Toast vs Clover for restaurants

Start with Clover if you want your card rate in print before you apply and one fixed payment for hardware and software: Clover.com lists 2.3% + 10¢ for a tapped or dipped card. Start with Toast if you want Toast's restaurant hardware and 24/7 support in one quoted package, and you will sign a term agreement for a rate Toast quotes.

The two sell in different ways. Toast prints its plan prices and quotes most card rates and all device prices. Clover prints bundle prices and card rates on Clover.com, and banks and resellers sell Clover on their own terms. Prices below are for the United States.

Question	Toast	Clover (Clover.com prices)	Start here if
Lowest entry price	Starter Kit, starting at $0/month, for 1 location with up to 2 terminals	Quick-service Starter, $135/mo for 36 months, or $849 + $89.95/mo	Toast, if you want to start without a monthly plan fee
Main paid plan	Point of Sale, starting at $69/month, including the first terminal subscription	Full-service Starter, $179/mo for 36 months, or $1,799 + $89.95/mo	Clover, if you want device prices in print
Tapped or dipped card	Visa, Mastercard and Discover rate quoted; American Express 3.29% + 15¢	2.3% + 10¢ on all six restaurant bundles	Clover, if you want the rate before you apply
Card typed in	Visa, Mastercard and Discover rate quoted; American Express 3.89% + 15¢	Clover typed in: 3.5% + 10¢	Either; get Toast's figure in writing and compare
Contract	Term set in your order; renews for one-year periods unless either side gives 30 days' notice	Subscriptions are "non-cancelable"; banks and resellers set their own terms	Toast, if you want the right to leave when card rates rise
Handheld	Toast Go 3: IP65, 5 ft drop rating, 4G on some models	Flex: 8-hour battery, built-in receipt printer	Toast, if servers work patios or events beyond Wi-Fi

How do Toast and Clover price the system?

Toast's pricing page lists a Starter Kit starting at $0/month, Point of Sale starting at $69/month with "flat-rate processing," and Build Your Own at custom pricing. Its footnotes say the prices apply to new customers and single locations only, and include the first hardware terminal subscription, with extra charges for more devices. The Starter Kit's Pay-as-You-Go plan, per a footnote on Toast's comparison page, adds a platform fee to each transaction and carries a 2 year agreement.

Toast does not print device prices. It names hardware and implementation as the upfront costs. You can pay upfront, apply for 0% interest financing, or use Toast Easy Pay, a 180-day lease that takes 0.75% of daily card sales once you are live, or 1.75% before, with any balance collected by ACH at the end. Our Toast POS pricing guide covers each plan and fee.

Clover prints six restaurant bundles on its quick-service and full-service pricing pages, which say the prices are only available on Clover.com. Each bundle is a 36-month subscription or a hardware price plus a monthly fee. Clover's pricing FAQ says a subscription includes an Equipment Protection Program covering accidental damage, theft and loss. Hardware bought outright gets a one-year limited warranty. Our Clover POS pricing guide lists all six bundles.

What will card payments cost? A break-even rate

Toast's starter kit page prints only its American Express rates: 3.29% + 15¢ in person and 3.89% + 15¢ typed in, with custom pricing above $500k a year in card sales. For Visa, Mastercard and Discover, the useful sum is the rate Toast must beat. The figures below are made up: a counter-service café with 1,500 tapped or dipped card payments a month at $20 each ($30,000), all Visa, Mastercard or Discover, and one terminal.

Line	Input	Result
Clover quick-service Starter subscription	$135 plan, plus 2.3% of $30,000 ($690) and 10¢ on 1,500 payments ($150)	Clover month: $975
Toast Point of Sale at its starting price	$69 plan, plus an assumed 15¢ per payment ($225)	Toast fixed costs: $294
Rate Toast must beat	($975 − $294) ÷ $30,000	Break-even rate: 2.27% + 15¢
Same sum with an assumed 10¢ per payment	($975 − $69 − $150) ÷ $30,000	Break-even rate: 2.52% + 10¢

In this example, a Toast quote below that rate costs less than the Clover subscription. The cents part matters: at 1,500 payments, each 5¢ moves the month by $75. On $30,000, each 0.1 point moves it by $30. To run your own numbers, take Clover's monthly total, subtract Toast's plan fee and per-payment cents, then divide by your card sales.

The example leaves out Toast hardware beyond the first terminal, American Express, typed-in cards, cash, tax and add-ons. The Clover subscription includes a Mini with a built-in printer; its cash drawer is an add-on. For a café that might take Square instead, see Square vs Clover and Toast vs Square.

What do you sign with each?

Toast's merchant agreement (last updated September 10, 2025) sets the initial term in your order, then renews for one-year periods unless either side gives at least 30 days' written notice. Software fees stay fixed in the initial term. Toast can change card rates and other non-software fees with 30 days' written notice. If it raises your card rates, you can end the agreement before the change takes effect without the early termination fee. Otherwise the fee is the software fees left in the term, or $150 for each month left on Pay-as-you-go.

Clover's FAQ says subscriptions are "non-cancelable and ineligible for refunds," though you can pay one off or upgrade. At the end you buy or return the equipment, or the subscription carries on at the same monthly charge unless you give 30 days' notice. The FAQ also says contract terms and termination fees "can vary based on your service provider," names Citi, PNC and Wells Fargo among the banks that sell Clover, and says Clover devices bought or leased elsewhere "cannot be used with other payment processors."

Which restaurant features differ?

• Handhelds: the Toast Go 3 lists an IP65 rating, a 5 ft drop rating, 24+ hours of battery and 4G cellular on applicable models. Clover's Flex, listed in the full-service Standard and Advanced bundles, has an 8-hour battery and a built-in receipt printer.
• Tableside: on Clover's full-service page, tableside ordering and firing come only with Standard and Advanced. Tap and mobile-wallet payments are marked "Flex only" on Standard and "Flex and Station Duo only" on Advanced.
• Outages: Toast's pricing page says offline mode lets you keep placing orders, printing tickets and receipts, and taking cards until the connection returns.
• Support: Toast includes 24/7 support in every software subscription. Clover's pricing page says its team is available 24/7/365 for troubleshooting and support.
• Online ordering: every Clover restaurant bundle lists "no-fee online ordering." Clover's FAQ puts online card sales at the typed-in rate.

What should you ask before you choose?

1. Toast: what is my Visa, Mastercard and Discover rate, in person and typed in, in writing? Put it into the break-even sum above.
2. Toast: how long is the initial term in my order, is it Pay-as-you-Go, and what is the platform fee on each transaction?
3. Toast: what does each device beyond the first terminal cost, and is it bought, financed or on Easy Pay?
4. Clover: am I buying from Clover.com, a bank or a reseller? If not Clover.com, what are the rates, term and exit fee in writing?
5. Clover: subscription or purchase? Price the full 36 months of each.
6. Both: which features do you need on day one, such as handhelds, a kitchen screen or tableside ordering, and which plan or bundle includes them?

If you plan to take phone orders with AI, Maple Pro writes orders into both systems. See the Toast and Clover integration pages, and our guide to choosing a restaurant POS for other systems' printed prices.

Published by Maple. This AI-assisted comparison combines Toast's and Clover's own US pricing, hardware, FAQ and agreement pages with an original break-even calculation using made-up sales and an assumed per-payment fee. It does not include a quote from Toast, Clover or any bank, and it does not claim anyone tested either system.