Toast POS System Review

We tested Toast to see if it really is one of the best restaurant POS systems on the market. Based on the results, we think Toast is a great option for established full-service restaurants that want to optimize efficiency. However, small establishments on a budget can get more features for less money at competitors such as Square.

Part of what makes Toast suitable for large, established restaurants is its excellent inventory management tools, which include low stock alerts and cost vs profit management tracking. Its wide array of built-in customer engagement features, such as gift card creation and a points program, can also help ambitious restauranteurs maintain and grow their customer base.

However, a lot of the features we’ve just described come as paid add-ons. This means that Toast’s base price of $69 per month can quickly jump to over $500 per month if you want to take advantage of its full suite of marketing and management features.

Our Experience With Toast: Summary

We found Toast quite easy to use and were impressed by how clean and modern its POS interface was.

We particularly liked the fact that a basic Toast system includes basic staff management and reservation tools at no extra cost, which is a rarity in the industry. This slightly makes up for the fact that most of its marketing and loyalty tools are a paid add-on.

Part of what made the system easy to navigate on a first try was the initial tutorial that popped up when we first signed in to the platform. It offered a clear step-by-step guide to using essential features, giving us a solid starting point. The presence of a search bar also helped us quickly locate features both when first exploring the POS system and when completing tasks.

Another feature we enjoyed using was Toast’s table planner, which has a drag-and-drop editor, making it easy to customize the layout to match a real-life seating arrangement.

However, no POS system is perfect. We had trouble making amends to orders, such as assigning an order to a new table when guests moved, applying multiple discounts, and splitting a bill. This was largely due to a lack of clear signposting, with the term “update” being used to describe a variety of possible amendments. This means that training new staff could take a little longer.

Creating and editing menus was also a little confusing. Toast’s main menu tab contains a lot of different editing options with vague descriptions. This made it difficult for us to find the section we needed.

How Much Does Toast Cost?

Toast has three software plans, including the $0 per month Starter Kit, the $69 per month Point of Sale plan, and the Build Your Own plan with custom pricing. Here’s a quick overview of Toast’s software pricing plans:

Toast’s pricing is a little unusual since upgrading your plan doesn’t give you access to more features, it simply opens the door to more paid add-ons.

On the $0 per month Starter Kit, add-ons are limited to Toast’s online ordering and marketing software suites, while on the $69 Point of Sale plan and the custom Build Your Own plan, you also get access to add-ons for team management, payroll, and advanced restaurant management and reporting tools.

Toast doesn’t specify how much each add-on costs per month, but if you do a little digging you can find pricing information on add-on bundles:

• Core ($219 per month): This price includes the $69 per month you’ll pay for the Point of Sale plan, plus online ordering and delivery tools, and integration with third-party delivery apps
• Growth ($579 per month): This price includes everything in “Core”, plus gift cards, loyalty tools, SMS and email marketing, a website builder, catering and events planning tools.

Toast’s card processing fees

Processing fees change depending on the plan you’ve selected:

Starter Kit

On the $0 per month Starter Kit plan, card processing fees are between 3.09% + 15¢ and 3.69% + 15¢ per transaction, depending on whether you’ve opted for add-ons or not.

The Starter Kit plan operates on a “pay-as-you-go” pricing model, which means that instead of paying monthly software fees, or upfront fees for hardware, you pay for everything with higher transaction fees.

Although this can be a good option for new businesses looking to get set up with minimal investment, Toast’s pay-as-you-go processing fees are very expensive and will eat into profits over time. Competitor SpotOn offers a similar deal, however, it only charges fees of 2.89% + 25¢.

Point of Sale

Toast’s $69 Point of Sale plan operates on a traditional pricing model, meaning you pay a monthly fee for software and an upfront fee for hardware. This means transaction fees are lower, at 2.49% + 15¢ per transaction, regardless of any software add-ons.

Although these fees are more in line with the industry average, they’re still higher than what competitors Clover (2.3% + 10¢) and SpotOn (1.99% + 25¢) charge.

Build Your Own

All pricing on Toast’s Build Your Own plan is custom, which includes transaction fees. If you’re a large and busy restaurant that processes a lot of card transactions, you may get a lower rate than the 2.49% + 15¢ that’s advertised for the Point of Sale plan, although this isn’t a guarantee.

Toast’s Hardware Range

Toast offers a wide range of proprietary POS hardware, which includes a countertop terminal, customer display screens, and a handheld POS device. It also sells accessories, such as receipt and kitchen printers, and cash drawers.

Pictured below is Toast’s Flex Terminal, a spill and heat-resistant countertop terminal that includes a flexible screen, and comes in a kit with a tap and chip-and-pin card reader.

Here’s a quick look at the hardware available with Toast:

• Flex Terminal ($719.10): A touchscreen countertop terminal with a tap and chip-and-pin card reader (not built-in), and a flexible screen.
• Flex Terminal + Guest Display ($944.10): The Flex terminal with a built-in customer-facing touchscreen, which can be either mounted or flat.
• Toast Go 2 ($494.10): A handheld touchscreen POS device with a built-in card reader that can be used for table service.
• KDS ($674.10): A touchscreen kitchen display that syncs with the main POS system.
• Kiosk Terminal ($1,034.10): A customer self-service kiosk with a card reader (not built-in).

Is Toast’s hardware any good?

We liked the design of Toast’s hardware. Its terminals are modern and discreet, and won’t look out of place in most establishments.

The touchscreen design of both the main display and the customer display makes them highly accessible, as does the fact that both screens can be adjusted for better visibility. The fact that not just the main screen, but also the customer screen can be adjusted is a rarity, and not a feature present in equivalent hardware sold by rival Square.

When it comes to pricing, Toast’s hardware is mid-range. Its terminal and handheld POS device are slightly cheaper than the equivalents sold by Clover, but slightly more expensive than Square’s.

For reference, Clover’s dual-screen terminal costs $1,799 compared to Toast’s $944.10, although Clover’s version also includes a cash drawer and receipt printer. Square’s dual-facing terminal costs $799.

Toast’s Key Features Explained

Let’s explore some of Toast’s top features:

Order processing

Order processing is one of the most important aspects of any POS system, and Toast has a range of tools to make this process go smoothly. This includes easy bill splitting, where customers have the option to split bills by percentage, or by specific amount. Having these options on hand means both servers and customers can avoid having to do the math themselves, speeding up the time it takes to pay the bill.

Toast also allows for mobile and QR code ordering, although this feature is a paid add-on.  Customers can both order and pay at their table by scanning a QR code. This option reduces the stress on your staff and gives your customers more options when it comes to reading the menu and ordering

Online ordering

Your customers can order online with Toast’s integrated suite of online ordering and delivery features. Businesses can choose between an online ordering website or the Toast Takeout app, or both.

Both these features are paid add-ons, but the advantage of enabling this feature through Toast is that the online ordering functionality is integrated with the POS system to ensure orders are carried out on time. You can also set windows for accepting orders to prevent your staff from being overwhelmed during busy periods.

Toast also offers integrations with a range of third-party delivery providers. These include OpenTable, Craver, and Uber Eats. These integrations help expand the system and give your business the ability to scale and grow at a steady pace.

Inventory management

Toast’s advanced inventory management add-on tools are what make it a great option for large restaurants with complex operations.  Businesses can get access to recipe costing and ingredient tracking, low stock alerts, and automatic supplier re-ordering. These tools can help ensure you never run out of your customers’s favorite dish, avoiding disappointment and keeping sales flowing.

Paired with this are analytics tools that give you an oversight of where your money is going, so you can better spot wastage and improve your margins. These are essential tools for restaurants that use a lot of different ingredients and need to keep a close eye on spending.

Marketing and loyalty programs

Some of Toast’s best features are its marketing and loyalty programs. These are a paid add-on but are available on all plans, including the Starter Kit.

With these, you’ll be able to build loyalty programs with set spending and a points system. You’ll also be able to send targeted promotional emails to customers in your database and offer digital gift cards to customers.

Toast’s loyalty and marketing tools can help you create lasting links with customers, and turn occasional visitors into regular diners.

Team management

Each Toast plan includes some basic team management tools for employee timekeeping, messaging, and shift scheduling. These features aren’t paid add-ons, which is rare in the POS industry – however, Toast also offers a more advanced paid version of them which expands on these features, allowing employees to easily swap shifts, request time off, and receive shift reminders.

Another paid add-on is the Toast tip manager, which allows you to create customized tipping rules, automatically distribute tips to employees, and create tip reports for greater transparency.

Lastly, Toast is one of the only POS providers to offer a payroll tool. If purchased alongside POS software, it costs $9 per employee, per month. Toast’s payroll software can remit and file federal, state, and local payroll taxes, however, it’s only available for up to 10 employees.

Customer support

Toast offers accessible customer support, with lines open 24/7 and 365 days a year, for all customers, no matter what plan they’re on. You can reach out to Toast via email, phone, and live chat, and there’s also a knowledge center and forum for help with DIY fixes.

When you start off with Toast, you can also get access to set-up support and training, for a one-off $250 fee. This is less than the $1,000 SpotOn charges for installation and training, although SpotOn offers in-person support, while Toast’s offering is remote.

Working in the Food & Beverage Industry? Don’t miss Expert Market’s exclusive industry report – sponsored by Toast – exploring today’s challenges and future predictions.

Please note: All Expert Market Reviews, including this one, are editorially impartial, and Toast’s sponsorship of our 2024 Food & Beverage report, shown above, in no way affects their rating or the content on this page.

How Does Toast Compare to Its Competitors?

Here’s a quick side-by-side comparison of the top Toast competitors:

Price

When it comes to price, Toast is on the higher end of the spectrum, in line with Lightspeed Restaurant and Clover. Although Toast’s starting price of $69 per month is mid-range, this quickly increases to over $500 per month with add-on products.

Toast’s card processing fees are also on the expensive side. Even with standard pricing, its 2.49 + 15¢ per transaction rate is higher than Clover’s 2.3% + 10¢, and SpotOn’s 1.99% + 25¢. SpotOn’s pay-as-you-go transaction fees for its free POS plan are also cheaper than Toast’s, at 2.89% + 25¢ compared to 3.09% + 15¢.

That said, besides SpotOn, Toast is one of the few POS systems to offer a completely free POS plan that includes free hardware on top of free software. Square offers a free POS software plan, however you still have to pay for hardware upfront.

Features

When it comes to POS features, Toast offers a huge amount of variety, from marketing tools to cost vs profit management. It’s not alone in offering these, however, with Lightspeed Restaurant and Clover offering similar tools.

Like Toast, Lightspeed charges extra for marketing and loyalty tools, however, these are included free of charge with a Clover POS system. Square also charges extra for marketing tools, however, it doesn’t even offer cost vs profit management, the only provider in our table that doesn’t.

When it comes to team management, Toast is the only provider to offer basic scheduling tools at no extra cost on its cheapest plan. Toast doesn’t disclose the price of its advanced scheduling add-on, but judging from the price of its other add-ons, it probably isn’t cheap. You can get similar advanced tools for less with Square, which offers them as an add-on at $4.00 per month, per employee, or with SpotOn, which charges $3 per month, per employee.

Lastly, Toast used to be one of the only POS systems to offer payroll, however, Lightspeed Restaurant has recently added a payroll tool to its suite. However, since Lightspeed doesn’t disclose the price of this add-on, and is known for being expensive, Toast’s $9 per month, per employee add-on remains a decent option for small teams.

Hardware range

Toast has one of the most complete hardware ranges of all the POS providers we researched, only beaten by Square and Clover. It loses out because it has fewer options for accessories, and unlike Square, it doesn’t offer an iPad-based POS system.

It beats out SpotOn and Lightspeed Restaurant since SpotOn doesn’t offer any accessories, like cash drawers, and Lightspeed Restaurant doesn’t offer physical terminals, it only offers an Android or iOS-based system.

Toast’s physical terminals are also very high quality, with flexible screens for both the main display and the customer display, a feature missing from Square terminals. That said, Square and Clover’s hardware has a more attractive design that emulates the feel of Apple products, making them a better choice for trendy restaurants.

How We Reviewed Toast POS