Toast POS Review: The Real Truth From TheRealBarman

Right off the bat I’ll say that Toast POS is the most popular restaurant POS system on the market. But before you get all excited and blindly follow the herd of gophers down the hole, “most popular” doesn’t necessarily mean best. Think of tv shows like Full House back in the 80’s or Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. Popular? Yes. Best? Hardly.

With that said, Toast POS is a very powerful and intuitive point of sale system with features designed to increase efficiency, reduce costs, and improve customer experience. It has an easy-to-use interface, robust hardware requirements, competitive pricing structure and reliable-enough customer support options.

You’ll want to make sure to read to the end, because as good as the Toast POS system is by itself, the company has a few red flags you might want to consider before plunging in head first. Because our goal, of course, isn’t to help you find a good POS system. It’s to help you find the best system for you. If you would like to read my review on my #1 restaurant POS system, you can click here.

So without further adieu, let’s “adieu” this (sorry, but what’s the point of life if we can’t enjoy a horrible dad joke while doing some online research?).

Table of Contents

Ease-of-Use
Cloud-Based Technology
Pros & Cons of Toast POS
Toast POS Features
Toast POS Pricing
Hardware Requirements for Toast POS
Toast POS Integrations
Customer Support for Toast POS
Toast POS Customer Reviews
Final Ruling

What is Toast POS Exactly?

Toast POS is a cloud-based point of sale (POS) system designed to help restaurants and bars streamline their operations. It offers an intuitive user interface, powerful analytics capabilities, and integrated payment processing. Toast’s platform provides restaurant owners with the tools they need to manage their businesses more efficiently. When determining how to choose the best restaurant POS system, there are many factors to consider.

How These POS Reviews Work

For those of you who don’t know, these are how my reviews work: I basically use my connections to find a restaurant owner I know who is using the POS system I am reviewing and ask them if I can jump on it and get to know it more intimately. I then ask about and get their feedback and experience with the system. I also get the reactions from other restaurant owners and managers I know who are using it, as well as online feedback. In this way, we have a complete collaboration of thoughts and opinions, not just mine.

Ease-of-Use

Toast’s user interface is designed for speed and ease of use. The dashboard displays key performance metrics in real time, so users can quickly identify trends or areas that require attention. Orders are sent directly from the tablet or mobile device to the kitchen printer, eliminating manual data entry errors and saving time during peak hours.

Cloud-Based Technology

Toast’s cloud-based technology allows restaurant owners to access their data anytime, anywhere via web browser or mobile app. This makes it easy for them to monitor sales activity remotely while also providing up-to-date insights into customer behavior patterns across multiple locations if needed. Additionally, all orders are stored securely in the cloud so there is no risk of losing important information due to hardware failure or theft.

Toast’s advanced analytics capabilities offer invaluable insights into customer spending patterns and inventory management trends over time, enabling restaurateurs to make data-driven decisions about menu items and pricing strategies that maximize profits while providing customers with quality offerings at competitive prices. Additionally, the software package includes historical data analysis tools which allow users to track labor costs by employee and shift, allowing them to optimize staffing levels based on demand forecasts.

Pros & Cons of Toast POS

Pros

• User-friendly interface and easy to navigate
• Customizable menu options and flexible order management
• Advanced reporting and analytics to help you make data-driven decisions
• Integration with third-party apps, such as online ordering platforms and delivery services
• Loyalty and gift card program management
• Reliable and responsive customer support

Cons

• High startup costs and ongoing fees
• Limited hardware options and compatibility
• Some advanced features, such as inventory management, require additional add-ons and fees
• Must use their payment processors
• Limited offline capabilities
• Some users have reported occasional glitches or bugs in the system
• Multiple reports of Toast not being up front about fees and other hidden contract details

Toast POS Features

The Toast POS system includes tools for managing staff schedules, tracking labor costs, and monitoring employee performance. This feature can help restaurants optimize their labor costs and ensure that their staff is performing at their best.

It’s worth noting that Toast POS offers many additional features and integrations that can be customized to the specific needs of each restaurant, including loyalty program integrations, online ordering integrations, and more.

Menu Management

The Toast POS system includes a powerful menu management tool that allows restaurants to easily customize their menu items, create modifiers, and manage pricing and inventory in real-time.

Order Taking

With Toast POS, servers can easily take and modify orders directly from a tablet or other mobile device. This feature enables more accurate and efficient order-taking, reducing wait times for customers.

Payment Processing

Toast POS includes built-in payment processing, allowing restaurants to accept credit and debit card payments as well as gift cards and mobile payments. It’s important to note that you HAVE to use Toast’s payment processors. You are not allowed to choose your own processor.

Online Ordering

Toast POS offers a powerful online ordering platform that enables restaurants to accept orders directly from their website or mobile app. This feature can help to increase revenue and reduce the workload on in-house staff.

Inventory Management

The Toast POS system includes a powerful inventory management tool that allows restaurants to track inventory levels, monitor usage, and automatically reorder items as needed. This feature can help to reduce waste and save money.

Reporting and Analytics

Toast POS includes robust reporting and analytics tools that provide real-time insights into sales, inventory, and customer behavior. This feature can help restaurants make data-driven decisions and optimize their operations. Toast reporting does not quite match the power of Lightspeed’s reporting and analytics, but they are still good.

Loyalty Programs

Toast POS enables restaurants to create custom loyalty programs that reward customers for repeat business. This feature can help to increase customer retention and drive revenue.

Gift Card Programs

Toast POS includes built-in support for gift card programs, enabling restaurants to easily sell and manage gift cards directly from the POS system.

Table Management

With Toast POS, restaurants can easily manage table assignments, track wait times, and monitor table status in real-time. This feature helps to streamline table turnover and reduce wait times for customers.

Staff Management

The Toast POS system includes tools for managing staff schedules, tracking labor costs, and monitoring employee performance. This feature can help restaurants optimize their labor costs and ensure that their staff is performing at their best.

Toast POS Pricing

Toast POS has multiple tiers of pricing, including a free plan, though you might find that extremely limiting. Many users start with the free plan until they realize they need to upgrade to the “Point of Sale” or “Essentials” tier. Still, the free plan does allow you to play around with it to make sure you like it.

Free Plan

The Toast free plan provides you with one terminal and very basic operational features. This means you can run a very basic business with this plan, but don’t count on it having many capabilities. This is sort of the “gateway” plan to get their foot in the door so you want to upgrade instead of going to the hassle of finding another system.

Basic Plan

The Basic plan starts at $69 per month for one terminal. This plan includes access to many of Toast’s core features. It also includes 24/7 phone support from the Toast team. This plan also enables access to multiple add-ons that are not available with the free version, including team management tools and API access.

Essentials Plan

The Essentials plan starts at $165 per month and comes with everything in the Point of Sale plan and a lot more. Additionally, this option includes Toast Online Ordering, Toast Delivery Services and Toast TakeOut App.

Custom Pricing

Custom pricing is exactly how it sounds: you need to ask them during the demo what it would cost if the first three plans aren’t enough for you. At this pricing range, you would of course have nearly everything you would need to run a great business.

In addition to these monthly subscription plans, Toast also offers several hardware bundles that include everything needed to get started. These bundles typically include tablets (or terminals), cash drawers, printers and scanners depending on the setup desired. Prices for these bundles start around $1k but may vary based on specific needs and requirements. If interested in learning more about them, please reach out directly.

Payment Processing Fees

As of this writing, the Toast processing fees look like this:

• 2.99% plus 15 cents per transaction, if you choose pay-as-you-go option on hardware.
• 2.49% plus 15 cents for card-present transactions, if you pay for hardware upfront.
• 3.50% plus 15 cents for card-not-present transactions, if you pay for hardware upfront.

The Gist: Toast POS offers a variety of pricing plans and hardware bundles, making it an ideal solution for businesses of any size looking to improve their restaurant management systems. The main issue is that they like to lock you into a long-term contract and getting out is costly.

Hardware Requirements for Toast POS

Toast POS can be run on any Android or iOS device. Additionally, the Toast POS system can be accessed from a web browser, meaning that it can be used on devices running any operating system, including Windows, Mac, and Linux. Here are a few of the hardware options and pricing. *Note: You’ll want to make sure and double-check the pricing to ensure that it’s current. Since the writing of this post, it could be different.

Toast Terminal – Starting at $799

The Toast Terminal is the central hub of the Toast POS system. It includes a 14-inch touchscreen display, built-in card reader, and front-facing camera. Additional features include a customer-facing display, built-in receipt printer, and a range of connectivity options.

Toast Go 2 – Starting at $449

The Toast Go 2 is a handheld device that allows servers to take orders and process payments tableside. It features a 7-inch display, built-in card reader, and a long-lasting battery.

Kitchen Display System (KDS) – Starting at $799

The KDS is a digital display that allows kitchen staff to view and manage orders in real-time. It includes a 15.6-inch touchscreen display and a range of customization options.

Toast Order & Pay – Starting at $799

Toast Order & Pay is a customer-facing tablet that allows guests to place orders and pay for their meals directly at the table. It includes a 10-inch touchscreen display and a built-in card reader.

Toast Hardware Bundle – Starting at $450

The Toast Hardware Bundle includes a Toast Terminal, cash drawer, and credit card reader. It’s a great option for businesses that are just starting out with Toast POS and don’t require additional hardware.

It’s important to note that pricing for Toast POS hardware may vary depending on the specific needs of your business, such as the number of terminals or handheld devices required. Toast POS also offers leasing options for hardware, allowing businesses to spread out the cost of their investment over time.

All hardware should meet the minimum requirements listed above in order to ensure that everything works together seamlessly without any issues arising due to compatibility problems between devices.

The Gist: Toast POS requires specific hardware to run efficiently, such as tablets or computers, printers, scanners and cash drawers. It can also run on both Android and iOS devices.

Toast POS Integrations

Online Ordering

Toast POS integrates with several popular online ordering platforms, including Grubhub, Uber Eats, DoorDash, and Postmates. This allows restaurants to accept orders from these platforms directly within the Toast POS system, streamlining the order fulfillment process.

Payment Processors

Toast POS supports several payment processors, including Stripe, Square, and PayPal. This allows restaurants to easily process payments and manage transactions within the POS system.

Loyalty Programs

Toast POS integrates with several loyalty program providers, including FiveStars and LevelUp. This allows restaurants to create and manage loyalty programs for their customers, incentivizing repeat business.

Accounting Software

Toast POS integrates with popular accounting software such as QuickBooks and Xero, allowing for seamless financial reporting and accounting.

Employee Management

Toast POS integrates with employee management software such as Homebase, which allows restaurant managers to schedule shifts, track time and attendance, and manage payroll.

Inventory Management

Toast POS integrates with inventory management software such as BevSpot, allowing restaurants to track inventory levels, monitor usage, and manage ordering and purchasing.

Marketing

Toast POS integrates with marketing automation tools such as Mailchimp, allowing restaurants to create and send email marketing campaigns directly from the POS system.

Table Management

Toast POS integrates with table management software such as TableUp, which allows restaurants to manage reservations, table assignments, and waitlist management.

Customer Support for Toast POS

Toast POS provides comprehensive customer support to ensure that users get the most out of their system. Toast offers a variety of support options, including phone, online chat, and email. With that said, there are multiple complaints of Toast reps not getting back to their clients in a timely fashion, or that the support in general has not been very helpful.

Phone Support

Toast’s phone support is available 24/7 for customers in the United States and Canada. Customers can call 1-888-878-6688 or 617-576-5800 to speak with a customer service representative about any issues they may be having with their system.

Online Chat Support

Toast also offers online chat support through its website. Customers can use this feature to ask questions or troubleshoot problems without having to wait on hold for an extended period of time. The chat window is open from 8am – 8pm EST Monday through Friday and 9am – 5pm EST Saturday and Sunday.

Email Support

For those who prefer not to use the phone or live chat options, Toast also offers email support at help@toasttab.com . This option allows customers to send detailed emails outlining their issue so that it can be addressed by a customer service representative as soon as possible.

In addition to these standard forms of customer service, Toast also has an extensive knowledge base filled with helpful articles and tutorials on how best to use the system’s features as well as troubleshooting tips if something isn’t working correctly. There are even video tutorials available for some topics which provide step by step instructions on how best utilize certain features within the POS software itself.

Finally, there is an active user community where customers can post questions and receive answers from other experienced users in real time, making it easier than ever before for businesses using Toast POS systems to get up and running quickly.

The Gist: A key takeaway from Toast POS is the comprehensive customer support available, including 247 phone and chat support as well as an extensive knowledge base, video tutorials, and an active user community. However, there are complaints of slow service or incidences of people feeling like Toast support does not really care about them.

Toast POS Customer Reviews

Customer reviews for Toast POS are a bit of a mixed bag. On the site Trust Pilot (which I like for the most part), Toast receives a score of 3.7 out of 5 stars. Not great, not bad.

In my personal experience, when I speak with owners and managers who use Toast, they love the system and hate the support. I’ve heard story after story of shadiness and lies from the company itself. A never-discussed fee or requirement on the owner’s end suddenly appears deep in the contract. This is pulled out like a rabbit out of a hat: “PRESTO! Here’s some stuff we never told you about but you’re required to abide by because you signed the contract.”

Final Ruling

Here’s what you have to consider when deciding on Toast: Is the questionable methods and actions of the company worth it if I get a POS system that is truly a great system? Because if you want a great system, Toast POS is certainly that. I will say that you might be rolling the dice when it comes to what happens after you sign-up and pay for it. I certainly don’t have the feedback of every Toast POS user on the planet. There are plenty of owners who are happy with both the system and the customer service. I only know that there have been a number of red flags from the feedback that I have heard.

Whatever you POS system you do choose, I hope you find the best one for you. Make sure to go through the process of scheduling demos so you can see how it works and ask questions. Buying a POS system is one of the most important you’ll make when running your business, so do it right.

Thanks for hanging out.

TheRealBarman Team

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