4 Best Card Machines for a Spaza Shop (2026)

Most of the time in a spaza shop, your customers are spending R10, R20, maybe R60 or a bit more. And how they spend at your shop is mostly set by what you have taught them to expect. They buy a loaf and a cold drink, and then they ask you for airtime or electricity, and they ask whether you take cards so they don't always have to walk around with money on them.

Now with the card machine question, the answer you give becomes the identity of your shop. Meaning, if you didn't take cards the day they asked, then yours is the shop that doesn't take cards, and next time they go to the one that does. Same with airtime or vouchers. You don't lose the sale you said no to, you lose the ones after it.

So if you're reading this because you're thinking about getting a card machine, keep going.

I'll help you work out which one is actually right for you between the iKhokha iK Flyer Lite and the Yoco Khumo 2, which are the two cheapest right now, and I'll cover the printing versions and the rest of the options as we go.

Which card machine clears the bar for a spaza

A spaza is one of those businesses that survives on convenience. So the decision to add a card machine should come down to one thing: does it add another layer of convenience for the people you want walking in.

If your customers are constantly asking you for airtime, data, electricity or vouchers, you should only be looking at an iKhokha machine to start with.

iKhokha's fee is also now slightly lower than Yoco's, and I'll get to that. But convenience is what you actually want on this counter, and if it costs slightly more, that's worth swallowing. More people through the door means more baskets, and an extra R75 a month stops mattering the moment that happens.

It works out because iKhokha dropped the iK Flyer Lite from R999 to R699, and iKhokha takes a further 10% off with the discount link in this guide, which brings it to about R629.

That puts it at or under the price of a Yoco machine, and Yoco can't sell airtime for you at all. Yoco's convenience is about something else, which I'll show you in a minute.

10% off

iKhokha iK Flyer Lite

Sells airtime, data, electricity, DStv and vouchers from the same card machine, on commission. That is the reason people stop at your shop rather than the one down the road.

R629R699once-off · R0 monthly on shop Wi-Fi, or R75 for the two SIMs · was R999 · 30% off

Buy with 10% off

One thing to know before you start: you fund the prepaid float yourself, and the profit on those sales comes back to you the following month. It's real income, it's just not instant income.

iKhokha's help centre lists the commission: 3% on airtime, data and gaming vouchers when the customer pays cash, 2% when they pay by card, and 1% on electricity. If you already sell airtime by hand, you'll know quickly whether that beats what you make on it now.

So where does Yoco fit in?

Yoco's whole thing is that it charges less per sale and it doesn't nickel-and-dime you around the money.

It takes 2.30% excluding VATExcluding VATThe rate before 15% VAT is added, which is how almost every South African provider quotes. A rate of 2.30% excl. VAT actually bills you 2.645%, so two quotes are only comparable once you know which basis each is on.What it costs a spaza counter2.30% bills 2.645%. On R20 000 of card sales a month that is R529 rather than R460, so about R828 a year sits between the rate you read and the rate you pay.Read the full definition where iKhokha now starts at 2.10%. Unlimited data is included, so a quiet month costs you nothing, and it charges nothing to pay you out. iKhokha takes R2.50 every time it settles money into your bank account.

If you're the kind of shop where nobody has ever asked for airtime, that's your machine, and you should not pay for SIMs and payouts on an engine you're never going to switch on.

R100 off

Yoco Khumo 2

Cheaper on every basket at 2.30% excluding VAT, nothing monthly on the free Core plan, unlimited data included, and it takes nothing to pay you.

R599R699once-off · R0 monthly on the free Core plan, data included

Buy with R100 off

Now if Yoco is looking attractive but you still want to sell airtime, there's a way to have both and it costs you nothing extra.

Buy the Yoco Khumo 2 for the card side, then sign up with iKhokha as well and sell prepaid from the free iKhokha App on your phone. The app costs nothing. You aren't buying two machines, you're using a free app to fill the prepaid gap.

What the gap actually costs you a month

Say you have settled on one of those two but you want to see what the fees really do on your kind of turnover. For those of you who need the actual numbers, here they are on two shops: a quiet one making about R5 000 a month on card payments, and one that's doing well at around R25 000 on card payments.

You can already see which one is cheaper, so the test that matters is whether you're willing to give up selling airtime and electricity in order to keep that R88 or R177 a month.

And that depends on how you think about your shop. If that money covers something real for you this month, then take Yoco and don't feel bad about it.

But look at it the other way round. That R177 is the cost of getting people to stop at your door instead of walking to the shop that does sell airtime. Put like that it isn't a loss, it's the cheapest marketing you will ever buy, and it comes back every time somebody walks in for a R12 voucher and leaves with bread as well.

That's the decision, and for a shop making over about R10 000 a month I don't think it's close. What the extra traffic brings in is bigger than that R15. Go with the iKhokha iK Flyer Lite.

If you want to put your own turnover into it rather than take my two examples, we built a slider that runs on both companies' current fees, so you don't have to keep checking two fee pages that keep changing. Drag it to what your shop actually takes.

If your shop does not look like either of those

Not every spaza is in the same position, and a few of these come up often enough to be worth answering directly.

So what should you buy?

If people already ask you for airtime, data or electricity and you have been sending them across the road, buy the iKhokha iK Flyer Lite. R699, or about R629 with the 10% off here, and the counter starts earning on demand that's already walking past you.

If nobody asks, buy the Yoco Khumo 2. Nothing monthly, unlimited data included, nothing taken when it pays you.

And if your customers want a printed slip, neither of those two will do it. Both are digital-receipt only.

What you want is the printing version of whichever one you just picked, because they are the same machines with a thermal printer bolted on.

The iK Flyer is R1 499 and the Khumo Print 2 is R1 399, and I'd only spend the extra if people ask you for slips, since the printer is the whole difference. Here they are side by side.

Prints the vouchers too

iKhokha iK Flyer

The iK Flyer Lite with a printer. Still sells airtime and vouchers, and it prints those too.

R1 499price today R1 349your price 10% off

See it at iKhokha

may earn a commission at no cost to you.

Keeps the data included

Yoco Khumo Print 2

The Khumo 2 with a printer, and it keeps the unlimited data.

R1 399price today R1 299your price R100 off

See it at Yoco

may earn a commission at no cost to you.

Same rates, same accounts, same everything else as the R699 versions. You are buying the printer.

Price last confirmed on 5 November 2026

And whichever you pick, take your payouts less often than daily if you're on iKhokha. R2.50 a time adds up on small amounts, and it's the one saving on this page that costs you nothing.

If you want to go deeper on the two companies rather than just this counter, I did the full comparison on Yoco vs iKhokha, and the fees guide explains what you're actually paying for on every sale.

Questions people ask me about this