Dojo Card Machine Review 2026: Fees, Pricing, Contract & Verdict

What is Dojo?

Dojo is the card machine brand of Paymentsense Limited, a UK payments company regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 738728). It supplies touchscreen card terminals and merchant services to more than 100,000 UK businesses: mostly restaurants, pubs, cafes, salons and shops. On Trustpilot it holds 4.3/5 from 5,542 reviews as of August 2026, with support and onboarding the most-praised areas.

The pitch is a full-service package rather than a cheap gadget: proper terminals with receipt printers and 4G backup, next-day settlement as standard, pay-at-table, 450+ EPOS integrations and UK phone support. The pricing changed materially in 2025 in a way most coverage has not caught up with, so we will start there.

Dojo Pricing 2026: Three Plans, Priced by Turnover

Dojo prices by annual card turnover, with three plans. There is no single published percentage.

• Fix (annual card turnover below £100,000): £39.99 a month, covering card turnover up to £3,999 a month, with a 1% flat rate on turnover above £4,000 a month. Amex is included at no extra fee, the platform fee is included, and the price is locked for the 12-month plan.
• Flex (growing businesses): custom negotiated debit, credit and secure transaction rates tailored to your turnover, plus a £10 a month platform fee per location, on 30-day rolling or 12-month price-locked terms.
• Pro (annual card turnover of £1 million or more): a fully bespoke deal with reduced fees and tailored setup.

The custom plans are negotiable: we have seen quotes as low as 0.29% for high-turnover businesses. If you clear the £100,000 threshold, treat the quote as an opening position, not a price list.

Two things follow from the Fix plan's structure. First, £39.99 a month is a floor as well as a price: below roughly £2,300 a month of card takings, a flat-rate reader (SumUp 1.69%, Square and Zettle 1.75%) is cheaper and you should not switch. Second, above that crossover the effective rate falls fast: at £4,000 a month the £39.99 works out at 1.0%, and because the excess is charged at a flat 1%, the effective rate stays around 1% all the way to the plan's £100,000 a year ceiling. We run the numbers below.

The Card Machines: Go, Pocket, Wired, Tap to Pay

Dojo sells four ways to take a payment, and every terminal option runs on WiFi with automatic 4G failover from a built-in SIM with free data. On price, Dojo publishes only “from” figures: terminals are from £179 bought upfront, or from £15 a month on a 30-day rolling hardware plan, with the exact per-device price confirmed at quote. One catch worth knowing: pay-monthly hardware is unavailable to businesses under £100,000 a year of card turnover, so smaller businesses buy the terminal upfront, or get it free through MerchantSwitch.

The Go is the default choice for most counters: touchscreen, thermal printer, all-day battery, and it moves around the shop or terrace with you. The Pocket is the hospitality specialist: a slimmer handheld your floor staff use to take the order and the payment in one visit to the table, with receipts sent by email or QR code. The Wired suits fixed tills and self-service kiosks. Tap to Pay on iPhone is the genuinely commitment-free option: no contract, no hardware, useful as an overflow device on busy days or a starter while you decide.

Software and Platform Fees

There is no separate software subscription to weigh up any more. On the Fix plan the platform fee is included in the £39.99 monthly price; on Flex it is £10 a month per location on top of your negotiated rates. Both cover the working kit: accept all major card types, POS integration, real-time transactions in the Sidekick app, easy PCI compliance, refunds on the machine, bill splitting, tip prompts, cashback and pre-authorisation for bar tabs and bookings. Payment links by email or SMS and phone payments are also supported.

Worked Cost Examples: £2,000, £5,000, £8,000 and £15,000 a Month

The honest way to cost Dojo is to run the Fix plan formula at your volume: £39.99 a month, plus 1% of whatever your monthly card turnover exceeds £4,000 by. Four scenarios against SumUp (1.69%) and Square (1.75%), with the readers' one-off hardware costs ignored for simplicity. The first three sit under the Fix plan's £100,000 a year ceiling; the fourth does not.

At £2,000/month card turnover

At £5,000/month card turnover

At £8,000/month card turnover (£96k/year, just under the ceiling)

At £15,000/month card turnover (£180k/year, custom-quote territory)

Features: Where Dojo Earns Its Money

Settlement. Next-day payouts as standard, and weekend and bank holiday payouts are available with Dojo's 7-day settlement upgrade. With the upgrade, a restaurant that takes half its weekly money on Friday and Saturday has it in the bank by Sunday, where a pay-as-you-go reader delivers it Tuesday. For cash-flow-tight hospitality that is worth pricing in.

Resilience. The built-in SIM means a broadband outage does not stop you trading; the terminal fails over to 4G on its own. Dojo publishes a 99.99% uptime figure for its network.

Hospitality tooling. Pay-at-table, bill splitting, configurable tip prompts, cashback and pre-authorisation for tabs and bookings are included, and the terminals integrate with 450+ EPOS systems, so Dojo slots into most existing till setups rather than replacing them.

Beyond the counter. Payment links by SMS or email, phone payments through the Sidekick app, an online checkout and Tap to Pay on iPhone cover remote and overflow selling without extra hardware.

Funding. Dojo offers business funding repaid from card takings. If that is part of why you are choosing a provider, read our guide on how card machine choice affects business funding before deciding.

Contract and Exit Terms: Read This Bit

This is where we have to correct something you will still read elsewhere (including, previously, on this site): Dojo is not a no-strings provider. The Fix plan is a 12-month price-locked plan, and Flex runs 30-day rolling or 12-month price-locked. Three clauses matter:

• The first 30 days are a no-commitment trial. Tell Dojo you want out within 30 days of signup and no early closure fee applies. Treat it as a real trial: run at least one full weekend through the terminal before the window shuts.
• Leaving inside a 12-month term costs the remainder of the contract. The early closure fee equals the remaining costs of your agreement. On the £39.99 a month Fix plan with eight months left, that is about £320.
• Out of the fixed term you are free. Closing the account takes one month's notice by phone or email.

Setup is £0, and if you are locked into a previous provider, Dojo pays up to £3,000 towards that provider's exit fees when you switch through MerchantSwitch (eligibility confirmed at quote). Full cancellation mechanics, including the courier collection and the final Direct Debit, are in our step-by-step guide to cancelling Dojo.

Pros and Cons

Dojo vs the Alternatives

Dojo vs SumUp

SumUp is the no-commitment option: 1.69% flat, a £19 reader you own, no contract at all. Above roughly £2,370 a month of card takings, Dojo's Fix plan is the better deal (£49.99 against £84.50 at £5,000 a month), its hardware is far more capable, and its settlement is faster, but you accept a 12-month term. Below roughly £2,370 a month, SumUp wins on pure cost. Full breakdown: Dojo vs SumUp.

Dojo vs Square

Square's strength is the free EPOS ecosystem: point of sale, inventory, invoicing and online store on one account at 1.75% flat. If you need serious software and sell online as much as in person, Square is hard to beat. If the job is taking in-person payments fast and getting paid at the weekend, Dojo does that job better and cheaper at volume. Full breakdown: Dojo vs Square.

Dojo vs Worldpay

Worldpay is the incumbent at scale: an enormous acquiring network, enterprise features, and quote-based pricing that rewards hard negotiation. Contracts typically run longer and exit fees are the classic complaint. For a single-site or small multi-site UK business, Dojo's shorter term and published entry plan make it the safer signature. Full breakdown: Worldpay vs Dojo.

Dojo vs takepayments

takepayments sells a similar terminal-led package with quote-based pricing and a personal sales approach. The comparison usually comes down to whose quote lands lower for your card mix, and under £100,000 a year Dojo's published Fix plan gives you a written benchmark to negotiate both sides against. Full breakdown: takepayments vs Dojo.

We also compare Dojo against Zettle, Barclaycard, Lloyds Cardnet, Teya, Tyl by NatWest, Handepay, Elavon, Clover, EVO Payments, Shift4 and Global Payments.

Who Should Use Dojo (and Who Should Not)

Choose Dojo if:

• You take roughly £2,300+ a month on cards: that is where the Fix plan overtakes the flat-rate readers, and at £4,000+ it settles at a 1.0% effective rate
• Weekend trade matters: pubs, restaurants, cafes, salons and shops that want Saturday takings on Sunday can add the 7-day settlement upgrade
• You want pay-at-table or EPOS integration without replacing your till
• You are escaping a worse contract: Dojo pays up to £3,000 towards exit fees when you switch through MerchantSwitch, and that only helps if you use it

Look elsewhere if:

• You sell occasionally or seasonally: SumUp or Square readers cost nothing while idle, and Dojo's Tap to Pay on iPhone is the only Dojo product that works that way
• You will not commit to 12 months: the early closure fee is real once the 30-day window closes
• Your business is mostly online: Square or a dedicated gateway serves e-commerce better
• You trade outside the UK

Verdict: Is Dojo Any Good in 2026?

Yes. The Fix plan makes the costs knowable without a sales call for any business under £100,000 a year: £39.99 a month, 1% above £4,000 a month, Amex and platform fee included, price-locked for the term. From about £4,000 a month of card takings that is a 1.0% effective rate, which no mainstream flat-rate reader approaches, and the package it buys (next-day settlement, 4G failover, pay-at-table, real support) is the strongest terminal-led offer we track. It earns its 4.5/5.

The half point we hold back is for the floor and the term. The £39.99 minimum makes Dojo the wrong answer below roughly £2,300 a month, where a pay-as-you-go reader is cheaper and we would say don't switch; the 12-month price-locked plan carries a remaining-costs exit fee once the 30-day trial passes; and above £100,000 a year pricing goes behind a quote. The defence is simple: use the 30-day trial as a genuine trial, get any custom quote in writing, and treat 1% as the benchmark a custom quote has to beat before you sign.

For the terminal lineup in detail, the pricing mechanics and all fifteen Dojo head-to-heads in one place, start at our Dojo card machines hub.

Frequently Asked Questions