Toast vs. Clover: Which POS is right for you?
Toast and Clover both offer cloud-based POS systems, but their approaches to supporting restaurants and retailers differ. Explore the key differences and see Toast in action with a live demo.
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3 reasons restaurants should choose Toast vs. Clover
Transparent pricing and support
Toast's pricing, support, and onboarding are transparent. You’ll always know exactly what you're paying and the services you’ll receive.
All-in-one-solution
Toast’s all-in-one platform combines powerful native capabilities with evolving innovation to help your business thrive.
Geared for growth
You won’t have to start a new POS search or rely on third-party platforms as your business grows.
Transparent pricing and support
Transparency
Toast clearly shows starting prices upfront, with consistent pricing across channels—no surprises. Clover, by contrast, does not list pricing on their website for Clover Hospitality.
Predictable costs
Toast pricing is predictable with no hidden fees. Clover products can be purchased through resellers, with prices varying depending on where you choose to purchase.
Consistent support for all plans
With Toast, all customers have phone support seven days a week, from 7 a.m. to 12 a.m. ET, and tailored onboarding options with a dedicated consultant. Official Clover phone support is only available Monday-Friday, and merchants who do not buy directly from Clover will have support hours that are set by and vary by seller.
A truly unified, native platform
Toast delivers a fully integrated restaurant platform with native first party tools like a payroll offering. Clover lacks a vertically integrated payroll solution, forcing operators to manage third-party integrations. Toast also offers social media posting directly in the POS through Toast Web via an integration with Meta, allowing customers to post to Instagram and Facebook directly from Toast. Clover relies on third-party social media management tools.
Advanced insights and data-driven AI
Toast continues to invest in innovation, delivering enhancements like Toast IQ AI assistant and Toast Benchmarking.
Toast IQ helps you not only find the opportunities hidden in your data, but also take action without leaving the chat. Clover requires third party tools to use an AI chat assistant and or access back office task automation outside of basic functionality like basic menu building.
Clover offers a peer insights report that is marketed as providing average sales totals and transaction totals for similar businesses in your geographical area, vs. Toast's Benchmarking, which provides robust, menu item-level insights and table turn times.
Built to scale with business growth
Toast is designed to grow alongside businesses, supporting evolving needs rather than being outgrown.
Flexible starting point, tailored to today
Restaurants and retailers can choose the products and suites that fit their current operations, without over-buying upfront.
Which restaurant types fit best with Toast vs. Clover?
You'll currently find Toast in over 171,000¹ locations of all sizes and styles of service. Here’s a closer look at Toast’s strengths across different service types.
Quick service restaurants
POS gear that keeps the line moving
With Toast's Self-Ordering Kiosks, guests can place and pay for orders themselves, helping to expedite lines and service. This helps empower restaurants to handle peak hours with fewer labor constraints.
Convenient self-ordering options
From QR code ordering with Toast Mobile Order & Pay® to kiosks, Toast offers multiple ways to drive orders without the need for additional staff.
Simple, commission-free online ordering
With Toast’s Online Ordering, Toast doesn’t charge per-order fees for restaurants or guests.
Clover Hospitality charges diners a $0.99 service fee per order. Toast centralizes online ordering by sending orders from third-party delivery apps directly to your POS, eliminating extra tablets. With Toast Delivery Services, restaurants can lock in low cost, flat-rate fees. Updates to menu items made in the POS automatically sync to your website, reducing manual updates and ensuring consistency across your business.
Integrated and actionable guest data
Orders, visits, and reservations come together in a single guest profile. Toast’s Guest CRM provides AI-powered insights to help you spot patterns in guest behavior, so you know when and how to engage.
Details from Guest Profiles can sync across Toast Tables, Guest CRM, POS terminals, handhelds, and Toast Marketing tools — including Loyalty and Email Marketing (available as added features with POS).
Personalized service at every touchpoint
Turn data into action — recognize guests the moment they arrive with Digital Chits (available through Toast Tables add-on), tailor service based on their dining history, and re-engage them with offers that keep them coming back.
Detailed digital chits, including notes, special occasions, and VIP tags, surface directly on POS terminals and handhelds, enabling staff to personalize interactions without manual workarounds.
One place for easy menu management
Whether you want to tailor menus to specific locations or keep them consistent, Toast lets you control it all from one dashboard.
Understand performance across locations
Toast allows you to view sales and product mix reports at the individual or group level so you can quickly spot high and low performing menu items and make the right adjustments.
Everything you need to maintain consistency
From prep station configurations to void and discount reasons, Toast lets you centralize operational standards so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel with every new location.
Retail business? Toast has you covered.
Grocery & Markets
Unify your store with a POS that can manage thousands of SKUs, support fresh departments, deli, and bakery items, and handle daily deliveries — with real-time inventory, scale support, and EBT without switching systems and guessing your margins.
Learn More
Convenience Stores
You make your store convenient for customers — Toast makes it convenient for you. Fast checkout, mobile inventory, purchasing, and receiving, and a reliable system, all in one place.
Learn More
Bottle Shops & Liquor Stores
Get real-time stock counts, manage distributor price updates, handle case-breaking across beer, wine, and spirits, and even run a tasting room — all in one place. So you always know what's in stock and what it's costing you.
Learn More
Butcher & Seafood
Track cuts, manage by-weight items, run loyalty, and sell prepared foods — all from one system that handles the complexity of what you sell without slowing down your counter.
Learn moreWhy choose Toast over Clover?
Built for the demands of food and retail businesses
Consistent pricing with no hidden fees
All-in-one platform, designed to power your entire operation
Deep reporting insights to help you simplify growth
See how Toast stands out
Get a demo personalized to your needs so you can make the right call for your restaurant.
How does Toast pricing compare to Clover?
Both Toast and Clover offer plans that cover a wide range of budgets. You can get started on Toast for as little as $0 per month in software costs, with options available for no or limited upfront hardware costs as well. Compare Toast pricing plans below to find the best fit for your restaurant.
The upfront costs for Toast are hardware and implementation*, which vary depending on your specific hardware packages and installation needs. Toast has flexible payment options available, including payment as a percentage of your sales** or a fixed monthly payment using a third-party financing partner. These solutions are not just for restaurants with great credit; they have no interest or fees, and the Easy Pay option has a 100% approval rate and no credit check***.
Within the Starter Kit, Toast also offers the Pay-as-You-Go plan**** that reduces your upfront hardware and installation costs through an all-in-one platform rate.
Get a personalized look at Toast
Schedule a free demo with a Toast restaurant expert to explore how it fits your restaurant.
Already use Toast at your restaurant? Log in to Toast.
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Disclaimer: Competitive information and data on this page were compiled as of January and February 2026 and are based on publicly available information. This information is subject to change or update without notice. Toast does not make any representations as to the completeness or accuracy of the information on this page.
¹ As of Q4 2025.
* Includes installation, shipping, handling, and taxes.
** Pricing applies to new customers and single locations only.
*** Toast Easy Pay is a 180-day lease with an option to purchase. Toast will hold back 1.75% of your sales, and any unpaid amount will be due at 180 days via ACH. Software is billed monthly.
**** Pay-as-you-Go pricing applies to new customers and single locations only. Plan is subject to a Platform Fee, which is applied to each transaction and begins when customers start transacting. Plan is subject to a 2-year agreement.
*****Based on Toast internal data from 1/1/24 to 10/31/24 among restaurants using Toast Payroll. Individual results will vary.