Comparison · Updated September 8, 2026
Shift4 vs Toast for restaurants
Shift4
B+
Shift4 Payments is a full-service payment processor and POS provider specializing in integrated commerce solutions for restaurants, hospitality, retail, and enterprise merchants.
Toast POS
B
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.
VS
Overview
Shift4's restaurant point of sale was called SkyTab until 12 May 2026, when it was rebranded Shift4 Dine; the product, contracts and support channels did not change. Against Toast it presents a clean trade. Toast publishes what it charges - $0 or $69 a month, and 2.49% + $0.15 in person on the paid plan - so a restaurant can work out the cost before speaking to anyone, and it pays out faster. Shift4 publishes neither a software price nor a rate, but advertises no upfront hardware cost with a lifetime warranty, bundles more guest-facing software at the advertised price, and rates far better with its own users. Both lock the restaurant into their own card processing, so the software choice and the processing choice are one decision.
Key Takeaways
- ✓Toast publishes its prices - $0 or $69 a month and 2.49% + $0.15 in person on the paid plan - while Shift4 publishes neither a software price nor a rate.
- ✓Shift4 advertises $0 upfront for hardware with a lifetime warranty; Toast hardware is bought outright or financed.
- ✓Toast settles next business day when the batch closes by 9:30 p.m. ET, and offers an instant deposit in about 30 minutes for 1.75%.
- ✓Shift4 rates far better with its users - 4.2 on Trustpilot against Toast's 2.5 - on roughly half the review count.
- ✓Both require their own processing and their own approved hardware, so neither lets you keep an existing processor.
Shift4
Shift4 suits operators who want to open with minimal capital, value bundled guest-facing software and hardware at no upfront cost, and are prepared to negotiate the rate and the term in a sales conversation.
Toast POS
Toast suits operators who want published pricing they can model in advance, fast deposits, and a deeper restaurant platform extending into payroll, scheduling and perpetual inventory.
The Verdict
It Depends on Your Needs
Why?
This one genuinely splits, and the tables divide cleanly along one line: what you can find out before you sign. Toast is the better-documented purchase. It publishes its software price and its card rates, so a restaurant can model the cost in advance, and it pays out faster - next business day on a 9:30 p.m. ET batch, or about 30 minutes for 1.75%. Shift4 is the cheaper entry and the better-liked product: no upfront hardware cost, a lifetime hardware warranty, more guest-facing software bundled at the advertised price, and a Trustpilot score nearly two points higher on a comparable sample. But its price, its rate and its contract term are all settled in a sales conversation, and Payment Review's review records BBB complaints centred on unexpected fees and costly exit clauses. Choose Toast if you want to know what you are paying and value fast deposits; choose Shift4 if you want to open with minimal capital and will negotiate hard on the term. The grades - B+ against B - sit close enough that fit matters more than ranking.
Feature by feature
Detailed Comparison
Filter Options
Software cost
| Feature | Shift4 | Toast POS |
|---|---|---|
| Published monthly software price | Not published - quoted per restaurant | $0 on the Starter Kit; $69 per month on the Point of Sale plan Winner |
| Shift4's own pricing page advertises getting started for $0 and lists no monthly figure; Shift4 reseller sites advertise $29.99 per month per workstation with hardware included, which is a reseller claim rather than a Shift4 published price. Toast's prices apply to new customers at a single location and cover the first hardware terminal only, with additional devices charged separately. | ||
Published monthly software price
Shift4
Not published - quoted per restaurant
Toast POS
$0 on the Starter Kit; $69 per month on the Point of Sale plan
Winner
Shift4's own pricing page advertises getting started for $0 and lists no monthly figure; Shift4 reseller sites advertise $29.99 per month per workstation with hardware included, which is a reseller claim rather than a Shift4 published price. Toast's prices apply to new customers at a single location and cover the first hardware terminal only, with additional devices charged separately.
Best For Your Business
Recommendations based on your business type
New restaurant opening with limited capital
Recommended
Shift4
Shift4 advertises $0 upfront for hardware with a lifetime warranty, and bundles loyalty, reservations, QR ordering and a website builder at the advertised price. Toast's Starter Kit also removes the upfront hardware cost, but pays for it with a card-present rate of 3.09% + $0.15 rather than 2.49% + $0.15 - which costs more as soon as volume arrives.
Operator who wants to know the cost before signing
Recommended
Toast POS
Toast publishes both the software price and the processing rates, so the numbers can be modelled in advance and used as a negotiating baseline. Shift4 publishes neither, and the figures in circulation come from its resellers rather than from Shift4 itself.
Restaurant that needs cash in the bank quickly
Recommended
Toast POS
Toast deposits next business day when the batch closes by 9:30 p.m. ET, and its Instant Deposit returns funds in roughly 30 minutes on any day of the year for 1.75%. Shift4 settles in one to two business days, with expedited options available on selected programmes but not published.
Multi-location operator that wants payroll and inventory in one system
Recommended
Toast POS
Toast sells integrated payroll, scheduling and perpetual inventory as part of its own platform, bundled with the point of sale at $69 a month plus $9 per employee. Shift4 Dine's advertised bundle is strong on guest-facing tools - loyalty, reservations, online ordering - but does not extend to payroll.
High-volume operation where the negotiated rate dominates
Both. At volume the negotiated rate matters far more than the list price, and a quote-based model can beat a published flat rate - Payment Review has recorded Shift4 card-present quotes well below 2.49%. Take quotes from both, insist on the same transaction mix and the same basis for each channel, and compare the effective rate rather than the headline.
Shift4: Best for 1 use case
Toast POS: Best for 3 use cases
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about this comparison
Yes. Shift4 announced on 5 May 2026 that SkyTab POS would be renamed Shift4 Dine effective 12 May 2026, and SkyTab Venue became Shift4 Venue at the same time. Shift4 stated there were no changes to day-to-day operations, the software interface, account setup, integrations, reporting or support, and that merchants needed to take no action. Older reviews and comparisons still using the SkyTab name are describing the same product.
You cannot answer that from published prices, because only Toast has any. Toast charges $0 a month on its Starter Kit at 3.09% + $0.15 in person, or $69 a month on its Point of Sale plan at 2.49% + $0.15. Shift4 publishes no software price and no rate; its resellers advertise $29.99 per month per workstation with hardware bundled. On a low-volume site Shift4's bundled hardware usually wins; as card volume grows the processing rate dominates, and that is negotiable with Shift4 and fixed with Toast until you renegotiate.
Toast is faster and more precise about it. Batch your card sales before 9:30 p.m. ET and the deposit follows a next-business-day schedule; batch after that, or let the automatic 4 a.m. batch run, and it is two business days. Toast also sells Instant Deposit, which typically lands funds within 30 minutes on any day including weekends and holidays, for a 1.75% fee. Shift4 settles in one to two business days, with same-day or next-day options on select programmes that usually carry added fees.
No. Both tie the software to their own processing. Shift4 Dine hardware is bundled with Shift4 acquiring, and Toast requires Toast Payments for full functionality and will only run on Toast-approved devices. That means the point-of-sale decision and the processing decision are the same decision at both providers - which is worth remembering when a rate rises mid-contract, because switching processor means switching the whole system.
Neither does, and this is the part of both deals most worth reading. Toast sets its term in the Order Form; agreements are widely reported at two years, auto-renewing annually, with 30 days' written notice required to stop renewal and an early termination charge equal to the remaining software subscription. Shift4 terms run one to three years by Payment Review's own review, with early termination fees often between $250 and $500, and its reseller hardware bundles are described as 36-month commitments. Ask for the term, the notice period and the exit fee in writing before you sign either.
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