Toast vs TouchBistro for restaurants

Start with Toast if you want Toast's own restaurant hardware, cellular handhelds and an American Express rate you can read before a sales call. Start with TouchBistro if you want an iPad POS built around floor plans and tableside service, or already own supported iPads. Both start at $69/month, and neither prints a Visa, Mastercard or Discover rate.

With the plan fees level at $69, three other things set the cost: the card rate in each quote, the hardware you would use, and the contract. Toast renews for one year at a time. TouchBistro renews for a period as long as your first term. What you owe if you leave early also differs.

Question	Toast	TouchBistro	Start here if
Plans	Toast plans: Starter Kit from $0/month (1 location, up to 2 terminals), Point of Sale from $69/month, Build Your Own by quote	TouchBistro plans: Point of Sale from $69/month plus hardware, Essentials Bundle from $119/month with hardware, Custom by quote	Toast, if you want to start with no upfront hardware cost
Visa, Mastercard, Discover	Not printed; a custom rate built for your business	Not printed; a custom rate, described as cost plus for TouchBistro Payments	Either: get the rate in writing
American Express	Toast Amex: 3.29% + 15¢ card-present, 3.89% + 15¢ card-not-present	Not printed	Toast, if you want the Amex cost known up front
Hardware	Toast-approved devices only; 2-year warranty on Toast hardware	Runs on iPads; supported iPads you own may work; OEM warranty in most cases	TouchBistro, if you already own recent iPads
Kitchen screens	Toast KDS; price not printed	TouchBistro KDS by quote; screens bought from TouchBistro, installation fees apply	Either: price the screens on the quote
Online ordering	No commissions; flat-fee delivery; DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub integrations	No commissions; DoorDash Drive for a flat fee per order; no direct Uber Eats link	Toast, if you run several delivery apps
Support	24/7/365 by phone or web messaging, included	24/7 by phone and email, holidays included, no extra cost	Either
Renewal	One-year renewals; 30 days' notice to stop	Renews for the length of the first term; 30 days' notice to stop	Toast, if you want shorter renewals
Rate rises	Software fees fixed in the first term; you may leave without the exit fee if the card rate or core POS fee rises	Fees can change on 30 days' notice unless your quote says otherwise; object and you may leave at the end of the term	Toast, if you want a way out of a rate rise

Toast's figures come from its pricing page, the footnotes of its starter kit page, its Toast Go 3 page, its payments page, its online ordering page and its merchant agreement. TouchBistro's come from its pricing page, payment processing page, hardware page, KDS page, online ordering page and Merchant Terms of Use.

What would a month cost on each? A worked example

Every figure below is made up. One full-service restaurant takes $50,000 a month in card sales across 1,250 payments at $40 each. American Express is 10% of card sales: $5,000 across 125 payments. Neither company prints a Visa, Mastercard or Discover rate, so both sides use the same assumed 2.6% + 10¢. TouchBistro prints no Amex rate, so its Amex payments use that same assumed rate. Hardware, add-ons, cash and tax stay out.

Line	Toast Point of Sale	TouchBistro Point of Sale	TouchBistro Essentials
Plan	Toast plan: $69.00	TouchBistro POS plan: $69.00	Essentials plan: $119.00
Visa, Mastercard, Discover: $45,000 across 1,125 payments	Toast V/MC/D line: $1,282.50	TouchBistro POS V/MC/D line: $1,282.50	Essentials V/MC/D line: $1,282.50
American Express: $5,000 across 125 payments	Toast Amex at 3.29% + 15¢: $183.25	TouchBistro POS Amex, assumed: $142.50	Essentials Amex, assumed: $142.50
Month	Toast month: $1,534.75	TouchBistro POS month: $1,494.00	Essentials month: $1,544.00

With the same assumed rate on both sides, the gap comes from two places. On the $69 plans, Toast costs $40.75 more, all from its printed Amex rate. The TouchBistro Essentials Bundle costs $9.25 more than Toast, and includes hardware. Toast's $69 price includes the first hardware terminal subscription, with extra charges for more devices.

The card rate matters more than either gap. Each 0.1 point on the Visa, Mastercard and Discover rate moves this month by $45 on either system, or $540 a year. Put both written quotes into this table before you decide.

What do you owe if you leave early?

Toast's merchant agreement (last updated September 10, 2025) lets you end the agreement at any time. You then pay an early termination fee: the software subscription fees left in the term, or $150 for each month left on a Pay-as-you-go subscription.

TouchBistro's Merchant Terms of Use (effective March 31, 2026) say you may not end the agreement before the term ends. If you default, you owe the software license and hardware fees, and other amounts including payment processing fees, that would have been payable for the rest of the term. You also repay any incentive in full, and TouchBistro may remotely disable iPads you are paying for under its hardware payment plan.

Suppose each order sets a 24-month first term and the restaurant above leaves after month 10. On Toast Point of Sale, the fee is 14 × $69, or $966. On TouchBistro Essentials, the plan fees left are 14 × $119, or $1,666, plus processing fees that the terms do not say how to count. Ask TouchBistro for that method in writing.

Renewal differs too. If you stay past month 24, Toast renews for one year. TouchBistro renews for another 24 months. Either way, mark the date 30 days before the term ends.

What keeps working when the internet drops?

Toast's pricing page says offline mode lets you keep placing orders, printing tickets and receipts, and taking cards until the connection returns. Its guide to preparing for offline mode says background card processing is on by default, that you can set a limit per offline payment, and recommends a cellular backup.

TouchBistro's help article on what works when the internet goes down lists taking and closing orders, printing kitchen tickets, sending orders to the KDS and taking cash. Offline card payments work with TouchBistro Payments, and its terminal table marks them available on the Lane/3000 and Link/2500, and not on the PAX A800. Online orders, floor plan edits, gift cards and loyalty rewards wait for the connection.

What should you ask each company before you choose?

1. Your Visa, Mastercard and Discover rate in writing, for tapped and typed-in cards. Ask TouchBistro for its Amex rate too.
2. The length of the first term, and what you would owe if you left in month 12.
3. From TouchBistro: whether the hardware is financed, and how processing fees count in the Default Amount.
4. From Toast: the price of each device beyond the first terminal.
5. The monthly price of kitchen screens, online ordering and reservations on each quote.
6. Which terminal takes cards offline, and at the table.

If you take phone orders, Maple Pro lists Toast among the POS systems it sends orders into, and Maple's integrations list does not include TouchBistro. See the Toast integration page for what to test. For every Toast fee, read our Toast POS pricing guide and Toast review. If Square is also on your list, see Toast vs Square.

Published by Maple. This AI-assisted comparison combines Toast's and TouchBistro's own US pricing, product, help-center and agreement pages with an original worked example using made-up sales, an assumed card rate and an assumed term. It does not include a quote from either company, and it does not claim anyone tested either system.