Cash-only is no longer viable. Roughly 70 percent of craft fair purchases in 2026 happen on a card or phone tap. A vendor without a card reader is leaving 50 to 60 percent of their potential revenue on the table at most events.
The good news: taking cards in 2026 is easy and cheap. The hard part is choosing between five providers that all do approximately the same thing with slightly different fees and feature sets. Here is the honest breakdown.
What you actually need
- A card reader or a phone that can accept tap payments
- An app to ring up the sale and send a receipt
- A way to operate when cell service drops (busier events kill 4G)
- Enough battery to last the full event day
That's it. Everything below is variations on those four needs.
Square
Best for: Most vendors, most of the time.
Square is the default choice for a reason. The hardware works, the app is fast, and the ecosystem (Square POS, Square Online, Square for Retail) scales with you if your vendor business grows.
Fees in 2026:
- Tap, dip, swipe: 2.6% + 10 cents per transaction
- Manually keyed: 3.5% + 15 cents
- Online: 2.9% + 30 cents
Hardware:
- Square Reader for magstripe (mostly obsolete): free first one
- Square Reader for contactless and chip: $59
- Square Terminal (all-in-one with built-in receipt printer): $299
- Square Stand for iPad: $169
Pros: Free POS app, instant deposits available (1.5% fee), excellent reporting, no monthly minimum, supports inventory tracking, integrates with most accounting software, works offline (queues transactions).
Cons: Holds funds for 1-2 days by default (instant deposit costs extra), can freeze accounts on suspicious activity (rare but real), the reader needs charging.
Stripe (Tap to Pay on iPhone or Android)
Best for: Vendors who want to skip hardware entirely.
Stripe Tap to Pay turns your iPhone (XS or newer) or Android into the card reader. No hardware needed. The buyer taps their card or phone directly to your phone.
Fees: 2.7% + 5 cents per in-person tap transaction. Lower than Square if you process volume but with more setup friction.
Pros: Zero hardware cost, one less thing to charge, fast at the moment of sale, excellent for low-volume or sporadic vendors.
Cons: Setup is more technical than Square (you need a Stripe account and a POS app like Stripe Reader for iOS). Less polished POS experience for inventory and receipts. Some buyers without contactless cards cannot pay.
PayPal Zettle (formerly PayPal Here)
Best for: Vendors with established PayPal businesses.
PayPal Zettle is competitive on fees and integrates seamlessly if your customers already pay you on PayPal.
Fees: 2.29% + 9 cents in-person. Lowest of the major three.
Hardware: Zettle reader $79.
Pros: Lowest fees of the big three, money lands in PayPal account immediately, integrates with PayPal Business.
Cons: Smaller ecosystem than Square, fewer integrations, support quality is mixed, app is less polished.
SumUp
Best for: Very low volume vendors who want zero monthly anything.
SumUp keeps it simple: cheap reader, flat fees, no monthly costs.
Fees: 2.6% + 10 cents per transaction.
Hardware: SumUp Plus reader $39, SumUp Solo (with screen) $99.
Pros: Cheapest hardware, no monthly fees, very simple app.
Cons: Limited POS features, smaller ecosystem, less reliable in poor service areas.
Clover Go
Best for: Vendors who already have a Clover POS at a brick-and-mortar location.
Clover Go is the mobile companion to the Clover ecosystem. If you already use Clover for a retail store, this lets you use the same accounts at events.
Fees: 2.6% + 10 cents (varies by merchant agreement).
Pros: Same backend as your store POS.
Cons: Pricier hardware, monthly fees, requires merchant account through a partner bank.
Side-by-side comparison
For most craft fair vendors processing $1,000 to $10,000 per event, the fee differences between providers translate to $5 to $30 per event. Not nothing, but not the deciding factor.
What matters more:
- Reliability when service drops
- App quality (a slow app at peak hour costs you sales)
- Receipt experience for customers
- Reporting and tax export at year end
Cellular and offline
Crowded events kill cell service. Plan for it.
- Square offline mode queues transactions and processes them when service returns. Works well but caps at $300 per transaction by default.
- Stripe Tap to Pay requires connectivity at the moment of sale.
- Zettle offline exists but is more limited.
Bring a portable hotspot or use your phone's hotspot if your venue has weak signal. T-Mobile and Verizon prepaid hotspots cost $50 to $150 and pay for themselves in one event where service drops.
Battery and cash backup
- Charge your phone, reader, and a battery bank the night before
- Bring a 20,000+ mAh power bank, fully charged
- Carry $100 in small bills for change in case the reader fails entirely
- Keep a notepad to write down sales if both phone and backup die
What I would actually do
For a brand-new vendor: start with Square. Free reader to start, free app, easy setup, predictable fees. Move to a Square Terminal once you process more than $20K a year.
For a vendor with a phone newer than 5 years: try Stripe Tap to Pay first. No hardware, lower fees, fewer things to lose at events.
For a vendor running a brick-and-mortar already: stay in your current ecosystem. Consistency between store and events is worth more than saving 0.2 percent on fees.
Looking for events to sell at? Browse the VendorsMap event map. New to craft fairs? See our complete packing list.