Do you feel overwhelmed by the options when deciding on a new POS system? You're not alone. Many restaurants have difficulty choosing between the many competitive options available to them. One key factor to consider is restaurant POS systems' cost, as pricing can vary significantly based on features, hardware, and subscription plans. Toast and Square are two popular restaurant POS systems, and while they have some similarities, they also have significant differences. This article explores Toast vs. Square to help you determine which system better fits your restaurant’s needs. By reading this article, you'll gain valuable insights that help you confidently choose between Toast and Square to optimize inventory management, streamline operations, and boost profitability.
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One way to achieve your goals quickly and efficiently is by partnering with an experienced POS exchange like The POS Exchange. We help restaurants find the best POS systems to boost their bottom line quickly.

What are Toast and Square POS Systems?

If you search for restaurant POS systems, you’ll quickly find Toast and Square at the top of your results. While both offer impressive features, Toast is specifically designed for restaurants. At the same time, Square is a more versatile system that caters to a range of small businesses, including food service and retail.

Toast POS system specializes in restaurant-specific features, helping you manage: 

• Food waste
• Staff
• Inventory
• Tables, etc. 

With reliable hardware and 24/7 customer support, you can run your business knowing Toast has your back.

Key Differences in Features and Usability Between Toast and Square POS

On the other side, Square is designed to suit a range of small businesses, including those in the restaurant and food service sectors. This provider has simplified the business processes for many companies, streamlining the transactions and offering practical features.

Both POS systems offer a lot and are simple for you and your employees. Still, the interface, functionalities, and add-ons differ; these little details may change your choice.

Where Toast Wins

Toast offers more restaurant-specific features, such as highly custom floor planning, reservation capabilities, and perishable inventory tracking, although with a higher price tag. 

Here are a few more areas where Toast shines: 

Extensive Floor Planning Capabilities 

If you have a higher-end restaurant or one where you constantly change your alignment, Toast is a great choice, as it has some of the best floor and menu management around. 

Detailed Restaurant Analytics 

If you would like to analyze the numbers and maximize the efficiency of your menu and restaurant, Toast has you covered with a deep set of reports that will top Square’s offerings. 

Restaurant-Specific Add-Ons  

While Square has a very robust app store, Toast has some unique add-ons for catering and built-in reservation management. 

Where Toast Falls Short

Overall Cost & Commitment  

Toast’s advanced features come at a price, and its add-ons can make the software even more expensive. It can also be challenging to get an accurate read on how much you’ll pay in processing fees when signing up, which is difficult when you’re forced into a long-term commitment. 

Clunky Payroll Add-On 

While Toast offers its payroll software, which some other companies also offer, theirs falls short, with users reporting how difficult it is to set up and use. 

Long Wait Times 

While customer service has long been a high point for Toast, customers have complained that its wait times have increased significantly and customer service has been less than helpful. 

Where Square Wins 

Square is a straightforward software to use and set up; customers will appreciate it. While not as in-depth as Toast in some areas, it doesn’t skimp on features, allowing you to scale up from its free plan to more advanced packages. 

Here’s where it shines: 

Free Online Store 

This is a massive benefit to Square. It makes its eCommerce platform free to all users and offers built-in online ordering. 

Built-In Scheduling 

This is a unique feature of Square, and it makes it great for businesses that cater or who want a simple reservation system. 

Month-to-Month Plans 

Square’s plans are simple, and there is never any long-term obligation. Its processing rates are also simple to understand, and it offers discounts for higher-volume sellers. 

Where Square Falls Short 

Expensive for Multi-Location Establishments 

While Square is affordable, its costs can add up the more registers and locations you need, which may not make it the most viable option for franchises. 

Perishable Inventory Management  

While Square continually updates its services, it lags behind Toast and other POS companies regarding this specific inventory management. 

Occasional Fund Holds 

Square still has issues holding funds or freezing accounts, particularly with high-risk merchants. These instances are few and far between, but they do happen. 

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Toast vs Square Comparison Guide

Toast vs Square POS Pricing: What's the Bottom Line?

If price is your most significant deciding factor, choose Toast if you need a hyper-focused restaurant experience and are willing to commit to a two-year contract. Choose Square if you want a free restaurant POS without long-term contracts and don’t mind some functional limitations. 

Comparing Toast vs Square: Free Plans, Pricing Structures, and Features

Toast and Square are evenly matched in their free starter-level monthly subscription fees. Both offer a free baseline POS, although they approach it differently. Toast offers its Quick Start Bundle POS for no upfront monthly fees but charges a per-transaction fee using a pay-as-you-go method. 

Square’s Free POS subscription includes software on unlimited terminals, while Toast’s Quick Start Bundle POS can only be used on up to two terminals. But as you’ll see, Toast’s Quick Start Bundle offers more functions than Square’s Free POS.

Contract Flexibility and Hardware Requirements: Toast vs Square

Square has Toast beat when it comes to contract terms, though. Square offers month-to-month subscriptions with no cancellation fees, while Toast generally requires a two-year contract. 

This is because Toast’s hardware requires setup and support from its team. Expand the sections below to examine each system’s hardware and payment terms in more detail.

Hardware Comparison: What’s the Best Fit for Your Restaurant?

If hardware is your deciding factor, choose Toast when you need industry-grade hardware. Choose Square when you want to use the hardware you already own.

Toast’s hardware is proprietary and rated for ingress protection from dust, debris, and steam. Toast offers new customers the option to pay for up to two terminals with their credit card processing fees. So, if your budget is tight, you can get started with Toast for no upfront cost. 

Hardware Comparison: Toast’s Restaurant-Focused Design vs Square’s Versatility

Toast’s hardware is also designed for restaurants. For example, Toast’s kitchen display system (KDS) operates at higher and lower temperatures than the iPad Square uses for its KDS. Toast ranked No. 1 in our list of the best kitchen display systems. It is compatible with third-party hardware like Epson printers and cash drawers but does not provide technical support unless you purchase directly from Toast. 

Hardware Comparison: Toast’s Restaurant-Focused Design vs Square’s Versatility

Square offers its terminals but is primarily designed to run on iPads. While the baseline Square POS operates on Android and iOS tablets, Square for Restaurants users should be aware that the restaurant POS currently only runs on iPads and Square Registers. 

Square’s hardware pricing is competitive it’s registered kits are a little pricier than Toast’s, but its handheld terminals are cheaper and offer easy financing for hardware purchases from $49 to $10,000.

Payment Processing: Which System Will Save You More Money?

If payment processing is your primary concern, choose Toast when you want your processing fees to pay for hardware or additional software. You need pre-authorized bar tabs and can wait one to two business days for deposits. 

Choose Square when you want easy, flat-rate processing with no lengthy approval process, the option for same-day deposits, and the option for same-day deposits. They don’t need to pre-authorize bar tabs.

Payment Processing and Hardware Durability: Key Considerations for Toast vs Square

Toast’s different rate offerings are an excellent option for those looking to get started with minimal upfront costs but need very durable hardware.

A couple of limitations may be crucial if you accept online payments or use card pre-authorizations on bar tabs. Square accepts PayPal for online store purchases; Toast does not. Toast can pre-authorize bar tabs, but Square does not. 

Deposit Speed and Funding Options: Toast vs Square

Regarding deposit speed, Square is a little faster than Toast. If you sign on to Square’s banking program, Square Checking, you can have credit card payments transferred to your bank account on the same day they are processed. 

Toast does not currently offer same-day deposits, but if you process your credit card batch before 9:30 p.m. Eastern time, you’ll get your funds the next business day. After 9:30 p.m. ET, your deposits generally take two business days.

General Features: What Do You Need?

If general POS functions are your biggest concern, choose Toast when you need customizable, restaurant-focused reports or a free POS without features. Choose Square when you want the most straightforward possible interface with no features you won’t use. 

​​​​Feature Comparison: Toast’s Quick Start Bundle vs Square’s Free POS Tier

When comparing the general features of Square vs. Toast, they both have the functional POS tools covered, but Toast offers more tools in its baseline free Quick Start Bundle POS than Square for Restaurants includes in its Free tier. 

For example, Free Square users cannot reopen closed checks and only get one user permission. Toast Quick Start Bundle subscribers get unlimited user permissions and can reopen closed checks. 

Reporting Capabilities: Free vs Paid Plans in Square and Toast

Square’s Free plan also does not include server shift reports and close-of-day reports, which can limit restaurants with more than a couple of employees. 

But if your restaurant is a micro-operation that doesn’t need these tools, Square for Restaurants is the only POS offering a streamlined system, so you won’t pay for tools you don’t use. If you like Square and need these tools, you can get them in the Plus and Premium subscriptions.

Essential Features Comparison: Square vs Toast Free Plans

On the other hand, Square offers some essential services on its free plan. This includes auto-86ing menu items, ticket routing, real-time order updates, and the above reports. Toast offers features in its free plan, such as: 

• Real-time fraud monitoring
• Detailed digital menu management
• In-depth order and table management

Menu & Inventory Management Features

Square and Toast allow you to create custom menus based on course, ordering method, and physical location. For example, you can create different breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus. You can also remove dine-in menu items from third-party delivery menus, create a menu just for catering significant events, and make menus for different locations if you have multiple establishments.

You can also use either system to create promotional deals, build combo meal options, and set automated discounts for happy hour drinks and Sunday brunch specials.

Menu and Inventory Management: Toast vs Square for Restaurants

Toast has the edge over Square in menu management since you can get more specific about your menu setup and more insight into how menu items perform and where your inventory is going.

Toast also has an edge over Square in restaurant inventory management. This is because Square does not have built-in perishable inventory tracking.

Use Square to manage your inventory. You’ll have to cobble together some labeling system to incorporate FIFO (first in, first out) inventory management practices in your kitchen. Toast has a built-in ingredient-level inventory tracking system, which will be easier to use.

Online Ordering Features

Square excels as an omnichannel payments provider. Square makes it easy (and virtually free) for all sellers, no matter their business type, to sell in person, online, and even on social media channels and Google.

You can use the free Square Online website builder to create your ordering platform, pages for your establishment’s history, upcoming events/promotions, and a contact form for catering and custom order inquiries.

Online Ordering and Delivery Integration: Toast vs Square

Toast’s online ordering platform for takeout and delivery is an extra-paid add-on. You can either pay an additional monthly subscription fee or a percentage of each online order, plus a $0.99 fee charged to customers and collected by Toast.

You can integrate Toast and Square with third-party delivery apps. Toast and Square also have streamlined order-to-kitchen workflow setups that receive in-person, online, and third-party delivery platform orders on one centralized display or route them to specific screens.

Niche POS Features: What Will Best Support Your Operations?

If niche POS tools are your deciding factor, choose Toast if you have a bar, are a high-volume restaurant, or need high-level tip management support. Choose Square if you need free online ordering and prefer to pay-as-you-go for delivery management tools.

Both Toast and Square for restaurants offer additional features for specialty restaurant types. With Toast, most of these tools are built-in, although some, such as online ordering, come with extra costs. Most of Square’s niche features require third-party integrations. Square also lacks key features supporting high-volume quick service operations: dual cash drawer tills and drive-thru management.

Some Square users have been able to use an integration called Open Tickets to manage drive-thru orders on a minimal order basis. See this thread for users’ experiences with this integration. 

Employee Tip Management and High-Volume Features: Toast vs Square

Toast offers many refined features for tip pool management, including automated tip pool calculations and the ability to pay employees’ earned tips before payday via the Toast Pay Card. This feature is an industry standout, allowing employees access to their earnings using the Mastercard feature or via most ATMs (without a fee).

Toast’s high-volume tools are also more substantial than Square’s. Toast offers basic drive-thru management, dual cash drawer tills, and extensive nested modifiers for complex combo building. 

Online Ordering and Delivery Management Costs: Toast vs Square

Meanwhile, Square includes a free online ordering site in all subscriptions, even the Free POS. Toast’s online ordering tools are great, too, but they come at an additional cost, typically around $50 to $75 per month. Both systems include built-in tools or delivery management. 

With either system, you can accept third-party and in-house orders, dispatch deliveries to third-party drivers, or dispatch a team of in-house delivery drivers. Driver management tools on both systems cost extra. 

KDS Systems: Toast’s Advanced Features vs Square’s Efficient Setup

Both Toast and Square have some of our favorite KDS screens to streamline operations and track kitchen productivity, with Toast offering many unique features. Toast’s KDS screens are tempered to handle heat at higher temps than a general iPad. 

You can customize items in different languages so your staff has a more inclusive working experience when using a Toast KDS screen during their shift. Toast tracks time at each station and can report back bottlenecks in your service to make them run more efficiently.

Ingredient and Inventory Management: Toast’s xtraCHEF vs Square’s Integrations

You can get excellent ingredient-level inventory management with vendors and purchase order management on both systems via integration. 

Toast owns the xtraCHEF inventory platform, and that integration on Toast works slightly more seamlessly than any of Square’s inventory integrations.

Ease of Use: Which System Will You Understand More Quickly?

If ease of use is your primary concern, choose Toast when you need one-on-one support to learn and troubleshoot extensive POS features, and don’t mind a long lead time for setup. Choose Square when you don’t want to learn a lot of bells and whistles and need to get started quickly.

Both Toast and Square’s POS interfaces are user-friendly. Toast’s back office is more robust and restaurant-focused than Square’s, so learning takes more time. 

But Toast’s customer service is also more robust than Square’s, so you’ll have the support you need to learn Toast’s more customizable system. Meanwhile, Toast’s setup takes more lead time than Square’s. Most users can set up their Square POS using Square’s setup wizard in less than a day. 

Ease of Use and Customer Support: Toast vs Square for Different Business Needs

Real-world users rate the ease of use and customer service for Toast and Square closely on popular software review sites. This matches our experience with both systems. They’re both easy to use in different ways. If you want a system that doesn’t require any assistance with basic functionality as a POS, Square is your winner.

If you want more in-depth tools for your restaurant overall, Toast would be your best bet. Operators with more experience in analyzing micro-level data will excel using Toast and all the reporting and tools it provides. Also, if you prefer a system with 24/7 support, you’ll find Toast much easier to use. 

Expert Score: Which Restaurant POS is the Best? 

Toast and Square for Restaurants are both excellent POS systems. You can’t go wrong with either one. They are both popular systems with excellent user reviews and free baseline subscriptions. 

Choosing Between Toast and Square: Niche Features vs Flexibility

Toast stands out with a 5 out of 5 in this category because it offers many niche restaurant-focused software tools. But if you’re not going to use things like automated tip pool management, dual cash drawers, and spill-proof KDS screens, then Toast may not be worth the two-year contract. With a score of 4.69 out of 5, Square is a better choice for restaurants that want a month-to-month contract with no cancellation penalties and easy self-installation.

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Book a Free Demo With POS Exchange to Learn About Our Customized POS System Solutions Today!

The POS Exchange, a subsidiary of Payment Depot, offers competitive rates and reliable restaurant POS systems. 

‍The POS Exchange brings over 20 years of restaurant expertise, serving 200,000+ merchants and processing billions annually. Our tailored POS system solutions help businesses speed up checkouts by 30%, implement dynamic pricing, and manage customer reviews while reducing overhead. 

Perfect for:

• Full-service restaurants
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We offer end-to-end service, from brilliant consultation and interactive demos to local installation and 24/7 support. Our mobile iPad POS systems streamline operations with features like:

• Order management
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How to Choose the Right POS System for Your Unique Business NeedsWith integrations for business management tools and advanced security measures, we ensure your POS system grows with your business. Trust our expertise to help you avoid the common pitfall that affects 38% of new business owners who choose the wrong POS system. Whether you're managing:

• A busy restaurant
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The POS Exchange delivers customized POS system solutions that tell your unique business story. 

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