Toast is a restaurant-specific point-of-sale and management platform combining hardware, software, and payment processing. Its cloud-based system handles ordering, payments, kitchen management, staff scheduling, and online ordering, purpose-built for restaurant operations from single locations to chains.
Toast is the fastest-growing restaurant POS platform, having captured significant market share from legacy systems like Aloha and Micros. It competes with Square for Restaurants, Clover, and Lightspeed in the cloud POS space. Its restaurant-specific focus creates deeper functionality than general-purpose POS platforms.
Part of Square's broader ecosystem with simpler pricing and easy setup. Targets smaller restaurants with straightforward POS needs. Less depth than Toast for complex restaurant operations.
Multi-industry POS hardware and software backed by Fiserv. App marketplace enables customization but less restaurant-specific depth than Toast.
International presence with multi-currency and language support. Stronger outside the US market where Toast has less presence.
Toast's exclusive focus on restaurants enables features like kitchen display systems, menu engineering, and table management that general POS platforms lack. This specialization creates loyalty among operators with complex restaurant needs.
Toast generates significant revenue from payment processing fees bundled with its POS. This creates recurring revenue tied to restaurant transaction volume but faces pressure from operators seeking lower processing rates.
Toast is expanding into payroll, supply chain, and marketing to become a full restaurant management platform. Each module increases per-customer revenue but puts Toast in competition with specialized tools in each area.
Toast competes with Square for Restaurants (SMB POS), Clover (general POS), Lightspeed (global), and legacy systems like Aloha and Micros. In online ordering, it also competes with ChowNow and DoorDash Storefront.
Toast is built specifically for restaurants with deeper operational features. Square for Restaurants is simpler and easier to set up but less capable for complex restaurant operations. Toast for full-service; Square for simplicity.
Toast's hardware costs and payment processing fees can be significant for small restaurants. The value depends on operational complexity. Simple counter-service may find Square sufficient; full-service restaurants benefit from Toast's depth.