Best Card Machines for Craft Fairs and Market Stalls in the UK
Updated August 2026. If you sell at craft fairs, markets, exhibitions or pop-up events, you usually need something very different from a permanent shop. The best card reader is light enough to carry, cheap enough to sit unused between events and reliable when the venue Wi-Fi is poor.
For most occasional sellers, we would start with SumUp Solo Lite, Square Reader or Lopay. All three avoid the traditional rented-terminal model. Tide is also worth considering if you already use its business account and would rather keep banking and card acceptance in one ecosystem.
Quick picks for craft sellers
- Best low-cost starter: SumUp Solo Lite, £25 + VAT, with 1.69% PAYG in-person processing.
- Best if you want free POS tools: Square Reader, £19 + VAT, with 1.75% standard card-present processing.
- Best low published standard-card rate: Lopay Essentials, 0.79% on UK personal cards with weekly payout, plus applicable supplements.
- Best if you already use Tide: Tide PAYG reader from £159 + VAT, or Sell In-Person at £17.99 + VAT a month with lower eligible debit-card pricing.
- Best backup option: Tap to Pay on a compatible phone.
What matters most at a craft fair?
A craft-fair seller normally has five priorities: low fixed cost, portability, reliable connectivity, fast contactless acceptance and a payout schedule that suits how often you trade.
If you only attend two events a month, a £20 monthly terminal rental is effectively £10 per event before you process a single payment. That is why pay-as-you-go readers are usually a better starting point for seasonal makers, jewellery sellers, artists, food producers and weekend traders.
The other big consideration is how busy the stall gets. If you usually serve one person at a time, a phone-paired reader is fine. If two people regularly take payments at once, sharing one personal phone can become awkward very quickly.
Craft-fair card readers compared
| Provider | Current headline cost | Hardware | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| SumUp | 1.69% PAYG in person | Solo Lite £25 + VAT | Simple seasonal trading |
| Square | 1.75% standard card-present | Reader £19 + VAT | Sellers wanting POS and product tools |
| Lopay | 0.79% Essentials, 0.99% Standard on UK personal cards | Reader from £35 plus delivery | Cost-conscious sellers who can choose payout speed |
| Tide | PAYG 1.5% + 5p domestic consumer debit; Sell In-Person 0.89% + 3p | From £159 + VAT PAYG; from £99 + VAT on subscription | Businesses already using Tide |
1. SumUp Solo Lite: easiest low-cost starting point
SumUp Solo Lite currently costs £25 + VAT and pairs to a phone by Bluetooth. SumUp’s PAYG in-person rate is 1.69%, with no monthly payment-plan fee. For an occasional seller, that is easy to understand: no event means no processing fee beyond whatever you already paid for the reader.
The trade-off is the phone dependency. Your phone needs battery, Bluetooth and internet access. If you use your phone for taking product photos, messaging customers or managing the stall at the same time, that can become annoying during a queue.
SumUp’s standalone Solo costs more but removes that dependency. For a seller doing regular markets every weekend, paying more once for independent hardware can be worthwhile.
See our full SumUp fees guide.
2. Square Reader: best if you want payments plus simple selling tools
Square Reader starts at £19 + VAT and charges 1.75% on standard in-person contactless and Chip & PIN payments. Its standard POS software costs £0 per month.
That software is the main reason we would choose Square over another reader with a slightly lower transaction percentage. A craft seller can create products, variants and prices in advance, then tap the item instead of manually keying the amount for every customer. You can also issue digital receipts and keep sales records in one place.
If you later move from weekend events into a shop or studio, Square has a broader hardware and POS ecosystem, so you do not necessarily need to replace the whole setup.
3. Lopay: low published fee if payout speed is flexible
Lopay is particularly interesting for event sellers because it lets you trade payout speed for a lower percentage fee.
- Essentials: 0.79% on UK personal cards with weekly settlement.
- Standard: 0.99% on UK personal cards with next-day-style settlement.
- Instant to Bank: 1.79% on UK personal cards for faster payout.
Lopay applies supplements to American Express, international and corporate cards, so the headline percentage will not describe every transaction. That matters at tourist-heavy events, where international cards can make up a meaningful share of sales.
4. Tide Card Reader: useful if banking and payments are already together
Tide’s PAYG reader starts from £159 + VAT. The published domestic consumer debit-card reader rate is 1.5% + 5p. Sell In-Person costs £17.99 + VAT a month, reduces that stated debit-card rate to 0.89% + 3p and discounts hardware to from £99 + VAT.
For a seller who already uses Tide, this can reduce the number of providers you manage. For someone who is perfectly happy banking elsewhere, the Tide dependency is a reason to compare alternatives rather than an automatic advantage.
Read our Tide Card Reader review or view Tide’s card reader options.
What would the processing fee look like?
The table below is a simple illustration using headline rates only. It excludes hardware, subscriptions and card-type supplements.
| Monthly event card sales | SumUp 1.69% | Square 1.75% | Lopay 0.99% |
|---|---|---|---|
| £1,000 | £16.90 | £17.50 | £9.90 |
| £3,000 | £50.70 | £52.50 | £29.70 |
| £5,000 | £84.50 | £87.50 | £49.50 |
If you only sell £500 at one market, the difference between 1.69% and 1.75% is 30p. At that level, choose on reliability and ease of use. At £5,000 or £10,000 a month, the percentage deserves much more attention.
Do you need a standalone reader?
Not necessarily. Phone-paired readers are cheaper and ideal for low-volume traders. A standalone device becomes more useful when you have staff helping, your phone is busy with other tasks, or you want the payment setup to feel separate from your personal device.
Should you use Tap to Pay instead?
Tap to Pay lets a compatible phone accept contactless payments without a separate reader. For an occasional seller, it can be an excellent backup. The drawback is that a physical card may occasionally need Chip & PIN, and handing your phone across a busy table can be less convenient than using a dedicated reader.
See our contactless and Tap to Pay guide if you are deciding whether you need hardware at all.
Connectivity checklist before an event
- Check mobile coverage at the venue before the event if possible.
- Fully charge the phone and reader the night before.
- Carry a power bank and charging cable.
- Log into the payment app before you arrive.
- Make sure Bluetooth pairing still works.
- Have a backup payment method.
- Do not rely on public Wi-Fi as your only connection.
What about receipts?
Most low-cost readers favour digital receipts by email or text. That is fine for many craft sellers. If you sell higher-value items where customers expect a printed receipt, consider a standalone terminal with a printer or make sure your invoicing process gives them a proper record.
Our recommendation
For a new or occasional craft seller, SumUp Solo Lite is our default starting point because the upfront cost is low and the PAYG pricing is simple. Square is stronger if you want product and POS tools around the payment. Lopay deserves a calculation if your buyers are mainly UK consumers and you are happy with its payout structure.
If you already use Tide, its card reader can be convenient, but we would not move banking purely to access the reader without comparing the total cost first.
Trading often enough to consider a full merchant-service package?
More help choosing
Also read our card machines for sole traders guide, mobile card reader guide and best card machines guide.
