Clover vs Square vs Toast, the three way everyone actually shortlists
These are the three names on almost every first shortlist, and they price three different ways: Square publishes a flat rate, Toast quotes each restaurant privately, and Clover's rate belongs to whoever resold it. Comparing them is really comparing those three structures.
Judd Alsup and the Equip Payment Solutions team, who install and support restaurant POS systems nationwide and sell Shift4 Dine and Clover.Updated August 9, 2026. Sources and dates cited on every figure.
The short answer
- Square publishes its rates and binds you to nothing; the default for simple rooms.
- Toast hides its rate and leads the category on kitchen depth; right for complex rooms that negotiate.
- Clover is whatever your reseller wrote; the platform is fine, the quote is the product.
- The same test sorts all three your effective rate at your volume, in writing, before anything is signed.
The rest of this page is the case for each line, with sources.
Clover and Square and Toast, on the numbers
| System | Software | Card present rate | Contract | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clover | $89.95 to $129.85plus $849 to $4,447 hardware, reported | 2.3% + 10crestaurant plans, reported. The reseller sets your final rate | 36 months | Your rate depends entirely on who sold it to you, and identical hardware carries very different pricing from different sellers. Read who owns the equipment before signing. |
| Square | $0 / $49 / $149per location, published | 2.6% / 2.5% / 2.4%+ 15c, published | None | The free plan carries the highest rate. Above roughly $25,000 a month in card volume it costs more than the paid one. Kitchen display and kiosk are excluded from free. |
| Toast | $0 to $69per terminal, reported | 2.49% to 3.69%+ 15c, reported | 1 to 3 years | The rate climbs with add-ons. Online ordering and delivery move Starter Kit from 3.09% to 3.39%, and gift cards and loyalty take it to 3.69%. That higher rate then applies to every order, not just the online ones. Processing is mandatory and hardware is locked to Toast. |
Square, Genius, SpotOn, Shift4 and Lightspeed software figures are published by those vendors and were read on their own pages on 8 August 2026. Toast, Clover and TouchBistro figures are reported by Merchant Maverick, Expert Market, POSUSA, NerdWallet, business.com and KORONA POS, cross checked against at least two independent sources where possible and labelled where sources disagree. Software units differ: Square prices per location, Toast and Shift4 per terminal, Clover per device, SpotOn per station. Rates change without notice. General guidance, not legal, tax or accounting advice.
Where each one wins
Square: published flat rate, no contract, simple rooms
2.6% plus 15 cents free or 2.4% plus 15 cents paid, per location software, leave whenever. The structure is honest and the 15 cent fee is its tax on small tickets. Best default for simple counters and small rooms that value certainty.
Toast: unpublished rate, deep product, real commitment
Reported 2.49% to 3.69% plus 15 cents depending on tier and add-ons, reported terms of one to three years, and the strongest kitchen tooling of the three. Best fit for complex, high volume rooms whose volume earns a negotiated rate, demanded in writing.
Clover: reseller economics on decent hardware
The platform is fine and the counter hardware is good. The deal is whatever your reseller wrote: rates vary wholesale, 36 month terms and reseller locked hardware are commonly reported, and identical setups carry wildly different quotes. The quote, not the brand, is what you are evaluating.
The same test sorts all three
Ask each for your effective rate in writing at your volume and ticket size. Square's is on its website already. SpotOn aside, the other two structures exist precisely because most buyers never ask. The answers, or the refusals, are the comparison.
How to run a three way shortlist without three sales cycles
Sequence it so the published numbers do the early work. Price Square first, from its website, at your volume and ticket size: that takes twenty minutes and produces a real monthly figure. That figure is now the bar. Clover's reseller and Toast's rep both have to beat it in writing, in effective rate terms, which converts two open ended sales processes into two specific questions with numeric answers.
Cut early on structural dealbreakers rather than features. If you cannot accept a 36 month term, Clover's common structure and Toast's reported terms thin the list to one before any demo. If your service model needs deep coursing and kitchen choreography, Square thins itself. Most three way shortlists are really two way decisions wearing a third logo, and finding out which two in the first hour saves the week.
Whatever survives, demo it on your own menu with your fastest staff member ringing, and get every number that was spoken during the process restated in the written quote. The category's whole pathology, documented across this site, is the gap between the sales conversation and the January statement. The written quote is the only bridge you control.
Questions owners ask
Which of the three is best for a small restaurant?
Usually Square, on certainty and exit freedom, unless your ticket size is small enough that Clover's commonly reported 10 cent fixed fee, under an honest reseller quote, beats Square's 15 cents. Run your real numbers in the calculator and let the arithmetic pick.
Which is best for a busy full service restaurant?
Toast's tooling leads the three at genuine volume and complexity, and its rate is most negotiable exactly there. The condition stands: effective rate in writing before signing, because the reported spread between Toast tiers is the widest of the three.
Where does Clover actually win?
Behind a good reseller: interchange plus quoted honestly on owned hardware beats both published flat rates at most volumes. Where it loses is behind a bad one, and the hardware cannot tell you which you have. The quote can.
Is there a fourth option worth adding to this shortlist?
SpotOn publishes its full rate card and competes across the same middle market, and our own Shift4 Dine quotes interchange plus with its fees itemized on this site. Both exist on the shortlist for the same reason: numbers you can check beat numbers you cannot.
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