Toast POS Review

• 101 comments
• Updated on: Aug 15, 2019
• Review by: Matt Sherman

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Date Established

2012

Location

Boston, MA

Pros

• User-friendly interface
• Exceptional customer service
• All-in-one POS
• Android-based

Cons

• Locked into Toast’s credit card processing
• Additional cost for add-ons

Overview

Toast, the brainchild of three former co-workers, Steve Fredette, Aman Narang, and Jonathan Grimm, burst onto the scene after its creation in 2012. After it was named the hottest startup at the 2016 NEVY awards, the company seemed almost too good to be true. The product, which caters to all types and sizes of restaurants, is competitively priced and remarkably intuitive. It has robust features both on the front and back end and a commitment to customer service that is virtually unparalleled. In short, we have been waiting for the other shoe to drop for a while now. Two years after its NEVY award, we’re still waiting.

Toast comes with a fantastic array of built-in features, including an integrated online ordering system, a loyalty rewards program, the ability to generate, accept, and sell gift cards (both digital and physical), and a restaurant-specific inventory management system. Toast acts as the client’s payment processor, and unlike many of its iOS-based competitors in the POS world, runs on Android operating systems, making it cheaper and more versatile. If you’re interested in many of the add-ons that Toast offers, the cost can start to creep up, but, at the same time, it’s nice to have those options. Toast has also added scores of new integrations over the years.

The creation of Toast Go, a mobile device created specifically for its platform, also makes it one of the most appealing options for restaurants that want to implement tableside ordering. It’s one of the better handheld ordering systems on the market and can add a modern and convenient element to your quick or full-service restaurant.

The real thing that separates this POS provider from its competition, though, is its extremely unusual dedication to customer support. Toast is not a company that is going to sell you a product, ship you some hardware, and make a hasty getaway, speeding off to bigger and better things (or bigger and better clients). Toast is there for its customers every step of the way and for little-to-no additional charges. Occasionally, we will see a company go all-in on customer service in its infancy and then gradually skimp more and more on its commitment. That doesn’t appear to be the case with Toast, however, since the glowing reviews still far outweigh any complaints users have.

Toast seems like it is committed to competing with and being mentioned alongside the top POS systems in the food-service industry. The company is continuously updating and fixing the small gaps in its offerings, saying it is committed to getting its comparative reporting up to real-time. But you really have to nitpick not to like Toast.

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Table of Contents

• Pricing
• Cloud-Based Or Locally-Installed
• Specific Industry
• Specific Size Of Business
• Ease Of Use
• Hardware & Operating System Requirements
• Features
• Customer Service & Support
• Compatible Credit Card Processors
• Integrations & Add-Ons
• User Reviews
• Final Verdict

Pricing

Rating: Good

Toast offers a simple and competitive price format. Subscriptions (Core Software) begin at $79/month. This includes the entire gamut of POS features, plus mobile POS technology, full-view reporting, customer data tracking, 24/7 support, take-out, catering functionality, and unlimited software updates. 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 offers financing programs to qualified applicants. So instead 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 need 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 reasonably flexible with its quote system and can help you make sure you’re not paying for features you don’t need.

Get Started With Toast

Cloud-Based Or Locally-Installed

Toast is web-based, though the company does create a LAN network for customers; all of the POS data (the menu and other configurations) is downloaded and cached on each connected device. That way, if the internet goes down, all devices can still function normally in offline mode. Toast can handle credit card payments in offline mode, storing the data until your internet is restored. Printing is communicated via the LAN, and credit cards are encrypted and stored locally until the internet comes back up.

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 (ranging from full-service establishments to bakeries, cafes, bars, nightclubs, pizzerias, and so on). Toast works well anywhere you would serve food or alcohol.

Specific Size Of Business

Toast is suitable for small establishments (cafes, bakeries, and the like), but, with its advanced table mapping and menu creation, Toast can also handle pretty much any full-service restaurant. Data syncs automatically across all locations; the owner of the chain or franchise just needs to use the same username and password, so Toast is also a solid option for franchises.

Ease Of Use

Rating: Excellent

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 relatively self-explanatory. Because it is such a feature-rich system, 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: With Toast, it’s easy to split checks. You can drag and drop menu items into separate bills, split the total evenly (into as many as nine tickets), or divide items according to seat numbers. Similarly, transferring a check to a different table (or to the tablet of a different server) requires just a swipe or two from a manager.
• Simple Voiding: The voiding process is child’s play. Just press a few buttons, whether you’re voiding single items or full orders and voila, you’re done. Toast also allows you to track all the nitty-gritty details of each void or comp. You can instantly know what happened, who initiated the void, and who ultimately authorized it. Then, if a guest calls to dispute a charge, you can simply pull the data from historical transactions to clear up the matter or issue a refund.
• Close Out Day Function: One of the most handy-dandy little features available, Close Out Day functions as an audit report. It apprises you quickly of the current status of all checks and employee activity. Toast is also designed to 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) automatically, so your manual intervention is not strictly necessary. You don’t have to use this function to its fullest extent, of course; nevertheless, you can use it simply as a review tool. Since Toast will not automatically close out unpaid checks, it allows you 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 save instantly when you publish the changes and sync 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.

Get Started With Toast

Hardware & Operating System Requirements

Again, Toast can provide you with as much or as little as you need here. For companies truly starting from the ground up, Toast offers mobile point of sale tablets, terminals, bar printers, card readers, kitchen display screens, and more. Hardware packages start at $450 for a handheld tablet bundle and $1,350 for a terminal bundle (includes a receipt printer, cash drawer, tablet, stand, case, and credit card reader). Routers and kitchen printers are not sold in packages and must be purchased separately. There is also a bundle that includes Toast’s self-service kiosk system, and you can call a representative for pricing. Click here for a fuller look at the hardware you can purchase through Toast. The company also has rolled out Toast Go for its tableside ordering functionality and allows you to purchase a device specifically made for Toast directly from its website.

Terminal Bundle:

• 10″, 15″, or 22″ Elo Touch I Series 2.0
• EMV-enabled card reader available

Toast Go:

• 40% longer battery life than an iPad
• Spill-proof
• Weighs less than one pound
• Integrated card reader

Toast Kiosk:

• 10″, 15″ or 22″ Elo Touch I Series 2.0
• EMV-enabled card reader available
• Wall or counter mount options available

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

Rating: Excellent

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: With Toast, your staff can take orders in two different ways, either by using handheld tablets or with counter-top terminals that swivel to become customer-facing. Unlike some of the tablets touted by competitors that can only deal with ordering and taking payments, Toast’s handheld tablets are capable of accessing the whole application (including reports). Directly from a tablet, your wait staff can take orders, send orders and firing instructions to the kitchen, and manage their customers’ tabs and payment options from anywhere in the restaurant.
• Tips: Toast offers customized tip percentage options. When a guest checks out, the system automatically nudges the customer to tip by providing a number of fair tip options (10%, 15%, 20%, and so forth, or whatever tip percentages you want to present — you can put a 50% tip option in there if you really want to test the limits of your customers’ goodwill). This method provides, um, gentle pressure to promote tipping, playing on the natural human instinct to save face when someone else is watching. Toast also enables you to save time at the end of the day by automatically calculating tips, distributing them, and conducting server payouts. Toast’s newest update also allows for servers to declare negative tips. Another update includes the ability to calculate tip percentages based on multiple sales categories. 
• 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 regularly make food to order.
• 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, or to items that need special pricing based on the menu they are located in (for example, if you usually sell an appetizer for $8 on your regular dinner menu, you could modify the price to $6 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. The summary report is especially robust and shows net sales, gratuity, tips, total guests, table turn time, and a breakdown of all service types and payment methods. It is designed to give you a quick, “scannable overview of the sales metrics you care about, at a high level.” From there, you can drill down into any metric if you want “more detailed insight into sales as they relate to orders, payments, shifts, cash drawers, and house accounts.”

• Customer Data Collection & Customer-Based Reporting: The Toast system has great internal reporting, but it also features an integrated customer relationship management (CRM) system that works to collect customers’ contact information and order history. Using the customer report, you can see which customers have visited your restaurant the most or spent the most amount of money in any time frame you choose. You can then drill down further by selecting individual customers and viewing detailed information about the person’s average checks, days since their last visit, and most frequently ordered items. 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: User-based permissions allow you to control what information your employees can see and who has access to what. If you want, you can require manager approval for voids and discounts and even set separate schedules for your kitchen and service staff. 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. Additionally, 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 a unique 4-digit PIN (used to clock-in and clock-out on the Toast tablets). This simple method allows you to track labor, and managers can see a quick overview of everyone who is currently clocked-in and out whenever they need to.
  
• 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.
• Kitchen Display System: Toast’s KDS system is very intuitive and helpful to cooks. The system is color-coded and can feature times on each ticket. On the other end, servers can be notified when an order is ready either through a flash or a sound on the system to help improve turnover.
• 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.
• Kiosk Mode: Toast’s kiosk mode makes things easy on its customers, allowing for a customer-facing display, so users can order on their own, cutting down on errors. A new feature added to kiosk mode adds to this level of convenience, as Toast also has a quick re-order function for repeat customers who often have the same order. They can swipe their card, and it will immediately pull up their previous order, which they can select with the touch of a button.
• Digital Receipts: Offered through Toast Go, this is a genius feature which allows customers to give an experience rating while still at the restaurant. If the customer has a negative experience for some reason, the restaurant will receive this information, and a manager may have the opportunity to rectify the situation before the customer leaves to give the dreaded negative Yelp review.

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 can choose how you want to customize the loyalty program; depending on how your restaurant/menu is set up, you can use a dollar-to-points exchange, create points milestones, or select specific menu items or groups to be redeemable with loyalty cards. You can even set up your rewards program so that customers get signup bonuses “to further incentivize loyalty opt-ins.” I’ve mentioned this before in other sections of the review, but the CRM data collected by Toast can also be used for loyalty purposes. When you know what kind of food your guests order, how often they frequent your establishment, and how much money they tend to spend, it’s easy to send custom messages and personalize deals and coupons for each customer.
• Online Ordering: Integrated online ordering is one of Toast’s most popular features. This add-on costs an additional $50/month, but most people agree that it is worth every penny. Toast will help you create a webpage “that customers can access on their computers, tablets, and mobile phones to view your full menu, to purchase gift cards, and to order food online.” If your restaurant already has a website, all you would need to do is add a link that would take visitors to your online ordering page. The best thing about online ordering with Toast is that the whole system is integrated. For example, menu changes made in the POS are instantly reflected online (you can also control which menu groups and specific items are available for online ordering). If you want, as soon as your customer places an online order, their ticket can be automatically fired to the kitchen (and routed to specific prep stations). However, you can always require online orders to be approved by a manager first if that fits your restaurant better.
  

• Delivery: With Toast, you can completely customize your delivery system and sync it nicely with online ordering. It’s possible to set specific delivery zones (see image below), customize your fees based on distance (or percentage of the order total), select which menu items are available for delivery, and designate the times of day when deliveries can be made. It’s also possible to route orders directly to the kitchen, assign orders to specific delivery drivers, and track an order through its entire lifecycle — from the instant it is created to the moment it is delivered to the customer.
  

• Gift Cards: The ability to create and process digital and physical branded gift cards is another valuable add-on, though it will run you an extra $50/month. Because the gift cards are directly associated with the POS system, it becomes very easy for you to sell, track, and complete transactions using both physical and digital restaurant gift cards. If you opt to use traditional plastic gift cards, “Toast will completely customize, print, and program the cards to integrate with your system.” To sell them directly to customers, all your staff has to do is select the gift card option (as they would do with any regular menu item). It must be swiped (like a credit card) to activate, and this will also load the card with the desired dollar value. Digital gift cards, of course, are a whole lot simpler and only require guests to give you their email or phone number (which the Toast database stores automatically) and select the dollar amount they would like to purchase. The digital gift card is then simply emailed or texted to the intended recipient almost immediately. I tried the system out; it takes just a few seconds for the recipient to gain access to the gift card. Customers can also purchase digital gift cards online and include a personal message to the recipient. Gift cards purchased online may be emailed or texted immediately or at a later time.

Get Started With Toast

Customer Service & Support

Rating: Excellent

When the creators of Toast set out to design a POS system, they decided that customer service was paramount. Unlike many of their industry competitors, who give lip service to the importance of customer support but do not back up their claims with any evidence of care or concern for the end-user, the people at Toast care about whether your experience with the software is positive.

Toast has invested in a level of support rarely seen in any other company, from hands-on training material that is available to anyone (even the casual visitor to the Toast website), to personal customization of the software for every customer, to menu configuration and 24/7 technical assistance. Many of these services are free, 100% included in the monthly service fee. Platform configuration and installation are available for a small fee, enough to cover costs for the people providing the services (in fact, Toast loses money by offering installation services). Nothing rubs me the wrong way more than a company that charges extra for technical support. That kind of money-grubbing attitude really steams my bean. So needless to say, I have a soft spot in my heart for companies such as Toast, who at least appear to give a hoot.

Toast provides the following tools and services for customer 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 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 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 “won’t leave until you and all of your staff feel comfortable with the system.” This dedication 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 considerable 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 better than many I’ve seen from POS providers and contains a lot of useful information and helpful articles.

Compatible Credit Card Processors

As I’ve mentioned a few times before, the general Toast package includes secure credit card processing — in fact, it is mandatory. If you want to use Toast as your POS solution, you must use Toast as your payment processor as well. This may be a bit of a problem for some of you, especially if you’re happy with the provider you have now. Toast does offer to match the rates you’re receiving from your current payment processor. That sounds great — in theory — but appearances can often be deceiving. Here at Merchant Maverick, we have reviewed enough payment processors and merchant account providers to have nurtured a healthy suspicion of the whole “meet or beat” gimmick, which is easily manipulated with added fees. The good news is that there are no hidden fees with Toast. Toast customers “can even see the rates and fees applied to each transaction right next to their sales reports,” so there is little room for subterfuge.

The even better news? There appear to be very few customer complaints about Toast’s processing system. It’s normal to be suspicious of a system that locks you in like this, but, when done well, it can be nice to cut out the middleman. Toast seems to come through in an area where companies such as Clover falter (you do not want to be locked in with First Data, believe us). Also, if something goes pear-shaped, you don’t have to agonize about whether it is the POS or the payment processing that has gone awry, and you only have one number to call for technical assistance.

Toast allows you to accept checks, cash, and gift cards, and it works with any American-issued (and most non-American-issued) credit and debit cards with a Visa, Mastercard, Discover, or American Express logo. Another perk is that you 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 an optional function, of course, and slightly risky, but it does tend to increase transaction speeds and get customers through your lines faster.

Integrations & Add-Ons

Rating: Excellent

A 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 third-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 integrations).

User Reviews

Rating: Excellent

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 Compatible Credit Card Processors 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 works.
• Bugs: A couple of Toast users reported issues with bugs in the software. One client has had problems 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 nor 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. 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 very good, and it is the sole 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.

You can see more positive reviews or read about case studies from various kinds of restaurants (cafes, bakeries, pizzerias, fine dining restaurants, etc.) that use Toast on the company website.

Final Verdict

In an ideal world, there would be an affordable POS system that covers all of your needs in one, making it so that 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 its 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 you can’t reach technical support when bugs, glitches, and inevitable user errors 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. It’s not a deal-breaker, especially as there are very few complaints about the processor online, but it concerns me enough 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 exceptionally 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!

Get Started With Toast

• Bio
• Latest Posts

Matt Sherman

Point of sale writer at Merchant Maverick

Matt Sherman has been immersed in point of sale systems for over a year now. Previously, he spent 14 years in the newspaper industry, the majority of which was as the sports editor for a pair of weekly newspapers in suburban Portland, Oregon. He is a graduate of the University of Oregon where he majored in English because he knows where the money is. Matt is the father to a pair of energetic boys and can easily be distracted by Netflix, Amazon and HBO Go.

Latest posts by Matt Sherman (see all)

• Why You Should Consider A Self-Ordering Kiosk For Your Restaurant (Plus The 5 Best Kiosk POS Systems & How You Can Afford Them) - November 27, 2019
• The Best Free POS Systems For All Kinds Of Small Businesses - October 14, 2019
• Does Your Restaurant Need An Online Ordering System? - October 2, 2019
• What Is A POS System? Understanding Point Of Sale Software & Why It’s the Linchpin For Your Small Business - September 5, 2019
• Merchant Maverick Interviews Clover CEO John Beatty - August 2, 2019

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Jun 21, 2018 314 Filed under: Credit Card Processing, eCommerce, Hardware, Inventory Management, Mobile Payments, PCI Compliance

Need A Retail POS System For Your Small Business? These 7 Great Solutions Can Solve Your Store’s Woes

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Feb 26, 2019 4 Filed under: Point of Sale

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101 Comments

Responses are not provided or commissioned by the vendor or bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the vendor or bank advertiser. It is not the vendor or bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

Les Deak February 5, 2020 at 11:10 am

Organization Name: Pureganic Cafe

Do NOT work with this company. They overpromise and underdeliver. They also immediately sell you contract to a finance company so you have no recourse if you have an issue.

1

• Organization Name: Pureganic Cafe

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Jacqueline Barr August 19, 2019 at 8:02 am

Organization Name: Cafe & Barr

Be careful with Toast. We just opened our business and about a year ago when we started the process, the rep from toast told us in order to get the deal pricing we would need to have a contract signed but would not need to start payment until we opened our doors. We were also told it is better safe than sorry to add all the equipment we might possibly need because we could always just take it off, it would be harder to add anything on later. Cut to January they say we need to start paying for their service, even though verbally our rep said that we wouldn’t pay till our doors were open. Then as we were finishing the architecture of our space we requested to remove an entire POS setup and one of the handhelds only to be told that it would cost us more to return anything so our rep suggested to quietly sell the items to a new business. ( I would never do put anyone through that) With all of our disappointment we were told that we could have free gift card service for a year to help compensate for all of our trouble. Then when we go to set it up they say it’s only 20% off a month. They MADE us sign with FALSE promises, they REFUSED to work with us to resolve anything. They are truly a disappointment to a small business. Avoid at all costs, if you do decide to go with them, make sure you record your appointments with your rep, because even though they seem sweet and like they want the best for you, they are slimier than car salesman. Your IT rep is probably going to be the only person who can help you with anything so make sure you ask a lot of questions. Don’t sign anything until you are ready to open.

1

• Organization Name: Cafe & Barr

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laurie russell May 17, 2019 at 5:34 am

Organization Name: Top Dog of Rockport

We wanted to go with toast – we were forced into financing when we wanted to pay up front – and then we were told we needed all their hardware when we had dedicated routers , splitters and wifi boosters of our own. We never went any further and requested to cancel – nothing had been ordered or shipped. We had only the phone # of our sales person who has stopped answering phone calls – so they are not delivering and not cancelling – If someone can tell me how to get to the top brass I would appreciate it – I hate to start legal proceedings but at this point have no choice

1

• Organization Name: Top Dog of Rockport

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

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Jasmine June 27, 2019 at 12:08 pm

Organization Name: Toast Inc.

Hi Laurie, Jasmine from Toast here. I’m sorry to hear you are not continuing with Toast. At this time, I believe our team has worked with you to reach a conclusion.

• Organization Name: Toast Inc.

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

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Check Out Our Preferred Credit Card Processors 🏆

	Payment Depot	Fattmerchant	Dharma Merchant Services	Payline
	Visit Site Read Review	Visit Site Read Review	Visit Site Read Review	Visit Site Read Review
No early termination fee	✓	✓	✓	✓
Pricing model	Interchange-plus*	Interchange-plus*	Interchange-plus*	Interchange-plus*
Rate matching / Negotiable	✓	✓	✓	✓
Next Steps	Visit Site	Visit Site	Visit Site	Visit Site

*All of our preferred processors use fully transparent Interchange-plus pricing.

See more information

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We've done in-depth research on each and confidently recommend them.

Jose R. Grijalva April 5, 2019 at 7:15 am

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

5

• Organization Name: Joselito's Mexican Food Tujunga

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

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Jasmine Chan April 10, 2019 at 7:04 am

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!

• Organization Name: Toast Inc.

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

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Brian April 1, 2019 at 7:19 pm

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.

5

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William March 18, 2019 at 11:28 am

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!!!!

1

• Organization Name: Annabella's

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

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Jasmine April 10, 2019 at 7:14 am

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: Toast Inc.

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

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Jacqueline Barr August 19, 2019 at 7:52 am

Organization Name: Cafe & Barr

Same

• Organization Name: Cafe & Barr

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Brian March 6, 2019 at 1:16 pm

Organization Name: MonAlyssa

Great System Great Employees. Our Staff and Management team LOVE Toast

5

• Organization Name: MonAlyssa

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

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Tom March 1, 2019 at 5:59 am

Organization Name: The Den

Great software and great customer service!

4

• Organization Name: The Den

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

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Adam T February 7, 2019 at 10:27 am

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.

5

• Organization Name: Lodgenuity, LLC

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

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Jasmine February 7, 2019 at 1:59 pm

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: Toast

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

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Check Out Our Preferred Point of Sale Software 🏆

	Lightspeed POS	Square	ShopKeep POS	Square For Retail
	Visit Site Read Review	Visit Site Read Review	Visit Site Read Review	Visit Site Read Review
Best For	Advanced features	Free POS	Credit card processing options	All-in-one service
Monthly Fee	$99+	$0	Varies	$60
Free trial	14 days	Always free	None	30 days
Next Steps	Visit Site	Visit Site	Visit Site	Visit Site

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Jim Boyd January 16, 2019 at 2:20 am

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!

1

• Organization Name: Boyd Restaurant Group

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

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Jasmine January 29, 2019 at 11:22 am

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: Toast

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

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Archer Bagley November 5, 2018 at 2:33 pm

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.

1

• Organization Name: Archers BBQ

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

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Jasmine January 29, 2019 at 10:16 am

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: Toast

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

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Kevin Cradduck October 15, 2018 at 4:27 pm

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!

5

• Organization Name: Sergeant Pepperonis

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

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Jasmine January 29, 2019 at 11:31 am

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: Toast

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

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Jon Portanova October 10, 2018 at 5:30 pm

Organization Name: Duffys Tavern

Love using Toast! It makes everything so much faster and simpler!

5

• Organization Name: Duffys Tavern

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

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john cassel September 24, 2018 at 9:27 pm

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

5

• Organization Name: Magico Pizza

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

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Jasmine January 29, 2019 at 11:31 am

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: Toast

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Emily Holzer September 17, 2018 at 11:40 am

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. 🙂

1

• Organization Name: Hot Shot Espresso

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

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Kendal October 8, 2018 at 1:49 pm

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.

• Organization Name: Toast

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

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Kelly Vega August 30, 2018 at 9:56 am

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.

5

• Organization Name: The Livery

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Tony Konecne July 8, 2018 at 9:06 am

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.

1

• Organization Name: Hessen Haus

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

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Julio Gomez June 26, 2018 at 7:09 pm

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.

4

• Organization Name: T.G.I

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

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Chris Scott May 29, 2018 at 5:57 am

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.

• Organization Name: Kay's Restaurant

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

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PR May 18, 2018 at 11:03 am

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

1

• Organization Name: Curry Tub

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

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Don May 23, 2018 at 4:28 am

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.

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Chip Kohn May 4, 2018 at 12:16 pm

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

• Organization Name: Beachland Group

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

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Juan Ong May 9, 2018 at 9:04 am

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.

• Organization Name: Toast

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

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Poonam Rai May 18, 2018 at 12:08 pm

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.

• Organization Name: Curry Tub

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

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Tony Konecne July 8, 2018 at 9:09 am

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!

• Organization Name: Hessen Haus

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

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Gianni Russo January 22, 2019 at 2:24 pm

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: Gianni's

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

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Check Out Our Preferred Credit Card Processors 🏆

	Payment Depot	Fattmerchant	Dharma Merchant Services	Payline
	Visit Site Read Review	Visit Site Read Review	Visit Site Read Review	Visit Site Read Review
No early termination fee	✓	✓	✓	✓
Pricing model	Interchange-plus*	Interchange-plus*	Interchange-plus*	Interchange-plus*
Rate matching / Negotiable	✓	✓	✓	✓
Next Steps	Visit Site	Visit Site	Visit Site	Visit Site

*All of our preferred processors use fully transparent Interchange-plus pricing.

See more information

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We've done in-depth research on each and confidently recommend them.

Jakob April 28, 2018 at 10:33 am

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.

4

• Organization Name: pFriem Family Brewers

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

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Remi Bryan April 10, 2018 at 2:13 pm

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!

5

• Organization Name: RHM corp dba LaSuprema Mexican Restaurant

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

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Jon Dan March 25, 2018 at 3:18 pm

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.

5

• Organization Name: Marinara Pizza

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

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Juan Ong April 5, 2018 at 9:43 am

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!

• Organization Name: Toast

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

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Jenn Bonnell March 7, 2018 at 7:40 am

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,

5

• Organization Name: Four Seam Hospitality

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

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Juan Ong April 5, 2018 at 9:45 am

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!

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

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Ariodante D’Antilio March 7, 2018 at 6:39 am

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.

• Organization Name: Dante’s Bistro Bar & Grill

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

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Robert March 5, 2018 at 2:22 pm

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!

4

• Organization Name: Pi LLC

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

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Brian Bonnell February 15, 2018 at 9:33 am

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.

5

• Organization Name: Four Seam Hospitality DBA The Sutton Legion

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

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Shawn Tahara December 29, 2017 at 12:48 pm

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!

5

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

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Check Out Our Preferred Point of Sale Software 🏆

	Lightspeed POS	Square	ShopKeep POS	Square For Retail
	Visit Site Read Review	Visit Site Read Review	Visit Site Read Review	Visit Site Read Review
Best For	Advanced features	Free POS	Credit card processing options	All-in-one service
Monthly Fee	$99+	$0	Varies	$60
Free trial	14 days	Always free	None	30 days
Next Steps	Visit Site	Visit Site	Visit Site	Visit Site

See more information

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We've done in-depth testing of each and confidently recommend them.

Don Cook December 22, 2017 at 11:49 am

Toast is super intuitive and user friendly for both the staff and mangers. Thank you for tailoring this POS to the restaurant industy.

5

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

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Eric December 20, 2017 at 5:24 am

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.

5

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

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Chantal Johnson December 19, 2017 at 8:02 pm

Toast has made it so easy for us to integrate third party systems and their support s top notch!

5

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

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JT Riley December 19, 2017 at 10:13 am

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.

5

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

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Logan October 12, 2017 at 12:16 pm

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.

5

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David Winners September 13, 2017 at 3:52 pm

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.

5

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Bert Sorbo September 3, 2017 at 6:08 am

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!

2

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Rich Girard October 25, 2017 at 9:16 am

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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Brendan August 31, 2017 at 4:00 am

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.

5

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Jennifer E August 26, 2017 at 10:03 am

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.

4

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Quintin Higgins December 11, 2018 at 2:42 pm

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

• Organization Name: Lena’s Cafe

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Brian Veskosky August 23, 2017 at 9:30 am

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.

2

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Siva August 15, 2017 at 12:29 am

Easy to use but tough to update and do deep copy of menu

4

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julio July 26, 2017 at 7:59 pm

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

4

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Nick July 21, 2017 at 2:49 pm

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!

5

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Bridget Harland June 5, 2017 at 7:31 am

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.

4

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Rachel Holaway May 24, 2017 at 2:18 pm

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.

5

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Neal g May 13, 2017 at 6:36 pm

No review.
Prospective client
Can screens be shifted to a second language in particular chinese

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STEPHIE LIKIS May 4, 2017 at 9:44 am

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!

5

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Jason D. April 20, 2017 at 6:46 pm

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.

3

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Jeff Jacobson March 30, 2017 at 5:29 pm

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.

5

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Jill Chitwood March 30, 2017 at 8:31 am

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.

5

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Joe Guenther March 27, 2017 at 11:17 am

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!

5

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Josh Henneman March 24, 2017 at 3:43 pm

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!

5

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Abdulrazzaq Razooqi December 1, 2017 at 5:51 am

How would you compare it to Micros? What would you say distinguishes Toast from Micros?

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JT Riley March 23, 2017 at 1:24 pm

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.

5

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Graeme Nyland March 21, 2017 at 8:51 am

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!

4

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william johns March 3, 2017 at 5:41 am

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!

5

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Robert Schlemm March 1, 2017 at 11:39 am

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!!

5

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tom December 14, 2016 at 12:25 pm

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.

1

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Christina December 19, 2016 at 11:36 am

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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Mike Brucklier October 3, 2016 at 4:32 pm

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!

5

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Shivank October 4, 2016 at 7:19 am

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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Erin May 29, 2019 at 1:15 pm

Organization Name: Boss Lady Pizza

Sure, e-gift cards are great until you realize they cannot be redeemed on Toast Online Ordering (which is Toast’s *own* online ordering platform. That’s right, they do not accept their own-issued gift cards online. It’s now 2019, this is completely unacceptable and infuriates our customers!

• Organization Name: Boss Lady Pizza

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Jonathan Schroeter August 22, 2016 at 3:06 pm

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!!

5

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Becky Faith September 23, 2016 at 10:54 am

Is Toast EMV ready?

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Chloe Bahal September 23, 2016 at 9:39 pm

Hi Becky,

Yes, Toast is EMV-compliant.

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Tammy January 18, 2018 at 8:33 pm

Organization Name: T's Rockin Roadhouse

NOT TRUE!!!!!!

• Organization Name: T's Rockin Roadhouse

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Jessica Dinsmore January 22, 2018 at 3:52 pm

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!

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Stephen March 25, 2018 at 3:58 pm

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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Shivank Taksali October 4, 2016 at 7:36 am

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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Jazmin August 17, 2016 at 12:26 pm

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!

5

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Shivank August 18, 2016 at 7:15 am

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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Jack L June 6, 2016 at 10:19 am

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!

5

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Kendal July 5, 2016 at 11:51 am

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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Justine Putot May 31, 2016 at 8:20 pm

Hi Julie,

I enjoyed reading your post, very informative.
Cheers to you!

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Oliver Hernandez July 13, 2017 at 3:09 pm

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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David Miller May 26, 2016 at 3:32 pm

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

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Kendal Austin August 25, 2016 at 7:26 am

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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Matt January 5, 2017 at 4:37 am

Kendal, what does that registration on Visa mean? registered to do what?

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Kelly Nelson April 14, 2016 at 12:39 pm

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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nathan March 23, 2016 at 3:11 pm

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

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Jordan Nelson April 13, 2016 at 10:49 am

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

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Derek Domino April 21, 2016 at 9:00 am

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

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RICK IVES March 13, 2016 at 9:27 am

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

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