POS System
Toast
Best POS for restaurants, but the mandatory processing lock-in means you can't shop rates.
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Monthly fee
$0 (Starter), $69/mo (Essentials)
Hardware cost
$0 (Starter Kit), $799+ (full terminal)
Processing rate
2.49% + $0.15 (in-person), 3.09% + $0.15 (online)
Built-in processing
Yes
Rating breakdown
Pros
- Purpose-built for restaurants (online ordering, kitchen display, tip management)
- Starter kit available at $0 upfront
- Strong reporting and menu management
- Payroll and team management add-ons
Cons
- Must use Toast for payment processing (no choice)
- Processing rates are higher than interchange-plus alternatives
- Hardware is proprietary (can't reuse if you leave)
- 2-year contracts on most plans
Who Toast is for
Toast is built for one thing: restaurants. If you run a restaurant, bar, cafe, or food truck, Toast’s feature set is hard to match. Online ordering, kitchen display screens, tip management, menu customization, and payroll are all built in or available as add-ons. No other POS system goes this deep on food service.
The processing lock-in problem
Here’s the catch: Toast requires you to use their payment processing. You can’t plug in a cheaper processor. Their in-person rate of 2.49% + $0.15 is higher than what you’d pay with an interchange-plus processor like Helcim. For a restaurant processing $40,000/month, that difference adds up to roughly $200-$400/month in extra fees.
Toast knows their POS features are sticky enough that most restaurants won’t leave over processing costs. That’s a deliberate business model, and you should go in with your eyes open.
Bottom line
Toast is the best restaurant POS on the market. The features genuinely make restaurants run better. But you’re paying a premium on processing for that convenience, and the 2-year contracts make it hard to leave. If you’re a restaurant doing serious volume, run the numbers on what you’re paying in processing versus what you’d pay with a standalone POS and a separate interchange-plus processor.
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