POS Systems
Toast: features, pricing and who it fits
Toast serves restaurants, bars and cafes only, with its own terminals, handhelds, kiosks and kitchen screens. Card processing has to run through Toast Payments, and rates differ by plan. Pricing follows a demo, and about two years of contract has been reported, so confirm in the order form.
Who Toast is for
Best for
- Restaurants, bars and cafes needing table service, kitchen display and online ordering
- Single-location operators who can use the Starter Kit
Look elsewhere if
- Retailers or service businesses (Toast is restaurant-focused)
- Operators wanting to bring their own processor or avoid multi-year terms
Fit by company size
| Category | 1-10 people | 11-50 people | 51-500 people | 500+ people |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| POS Systems | Workable | Strong fit | Strong fit | Workable |
Strong fitWorkablePoor fitNo data from the vendor
Toast features
- Hardware and terminals
- Proprietary Toast terminals, handhelds, kitchen display and kiosks; tiered hardware bundle around $1,024 (third-party)
- Payment processing terms
- Toast Payments only; rates vary by plan and pay-as-you-go vs traditional
- Online and omnichannel sales
- Core and Growth add online ordering and loyalty (third-party)
- Industry features
- Restaurant-specific: table service, kitchen display, online ordering
- Reporting and analytics
- G2 reviewers flag missing reporting features
- Pricing model
- Software tier plus processing percentage plus hardware
- Target company size
- Single restaurants to multi-location groups
Toast pricing
| Plan | Price | Unit | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pay-as-you-go tiers | $0 | per month | Third-party (Korona POS): 3.09%/3.39%/3.69% + 15c for Basic/Core/Growth |
| Traditional tiers | $69 / $219 / $578 | per month | Third-party (Korona POS): 2.49% + 15c each; about $1,024 one-time hardware |
Toast does not publish full pricing. Tier figures are third-party and may be outdated. An $85/month inactivity fee may apply on pay-as-you-go (third-party).
Prices as published by Toast on the date above. Quotes for larger teams often differ, which is what a request on SaaSBid surfaces.
Pros and cons
What users like
- User-friendly interface
Common complaints
- Customer support wait times
- Transaction and hardware costs
Worth knowing before you buy
- Pay-as-you-go ($0 software) trades monthly fees for higher processing percentages
- Reported contract length about 2 years (third-party, verify in order form)
- Pricing is quote-based after a demo, so tier prices differ by source
