Fourteen systems, compared by people who install them
Every comparison names a winner for each kind of restaurant, including when the winner is not something we sell. That is the only reason any of it is worth reading, and the method notes below the tiles explain exactly how to check our work.
Toast vs Square
The comparison everybody searches, with the cost math both companies leave out.
Clover vs Square vs Toast
The whole first shortlist: three systems, three completely different pricing structures.
Square vs Clover
A published rate against one only your reseller knows.
Clover vs Toast
Hardware ownership, reseller pricing and lock in.
Toast vs Lightspeed
The kitchen at service against the back office and the cellar.
Toast vs SpotOn
An unpublished rate against the most published card in the category.
Shift4 Dine vs Toast
Including the rooms where Toast is the better answer, named plainly.
Shift4 Dine vs Square
Where the fifteen cent fee decides it, and where it does not.
Toast alternatives
If you are already trying to leave, start here.
How these comparisons are built, so you can check them
Every comparison follows the same rules. The numbers table comes first, before any prose, with each figure labelled published or reported and the sources named at the bottom. Verdicts are symmetric: every page names where each system wins, including the pages where one of the systems is ours and the honest verdict costs us a sale. Where sources conflict, both figures are printed and the conflict is stated rather than quietly resolved. And the disclosure sits on every page: we install Shift4 Dine and Clover through Equip, which is exactly why the comparisons involving them deserve your hardest reading.
What these pages will not do is hand you a single winner, because there is not one. The same two systems produce opposite verdicts for a coffee shop and a steakhouse, which is why every comparison keeps pointing at the calculator and the room guides. The comparison narrows the shortlist; your volume, ticket size and service model make the pick, and the free statement review prices your current deal so the shortlist has something real to beat. And when a comparison here disagrees with one you read elsewhere, check whose figures carry sources and dates, whose table came before the prose, and who was willing to name the rooms where their own side loses. Those three checks settle most disagreements without anyone raising their voice.
Not sure which shortlist is yours?
Tell us what kind of restaurant you run and what is going wrong. We will tell you which two systems to look at, even if we sell neither.
Send your numbers
About a minute. It goes straight to the Equip team.
It reaches the Equip team. A person calls you back, and if we do not have a crew near you, the team routes it to whoever serves you best. We never ask for card or bank details on this site.