The core difference
Toast is a restaurant company. The entire product — hardware, software, online ordering, kitchen display systems, labor scheduling — was designed for food service operations. If you run a full-service restaurant with table sections, a bar program, coursing workflows, and a back-of-house team that depends on KDS routing, Toast built all of that in natively.
Square is a general-purpose POS company with a restaurant-specific edition. Square for Restaurants is genuinely capable, but it is one product in a suite that also covers retail, appointments, and professional services. The broader platform is a feature for some owners and a limitation for others.
The gap shows up most clearly in three areas: hardware flexibility, labor tools, and the depth of menu engineering available. Toast goes further in all three. But it costs more to get there, the hardware is proprietary, and switching away later is not simple.
"Toast wins on restaurant-specific depth. Square wins on cost, flexibility, and not locking you into proprietary hardware."
Quick comparison: Square vs Toast
| Feature | Square for Restaurants | Toast |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free tier available | $0/mo software (higher processing rates) or $69+/mo |
| Processing fee (in-person) | 2.6% + 10¢ | 2.49% + 15¢ |
| Hardware | Open ecosystem; use iPad, Square Register, or reader | Proprietary hardware only; starter kit $627+ |
| Kitchen display system | Add-on | Built-in, deeply integrated |
| Table management | Plus plan required | Included, full floor mapping |
| Online ordering | Included via Square Online | Included; Toast branded ordering page |
| Labor / scheduling | Basic; add-ons available | Built-in scheduling and labor reporting |
| Menu engineering | Solid for simple menus | Deep: modifiers, courses, item-level reporting |
| Offline mode | Limited offline functionality | Full offline processing |
| Best for | Cafes, food trucks, counter service, quick service | Full-service restaurants, bars, multi-location groups |
Square for Restaurants — deep dive
The free tier is real. A single-location counter-service operation can get a functioning POS, online ordering, and basic reporting without spending anything on software. That is not a trial — it is the actual product, with meaningful limitations but no monthly fee. For a food truck or a small cafe just getting started, that matters.
Square's hardware flexibility is a genuine advantage. You can run the POS on an iPad you already own. You can use a Square Reader, a Square Terminal, or the Square Register at $799. None of it is proprietary, which means you are not locked into Square's hardware refresh cycle or pricing.
Square for Restaurants Plus at $69/month per location adds table management with floor plan editing, coursing, and multi-location reporting. It works for full-service formats, though the table management is not as deep as Toast's. For a restaurant with under 10 tables that does a moderate dinner volume, it is workable. For a 60-cover operation with a bar program, it starts to feel thin.
Square Online connects your menu to a web-based ordering page and keeps inventory in sync across in-person and online. It is not a polished customer-facing experience, but it covers the basics without a separate monthly fee.
Where Square for Restaurants falls short:
- Offline mode is limited. If your internet connection drops mid-service, Square's ability to keep processing is less reliable than Toast's.
- Labor management is basic. You can track hours and run reports, but scheduling tools require third-party add-ons or separate software.
- Kitchen display integration is an add-on, not native. It works, but the out-of-the-box KDS experience is not as tight as Toast's.
- The free plan processing rate of 2.6% + 10¢ is fine, but volume businesses will want to run the math against Toast's 2.49% + 15¢ — the answer changes at different average ticket sizes.
Hardware note: Square hardware is not locked to Square POS. If you leave Square, your iPads go with you. That is not true with Toast. Toast's proprietary terminals are purpose-built for Toast and do not run other software.
Toast — deep dive
Toast was built for restaurants. The full-service workflow — sections, tables, bar tabs, ticket coursing, KDS routing — is not an add-on. It is the core product. For an operation where the back of house and front of house need to talk to each other in real time, Toast's kitchen display integration is meaningfully better than Square's.
The Starter Kit is listed at $0/month in software fees, but the trade-off is a higher processing rate. Once you move to paid software plans, pricing starts at $69/month and scales with features and locations. The hardware commitment is real: a two-terminal starter kit runs $627 or more. That is before any KDS screens, handheld devices for tableside ordering, or additional hardware for the bar.
Toast's labor tools are built in, not bolted on. Shift scheduling, labor cost reporting, and tip pooling are all native features. For a 20-person FOH/BOH team, that integration — labor data sitting alongside sales data in the same dashboard — saves meaningful time compared to exporting CSVs and reconciling in a separate tool.
Menu engineering in Toast is detailed. Modifiers, prep station routing, item-level sales reporting, and menu mix analysis let an experienced operator understand exactly what is selling, at what margin, at what time of day. That level of insight is harder to get out of Square without manual effort.
Toast's offline mode is a real differentiator. The system runs on a local network, so if your internet goes down, payments still process and tickets still fire to the kitchen. For a Friday night dinner service, that is not an edge case — it is insurance.
Where Toast has limitations:
- Hardware lock-in is significant. You buy Toast hardware, it runs Toast, and if you leave Toast you start over on hardware. Budget that migration cost into any evaluation.
- The upfront investment is higher. A full-service setup with two terminals and one KDS screen can run $1,500 to $2,500 before software fees.
- Toast's processing fees are not the cheapest. The 2.49% + 15¢ rate is competitive, but at low average ticket sizes (cafe, quick service), Square's 2.6% + 10¢ can work out better per transaction.
- Switching costs are high. Moving off Toast is a real project: hardware replacement, menu rebuilding, staff retraining. Choose deliberately.
"Toast's offline reliability alone is worth serious consideration for any full-service restaurant. Internet goes down. Service does not stop."
Pricing reality check
The headline numbers do not tell the full story on either platform. Here is how to think about the actual cost.
Square for Restaurants (free tier): $0/month software + 2.6% + 10¢ per in-person transaction. Add-ons for kitchen display, payroll, and marketing cost extra. Hardware is an iPad you likely own or a Square Terminal at $299.
Square for Restaurants (Plus): $69/month per location + 2.6% + 10¢ processing. Gets you table management, coursing, and multi-location reporting.
Toast (Starter / Point of Sale plan): $0/month software with custom (higher) processing rates, or $69+/month with the standard 2.49% + 15¢ rate. Hardware starter kit $627+. Labor, scheduling, and marketing are separate paid modules.
Where Toast gets expensive fast: Hardware for multiple terminals, KDS screens, and handheld devices for tableside ordering adds up. A full setup for a 50-cover restaurant is commonly $3,000 to $5,000 in upfront hardware.
For a food truck doing $25 average tickets and 80 transactions a day, Square's free plan costs nothing in software and the processing math is nearly identical to Toast. For a full-service restaurant doing $55 average tickets with 120 covers on a Saturday, Toast's labor and menu tools may save enough operational time to justify the cost. Run the math for your specific volume and format.
Who each platform is actually for
Choose Square for Restaurants if: You run a cafe, coffee shop, food truck, bakery, or counter-service spot. You want to start without a hardware investment. You are a single location. You want flexibility to use your own devices. You operate in a format where table management is minimal or not needed.
Choose Toast if: You run a full-service restaurant with table sections and a meaningful dinner volume. You need reliable offline mode as a hard requirement. You have a team of 15+ staff where labor scheduling and tip management inside the POS saves real time. You are a multi-location group that needs centralized menu management and consolidated reporting.
Neither is a clear winner if: You are a fast-casual operation with some table seating, a hybrid of counter and table service, or a single-location restaurant sitting on the fence between the two formats. In that case, the hardware commitment is often the deciding factor — if you are not ready to spend $1,500+ upfront on Toast hardware, start with Square and move later when volume justifies it.
The automation gap both platforms share
A table closes. The payment clears. And then nothing happens automatically.
No review request goes out 30 minutes after the guest leaves. No loyalty sequence starts. No win-back email fires when that same customer goes 45 days without returning. Nobody follows up on the family that ordered the birthday cake dessert and has a birthday coming up again in 11 months.
Both Square and Toast have basic loyalty features and some marketing tools. Square Loyalty and Square Marketing are paid add-ons. Toast has its own email marketing and loyalty modules. But "basic" is accurate — they are list-building tools with limited automation logic, not behavior-driven customer retention systems.
Neither platform connects your POS data to a real automation layer. The data exists: visit frequency, average spend, last order date, items ordered. What is missing is the logic that fires a specific message to the right customer at the right time based on that data.
A customer who visited three times in a month and then stopped showing up for six weeks is a lapsed regular. A first-time guest who ordered your most profitable item is worth a follow-up offer. A table of four who left a $180 check on a Friday night is exactly the kind of guest you want to bring back for a reservation next month. Your POS knows all of this. Neither Square nor Toast does anything with it automatically.
Every closed check is a data point that should trigger a follow-up. Most restaurants let that data sit idle. We map exactly where the gaps are in a free audit.
Get a Free Automation Audit →The verdict
Toast is the better POS for a full-service restaurant that needs real depth — offline reliability, native labor tools, tight KDS integration, and detailed menu reporting. If that describes your operation and you can absorb the upfront hardware cost, Toast is worth it.
Square is the right starting point for most other formats: cafes, food trucks, counter service, quick service, and any restaurant that wants to avoid a large upfront hardware commitment. The free tier is a real product. Square for Restaurants Plus at $69/month handles table management well enough for moderate-volume operations. And if you outgrow it, migrating is less painful because you are not stuck with proprietary hardware.
The one thing neither platform will do is turn a closed check into an ongoing customer relationship. That part — the review request, the loyalty sequence, the re-engagement campaign when a regular goes quiet — needs an automation layer sitting on top of your POS. Whichever platform you choose, that gap exists. It is the same gap.