Zettle in Ireland: not available — what to use instead
Zettle by PayPal is not sold to Republic of Ireland businesses. Here's how we verified it, why UK sites keep recommending it, and the Irish alternatives.
Card machinesUpdated
Zettle by PayPal is not available to businesses in the Republic of Ireland. There is no Irish Zettle site, no euro pricing, and no card reader you can buy and use here.
If you arrived from a comparison article recommending Zettle to Irish readers, that article was written for the UK market.
How we checked
Three things, all as of 1 August 2026.
PayPal’s Irish business site lists online payments, payment links, checkout, invoicing, payouts and a business debit card. There is no in-person card reader or point-of-sale hardware offered to Irish merchants at all.
Zettle does not appear in published lists of providers offering Tap to Pay on iPhone or Android in Ireland. Those lists cover Square, SumUp, Mollie, Revolut, myPOS, Stripe, Adyen and BOI Payment Acceptance.
Independent Irish roundups of card machine options do not include Zettle among the providers serving the market.
Zettle’s own pricing pages are UK pages, priced in sterling — a £29 reader and a 1.75% rate. Neither the price nor the product is available to an Irish business.
Why UK sites keep recommending it
Zettle is genuinely popular in Britain, and the vast majority of English-language content about card readers is written for the UK. When a publisher builds an Irish version of a page, the usual approach is to convert the currency and leave the provider list alone. Nobody checks whether the product is actually sold here.
That is how an Irish café owner ends up on a page comparing Zettle, SumUp and Square, with one of the three unavailable and its sterling prices quietly relabelled as euro.
The same problem produces the opposite error in the other direction: Dojo is frequently described as UK-only, when in fact it holds a Central Bank of Ireland e-money licence and trades here as Paymentsense Ireland Limited.
What to use instead
Zettle’s appeal is a cheap reader, a flat rate, no contract and a decent free app. Two Irish-available providers cover that brief directly.
SumUp is the closest match. Readers from €25 excluding VAT, or €0 using Tap to Pay on your own phone. 1.69% per transaction with no monthly fee and no contract, or 0.95% on domestic consumer cards if you pay €19 a month. Payouts land next day at 7am into a SumUp Business Account.
Square is the closest match if you want the point-of-sale software as well as the reader. Square Reader is €19 excluding VAT, the rate is 1.75% plus VAT on EEA cards, and there is no monthly fee or contract. Square’s free POS app is the nearest thing to Zettle’s in scope, and it is what most Irish cafés comparing the two end up choosing.
If your priority is the lowest rate rather than the cheapest device, Revolut publishes 0.8% + €0.02 on domestic and EEA consumer cards through Revolut Business, with a €69 Reader. Sole traders can use Revolut Pro at a flat 1.5% with no monthly fee.
Quick comparison of the Irish alternatives
Prices exclude VAT.
| Provider | Cheapest device | Rate | Monthly | Contract |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SumUp | €25, or €0 on your phone | 1.69% (0.95% on €19 plan) | €0 | None |
| Square | €19, or €0 on your phone | 1.75% + VAT | €0 | None |
| Revolut | €69, or €0 on iPhone | 0.8% + €0.02 (Business) | €0 Pro, from €10 Business | None |
| myPOS | €39 | From 1.59% + €0.05 | €0 | None |
Frequently asked questions
Can I use a UK Zettle reader in Ireland?
No. Zettle accounts are country-specific and tied to a UK business entity, a UK bank account and sterling settlement. An Irish business cannot open one, and a reader bought in Britain has no Irish account to attach to.
Is PayPal available to Irish businesses at all?
Yes, for online payments. PayPal’s Irish business offering covers checkout, payment links, invoicing, payouts and a business debit card. It is the in-person card reader — the Zettle hardware — that is not sold here.
Might Zettle launch in Ireland later?
Possibly, but there is no announcement to point to. PayPal’s more recent Zettle software rollouts covered the Netherlands, the UK and Sweden, and Ireland was not included. Treat any claim that Zettle is coming to Ireland as unverified until PayPal says so.
What is the closest thing to Zettle in Ireland?
SumUp on price and simplicity, Square if you also want free point-of-sale software. Both sell in euro to Irish businesses, both have no contract, and both offer Tap to Pay on iPhone and Android so you can start with no hardware at all.