A restaurant-only POS and payments platform built for the front and back of house.
Best for
Restaurants, bars, and cafes wanting an all-in-one hospitality POS with payments built in.
Every fee we track, grouped by where it applies.
In-person terminal and tap-to-pay transactions.
Online checkout and keyed-in card transactions.
Cards, wallets, and other methods supported by Toast for US merchants.
Toast is built specifically for restaurants, bars, and cafes, combining payments with deep hospitality features like online ordering, kitchen display, table management, and loyalty. For food and drink businesses it is one of the most complete platforms available.
Pricing is quote-driven and bundle-heavy: software runs from a free Starter tier to higher monthly plans per terminal, and the card rate is negotiable and can be raised with notice. Hardware is proprietary, and the entry contract is often multi-year, so the total cost is best understood through a tailored quote rather than a single published rate.
Toast was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Boston, USA.
Side-by-side with the closest alternatives by estimated cost.
Based on $20,000/mo card volume (software plus processing; hardware excluded).
Toast
Shopify
$540/mo est.
Square
$577/mo est.
Lightspeed
$646/mo est.
The same questions US merchants ask before signing up.
Toast prices in bundles rather than a single published figure. Software runs from a free Starter Kit tier up to higher monthly plans per terminal, and the card processing rate is negotiated as part of your deal, so the real all-in cost depends on your hardware, modules, and rate. Toast is quote-driven, so get a tailored quote before committing. The comparison table on this page shows how Toast compares with transparent-priced systems.
Yes. Toast is built specifically for restaurants, bars, and cafes, with deep hospitality features like online ordering, kitchen display systems, table management, handhelds, and loyalty. It is not designed for general retail. If you run a retail store, Square, Clover, Lightspeed, or Shopify POS are the appropriate options; Toast is the specialist choice for food and drink businesses.
Often, yes. Toast entry agreements are frequently multi-year, and the card processing rate can be raised with notice. Hardware is proprietary to Toast, so it is tied to the platform. Because the term, rate, and bundle all vary by deal, read the agreement closely and confirm the contract length and any early termination terms before you sign.
Toast includes ToastIQ, a native AI layer that surfaces sales insights, menu and labor recommendations, and marketing suggestions from your restaurant data. It is built into the platform. Toast does not publish an official MCP server; connecting it to AI agents is done through community-built or third-party automation tools rather than a vendor MCP.
Yes. Toast includes its own online ordering and integrates with the major US delivery marketplaces such as DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub, so orders flow into the same system as in-house tickets. This is part of why it is one of the most complete restaurant platforms in the US, though the broad feature set is reflected in its bundle-led, quote-driven pricing.
Toast is the deeper, restaurant-only platform, with stronger kitchen display, online ordering, and hospitality features built in, but it is quote-led with proprietary hardware and often a multi-year term. Square for Restaurants is simpler, with transparent flat-rate pricing, no contract, and a free tier, but fewer specialist restaurant features at the top end. Toast suits committed full-service operators; Square suits cafes and casual venues wanting predictability.
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Compare Toast against every other US provider on price, contract terms, and features.
