Toast POS Review For 2025
Toast POS Plans & Pricing
Toast Comparison
Expert Review
Pros
Cons
Toast POS's Offerings
I looked at the pricing structure and Toast offers its services to users via three basic plans: the Starter plan, the Point of Sale plan, and the Build Your Own plan. However, an additional New Restaurant Basics plan comes as a special offering for startup restaurants in need of payroll assistance.
These are the Toast POS pricing tiers:
Starter Kit ($0/month)
Perfect for small restaurants needing 1-2 terminals. Includes a cloud-based POS, a hardware kit with no upfront costs, and essential add-ons for seamless operations.
Point of Sale ($69/month)
Designed for restaurants wanting core POS functionality with flat-rate processing. Includes cloud-based software, custom hardware options, and add-ons for enhanced efficiency.
Build Your Own (Custom Pricing)
Tailored for restaurants needing advanced features like online ordering, payroll management, automated inventory, and guest marketing. Choose hardware and solutions that fit your needs.
Customer Support
Toast offers more comprehensive customer support than most of its competition.
Additional customer support:
Community Forum
Toast hosts a forum on its site.
Blog
Toast has a blog for restaurant management on its site.
Features & Functionality
Best For
Toast Restaurant POS Features
Toast’s restaurant POS system offers a comprehensive suite of features tailored to the needs of modern food service businesses. Its inventory management tools stand out, providing real-time sales and stock updates, low stock alerts, and the ability to reorder inventory directly through the system. Unlike many other POS platforms that require third-party apps for reordering, Toast streamlines this process, saving time and effort for restaurant operators.
In addition to inventory controls, Toast includes features designed to help restaurants maximize profitability. It provides mobile-friendly reports, a profit margin calculator, and a cost management tool that combines labor, dish costs, and fixed overheads into a unified view. This enables restaurants to identify profit opportunities and better manage rising supplier costs.
Toast also excels in customer engagement with its Toast Loyalty program, offering point-based rewards, sign-up bonuses, birthday perks, and flexible redemption options. While other systems like Lightspeed add segmented marketing and automated email features, Toast’s loyalty tools are robust for encouraging repeat business.
The POS system is also remarkably user-friendly, featuring a sleek interface and a step-by-step tutorial for new users. Testers praised its intuitive design and smooth onboarding experience, making it one of the easiest systems to navigate, especially for servers. However, Toast is Android-exclusive, which could deter businesses already using Apple devices. For those needing iOS compatibility, TouchBistro offers a similar level of functionality.
Another standout feature is Toast’s automated tip-sharing capability, allowing servers to split tips at the end of their shift easily. This feature saves waiting staff significant time—up to eight hours per week—boosting productivity and reducing end-of-shift stress.
Despite its strengths, Toast may not suit all businesses. Its feature-rich nature can be overwhelming for small restaurants needing a simpler setup, and it lacks a robust knowledge center for troubleshooting. For smaller operations or those seeking a more straightforward system, Square is a simpler alternative, while Clover offers comparable features with an easier learning curve and better support resources.
Toast is best suited for growing restaurants looking for advanced tools, modern hardware, and an all-in-one POS solution to streamline operations and boost profitability.
General Features
Menu Customization
Toast menus will match the physical menus you use and allow you to organize them the same way. Beyond breakfast, lunch, and dinner, you can also further break down menu item groups. There is plenty of room for more subgroups and modifiers.
Restaurant-Tailored Reporting & Inventory Management
Most point-of-sale systems offer reports on transactions. Toast goes one step further for restaurant owners.
Toast integrates its customer relationship system with reports. You can collect customer information and see which customers visit your restaurant the most. Customer reports can be broken down by average check, frequency of visits, and most frequently ordered dishes.
On the inventory side, you can monitor costs with a recipe costing tool and food cost calculator. More impressively, Toast offers a menu engineering feature that helps you determine the best-selling and most profitable dishes.
Staff Management
User-based permissions and access allow you to delegate tasks appropriately. For example, you can only allow managers to approve voids and discounts.
Kitchen Display
Toast’s color-coded kitchen display system features wait times on all orders and enables them to quickly notify servers when an order is prepared. Servers can be notified with a flash or a sound through the POS system.
Toast Go
The Toast Go app makes tableside ordering simple and easy for your staff. With a handheld device, servers send information to the kitchen quickly. Customer-requested changes can be quickly communicated via a device that’s separate from the main POS register.
Integrations & Add-Ons
This is one of Toast’s strong points. The software can be seamlessly integrated with:
- 7shifts
- Appfront
- Avero
- Bevager
- Bevspot
- BrewLogix
- Chowly
- Compeat
- Craftable
- CrunchTime
- Grubhub
- Harri
- Homebase
- ItsaCheckmate
- KitchenSync
- LevelUp
- Marketman
- OpenTable
- PayTronix
- PeachWorks
- Punchh
- Restaurant365
- Shogo
- TapMango
Hardware & Software
Toast POS is designed to work seamlessly with specific hardware to deliver a smooth and reliable experience for restaurants. Here’s an overview of the hardware requirements and recommendations for using Toast POS effectively:
Compatible Devices
Toast POS operates exclusively on Android-based hardware, ensuring optimal performance with devices that meet the following criteria:
- Tablets: Android tablets (such as Toast’s proprietary tablets) are recommended for their reliability and integration.
- Terminals: Toast offers its own POS terminals designed specifically for restaurant environments, including spill-proof, durable designs.
- Mobile Devices: Toast Go handheld devices are purpose-built for mobile ordering and payment processing, ideal for servers on the go.
Peripheral Devices
To enhance functionality, Toast supports several essential peripherals:
- Printers:
- Kitchen Printers: Thermal or impact printers compatible with Toast for printing orders directly in the kitchen.
- Receipt Printers: High-speed receipt printers for customer-facing transactions.
- Cash Drawers: Secure, integrated cash drawers that connect directly to the Toast POS system.
- Card Readers: Toast provides its own EMV-compliant card readers for secure, chip-enabled payments.
- Scales: Certain digital scales can integrate with Toast for weight-based pricing.
Network Requirements
To ensure reliable operation, a robust and stable internet connection is essential:
- Wi-Fi Router: High-speed wireless router with strong signal coverage to connect all POS devices seamlessly.
- Ethernet: Wired Ethernet connections are recommended for critical devices like terminals and kitchen printers to ensure uninterrupted operation.
Power Backup
Restaurants should consider UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) units for hardware to prevent disruptions during power outages, especially for terminals and network routers.
Toast-Provided Hardware
Toast offers pre-configured hardware bundles that include everything needed for a streamlined setup:
- Toast Flex: A countertop terminal with a sleek, modern design.
- Toast Go 2: A handheld device optimized for tableside service and mobile payments.
- Toast Kitchen Display System (KDS): Displays orders in real-time to improve communication between front-of-house and kitchen staff.
Additional Notes
- Toast does not support iOS or Windows-based devices.
- For businesses already invested in Apple hardware, a transition to Toast may require additional hardware purchases.
- Toast’s hardware is designed to withstand restaurant conditions, such as spills and frequent use, ensuring durability and long-term reliability.
Pricing Options
Flexible pricing plans to meet different business needs.
Performance:
In my experience, Toast POS is a well-rounded and highly effective solution for restaurants of all sizes. It’s specifically designed to cater to the unique needs of the food service industry, and it delivers on that promise with a range of features that simplify operations, enhance efficiency, and improve overall profitability.
One of the key strengths of Toast is its inventory management capabilities. It provides real-time updates on stock levels, low-stock alerts, and the ability to reorder inventory directly from the system—features that many POS systems require third-party integrations to achieve. This makes it an invaluable tool for managing kitchen operations and reducing waste.
Toast’s user experience is another highlight. The interface is sleek, intuitive, and designed to accommodate both tech-savvy users and those who might be less familiar with modern POS systems. I’ve found its step-by-step tutorial for new users particularly useful, ensuring that staff can quickly get up to speed. Features like automated tip sharing also save significant time and effort, which is a huge plus for busy restaurants.
Ease Of Use:
Toast’s basic features are easy to understand and can be taught to staff quickly. The company will assist you with the setup process. According to most users, their customer service is thorough and friendly.
It may take you and your staff some time playing around to thoroughly understand Toast’s back-end features. It does not offer the most modern design or interfaces but isn’t too difficult to learn either.
Uniqueness:
The system goes beyond basic POS functionality with tools like detailed reporting, profit margin calculators, and cost management features. These help restaurant owners and managers keep track of labor and dish costs, giving them the insights they need to make informed decisions and maintain healthy profit margins.
That said, Toast isn’t without its limitations. Its exclusivity to Android hardware can be a drawback for businesses that already use Apple devices. Additionally, smaller operations might find its extensive features more than they need, and its lack of a robust knowledge center can make troubleshooting more challenging.
Overall, Toast POS is a powerful, feature-rich system that excels in helping restaurants streamline their operations and boost profitability. Whether it’s managing inventory, improving staff efficiency, or tracking costs, Toast has the tools to meet the demands of a busy restaurant environment. It’s an excellent choice for businesses looking for an all-in-one solution tailored to the food service industry.
Verdict:
Toast offers a comprehensive POS solution for small restaurants, cafes, and similar businesses. While it isn’t a solution for larger businesses, it offers small catering and takeout businesses all the support they need to compete locally. Amid the current pandemic, Toast has also tweaked its offer to include tableside ordering and other features to better accommodate social distancing.
User Review
Write a Review- Can store credit card info. Overall, I no longer have to fret over transactions
- customer service can be a hit or miss, but can use the Toast Central portal to troubleshoot. Also this isn't completely cloud-based. However, I still access the backend and tweak what is needed. Hasn't been super problematic for me personally
- I am very pleased with every attribute! My staff has also loved the service.
- Small glitches when making orders, but can be resolved quickly.
- There's isn't much I currently dislike about Toast. It's a newer company compared to others in the market. For that reason, they are still working out some glitches.
- Can't combine payments from a split invoice.
