Head to head
Compared side by side on published facts and the same six criteria every review is graded on — generated from the live directory, not a sales page.
Lightspeed
POS System · 3.7/5 mean
Lightspeed Commerce is a global cloud-based POS and commerce platform that provides retail, restaurant, and ecommerce businesses with integrated payments, inventory management, analytics, and omnichannel selling tools.
Read the full review →Toast POS
Payment Processor · 3.3/5 mean
Toast POS is the leading all-in-one cloud-based restaurant management platform, purpose-built for the food service industry with deep features for ordering, payments, payroll, and analytics, but comes with restrictive multi-year contracts, mandatory payment processor lock-in, and a history of transparency controversies.
Read the full review →Lightspeed holds the higher standing — by grade, then mean category score. The row-by-row picture below is what should actually decide it for your business.
Both graded against the same six criteria. How we grade · Last fact-checked August 19, 2026 and September 2, 2026.
| Criterion | Lightspeed | Toast POS |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing transparency | 3.0wins this criterion | 2.0 |
| Feature set | 5.0 | 5.0 |
| Ease of use | 4.0 | 4.0 |
Straight from each provider's published documentation. Where a number isn't published, we say so rather than estimate.
| Metric | Lightspeed | Toast POS |
|---|---|---|
| Online rate | Not disclosed | 3.50% + $0.15 (Visa/MC/Discover); 3.89% + $0.15 (Amex) |
| Monthly fee | Not disclosed | $69 (for Point of Sale) |
| Payout | Within 2 business days | 1-2 business days |
| Contract | Not disclosed | Toast requires a two-year contract for most plans, with some promotional offers requiring three-year commitments. Contracts auto-renew for successive one-year periods. |
| In-person rate | 2.6% + $0.10 (advertised on retail plans) | 2.49% + $0.15 per transaction (Point of Sale plan); 3.09% + $0.15 per transaction (Starter Kit) |
| Keyed rate | Not disclosed |
From the Lightspeed review
Toast is purpose-built for food service, with restaurant-grade hardware, kitchen display, and an offline mode that keeps service running through internet outages. Lightspeed holds up for operators who also sell retail or online, and for anyone unwilling to accept Toast's two-year contract and mandatory processor lock-in.
Pick Toast POS if you run a restaurant that wants spill-resistant hardware and built-in offline mode
Ideal for
Not recommended for
Ideal for
Not recommended for
The full reviews carry the pricing narratives, contract analysis and everything else behind these numbers — or let the matching funnel score the whole directory against your business.
| Customer support | 3.0 | 3.0 |
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| Contract terms | 3.0wins this criterion | 2.0 |
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| Industry reputation | 4.0 | 4.0 |
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| Statement fee | Usually none | Not disclosed |
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| Chargeback fee | Often around $15–25 | Not publicly listed; industry standard (~$15–$25) |
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| Early termination | Contract dependent | The remaining software subscription fees for the rest of the term (Merchant Agreement s8.4); the $150-per-remaining-month formula applies only to pay-as-you-go subscriptions. Hardware costs may also apply if cancelled early. |
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| Last fact-checked | August 19, 2026 | September 2, 2026 |
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