Tyro vs Zeller for Australian EFTPOS

Tyro

B+

Tyro Payments Limited is a Sydney-based merchant acquirer and bank, founded in 2003, granted a specialist credit card institution licence in 2005 and a full Australian banking licence in 2015, and listed on the ASX as TYR since 2019. It serves more than 77,800 Australian merchants, processed $44.3 billion in transaction value in the year to June 2026, and reported gross profit of $231.8 million, EBITDA of $66.9 million and statutory profit before tax of $22.3 million for that year. Its pricing is published and flat: 1.3% including GST on every card transaction for businesses under $20,000 a month, a custom quote above that, and a Pro Touch or Pro Key terminal at $29 a month, a Pro Lite at $19, or a Tap to Pay app on your own phone for nothing — with no lock-in contract, no joining fee and no break fee. New customers transacting more than $20,000 a month who join before 24 November 2026 get 1% until 31 March 2027. Takings settle seven days a week, the same day, into a fee-free Tyro Transaction Account protected by the Financial Claims Scheme, or next business day to an outside bank. Tyro integrates with more than 580 POS and practice-management systems, routes debit through the cheapest network with Tap & Save, and lends up to $400,000 against card takings. The record has one scar: a January 2021 terminal outage that left some merchants unable to take cards for weeks and produced a Federal Court class action that Tyro settled in principle in February 2023 without admitting liability. Nigel Lee became chief executive in January 2026, and Tyro's Australian Trustpilot profile is 4.2 from about 560 reviews, 69% five-star and 20% one-star.

Zeller

B+

Zeller is a Melbourne payments and business-banking company founded in 2020 by Ben Pfisterer, who had led Square's Asia-Pacific team, and Dominic Yap, and launched in May 2021. It sells an EFTPOS terminal outright — the Zeller Terminal 1x and the newer Zeller Terminal 2, both listed at A$99 on promotion in September 2026 — with no monthly rental, no lock-in contract and a flat 1.4% on every in-person card, American Express included, falling to 1.2% when payments run through its free Zeller POS software. Every merchant gets a Zeller Transaction Account and debit card at no cost, with card takings settled into it nightly and available the next business day at an outside bank. It also offers invoices, a virtual terminal, Tap to Pay on iPhone and Android, corporate expense cards and, from April 2026, a UK operation priced at 1.3% on domestic Visa and Mastercard. The company reached a valuation above A$1 billion ten months after launch on the back of a A$100 million Series B in March 2022 and says more than 100,000 Australian businesses use it. Zeller Australia Pty Ltd holds an Australian financial services licence and is a principal member of Mastercard; merchant funds are held in a segregated account at Cuscal rather than in a bank deposit. The pricing is among the simplest in the Australian market and the hardware is well regarded; the recurring complaint is the one every fintech acquirer attracts — funds frozen pending documents, with slow answers.