Quick answer: On a PC or Mac, Hike runs in the Google Chrome browser — so it prints through the browser's print dialog and the printer's own Windows driver, not by sending ESC/POS commands. Hike's own words: your existing hardware that works with that device should work with Hike.
That makes the page setup inside the print dialog the thing most likely to go wrong, and Hike's documentation warns about it explicitly: set the paper size without disabling headers and footers, and the printer may not auto-cut the receipt. Specify a printer with a proper Windows driver and an auto cutter — the NBTP-8080 (80mm, auto cutter, USB + LAN) is the straightforward choice. On the iPad register app the rules are different: Hike publishes a recommended-hardware list and you should stay on it.
Browser printing is a different animal
Most of the POS systems we write about talk to the printer directly: the software opens a port and sends ESC/POS bytes. Hike on desktop does not. It is a web application running in Chrome, and it prints the way any web page prints — through the browser, through the OS, through the driver.
Three consequences follow, and all three are worth knowing before you order hardware:
- The printer needs a real Windows driver. Not just ESC/POS capability — an installed, working driver that Chrome can print to. Hike's own setup article for an Epson unit walks through installing the vendor's advanced printer driver and registering the printer with the vendor's utility before Hike enters the picture at all.
- Page setup lives in the browser, not in Hike. Margins, paper size and headers/footers are print-dialog settings. Nothing inside Hike overrides them.
- If it prints correctly from Notepad or a test page, the hardware is fine. Anything still wrong after that is page setup. This makes troubleshooting fast, once you know where to look.
The setting that stops the cutter working
This is the detail we would most want a buyer to read, because it produces a symptom that looks like a broken cutter and is not.
Hike's configuration guide lists the print-preview settings a receipt needs:
- Headers & footers — unticked
- Paper size — Roll Paper 80 x 297 mm
- Margins — None
And then the warning, in their words: if you set your paper size to Roll Paper 80 x 297 mm without disabling headers and footers, the printer may not auto-cut the printed receipt.
Think about what that looks like on a counter. The receipt prints perfectly. The paper does not cut. Staff tear it by hand, conclude the cutter is faulty, and someone opens a warranty claim on a printer that is working exactly as designed. The cutter never fired because the page was never the length the driver expected.
Chrome's header and footer option adds the page title and URL to the printout. On A4 that is invisible housekeeping. On an 80mm roll it changes the page geometry, and the cut command lands in the wrong place or not at all.
What to check, in order, when a Hike receipt misbehaves
- Print a Windows test page. Works? The printer and driver are fine, and everything below is configuration. Does not work? Stop here and fix the driver.
- Headers and footers unticked in Chrome's print dialog. This is the auto-cut fix.
- Paper size set to the roll size, not A4. An 80mm receipt on an A4 page setting produces a receipt with enormous white space and unpredictable cutting.
- Margins set to None. Browser default margins waste 15–20mm of an 80mm roll, which is where “the text is squashed into the middle” comes from.
- Set Chrome to skip the dialog once the settings are right, so staff cannot accidentally change them mid-shift. This is the step that makes the fix stick.
Step 5 matters more than it sounds. Every one of these settings is per-browser and per-user. A new Windows profile, a reinstalled Chrome, or a second member of staff logging in as themselves brings the defaults back — and the cutter “breaks” again.
The iPad register is a different specification
Hike also ships an iPad register app, and it does not work like the browser version. On iPadOS there is no Chrome print dialog and no Windows driver — the app talks to the printer over the network or Bluetooth, at the operating system's level.
Hike is explicit that hardware must be compatible at the operating system level and publishes a list of recommended devices guaranteed to work with the apps. On iPad, take that list seriously. It is a genuinely closed environment, and “it is a standard ESC/POS printer” is not sufficient there in the way it is on Windows.
We will say plainly: if your tills are iPads, buy from Hike's recommended list unless you are prepared to validate a sample yourself first. We would rather tell you that than sell you a printer that does not work. If your tills are Windows PCs running Chrome, that constraint does not apply — any printer with a good Windows driver is a candidate, and that is where we compete.
Multiple printers
Hike supports more than one printer on a single account — a counter printer and a second unit in a warehouse or kitchen, assigned to different functions. On the browser side, each is simply a different Windows printer, so the page-setup rules above apply to each one independently. Set them up once per machine, per browser profile.
80mm or 58mm?
80mm. Hike's documented roll-paper setting is 80 x 297 mm, so 80mm is the width their guidance is written around, and at 203dpi it gives 48 characters per line. 58mm is available and works, but you would be departing from the documented path for no gain on a retail counter.
NETBYE models for Hike
| Model | Paper | Speed | Cutter | Interfaces | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NBTP-8080 | 80mm | 160mm/s | Auto | USB / USB+LAN | Windows counter — the default |
| NBTP-8050 | 80mm | 200mm/s | Auto | USB / Serial / Ethernet | Busier checkout, or a second station |
| NBTP-8020 | 80mm | 180–200mm/s | Auto | USB / USB+LAN | Standard counter, budget |
| NBTP-5880 | 58mm | 90mm/s | Manual | USB / Serial / Ethernet | Queue tickets — not the main till |
All 203dpi direct thermal with ESC/POS — 576 dots per line on the 80mm models (72mm print width), 384 on the 58mm (48mm). Browse the full range of thermal receipt printers or narrow to 80mm.
Ordering advice for Hike: for a Windows/Chrome till, specify an 80mm model with an auto cutter and confirm the Windows driver before rollout. For an iPad till, check Hike's recommended list first and ask us for a sample to validate. Either way, confirm an RJ11/RJ12 drawer port if a cash drawer is in scope — on Hike the drawer is fired by the printer driver, which is covered in the Hike cash drawer guide.
Frequently asked questions
Which receipt printers work with Hike POS?
On a PC or Mac in Chrome, any printer with a working driver for that machine — Hike states that existing hardware which works with the device should work with Hike. On the iPad app, use Hike's recommended-hardware list, because compatibility there is at the operating-system level.
My receipt prints but does not cut.
Untick headers and footers in Chrome's print dialog. Hike's own documentation warns that setting the roll paper size without disabling headers and footers can stop the printer auto-cutting. The cutter is almost certainly fine.
The receipt is squashed into the middle of the paper.
Margins. Set them to None in the print dialog, and confirm the paper size is the roll size rather than A4.
Do I need to install a printer driver?
On Windows, yes. Hike's setup guide for an Epson unit covers installing the vendor driver and registering the printer before configuring anything in Hike.
Can I stop staff changing the print settings?
Configure Chrome to print without showing the dialog once the settings are correct. Remember the settings are per browser profile, so repeat it for each Windows user who will operate the till.
Can I run a counter printer and a kitchen printer?
Yes. Hike supports multiple printers on one account assigned to different functions. Each is a separate Windows printer with its own page setup.
A note on this guide. The printer side above — ESC/POS, interfaces, print widths, cutter behaviour, driver page setup — is what we know from the products we supply, and it holds for any POS that prints through a Windows driver. The Hike-specific parts, including the browser print settings, the auto-cut warning, the iPad recommended-hardware position and multiple-printer support, are drawn from Hike's published help articles. We have not tested our printers against Hike ourselves, and we have not claimed we have. Menus and recommended models change between releases, so confirm current details with Hike. If something here did not match your installation, tell us and we will correct this page. We would rather publish something accurate than something impressive.
Get pricing
NETBYE supplies distributors, system integrators and retailers worldwide. Our printers are built by our partner factories in Shenzhen and sold under our own model range — we handle specification, quality control and support, so you deal with one supplier rather than several factories. Direct wholesale pricing, low MOQ on first orders, and OEM/ODM covering branding, packaging and firmware defaults.
Tell us whether your tills are Windows or iPad, how many sites, what quantity and which country, and you will get an accurate quote in one reply. For a Hike rollout we will send a sample to validate against your actual setup before you commit to volume. Request a quote.
Related guides
These guides form a set. If you are specifying a complete till, the other hardware for Hike POS is covered here:
- Barcode scanner for Hike POS
- Cash drawer for Hike POS
- Label printer for Hike POS
- POS terminal for Hike POS
And if you are comparing across POS software, the same hardware for other systems: