PayPal is rated one of our top 10 point-of-sale (POS) systems for 2023. It’s also one of our top 10 credit card processing platforms (although it ranked higher for POS systems). PayPal enables small business owners to process payments through a platform customers trust.

PayPal offers many services for business owners, and the extent of their services can be a little confusing if you’re just getting started with payment processing. In short, PayPal lets you accept payments on a website—an e-commerce store, for example. You can also use PayPal to accept in-person payments, such as for a retail store or a stand in a holiday fair.

On PayPal, merchants can accept all major credit cards, Venmo, pay later options and cryptocurrencies. The fees vary based on the transactions. Here’s how the fees break down:

To accept in-person transactions, you’ll need, at the very least, a card reader. PayPal offers many options for hardware through the company Zettle, which it owns. The first card reader you purchase will cost $29 and after that, the cost increases to $79 per reader.