Toast
Toast is the restaurant-native platform: order taking, kitchen display, handhelds, online ordering, payroll and loyalty in one system. Its restaurant focus is what puts it at the top of our hospitality rankings.
Editorial score by industry
Overall score out of 100 and rank in each industry where we rate this system
Category scores in Restaurant & Hospitality
Where this system earns and loses points in its strongest industry
Best for
Full-service, fast-casual and quick-service restaurants of nearly every size.
Walk away if
Retail, service or any business outside food and beverage. Operators who want to choose their own processor should read the terms closely.
Pricing
Starter Kit $0 with higher processing; Point of Sale $69; Build Your Own from ~$110; modules extra. Checked September 2026.
After the trial or intro: The $0 plan charges ~2.99–3.69% + 15¢ processing instead; Point of Sale plan $69; Build Your Own from ~$110; online ordering, KDS, loyalty, payroll and marketing are separate modules.
Tiered software with integrated payment processing required; hardware sold separately. Verify current terms.
Type
Restaurant POS platformWhat Toast is
Toast is the restaurant platform. Order entry, coursing, kitchen display, handheld tableside ordering, online ordering, delivery integrations, payroll, loyalty and marketing are built around how a restaurant actually runs a service.
Its commercial model is the friction point: processing is required, add-ons accumulate, and contracts deserve close reading. For most restaurants the operational strength outweighs that; for cost-sensitive counters it may not.
What it does
- 1Restaurant-native POS with coursing and modifiers
- 2Kitchen display and printer routing
- 3Handheld ordering and pay-at-table
- 4Online ordering, delivery and QR ordering
- 5Payroll, scheduling and team management
- 6Loyalty, gift cards and email marketing
Who it fits
- 1A full-service restaurant with a busy kitchen
- 2A fast-casual concept with online ordering
- 3A multi-unit restaurant group
What customers say.
Public review scores are a signal, not a verdict: profiles mix merchants with end customers, and unhappy buyers write more often than happy ones. We read them for patterns.
★★½☆☆ · 1,400 Trustpilot reviews · September 2026
Mix of restaurant operators and diners using Toast online ordering. Operator complaints focus on fees, contracts and hardware; onboarding is praised.
Read on Trustpilot ↗Who uses it
Restaurants of all formats; ~171,000 locations
Hardware
Toast Flex, Go handhelds, KDS, kiosks (proprietary)
Integrations & payments
Payroll, loyalty, marketing, delivery marketplaces, 200+ partner integrations
Trustpilot scores, all systems
Every system we track on one chart.
What happens after you sign.
How the vendor supports customers, how onboarding works, and what buyers report when something goes wrong.
Customer service scorecard
Editorial scores out of 100 · overall support score 76
What buyers report
Onboarding and outage support are generally praised. The recurring complaints are about non-urgent support waits, hardware replacement delays, and difficulty getting clear answers on processing fees and contract terms. Rate increases and add-on billing are the most common commercial complaints.
Overall customer service score · ranked #12 of 23 systems
Support channels
Phone and chat support advertised around the clock for outages and critical issues, plus in-app help and a large knowledge base. Confirm what counts as critical.
Onboarding
Guided implementation with menu build, hardware install and go-live support.
Customer service rankings
All 23 systems scored on support.
Strengths, weaknesses, risks.
What our analysis found and the questions we would ask before signing.
Strengths
- 1Built for restaurants from order to kitchen to payment
- 2Strong handheld and online-ordering tools
- 3Broad add-on family for payroll, loyalty and marketing
Weaknesses
- 1Processing is required and rates are a frequent objection
- 2Add-ons raise the total cost quickly
- 3Contract terms deserve careful reading
Buying risks to check
- 1Effective processing rate at your volume
- 2Add-on costs for the features you actually need
- 3Contract length and exit terms
What to test in the demo
- 1Fire a coursed order to the kitchen and split the check
- 2Take an order tableside on a handheld
- 3Review labor reporting against sales
Comparisons
Toast vs Square ↗Scores are Point of Sale Rankings editorial judgments. Product capabilities, pricing and terms change; verify final details with the vendor.
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