If you only trade away from the counter once or twice a year, hire a 4G EFTPOS terminal for the event. If you're at markets most weekends, own a Bluetooth card reader or get a portable terminal on a plan. For table service in a café or restaurant, use a handheld or an iPad running your POS, paired with a terminal your POS integrates with.
"Mobile POS" covers three quite different setups, so here's how they compare.
Three ways to go mobile
| Setup | What it is | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Portable EFTPOS terminal | A battery terminal with its own SIM or Wi-Fi, often with a printer | Markets, events, deliveries, paying at the table |
| Phone or iPad plus a card reader | Your POS app on a phone or tablet, with a small Bluetooth reader (or the phone itself taking taps) | Market stalls, pop-ups, food trucks, small traders |
| All-in-one handheld | POS app, card payments and often a printer in one device | Table service, queue-busting, busy events |
Portable EFTPOS terminals
A portable terminal is a normal EFTPOS terminal with a battery and a mobile connection. Eftpos NZ's hire terminals "run on an unlimited SIM, so you're not reliant on venue WiFi", and Shift4 (formerly Smartpay) says its portable terminal has a built-in 4G SIM plus Wi-Fi and LAN. Shift4 says its terminal can run standalone or integrated with your POS.
Eftpos NZ's newest model, the Victa Portable, gives a feel for the current generation: a 6.7-inch screen, a built-in receipt printer, and a battery "rated for twelve hours of continuous use".
Skyzer, an NZ reseller, sells the Move 5000 as a portable or countertop terminal and says you can "add a SIM card for just $10 per month" (GST not stated) to take payments on the go.
The main plus: a terminal from a NZ provider takes NZ EFTPOS cards as well as credit and contactless (on Eftpos NZ terminals, credit and contactless need a credit merchant facility from your bank). For more on providers and contracts, see our EFTPOS terminals guide.
Phone or iPad plus a Bluetooth card reader
Here your POS runs on a phone or iPad and a small reader pairs over Bluetooth.
- Lazygrid runs on iPhone (iOS 17 or later) as well as iPad, and offers the Stripe WisePad 3 reader. Lazygrid lists it as taking Visa and Mastercard (credit and debit), Apple Pay, Google Pay and any contactless tap, with Amex and UnionPay once enabled, and says you don't need a separate terminal merchant number. Its page doesn't mention EFTPOS-only (cheque or savings) cards, so ask if a lot of your customers pay that way.
- Shopify POS uses Shopify's own readers in NZ: the WisePad 3 and the POS Terminal. With Shopify Payments, EFTPOS cards work only when they're co-branded with Visa or Mastercard.
- Hike sells a HikePay Reader (A$114 on its NZ page, in Australian dollars).
The reader pairs with your phone or iPad, so that device needs a working connection (mobile data or a hotspot) at the market. Lazygrid also notes that "some food trucks use just an iPhone and an EFTPOS terminal", which is a perfectly good setup if you'd rather keep a provider's terminal.
Tap to pay on your phone
The lightest option is no reader at all. Paymark's Tap on Mobile turns an NFC phone into a contactless terminal: Android devices on one of the last three OS versions (currently v12 or higher), or Tap to Pay on iPhone. It takes Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay and other wallets. Paymark says that with no network fee you can save up to $18.90 a month as well as terminal rental, and says you can use it to keep trading if your usual terminal stops working.
The trade-offs: it's contactless only, and none of the POS systems we cover lists it as an EFTPOS integration, so you'll be keying amounts in.
All-in-one handhelds
- Hike Handheld: an Android payment device with a built-in printer, A$625 on Hike's NZ page (Australian dollars).
- Eftpos NZ Victa Portable: a payment terminal that also runs apps.
- Shopify: the POS Go handheld is no longer sold. Existing ones can stay in mobile mode until 26 May 2027, then switch to countertop terminal mode. Shopify's Verifone Victa Mobile handheld is listed for the US, Canada, Ireland and the UK only, not New Zealand; for NZ, Shopify lists the WisePad 3 and the POS Terminal.
- Lightspeed sells a Tableside Case that charges your device as you go, and a Lightspeed Smart Terminal "for portable payments or on-counter service". Its hardware page (the Australian one NZ visitors are shown) doesn't say which payment provider the Smart Terminal uses in NZ, so ask Lightspeed before you count on it.
What it costs: hire, rent or buy
| Option | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Eftpos NZ hire | $120 + GST up to 1 week; $140 + GST for 8–15 days; $160 + GST up to 1 month | Plus $15 + GST network fee per terminal and $30 + GST courier. Unlimited SIM and paper rolls included |
| Shift4 hire | $140 up to 2 days; $150 up to 7 days; $180 up to 30 days | "GST applies" to all short-term plans; $30 + GST courier |
| Shift4 ongoing | Free Android terminal rental | Minimum monthly turnover threshold and T&Cs apply |
| Lazygrid WisePad 3 | NZ$199 to buy; NZ$50 a week to rent (GST not stated) | Rental includes a week of Lazygrid POS; freight from NZ$11 each way (GST not stated) |
| Skyzer Move 5000 SIM | $10 a month (GST not stated) | Add-on SIM for the terminal |
| Paymark Tap on Mobile | No terminal | Contactless only |
Card fees come on top of all of these. Our true cost calculator adds them up with your POS subscription, and the EFTPOS rental guide covers hire in more detail.
Which POS systems support what
| POS system | Mobile options | Integrated EFTPOS in NZ |
|---|---|---|
| Lazygrid | iPhone and iPad app; Stripe WisePad 3 reader | Windcave, Eftpos NZ (Verifone), Shift4 (formerly Smartpay) |
| Shopify POS | WisePad 3 and POS Terminal | No built-in NZ EFTPOS integration (available via the paid OrderMate app) |
| Hike | Hike Handheld, HikePay Reader | HikePay, Eftpos NZ (Verifone), Windcave |
| Loyverse | Runs on phones and tablets; Shift4 S800 and S920 terminals | Shift4 (formerly Smartpay), iOS only |
| Bustle | iPad only; Bluetooth printers for a single till | Eftpos NZ (Verifone), Windcave, Shift4 (formerly Smartpay) |
| Lightspeed | Tableside case for your device | Windcave, Shift4 (formerly Smartpay), Eftpos NZ (Verifone) |
| Tabin | Runs on iOS, Android and Windows | Eftpos NZ (Verifone), Windcave, Shift4 (formerly Smartpay) |
Signal drops at markets, so offline mode matters. Our comparison shows Lazygrid as "Partial", Loyverse as "Partial" and Shopify POS as "Yes". Check whether card payments keep working offline, not just the till. Use our EFTPOS checker to confirm your combination, and see Read our Lazygrid review, Read our Shopify POS review, Read our Hike review, Read our Loyverse review or Read our Bustle review for more. If you run Bustle on the move, its Bluetooth printer options (the Star SM-S220i and mPOP) attach to a single iPad, and the SM-S220i can't run a cash drawer.
Handhelds for stock counts
A decade ago, "mobile POS" often meant a rugged handheld computer for scanning stock, with batch memory and a Bluetooth printer. Today a phone, iPad or cordless scanner does most of that job:
- Shopify POS can scan barcodes with the device camera, and Shopify says its supported cordless scanners work up to 100 metres from the iPad or iPhone.
- Batch scanners still exist: Loyverse lists the Motorola CS3070, which can work "in standalone mode for the batch scanning of bar codes".
Our barcode scanner guide covers the options.