The 4 Best Toast Alternatives

There are three different restaurant POS plans, all of which are going to be more affordable than a comparable Toast plan unless you choose every paid add-on and integration Square offers.

Square for Restaurants has built-in online ordering capabilities which already makes it a more comprehensive restaurant POS system than Toast.

Other notable features include a dedicated online ordering website, easy menu management, and complete employee time management. All of these features are included at no extra cost on any plan.

Square is lacking built-in waitlist/reservation management features.

Like Toast, Square has proprietary hardware users have to purchase directly through Square.

The biggest difference is that Square’s hardware options are all reasonably priced and won’t burn through your entire POS budget.

You can get your first Square Reader for free or pay a low price for a Square credit card reader.

On the Free and Plus Square for Restaurant plans, Square charges a 2.6% + $0.10 fee per tap, dip, or swipe payment.

Online payments (QR code payments and orders placed on your Square website) are charged a 2.9% + $0.30 transaction fee.

Premium plans come with custom processing rates.

The main benefit of Square when compared to Toast is that there are no long-term commitments or fees if you end your service early. You pay month-to-month and there are no incentives to sign any contracts.

Square acts as a payment processor which means it’s compatible with almost any form of payment you may encounter. The downside is that you won’t receive a dedicated merchant account and payment processors have issues with account stability and fund holds. Square is no exception.

There are ways to avoid fund holds, freezes, and account terminations but it isn’t an uncommon complaint from Square users that there are holds placed, without notice, when a “suspicious” transaction has occurred.

If you choose a payment processor other than Lightspeed Payments you can expect a monthly fee on top of your monthly plan payment.

Where Lightspeed Restaurant lacks in affordability, it more than makes up for in the features it offers, which include an ordering system, kitchen/order management, and niche features.

In addition to the above list, another notable feature is Lightspeed Delivery (powered by Deliverect) which allows you to sync your menu with major food delivery apps like Uber Eats, DoorDash, and Skip The Dishes.

Lightspeed Restaurant also integrates with different hotel PMS (property management systems) to offer basic or more advanced hotel management features depending on what you’re willing to pay.

Like Square, Lightspeed Restaurant doesn’t offer reduced fees on more than one register. There are also no hardware financing options available.

Lightspeed Restaurant offers quotes on fully customized hardware options for your business. You can choose an iPad hardware kit or purchase individual hardware like mobile tap card readers, mobile payment terminals, and receipt printers.

All hardware comes with custom pricing, so you’ll need to contact Lightspeed’s sales team to get hardware quotes.

Lightspeed Restaurant offers multiple options for payment processing with their POS system. These include Dejavoo with Worldpay, Cayan, and Bridgepay.

Keep in mind that if you choose to use a different payment processor than Lightspeed Payments, you will pay an additional monthly fee.

If you choose to use the integrated payment processor, Lightspeed Payments, there are no extra monthly charges and card-present transactions will incur a 2.6% + $0.10 fee. Keyed-in transactions have a 2.6% + $0.30 fee. Online orders have a rate of 2.9% + $0.30. 

The Premium plan offers custom payment processing rates that are typically lower than the standard rates for the Essentials plan.

Unlike Toast, Lightspeed Restaurant offers month-to-month and annual pricing. You will get the best pricing with annual and long-term contracts, but Lightspeed does charge an early termination fee.

This fee can be pretty costly depending on the length of your subscription and how early you decide to terminate your contract. You have to send a cancellation notice before the next billing period to avoid being charged for another month.

Lightspeed doesn’t accept hardware returns after 30 days (14 days for Apple products) and you must validate that you have received your hardware within five days or it won’t be covered under their warranty.

TouchBistro POS offers one plan for one price. With this plan, you receive the basic features you need in a restaurant POS system.

This is where TouchBistro has some disadvantages.

While the base price is fairly reasonable when compared to the other Toast alternatives on this list, the add-ons can get expensive fast.

Like Lightspeed Restaurant, TouchBistro makes up for its shortfalls in pricing with decent features. The only areas where TouchBistro falls short is that nutritional information can’t be displayed on all ordering platforms and the inventory/menu reports are fairly basic.

The biggest feature TouchBistro has to offer is the locally installed wireless network. It doesn’t require Wi-Fi or an internet connection to operate.

That being said, your payment gateway does require a wireless connection. If you don’t use TouchBistro Payments (Moneris iPP320 in Canada) you won’t be able to take credit card payments if your internet is down.

TouchBistro doesn’t offer any proprietary hardware or financing options.

Once you have the latest iPad (purchased either through TouchBistro or another source) you can mix and match additional POS equipment like cash drawers, receipt printers, and handheld card readers.

There are no costs available on the website, so TouchBistro is another restaurant POS system that will base the price of your hardware on your needs and the size of your business.

It’s important to note that while Apple products might be at the top of their class, they are also going to be at the top of their price range, so TouchBistro hardware is going to cost you more than Square or Clover.

TouchBistro Payments (powered by Chase) is a built-in payment processor that gives you hardware, software, and support.

The pricing for TouchBistro Payments is described as “transparent” but is, like almost everything else, quote-based and not listed on the website.

The best thing about TouchBistro Payments is that it keeps your business running and taking payments even when the internet is down. This combination of built-in payment processor and POS software is what makes TouchBistro one of the best POS systems for food trucks.

TouchBistro operates on month-to-month contract terms.

Be warned that some user reviews mention sales reps who convince them to sign up for a one-year contract against their better judgment or without their knowledge. Do your research and ask plenty of questions to avoid a lengthy contract with poor terms.

Clover pricing can vary because you can purchase your plan through Clover directly or from a Clover reseller.

These are the prices you can expect to pay when signing a contract with Clover directly. Some resellers may offer lower pricing per month.

Clover does offer reduced fees on multiple registers and interest-free hardware financing options, which makes it one of the more budget-friendly Toast POS alternatives.

Clover POS software includes pretty much any features you could need as a restaurant owner. The best of which is the built-in online ordering features.

If there’s a feature you need that Clover doesn’t include, there’s an affordable integration available via the Clover App Market. You can purchase the add-on and have it running with your Clover POS within the day.

Clover’s app market and built-in features meet almost every business owner’s needs. It is important to note that there is no built-in B2B customer relationship management available and the performance reports are fairly basic.

You have to purchase Clover hardware to use Clover POS software. You do not, however, have to purchase Clover hardware from Clover.

Resellers are a great way to save money, but you have to be careful with them. Check out our list of the best Clover resellers and do your research before you decide to even consider anything.

Hardware options start with Clover Go (card reader that accepts mobile payments) and expand to include more features and larger equipment with the Clover Station Duo (fully integrated POS hardware plus customer-facing display).

Another problem with using a Clover reseller is that you might end up with a higher payment processing rate than what Clover offers directly to their users.

Clover in-person transaction fees are 2.3% – 2.6% + $0.10% per transaction and card-not-present transactions are 3.5% + $0.10 per transaction.

The biggest complaint for almost all users of Clover products is the contract lengths and early termination fees. These can vary dramatically because of the potential for merchant service providers to take advantage of business owners looking for a deal.

These contracts can span months or years, renew automatically, and be difficult to back out of. Like any contract, we recommend reading the fine print repeatedly before you sign anything.