TL;DR
Helcim is the pick for U.S. contractors and field service crews doing up to about $60K a month, and for crews whose volume swings with the season. Its interchange-plus pricing costs less than Square's flat 2.6 percent plus 15 cents at every volume in our cost engine, with no contract and no PCI fee. Above about $60K a month of steady, mostly in-person work, Stax's subscription model ($199 or more a month at that volume) costs less. Stripe wins only when most invoices are billed online with ACH. PayPal, Clover, and Square fit retail and food, not contractor workflows.
How we ranked
Contractors and field service crews bill differently from retail. The average ticket is usually higher than at a retail counter, commercial cards show up on B2B jobs, and invoicing happens in trucks, on phones, or by emailed link. We weighted six criteria.
- Effective rate at $80K monthly volume on a $700 average ticket. A hypothetical crew, used for the worked examples below.
- Contract length and early termination fees. A multi-year deal with an early termination fee locks you into today's pricing.
- Mobile reader and tap-on-phone support. Field techs do not carry traditional POS gear.
- ACH and email-invoice support, including partial payments and tipping after the job.
- Settlement speed. Crews need money in the bank fast, especially before Friday payroll.
- Level 2 and 3 data on commercial cards. Without it, B2B card payments can miss the lower commercial categories in the Visa interchange schedule.
Six of the seven providers publish their rates; Payment Depot is quote-only, which we flagged. Prices checked Oct 2026. For interchange-plus providers our examples use the interchange estimate from our cost engine (1.55 percent in person, 1.70 percent online), an assumption based on the Visa Interchange Schedules and Mastercard Interchange Rates and Criteria. Commercial cards cost more than that estimate, so treat interchange-plus figures as a floor.
At a glance
| Provider | Headline pricing | Contract | Settlement | Best for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Helcim | IC + 0.40% + $0.08 in-person | None | Next business morning | Crews up to about $60K monthly, or seasonal volume | Rate moves with card mix; no instant payouts |
| Stax | $99 to $199+/mo by annual volume + IC + $0.08 in-person | No cancellation fee stated; length not published | Next business day | Steady crews above about $60K monthly | $99 to $199+ fee in slow months |
| Stripe | 2.9% + $0.30 online, 2.7% + $0.05 in-person | None | 2 business days | Online B2B invoicing, ACH-heavy | Flat rate punishes high tickets |
| Square | 2.6% + $0.15 in-person, 2.9% + $0.30 online on paid plans (3.3% + $0.30 on Free) | None | Next business day | Sub-$25K, brand-new crews | Highest in-person rate in our engine |
| Payment Depot | Interchange-plus by quote; no prices listed | No cancellation fees; $0 setup | Not published | Mid-volume crews that want a quote | Full cost not public |
| Clover | Software $0 to $89.95+/mo + 2.3% to 2.6% + $0.10 | 36-month hardware subscriptions | 1 to 3 days | Showroom plus field hybrid | POS hardware lock-in |
| PayPal | 2.29% + $0.09 in-person, 3.49% + $0.49 online | None | PayPal balance; standard withdrawal free | Small online deposits | $0.49 fee hurts low-ticket invoices |
Helcim
Helcim runs an interchange-plus desk with published volume tiers. Online is interchange plus 0.50 percent plus $0.25; in-person is interchange plus 0.40 percent plus $0.08, per the public pricing page. The rate drops automatically as monthly volume rises. No negotiating call.
For a contractor at $80K monthly volume averaging $700 per ticket, in-person cost lands around 1.91 percent on our 1.55 percent interchange estimate, at Helcim's published 0.35 percent plus $0.07 for that volume. The Helcim Card Reader costs $199. The invoicing tool sends a payment link with optional ACH at 0.5 percent plus $0.25, capped at $6.
No contract. No cancellation fee. No PCI fee. No monthly fee. Deposits arrive the next business morning at no cost.
Who it fits: HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing, landscaping, and home-services crews up to about $60K monthly volume, or with seasonal swings at any volume, that mix in-person reader payments with emailed invoices.
Who should skip it: crews that want one fixed rate per sale or instant payouts (Helcim has no instant option), and chargeback-heavy verticals that want a processor with a dedicated risk desk.
Stax
Stax charges $99 per month up to $150,000 a year in volume, $139 from $150,000 to $250,000 and $199 or more above that, then adds interchange plus $0.08 in person and $0.15 online with no percentage markup, per the public pricing page. The subscription model wins on steady volume: in our engine Stax costs $1,055 a month at $50K in person against $1,020 on Helcim, and $4,475 against $4,850 at $250K. On our estimates the two cross at about $60K a month.
For a contractor running $120K monthly at a $1,200 average ticket, the in-person effective rate sits near 1.72 percent including a $199 subscription, on our 1.55 percent interchange estimate. Online invoicing runs a little higher because of the $0.15 transaction fee and card-not-present interchange.
Stax includes a virtual terminal, invoicing, ACH at 1 percent capped at $10, and recurring billing in the platform plan. Hardware is sold separately: the SwipeSimple reader is $125 and the Dejavoo QD4 countertop terminal $310. Stax states no cancellation fees but does not publish a contract length, so get it in writing.
Who it fits: established crews above about $60K monthly volume that bill steadily and want predictable pricing.
Who should skip it: seasonal or sub-$30K crews where the $99 to $199 monthly fee is dead weight in slow months.
Stripe
Stripe charges 2.9 percent plus $0.30 online and 2.7 percent plus $0.05 in person, with no monthly fee, per the public pricing page. ACH on Stripe is 0.8 percent capped at $5 per transaction. PayPal's ACH Services charges the same 0.80 percent capped at $5, and Helcim charges 0.5 percent plus $0.25 capped at $6.
For a contractor running mostly online invoices with a $1,500 average ticket, online card pricing costs about $43.80 per transaction in fees while ACH costs $5. The math nudges every B2B invoice toward ACH.
Stripe's Terminal hardware ships fast and the API supports custom invoicing flows, but the flat-rate card pricing hits high-ticket credit card payments.
Who it fits: contractors that bill online by email, run software stacks built on Stripe (job-management apps, scheduling platforms), and route most B2B work to ACH.
Who should skip it: cash-on-completion crews taking cards in person. At $50K a month in person, our engine puts Stripe at 2.80 percent against 2.04 percent for Helcim.
Square
Square charges 2.6 percent plus $0.15 in person on its Free plan, 3.3 percent plus $0.30 online via invoice on Free (2.9 percent plus $0.30 on its paid plans), and 3.5 percent plus $0.15 for keyed entries, per the public pricing page. The free Square Reader app supports tap-on-phone with no hardware purchase required.
For a contractor at $80K monthly volume on a $700 average ticket, in-person card cost is roughly 2.62 percent effective. The same $80K on a $200 average ticket (irrigation tune-ups, small electrical) lands closer to 2.68 percent because the $0.15 per-transaction fee weighs more.
No contract, no monthly fee on the basic plan, instant deposits available for a 1.95 percent fee.
Who it fits: brand-new crews, sub-$25K monthly volume operators, or low-ticket field work where speed of setup beats fee savings.
Who should skip it: contractors at $50K monthly and up, where our engine puts Square at $1,450 a month in person against $1,020 on Helcim.
Payment Depot
Payment Depot sells interchange-plus pricing by quote. Its pricing page (archived Oct 2025) lists no monthly or per-transaction price; it says $0 setup and no cancellation fees. Without prices we cannot compute its full cost or rank it.
For a contractor at $100K monthly volume, get a written quote and compare it with Stax's published $199 or more a month plus interchange and 8 cents a sale. Hardware prices are not on its pricing page, so ask.
Who it fits: established mid-volume crews that want interchange-plus pricing and are willing to get a full quote first.
Who should skip it: very small operators (under $25K monthly), where any monthly fee in the quote can outweigh the savings against a flat-rate provider, and crews that want published prices before they talk to sales.
Clover
Clover bundles plan-based POS pricing with hardware. Software runs from $0 on Starter to $89.95 or more a month on the Growth bundles, with in-person rates of 2.6 percent + $0.10 on Starter, 2.5 percent + $0.10 on Essentials and 2.3 percent + $0.10 on Growth, and 3.5 percent + $0.10 for keyed entries, per Clover's pricing page (prices checked Oct 2026). Clover Go costs $199 and Station Solo bundles start at $1,799.
For most field service crews, the POS hardware is over-spec. The reader cost is competitive, but Clover is built for fixed-location retail and food: the field service feature set is shallow compared with Helcim or Stax.
Clover's hardware subscriptions run 36 months and cannot be canceled, so switching processors mid-term means paying for gear you no longer use. Clover sold through a bank can carry different rates and terms than Clover.com.
Who it fits: contractors that also run a fixed showroom or retail counter (paint, tile, flooring, kitchen) and want one stack across both channels.
Who should skip it: pure field service crews. The 36-month hardware term and retail focus add cost without matching how the work runs.
PayPal
PayPal charges 3.49 percent plus $0.49 on standard online checkout, 2.89 percent plus $0.29 on its advanced card processing tier, and 2.29 percent plus $0.09 in person, per the public pricing page.
For B2B and contractor invoicing, the $0.49 per-transaction fee on online card is the highest among the providers in this list. On a $50 service-call deposit, the effective rate runs 4.47 percent. On a $5,000 invoice it is about 3.50 percent: the fixed fee fades, but the 3.49 percent rate does not.
PayPal's strength is that many customers already have a PayPal account. For a roofing crew sending invoices via SMS or email, some customers will prefer to pay with it.
Who it fits: small operators that take occasional online deposits and value brand recognition at checkout.
Who should skip it: anyone above $30K monthly invoice volume. The fee structure makes ACH-plus-Stripe a better long-run pick.
Verdict
For U.S. contractors and field service crews up to about $60K monthly volume, and for seasonal crews at any volume, Helcim is the pick. It is the cheapest provider in our engine at $10K and $50K a month, with no monthly fee, no contract, no PCI fee, and mobile plus invoicing in one app.
The runner-up depends on volume and channel. Above about $60K monthly of steady, mostly in-person card work, Stax's subscription ($199 or more a month at that volume) costs less once the markup is gone; at $250K a month our engine has Stax at $4,475 against $4,850 for Helcim. Below $25K monthly or for crews that prioritize fast onboarding, Square's free reader and same-day setup are hard to beat. For online-heavy B2B billing where ACH is the answer, Stripe's ACH at 0.8 percent capped at $5 is among the lowest published caps here.
Remodelers on large residential jobs face a separate question: whether to let homeowners pay monthly through a lender. The lender charges the contractor a fee that depends on the plan, and it can be more than taking a card. Our guide to contractor financing for customers works through the cost on an $88,000 kitchen remodel.
The two to skip in this category: PayPal (the $0.49 per online transaction is the worst fit for service-call deposits) and Clover (a 36-month hardware subscription that cannot be canceled is a poor fit for field crews).