TouchBistro VS Toast: Which Is Better For Your Restaurant?

Toast and TouchBistro both make our list of the best restaurant POS systems for different reasons, so you might be wondering which is best for your business.

We’re going to break down the biggest similarities and differences between these two POS powerhouses to give you the best picture of the benefits and drawbacks of each system.

At A Glance

TouchBistro is best for small to mid-sized restaurants, starts at $69 a month, offers custom payment processing fees, is an iPad-based system, offers standard 24/7 customer support, and is supported in hundreds of countries around the world. Contracts are available on a month-to-month to yearly basis.

Toast is best for full-service and growing restaurants, starts at $0 upfront per month, charges payment processing fees of 2.49% – 3.39% + $0.15 per transaction, is based on proprietary restaurant-grade Android devices, offers standard 24/7 customer support, and is supported in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Ireland. Contracts are available for 2-3 year terms.

Where TouchBistro Wins

TouchBistro scores a 4.0/5.0 for pricing in our detailed TouchBistro Review.

It outshines Toast in:

• Affordability
• Accessibility

TouchBistro is a fantastic introductory POS system for most small to mid-sized restaurants. There is only a $69 fee per month to start processing payments using the TouchBistro POS system, you can source your POS hardware, and the most general restaurant features are included with no extra fees or integrations needed.

TouchBistro’s user interface and website bring one word to mind: Simplicity. It doesn’t get much easier for first-time POS users than TouchBistro’s system. No frills, no extraneous menus, and no long training process for new employees. TouchBistro gets the job done while saving you (and your employees) time, money, and energy.

It’s for these reasons that we gave TouchBistro a 4.6/5.0 for Ease Of Use.

Where TouchBistro Falls Short

One of the downfalls of the simplicity of TouchBistro is the lack of features you see from other top-tier restaurant POS systems.

It doesn’t compare to Toast in:

• Features
• Scalability
• Customer service

It will cost you more for features you might expect to be standard (reservations, customer loyalty, and online ordering to name a few) which can run up your monthly bill. There are fewer integrations available which is a blessing for easily-overwhelmed new business owners but a curse for quickly growing restaurants.

We still gave TouchBistro a 4.9/5.0 in the Features category because, technically, it does offer the main features you need as a business owner.

Speaking of growing restaurants, TouchBistro also falls short when it comes to scalability. While small restaurants will do just fine with TouchBistro, the cracks are going to begin to show as the needs of the business increase. Larger restaurants that need more terminals, more features, and more complicated modifiers/extras are going to find themselves constrained by the limits of TouchBistro’s offerings.

TouchBistro scores a 3.9/5.0 for Customer Service and Support because it can take a while for users to hear back from support specialists.

The support TouchBistro offers is not always the highest quality. The knowledgebase also leaves something to be desired by some users.

Where Toast Wins

As mentioned, Toast beats TouchBistro when it comes to standard features. We gave Toast a 5.0/5.0 for its Features offerings in our detailed Toast Review.

Toast is the clear winner with:

• Features
• Integrations
• Hardware

Toast is the restaurant POS system that provides a full ecosystem of products and features. Inventory tracking? xtraCHEF. Delivery drivers? Toast Delivery Services. Mobile ordering? Toast Mobile Order & Pay.

If there’s something you don’t want to use Toast for (like delivery or inventory management) there is an integration for you. It might end up being more expensive in the long run, but you aren’t stuck with Toast products if you don’t want to be.

Have you ever walked into a restaurant and noticed the large, maybe a little chunky, mobile POS systems the servers are using? They’re most likely proprietary Android-based Toast devices. Toast’s hardware options include hand-held units, customer-facing displays, self-serve kiosks, kitchen display systems, and other basics like receipt printers or cash drawers.

While Toast’s hardware is great, we scored them 3.9/5.0 because users aren’t allowed to source their hardware and accessories, and there is no reduced fee for users with multiple registers.

Where Toast Falls Short

But where does Toast need some work compared to TouchBistro?

Here’s where Toast loses:

• Affordability
• Contract terms

It’s hard to find a restaurant POS system more expensive for restaurants with complex needs than Toast. This is why we gave Toast a 2.6/5.0 in Pricing. Check out our full Toast pricing guide for more in-depth information.

There are some basic features included with any of the standard POS plans offered by Toast, but there are some features you would expect to find included that you’ll end up paying more for each month. Inventory management is a big one users complain about costing extra. Toast also made the mistake of adding a $0.99 fee to every online order without telling business owners. After an understandable outcry, Toast removed the customer fee but with the caveat that other fees may be coming soon to cover the cost of updates.

The majority of Toast customers’ complaints relate to the payment processing contracts. They are a minimum of two years in length, there isn’t much room for negotiation, and some users report misleading salespeople who leave them with contracts they eventually regret.

We highly recommend reading every bit of fine print before signing any contract, but that advice might be even more important for Toast customers.

TouchBistro Vs Toast: Pricing

TouchBistro is going to be cheaper than Toast (for most restaurants), even with all of the undisclosed custom pricing.

The big plus of TouchBistro’s pricing system is that it’s easy to understand. All of the extra fees are flat-rate and won’t add to your existing payment processing fees. You know exactly what you’ll be paying for the extra features.

Toast’s vast number of native and third-party add-ons makes it difficult for prospective users to find pricing information without speaking to a sales rep. The $0 upfront plan does make this less of an issue, but remember the long contract terms and price increases when considering Toast.

TouchBistro VS Toast: Hardware

If you only want to use an iOS-based system, you’ll love TouchBistro. If you only want to use an Android-based system, you’ll love Toast.

Toast beats out TouchBistro in almost all facets of POS hardware. Toast designs rugged, restaurant-ready Android devices that pay for themselves and last much longer than iPads.

TouchBistro VS Toast: Features

Toast wins again in the features category. If there’s something you need for your restaurant, Toast has it. Better than that, they’ve made a solution to your problem, and it can be seamlessly added to your existing POS setup.

TouchBistro, on the other hand, relies on paid third-party integrations for more in-depth features like detailed reporting, online orders, and custom tipping automation.

Which Is Best For My Business?

We can’t answer that question for you because no one knows your business like you do! But here are some ways we can point you to a generalized answer.

If you are a smaller restaurant, just opened your doors, or want a simple POS system with a smaller monthly price tag, TouchBistro could be the best option for you.

If you are a large restaurant, have more than one location, and rely heavily on online orders and reservations, Toast might be better at the end of the day.

If you need more help deciding between Toast and TouchBistro (or any other POS), check out our helpful article on how to choose a restaurant POS system.