Toast vs Square for restaurants
Last updated: August 25, 2026
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.
Square
A
Square offers simple, transparent payment processing ideal for small businesses. Flat-rate pricing, no monthly fees, and excellent software make it a top choice — but account holds and limited support are key concerns.
VS
Overview
For most independent restaurants, Square is the better choice — 2.6% + $0.15 in person, no monthly fee, and month-to-month terms you can leave at any time. Toast has genuinely deeper restaurant software and a slightly cheaper card rate at 2.49% + $0.15, but it costs $69 a month, locks you into two years, and charges $150 for every remaining month if you leave early — roughly $2,700 to exit an 18-month remainder. Choose Toast only if you will actually use the kitchen display, coursing and payroll.
Key Takeaways
- ✓Card-present rate — Toast: 2.49% + $0.15 (vs 2.6% + $0.15)
- ✓Online ordering — Square: 2.9% + $0.30 (vs 3.50% + $0.15)
- ✓Monthly software — Square: $0 to start (vs $69 (Point of Sale plan))
- ✓Contract — Square: Month-to-month (vs 2 years, 3 on some promos)
- ✓Early termination — Square: $0 (vs $150 per remaining month)
Toast POS
Better for full-service restaurants. Operations with a real kitchen, a floor to manage and staff to pay, where the software does work that would otherwise take three systems.
Square
Better for transparency and freedom. Anyone who wants a published rate, no contract, and hardware they can buy today — and who would rather not negotiate with a reseller.
The Verdict
It Depends on Your Needs
Why?
Square for most independents. Toast when the software does real work. The card-rate advantage Toast leads with is largely erased by its monthly fee, and reversed entirely by its online ordering rate if you do meaningful delivery volume. So you are not really buying a cheaper rate — you are buying software, on a two-year commitment, with an expensive exit. That is a good trade for a full-service restaurant that will genuinely use coursing, kitchen display, handhelds and integrated payroll. Those features replace systems you would otherwise buy separately, and the operational value is real. It is a bad trade for a cafe, a bar, a counter-service operation or anyone who mainly needs to take cards and print tickets. You would be paying $69 a month and accepting a $150-per-remaining-month exit fee for capability you will not touch. Work out honestly which you are before signing, because the exit is the expensive part.
Detailed Comparison
Filter Options
At a glance
Feature
Toast POS
Square
Card-present rate
2.49% + $0.15
Winner
2.6% + $0.15
Online ordering
3.50% + $0.15
2.9% + $0.30
Winner
Keyed rate
3.50% + $0.15
3.5% + $0.15
Monthly software
$69 (Point of Sale plan)
$0 to start
Winner
Contract
2 years, 3 on some promos
Month-to-month
Winner
Early termination
$150 per remaining month
$0
Winner
Third-party processing
Not allowed
Not allowed
Payout
1–2 business days
Next business day
Winner
Restaurant features
Deepest in class
Winner
Solid but lighter
Pricing transparency
2.0
5.0
Winner
Contract terms score
2.0
5.0
Winner
Card-present rate
Toast POS
2.49% + $0.15
Winner
Square
2.6% + $0.15
Online ordering
Toast POS
3.50% + $0.15
Square
2.9% + $0.30
Winner
Keyed rate
Toast POS
3.50% + $0.15
Square
3.5% + $0.15
Monthly software
Toast POS
$69 (Point of Sale plan)
Square
$0 to start
Winner
Contract
Toast POS
2 years, 3 on some promos
Square
Month-to-month
Winner
Early termination
Toast POS
$150 per remaining month
Square
$0
Winner
Third-party processing
Toast POS
Not allowed
Square
Not allowed
Payout
Toast POS
1–2 business days
Square
Next business day
Winner
Restaurant features
Toast POS
Deepest in class
Winner
Square
Solid but lighter
Pricing transparency
Toast POS
2.0
Square
5.0
Winner
Contract terms score
Toast POS
2.0
Square
5.0
Winner
Jump to:
Best For Your Business
Recommendations based on your business type
Full-service restaurants
Recommended
Toast POS
Coursing, table management, kitchen display and handhelds are what Toast is for, and they materially change how a busy floor runs. If you have a real kitchen and servers taking orders at tables, the software earns the contract.
Cafes and counter service
Recommended
Square
You will not use most of what Toast charges for. Square handles counter service well, costs nothing monthly, and leaves whenever you want. The $69 a month alone is $828 a year for features that stay switched off.
Bars and taprooms
Recommended
Square
Tab management and quick modifiers are handled fine by Square, and bar operations rarely need coursing or a kitchen display. The absence of a contract matters more in a category with seasonal swings.
Restaurants with heavy delivery and pickup
Recommended
Square
Toast charges 3.50% + $0.15 on online orders against Square’s 2.9% + $0.30. If a third of your covers arrive online, that single line can outweigh every other cost difference between the two.
Multi-location restaurant groups
Recommended
Toast POS
At several sites the reporting, centralised menu management and payroll integration justify the commitment, and you have the volume to negotiate the rate rather than accept the published one.
Above $100K a month, either way
Look at interchange-plus first. Both flat rates get expensive at volume. Host Merchant Services publishes interchange + 0.20% + $0.09 for restaurants and Helcim publishes interchange + 0.40% + $0.08 card present with no monthly fee and no contract. Neither is a full restaurant platform, so this is a software-versus-cost decision — but get the quotes before renewing.
Toast POS: Best for 2 use cases
Square: Best for 3 use cases
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about this comparison
$150 for each remaining month on the contract, or the total of remaining software fees, and hardware costs may also apply. On a standard two-year agreement cancelled at month six, that is roughly $2,700 in software fees alone. Some promotional plans require a three-year commitment, which raises the exposure further. Square by contrast is month-to-month with no termination fee at all.
On card-present rate only, and barely. Toast is 2.49 percent plus 15 cents against Square's 2.6 percent plus 15 cents, worth about $1,320 a year at $100,000 a month. Toast's $69 monthly fee takes back $828 of that. And Toast charges 3.50 percent plus 15 cents on online orders against Square's 2.9 percent plus 30 cents, so any meaningful delivery volume reverses the comparison entirely.
No. Toast requires you to process payments through Toast, with no third-party processing permitted, and it can adjust rates during the contract term. That lock-in is the main reason it scores 2.0 on contract terms. Square also processes its own payments, but with no contract you can leave at any time if the rate stops working.
Toast, clearly and by a wide margin. It is built exclusively for food service and includes coursing, kitchen display, handheld ordering, online ordering, payroll, loyalty, marketing and inventory in one platform, on hardware built to survive a kitchen. Square for Restaurants covers the fundamentals well but is lighter across the board. The question is not which is better software, it is whether you will use the difference.
Yes, but budget for it. You will owe the remaining software fees at $150 per month left on the contract, Toast hardware does not work with Square so you replace it, and menu and customer data need migrating. Most operators who switch do it at contract end rather than mid-term for exactly that reason. Check your renewal date before anything else, because auto-renewal is standard.