Toast vs SkyTab (Shift4 Dine) for restaurants

Start with Toast if you want a plan price and contract terms in print before a demo: Point of Sale starts at $69/month, and its merchant agreement is public. Start with SkyTab, now Shift4 Dine, if you run table service and want handhelds with built-in 4G at a printed $29.99 per device per month. Both quote your main card rate.

Shift4 renamed SkyTab POS to Shift4 Dine on May 12, 2026, according to its rename notice, which says products, support and integrations stay the same. Quotes and statements may still say SkyTab. Shift4's help center prints device and add-on fees. For the plan price, card rate, hardware, term and exit fee, you need a Shift4 quote. Toast prints its starting plan prices, its American Express rates and its merchant agreement, and quotes the rest. Prices below are for the United States.

Question	Toast	SkyTab (Shift4 Dine)	Start here if
Plan price	Starter Kit starting at $0/month for 1 location and up to 2 terminals; Point of Sale starting at $69/month; Build Your Own by quote	No plan price in Shift4's help center	Toast, if you want a starting price before a sales call
Visa, Mastercard and Discover	Rate quoted	Rate quoted	Either; get both in writing and run the worked month below
American Express	3.29% + 15¢ in person, 3.89% + 15¢ typed in	No rate printed	Toast, if many guests pay with Amex and you want that cost known now
Handheld	Toast Go 3: IP65, 5 ft drop rating, 24+ hour battery, 4G on applicable models; no printed price	Handheld: $29.99 per device per month; IP54, 5-foot drop rating, all-day battery, 4G on every unit	Shift4 Dine, if you want the handheld's monthly cost in print
Printed add-ons	Add-on modules listed with no printed price	Charging station $19.99/month; Workforce Management $35 per month; gift cards US$25 per month per MID; Regulatory Assurance Fee $325 per device a year, up to $975	Shift4 Dine, if you want scheduling and gift card costs up front
Contract	Term set in your order; renews for one-year periods unless either side gives 30 days' notice	No term, renewal rule or exit fee in the help center	Toast, if you want the exit terms before you sign

Toast's figures come from its pricing page, the footnotes on its starter kit page, its Toast Go 3 page and its merchant agreement. Shift4's come from its Handheld FAQs, handheld specifications, charging station FAQs, Workforce Management FAQs, gift card program and Regulatory Assurance Fee articles. For every fee on one system, see our Toast pricing guide and SkyTab pricing guide.

What does each company print, and what needs a quote?

Toast's pricing footnotes say its plan prices apply to new customers and single locations only, and include the first hardware terminal subscription, with extra charges for more devices. Toast quotes hardware and implementation. Its payment options page adds Toast Easy Pay, a 180-day lease that takes 0.75% of daily card sales once you are live, or 1.75% before, and collects any balance by ACH at the end.

Shift4 prints a few costs beyond the add-ons in the table. Its billing options article adds a 0.05% Monthly Float Fee if card fees are billed once a month, and its FAQ describes the same charge as two basis points. Daily billing carries no extra fee. The onboarding wizard warns of a $250 rescheduling fee if your site is not ready on install day. Ask Shift4 to quote these in writing:

1. The plan price for each location and what it covers: workstations, kitchen screens, kiosk and online ordering.
2. Every card rate, including typed-in and American Express payments.
3. Whether hardware is bought, leased or part of the subscription.
4. The term, the renewal rule and what you owe if you close early.

What would a month cost on each? A worked example

Every input below is made up. A table-service restaurant takes $50,000 a month in card sales across 1,250 payments at $40 each, runs one counter terminal and three handhelds, and has three card devices. Neither company prints a Visa, Mastercard or Discover rate, so the example gives both the same assumed rate of 2.6% + 10¢. Replace it with your quotes. It leaves out tax, cash, kitchen screens, installation and add-ons.

Line	Toast Point of Sale	Shift4 Dine
Plan	Toast plan: $69.00, including the first terminal	From your quote
Three handhelds	From your quote	Shift4 handhelds: 3 × $29.99 = $89.97
Handheld charging station	Ask with the handheld quote	Shift4 charging station: $19.99
Regulatory Assurance Fee	Not on Toast's pricing page	Shift4 fee: 3 × $325 ÷ 12 = $81.25
Card fees at an assumed 2.6% + 10¢	Toast card fees: $1,300 + $125 = $1,425.00	Shift4 card fees: $1,300 + $125 = $1,425.00
Known so far	Toast month: $1,494.00 plus handhelds	Shift4 month: $1,616.21 plus the plan

At the same card rate, Shift4's printed lines come to $122.21 more than Toast's before either quote. So Shift4 Dine costs less only if its plan fee comes in more than $122.21 below what Toast charges each month for the three handhelds. If Toast prices the handhelds upfront, divide that price by the months you expect to keep them.

Card fees make up $1,425 of each known total, so the rate matters most. On $50,000, each 0.1 point is $50 a month, and each 5¢ per payment is $62.50. If 10% of these sales were American Express, Toast's printed 3.29% + 15¢ on $5,000 across 125 payments would cost $183.25. Ask Shift4 for its Amex figure and compare. On monthly billing, Shift4's float fee on $50,000 is $25 at 0.05%, or $10 at two basis points. Daily billing avoids it.

What do you sign, and what does leaving cost?

Toast's merchant agreement (last updated September 10, 2025) sets these rules:

1. Term: your order sets the initial term, which starts on the contract start date or your go-live date, whichever comes first.
2. Renewal: the agreement renews for one-year periods unless either side gives at least 30 days' written notice before the term ends.
3. Price changes: software fees stay fixed in the initial term. Card rates and other non-software fees can change on 30 days' written notice. If Toast raises your card rate or core POS fee, you can end the agreement before the change without the early termination fee.
4. Leaving early: you owe the software subscription fees left in the term, or $150 for each month left on a Pay-as-you-go subscription. Toast's comparison page says Pay-as-you-Go carries a 2 year agreement and a platform fee on each transaction.

Suppose the order sets a 24-month term at the $69 plan and the restaurant closes after month 10. The fee is 14 × $69, or $966. On Pay-as-you-go it is 14 × $150, or $2,100.

Shift4's help center prints no contract length, renewal rule or early termination fee. Its Regulatory Assurance Fee article says the terms for all merchants sit at shift4.com/legal, so read that page with your quote. Two exit costs are printed. Shift4 charges no fee to cancel gift card services. Moving stored card data to a new processor through its token export has an estimated cost of over $10,000.

How do the handhelds and outage plans compare?

• Toast Go 3: Toast picks the cellular carrier by the strongest signal where the device sits.
• Shift4 Dine handheld: every unit has Wi-Fi and cellular and uses Wi-Fi first. The FAQs say it works with an existing Shift4 Dine system, prints to network printers only, and does not yet show online order tickets from outside sources, which Shift4 says is planned. One charging station holds five.
• Toast offline: the pricing page says offline mode lets you keep placing orders, printing tickets and receipts, and taking cards until the connection returns.
• Shift4 offline: its offline setup article says Offline Payments mode comes switched on, and you can set a limit for each offline payment.

For what each system keeps doing when the internet drops, see our guide to POS offline mode. For features, see the Toast review and SkyTab review.

What should you ask before you choose?

1. Toast: what are my Visa, Mastercard and Discover rates, what does each Toast Go 3 cost, and how long is my initial term?
2. Shift4: what is my plan fee, what does it include, and what is every card rate, Amex included?
3. Shift4: how long is the term, and what do I owe if I close in month 12?
4. Shift4: can I start on daily billing, and how many devices carry the Regulatory Assurance Fee?
5. Both: in the demo, unplug the router and take a card on a handheld.

If you take phone orders, Maple Pro lists both Toast and SkyTab (now Shift4 Dine) among the POS systems it writes phone orders into. See the Toast and SkyTab integration pages. If Square or Clover is also on your list, see Toast vs Square and Toast vs Clover.

Published by Maple. This AI-assisted comparison combines Toast's own US pricing, hardware and agreement pages with Shift4's rename notice and Shift4 Dine help-center articles, plus an original worked month using made-up sales, an assumed card rate and assumed device counts. It does not include a quote from Toast or Shift4, and it does not claim anyone tested either system.