Mobile phone as a payment terminal: mPOS terminal vs. SoftPOS

You don’t just pay with your mobile phone, you can also accept payments with it. All the necessary technologies are included in models costing only a few thousand Czech crowns. Just order the service, install the application and you are ready. Learn what SoftPOS and mPOS payment terminals are, what they can do, and what the difference between them is.

Cafés, supermarkets or brick-and-mortar stores cannot do without standard payment terminals. This is because they handle contact card payments perfectly, have a lot of advanced features, and customers are used to them. However, there are also businesses where a shoe-sized box of nearly half a kilogram is not so practical. For example, as a craftsman, you would surely prefer to keep your hands free to carry your tool bag.

The mPOS and SoftPOS terminals are just the perfect thing for small tradesmen, doctors, stallholders, couriers or taxi drivers. Solutions that take up virtually no space on the counter or in your pocket, so you can take them anywhere. Even if you are going light. The key item is your personal or work mobile phone (or tablet), which you cannot do without anyway.

mPOS and SoftPOS: Advantages and differences

The mPOS terminal looks like a mobile phone with buttons. Only, instead of calls, it can accept both contactless and contact payments and verify PIN codes. You can connect it wirelessly via Bluetooth to your mobile phone or tablet, where you have a special application installed, and you can happily await customers.

SoftPOS is not a hardware, “just” a mobile application for Android (we do not support iOS yet). After you download, install and activate it, your mobile phone will turn into a contactless NFC payment terminal. The payment itself is perhaps a little unusual, but just as convenient as with mPOS. Only for payments over CZK 500, you have to hand your mobile phone to the customer for them to enter the PIN code.

As you can see, both of these solutions have a lot in common. The main difference is that with mPOS you need two devices, but the payment is more convenient and more understandable and trustworthy from the customers’ point of view. SoftPOS, i.e., the terminal in your mobile phone, on the other hand, is extremely practical for businessmen who are constantly on the move and who only collect payments from customers a few times a day.

What about disadvantages? SoftPOS and mPOS are primarily used for contactless payments and, due to the lack of advanced features, they cannot replace conventional payment terminals altogether. And if your battery dies, or if you forget your mobile phone at home or lose it, your customers will have no choice but to pay with cash. In short, it all depends on a single device.

What about receipts

SoftPOS and mPOS terminals cannot print out paper receipts. However, if you wish to have the receipt, they can easily send it to you by email.

Are you interested? Get a non-binding price quotation

If you have read this far, there is a good chance that an mPOS or SoftPOS terminal will come in handy for you. All the same, you will only know for sure when you receive our non-binding price quotation. In it, you will find out how much it will cost you to accept card payments and what we will need from you to get the system up and running successfully. You can count on our colleagues to explain and show you everything.