Square vs Toast POS: Which is better for your restaurant in 2025?

Choosing the right Point of Sale (POS) system is crucial for running a smooth and profitable restaurant. It’s the central hub for your orders, payments, staff management, and much more. Two of the biggest names you’ll constantly encounter are Square and Toast. But while both offer robust POS solutions, they come from different places and have distinct approaches.

Square, originally known for its small white card readers, has grown into a massive ecosystem serving all kinds of businesses. Square for Restaurants is their dedicated offering for the food service industry, built on their flexible and accessible platform. It aims to provide powerful tools that are easy to adopt and scale.

Toast, on the other hand, was built exclusively for restaurants from day one. Its entire platform, hardware, and feature set are designed to handle the unique, high-pressure demands of food service, from counter-service cafes to large multi-location operations.

So, should you choose the versatile, widely-used platform that has a strong restaurant offering, or the specialized system built only for your industry? This data-driven comparison will break down the key differences in hardware, features, pricing, and ease of use to help you decide which POS is the best fit for your restaurant.

Key points (quick summary)

• Square is best for… Flexibility and accessibility. Ideal for cafes, food trucks, smaller restaurants, or those who want transparent pricing and month-to-month contracts.
• Toast is stronger in… Restaurant-specific features and durability. Built for the high demands of full-service restaurants, bars, and multi-location groups needing deep customization and rugged hardware.
• The main difference in pricing is… Square offers clear, tiered pricing (including a free plan) with generally month-to-month terms. Toast uses custom, quote-based pricing that usually requires longer contracts (often 2-3 years) and may involve higher upfront hardware costs.
• The key feature that separates them is… Square’s broad ecosystem and flexible (often iPad-based) hardware vs. Toast’s deeply integrated, restaurant-only features and proprietary, Android-based hardware built for kitchen environments.
• The ideal audience for Square is… New restaurants, counter-service spots, food trucks, pop-ups, and businesses prioritizing lower startup costs and flexibility.
• The ideal audience for Toast is… Full-service restaurants, bars, nightclubs, and multi-location restaurant groups needing comprehensive, built-in features and willing to commit to a longer-term contract.

Head-to-head comparison

Here is a high-level summary of the key differences between the two platforms.

Market position & ideal use cases

Square is a financial technology giant serving millions of businesses globally across countless industries. Square for Restaurants leverages this broad platform, offering a specialized feature set for food service. Its strength lies in its accessibility – easy setup, transparent pricing, and the ability to run on familiar hardware like iPads. It’s fantastic for quick-service restaurants (QSRs), cafes, food trucks, bakeries, and smaller operations that value flexibility and may already use other Square services (like Payroll or Marketing).

Toast lives and breathes restaurants. It serves a huge portion of the US restaurant market, focusing exclusively on the needs of this industry. Its platform is designed for the complex workflows of full-service restaurants (FSRs), bars, nightclubs, cafes, and enterprise-level chains. Toast emphasizes an all-in-one approach, offering tightly integrated modules for everything from online ordering and loyalty to payroll and team management, all designed specifically for restaurant challenges.

Hardware & device options

This is a significant differentiator.

Square for Restaurants Hardware:

• Flexibility: Can run on iPads using the Square POS app.
• Proprietary Options: Offers its own hardware like the sleek Square Register (dual screens), Square Terminal (all-in-one payment device), and Square Stand (turns an iPad into a countertop POS).
• Kitchen Display System (KDS): Offers KDS software that runs on iPads.
• Mobile: Square Terminal and mobile apps allow tableside ordering and payments.
• Cost: Generally lower upfront cost, especially if using existing iPads. Hardware can often be paid in installments.

Toast POS Hardware:

• Proprietary & Durable: Uses its own Android-based hardware, including terminals (Toast Flex), handhelds (Toast Go 2), guest-facing displays, and KDS screens. Designed to withstand spills, heat, and drops common in restaurant environments.
• Integrated: Hardware is tightly integrated with the software.
• Mobile: Toast Go 2 handhelds are purpose-built for tableside ordering and payments.
• Cost: Often requires a higher upfront investment compared to Square, though subscription or financing options may be available depending on the contract. Hardware is typically purchased directly from Toast.

Core features & capabilities (Restaurant focus)

Both platforms cover the essentials, but Toast generally goes deeper on restaurant-specific needs out-of-the-box.

Reporting, analytics & insights

Both offer robust reporting, crucial for understanding your restaurant’s performance.

• Square: Provides clear, accessible reports on sales, items, categories, payments, and labor. The Square Dashboard (web and mobile) makes it easy to check key metrics anytime. Offers more advanced reporting on paid plans, including shift reports and close-of-day summaries.
• Toast: Offers incredibly detailed, restaurant-specific reporting. You can drill down into menu performance, labor costs vs. sales, server performance, table turn times, void/comp tracking, and multi-location comparisons. Its reporting is generally considered more comprehensive for granular restaurant analysis.

Integrations & connected tools

• Square: Has a large App Marketplace connecting to hundreds of third-party tools for accounting (QuickBooks, Xero), marketing, loyalty, scheduling, and more. This reflects its nature as a broader platform.
• Toast: Offers a curated list of Integration Partners (~180+) specifically relevant to restaurants, including major accounting software (QuickBooks, Sage Intacct), payroll providers (ADP, Paychex), reservation systems (Resy), and specialized inventory/analytics tools. Its focus is narrower but often deeper for restaurant needs. Toast also aims to provide many features (like payroll, marketing, scheduling) natively within its own platform.

AI, automation & smart features

• Square: Is increasingly incorporating AI, particularly in its marketing and customer relationship tools (e.g., automated email campaigns based on purchase history). Smart features also appear in inventory (suggested purchase orders) and scheduling.
• Toast: Leverages AI for sales forecasting, labor optimization suggestions, and fraud detection. Its platform uses automation extensively for things like triggering KDS alerts or sending scheduled reports.

Pricing & payment processing

This is often the deciding factor and where the models differ most. Always get direct quotes for the most accurate information.

Square for Restaurants Pricing:

• Free Plan: $0/month for unlimited locations/terminals. Covers basic POS, table management, Square Online ordering. Higher processing fees apply.
• Plus Plan: ~$60/month per location. Adds advanced features like seat management, course management, auto-86ing, advanced reporting. Lower processing fees.
• Premium Plan: Custom pricing. For multi-location or complex operations needing dedicated support.
• Hardware: iPads extra, Square hardware purchased upfront or financed.
• Payment Processing: Built-in Square Payments. Standard rates are typically 2.6% + 10¢ for tapped/dipped/swiped, 2.9% + 30¢ for online/invoiced, 3.5% + 15¢ for keyed-in. Rates can be lower on Plus/Premium plans or with volume discounts.
• Contracts: Generally month-to-month.
  (Source: Square official website)

Toast POS Pricing:

• Starter Kit: Sometimes offered at $0/month (often requires 2-year contract & Toast Payments). Basic POS features. Processing fees apply.
• Core Plan: ~$69/month per terminal. Includes core POS, reporting, support.
• Growth / Custom Plans: Quote-based. Add modules like online ordering, loyalty, inventory, payroll, marketing at additional costs per month.
• Hardware: Purchased upfront or financed through Toast, often proprietary. Can be a significant initial cost ($800+ per terminal is common).
• Payment Processing: Built-in Toast Payments required. Rates are custom-quoted based on volume and contract but are generally competitive with Square. Be sure to clarify all per-transaction fees.
• Contracts: Typically require 2-3 year contracts. Early termination fees can be substantial.
  (Source: Toast official website – emphasizes custom quotes)

Summary: Square is more transparent and flexible with lower startup costs and no long-term commitment. Toast requires a custom quote and a longer commitment but aims to provide an all-inclusive, deeply integrated system.

Support, reliability & customer experience

• Square: Offers 24/7 phone and email support for Restaurant Plus/Premium subscribers. Free plan users rely on email, chat, and an extensive online knowledge base. Square is known for its reliable uptime and easy-to-use interface.
• Toast: Offers 24/7 US-based customer support via phone, email, and chat for all paying customers. Often praised for support staff knowledgeable about restaurant issues. Toast hardware is built for reliability in demanding environments. Its software also boasts strong offline capabilities.

Scalability & growth potential

• Square: Scales well from a single food truck to multiple locations using the Plus or Premium plans. Its integration marketplace allows you to add functionality as needed. The cost scales predictably per location.
• Toast: Built for scale. Its modular design allows restaurants to add features like advanced inventory, multi-location management, enterprise reporting, and integrated payroll as they grow. The hardware is designed for high-volume operations. It’s a strong choice for businesses planning significant expansion.

Real-world scenarios / use case analysis

Example 1: The new neighborhood cafe

• Need: An easy-to-use POS for counter service, basic inventory tracking for coffee beans and milk, online ordering for pickup, and the ability to take payments anywhere (e.g., sidewalk seating). Low startup budget.
• Better Choice: Square for Restaurants (Free or Plus)
• Reason: The free plan covers basics, or the Plus plan adds more features affordably. They can start with an iPad or Square Terminal, keeping hardware costs low. Square Online provides free online ordering, and the system is known for its ease of use, perfect for a new business. Month-to-month flexibility reduces risk.

Example 2: The established 3-location full-service restaurant group

• Need: Robust table management and floor plans, advanced KDS routing (e.g., sending specific items to different printers/screens), ingredient-level inventory tracking with food cost reporting, integrated loyalty program, detailed multi-location sales and labor analytics, and durable handhelds for servers.
• Better Choice: Toast POS (Custom Plan)
• Reason: Toast’s deep, restaurant-specific features are built for this complexity. Advanced KDS, inventory, multi-location reporting, and durable Toast Go 2 handhelds are significant advantages. The all-in-one platform approach simplifies managing multiple integrated features. The long-term contract is less of a concern for an established, growing business.

Final verdict & recommendation table

FAQ: Square vs Toast POS

1. Is Toast or Square cheaper?
   Square is generally cheaper, especially upfront and for smaller operations. Its Free plan is $0/month, and its hardware can be less expensive (especially using iPads). Toast’s custom pricing and longer contracts often mean higher overall costs, though potentially better value for complex needs.
2. What is the main disadvantage of Toast?
   The main disadvantages are the long-term contracts (typically 2-3 years) with potentially high early termination fees, the custom quote-based pricing which lacks transparency, and being locked into their proprietary hardware.
3. What is the main disadvantage of Square for Restaurants?
   While powerful, Square might lack the depth of some very specific high-end restaurant features that Toast offers natively (like complex modifier routing or advanced inventory costing). Its hardware, while flexible, may not be as durable as Toast’s purpose-built devices in demanding kitchens.
4. Can I use my own credit card processor with Square or Toast?
   No. Both Square and Toast require you to use their built-in payment processing services (Square Payments and Toast Payments, respectively). This is a key part of their business model.
5. Which POS is better for a food truck?
   Square is often preferred for food trucks due to its lower startup cost, flexible hardware (like the Square Terminal or using a phone/iPad), excellent offline mode, and month-to-month flexibility.
6. Does Toast work for cafes?
   Yes, Toast works well for cafes and QSRs, offering features like KDS and online ordering. However, Square might be a more cost-effective and simpler option if the cafe doesn’t need Toast’s most advanced features.
7. Is Toast hardware better than Square?
   “Better” depends on the need. Toast hardware is generally considered more durable and purpose-built for harsh restaurant environments. Square hardware is often seen as more flexible (iPad compatible) and potentially more aesthetically pleasing, with lower upfront costs.
8. How long are Toast POS contracts?
   Toast contracts are typically 2 or 3 years long. Be sure to carefully review the contract length and any early termination fees before signing. Square is usually month-to-month.