Which card payment reader systems work best for events and festivals?

Members strongly favour dedicated hardware card readers over phone-only systems for event and festival use. A recent poll showed **Square** and **iZettle** as the most popular choices, with **Dojo** emerging as a strong alternative that performs well on cost per transaction and technical support.

**Specific recommendations:**

- **Square** — 12 votes in the poll; successfully deployed at large-scale events (60,000+ capacity) with Starlink connectivity; reliable handheld terminals. - **iZettle** — 11 votes; long track record (users report 10+ years of reliable event use); PayPal now remits takings next-day (previously 3 working days). - **Dojo** — Recommended strongly by members; won competitive tenders for major hospitality operators on cost per transaction, tech support, and kit quality; works with phone plus handheld hardware. - **Stripe** — 0 votes; not favoured for events despite broad awareness. - **SumUp** — 6 votes; less popular than top choices.

**Key caveat:** Members strongly advise against asking staff to use their personal mobile devices as the sole payment system—devices can be dropped, lost, or stolen. Dedicated hardware is safer and more professional. For connectivity-dependent systems, consider redundancy with a data-only eSIM (e.g. **Airalo**) to cover signal failures.