Clover Go App & Card Reader Review
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.
Clover Go

Total Rating | 4.0 |
---|---|
Pricing | Good |
Features | Good |
Customer Service | Fair |
Contract Length & Early Termination Fees | Fair |
Reviews | Good |
Clover Go At A Glance
- Connects with your other Clover devices
- Can be especially useful for Clover Station Solo owners since the Solo model cannot accept mobile wallets or contactless card payments
- Flat-rate payment processing through Clover.com
Pros
- Inexpensive hardware
- Free mobile processing app
- Good web dashboard
- Affordable monthly plans
Cons
- Pricing and terms vary
- Expensive for low-volume merchants
Table of Contents
What Is Clover Go?
Clover Go is a Bluetooth credit card and mobile wallet reader. Using this hardware and the Clover point of sale (POS) app, you can take payments with your mobile device. You can also integrate the Clover Go with Clover hardware, such as the Clover Station Solo, which can’t take mobile/contactless card payments.
Clover Go Pricing
Clover Go pricing includes pricing for the device itself and your monthly Clover software plan. Generally, Clover Go is pretty affordable for small businesses — if you buy from Clover directly.
Clover Go Hardware Pricing
A Clover Go mobile payment reader is $49 if you buy from Clover.com. 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, while others charge more than $100 for the device.
Clover also sells a $29 countertop stand (pictured above) to hold and charge your Clover Go.
Clover Go Software Pricing
Clover recommends the following plans for use with Clover Go:
Clover Monthly Plan | Price | Features | Best For |
---|---|---|---|
Clover Payments | $0/month | Payment processing, paperless receipts, basic sales tracking | Low-volume mobile payment processing only |
Clover Essentials | $14.95/month | Payments plan features, plus a virtual terminal, basic inventory management, order management, refunds, discounts, taxes, employee permissions, item-level reporting, and offline mode | Low-volume mobile processing with some basic POS features |
Clover Payments Features
- Swipe, chip, and tap card payments
- Mobile wallet payments such as Apple Pay and Google Pay
- Keyed-in payments on the Clover app or website
- Paperless receipts
- Basic sales tracking
- Mobile invoicing
- Bookkeeping (QuickBooks and Xero) integrations
- 24/7 support
Clover Essentials Features
- Payments plan features
- Real-time sales tracking
- Detailed sales reports
- Tax reporting
- Basic inventory management
- Employee permissions and shift management
- Client database
- Loyalty program
- Promotions
- Clover gift cards (digital or physical)
With either of these plans, you will pay a flat processing fee of 2.6% + $0.10 for all card-present transactions and 3.5% + $0.10 for all card-not-present transactions. This higher payment processing rate applies to online and phone orders, keyed-in card numbers, invoice/virtual terminal payments, and payments through any third-party ordering platforms such as Order With Google.
Both plans are generally suitable for low-volume mobile businesses processing less than $50,000 a year. Then again, the $14.95/monthly fee on the Essentials plan can seem like a lot for a very low-volume business, especially when there are mPOS systems with no monthly fees available, such as the Square Contactless Chip + Card Reader and PayPal Zettle.
Alternatively, 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.
However, you won’t fully benefit from a higher-tier plan unless you are using the Go in addition to a complete Clover POS system, such as a Clover Station or Clover Mini.
Learn more about Clover software plans and pricing by reading our article on Clover POS costs.
Note that if you do not buy from Clover directly, your merchant services provider may also charge additional monthly fees to use Clover Go.
Clover Go Features
You get a full merchant account with Clover Go, which should deliver greater account stability than third-party processors (such as 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.
The Clover Go feature set is limited compared to Square’s (see our Clover POS vs. Square POS comparison) but functional, 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:
- New Sale: Every mPOS out there has a quick-pay mode where you just punch in an amount and swipe a card. Clover Go is no different in that regard. Ring up items in the New Sale tab by selecting them from your inventory list or entering a custom item and price and having customers sign for their purchase on your device’s screen. This screen is optimized in landscape mode on the app’s iPad version.
- Card Scanner: If the card readers aren’t working, you can use your device’s camera to scan the card instead of manually entering it.
- Dashboard: In your Clover Go mobile dashboard (as opposed to your Clover’s web dashboard, which is a separate thing), you can update your business details, add employees, and view weekly sales data.
- Inventory: What sets Clover Go apart is its inventory mode. Most mPOS systems allow you to punch in a mix of items and a custom amount if needed. On the other hand, Clover Go has a separate, searchable inventory mode that lets you view and edit items and add new items. However, this feature isn’t available on the free plan.
- Item Descriptions: Pretty standard stuff here; you can see and edit an item’s name, price, category, tax rate, etc. Previously, you could only create items from within the Clover dashboard. You can now ring up custom items in the app and add these new items to your inventory either from the New Sale screen or the Inventory screen. Previous versions of Clover Go also didn’t support variable pricing or pricing per unit, so I was glad to see that Clover now supports these pricing options.
- Item Counts: Clover Go doesn’t have robust inventory counts. However, there is an integration with the dashboard where items sold in Clover Go will deduct from your inventory counts. Refunds will not restock items, however.
- Customizable Tip: You can enable tipping within the web dashboard and set it with up to four preset tip amounts.
- Customizable Tax: Clover Go’s tax management tools aren’t as robust as other options I’ve seen, but I’ll give Clover credit for allowing the application of multiple taxes to items. You can choose from some preset tax rates for an item in the app, but the tax rate options need to be managed from the dashboard.
- Email/SMS Receipts: When a transaction is complete, you can send a text message or email receipts to customers.
- Clover Suite Integration: Clover Go will sync back to the dashboard and work with other data if you’re using additional Clover products. However, not all of the features the other devices support translate into Clover Go.
- Unlimited Users: I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Clover allows you to create unlimited sub-user accounts for free. Clover also supports different permission levels so that you can control access to some features.
- Open Orders: This surprising feature allows you to pull up orders started in any other Clover POS system in Clover Go and vice versa, which is a nice touch, though only available with the Register level plan.
- Barcode Scanning: iOS users can scan barcodes to find items instead of searching for them within the app.
- Searchable Interface: You can find items by entering them in the search box instead of just scrolling through the list, which is another nice touch.
- Discounts: The Clover Go app’s major update added a much-needed discounting feature. This feature allows you to add preset percentage-based or value-based discounts and create new ones on the fly. However, you can only add discounts to the entire order, not individual items.
- Reports: The reporting suite includes the following (fairly basic) reports: Sales Overview, Sales Report, Tender Types, Card Types, Item Sales, Removed Items, Requested Reports, Order Types, Employees, Discounts, and Taxes. Recently, Clover improved the Export feature for the Sales Report and the Item Sales Reports, allowing you to be more flexible about the data you export.
Is Clover Go User-Friendly?
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, the Clover Go can accept swiped transactions as well as EMV and NFC. 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 something such as PayPal Here or Square.
Customer Service & Support
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 has a few 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.
Payment Processing With Clover Go
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 flat-rate, month-to-month pricing with rates starting at 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.
Contract Length & Early Termination Fees
Your contract terms depend on your Clover hardware vendor.
Clover offers 36-month and 48-month contracts, with a potentially large early termination fee if you cancel before your contract ends. 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.
If you talk to a Clover sales rep, they may say that they can waive an early termination fee. However, verbal agreements aren’t enforceable. That’s why you have to make sure any contract agreements are in writing.
You can probably get a better contract from a reputable Clover reseller and negotiate a good merchant agreement.
Clover Go Reviews
Negative Clover Go Reviews & Complaints
Here are the main negatives found in Clover Go reviews:
- Card Reader Troubles: This is an especially common complaint among Android users. Specifically, users seem to have trouble connecting the standard headphone jack reader to their phones, forcing people to get new readers and manually key in transactions. You can get around this by opting for the all-in-one Bluetooth reader, which seems to solve most merchants’ issues. If you have a new iPhone, this is your only option.
- Lack Of Features: The Clover Go app is functional but very basic compared to a full-featured POS or even a system such as Square, which blurs the line between mobile and full-fledged POS. You can’t manage a lot of settings from within the app, and the tablet versions of the app don’t support a landscape view mode, which is at odds with many tablet display stands.
- Glitchy Software: App crashes and login problems are common and not surprising complaints. It looks like a recent upgrade accidentally removed the entire custom tip feature from the app, which is the opposite of what you want to happen when you roll out an update. It took about a week to fix, judging from the dates on app reviews and Fiserv’s responses. Generally, Android users complain about how the hardware glitches and crashes more frequently than iPhone and iPad users.
- Poor Customer Service: Users report long hold times and unresolved issues upon contacting customer support. This echoes the reports we’ve heard regarding other Clover products and Fiserv in general. However, your experience will vary depending on who does your onboarding.
Positive Clover Go Reviews & Testimonials
Amid the lackluster reviews and complaints, you’ll still find some positive reviews of Clover Go. Here is what happy users praise the most:
- Compatible With Other Clover Systems: For merchants already using other Clover products, using Clover Go as a simple mobile solution makes a lot of sense. Information syncs up with an existing Clover account, which is a big selling point.
- Good Customer Service: I saw praise of Clover’s customer service come up often enough to mention it here, even though there are far more merchants claiming the opposite. Again, your experience will vary. Some resellers do better than others at providing support, especially in the onboarding process. Once you’re up and running, you’ll deal with Clover directly, which may not go as well.
- Pricing: Again, this doesn’t exactly come up a lot, but a handful of merchants say the pricing is comparable to other options. Your experience may vary, but I’m inclined to think the merchants that get the best deals are larger businesses or are using Clover Go as an extension of their existing Clover system.
Final Verdict Of Clover Go
Clover Go is well-rounded overall and has everything merchants need to take mobile credit card payments. The account stability you get with your included merchant account is also a big draw. But some aspects of Clover Go — such as needing to modify settings in the web dashboard, not the app — drive me bonkers! And you can certainly get better feature sets from other providers, including Square, which offers its superior suite of mobile POS features for free.
When it comes to pricing and transparency, your 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.
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 or one of these best mobile card processing apps 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.
If you decide to go with Clover Go, make sure you purchase your system from Clover.com or one of these best Clover resellers.
Clover Go FAQs
The Merchant Maverick Seal of Approval 🏆
Clover Go ![]() |
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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.
Organization Name: Canyon Gardens
The WORST customer service EVER! When I checked my deposit record and found that 2/3 of the amount submitted was being charged as a fee/adjustment I called customer support to find out what was going on. After 20 some minutes of no answers and on hold the call was disconnected. Called back, was told the reason was that I was on “rapid deposit”, hence the (exorbitant) charges. Was transferred to “Tech” to get off of rapid deposit. Tech said we weren’t even eligible for rapid deposit and weren’t on it, but had to go back to “customer service” to resolve the charges. Long story short, the “charges” were not actually charges but showed up as such because of a 5 day delay in posting. The actual charges are never shown to you. At this point I had been on the phone with them for about an hour and a half. When I asked to do a customer review of this whole situation, they hung up on me. I’m going to change services.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Houndstooth
We opened our store with Shopkeep on an iPad using the clover all in one card reader (swipe, chip, contactless) little over a year ago. It has been a constant problem from the beginning. Doesn’t always read cards. Slow to process. Duplicates charges. Today the card reader locked up. Again. They had us go through the diagnostic process for at least the tenth time in the last six months. They final agree with me that it’s the card reader. We’ll need a new one. Oh, what’s that? It’s no longer under warranty? Been over a year? Really? Now that it’s out of warranty they want us to replace it. I asked to replace it months ago during the warranty period and they refused claiming other problems. Problems which have not appears not have they been able to solve. The AG’s office will be getting a call from us. Clover needs to replace the reader free of charge.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Wafeltje
I did quite some research before purchasing Clover Go in December 2019, through my existing BofA account. I finally opened the box in February 2020 and it won’t process cards or contactless, but the app works fine. After 4 calls with various “support” representatives, I am faced with paying $59.95 for a new reader, even though it has never processed a single transaction. They claim that after thirty days, all their responsibilities terminate. I feel that I have very good reason to obtain service for the initial $89.99 I paid, but it seems they have me. What would I like the power to do? Simply process some transactions before being charged a 67% fee!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: ATEEM LLC
Hello Melissa,
Thank you for the information. I am looking to use this product only to manually enter an amount and swipe a card. I do not need any other features. Do you think this product is suitable for that? I tried to move to square but their processing fees are much more than I am currently getting and my current provider supports this product at a lower percentage.
Thanks,
Todd
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Todd,
If you’re happy with your current provider, yes, Clover Go would likely be a good option for your needs. We recommend Clover’s EMV reader rather than just the mag stripe reader so that you can process the chip card and get better protection against fraud, however. Hope this helps and best of luck!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: OC Rooterman
Worst customer service, rep had no clue what she was doing. stayed on phone for over an hour just to find out why I was charged 3 times for a lease payment. Still waiting & they still can’t resolve my issue. Clover has to step up or call it quits, I think Bank of America should do business with qualified business’s not the cheapest bidders.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Buddy, the processing company (in your case Bank of America) handles the leasing and selling of the equipment, not Clover. Clover is a great company and product with a top notch sales desk. Sorry you had a bad rep and dealt with a big bank (will always screw you). Just want you to know that it’s BoA getting you not Clover. Owners need to do a little more due diligence and attempt to thoroughly know what they are signing up for.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Almeida Plumbing, Heating & Air
Started having problems with the app on my iPhone 7 right from the start. Never a problem using ithe app on my iPad. After opening the app you it doesn’t recognize the key strokes to enter the passcode. Multiple calls to tech support. Problem not resolved. As instructed, I took both my iPad and iPhone to an Apple store and the Apple genius said it’s a communication glitch between the ap and the phone. Problem remains unresolved, so forced to get rid of Clover Go and find another product.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: LD LOCKSMITH LLC
Their system works okay, until something goes wrong. ON 3/1/20018 my batch was not processed . The funds were not deposited to my account. Customer service was for the most part very bad and very frustrating. Their 1st representative placed me on hold at least 4 times and hung up before answering all my questions. The next Rep. also placed me on hold , then I got transferred to tech support by mistake. The 3rd and last Rep. also placed me on hold, but could not tell me if their problem had been resolved. He said ” the batches old & new should go through but we wont know for sure until Monday. I made the sales in question on Thursday.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Great article! My local rep for Bank of America Merchant Services says they’ve just launched a new program to compete with Square. They’re providing the Clover Go All-in-One free along with their Register Bundle at no monthly fee. They’re keeping the transaction fee just below Square’s. Mine just arrived yesterday so I haven’t had a chance to use it yet. Square’s website is certainly more intuitive, and so far it seems that e-invoices have monthly fees attached (I think Square’s are free). The inventory feature doesn’t include photos, but otherwise seems good.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I switched from Paymentech to Clover Connect in December 2016 and the experience so far has been exactly as promised. The sales rep, Louis Sachs, was nothing short of phenomenal. The Clover Mini is exactly what I needed. It accepts all CCs, debit cards, and Apple Pay/Android Pay. It’s sleek looking so it fits right in with the design of our office. It was easy to install with clear instructions. I didn’t need call support. In fact, I haven’t had any issues since I started processing with the device more than three months ago. I was able to get a very low rate based on my transaction volume so I’m happy with that. Actually much less than Paymentech. There are fees that I have to pay each month including TransArmor for security but I would have to pay that no matter who I transacted with. There have been no hidden fees on my bill each month and that has been a relief!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.