Toast POS Review
- Date Established
- 2012
- Location
- Boston, MA
Pros
- User-friendly interface
- Exceptional customer service
- All-in-one POS
- Android-based
Cons
- Locked into Toast credit card processing
- Additional cost for add-ons
Overview
Table of Contents
Pricing
Toast offers a simple and competitive price format. Subscriptions (Core Software) begin at $79/month. This includes the entire gamut ofach additional device you use is $50/month. If you’re running a large-scale full-service restaurant (or a chain) and need more than six terminals, you should contact a Toast rep for information about custom Enterprise pricing. For more information about pricing in general, check out the pricing page on the Toast website.
Add-ons cost extra, of course.
- $25/month for the Loyalty Program
- $50/month for Physical and Digital Gift Cards
- $50/month for Online Ordering
However, Toast can also provide you a quote if you’re interested in adding some of their in-house features which could potentially bring the price down slightly. If you’re looking for more, shall we say, flexible payment options, Toast does offer financing programs to qualified applicants. So, in lieu of paying for your hardware upfront, you can pay for the whole package in monthly installments. If you’re interested, contact a rep for more information about financing. Hardware packages start at $899 with 0% financing available and remote installation starts at $499. If you’re needing all of the add-ons, especially the loyalty and gift card functionality, it can move Toast out of the “highly affordable” category. However, Toast is also fairly flexible with its quote system and can help you make sure you’re not paying for features you don’t need.
Cloud-Based Or Locally-Installed
Specific Industry
As an “all-in-one restaurant management system,” Toast offers some convenient jumping-off points for whatever food industry business you’re in. This ranges from full-service establishments to bakeries, cafes, bars, nightclubs, pizzerias, and so on. Basically, Toast works well anywhere you would serve food and/or alcohol.
Specific Size Of Business
Toast is suitable for small establishments (cafes, bakeries, and the like), but it is fully capable of multi-restaurant management. Data syncs automatically across all locations; the owner of the chain or franchise just needs to use the same username and password.
Ease Of Use
Toast’s system is easy to learn and the company does an excellent job during the set-up process, making sure that you have everything you need to get started quickly. A representative will walk you through the system, taking as much time as you need to feel comfortable with it.
To get a full grasp of all of Toast’s front- and back-end features, you’ll need to spend some time playing around, but the touch-screen is intuitive and most of the processes are fairly self-explanatory. Because it is so feature-rich, it does take time to master, but in no way is it difficult or beyond the reach of anyone with average intelligence and basic technological skills. Toast isn’t as sleek or modern as some POS systems but, at least in my mind, that’s a plus. If I’m a stressed-out barista or server, I want large buttons that say “pizza” or “latte” and easy access from page to page — and that’s what Toast provides.
The following are some of the most user-friendly and efficient components of the Toast POS system:
- Splitting Checks:
- Simple Voiding:
- Close Out Day Function: One of the most handy-dandy little features available is the Close Out Day function page–basically an audit report which apprises you quickly of the current status of all checks and employee activity. You don’t have to use it, of course: Toast is designed to automatically close out any paid, but un-closed checks and clock out employees who have forgotten to clock out every night (at 4 am, to be exact), so your manual intervention is not strictly necessary. Nevertheless, you can use the Close Out Day function as a good review tool. And, since Toast will not automatically close out unpaid checks, it gives you a good opportunity to see and handle issues before you or your night manager leaves for the evening.
- Creating Service Areas: It is so easy to create custom service areas that my grandmother could do it. And that is saying something, believe me. As you can see below, you can choose from a variety of different table shapes and sizes, and then simply drag and drop them where you want them to go. If you click on any of the placed icons, you can assign it a table number, name, size, width, or height. Any alterations you make to the layout of the service area are instantly saved when you publish the changes and synced to all devices.
- Mobile Ordering: Tableside ordering is all the rage in the food-service industry right now, and for good reason. Not only is it convenient, giving customers confidence that their order will be taken correctly, it can also dramatically improve turnover. Accepting payments at the table is simple and takes just seconds, saving servers trips to the POS station and servers can make quick changes on the fly and send orders directly to the kitchen.
Hardware & Operating System Requirements
Handheld Terminals:
- 7″ Samsung Galaxy Tab 4
- 5.5″ OnePlus.
Terminals:
- 10″, 15″, or 22″ Elo Touch I Series
Receipt Printers:
- Epson T20 Thermal Printer
- Epson U220B Kitchen Printer
Wireless Connectivity:
- Meraki Router
- Open Mesh Access Points
Other Accessories:
- APG Cash Drawer
- Honeywell 1400G Scanner
- Brecknell 6710u Scale
- Pole Display Pos-X XP-8200
Features
For as simple as it is to use, Toast manages to pack quite a punch when it comes to the sheer number and variety of feature options.
Standard Features:
- Ordering:
- Digital Receipts: Toast gives
- Tips:
- Menu Creation: The POS menu will generally correspond to any physical menus you use in your restaurant, and can be divided just like your normal menu would be, into Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Cocktails, Dessert, etc. Each separate menu in the Toast system can be further broken down into menu groups (in a dinner menu, this might be Appetizers, Salads, Entrees, etc.). Each group then contains the actual menu items (artichoke dip, club sandwich, General Tso’s Chicken, Tutti Fruitti pancakes, or what have you). Items may be further customized with any number of modifiers and sub-modifiers. You can learn more about creating, using, and editing modifiers on Toast’s site, but I will say that Toast’s modifier system is comprehensive and feature-rich enough to be especially useful for pizzerias, sandwich shops, and other restaurants that make food to order on a regular basis.
- Pricing Menu Items: Toast allows you to strategize when costing your menu items and create pricing rules that can be applied to entire groups, different item sizes, and/or to items that need special pricing based on the menu they are located in (for example, if you usually sell an app for $8.00 on your regular dinner menu, you could modify the price to $6.00 when it is ordered off the Bar menu). Group pricing is straightforward; all you need to do is specify a price for all items under a specific menu group. If you use the size pricing option, you can identify multiple size categories and designate prices accordingly, as seen in the example below.
- Restaurant-Based Reporting: Internal reporting is one of Toast’s most compelling offerings, and there are a wide variety of reports available, from simple sales reports to labor reports, product mix reports, tip reports, and more. Reports update in real time and can be accessed anywhere, anytime.
- Customer Data Collection & Customer-Based Reporting: Similarly, the gift and rewards report gives you a bird’s eye view of all active rewards and gift cards, along with information about how the cards were used.
- Labor Management: If you want, you can require m Similarly to its CRM, this function allows you to micromanage your staff, but in a positive way. You can see the efficiency of your kitchen and quickly assess servers’ sales, comparing them with expectations. You can also see if managers are doling out a larger number of voids than would be expected. In addition, you can customize your Toast account to create different services/roles for your staff and designate specific hours of operation.
- Time Tracking: Time tracking is a feature that few POS companies dare to tackle, but with Toast, you can assign each of your employees
- Inventory Management: Toast also includes an inventory management system. Specifically, this new feature includes inventory control, inventory reporting, a recipe costing tool, a food cost calculator, an inventory variance report, and a menu engineering chart that helps you analyze your best-selling and most profitable menu items.
- Toast Go: Toast is at the forefront of the game when it comes to tableside ordering. Toast Go is a completely optimized and integrated handheld device that is simple for servers to use and can help get orders to the kitchen quickly and accurately. It also allows servers better communication with your customers and the ability to make changes instantly from the palm of their hand.
Add-Ons:
- Loyalty Programs: For an additional $25/month, you can add a fairly hefty loyalty program to your usual subscription. The Toast loyalty program is great for two reasons: one, it’s fully integrated with the rest of your POS system and any data therein; and two, it is set up so that customers can opt-in right at the table or counter. All they have to do is check a box on the tablet screen when they are closing their tab or paying for their food. People will almost always take the path of least resistance, so having an easy, one-click signup process (on a screen the customer would have to look at anyway) is a no-brainer. Once they’ve signed up, your customers will get a unique code via email, as well as a rewards account number which they can use to check their rewards balance any time they want. As the restaurant owner, you
- Online Ordering: you want, as soon as your customer places an online order
Customer Service & Support
- Platform Configuration: After you pull the trigger and buy a subscription, a Toast expert will start collaborating with you to customize your entire platform (everything from your dining room layout to menu configuration, modifications, and staff permissions). They will also “advise you on ways to optimize your menu and streamline processes at your location.” In most instances, you will be able to pull your system out of the box with all of your preferences pre-programmed and ready to go upon installation.
- Installation: Toast offers on-site POS installation for every customer. Depending on the size and scale of your restaurant, one or more experts will actually come to your physical location and set up the entire system for you. If you want to set things up yourself, Toast will ship you everything you need with detailed instructions and 24/7 phone support. And Toast really does want you to be fully comfortable once you’re up and running, making sure that you understand every facet of the software before your business launches.
- Staff Training: Toast is user-friendly, sure, but it is also multi-faceted and can take time to master. For this reason, after installation, a Toast expert will show up at your restaurant and conduct staff POS training. They literally “won’t leave until you and all of your staff feel comfortable with the system.” This is paramount to Toast and, in some cases, they have even had a representative on-site during a business’s first day of operation.
- 24/7 Support: The monthly fee also includes 24/7 support from a US-based technical support team. Each time I called, I was speaking to a representative in mere moments.
- Support Tickets: Support tickets are easy to create. The Toast website puts it this way:
In a busy restaurant environment, it is not always possible to pick up the phone or sit down at a computer to open a ticket with our Toast Support team. We have created a section of Toast so that a ticket can be submitted quickly without even leaving the app! All you need to do is fill in your email address, the subject of your question/request, and a brief description of the problem. Then you can just return to the Toast main menu and continue working.
- Training Material: Toast has invested in a huge amount of training material, some of the best I’ve ever seen. There are full programs complete with training videos for staff, managers, and admins. In addition to the video tutorials, there are innovative hands-on training demos which allow you to push buttons, complete orders, take payments etc., just like you would on a Toast terminal. I’ve never encountered such robust, professional training material on a POS website. Ever. I cannot stress enough that Toast takes customer service and support seriously. They also offer a POS buying guide with some terrific information. Sure, it all makes their POS look good, but the information is helpful and accurate.
- Knowledgebase: If you don’t get the answers you need from the training material, Toast provides a comprehensive (searchable) knowledgebase with FAQs, troubleshooting tips, and information about anything from menu management to close-out training. It works, it’s comprehensible, and it’s accurate, as far as I can tell, but it looks for all the world like it was hastily slapped together by someone who was simultaneously juggling eggs, studying for the LSAT, and watching Bob Ross paint trees. However, Toast provides such stellar support tools in other respects that I’m willing…just barely…to forgive a bit of sloppy text. Yes, I know, I’m such a magnanimous person. Please hold your applause until the end of the review.
- Blog: The Toast Blog is actually better than many I’ve seen from POS providers, and contains a lot of good information and helpful articles.
- Social Media Engagement: Toast has a standard Facebook page, as well as aTwitter feed, LinkedIn and Google+ accounts, and, oddly, an Instagram feed.
Compatible Credit Card Processors
can set your credit card authorization to always process as if it was offline, so your payments will print a receipt without waiting around for official authorization. This is optional, of course, and slightly risky, but it does tend to increase transaction speeds and get customers through your lines faster.
Integrations & Add-Ons
Lack of integrations was once a slight sticking point with Toast, but the company now offers a solid variety of integrations and is more competitive in this area. The list of available integrations expands frequently, and while Toast offers an impressive number of in-house add-ons, it’s nice to have 3rd-party options too. Integrations include but are not limited to:
- Compeat
- PeachWorks
- CTUIT
- CrunchTime
- PayTronix
- Bevager
- GrubHub
- Samsung Pay
- Kitchensync
Toast also has an open API (which allows you to develop your own integrations).
Negative Reviews & Complaints
- Payment Processing: Perhaps to be expected, there are a handful of user complaints about being locked into Toast’s processing system. If you use Toast, Toast will be your payment processor, end of story. There are good and bad aspects to this, as discussed in the Payment Processing section above, but suffice it to say that the lack of options gets people’s ire up. It should be noted that most of the complaints are simply about being locked in and not about how the system actually works.
- Poor Hardware: A few reviews mentioned that hardware had to be replaced constantly and wasn’t durable or that it broke down on multiple occasions, requiring additional pieces to be shipped.
- Bugs: A couple of Toast users reported issues with bugs in the software. One client has had issues with the system not sending complete tickets to the kitchen and messing up customer orders.
- Constantly Evolving: Although some of the reviews were happy that the product was updating all the time, they mentioned that it often made it difficult to keep track of the new features.
Positive Reviews & Testimonials
Overall, the public reaction to Toast has been positive and it currently has an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau. People seem most stoked about these qualities:
- Android-Based: Not everyone in the world is an Apple aficionado, and many people like the relative freedom and flexibility that come with reliance on Android devices.
- Inexpensive: Toast’s monthly subscription prices are competitive for the POS market–neither ridiculously spendy or amazingly inexpensive. However, because Toast relies on Android-based devices and hardware, it is overall much cheaper than its iOS competitors, especially when you’re just starting out. Plus, if you’re tight on money, it also makes it easy to pick and choose what add-ons you want and which you can live without.
- User-Friendly: In general, most users agree that Toast is user-friendly, easy to learn, and easy to train others on.
- Loyalty Cards: Toast’s integrated loyalty card program is simple and easy to access and manage, and many restaurateurs use Toast just for this feature.
- Online Ordering: Like integrated loyalty programs, integrated online ordering is rare in restaurant management software–a kind of POS Holy Grail. Toast’s online ordering system is really very good, and it is the exclusive reason that some people use the system at all.
- Excellent Customer Support: I know, we’ve gone over this, but it bears repeating: Toast has perhaps the best customer service plan in the industry, period.
Final Verdict
In an ideal world, there would be an affordable POS system that covers all of your needs in one, making it so you only need to make a single call if you run into issues with your credit card processor, your hardware, or your software. Toast is a real-world product, but it appears to be about as close to the ideal solution as we’ve seen.
There are a few exceptions, of course — a few things Toast does not do well by itself — but in general, this POS wears many hats with aplomb. Toast provides all of the features you would expect from a top-notch system with very few product gaps. Its gift card and loyalty functionality can make the product a little pricey. However, those functions are generally well worth the cost as they are both robust and extremely easy to use.
What really sets this company apart, however, is their extraordinary, above-and-beyond approach to customer service. The best POS system in the world is worse than useless if you don’t know how to use it, or can’t reach technical support when bugs, glitches, and/or inevitable user error start to plague your business.
Because we’ve seen people get burned in similar situations, it would be nice if customers were given a choice whether to use Toast as their payment processor. This isn’t a deal-breaker, especially as there are very few complaints about the processor online, but it is concerning enough for me to recommend at least a bit of caution before diving into a subscription. In short, Toast handles the things that often raise red flags for us extremely well. Overall, I have no qualms in recommending Toast. Because it relies on an Android operating system, this point of sale is going to be cheaper and more versatile than the majority of its competitors in the food-service POS industry.
Do you already use this system in your restaurant? Let us know what you think about it in the comments below!
Matt Sherman
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Organization Name: Joselito's Mexican Food Tujunga
Toast is great. It’s very easy to use. The third party API’s are extremely useful and connect very well. Customer service is better than any POS company I have used in 30 years. Toast is the first POS company in 30 years that actually pushes updates, that make a dofference, without charging you or you having to ask. A few people have mentioned the CC processing and the fact that they are forced to use Toast. When you sign your contract it is yo to you to negotiate a good deal. I am extremely happy with my Toast Deal. They beat, only slightly, by ratedls from the previous company which were already very low. Training on toast was great and their online university and social site is wonderful as well. I am definitely a Toast user for life
Organization Name: Toast Inc.
Hi Jose, Jasmine from Toast here. Thank you so much for your review! It is our top priority to meet the needs of all of our customers, whether that is customer service or product updates. I’m happy to hear you are taking advantage of Toast University as well. We’re excited to see your restaurant continue to thrive on Toast!
I have used toast since its inception. There have been some bumps along the way, but for the most part they are very responsive to whatever we need. I have never had any issues with their tech support, and we found some workarounds for issues tat have come up. We have also beta tested hardware for them, which i would not recommend.
Organization Name: Annabella's
Avoid at all Cost!!!! Slow! Unorganized! If you don’t want to go bankrupt stay away!!!! They will tell you what you want to here and drop you like a hot potato!!!!
Organization Name: Toast Inc.
Hi William, Jasmine from Toast here. I am sorry you are feeling unheard by Toast. We are here to help you. Your Restaurant Success Manager will be in touch.
Organization Name: MonAlyssa
Great System Great Employees. Our Staff and Management team LOVE Toast
Organization Name: The Den
Great software and great customer service!
Organization Name: Lodgenuity, LLC
I have used Toast in all 3 of my locations (quick service, bar, full service). The best attributes are the ease of use and the constant improvement that the upgrades provide no matter what the application. The customer support is very solid on all issues and we have had very few incidents of being offline in the last 2 years. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a POS, no matter what style of restaurant.
Organization Name: Toast
Hi Adam, Jasmine here from Toast. Thank you for your review! I’m thrilled to hear that Toast is providing value in all of your locations of different service styles.
Organization Name: Boyd Restaurant Group
Credit card payment processing Is VERY profitable for the credit card processor and fees can escalate over the life of the contract. We were not informed that credit card processing was required to be a Toast user and because of this connection we are looking for other options. Purchasing hardware, software, back-office, Maintenance is enough under one roof. Adding a requirement for credit cards is just too risky!
Organization Name: Toast
Hi Jim, Jasmine here from Toast. I am sorry to hear you were dissatisfied with our credit card processing fees and have decided to explore other options. We know that the world of credit card processing can be confusing and we strive to be as transparent as possible about our competitive rates. Please be aware that we have a “meet or beat” policy- with a formal quote from a competitor, our team is happy to review all of our customers’ rates at any time.
Organization Name: Archers BBQ
Toast has shorted me $6500.00 in deposits over the first 3 months of use. Toast promised to match my effective credit card rate of 2.23%, but my effective credit card rate with Toast is 2.7%. Run, dont hide, from the Toast POS rep.
Organization Name: Toast
Hi Archer, Jasmine here from Toast. I’m sorry to hear about the misunderstanding about your deposits and effective credit card rates. Please continue to work with the payments representative that has reached out to you to find a solution that works for you.
Organization Name: Sergeant Pepperonis
Toast works great for us. We love that when our internet provider fails us as they often do, Toast can still process cards and we don’t anger or lose business. Usually the staff doesn’t even know. Quick menu editing allows us to make changes on the Terminal that reflect to our integrated online ordering as well. Training staff is super easy, and most things you can learn by spending 15 minutes playing around!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Toast
Hi Kevin- Yes! The value you’re seeing from our offline mode is exactly the intent we had when building it into our POS system. We believe your Internet connection should not hinder your restaurant’s ability to thrive.
Organization Name: Duffys Tavern
Love using Toast! It makes everything so much faster and simpler!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Magico Pizza
good system getting better, lots of new features, not too many glicches. missing some basic features like customer comments, and could use some improvements for delivery, online ordering, and better discounting features, and one big one there is no way to get your customer addresses from your deliveries. would love to see the pizza features promised 2 years ago. but it is better than most everything out there for the price. My staff and customers like the system
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Toast
Hi John, Jasmine here from Toast. I am thrilled to hear you notice our system is improving. As your restaurant grows, we love to grow with you. You should definitely be able to access customer delivery information- please refer to this article in our Knowledge Base for more information about your takeout and delivery options: https://central.toasttab.com/s/article/How-do-I-set-up-my-take-out-and-delivery-options-1492745822028. If you have further questions, give Toast Support a call at (617) 682-0225, or log on to Toast Central to chat with them live during business hours.
Organization Name: Hot Shot Espresso
the struggle is real!!! i like the daily use that the toast go provides. the customer service is lacking for sure. i feel very abandoned once we went live. i am here for some help more than this review.. i cant seem to get anyone at toast to help me figure out how to download the daily sales from Toast to Quick books. if any users could help me i would be greatful. please email me at hotshot1038@gmail.com thanks in advance. 🙂
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Toast
Hi Emily – I’m sorry you haven’t been able to get the help you need. Toast and Quickbooks can be directly integrated through our partners Shogo, UT&I Solutions, or Cohesion. Here’s more information: https://central.toasttab.com/s/article/Toast-Quickbooks-Integration-1492723820682
For more detail or specific help, please work with our professional Support team. You can call (617) 682-0225, or log on to Toast Central to chat with them live.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: The Livery
As mentioned in reviews above, Toast isn’t the PERFECT system, but what’s great about it is that they’re constantly updating it. Our previous systems were bought and done with- used for years “as is” and became outdated quickly for staff and customer needs. Toast puts out an upgrade nearly every month, and almost all of my complaints and suggestions have been addressed in those updates. The back-end is by FAR the easiest I’ve seen (comparing to Micros and Digital Dining) and save me HOURS of entering new items. My servers find everyday use easier as well- splitting checks, transferring checks, etc.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Hessen Haus
I researched Toast very thoroughly and went through many hours of Q&A with the sales team. I feel duped.I should have dug deeper and gotten more personal feedback from current users.The platform has certain features that are very good, but not enough to outweigh all of the bad.Hands down the worst part of it is their service and support after the sale. If I ever get through to support, they typically have to call me back with a solution…which never happens. My account “manager” responds to every communication with regurgitated boiler plate BS and has yet to solve any of my issues.We have frequent issues with our card readers, and our warranty period is up in November. They won’t replace the crap readers with the newer upgrades.You don’t get nearly the functionality and ease of use on the back end that you pay for. The reporting features are weak at best.The inventory module is terrible. They claim you can use the tablets to do inventory…which is true, but it takes 4x longer to do it that way because you can’t select the fields to enter the numbers and then when you do, often times the quantities change. My account “manager” replied to my complaints about this with “Our inventory module may not be as robust as you need, maybe you could add on one of our partner software companies.” For another $500 a month. No thanks.Short story: Run from Toast and never look back. I regret the move every single day.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: T.G.I
Software is not nearly as innovative as they claim. Yes they use a cloud but when toast is having issues and their whole cloud goes down you cannot do much. None of your tablets and terminals will talk to each other, you lose tabs and you cannot process credit cards. This has happened at peak times for us and is a huge inconvenience. Another big draw back is that if you own a bar/restaurant like us this isn’t a system that’s ahead of the curve. You are not able to accurately track your bartenders indivual sales. You also don’t have the ability to precisely see when/what exact time sales are being made. It’s very hard to notice this until you actually get the system at your place. I pointed this out to several people at Toast. Most of them were unaware this was the case. They told me it would be dealt with and then two months later said it wouldn’t be because Aloha didn’t have it as a feature, (which I found out later they do) and also because they felt not enough customers were requesting these features. One more thing is that they overcharged us for the startup equipment and debited $500 more than they should’ve. They eventually correct things but had I not spoken up they never would’ve.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Kay's Restaurant
The good reviews on here must have been reviewed by employee’s because it’s the complete opposite. I chose this company for the reviews and it was the biggest mistake. The training is a disaster, if they show up at all. The software is outdated just like their terminals. It takes forever to put in an order and their 24/7 support is a lie. They will tell you what you want to hear to get you to sign a contract then they won’t even show up on install date after you have already waited over a month. Don’t fall for their lies. Clover or lavu are so much better. They will have you going in less than a week and their software is so much better for half the price. Don’t make the mistake we did.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Curry Tub
Worst system ever, Never works properly. Their charges are too much. Not up to date with the technolodgy. Their sales people will say anything to make a sale. Dont trust them. save your money and time. Dont work with them. Really bad people, out to steal money. They will get you to sign papers and then keep staeling from you. DO NOT RECOMMEND IT
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I’m shopping Toast right now. Do you have a better alternative in mind?
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Beachland Group
Toast is by far the worst POS I have ever used in over 20 years in the restaurant business. I installed it in two locations with a plan to install in a third but it was a failure from day one. The KDS never worked correctly and all my servers and bartenders hated it. The biggest issue is the credit cards. They almost never work on the first swipe and the busier the restaurant gets the worse they get. In 3 months we keyed in over 1000 cards which costs the server time and the owner money. In addition we had connectivity issues that were never solved. I uninstalled Toast at both locations and now cant get a refund. Toast expects me to pay $12,000 to get out of my contracts so I guess I will see them in court. By far the worst POS on the market.
Chip Kohn
Beachland Tavern
West Hartford, CT
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Toast
Hi Chip – Juan here from Toast. I’m so sorry to hear about the issues you’re experiencing with our credit card processing. It is unfortunate to hear that you have uninstalled Toast at two of your locations. I assure you that your restaurant success manager will be in touch with you shortly to help with your situation.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Curry Tub
Hi Chip
I have had similar experience with Toast as you. Did you ever resolve with them? I am cosidering contacting a lawyer about thier contract too.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Hessen Haus
Chip, I agree. We were looking at using this across all of our 16 locations. We brought on 4, and we will be dropping them all if things don’t improve soon. Luckily we negotiated a shorter contract, but still; 2 years is a long time with a bad system. Good luck!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Gianni's
I made a big mistake as well. Never ever will I purchase a POS that forces you to use their processor. The inexpensive hardware/software/services are made up quickly when they screw you in on a long term contract with the ability to raise processing rates ay any time.
Buyer BEWARE
Organization Name: pFriem Family Brewers
Maybe it’s because I’m a millennial in management, but I’ve had a good working relationship with Toast. I haven’t needed a lot of customer support since implementation 9 months ago, but I largely taught myself everything about how to build systems in Toast — it’s fairly intuitive in that way that I can figure out “how it works.” It might be because I have an existing penchant for these types of systems, but whatever. They’re a young company growing rapidly, maybe too rapidly — aggressive sales team with slow moving customer support.All in all though, cloud-based reporting, mobile functionality, offline mode, cash and tip tracking have all made this a mostly positive experience for me.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: RHM corp dba LaSuprema Mexican Restaurant
We have had Toast since January of 2017, had some initial issues with implementation, but other than that have been happy with the system. The customer service has been moving up since we first started and is much better now.We are an independent operation that seats 140 and have been in business since 1970, so Toast was a much needed update to our old POS system. I wish it integrated with Quickbooks better, but it does provide a lot of functionality. The cost of the processing fees can be an issue and requires monitoring. Super easy to use and learn, thanks!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Marinara Pizza
We started using toast and to be honest I wasn’t in love with it. After two months I genuinely loved the service. As the manager I spent two months daily as the cashier and learned the system like the back of my hand. The better you know your POS the better you know your business. Toast has an extensive FAQ section where they cover almost everything. Their staff is so prompt with responding and if they don’t have an immediate answer they will forward you to someone who does. Since I have moved from PC America and Revel at two of our different stores to Toast and the staff have been raving how it immensely helped them do their jobs.
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Organization Name: Toast
Hi Jon – Juan here from Toast. We really appreciate your feedback. We’re always trying to provider customers with the best support possible through responsive support reps and helpful articles. Thank you so much for the kind review!
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Organization Name: Four Seam Hospitality
Our entire partnership with Toast has been nothing less than WONDERFUL. From Jeff our Sales consultant, to Robin, Matt, Mike, and the rest of the team, we have never felt like we had to figure the system out on our own. Some one has been with us each step of the way. We have now been LIVE for 1 month. In my over 16 years of restaurant industry work, this is by FAR the best POS system out there. User friendly, easy to learn, and has every report we need at our finger tips, I simply love it,
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Hey Jenn, Juan here from Toast. Congratulations on your first month being live! We are so happy that you’re enjoying the system and working with the team – thank you for the wonderful review!
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Organization Name: Dante’s Bistro Bar & Grill
ZERO after sale assistance. Not at all trustworthy. There company is just a party place. Half of their positive reviews are from employees! Big costly mistake to go with toast. They nickel and dime you to death and their response time for repairs( which is frequent) is dismal. Had to spend $2000 to fix their system after only 6 weeks working. They couldn’t fix problem so I had to hire outside! Reimbursement ?!? Hahahahha. Run from toast.
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Organization Name: Pi LLC
Stellar customer service!! Moving 4th restaurant over to Toast and couldn’t be more happy. Easy transitions with all. Updates happen all the time which are great! Toast keeps evolving!
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Organization Name: Four Seam Hospitality DBA The Sutton Legion
Jeff was great through the sales process then Robin took over as our project manager and was fabulous. They got us up and running ahead of schedule and we are having amazing results already. Joining Toast has been the best business decision yet.
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Swapping to Toast was one of the best decisions here at our restaurant! It allows me to run different reports and export them with ease. I can even get up to the second numbers with cloud connectivity. It’s makes my job a lot easier and gives me flexibility to be more creative. I’m glad my boss upgraded to Toast!
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Toast is super intuitive and user friendly for both the staff and mangers. Thank you for tailoring this POS to the restaurant industy.
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Helped us switch 5 locations to Toast from PosiTouch. It has been a great decision. The flexibility for multi-unit concepts is great. We have been able to improve our efficiency with the use of KDS, handheld mobile units, along with traditional terminals. We look forward to further changes and improvements.
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Toast has made it so easy for us to integrate third party systems and their support s top notch!
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Toast has made my life so much easier with enterprise level reporting and and open API. We have been able to integrate with almost all of our 3rd party vendors.
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Toast was the right choice for me because I have a very young staff and a customer base that loves to use technology. The support staff at Toast are second to none and my sales rep is always there To help me grow my business.
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Toast is the best system we have ever used. We experience no down time. The hardware has held up extremely well. The KDS screens in the kitchen have greatly reduced errors and have improved efficiency. The servers and customers love the handheld tablets and the ability to process cards right at the table. Server tips have gone up over 20%. The menu is amazingly easy to customize. I really can’t say enough about how positive an impact Toast has had on our restaurant.
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The reality is that the system goes down all too often and wether thats the network Toast set up or wether the internet is down, the system can blow your entire dining room and loose thousands like my places did. Toast says that the system still works in off-line mode but that isn’t true. Its happened to me so many times i can’t begin to tell you how much money I’ve lost with this system. When it stops communicating, the printers can’t print, can’t cash out checks and can’t take new orders. People get so upset you can’t imagine. Look at some reviews of ours, guests actually say “why do you have this shitty system if its ruing your business” I finally smartened up and got touch bistro. This system has its own server so we don’t rely on internet or someones cloud. We have our own cloud so it doesn’t go down. This is the reality of Toast after dealing with it for years, Ive lost many managers over the frustrations they encountered!
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Would love to know how touch bistro is working out
toast has been the worst business decision we have ever made
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I looked at 7 other cloud based or tablet systems and have worked with all of the “big companies” in the past. While there’s is a lot of growth potential with Toast innovations, I still believe Toast is head and shoulders above the others. Having an offline mode on tablets has saved my managers and staff time and stress. The reporting has some needs but a non issue for us because we use a restaurant management software along side Toast. The biggest issue is the 24-hour support. They may not have answers very quickly as some of them are very green. The upside is the sales rep hasn’t left our side and will still assist with service issues. Our account rep is very sharp too. The kinks now are worth it for the long term upside down the road.
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I searched and tested POS systems for 2 1/2 years before deciding on Toast. We needed a system with kitchen video displays because I refused to revert to printed tickets. The system also needed to handle our Valutec gift cards which numbered in the 1000’s . I discovered the Toast android based system with 10″ screens, kitchen video, the ability to import all our gift card data and online ordering. This was our solution to replace our outdated XP based back office computer and registers. Our menu is complex and the toast menu system is VERY customizable. We needed to help with the menu programming to get it set up correctly and have an easier transition. The installation went as smoothly as could be expected and after a couple months we implemented online ordering. The next step will be to set up an in-store kiosk!We’ve been pleased with the reliability of the system and the ability to maintain orders when the internet is down. A couple disappointments have been the ability to get a real time labor report, online inventory and bogo discount setup. During an 11-3 lunch shift it’s not possible to get an accurate labor report at 2pm for adjustments to be made. There is an option to take an item out of inventory on the tablets however, the item still shows up for online ordering. For example, we serve 3 soups each day and have 7 different soups each week. A person placing an online order can choose an out-of-inventory soup but then gets an order error. Out of inventory items show as grayed out or not appear at all for online orders. The last comment regards BOGO coupons. The $ discounted include any upgrades to the order rather than just the base items discount. For example, a person purchasing a sandwich and soup and a bogo sandwich will get a discount equal to the sandwich and soup not only the sandwich. We’ve been unable to use the BOGO discount at all because of this problem.Overall we are happy with the decision to purchase Toast and hope that the minor issues above can be resolved.
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Organization Name: Lena’s Cafe
I am considering toast and I use valutec for gift cards as well. I would love to hear how you feel about Toast since your review. Thanks
We were excited about partnering with Toast for our POS system, and invested over $25,000 with this company. We use 5 terminals, 4 Kitchen displays, their integrated online ordering, and their integrated loyalty program. In the beginning we had several issues with the system when it was installed. Their local installers were great, however there was little they could do to resolve the software issues. Apparently the Epson printers sold to us by Toast conflicted with their software. This took weeks to resolve, but eventually did get resolved.In addition, their loyalty program has serious issues. So buyer beware. You are exposing yourself to confrontations with your customers if you sign up for it (which costs extra) and then advertise it to your guests. People don’t get the emails, you can enter a valid email, but it says the email it not valid, you can’t link multiple credit cards to one loyalty account properly (and as we all know many people carry more than 1 credit card), clicking on the already registered button and entering your email doesn’t get you the points, even though it says you go them. There is no way this company hasn’t been aware of these issues or has spent time the amble time trying to resolve them because likely it’s an add on that many of their restaurants don’t pay for, so they put their resources elsewhere. This is a serious issue for your company as if you tell your guests that they are getting something and they are in fact not getting it, you are breaking the law. The stands for the 15″ screens are also very flimsy and poorly designed. Due to weight, they fall over because the rubber feet they provide to you do not stick properly to your countertops. It’s very badly design. We have customers freak out when they choose to flip the screen back to our employee after they sign for their purchase and the the screens fall over onto the counter. For the most part, the ordering side of the system works for our cafe. They are not really set up properly for counter ordering. It is more designed for servers taking orders at tables. So consider that when you are deciding to make this large investment. There are definitely other systems on the market that you should look at and consider.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Easy to use but tough to update and do deep copy of menu
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This POS system has been great to me in almost a year using it.. Its very user friendly and comes with some top notch features. Offline Mode pays our Toast Monthly bill as we are able to capture payments even without internet. Also the idea of been on Cloud Technology helps a lot.Make my day to day easy, I recommended
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Toast is ahead of the game in many ways compared to a lot of out-dated POS systems. They are constantly reinventing ways to stay ahead of the tech world in hospitality. Keep it up Toast!
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We have been using Toast since December 2015. The staff is friendly and they’re customer service has always been outstanding. I also love the ease of the reporting. My only complaint would be that there needs to be more in-house support at the beginning of the launch. I am lucky enough to have my son on sight who used to do IT work and if it weren’t for him, I can see where there could have been problems. You just need to take some time to learn the system. Otherwise, great job…we’ll continue to use Toast.
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We’ve had Toast for just a few months but we love it. The customer service is prompt and friendly. Tech support is very helpful. One of the big selling points for us was that we can have digital gift cards that will work at both of our locations which is something that our old system didn’t offer. Also for me as the admin, I love that I can control pricing, check reports, and add and edit menu items from my computer. The Quick Edit feature is a great option. Just today, in between serving customers, we were able to add a button on the menu for a double cheeseburger (something we’ve been meaning to do but kept forgetting about). All in all this is a great system and we are very pleased.
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No review.
Prospective client
Can screens be shifted to a second language in particular chinese
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
We have been using this system for just under a year, and it has made our lives so much easier. I enjoy that I can upload something to the tablets in a few clicks, I can make changes to pricing and availability and offerings from anywhere. I shopped other systems before settling on Toast, and I find that this is absolutely the one for us. I stumbled upon them on accident, and it was the best accident ever. We came from a cash register and CC machine, and now everything is integrated– it’s a breeze. This is hardwired, but also has an internal memory, so if the connection goes down, you can keep ringing and when it comes online again, all the transactions will be pulled into the system like nothing ever happened. Totally worth it!
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Toast is heading in the right direction but it’s still far from a robust POS for a full-service restaurant. Courses are strangely handled, you cannot track when a course was fired, there is no wine BIN system, and the fast bar screen is far to be desired. We are going to stick with them because they are willing to find ‘work arounds’ but they are not ready for prime time just yet.
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Our brand (Costa Vida) has over 60 locations using Toast and it has been a great POS solution for us. The support has been outstanding and there is a high level of care shown whenever we have had an issue. The main reasons we chose Toast was it’s processing speed and ease to learn. When we bring on new cashiers they learn the system quickly and are fully proficient in a short amount of time. I have personally recommended Toast to several of my friends that operate restaurant brands.
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I work with the Que’s Brothers BBQ in Marion and we checked out several different POS Systems but felt that Toast was a good fit with us. They were able to come and spend more time than most to help us to be up and running. They came to our soft and hard opening to help the servers work through any problems they have with the program and to make sure they understood everything. We can call and talk to someone right away if we do have any software questions or issues. They definitely seem to care more than most.
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We’ve had Toast for over a year and could not be happier. We never planned on switching from our old POS but after seeing a presentation of Toast we were blown away by the possibilities. Toast has increased our efficiency immensely which shows in our sales. We recently had over 10,000 people for our annual St. Patrick’s Day Street Event. We’ve always been pleased at how easily it handles our volume, but wow, it ran smoothly and effortlessly all day long! We had 17 handhelds running and 5 terminals! We cannot say enough good things about Toast! We learn new things every day that increase our productivity! Highly recommend!
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We brought Toast in to our restaurant in January of 2017. We switched from Micros. Toast has been everything we were hoping for and more! We love how easy it is to use. Our staff picked up on it quickly and have been able to train incoming staff easily. As managers, the back office is simple to understand and use as well. We have had no major issues since the switch and the Toast team helped to ensure a smooth transition. We are looking forward to putting Toast into our new restaurant opening next spring!
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How would you compare it to Micros? What would you say distinguishes Toast from Micros?
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I have previously worked with both Aloha & Micros. Toast is a HUGE contender with those power houses in the POS world!Pros: I really like the ease of use behind the software. There is still opportunities to expand the functionality, but overall it is great. They are constantly pushing updates, we have had 4 since we started using the system.Cons: The “versioning” of the menus is a bit of a task and naming “flow” is flawed. It has been since we started using the product 6 months ago. They advised they are aware of the issue, but it still hasn’t been resolved.Overall: When we contemplating switching to Toast, I was on a mission to prove it wouldn’t work in a full service restaurant. I was wrong. I fell in love with the ease of use behind the system and the overall functionality of it. The only struggle I have had to date is with the support. We use their Master Menu Management functions and most of the tech’s that answer the calls are not able to answer those questions and have to refer my questions, up the chain. — They are making a lot of changes to correct this issue, but I would be remiss not to mention it.
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Great system, very innovative. Few kinks, but fast working team and updating software spells success for this POS. Very customer friendly, efficient for the staff as well. Thanks for making work easier!
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toast has been great for my business. i used to have two separate pos companies one for the in shop and on for online ordering. with toast i have both for a fraction of the price. it’s accounting and end of day reports have been a life saver and i can already see money popping up! i would recommend this pos to anyone who owns a restaurant. it’s so simple to use!
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Best Pos i’ve used yet, user friendly with great tool to develop new and existing employees! tons and tons of training info on their website, good job guys!!
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We have a small Cafe. I am looking at a Toast proposal where it is impossible not to notice that Toast is asking me to pay 50% higher than my current card processor charges. Seems Shady to call that a Meet or Beat. We have had Micros for 10 years and I assumed I could not pay more than what we paid now!I recommended to my boss that we look at solutions that have more track record.
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Hi Tom,
Did our analysts have an opportunity to review two months of recent statements to calculate a rate match? I’ve worked at Toast for 18 months and have learned a lot about processing and CC rates from our team, and we can only be sure to match or beat a rate if we can see what your current processing costs are. Does your current processor use an interchange + model? Since Toast processes on a flat rate, our analysts will calculate your effective rate and back into it so you will pay an equal or lesser amount with Toast as your new processor. Your sales rep should be able to dive into this further.
Here is a blog post about processing to help you calculate your true rate: https://pos.toasttab.com/blog/how-credit-card-processing-works-plus-calculator
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Toast was a no brainer. The ease of use, e gift cards, on line ordering capabilities and finger signature were among about 20 reasons we went with Toast!
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Thank you so much for your review, Mike! It’s great to hear that our digital gift cards, integrated online ordering module, and e-signatures attracted you to Toast.
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Toast has been great to my 5 restaurants. Its very user friendly and comes with some top notch features. Offline Mode pays our Toast Monthly bill as we are able to capture payments even without internet. Looking forward to adding the customer Kiosks here shortly. People are friendly and very knowledgeable. If you make the switch, make sure to ask for Marrisa as your project engineer. She is amazing!! Great experience thus far!!
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Is Toast EMV ready?
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Hi Becky,
Yes, Toast is EMV-compliant.
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Organization Name: T's Rockin Roadhouse
NOT TRUE!!!!!!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Tammy,
Thank you for writing. In response to your comment, we have reached out to Toast to see if the status of their EMV compliance has changed. They have confirmed that they are, in fact, EMV compliant. If you’re running into trouble I’d suggest reaching out to them directly for help. Our experience with their customer service has been excellent; I hope the same is true for you. Best of luck!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Toast is not fully EMV compliant. The terminals can now finally ( 2 yrs after liability shift) compliant. Unfortunately their tablets are not and I gather won’t be for at least another 6 months.
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Thank you very much for your review, Jon! We’re happy to hear that Toast has benefitted your multi-location restaurant chain, especially with our Offline Mode. Excited for you to implement our kiosks in your restaurant. Marissa is great! We’re grateful to have customers like you, Jon.
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It’s one of the easiest, convenient, and intuitive interfaces we’ve used. Our guests love it and it has helped us in so many different ways!
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Thanks you so much for your comment, Jazmin! We’re happy to hear that your guests are loving Toast. We appreciate everything you do for us.
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I moved our restaurant from Aldelo to Toast, and I’ve found it to be a Very Good Decision.Competitive processing rate, excellent customization, great integrated online ordering, cloud-based reporting so I can take care of all kinds of tasks from anywhere I have internet, and the list goes on. I’ve recommended it to many restaurants and will continue to!
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Thanks very much for the comment, Jack. Your team has done some very cool things with Toast. We’re grateful to have you as a reference!
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Hi Julie,
I enjoyed reading your post, very informative.
Cheers to you!
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Absolutely, Toast can be setup in many languages, Chinese is an option. However, be mindful that we do not have 24/7 support in Chinese, yet.
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Good Review, but Julia hit on a key point.
I just got off the Visa website and Toast Payment Processing is not there. So this makes me wonder if they pushed the product to market and sacrificed the P2P Encryption. There are major software companies still waiting on that certification, so how was Toast able to cut in line.
If its not secure, then who’s responsible? I bet there contract has a hold harmless on merchant services..
Dave Miller
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi David – Toast is in fact registered as a service provider with Visa.
Here’s a link to the Toast certification:
http://www.visa.com/splisting/viewSPDetail.do?coName=Toast%2C%20Inc&HeadCountryList=U.S.A.&pageInfo=1%3B30%3BASC%3BcoName
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Kendal, what does that registration on Visa mean? registered to do what?
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Beware of any POS system who “forces” a merchant to use their credit card processing. They’re almost always a scam (especially if up front costs are low), and now you’ve lost flexibility and are locked into two entities. Sign on for the Gift Card program, too, and you might as well throw away the key.
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Julie–Great review. I work with companies of all sizes and recently engaged with a client opening up a chain of Italian restaurants. We are building the new website to integrate the online ordering connected to a POS system, however helping them find a viable POS product that meets their requirements has been challenging. Your review of Toast really helped with my recommendations but I would like to know if there is an updated on your following statement since we need an open API to brand the online menu page the same as the rest of the website. “Toast does have an open API as well (which allows you to develop your own add-ons) but it is not currently available to all Toast users. This will be changing shortly, so stay tuned.”
Nathan
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hello Nathan,
Thank you for the kind remarks. We asked Toast about their API and they said that it is essentially opened on a per-case basis. You can request to build an integration and if they agree to move forward, they’ll open the API to you.
Hope this helps.
Best,
Jordan
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Nathan,
I work at Toast, and earlier this month, we did a Press Release announcing our first batch of partners using our API: https://pos.toasttab.com/press/api-partner-program.
For the most up to date information, this page (https://pos.toasttab.com/integrations) will be kept up to date. If you are interested in using a service that is not on this list, let your sales rep know, and we’d like to speak with them.
Derek
Product Specialist, Toast
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Excellent review of Toast. I am a POS vendor involved with retail mail and parcel stores. I am always leary of POS software that requires the end-user to use their payment processing. Your remarks on this are spot-on, especially on the whole “meet or beat” gimmick.
Rick Ives
OLSON & IVES
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.