Toast review
A broad restaurant operating suite with POS, ordering, service, and back-office tools.
Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Sep 2026
Toast combines cloud-based point of sale and payment processing with restaurant operations tools for U.S. restaurants, from single-location operators to multi-location groups. Its scope includes online ordering, reservations, waitlists, floor-plan seating, menu management, table service, kitchen display, employee scheduling, inventory, reporting, payroll, marketing, loyalty, and branded apps. Web, Android, and iOS support extend management and reporting beyond the restaurant. Toast is suited to operators looking to bring front-of-house, kitchen, guest, and back-office workflows into one platform.
Pricing is structured around a free Starter Kit and paid configurations. The Starter Kit costs $0 per month and includes cloud-based point of sale plus a hardware kit with one terminal; additional add-ons are available. The Point of Sale plan costs $69 USD per month, billed monthly, and adds custom hardware configuration alongside cloud-based POS and available add-ons. The Build Your Own option includes perpetual inventory management, payroll and tips management, employee scheduling, and guest marketing, loyalty, and gift cards. According to Toast's pricing page, these prices apply to new customers and single locations. Hardware, implementation, payment processing, and add-ons may affect total cost.
Toast's main strength is breadth: operators can connect ordering, reservations, menus, table movement, kitchen display, inventory, food-cost analysis, accounting sync, mobile reporting, and multi-location management. Integrations include QuickBooks Online, Google, Grubhub, Uber Eats, and DoorDash. Toast IQ adds AI-assisted insights and task execution. Restaurants wanting a single operating suite should find this coverage relevant, while smaller teams that only need a focused POS, scheduling, or reservation tool may prefer a narrower product with less operational scope.
Toast pros and cons
- Where it wins
- Covers POS, ordering, reservations, table service, and kitchen display
- Supports scheduling, inventory, reporting, accounting sync, and multi-location management
- Offers online ordering across pickup, delivery, curbside, and drive-thru
- Where it doesn't
- The paid POS plan starts at $69 per month for a single location
- Hardware, implementation, processing, and add-ons can affect total cost
- Its broad feature set may exceed the needs of restaurants seeking a narrow tool
Toast fact sheet, pricing and score →
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