Toast vs. Square vs. Clover POS: Which Is Right for Your Hospitality Business?

Square POS is the best POS system for small and growing restaurants, due to its affordable pricing options, and robust set of tools for selling and scaling.

With its advanced hospitality features, such as tip-sharing and cost controls, Toast is a better option for established, full-service restaurants.

Clover POS, meanwhile, is the best option for quick-service restaurants, due to its durable, spill-resistant hardware, slick backend, and low transaction fees.

To inform this guide, our researchers tested 16 of the top POS systems across 40 user testing sessions. You can find our thoughts below.

Toast vs Square vs Clover Head to Head

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		Price The typical lowest starting price. The lowest price available for your business will depend on your needs	Free plan	Free trial	Lowest transaction fee The lowest possible fee that will be incurred with each transaction	Highest transaction fee The highest possible fee that will be incurred with each transaction	iPad app Is there a version of the software made specifically for iPad use?	Android app Is there a version of the software made specifically for Android tablet use?	24/7 support	Key benefits	Drawbacks	Card reader starting price	Hardware kit starting price		Who should What kind of business should use this POS system?	Who shouldn't What kind of business shouldn't use this POS system?
Toast	Square	Clover
$0/month	From $0/month	From $16/month for 36 months (depending on plan)
check	check	close
14 days	30 days	90 days
2.49% + 15¢	2.5% + 15¢	2.3% +10¢
3.50% + 15¢	3.5% + 15¢	3.5% +10¢
check	check	check
check	check	check
check	check	check
Ingredient-level stock tracking Automatic tip sharing tool Free hardware and software kits available	Menu customization Layout management Customer feedback	Durable and responsive hardware options Dedicated cost/profit management tool Intuitive drag-and-drop functionality
Doesn’t offer email-based support Doesn’t work on iOS devices	Some essential features cost extra 3.3% + 30¢ charge on non-card transactions	Reservation tools are a paid add-on Expensive starting prices
Free	Free for new users	$199
Custom pricing	$59 for the Square Reader	From $1,799 + $84.95/month (software included) for Clover Station Solo
Visit Toast	Try Square	Compare Quotes
Full-service cocktail lounges Complex gastropubs	Micro vendors, such as a food truck, due to the lack of monthly fees Hospitality businesses that require booking tools	High-volume counter service venues Bars that need biometric login
Small pop-up bars Low-overhead operations	High-volume restaurants, due to the high transaction fees Nightclubs or late bars, due to the lack of 24/7 phone support	Bars or restaurants that need advanced native hospitality features Bars or restaurants without resources for expensive hardware

Is Toast a Good Hospitality POS?

• Starting price: Free (with transaction fees)

Toast is the best POS system for established restaurants. With specialized, powerful features for managing inventory, profit margins, and customer loyalty, it is specifically built with large hospitality businesses in mind.

Toast

In Short

• Pros

  • Built-in customer engagement and loyalty program features
  • Excellent inventory management tools, like stock alerts
  • Support for tableside ordering and payment

• Cons

  • Main restaurant POS has no iOS compatibility
  • No social media or email support
  • No ecommerce app market integration

Pricing

• Free pay-as-you-go plan available
• POS pricing starts at $69/month
• Transaction fee: 2.49% + 15¢
• Customizable starter kits available

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My Experience With Toast

I was a big fan of Toast’s clean design and intuitive search tool, which allowed me to get to grips with the more complicated elements of the platform. However, I did find the vast array of advanced tools slightly overwhelming.

Overall, I found the backend easier to use than the frontend. If I could suggest one area of improvement, it would be that visually signposting the help section would improve the overall usability.

Gus Mallett Senior Writer, Tech.co

Why is Toast a good hospitality POS?

• Dedicated onboarding support makes it quick and easy to switch to the platform from your existing provider, minimizing potential downtime.
• Rugged, durable hardware is well-suited to the environmental stresses of the kitchen.
• Advanced inventory management tools mean you can keep operations running smoothly.

What could Toast improve?

• Vendor locks customers into two-year contracts with high cancelation fees, which can be stifling for smaller businesses.
• Toast is built exclusively on Android architecture. iOS natives might find this off-putting.
• Third-party integrations, including delivery options, can be expensive.

Toast gave me real-time table management updates straight from the POS. Source: Tech.co testing

Learn more about the system’s features and limitations in our Toast POS review.

How much does Toast cost?

• Starter Kit — $0 per month (with transaction fees)
• Point of Sale — $69 per month
• Build Your Own — Custom pricing

Is Square a Good Hospitality POS?

• Starting price: Free (with transaction fees)

Square is the best POS solution for small and growing restaurants, due to the fact that you can get started for free, it is easy to use, and it includes robust inventory and analytics tools.

Square POS

In Short

• Pros

  • Free to get started
  • Serves businesses of all sizes and in all sectors
  • Strong analytics, inventory, and third-party integrations

• Cons

  • Some necessary features for mid-sized businesses cost more
  • 3.5% + 15¢ charge for keyed-in transactions on free plan
  • Support options vary by plan

Pricing

• Square Free plan at $0/month
• Square Plus plan at $49/month
• Square Premium at $149/month

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My Experience With Square

I recently put Square through a series of tests to evaluate its performance as a hospitality-focused POS system. Quite simply, it was an absolute pleasure.

Square is so easy to use, with a responsive touchscreen, a sleek interface, and logical site-mapping that means everything is where you would expect.

Aside from a few minor drawbacks, such as the inability to open item cards for individual items, it’s by far the best POS system that I’ve ever used.

Gus Mallett Senior Writer, Tech.co

Why is Square a good hospitality POS?

• Cost predictability of free plan will appeal to microbusinesses with low turnover, or businesses that plan to scale.
• Vertical-specific hardware setups, such as the countertop Square Stand, which includes built-in inventory tracking, barcode scanning, and employee management.
• Sleek, portable, and responsive hardware keeps service running smoothly.

What could Square improve?

• Restaurants with high table turnover will struggle with the absence of item-level seat routing.
• Adding multiple items or variations to an order is quite time-consuming.
• High transaction fees mean that Square isn’t a viable option for larger businesses.

The Square POS uses clearly marked fields and a drag-and-drop editor to help guide users through item creation. Source: Tech.co testing

Learn more about the popular POS in our Square POS review.

How much does Square cost?

• Square Free — $0 per month (with transaction fees)
• Square Plus — $49 per month, per location
• Square Premium — $149 per month, per location

Is Clover a Good Hospitality POS?

• Price from: $14.95 per month (virtual terminal)

According to our research, Clover POS is the best POS system for quick-service restaurants. During the testing process, our researchers noted how intuitive and straightforward the platform was, compared with other POS providers.

Clover POS

In Short

• Pros

  • Solid range of hardware options
  • 90-day free trial (software-only)
  • Low transaction fees

   

• Cons

  • Need pre-existing website, unlike, for example, Shopify
  • Additional features cost extra and can become expensive
  • No inter-store transactions

Pricing

• Cheapest Retail plan: $16/month
• Transaction rates from 2.3% + 10¢ (Standard and Advanced)

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My experience with Clover

Clover’s interface is perfectly pleasant with a large, bright screen, clear buttons, and easy fixes to any problems I faced in testing. It’s also quick, and never found myself waiting on it to load or process something.

The area I struggled most with was pre-testing, adding products via the interface, but most restaurants should be doing this on their Clover POS account via a laptop.

Gus Mallett Senior Writer, Tech.co

Why is Clover a good hospitality POS?

• Extensive help and support options, including email, phone, live chat, knowledge base, image and video tutorials, and onboarding support.
• Highly responsive and intuitive hardware makes it easy to navigate the backend.
• Excellent table management features keep things ticking over during peak periods.

What could Clover improve?

• Some of the backend navigation isn’t very logical, which could potentially introduce bottlenecks to your service.
• Smaller businesses will likely be deterred by the large upfront hardware investment.
• Open third-party app marketplace can lead to disjointed performance.

The Clover Customers page offers options to customize data. Source: Tech.co testing

Learn more in our Clover POS review.

How much does Clover POS cost?

Quick-service restaurant:

• Starter — $135 per month for 36 months, or $849 + $89.95 per month
• Standard — $185 per month for 36 months, or $1,899 + $89.95 per month
• Advanced — $245 per month for 36 months, or $2,648 + $109.90 per month

Full-service restaurant:

• Starter — $179 per month for 36 months, or $1,799 + $89.95 per month
• Standard — $239 per month for 36 months, or $2,548 + $109.90 per month
• Advanced — $354 per month for 36 months, or $4,447 + $129.85 per month

What Are the Best Alternatives to Square, Toast, and Clover?

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		Price The typical lowest starting price. The lowest price available for your business will depend on your needs	Free plan	Free trial	Best for Tech.co's verdict to help you identify the most suitable choice for your small business	Additional costs Any additional costs you'll need to pay to get started	Lowest transaction fee The lowest possible fee that will be incurred with each transaction	Highest transaction fee The highest possible fee that will be incurred with each transaction	User limit	24/7 support	Get started
BEST OVERALL
Square	Shopify POS	Toast	Clover	SpotOn	SumUp
From $0/month	From $0/month	$0/month	From $16/month for 36 months (depending on plan)	$0/month	$0/month
check	check	check	close	check	check
30 days	3 days	14 days	90 days	No	Demo only
Scaling and growing your business	Managing in-store and online sales	Restaurants with complex operations	Professional hardware	Simplifying staff scheduling and communication	Speed, efficiency and data-driven sales insights
Marketing, customer loyalty, and employee management features cost extra	Shopify POS Pro is available for $89/location/month	Digital ordering, third party delivery, email marketing, and catering/events cost extra	Accounting integrations cost extra	Loyalty programs cost extra	Customer loyalty programs cost extra
2.5% + 15¢	2.4% + 10¢	2.49% + 15¢	2.3% +10¢	2.79% + $0.20	1.5% + 10¢
3.5% + 15¢	2.6% + 10¢	3.50% + 15¢	3.5% +10¢	3.79% + $0.20	3.25% + $0.15
Unlimited (each till requires a new license)	Single user/license across all plans	Unlimited	Unlimited (each till requires a new license)	Unlimited	Unlimited
check	check	check	check	check	check
Visit Square	Try Shopify	Visit Toast	Compare Prices	Compare Quotes	Try SumUp

How Do We Evaluate POS Systems?

After identifying the most relevant, popular POS platforms on the market, we put them through their paces with hands-on testing to better understand their strengths and weaknesses.

In total, we put 16 POS systems to the test, with a vigorous research and testing methodology. In our testing sessions, participants were asked to carry out tasks on POS software and describe their user journey, to help us understand what it’s like to use the systems first-hand. Here’s an overview of our main testing categories for POS systems:

• What software features are available? (30%) The capabilities provided by the POS product. Includes general features like ordering and payment functionality, as well as industry-specific tools like inventory-level stock tracking and kitchen display system (KDS) software.
• What hardware can you use? (15%) The quality of a POS system’s hardware selection. The presence of an own-brand terminal, as well as hardware accessories like KDS, receipt printers, and barcode scanners.
• How much does it cost? (10%) The cost associated with acquiring and using the POS system, such as the initial purchase cost, transaction fees, licensing fees, subscription plans, and any additional charges or ongoing costs.
• Is it easy to use? (20%) We test out the software to gauge how intuitive and easy to navigate it is. We also consider how easy the software is to navigate and whether any errors took place during testing.
• What support options are available? (15%) The assistance and resources available to users when they encounter issues or need guidance while using the POS system, including documentation, tutorials, or knowledge bases.
• What is the provider’s reputation? (10%) The aggregate score from customer review sites like Trustpilot and TrustRadius, to understand how POS providers are viewed by their own customer bases.

When it comes to calculating a product’s final score, not all testing areas are weighted evenly, as we know some aspects matter more to our readers than others. For example, we’ll prioritize certain industry-specific features for specific reviews, like an offline mode when reviewing POS systems for food trucks or KDS when reviewing restaurant POS systems.

At Tech.co, we have a number of full-time in-house researchers who re-run this testing process regularly to ensure our results remain up to date.

Learn more about our research.

Frequently Asked Questions

Written By

Conor Cawley

Conor is the Lead Writer for Tech.co. For the last eight years, he’s covered everything from tech news and product reviews to digital marketing trends and business tech innovations. He’s a feature, reviews, and news contributor for Android Police, and he has hosted tech-focused events for SXSW, Tech in Motion, and General Assembly, to name a few. He also cannot pronounce the word “colloquially” correctly.

You can email Conor at conor@tech.co.

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Reviewed By

Julia Watts Business Services Specialist

Julia Watts is a Business Services specialist with 6+ years experience writing about and for small businesses, as well as working with them directly to support their growth targets. Julia is an expert in breaking down complex subjects, from VoIP jargon to tax nuances, and has covered everything from Point of Sale features to Fleet Tracking laws. Prior to working as an Editor for Tech.co, Julia ran events and awards nights for start-up companies, produced research that helped to advise entrepreneurs, and managed social media activity. Her work has been featured in the International Business Times and cited by BBC News.

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