Toast vs Square for restaurants: what we could verify, and when not to switch

Square publishes its US restaurant plans: Free at $0, Plus at $49 and Premium at $149 per location per month, plus card fees, with QR code ordering on the two paid plans. Toast does not publish a price we could read: its pricing pages returned an error to our checker on 15 and again on 16 October 2026, and its help center gives no figure. Both sell table QR ordering as part of their own POS. So the honest comparison is narrower than most “Toast vs Square” pages suggest, and it ends with a question many owners skip: do you need to switch POS at all? If your till works and what you want is table ordering, there are ways to add it without either.

How do Toast and Square compare?

Short answer: on the facts both companies publish, they are similar in shape and very different in how much they tell you up front.

Everything below comes from each company’s own pages, as published on 15 October 2026. We have not used either POS.

Sources: Toast’s Mobile Order & Pay overview, FAQs and device language article; Square’s restaurant pricing and self-serve ordering pages.

“Not stated” means we didn’t find it on the pages we read, not that the feature is missing. Ask.

How much does Square for Restaurants cost?

Short answer: $0, $49 or $149 per location per month in the US, plus card fees, plus any add-ons and hardware.

The plan you need depends on what you want. QR code ordering is listed on Plus and Premium, not Free. A kitchen display app is $30 a month per device on Plus and $20 on Premium, and a kiosk is $99 a month per device. Prices change by country: Square’s Canadian help article shows Restaurants Plus at “$60 subscription fee” per location per month, and its Irish page shows “€69 + VAT per month per location”.

Card fees usually decide the real cost. On Plus, in-person payments are 2.5% + 15¢ and online payments 2.9% + 30¢. Square’s page doesn’t say which rate applies to orders paid by phone from the table, so ask. Our post on what Square QR ordering costs works through the numbers in detail.

How much does Toast cost?

Short answer: we don’t know, because Toast didn’t publish a price we could read.

Toast’s product and pricing pages returned an HTTP 403 error to our checker on 15 October 2026, and again on 16 October 2026. Its help articles describe Mobile Order & Pay in detail but give no price. Third-party blogs quote figures, but they disagree and we couldn’t confirm them, so we don’t repeat them. Ask Toast for a written quote that covers software, hardware, card processing, Mobile Order & Pay and any kitchen screens, and the length of any agreement.

Which is better for a small restaurant?

Short answer: the one whose written quote, for your setup, you understand best. Here is how to get to that.

A decision guide, in order:

1. Do you want to start without a sales call? Square lets you start on the Free plan and trial Plus or Premium for 30 days, as published. We couldn’t read Toast’s pricing, so expect to ask for a quote.
2. Will guests pay at the table on their phones? Both do it. Compare card fees in writing for your sales mix.
3. Do you rely on printers? Both route to kitchen printers or screens. Check that your current printers are supported before you buy new ones.
4. Do many guests read your menu in another language? Neither describes guest-language ordering on the pages we read. Ask both.
5. Is your internet unreliable? Toast says Mobile Order & Pay can’t take orders or payments during an outage. Ask Square the same question.
6. How long is the agreement, and what does leaving cost? Get both answers in writing. Our restaurant QR buyer’s checklist lists the rest.

If you’re choosing a new POS anyway, get both quotes for the same setup and compare two years of total cost: software, hardware, card fees and add-ons.

What should you ask before signing with either?

Short answer: the questions whose answers aren’t on the public pages.

Use the same list for both, and get the answers in writing:

Ask Square the hardware, outage and data questions too. A vendor’s pricing page answers the first question well and the rest rarely.

When don’t you need to switch POS at all?

Short answer: when your till works and what you actually want is table ordering.

Switching POS means new hardware, a new menu build, new reports and retraining every shift. That is a lot of change for one feature. If table ordering is the goal, there are less disruptive routes:

WaiterPilot is one of the route-two tools, and it is different in one way: guests order by chat in their own words. They scan the QR code on their table, the menu opens in the phone’s browser with no app, and they ask questions and order in their own language; answers come from your menu. It has been tested in English, Arabic and Spanish, and the screen buttons are English or Arabic. The first order at each table waits for staff to confirm it.

What it doesn’t do, compared with Toast or Square: it takes no payment and has no POS or printer connection. Guests see a live bill and pay your staff on your Toast or Square terminal, and staff enter each phone order in the POS.

A worked example: Casa Olivo on Square

Casa Olivo is a fictional restaurant (an example, not a customer). Prices are as published on 15 October 2026, before card fees.

Casa Olivo runs one location on Square’s Free plan and wants guests to order from their tables.

For a restaurant already on Square, Square’s own QR ordering is cheaper and needs no re-keying, and it lets guests pay on their phones. WaiterPilot costs more and adds re-keying. The reason to pick it anyway is the conversation: guests who ask questions before ordering, or who don’t read your menu’s language. If that isn’t your problem, choose Square’s module.

What to do next

Write down the one problem you want to solve. If it is “our till is old”, get written quotes from Toast and Square for the same setup. If it is “guests wait to order”, check first whether your current POS sells QR ordering. If it is “guests can’t read our menu or keep asking questions”, compare chat-based tools. Our Toast comparison and Square comparison set WaiterPilot against each one, and our guide to Toast Mobile Order & Pay alternatives covers the route-two tools in detail. WaiterPilot costs $200 per location per month, with free setup, 0% commission and no contract; see pricing.