Toast vs SpotOn for restaurants

Start with SpotOn if you want your card rate in print before a demo: POS Essentials is $55/station per month, month-to-month, at 2.45% + $0.15 for a card present, and you buy the hardware. Start with Toast if you want Toast's restaurant hardware from a $0 or $69 starting plan, and will sign a term for a rate Toast quotes.

The contracts matter as much as the prices. SpotOn's plan choice sets your term: its All-In Plan carries a 2-year minimum term and processing minimums, and POS Essentials is month-to-month. Toast's merchant agreement sets a term in your order, renews it each year, and charges the software fees left if you leave early. Prices below are for the United States.

Question	Toast	SpotOn	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	All-In Plan $0/station per month; POS Essentials $55/station per month; Build Your Own by quote	Either; the card rate decides more of the bill
Card tapped or dipped	Visa, Mastercard and Discover rate quoted	All-In 2.79% + $0.20; Essentials 2.45% + $0.15	SpotOn, if you want the rate before you apply
American Express in person	3.29% + 15¢	All-In 2.79% + $0.20; Essentials 3.19% + $0.15	SpotOn All-In, if many guests pay with Amex on checks above $12.50
Card typed in	Amex 3.89% + 15¢; other cards quoted	All-In 3.79% + $0.20; Essentials 3.45% + $0.15	SpotOn, if phone orders are a big share and you want that cost known
Hardware	No device prices printed; Easy Pay lease or 0% financing by application	Station 15 $750 (list $995); handheld $297 (list $495); included on All-In	SpotOn, if you want to price devices yourself
Term	Set in your order; renews for one-year periods unless either side gives 30 days' notice	All-In: 2-year minimum term; Essentials: month-to-month	SpotOn Essentials, if you might close or move within a year
Handheld	Toast Go 3: IP65, 5 ft drop rating, 24+ hour battery, 4G on applicable models	IP67, submersible 3 ft for 30 minutes, 5 ft drop rating, up to 18 hours, 4G	Either; take both to your farthest table in a demo

Toast's figures come from its pricing page, the footnotes on its starter kit page, its payment options page, its Toast Go 3 page and its merchant agreement. SpotOn's come from its restaurant pricing page, its handheld page and the legal pages linked below. For every fee on one system, see our Toast pricing guide and SpotOn pricing guide.

What would a month cost on each? A break-even rate

Every input below is made up. One restaurant runs one station and takes $50,000 a month in tapped or dipped card sales across 1,250 payments at $40 each, all Visa, Mastercard or Discover. Toast is on Point of Sale at its $69 starting price. The example leaves out hardware, implementation, tax, cash, add-ons and the All-In processing minimum, which SpotOn does not print.

Line	SpotOn All-In	SpotOn Essentials	Toast Point of Sale
Software, one station	All-In software: $0	Essentials software: $55.00	Toast plan: $69.00
Card fees on $50,000	All-In card fees: $1,395 + $250 = $1,645.00	Essentials card fees: $1,225 + $187.50 = $1,412.50	From your quote
Month	All-In month: $1,645.00	Essentials month: $1,467.50	Toast month: $69 plus card fees
Hardware	Included	Station 15: $750 once, plus implementation	From your quote

For Toast to match Essentials, Toast's card fees must stay under $1,398.50 ($1,467.50 less $69), about 2.80% of card sales counting every fee. At 15¢ per payment, the rate must be under about 2.42%. At 10¢ per payment, it must be under about 2.55%. So at 15¢, a Toast quote has to come in just under SpotOn's printed 2.45%, because Toast's plan costs $14 more.

All-In costs $177.50 a month more than Essentials here, or $4,260 over its 2-year minimum term, and in return you buy no hardware. Against All-In, a Toast quote at 15¢ breaks even at about 2.78%, before you add Toast's hardware. If 10% of these sales were American Express ($5,000 across 125 payments), that slice would cost $164.50 on All-In, $178.25 on Essentials and $183.25 at Toast's printed Amex rate. Our SpotOn review works out where Essentials overtakes All-In at a smaller volume.

What do you sign with Toast?

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

1. Term and renewal: your order sets the initial term. It then renews for one-year periods unless either side gives at least 30 days' written notice before the term ends.
2. 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.
3. 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, plus any processing fee for software financing. Toast's comparison page says Pay-as-you-Go carries a 2 year agreement and a platform fee on each transaction.
4. Toast leaving: Toast can end the agreement for any reason on 90 days' written notice.
5. Your data: ask within 30 days of termination to pull your data. After that, Toast may delete it.

What do you sign with SpotOn?

SpotOn's terms sit in three documents, and they do not all agree:

1. Merchant terms: SpotOn's merchant terms (last updated December 16, 2024) say that if you end the contract for any reason other than SpotOn's breach, you owe the monthly subscription fees for the unpaid months left in the term. Leave within two years and SpotOn may charge the gap between the hardware's list price and the discounted price you paid. Rented or leased hardware goes back within 15 business days, or SpotOn may charge a replacement fee. SpotOn can change any fee on 30 days' notice, and you may end the contract before the change takes effect.
2. Point-of-sale terms: the restaurant POS terms (effective December 16, 2019) call the POS and processing agreement month-to-month, and say you may cancel at any time by email or phone. Cancel within one year of installation and you pay the gap to full hardware list price. Keep SpotOn with a different card processor and you pay a $995 conversion fee, and your software license cost doubles.
3. Payments terms: the linked card processing agreement from TSYS and First National Bank of Omaha (2019) sets a three-year initial term that renews for one-year periods. You may end it on 30 days' notice with an account closure fee, which it does not price.

The pricing page adds the All-In 2-year minimum term. Ask which documents your order uses, and which hardware window applies: one year or two.

What would leaving in month 10 cost?

Take the same restaurant, closing after month 10. On Toast, with a made-up 24-month term at the $69 plan, the fee is 14 × $69, or $966. On Pay-as-you-go it is 14 × $150, or $2,100.

On SpotOn Essentials, the hardware gap on one Station 15 is $245 ($995 list less $750), and $198 for each handheld. Add any subscription months your order sets. On All-In, the software fee is $0, so the printed months-left rule gives no figure for leaving the 2-year term early. Get that amount, and the processing minimum, in writing before you sign.

Which restaurant features differ?

• Outages: Toast's pricing page says offline mode keeps orders, tickets, receipts and card payments going until the connection returns. SpotOn's restaurant POS page says its offline mode switches on by itself, keeps orders firing to the kitchen, and syncs offline payments once you reconnect.
• Your own devices: Toast runs only on hardware it approves. SpotOn's pricing FAQ says you cannot use your own hardware or tablets, and recommends a backup 4G router in most cases.
• Support: Toast includes 24/7 support in every software subscription. SpotOn's FAQ says 24/7/365 support and software updates cost nothing extra.

For the rest of the feature list, see the Toast review. To see what each keeps doing offline, see our guide to POS offline mode.

What should you ask before you choose?

1. Toast: what are my Visa, Mastercard and Discover rates, in person and typed in? Put them into the break-even sum above.
2. Toast: how long is the initial term in my order, and is it Pay-as-you-Go?
3. SpotOn: what is the All-In processing minimum, and what do I owe if I leave All-In in month 10?
4. SpotOn: which terms govern my order, and does a handheld count as a station for the $55 fee?
5. Both: what does implementation cost for my menu and floor plan?
6. Both: which add-ons are on my quote, and what is each monthly fee?

If you take phone orders, Maple Pro lists both Toast and SpotOn among the POS systems it writes phone orders into. See the Toast and SpotOn integration pages, and what a restaurant POS costs for three-year totals across more systems.

Published by Maple. This AI-assisted comparison combines Toast's and SpotOn's own US pricing, hardware, product and legal pages with an original break-even rate and exit example using made-up sales and an assumed term. It does not include a quote from Toast or SpotOn, and it does not claim anyone tested either system.