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Apple Pay

Ranked 2 of 17 mobile payment apps by recommenders

Recommended for fast, secure tap and online checkout that works almost everywhere. Common caveat: it needs a phone and fails at some merchants.

Recommended for fast, secure tap and online checkout that works almost everywhere. Common caveat: it needs a phone and fails at some merchants.

121 people gave an opinion

recommend it
73
criticize it
48
approval share
60%
Each figure is one person. RecommendsCriticizes

Recommended in 12 of 13 months

  1. November 2025: recommended
  2. December 2025: recommended
  3. January 2026: recommended
  4. February 2026: recommended
  5. March 2026: recommended
  6. April 2026: recommended
  7. May 2026: recommended
  8. June 2026: recommended
  9. July 2026: recommended
  10. August 2026: recommended
  11. September 2026: recommended
  12. October 2026: recommended
  13. November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)

Why it doesn’t carry the badge

  • 73 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
  • 1.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
  • Recommended in 12 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.

The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works

What people say about it

The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.

Why people recommend it

Each mark is one comment

  • Fast checkout with no PIN or unlocking

    “it's so much better for efficiency of payment, especially with things like Apple Pay where you don't even have to enter a PIN”

    Comment from 5 Jul 2026 in “The Preemptive Draw and Preemptive Grip in the Cash-in-Transit Sector”

    “Apple Pay as the first payment mechanism I've used that reliably fulfills the promise of being faster/easier than cash”

    Comment from 4 Dec 2025 in “Why doesn't Apple make a standalone Touch ID?”

    “Apple's transit functionality means you don't have to do anything other than tap your device without even unlocking”

    Comment from 5 Jul 2026 in “Phosh 0.56.0”
  • Works in most countries and stores

    “I used it in four countries last year outside of the US - Costa Rica, Canada, UK and France without a problem.”

    Comment from 11 Jan 2026 in “Ask HN: What's your preferred digital payment method?”

    “iPhones have it worldwide, so a visitor to Japan can use Apple Pay to stand up a card and fund it.”

    Comment from 27 Aug 2026 in “Suica, Japan's First IC Transit Card”

    “Google/Apple Pay works really, really well everywhere on the planet.”

    Comment from 16 Feb 2026 in “Wero – Digital payment wallet, Made in Europe”
  • Fewer fraudulent and unauthorized charges

    “Ever since I switched to nearly exclusively using Apple Pay for physical shopping I’ve had no unauthorized charges”

    Comment from 26 Sep 2026 in “Banks and Credit Unions to Team Up Against Apple Pay Fees”

    “Apple Pay is better since using it leads to fewer disputes in the first place”

    Comment from 9 Oct 2026 in “Visa, Mastercard, major banks facing new litigation over 'anticompetitive' fees”

    “Apple Pay was a huge leap forward in preventing credit card info theft”

    Comment from 10 Dec 2025 in “Apple's slow AI pace becomes a strength as market grows weary of spending”
  • Easier than typing card details online

    “It knows address, only requires face id check. Adds shipping tracking. Works on every device I use.”

    Comment from 11 Jan 2026 in “Ask HN: What's your preferred digital payment method?”

    “Apple Pay is less friction for online purchases than entering my credit card info is”

    Comment from 21 Oct 2026 in “Today's PHP security release, and how we're strengthening security”

    “adding a card from a different bank to Apple Pay was quick and painless”

    Comment from 20 Oct 2026 in “Google Cloud outage affects almost all banking and other operations in Europe”

What people warn about

Each mark is one comment

  • Declined at some merchants and banks

    “I've no problem using Apple Pay basically everywhere except Walmart.”

    Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “Epic Games announces Lore version control system”

    “the system wouldn't accept any of the credit cards or her debit card that she had registered with Apple Pay”

    Comment from 26 May 2026 in “Founder of 7/11 Japan, Toshifumi Suzuki, has died at age 93”

    “I've been to many places where the iPhone's contactless payment doesn't work but normal cards do.”

    Comment from 8 Jan 2026 in “Chase to become new issuer of Apple Card”
  • Apple controls access and blocks rivals

    “EU should have forced Google and Apple to allow people to use NFC pay without having Google or Apple accounts”

    Comment from 4 Jul 2026 in “European digital ID wallets are a gift to Google and Apple”

    “Apple refuses to implement Pix on Apple Pay, and regulatory agencies are trying to change that...”

    Comment from 8 May 2026 in “Brazil's Pix Payment System Faces Pressure from Visa and Mastercard”

    “Trading a dependency on MasterCard and Visa for one on Google and Apple is at best a sidegrade.”

    Comment from 20 May 2026 in “Goodbye Visa and Mastercard: 130M Europeans switching to sovereign payment”
  • Tracks and monetizes users

    “The purpose of Apple Pay from a privacy perspective is to prevent credit card theft by using tokens. In reality it's used to track you and monetize you.”

    Comment from 13 Nov 2025 in “Digital ID, a new way to create and present an ID in Apple Wallet”

    “They want our valuable transactional data, and location when those are made.”

    Comment from 11 Feb 2026 in “Europe's $24T Breakup with Visa and Mastercard Has Begun”
  • Breaks on names, phone numbers, missing fields

    “it replaces the phone number with a 1 at the beginning and drops the last number, then I get an error that something is wrong”

    Comment from 23 Jan 2026 in “Bugs Apple Loves”

    “if you put an emoji in your name, you'll need to manually edit it every time you use Apple pay or it breaks the transaction”

    Comment from 21 Nov 2025 in “Android and iPhone users can now share files, starting with the Pixel 10”

    “your payments using Apple Pay will fail unless you fill all the information in manually”

    Comment from 5 Jan 2026 in “It's hard to justify Tahoe icons”

Other mobile payment apps people recommend

The four most recommended other mobile payment apps, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.

Apple Pay compared with 4 alternatives
ProductRecommendCriticizeApprovalMonthsOwnedBadge
Wero849647%11——
Apple PayThis page734860%12——
Apple Wallet586348%10——
Google Pay263344%11——
Google Wallet223439%8——
See all 17 mobile payment apps, ranked

What people said

40 of the 124 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.

“Things like Apple Pay feel like the right abstraction, removing the need for manual input of the basics while tying the actual transaction to an intentional signal.”

RecommendsComment from 30 Oct 2026 in “DoorDash said it's only received 'several hundred' orders from AI agents”

“Apple Pay is less friction for online purchases than entering my credit card info is”

RecommendsComment from 21 Oct 2026 in “Today's PHP security release, and how we're strengthening security”

“adding a card from a different bank to Apple Pay was quick and painless”

RecommendsComment from 20 Oct 2026 in “Google Cloud outage affects almost all banking and other operations in Europe”

“Apple Pay is better since using it leads to fewer disputes in the first place”

RecommendsComment from 9 Oct 2026 in “Visa, Mastercard, major banks facing new litigation over 'anticompetitive' fees”

“It's still kind of mess but it generally works almost everywhere.”

MixedComment from 26 Sep 2026 in “Banks and Credit Unions to Team Up Against Apple Pay Fees”

“Ever since I switched to nearly exclusively using Apple Pay for physical shopping I’ve had no unauthorized charges”

RecommendsComment from 26 Sep 2026 in “Banks and Credit Unions to Team Up Against Apple Pay Fees”

“I had no problem topping it up with apple pay while in Japan.”

RecommendsComment from 28 Aug 2026 in “Suica, Japan's First IC Transit Card”

“an increasing amount of places supporting Apple Pay (thankfully)”

RecommendsComment from 28 Aug 2026 in “Stripe said to abandon $50B pursuit of PayPal”

“iPhones have it worldwide, so a visitor to Japan can use Apple Pay to stand up a card and fund it.”

RecommendsComment from 27 Aug 2026 in “Suica, Japan's First IC Transit Card”

“merchants who skip it are really just choosing to lose customers to competitors who value user time”

RecommendsComment from 23 Aug 2026 in “No Apple Pay, No Sale”

“just a great feature that's seamless and doesn't require pulling out my phone”

RecommendsComment from 12 Aug 2026 in “Pixel Watch 5”

“One very nice use case of Google/Apple Pay is being able to pay with a virtual card in-person.”

RecommendsComment from 2 Aug 2026 in “A big win for Android interoperability”

“the proliferation now of Apple/Google/Samsung Pay, Zelle, PayPal, Venmo, et al., will stave off any large-scale gouging”

MixedComment from 7 Jul 2026 in “JPMorgan, BofA and Others Explore Buying Card Network to Raise Debit-Card Fees”

“Apple's transit functionality means you don't have to do anything other than tap your device without even unlocking”

RecommendsComment from 5 Jul 2026 in “Phosh 0.56.0”

“it's so much better for efficiency of payment, especially with things like Apple Pay where you don't even have to enter a PIN”

RecommendsComment from 5 Jul 2026 in “The Preemptive Draw and Preemptive Grip in the Cash-in-Transit Sector”

“EU should have forced Google and Apple to allow people to use NFC pay without having Google or Apple accounts”

CriticizesComment from 4 Jul 2026 in “European digital ID wallets are a gift to Google and Apple”

“fingerprint checkout and the ability to reverse the charge with Amex is all I really need”

RecommendsComment from 1 Jul 2026 in “Amazon Seller Reveals Rare Glimpse of Shadow Bribery Market”

“It's generally completely open on the acceptance side at this point”

RecommendsComment from 17 Jun 2026 in “Epic Games announces Lore version control system”

“I've no problem using Apple Pay basically everywhere except Walmart.”

RecommendsComment from 17 Jun 2026 in “Epic Games announces Lore version control system”

“the system wouldn't accept any of the credit cards or her debit card that she had registered with Apple Pay”

CriticizesComment from 26 May 2026 in “Founder of 7/11 Japan, Toshifumi Suzuki, has died at age 93”

“Trading a dependency on MasterCard and Visa for one on Google and Apple is at best a sidegrade.”

CriticizesComment from 20 May 2026 in “Goodbye Visa and Mastercard: 130M Europeans switching to sovereign payment”

“Well, this is useful for many things, one of them being adding your credit card to your kid's (teenager) phone”

RecommendsComment from 16 May 2026 in “SQL patterns I use to catch transaction fraud”

“Apple refuses to implement Pix on Apple Pay, and regulatory agencies are trying to change that...”

CriticizesComment from 8 May 2026 in “Brazil's Pix Payment System Faces Pressure from Visa and Mastercard”

“Apple Pay is extremely fast from my experience (at least the web version).”

RecommendsComment from 23 Mar 2026 in “Migrating the American Express Payment Network, Twice”

“Google/Apple Pay works really, really well everywhere on the planet.”

RecommendsComment from 16 Feb 2026 in “Wero – Digital payment wallet, Made in Europe”

“They want our valuable transactional data, and location when those are made.”

CriticizesComment from 11 Feb 2026 in “Europe's $24T Breakup with Visa and Mastercard Has Begun”

“They do with Apple Pay, and don't allow Banks to roll with their own system like on Android”

CriticizesComment from 29 Jan 2026 in “Apple to Soon Take Up to 30% Cut from All Patreon Creators in iOS App”

“it replaces the phone number with a 1 at the beginning and drops the last number, then I get an error that something is wrong”

CriticizesComment from 23 Jan 2026 in “Bugs Apple Loves”

“Apple Pay is making my payment experience better, and why I use it all the time.”

RecommendsComment from 20 Jan 2026 in “Why Walmart still doesn't support Apple Pay”

“I used it in four countries last year outside of the US - Costa Rica, Canada, UK and France without a problem.”

RecommendsComment from 11 Jan 2026 in “Ask HN: What's your preferred digital payment method?”

“It knows address, only requires face id check. Adds shipping tracking. Works on every device I use.”

RecommendsComment from 11 Jan 2026 in “Ask HN: What's your preferred digital payment method?”

“I've been to many places where the iPhone's contactless payment doesn't work but normal cards do.”

CriticizesComment from 8 Jan 2026 in “Chase to become new issuer of Apple Card”

“The biggest flaw is that it requires waving your expensive phone in the vicinity of the reader.”

MixedComment from 8 Jan 2026 in “Chase to become new issuer of Apple Card”

“Apple Pay works like a normal card payment and any good payment processor should offer easy-to-use scripts to support this.”

RecommendsComment from 7 Jan 2026 in “Ask HN: Apple App Store Denial Because of Apple Pay”

“your payments using Apple Pay will fail unless you fill all the information in manually”

CriticizesComment from 5 Jan 2026 in “It's hard to justify Tahoe icons”

“Apple Pay was a huge leap forward in preventing credit card info theft”

RecommendsComment from 10 Dec 2025 in “Apple's slow AI pace becomes a strength as market grows weary of spending”

“Apple Pay as the first payment mechanism I've used that reliably fulfills the promise of being faster/easier than cash”

RecommendsComment from 4 Dec 2025 in “Why doesn't Apple make a standalone Touch ID?”

“if you put an emoji in your name, you'll need to manually edit it every time you use Apple pay or it breaks the transaction”

CriticizesComment from 21 Nov 2025 in “Android and iPhone users can now share files, starting with the Pixel 10”

“The purpose of Apple Pay from a privacy perspective is to prevent credit card theft by using tokens. In reality it's used to track you and monetize you.”

CriticizesComment from 13 Nov 2025 in “Digital ID, a new way to create and present an ID in Apple Wallet”

“I often complete purchases via mobile because the experience is better.”

RecommendsComment from 1 Nov 2025 on Hacker News

Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.