Clover Go has everything merchants need to take mobile credit card payments, but your pricing and experience can vary widely, depending on what reseller you buy from.
WRITTEN & RESEARCHED BY
Lead Staff Writer
Last updated onUpdated
REVIEWED BY
Lead Staff Writer
| Total Rating | 4.0 |
|---|---|
| Pricing3.2 | |
| Ease Of Use4.5 | |
| Features4.7 | |
| Customer Service4.4 | |
| User Reviews3.9 | |
Table of Contents
Clover Go is a mobile POS system that allows merchants to accept credit cards and contactless payments with a smartphone or tablet. The system includes a mobile payment reader, POS app, and merchant account. You can also integrate the Clover Go with other Clover hardware, such as the Clover Station Solo, which doesn’t accept contactless payments.
Note that while you can sync your Go to your phone or tablet (the Clover Go app is optimized for an iPad screen), Clover Go doesn’t support a receipt printer or cash drawer, so if you want something that can also do register duty, you’ll want to look at another Clover product or consider Square’s credit card reader.
| Pricing3.2 |
|---|
| Hardware 2.8 |
| Payment Processsing 3.8 |
In terms of software fees and processing fees, Clover Go is pretty affordable for small businesses. However, our Pricing score for Clover Go took a hit due to the high cost of the device itself, and the fact that the standard contract length is 3 years.
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Pricing Range | $0-$14.95/month (for standalone mobile POS plan) |
| Contract Length | 3 years |
| Processing Model | Flat-rate |
| Card-present Transaction Fee | 2.6% + $0.10 |
| eCommerce Transaction Fee | 3.5% + $0.10 |
| Keyed-in Transaction Fee | 3.5% + $0.10 |
| Equipment Cost | $199 |
All Clover Go accounts come with a Fiserv merchant account, but your rates and terms depend on where you buy your system.
When purchasing from Clover.com directly, you’ll get a processing rate of 2.6% + $0.10 for card-present transactions and 3.5% + $0.10 for card-not-present transactions. This higher payment processing rate applies for every payment type except swiped, chipped, tapped, or mobile wallet card payments.
Other Clover resellers package their Fiserv accounts differently and may use various other processing schemes, such as interchange-plus or tiered pricing, with potentially long-term processing commitments.
A Clover Go mobile payment reader is $199 if you purchase from Clover.com. This is pricier than most mobile credit card readers, which typically range from $50 to $100.
However, pricing can vary depending on where you buy your Clover system and associated merchant account. Some merchant services providers may give you a free Clover Go if you sign up for a merchant account.
Clover also sells a Clover Go Dock (pictured above) to hold and charge your Clover Go if you want to use it with a countertop setup. Pricing for this add-on is not mentioned on the Clover website.
You may also be charged a monthly software fee to use Clover Go. Clover recommends the following plans for use with Clover Go:
| Clover Go Plans | Price | When To Use |
|---|---|---|
| Clover Payments | $0/month | If you need low-volume mobile payment processing only. Includes payment processing, paperless receipts, and basic sales tracking. |
| Clover Essentials | $14.95/month | If you need low-volume mobile processing with some basic POS features. Includes Payments plan features, plus a virtual terminal, basic inventory management, order management, refunds, discounts, taxes, employee permissions, item-level reporting, and offline mode. |
As an alternative to the above plans, rather than using the Clover Go as a standalone POS solution, higher-volume businesses have the option to use Clover Go with a more advanced software plan, such as the Register plan or a restaurant-specific plan.
If you’re using other Clover products already, Clover Go will most likely function as an add-on package with a potential monthly service fee on top of your contract.
Learn more about Clover software plans and pricing by reading our article on Clover POS costs.
| Ease Of Use4.5 |
|---|
| Initial Setup 4.4 |
| Device Use 4.5 |
Clover Go earns a good Ease of Use score from us thanks to its easy setup, easy syncing, and overall design. Overall, the Clover Go app is easy to use and navigate, though it will take a little time to configure most settings in a web dashboard rather than in the mobile app itself. Once you get the hang of the functions, Clover is just as user-friendly as any mobile POS app.
The device itself is also user-friendly, if a bit clunky. Unlike Square’s Bluetooth reader, Clover Go can accept swiped transactions, in addition to chip cards, contactless cards, and mobile wallets. The Clover Go app is also compatible with Tap-to-Pay on iPhone, which allows for easy contactless sales using just your iPhone—no card reader required. (You can also key-in card numbers manually using just the app, but you’ll pay the higher card-not-present rate if you go this route.)
Regarding the initial setup, note that you get a full merchant account with Clover Go, which should deliver greater account stability than payment service providers (PSPs, e.g., Square or PayPal). That also means it may take a few more days to get set up with Clover while Fiserv completes the required underwriting. So you shouldn’t expect to be set up and able to process payments on the same day.
| Features4.7 |
|---|
| Device Hardware Features 4.6 |
| Device Software Features 4.8 |
Clover Go earns high marks from us in the Features department; for a mobile card reader, you get a lot of POS functionality with Clover Go.
With that being said, Clover Go features, compared to Square’s, are more limited, with some features tucked behind a paywall. Note that most of these features require the Clover Essentials plan or higher, and many features need to be enabled from within the browser setup and cannot be modified in the Clover Go app.
| Clover Go Features | Availability |
|---|---|
| Multi-Store Support | |
| Contactless Payments | |
| Multi-Channel Selling | With online ordering add-on |
| Gift Cards | |
| Customer Loyalty | |
| Marketing Tools | |
| Online Ordering | Optional add-on |
| Inventory Management | |
| Reporting | |
| Menu Management | With online ordering add-on |
| Delivery Management | With online ordering add-on |
| EBT Acceptance | |
| Employee Management | |
| Text Messaging |
| Customer Service4.4 |
|---|
| Personal Support 3.8 |
| Self-Service 5.0 |
Customer service is an area where some businesses find Clover Go somewhat lacking. Still, Clover Go earns a good overall score in this area, as your account comes with round-the-clock phone support and many useful self-help resources and videos.
In addition to contacting Clover directly, you can also typically reach out to your processor for merchant account questions. However, you will be referred back to Clover’s support representatives for technical questions.
There is one dedicated 24/7 phone line for Clover Go support, but there aren’t really any other ways to contact Clover. Many Clover users report poor phone experiences, so keep this in mind when calling.
Clover also has tailored self-service online knowledge bases for Clover users based on their Clover hardware and software plan. This will serve you well for the vast majority of questions about features and standard uses. Clover also maintains videos and tutorials for Clover Go on YouTube. Clover has a social media presence and a blog, but these are not specific to Clover Go.
| User Reviews3.9 |
|---|
| Customer Feedback 4.0 |
| Review Site Aggregate 3.8 |
Our User Reviews score for Clover Go reflects its mix of positive and negative online reviews. For example, Clover Go reviews are very positive on the iTunes store but only mediocre on Google Play—iPhone users seem to generally have a better experience with Clover Go than Android users. You will also likely have a better experience with Clover Go if you buy from Clover.com directly instead of a Clover reseller.
Amid the lackluster reviews and complaints, you’ll still find some positive reviews of Clover Go. Here is what happy users praise the most:
| Clover Go Review Summary | |
|---|---|
| Pricing Range | $0-$14.95/month (for standalone mobile POS plan) |
| Choose If You Need |
|
Clover Go generally works best for mid-volume Clover merchants using a countertop Clover Station or Mini as their main POS and want Clover Go for mobile sales. However, in the past few years, Clover has tried to rebrand Clover Go as a standalone mobile POS for casual and low-volume businesses.
While I would still recommend Square for this type of user, Clover Go does offer the benefit of your own merchant account and can thus be a good alternative for businesses that have been burned by a payment service provider, such as Square, Shopify, or PayPal.
When it comes to pricing and transparency, your Clover experience will vary quite a bit, depending on which reseller you sign up with. However, your terms and pricing should be pretty upfront as long as you sign up through Clover.com directly.
If you decide to go with Clover Go, make sure you purchase your system from Clover.com or one of these best Clover resellers.
We spend hours researching and evaluating each POS hardware and mobile payments device that we review at Merchant Maverick, placing special emphasis on key characteristics to generate our product ratings.
When rating POS hardware (which might include registers, mobile card readers, and other similar devices), we use a 38-point rubric that looks at pricing, ease of use, features, customer service, and user reviews. We weigh each section differently to calculate the total star rating.
Each section is further broken down into granular, weighted subsections, in which we look at specific attributes, like whether reduced fees are available for multiple terminals, which payment processing options are available, and how well the hardware integrates with POS or payment processing software apps. We’re also paying careful attention to hardware’s relative cost, any associated fees, and whether financing is available, among other things.
Learn more about how we rate POS hardware.
The Merchant Maverick Seal of Approval 🏆
Clover Go |
|---|
After hours of in-depth research and evaluation, we can confidently recommend this brand to our readers. Get started today and see Clover Go for yourself.
The Merchant Maverick Seal of Approval 🏆
Clover Go |
|---|
After hours of in-depth research and evaluation, we can confidently recommend this brand to our readers. Get started today and see Clover Go for yourself.
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Merchant Maverick’s ratings are editorial in nature, and are not aggregated from user reviews. Each staff reviewer at Merchant Maverick is a subject matter expert with experience researching, testing, and evaluating small business software and services. The rating of this company or service is based on the author’s expert opinion and analysis of the product, and assessed and seconded by another subject matter expert on staff before publication. Merchant Maverick’s ratings are not influenced by affiliate partnerships.
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Our team of experts spends hours on every review so that we can find the best companies to recommend to our readers. Clover Go made the cut.
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