Toast
Starter Kit $0/mo software but processing locked at higher rate. Point of Sale $69/mo + lower processing. Premium $165/mo. Restaurant-only; hardware is purpose-built (Flex terminal, KDS).
Vendor page returned HTTP 403; figures from 2026 third-party reviews (Owner.com, MerchantMaverick).
What this POS actually costs in Year 1.
*Representative buyer: 1 location · 2 terminals · $40K/mo card volume · ~600 transactions/mo.
Starter Kit $0/mo software + locked higher processing (2.99% + $0.15). Or Point of Sale $69/mo + standard processing 2.49% + $0.15. Hardware $800-$2,350 (Flex terminal + KDS). Processing $40K/mo at 2.49% + $0.15 × 600 tx = $1,086/mo = $13,032/yr. Year-1 TCO: $14,500-$16,000 for paid tier.
Why this POS is priced this way.
Toast is the restaurant-vertical specialist. Hardware is purpose-built (Flex terminals are spill-resistant, KDS designed for kitchen heat/grease). The 2.49% processing rate undercuts Square's 2.6% — small but compounds on high-volume restaurants. Toast Inc IPO'd in 2021 on this restaurant focus, and its product depth in restaurant-specific features (modifiers, void/comp tracking, tip pooling, KDS routing) is materially deeper than Square or Clover.
What first-time buyers miss.
The Starter Kit $0/mo software has higher locked processing — the discount isn't free. Restaurants tempted by the $0 tier should compute Year-3 cumulative cost against Point of Sale tier; the math typically flips after month 14 for restaurants doing over $30K/mo card volume. Industry-reported pricing because Toast's vendor page returned HTTP 403 on 2026-06-03 fetch.
Who this POS fits.
Full-service restaurants (FSR). Quick-service restaurants (QSR) doing over $40K/mo. Multi-location restaurant groups where central reporting matters. Not a fit for retail (no first-party retail features) or mobile vendors.