.

Hardware: readers, terminals and kits

SumUp’s cheapest device, the Solo Lite, costs £25 excluding VAT and pairs with your phone over Bluetooth. Step up to the standalone Solo (£79) or the Terminal (£135) if you want a touchscreen device that doesn’t need a phone nearby, both prices excluding VAT. Every SumUp reader comes with a 1-year warranty and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

PayPal’s equivalent, the PayPal Reader (the hardware formerly sold as Zettle Reader 2), is £29 excluding VAT but only at that price for new business users, and only one per account. Additional or replacement readers cost £69 excluding VAT. The standalone PayPal Terminal starts at £149 excluding VAT, and Store Kits with extra accessories start from £169.

On hardware alone, SumUp is cheaper at every tier, and its intro pricing doesn’t come with a “new customers only” catch the way PayPal’s does.

Transaction fees: pay-as-you-go rates compared

SumUp’s standard pay-as-you-go rate is 1.69% per transaction, with no monthly fee. If you’re processing more than roughly £3,000 a month, its Payments Plus plan (£19 a month) cuts the domestic consumer card rate to 0.99%, though online payments still cost 2.5% and non-EU or corporate cards, including Amex, stay at 1.69% on either plan.

PayPal charges a flat 1.75% on all major cards and mobile wallets in person, including Amex, with no separate corporate card surcharge and no volume-based discount plan advertised to small sellers.

The practical upshot: SumUp is cheaper for in-person card payments at every volume, and the gap widens once you’re doing enough business to justify Payments Plus. PayPal’s flat rate is simpler to explain to a bookkeeper, but simplicity here costs you six basis points on every card sale compared with SumUp’s standard rate.

Payouts: how fast you get paid

SumUp pays out to your SumUp Business Account the next day at 7am, including weekends and bank holidays, and gives you a free Mastercard to spend the balance straight away.

PayPal settles funds into your PayPal Business balance within minutes, which sounds faster, but that balance isn’t your bank account. Moving it to your actual bank is a separate step: a standard transfer is free but typically takes three to five working days, or you can pay an instant transfer fee of around 1.5% to get it out within about half an hour.

For a small business that needs card takings to actually reach the bank, SumUp’s next-morning payout beats PayPal’s free option comfortably, and undercuts PayPal’s paid instant option on cost.

Invoicing and online payments

SumUp Invoices is free, with unlimited invoices and quotes on the Free plan, and a 2.5% fee only when a customer actually pays online by card. The optional Plus plan (£7 a month excluding VAT, billed annually) adds branding, multi-currency invoicing and payouts to any bank account rather than just your SumUp Business Account. If invoicing matters to your business, our guide to invoicing software for tradespeople covers dedicated tools too.

PayPal’s own invoicing tool is also free to send, but the fee when an invoice is paid is higher: 2.9% plus £0.30 for a UK-to-UK payment, rising further for international buyers. Zettle’s legacy 2.5% invoice and payment link rates still apply to sellers who signed up before May 2023, but they’re not available to anyone opening a new PayPal Point of Sale account today.

For online invoice payments specifically, SumUp is the cheaper option for any new account, and it’s not close on smaller invoices where the flat 30p on PayPal’s fee weighs more heavily.

Support: who answers when something goes wrong

SumUp’s UK support team is reachable by phone and email, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, with in-app live chat for existing customers. PayPal’s Point of Sale support line runs similar weekday hours, roughly 8:30am to 5:30pm, alongside a chat widget in the app for quick questions.

Neither offers UK phone support outside standard business hours, so if a reader fails on a Saturday afternoon, you’re relying on self-service help articles from either provider until Monday.

Verdict: who should choose SumUp or PayPal

Choose SumUp if you want the lowest overall cost: cheaper hardware, a lower standard transaction rate, a genuine high-volume discount plan, and payouts that reach your bank the next morning rather than sitting in a separate balance. That covers most UK small businesses taking card payments day to day, from market traders to salons to trades on site.

Choose PayPal if you already run your business banking through a PayPal account and want card takings to land in the same place as your online sales, or if you specifically want the option of moving money within half an hour and are happy to pay for that speed. PayPal’s flat 1.75% rate is also easier to budget with if you’d rather not track which of SumUp’s several rates applies to a given sale.

On price, speed of payout and invoicing costs, SumUp comes out ahead for most small businesses. PayPal’s case rests on convenience for businesses already tied into its ecosystem, not on being the cheaper option.

Frequently asked questions

Prices and rates above are correct as of August 2026 and worth double-checking against each provider’s site before you sign up, as card payment pricing does change.