Our Verdict
For a UK restaurant that wants kitchen display, table management and online ordering in one system, Toast is a genuine contender: the restaurant-specialist features go deep, software starts around £80/month, and card payments run through Adyen at a rate Toast does not publish.
The catch is missing prices and recency. Toast publishes no card rate or hardware price, it advises against using your own hardware, and Toast’s UK terms only date from October 2023, so domestic evidence is still thin next to Lightspeed or Epos Now.
See Toast POS pricing →Everything below explains the trade-offs in full.
Toast POS at a Glance
Best for. UK restaurants, cafes and bars that need an integrated POS with kitchen display, table management and online ordering, and can fund the upfront hardware cost Toast quotes.
Not ideal for. Single-terminal SMEs that do not need table-management depth, businesses that need card rates and hardware prices published before they enquire, or anyone wanting a UK provider with a longer domestic track record.
Key facts. Software from £80/month; no published hardware price or card rate; settlement via Adyen N.V. (FCA-authorised) on a daily, weekly or monthly schedule; UK merchant terms since October 2023; restaurant specialist; Toast advises against using your own hardware.
The main limitation. Toast holds no direct UK FCA authorisation; payments run through Adyen. For most restaurants that is fine, but if you are compliance-aware it is worth understanding the chain before you sign.
- Hardware is the biggest cost decision: Toast publishes no hardware price or card rate, so ask for both in a quote.
- Payment processing runs via Adyen N.V. (FCA-authorised), not Toast directly, understand the chain before committing.
- Toast’s UK terms date from October 2023: feature depth is real but domestic case studies are limited compared to US evidence.
- Best suited to table-service restaurants, cafes, and bars needing integrated KDS, table management, and online ordering.
What Is Toast POS?
Toast is a restaurant-specialist POS platform: kitchen display, table management and online ordering built into one cloud system and sold with its own hardware. If you run table or quick service, that integration is the point.
Background. Founded in Boston in 2012, Toast is now one of the largest restaurant technology companies in the US. Its UK merchant terms took effect on 25 October 2023, which makes it a recent arrival next to Square, Lightspeed and Epos Now.
The UK product lives at pos.toasttab.com/uk and runs the same cloud POS as the US, adapted for UK currency, VAT and payment processing through Adyen N.V.
The features translate broadly from the US, but a large body of UK customer evidence does not translate yet. We’d treat any US review as directional context, not UK confirmation.
How it works. Toast sells its own hardware with the software, supports only equipment bought through it, and advises against using your own, so the hardware and software come as one integrated system.
Your cash flow depends on how Adyen pays out: Toast’s UK merchant agreement offers daily, weekly or monthly payouts, or payout triggers, from the options Toast makes available. Toast does not hold direct FCA authorisation as a payment institution; payments run under Adyen N.V.’s own authorisation.
When an online order comes in through Toast Online Ordering, it routes straight to your kitchen display with no re-entry. That is the integration that makes the system genuinely useful for table and quick service.
Toast POS Pricing and Costs
Toast pricing has three components: the monthly software plan, the hardware purchase, and per-transaction fees. We’d treat the hardware quote as the most important number in your comparison: the headline software plan price understates what you’ll actually spend before your first service.
| Cost component | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Starter plan | From £80/month | Cloud POS with real-time reporting, integrated payments, and hardware configuration and go-live support |
| Essentials plan | £150/month | Adds the kitchen display system and the all-in-one handheld as standard rather than paid add-ons |
| Enterprise / multi-location | Custom quote | Not published; priced per deployment by Toast’s sales team |
| Hardware per terminal | Not published | The first terminal subscription is included in the plan price; extra devices cost more |
| Transaction fee | Not published | The pricing page shows a per-transaction flat rate quoted with your package. |
| Plan prices from pos.toasttab.com/uk, read 7 October 2026; that page carries its own stamp of 9 February 2026. Toast lists no card rate and no hardware price. | ||
Toast publishes no card rate, so you cannot work out what it costs against Square’s 1.75% flat rate until you have a written quote. Ask for the in-person and online rates, and compare them with Square at your own monthly card volume.
Toast POS Features
Feature depth is the main reason to consider Toast. The restaurant-specific tools are native to the platform, not bolt-ons, and for table and quick service that is what separates it from a general-purpose till.
Table management. Floor plan configuration, covers tracking, course management and split bills, with tableside ordering on handheld Toast devices so staff need not walk back to a fixed terminal.
If you run a service where orders, modifications and split bills happen at every table, this is the part of the feature set that makes Toast genuinely competitive.
Kitchen display. Toast’s Kitchen Display System (KDS) is native, not a third-party integration. Orders route from the POS to kitchen screens in real time, with configurable routing by station: grill, prep, bar.
When a customer changes an order at the table, your staff log it on the handheld and it appears on the KDS before they reach the pass. That is the advantage over systems where staff are still calling changes through verbally.
Online ordering. Toast Online Ordering is a first-party direct channel: orders route to the kitchen display automatically with no commission on direct orders, and third-party delivery integrations sit alongside it.
The value of the direct channel is that you keep the full order value, and your regulars can order without third-party commission eating into your margins.
Hardware, Devices and Setup
Hardware is the cost to settle before the software plan. Toast publishes no hardware price, and it advises against using your own hardware.
Terminal options. Toast hardware covers fixed counter terminals, handheld units for tableside use, and kitchen display screens.
Because Toast supports only equipment bought through it, do not plan on mixing in cheaper third-party tablets or readers. We’d fold the whole hardware package into your total cost of ownership.
Toast supports only hardware bought through it and advises against using your own. Count the whole hardware package, not just the plan price, when you compare Toast with another provider.
Setup and onboarding. Once you sign up, going live follows a fixed sequence, and it is worth planning for rather than rushing:
- Hardware delivery and physical installation of terminals and KDS screens.
- Software configuration: account setup, floor plan, staff roles, and permissions.
- Menu build: input your full menu, modifiers, and pricing into the Toast back office.
- Onboarding call with the Toast team to walk through operations and reporting.
- Test run: run a dummy service to confirm KDS routing, payment processing, and reporting.
We’d allow at least a week for menu build and testing before going live. If you’re switching from an existing POS, add time for migrating your menu configuration, staff access rules, and reporting history.
Sales Channels and Integrations
Toast connects to online ordering channels, delivery platforms, and business software. It does not name the UK delivery platforms it supports anywhere on its own site, which matters more than it sounds if one platform drives a large share of your orders.
- Toast Online Ordering: First-party direct ordering channel; orders route to the POS and kitchen display without manual re-entry.
- Third-party delivery platforms: Integration routes platform orders directly into the POS, reducing missed or misdirected orders during service. Toast does not publish the UK platform list.
- Accounting software: Accounting integrations sit in Toast’s UK partner directory; where one fits your software, it replaces manual daily sales exports.
- API access: Available for custom integrations; native library covers standard UK hospitality use cases without custom development.
- Loyalty and gift cards: Native to the platform; no third-party loyalty provider required for standard programmes.
Reporting, Controls and Day-to-Day Use
Day to day, the payoff is having sales and labour in one place. You run the numbers from the same dashboard your staff take orders on, rather than exporting to reconcile later.
Reporting and analytics. Real-time dashboards on web and the Toast mobile app cover daily sales, item-level performance, labour cost and tip tracking. Menu reporting flags which items drive revenue and which are deadweight.
For restaurants running seasonal menus, that is useful data for your next cycle. Toast publishes a package comparison chart, so you can see where each report sits before you ever speak to sales.
Real-time reporting, weekly comparisons and menu analysis run across both published plans. The kitchen display system and the all-in-one handheld come as standard on Essentials at £150/month and as paid add-ons on Starter at £80/month.
Staff management. Toast includes shift scheduling, clock-in and clock-out, and labour reporting, with permissions configurable by role. When your manager reconciles costs at month-end, having labour cost sat next to sales in one dashboard genuinely saves time.
For operators juggling mixed full-time and part-time staff that is a real time-saver; the alternative is exporting labour data from a separate system and matching it by hand.
Payments, Payouts and Refunds
The one thing to pin down here is timing. Payments run through Adyen, pay out on the schedule you set, and disputes travel a two-layer chain, so know how that works before you have a live one.
Payment types. Toast takes card and contactless payments, with cash handling alongside cards. Toast does not state its American Express position on its UK pricing page, and we could not find it published anywhere else on its site.
Settlement and payout speed. Adyen pays settlements to your UK bank account on a daily, weekly or monthly schedule, or on payout triggers, picked from the options Toast offers, and your cash flow depends on it. Toast’s UK pages offer no same-day or instant payout option.
Toast publishes no UK cut-off time for a payout and no UK bank-holiday calendar. If a Monday-morning payout matters for rent or suppliers, set a daily schedule and leave yourself a day around bank holidays.
Toast’s UK merchant agreement leaves the payout schedule to you: daily, weekly or monthly, or on payout triggers, from the options Toast offers. It names no UK cut-off time and does not say how UK bank holidays are handled, so if rent or supplier payments fall on a Monday after one, leave yourself a day.
Refunds and chargebacks. Refunds process through the Toast back office, but disputes do not. When a customer disputes a charge after Friday evening service, your front-of-house manager is calling Toast support while the transaction sits with Adyen.
We’d understand the Adyen dispute flow before you have a live one to resolve. The two-layer structure, Toast software over Adyen payments, is not unusual for this type of POS, but the chain is longer than a direct acquirer.
Who Toast POS Is Best For
Best use cases. Toast fits UK restaurants, cafes and bars that need kitchen display, table management and online ordering in one integrated system. The feature depth matters most for table and quick service.
If you are opening a new restaurant with the budget for the upfront hardware cost, Toast is a credible option to put alongside Lightspeed and Epos Now on your shortlist.
When to look elsewhere. Three situations point to a different provider:
- Square for Restaurants: when pricing transparency and a lower entry cost matter more than full feature depth; the 1.75% flat rate is simpler to budget
- Lightspeed: when you want an established UK track record and documented multi-location support, with IC+ processing worth modelling at high volume
- Epos Now: when you want a UK-based support team and competitive plans for smaller and mid-size operations
Customer Support and User Reviews
The honest headline: UK review evidence is thin because Toast’s UK terms only date from October 2023, so treat the US signal as directional rather than a UK verdict.
Support channels. Toast offers phone, email and chat support with established US infrastructure behind it. UK-specific support volume and response times are not independently documented.
Cover runs round the clock. Toast lists 24/7 support on its UK pricing page, and its own FAQ says customer care is included in every software subscription, with access to real employees by phone, email and web 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
For a kitchen running Friday and Saturday evening services, that is the part that matters. The UK numbers are published: sales +44 20 3855 2460, customer care +44 20 4571 3302.
Review themes. US Trustpilot and G2 volumes are substantial. Positives cluster on feature depth, KDS integration quality and online ordering reliability; recurring negatives are support response times, hardware cost and contract complexity for enterprise accounts.
UK Trustpilot volume is limited at the time of this review, so we’d treat US customer evidence as directional, not definitive, for a UK buying decision in 2026.
Toast POS Alternatives
Toast vs Square for Restaurants
Square for Restaurants is the clearest alternative if you want transparent pricing and a lower entry cost. The 1.75% flat rate with no contract is straightforward to compare. The trade-off is less depth on kitchen display integration and table management.
If your operation doesn’t need the full Toast feature set, Square is the more defensible choice on cost and contract flexibility.
Toast vs Lightspeed Restaurant
Lightspeed has an established UK hospitality track record and offers IC+ processing rates, which can be cheaper than a blended percentage rate at high volume. The multi-location reporting is more mature in the UK market.
Toast has the more deeply integrated kitchen display, which is native to the platform. Run both numbers against your specific transaction volume before making a final decision.
Toast vs Epos Now
Epos Now is a UK-native provider with hospitality and retail plans and a UK-based support team. For operators who want to pick up the phone and speak to a UK team, Epos Now has the edge over Toast on that point.
Toast has more depth on restaurant-specific features. Epos Now is the better choice if domestic support responsiveness matters more than feature depth.
Final Verdict: Is Toast POS Worth It?
Toast POS is a credible option for UK restaurants that need kitchen display, table management, and online ordering in a single integrated platform. The feature depth is genuine and the US track record is long.
The two honest caveats are the unpublished hardware price and the short UK track record. Toast supports only hardware bought through it, and the UK customer evidence base is still small.
In practice, the decision comes down to whether the integrated KDS and online ordering justify the hardware package against a UK-native competitor.
For a new restaurant build-out with a reasonable budget, it may well do. For a cost-sensitive single-location, the gap between Toast and Square is harder to close.
The real cost question is total cost of ownership over 24 months: hardware, software, and processing combined. We’d run that calculation against Lightspeed and Epos Now before committing.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Toast POS cost in the UK?
Toast UK publishes two plan prices: Starter from £80/month and Essentials at £150/month, with multi-location deployments priced on a custom quote. Toast publishes no hardware price; the first terminal subscription is included in the plan price and later devices cost extra. Card processing is where the published trail stops. Toast’s pricing page shows only a per-transaction flat rate for card-present and card-not-present work, with no figure attached, so you need a written quote before you can compare it. Plan prices checked at pos.toasttab.com/uk on 12 October 2026.
Does Toast POS work in the UK?
Yes. Toast sells in the UK through Toasttab UK Limited, under merchant terms in force since 25 October 2023. The UK product is available at pos.toasttab.com/uk. Payment processing runs through Adyen N.V., which is FCA-authorised in the UK. UK review evidence is limited at this stage because Toast is a recent arrival.
Who processes Toast payments in the UK?
Toast UK payment processing is handled through Adyen N.V., which is authorised by the FCA through its UK branch (FCA reference 779800). Toast itself does not hold direct UK FCA authorisation as a payment institution. Adyen pays out to your UK bank account on a daily, weekly or monthly schedule, chosen from the options Toast offers.
How we reviewed Toast
What we assessed. We evaluated Toast on pricing, contract terms, features, and eligibility. These are the factors that matter most to UK small businesses considering this provider.
Data sources. We worked through Toast’s UK pricing and product pages in May 2026 and again on 7 October 2026, read its UK merchant agreement, traced the payment chain to Adyen, and checked the FCA register to confirm who is actually authorised: Adyen, not Toast. Where UK evidence is still thin, we say so.
Update cadence. We re-verify this page at least monthly, and whenever a provider changes pricing, eligibility, or terms. The verification date on the page reflects the most recent full review. Some links on this page are affiliate links, see our editorial policy.