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PayPal Here Basics

PayPal Here is a basic point of sale app for you iPad, iPhone, or Android device. It's simple and easy to use, and good for small businesses. It's fairly similar to Square in many ways, but integrates with your PayPal account for easy payment receipt. Are you interested in using PayPal Here for your business? This article will go over:

  1. What PayPal Here is, and who should use it
  2. Officially compatible hardware for PayPal Here
  3. Unofficially compatible hardware for PayPal Here

What is PayPal Here?

PayPal Here works with your smartphone or tablet. Like Square, PayPal Here is comprised of two main parts: a free point of sale app available in the App Store and from Google Play; and a magnetic stripe card reader, which is available for free from PayPal's website (first card reader is free, see PayPal's website for more details). A chip card reader that accepts NFC payments as well as traditional magnetic stripe payments is also available from PayPal's website for $79.

PayPal Here has a simple, straightforward inventory management system. Adding items to inventory is intuitive, and you have the option to put inventory items into certain categories or add modifiers. PayPal Here provides limited reporting, such as sales reports. It also has a system of multiple accounts to accommodate multiple users.

PayPal Here is priced at 2.7% per US card swipe (plus 3.5% + 15 cents to manually key in cards, and 2.9% + 30 cents to invoice), which is fairly comparable to Square's 2.75% per card swipe.

Compatible Devices:

  • iPhone 3GS and later and iPad, running iOS 7.0 or later
  • Android devices running 4.0 or later
  • Device must have headphone jack to use card reader
  • PayPal suggests downloading the app to check if it works with your device

Compatible Hardware for PayPal Here

If you're looking to use PayPal Here as a point of sale station for your business, there is a variety of officially compatible hardware you can use with your device. PayPal Here is compatible with different hardware for iOS and Android devices, so choose your hardware accordingly.

Receipt Printer for iOS Devices

PayPal Here for iOS works with Ethernet and Bluetooth interface Star Micronics and Epson brand receipt printers. PayPal states that it is likely compatible with other Star Micronics brand Ethernet printers as well, see unofficially compatible hardware list below for more information.

Ethernet

Bluetooth

Receipt Printer for Android Devices

PayPal Here for Android officially works with the following Star Micronics brand wireless (WiFi) interface receipt printers.

Cash Drawer

PayPal Here works with any printer driven cash drawer that is compatible with your receipt printer and is equipped a 320 volt interface connection. PayPal Here recommends the following cash drawers:

Please keep in mind that Bluetooth interface mobile printers (such as the SM-S220i and SM-T300i) cannot connect to printer driven cash drawers. Mobile printers can only be used with manual cash drawers.

Barcode Scanner

PayPal Here automatically uses the built-in camera on your smartphone or tablet as a barcode scanner. If you would rather use a physical barcode scanner, see unofficially compatible hardware below.

Unofficially Compatible Hardware for PayPal Here

PayPay Here works with a variety of accessories not listed on the officially compatible list on their website. Please keep in mind that although we have tested the following hardware and found that it works, PayPal will not support it should you run into difficulties.

Receipt Printer

As mentioned above, PayPal states that it is likely that other Ethernet interface Star Micronics printers will work with iOS devices, but the layout may be different. If you already have an Ethernet interface Star printer, you can download the PayPal Here app and test your printer compatibility. If you do not, we recommend the Ethernet interface TSP100III (listed above) over any other Star printer, because it is compatible with a variety of other point of sale apps for iOS, such as ShopKeep, making it easy to upgrade in the future.

Barcode Scanner

PayPal Here is not officially compatible with any barcode scanners, and instead works with the camera on your device. If you do not want to use your device camera to scan barcodes (for instance, if you are using PayPal Here with an iPad in a stand and you don't want to navigate the iPad camera), you can use a Bluetooth barcode scanner instead. Bluetooth barcode scanners can scan from the barcode scan window in PayPal Here (which automatically brings up the device camera), and can be used how you would normally use a Bluetooth scanner.

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