# Toast POS alternatives for restaurants, and what leaving Toast involves

> Canonical: https://maple.inc/blog/toast-pos-alternatives

*By Maple Team · Published 2026-09-26*

What leaving Toast involves under its merchant agreement and help center, from the exit fee to data and hardware, plus Square, Clover, SpotOn and others.

If you leave Toast, start with Square for printed prices and no contract, Clover for devices and software in one printed monthly bundle, or SpotOn for a month-to-month plan priced per station. Before you choose, find the term in your Toast order: its merchant agreement charges the software fees left in the term if you leave early.

Toast does a lot well. Its pricing page includes 24/7 support in every software subscription, and its offline mode keeps orders, tickets and card payments going when the internet drops. Our [Toast review](https://maple.inc/blog/toast-pos-review) and [Toast pricing guide](https://maple.inc/blog/toast-pos-pricing) cover the system, and [Toast vs Square](https://maple.inc/blog/toast-vs-square) and [Toast vs Clover](https://maple.inc/blog/toast-vs-clover) compare it head to head. This page covers the exit, prices a mid-term switch and lays the other options side by side. Leaving Clover instead? See [Clover POS alternatives](https://maple.inc/blog/clover-pos-alternatives).

    POS Price and card rate, as printed Contract, as printed Start here if
  Square Square plans: Free $0/mo., Plus $49/mo., Premium $149/mo., per location; cards tapped, dipped or swiped 2.6%, 2.5% or 2.4% + 15¢ "No hidden fees or locked-in contracts. Cancel or switch anytime." You want every price in print and the right to leave in any month
  Clover (bought on Clover.com) Clover full-service bundles: $179, $239 or $354 a month for 36 months, devices included; cards swiped, dipped or tapped 2.3% + 10¢ The subscription cannot be canceled; you can pay it off at any time You want the devices and software in one printed monthly price
  SpotOn SpotOn plans: POS Essentials $55/station per month at 2.45% + $0.15; All-In $0/station per month at 2.79% + $0.20 Essentials month-to-month; All-In has a 2yr minimum term and processing minimums You want month-to-month terms, or no hardware bill up front
  Lightspeed Lightspeed plans: Starter 69 USD, Essential 189 USD, Premium 399 USD, with no billing term beside the figures; KDS $30/screen per month Not on the pricing page You want floor plans and pre-auth bar mode, and will confirm which plan includes each
  HungerRush HungerRush base package: $149/month, all-in, $0 down, with hardware leased; flat card rate not printed 36-month agreement with the price locked You run a pizza or delivery shop

Sources: Square's [restaurant pricing page](https://squareup.com/us/en/pricing?filter=restaurants); Clover's [full-service pricing](https://www.clover.com/pricing/restaurant) and [pricing FAQ](https://www.clover.com/pricing); [SpotOn's pricing page](https://www.spoton.com/pricing/); [Lightspeed's restaurant pricing](https://www.lightspeedhq.com/pos/restaurant/pricing/); [HungerRush pricing](https://www.hungerrush.com/pricing/). Shift4 renamed SkyTab as Shift4 Dine on May 12, 2026, per its [rename notice](https://releasenotes.shift4.com/announcements/skytab-is-becoming-shift4-dine); our [SkyTab fees guide](https://maple.inc/blog/skytab-pos-pricing) covers what Shift4 prints.

## What does leaving Toast involve?

These steps come from Toast's [merchant agreement](https://pos.toasttab.com/merchant-agreement) (last updated September 10, 2025), its [pricing FAQ](https://pos.toasttab.com/pricing) and its help center.

1. **Find your term.** The initial term is set in your order and starts on the contract start date or your go-live date, whichever comes first. After that it renews for one year at a time.
2. **Price the exit fee.** Leave before the term ends and you owe the software subscription fees left in the term, or $150 for each month left on a Pay-as-you-go subscription, plus any processing fee for software financing. Amounts you prepaid are not refunded.
3. **Or wait for the renewal date.** To stop the next one-year renewal, give written notice at least 30 days before the term ends. Toast's [subscription help](https://support.toasttab.com/en/article/Remove-a-Product-from-Your-Toast-Account) says closing the whole account is not self-service; contact Customer Care with the product names, your reason, the date you want and your latest invoice number.
4. **Watch for a price notice.** Toast can change card rates on 30 days' written notice. If it raises your card rates or core POS fee, you can end the agreement by written notice before the change takes effect, and the early termination fee does not apply.
5. **Save your data first.** Toast's [backup answer](https://support.toasttab.com/en/article/Can-I-download-a-back-up-of-all-of-my-Toast-data) says there is no single export. Download each report you need from Toast Web; reports reach back 48 months, six months at a time. Toast's [Guestbook guide](https://support.toasttab.com/en/article/Access-Your-Guest-Data-with-the-Guest-Report) emails a CSV link to your guest list that expires after 72 hours. For menu, order and payment files, Customer Care can set up [nightly data exports](https://support.toasttab.com/en/article/Automated-Nightly-Data-Export-1492723819691).
6. **Know the data deadline.** The agreement gives you 30 days after termination to ask for access to pull your data, after which Toast may delete it. The backup answer says US data stays accessible for 60 days. Plan on 30.
7. **Plan the hardware.** Hardware you bought is yours: the agreement moves title to you at shipment. The pricing FAQ says Toast works only on approved Toast hardware, so ask each new vendor which of your printers, cash drawers and routers it can reuse. If you leased on [Toast Easy Pay](https://pos.toasttab.com/pricing-payment-options), Toast collects any balance left at the end of the 180 days by ACH.

## Does leaving mid-term save money? A worked example

The figures are made up. Toast prints only a starting price of $69/month, so this example assumes an order with $120 a month in software fees, a 24-month term and a quoted rate of 2.49% + 15¢. The restaurant is in month 10, so 14 months are left. It takes $40,000 a month in tapped Visa, Mastercard and Discover cards across 1,000 payments at $40, and it weighs Square Plus with two Square Terminals.

    Line, months 11 to 24 Stay on Toast Switch to Square Plus now
  Toast software fees Stay: 14 × $120 = $1,680 Switch: $1,680 as the early termination fee
  New plan Stay plan: none Square Plus: 14 × $49 = $686
  Card fees for 14 months Assumed Toast quote, 2.49% + 15¢: 14 × $1,146 = $16,044 Square Plus, 2.5% + 15¢: 14 × $1,150 = $16,100
  New hardware Stay hardware: none Two Square Terminals at $299: $598
  Total Stay total: $17,724 Switch total: $19,064

The switch costs $1,340 more in this example. The early termination fee equals the software fees you would pay by staying, so the extra cost is the new plan, the new devices and a $4 a month gap in card fees. On a Pay-as-you-go plan the fee would be 14 × $150, or $2,100.

Two moments change the sum. At renewal there is no fee, so you pay only the new system. And if Toast gives notice of a card rate rise, you can leave before it starts without the fee, apart from any software financing fee. Square's prices come from its pricing page and [hardware page](https://squareup.com/us/en/hardware); put your own order and quoted rate into the same table.

## What should you ask a new POS vendor?

1. What is my card rate for tapped, typed-in and online cards, in writing, and can it change during the term?
2. How long is the term, and what do I owe if I leave in month 12?
3. Can you import my Toast menu export and Guestbook CSV, and who does the work?
4. Which of my Toast add-ons, such as payroll, scheduling or online ordering, does your plan cover, and what do the others cost?
5. Can you go live on the day my Toast term ends, so I do not pay for two systems?
6. Which devices, kitchen printers and screens will I need to buy?

Test the new system with your own menu before you sign. Our [guide to choosing a restaurant POS](https://maple.inc/blog/best-pos-system-for-restaurants) has a demo script, and [what a restaurant POS costs](https://maple.inc/blog/restaurant-pos-cost) prices three-year totals.

## What about the tools connected to Toast?

List every tool that sends orders into Toast, such as delivery apps, online ordering and phone ordering, and check each one works with the new POS. Toast's subscription help says DoorDash, Grubhub and Uber Eats connections are removed under My Integrations, and Toast Payroll through Customer Care. Maple Pro's [integrations page](https://maple.inc/integrations) lists Toast, Square, Clover, SpotOn, Lightspeed and SkyTab (now Shift4 Dine). HungerRush is not on it. Test a phone order on the new POS before you move your number.

*Published by Maple. This AI-assisted guide combines Toast's merchant agreement, pricing pages and help center with the pricing pages of Square, Clover, SpotOn, Lightspeed and HungerRush, plus an original worked example using made-up sales and an assumed Toast order and card rate. It does not include a quote from any vendor, report hands-on testing, or name a best system.*

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Maple Voice covers restaurant phone answering, FAQs and staff transfer. Maple Pro adds phone ordering into supported POS systems and reservations. Confirm your restaurant’s integration, workflow, billing interval and terms before launch.