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Toast POS Review

POS Systems

Toast POS is an Android-based tablet point-of-sale system for restaurants, cafes, pizzerias, and other food service businesses.

Toast offers a wide range of features for your business, including tableside ordering, online ordering and delivery tracking, automatic tipping options, voids, integrated credit card processing, and more. We’ll take a look at all of these features, costs, and customer reviews in depth in this Toast POS profile.

If you’re looking to take credit cards with your Toast system, be sure to check out our full Toast Review for all the details about credit card processing with Toast.

Features

If you run a business in the food service industry, you may benefit from a POS system specifically deisgned with your needs in mind. Check out this introduction video from Toast about what you can expect when using its POS system:
 

A general POS system can perform many of the same functions, but the restaurant-specific systems offer advanced features like online ordering capabilities so your customers can conveniently place orders for takeou. Additionally, tablet-based systems like Toast can help with faster customer turnover and higher checks.

Related Article: Tablet POS Systems for Better Restaurant Performance.


Here’s what you can expect from the Toast system.

Tableside Ordering

An increasingly popular option, tableside ordering is fast and convenient, allowing your servers to enter the orders and send them to the kitchen right from a customer’s table. No more writing down orders and then returning to a workstation to enter them. It’s easy to split checks, swipe cards, and text or email receipts. You can also open tabs for bar customers, and close them out or transfer checks.

Online Ordering

Toast’s online ordering software allows you to offer online ordering from your full menu. Online ordering is hosted through an integrated restaurant management program so you can easily change your menu as necessary. If your customers pay online at the time of purchase, the order will automatically print to the kitchen or to prep stations the same as if they were orders placed in person. Manager approval can be required if the customer doesn’t pay in advance and instead will pay at the time of pickup or delivery.

Delivery Management

If you offer delivery, you can customize your services by setting delivery zones, customizing fees for delivery based on distance, and set times for delivery. Orders can be assigned to specific drivers and tracked from initial order submission to delivery. 

Customized Tipping

Adding gratuities should be a simple process. The customized tip percentage option in the Toast POS system automatically prompts diners to add a tip. If your restaurant splits tips among staff, Toast includes distribution calculations for quick server payout information.

Voids and Comps

Toast provides an easy voiding process, and includes detailed reporting on both voids and comps. Information is available for why the void or comp was processed, who did it, and who authorized it.

Integrated CRM and Loyalty Program

Toast’s integrated CRM lets you record your customer’s contact information and order history, allowing you to view detailed information including average check total and frequently ordered items. Additionally, you can collect customer’s contact information and allow them to join a loyalty program for your restaurant. The loyalty program lets customers easily reorder past orders, earn points for purchases, and more.

Gift Cards

With Toast, you can choose to offer digital gift cards or physical electronic gift cards. With digital cards, your customers can choose whether the card will be emailed or texted to the recipient. Physical gift cards can be customized and Toast will print them for you. Physical cards can be swiped like any traditional credit card. Customers can use their smartphone to pay with digital gift cards. Balances can be printed on receipts for customer convenience.

Reporting

Manage your restaurant with Toast’s report dashboard. The dashboard gives an overview of transactions, including net sales, tips, and payment method breakdown. You can also view exceptions reports to review voids and refunds. Labor reporting is available to help you track how your labor is affecting sales. Product mix reports let you easily determine how your menu items are performing. Online ordering comes with additional reporting, separated out by takeout and delivery orders.

Equipment

If you need equipment, Toast provides options for tablets, printers, stands, and accessories such as cash drawers, scanners, scales, and customer-facing pole displays. Wireless and stationary models are available. Toast POS software runs on Android platforms, so you will not be able to use it with an Apple iPad. Toast includes an explanation of the benefits of using Android POS hardware on its website, and states that using Android allows for easier integrations and greater customization options as well as a lower price point for many hardware models.

Toast sells equipment directly, including a hardware bundle for ~$1,300 that includes an Android tablet, stand, cash drawer, card reader, and receipt printers. Kitchen printers, routers, and other accessories are available for purchase at additional cost. 

Toast Costs

There are a few different parts to the costs to use Toast – the costs for the POS system, monthly costs, and the costs for credit card processing. The costs for the POS system itself are described in the Equipment section, above. Equipment pricing is subject to change, 

Monthly Costs

For most businesses, Toast starts at $99/month for the first device, and costs $50/month for each additional device. Some businesses may qualify for the Express plan, which starts at $79/month. Larger businesses will need to contact Toast to inquire about custom pricing.

Additional costs for some features apply, as follows:

Toast Inventory: $75/month
Online Ordering: $50/month
Gift Card Program: $50/month
Loyalty Program: $25/month
 

Integrated Credit Card Processing Costs

Toast offers secure integrated credit card processing. You can accept all major credit and debit cards, as well as checks, cash, and gift cards. Toast states that they will match your current processor’s rates and references a flat rate pricing model, but doesn’t provide further details.
 

Have you used the Toast POS system at your restaurant or bar? What did you think? Let us know by leaving a comment below!

Product Features

Universal

POS Systems

  • Mobile device management
  • Tableside Ordering
  • Tableside Payment Processing
  • Patron Online Food Ordering
  • Gift cards and customer loyalty tracking
  • Marketing metrics
  • Inventory management
  • Sales reports
  • Employee tracking & management
  • Payroll metrics
  • Quickbooks data export
  • PayPal acceptance
  • Integrated CRM (customer relationship management)
  • Windows-based system

  • iPad-Based System
  • Android-Based System
  • Bar Code Scanners
  • Card Readers
  • Cash Drawers
  • Receipt Printers
  • Customer Displays
  • Kitchen Printers & Monitors
  • Checkout Scales
  • Portable Receipt Printers

Toast POS Q&A


Toast POS Reviews ( 34)

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from Bryan Kossol, on Jun 07, 2023

A customer service nightmare I wish I had any pros to list, but unfortunately we did not get far enough along into the process of setting up Toast to process a single payment. Toast's customer service is incompetent at best and predatory at worst. During the discovery and on-boarding phase, Toast promised us many things. I explained our set up in detail before I purchased any equipment from Toast, and was assured that they had a hardware solution for us. When it came time to set up our system, it became apparent to me that Toast's hardware would not be compatible with our current situation. It was nearly impossible for them to understand why, or agree with me that they did not have a solution. I believe this is due to a lack of communication between their sales and on-boarding teams, and their technical support team. It has been over a year and I am still jumping through hoops on a monthly basis trying to get a refund for hardware and services that were never utilized by our business.

from William, on Apr 26, 2023

No notification for declined credit/debit cards. Toast is costing you money.

from Tom Sturdevant, on May 21, 2022

Worst company I have ever dealt with. Very expensive and beyond useless support. I own a restaurant and just love when the system inevitably crashes on Saturday. Can't accept credit cards and have a full place of pissed off customers who cannot pay because they didn't bring cash. If I could give negative stars I would. The government needs to look into this company because frankly they are borderline defrauding their customers. So yeah stay away, they alone can cripple your business and they try every single day.

from boomer, on Apr 09, 2022

Terrible system!! Terrible support. Poor documentation of system and abysmal system protocols. No one from TOAST knows how the system works! I've used toast since 2018. you fix one issue and another thing breaks. more than frustrating and a waste of time and money. very fragile and phone support is poor trained. no one knows how it all plugs and plays. every time company does a system 'upgrade' or maintenance, everything gets messed up. no one on support line knows how to troubleshoot and the online instructions are useless. you are on your own!!

from Juliya, on Jan 15, 2022

Worst Hardware ever

from Sam, on Jan 12, 2022

Don't do it. We have had issues with Toast ever since our install, it's been over a year now and we still have the same issues. We have several monitors in the back and orders will split, so Order #1 will split into different sections and show 3 tickets even though it's all the same Order #1, so we'll have pages of filled screens just for a few orders since they all split, or we'll get duplicate ticket print outs so Order #1 will print twice, and on each print out the same exact menu item will read differently (on one print it, it will have the modifier add ons and on the other it won't, or it will be missing items entirely, then we have several monitors, a monitor at each stations, and some monitors will get the order and some won't. We've spent so many hours on the phone with customer support that it translates to weeks of life. No matter how cheap or large of a discount Toast gives you to sign up with them, it's not worth it. I'm not sure which POS is the best right now, but we're looking for a new one, and will have to eat the cost of Toast because they don't issue refunds.

from Mike, on Nov 19, 2021

I've been in this business for over 30 years and this is the biggest joke system out there. Customer service is horrible when you can reach them. I think they read out of a script because they all say the same thing, never take responsibility and never give you the name or contact of someone higher up. They got this system because it was much, much less cost - and I am seeing why first hand.

from Brad, on Nov 17, 2021

Fit for waffle houses and chain restaurants. We stopped the install at cost because Toast is so bloated with meaningless -- yet required -- steps. The software is a mindless, needless boondoggle. If I want to add an employee on Clover, it's one button ("Fill in your info," go!). On Toast, adding employees is a feature-less process that REQUIRES A DIFFERENT SYSTEM. Yep. You cant add an employee from the terminal. You have to input their info from a phone or computer ("Hey what's your email? How do you spell that again?") Not an efficient workflow. The onboarding process is a nightmare. You will be asked to watch hours of videos that skip important steps for POS basics and time wasters (Don't care if you like Disney dude. How do I make an itemized discount?) The "install" consists of a tech showing up and pointing to where you should have already ran cable... to points no one told you to run to. Also, they bait & switch or upsell constantly. You need printers to open cash boxes, etc. We were told many things that weren't true or contradicted by the next person in line. Instead of stocking their staff with people from the industry, we were just talking to sales reps who were desperate to finish the job as fast as possible to get their commission. We stopped the first "install" because it would have left us unable to do business. We stopped the second "install" because after failing to tell us where to run cable, that we'd be unable to run cashboxes, add employees, communicate with the kitchen (as promised), we debated the value at all. Could not be more disappointed with the whole system.

from Denny Nguyen, on Nov 04, 2021

The best POS I have ever used. Always supper helpful. Support is amazing

from Nick, on Sep 02, 2021

This POS system has been a struggle from the get go. I was only allowed 2 terminals for 185 seat bar/restaurant. I understand that COVID has impacted supply chain so then I ordered 2 handhelds and a wireless printer. The handhelds showed up but never the printer. A week later I was told they no longer support wireless printers even though I was sold one, which never arrived. Now into live mode. I've been active for a week and processing cards then in the middle of service my system reverted back to test mode not allowing me to process CC's. I had to comp a LOT of money out which was extremely frustrating for a new business. 2 hours on the phone I get it resolved and then 2 days later it goes back into test mode again and now I had to shut my doors down a day prior to opening and still it has not been resolved nor will they allow me to get copies of phone records. I would NOOOOT recommend this POS system as their customer service has been terrible and there is no urgency in getting us live again.

from Albert Berger, on Jun 09, 2021

As a restaurant customer, this online ordering system is a disaster. Does not work with Chrome or IE, the android app also does not work properly. Has really soured me on the restaurants that us this useless product. Also their customer service is hopeless.

from Larry Vito, on May 17, 2021

We are a month in to attempting to set-up our Toast system. We were told the menu-building process takes the longest, but that that this would be a breezy process after the build. We were given a 1.5 hour training to build our menu. It was woefully inadequate. The trainer, named Andrew, glossed over in depth details. Among other things, he did not tell us about features like "deep copy and "shadow copy" and the subsequent implications of these features. For example, these features enable or prevent a menu change like "add bacon" to be deleted in one place if you run out. This is only one example of the horrific and excruciating ordeal this has become. Tier 1 support know next to nothing and you spend hours waiting for them to try to figure out whatever problem is driving you crazy. More often, they tell you "Sorry, we can't do that." Our sales person, Dyllan, who we think is a terrific person, has stuck with us and tried to help with more integrity than we have ever experienced with a salesperson. But, if we had to do it over again, I don't think we would have gone with Toast. If we ever get the system set up before we give up, we will follow up with an updated review.

from Jennifer Piette, on Mar 15, 2021

Don't waste your time and money on this. You can never get to talk with someone in a timely manner when you have an issue. It' not even letting me print reports for Gross sales and breakdown of liquor and food to send to the AFT for liquor license review. They all talk a big talk when they are trying to sell you to you and they tell you all the things this system can do. Don't listen, they lied. I'm looking into a different system and I've only had this system since July 2020. I also didn't want to give a one star rating but it made me. Said it had to be at least 1 star. LOL

from Mike McP, on Mar 05, 2021

Toast used to rely upon a local firm for customer support and sales. They decided to sever all ties with local firms and do everything in house. If you want to deal with non-existent customer service and leave voicemails that are entirely ignored, then go ahead and be my guest and purchase their product. If I treated my customers as badly as they treated me, I would be out of business in short order. Stay away!

from Michelle, on Feb 18, 2021

Toast is a cloud product you pay monthly for. What a joke. You're locked in to a single credit card processor, so they have full control of your rates. Any business not using a lifetime license POS system that is open to every processor is crazy. Competition in the credit card industry KEEPS your Rates down.

from Tien Cheng, on Jan 28, 2021

Normally, I do not write reviews, but I'll write one for Toast! They are not kind to their clients. After you sign the contract, they will change the face and use the contract to against you. If you want do some changes, then you will receive impossibly high fees.

from sancar dumlupinar, on Jan 14, 2021

If I can give 0 stars, I would. I've owned a lot of restaurants and used to have revel Pos. My biggest mistake in my restaurant career was switching to Toast. I got my second Toast lease on February 2019 before covid. Once covid hit I never opened my restaurant but Toast is asking me to pay $8k for canceling my membership. During Covid every business helped each other and this company is taking advantage of the situation. I offered to pay the hardware and cancel the software but no help at all. If you're smart you'll do your research. Also, their customer service people don't know anything. They are not trained and it takes hours to solve one little problem.

from Andy, on Nov 25, 2020

The company used to be good but now they are turning into Square, and becoming a complete joke. I purchased Toast from a local dealer, and they were great, instant support, local and could come onsite if I had an issue I couldn't solve. Assisted us with any programming changes for a small price whenever we needed it. One day they just told us they were no longer going support us because Toast was moving away from resellers and I was no longer their customer? So now I have to call Toast's direct number and deal with the call centers, there are no local people who can come out and assist if I have a network issue, and none of the reps on the phone know anything about programming the system they support. Now it's even worse because I called today to get a foreigner who didn't even understand me that well, and had to try to decipher what she said over the sounds of the ridiculously busy call center in the background. Do yourself a favor! Do not get toast unless you like high monthly fees, no support. I'm ditching this company asap, they can look as good as they want in their marketing materials, but they are a complete JOKE.

from Harry Singer, on Nov 15, 2020

The overall system is decent, but the customer service is awful! They outsource the customer service to Nicaragua. Wait times are typically in excess of an hour. It is rare that the person that answers can help. Currently, I am trying to add their touted third-party integrations. Below is my last "Customer Care Case" I opened. It typically takes weeks to reach someone in sales; hard to understand! I have tried for over a week to contact someone in sales. We are going to discontinue our Toast products if we can not get this resolved. I am so sick of Toast's pathetic customer service and lack thereof. Please have someone in sales freaking contact me ASAP. If I don't hear from someone by November 17th, I will switch providers. We pay Toast a lot of money! Hire some freaking people. Your service sucks! I am trying to pay your pathetic company yet more money! I have spent hours trying to get the third-party delivery apps integrated. Your company's failure to respond is costing us money! I don't know why you call it Customer Care because Toast obviously doesn't give a flying freak about its customers.

from Michelle , on Nov 05, 2020

It forced me to give at least one star, but this system definitely does not deserve that. The customer service is the worst I've ever experienced. We have been having the same issue for the entire year and Toast has yet to fix it, and continues to close every support case we submit. We are a small pizzeria and our main issue is the online ordering - which is the primary reason we decided on Toast. The app actually autocorrects customer addresses, so we are frequently delivering to the wrong homes. This costs us at least $100/wk in orders that we need to remake. We try to call all online orders to verify addresses, but it becomes difficult during dinner rushes - and also defeats that purpose of having people order online if we have to call everyone anyways. I have submitted upwards of 50 requests for support and have never been contacted by a supervisor. In fact, the most recent request (today) I was told that my account manager no longer works there and when I asked who my new account manager is I was told we don't have one. WHAT??? I second everything that every other review says - terrible customer service, all calls go to some foreign call center which presents a huge language barrier, and I can't even get ahold of anyone to cancel and get a new POS with a different company. I do not know what to do, but whatever you do, you should NOT get this system!!

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