The 4 Best Toast Alternatives

Even Square’s paid plans are more affordable than comparable Toast plans, although paid add-ons and integrations can increase your monthly costs.

Standout Square features include:

• Online ordering website
• Easy menu management
• Employee time management
• Appointments and scheduling

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

You can get your first Square Reader for free or pay a low price for a Square credit card reader. Other options, including countertop setups and handheld devices, are also available.

Square charges a 2.4% – 2.6% + $0.15 fee per tap, dip, or swipe payment.

Online payments (QR code payments and orders placed on your Square website) are charged a 2.9% – 3.3% + $0.30 transaction fee.

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.

You must use Square’s payment processing. This is not a dedicated merchant account, so there is the (rare) risk that you’ll face funding holds or freezes.

Learn more about how to avoid fund holds, freezes, and account terminations.

Add-ons like kitchen display systems will add to your monthly costs.

Notable Lightspeed features include:

• Ordering system
• Kitchen/order management
• Lightspeed Delivery to sync with food delivery apps like Uber Eats and DoorDash
• Integrations with hotel PMS for hotel management features

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

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 a quote.

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.

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 are 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, 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. You’ll need to contact TouchBistro for a quote.

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 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 varies 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 up through Clover.com. 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. Its online ordering features are especially strong.

If there’s a feature you need that Clover doesn’t include, there’s usually an integration available in the Clover App Market.

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).

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.

These rates are available if you sign up directly through Clover. Resellers may have different rates, so make sure to compare rates and read all contracts carefully before committing.

The biggest complaints about Clover surround 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.