A restaurant POS (point of sale) system is the connected technology that runs how your business takes orders, processes payments, and manages operations. It connects your front of house, kitchen, and back office into one platform, giving you real-time visibility over sales, inventory, staffing, and guest insights so you can handle peak volume without missing a beat.

Restaurant POS systems are purpose-built for high-velocity, complex environments, handling real-time kitchen routing, complex modifier logic, split checks, and rapid tip management under peak volume. While basic retail POS software focuses on simple scanning and checkout, connected restaurant platforms integrate online ordering, kitchen display systems, and inventory tracking to keep fast-moving shifts in lockstep.

Setup timing depends on your operation's size and complexity, but you won't have to tackle implementation alone. Toast provides onboarding support to help with menu migration, hardware configuration, and go-live guidance. Our intuitive interface gets staff shift-ready quickly, helping minimize operational downtime during transition.

Yes. Direct integrations with platforms like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub allow third-party orders to flow straight into your POS and kitchen display system without manual re-entry or extra tablets. You can also pair these with first-party Toast Online Ordering to drive direct sales without third-party commission fees* and protect your bottom line. ^{*Toast Online Ordering software and payment processing fees apply.}

The upfront costs for Toast are hardware and implementation****, which vary depending on your specific hardware packages and installation needs. We have flexible payment options available, including payment as a percentage of your sales⁴ or fixed monthly payment using our third-party financing partner. These solutions are not just for restaurants with great credit, they have no interest or fees, and our Easy Pay option has a 100% approval rate and no credit check. Within our Starter Kits, we also offer the Pay-as-you-Go plan that reduces your upfront hardware and installation costs through an all-in-one platform rate.

When selecting a restaurant POS system, here are the most important criteria to consider:

• Credit card payment processing

• Front-of-house management

• Menu and inventory management

• Analytics and sales reporting

• Scheduling and employee management

• Integrations

• Contactless ordering and QR code

• Online ordering and delivery services

• Email marketing and guest profile data

• Hardware options, whether Android or iPad

• Card reader for mobile handheld

• Table management and reservations

• Customer support

Toast hardware options span both front of house and back of house, to ensure the whole restaurant runs in sync. In front of house the most common Toast hardware options are the POS terminal, the Toast Go handheld device and the self ordering kiosk. Regardless of your specific restaurant operation Toast has the front of house hardware to run your business.

In back of house, hardware options like kitchen display systems receive orders directly from FOH, giving you an easy way to keep the kitchen running smoothly.

Toast software is designed to help every part of a restaurant’s business run more efficiently. Software for operations and sales includes point of sale, online ordering, email marketing, inventory and food cost, reservations and table management, and sales reporting.

Software for employee management includes payroll and scheduling, which is also centralized in the POS system.

Beyond restaurant POS systems, Toast also helps restaurant grown with Toast Capital. With Toast Capital, we finance loans for Toast customers so they can grown their business.