Toast POS Reviews

Pros

One stop shop plug and play solution! I was not interested in having to switch between systems and wanted easy reporting across the business.

Cons

Takes a while to learn all the functionality but worth it once learned. Although it’s not a problem with the software itself, either a better hard copy training manual or disk would be helpful.

Alternatives Considered

Aloha Cloud and Time Tracker

Reasons for Switching to Toast POS

More robust and offered more scale as we grow to keep everything on one platform.

Pros

It is so easy to make changes & push them to the terminals. Easy to manage from home rather than having to be onsite all the time. Credit card payments are received in a timely manner & customer service has always taken great care of us. Also a great point is that you can keep running when the internet goes down. It's not perfect, but it's the best that we've seen.

Cons

Servers complain that when you close the credit card orders that you have to enter your POS number again. I complain because I can't see more than 24 months of information and can only see it 6 months at a time. I wish that sales were assigned to the time frame they were purchased at and not at the time that the ticket was opened.

Pros

It was really easy to use once we got it set up and going. In concept it is a wonderful product, and it could be a great asset to any restaurant.

Cons

Customer service left something to be desired. At times we were on the phone with them for over 2 hours and we still wouldn't be up and running.

Pros

The hardware is nice. Having a handheld order taker is very nice. Also saving some paper with people signing the handheld device, but there are some issues as well. If there is an issue, it is nice to have a US based support center..

Cons

Well, You can not add an auto charge of 3% if a person is using a credit card unless you manually add it, the kitchen display has glitches, an order with 5 things will send a text alert for each item rather than the entire order when finished. I was also promised that the credit cards would not cost more, they would match or beet what I had in the past, and that is not ringing true to the tune of around 100 ish a month.... Took 4 months to get someone to finally review the credit card charges only for him to “shine me on” which is frustrating to a business owner. I have also had a few extremely good feature requests that I know other restaurants would use, like using the hand held to present the final bill rather than printing a receipt... But honestly there is no way to know if anyone has herd you, if anything will happen or if anyone cares... Also you can’t have pictures in the POS.. having pictures as well as having descriptions and a recipe would be great.. but no options...

Pros

Easy to train and use.Good reporting.Integrated timecard/payrollConnected to caller ID

Cons

They are charging OUR customers .99 per order for "online processing". We pay all their fees monthly and do not receive any benefit from this additional cost to OUR customers. This adds complaints from customers (justified), cuts into tips, and is a poor business practice that we can't opt out of. We didn't know they would/could do this to OUR customers. Need to shop around for new POS.

Pros

I signed on to Toast because they touted themselves as software specifically for restaurants so I thought it would be an easy transition. It was not. As a POS system the functionality is fine. Servers can ring in food and it prints where we tell it but good luck pulling even basic, typical reports any restaurant would need. A lot of the reports I would want are listed as possible but then they don't populate with actual numbers. Support has no clue. I can wait to talk to a support person for 20 minutes sometimes or even get a "we'll call you back" which comes 24 hours or more later which is such a bummer when I have a guest waiting for a check and I need support to do it. When I do get them on the line they know about as much as I do about how to work the software.

Cons

Toast talks big and presents a front like they know what they are doing but they don't seem to grasp even simple financial or restaurant concepts. Do your servers split tips with a bartender or other support staff? Too bad because you are going to need to create your own spreadsheet outside the system to do that and then tediously go day by day to get the tip info for payroll. It is significantly more expensive than what I was doing before and they forced me to buy all their hardware, like printers and tablets which is dumb. Any old tablet would work better than theirs because they have it locked so we can't play music through it or manage our Instagram account. The list of problem s is too long to even go into here. DO NOT GET SUCKERED INTO RUNNING PAYROLL THROUGH THEM. The payroll program is a complete and utter joke. They have no clue.

Pros

Software is user friendly. It has vast functionality and great reporting. I also use Toast Payroll which has been amazing.

Cons

Support is not efficient. It is time consuming to get problems resolved sometimes. Also the equipment did not hold up well- possibly due to the volume of our business.

Alternatives Considered

Aloha Cloud

Reasons for Choosing Toast POS

Constant issues. Toast combines all the different functions in one compared to the several others we had.

Reasons for Switching to Toast POS

Cost

Pros

sales and labor summaries and ease of menu edits

Cons

one half star for tech support...almost worthless compared to Aloha's professional and knowledgeable tech pros, absolutely awesome

Alternatives Considered

Aloha Cloud

Reasons for Choosing Toast POS

features for restaurant, ease of report access

Switched From

Aloha Cloud

Reasons for Switching to Toast POS

better overall score

Pros

We started with Toast in 2020 during the pandemic. Toast was the only thing that was good about that year! The integration of the online ordering into our daily or weekly menu updates are seamless. Customers had questions answered and orders filled without our help or guidance. I love the ease of use for service. We have had several new staff members and they pick up the system without too much training. It's easy to transfer tickets and items, cancel sales and give discounts, as well as run all the reports we need for success.

Cons

I wish there was an app where I could change things, look at reports, and update menus from my phone instead of going through a browser.

Alternatives Considered

Square Point of Sale

Reasons for Choosing Toast POS

The integration of online ordering in 2020. We never did takeout too much before the pandemic made it necessary.

Reasons for Switching to Toast POS

Other restaurants who were using it had attractive and easy to use systems.

Pros

We love how easy toast is to use in our restaurant. Its easy to navigate.

Cons

I least like that in the catering/events that a client cannot pay a deposit with a credit card.

Pros

I love that Toast supports their product. You can call and get someone on the line that will help you answer your questions. They also provide the hardware necessary to run their software. They are constantly updating their software to meet the needs of their users and are staying current with the technology. One option that is particularly useful to us is printing individual labels for each shake. In other words, we could have a bus of individuals come to our restaurant, and we need to print individual labels on each shake to identify what is in the shake so that it gets to the right person. In the past, we had to individually write on each cup.

Cons

The most difficult part to swallow is the fact that you have a monthly payment for the software--even if you are a seasonal business and only open for less than half the year. Toast will make some concessions for that, but it still seems costly since our other solution we used was free and pretty much did everything we needed short of printing individual labels for the shakes.

Alternatives Considered

Square for Retail

Reasons for Switching to Toast POS

We chose Toast over Square because of: 1. Dedicated support 2. Individual labels for each shake 3. Text notifications to customer when their food is done 4. More reliable KDS (Kitchen Display Systems) 5. Much larger and more functional KDS screens

Pros

Very feature rich with a robust online delivery platform that seamlessly integrates with the POS solution. Synchronization is almost immediate and we have seen a huge increase in online ordering already. The self service kiosk was easy to setup and has a great look and feel

Cons

Overwhelming and we have barely begun to turn on all the other features - customer loyalty, customer feedback, delivery and so on.

Alternatives Considered

Aloha Cloud, Revel Systems and Lightspeed Retail

Reasons for Choosing Toast POS

Looking for increased capabilities such as kds and better customer support

Switched From

Clover

Reasons for Switching to Toast POS

Lower TCO and features we were looking for. Also has a bigger footprint in our city

Pros

I love how robust it is! The search bar feature at the top makes it easy to find what you are looking for in a platform that is really encompassing of any of our retail and restaurant POS needs. I also love Quick Edit and that people on the floor can make quick changes without relying on management to go into the back office.

Cons

I wish there were a mobile app that would allow me to quickly check sales instead of having to login through a browser.

Alternatives Considered

Square Point of Sale

Reasons for Choosing Toast POS

Terrible customer service, nonfunctioning online ordering, terrible loyalty program.

Switched From

Lightspeed Restaurant

Reasons for Switching to Toast POS

I like that they are based in Boston, close to where we are, and that there is a local rep who covers our area. The personal touch is huge.

Pros

I think it is very user friendly and creates easy to analyze data points.

Cons

I feel there are some aspects that can be very useful but without taking the time to become an expert I am probably not using it the most effectively. And time is hard to come by.

Alternatives Considered

Aloha Cloud

Reasons for Choosing Toast POS

We felt it was a bertter system and at the time the cost incentives were great!

Reasons for Switching to Toast POS

The sales rep did an excellent job of compelling us to choose Toast

Pros

The POS portion is solid. It's generally easy to use. It's been up about 99.9% of the time which is not true of all software. The people we have dealt with there have been nice and responsive.

Cons

The back end of the software is poorly designed and written. The inventory module is laughably bad; looks like it was designed and written by a college kid in a couple hours. The reporting is also not well thought out. More than once we've found the only option for a pretty standard report is to download data into Excel and manipulate it ourselves. There is no accounting application and no interface with Quickbooks. Generally it looks like a solid group designed the POS and then those people left or started working on other things.

The service during the Covid 19 pandemic has been awful. It's nearly impossible to reach support and honestly makes me wonder if these guys are solvent. We had two management contacts that we would call in cases where we had support issues. Now both of those people have been (apparently) laid off. When we called support the last time, the recording warned that there were 33 people ahead of us in line. I've waited for an hour and eventually given up when there were only 12 ahead of me.

Pros

Toast is a cloud based POS system. It is easy to use, pretty intuitive. It doesn't come with the baggage of the traditional old school proprietary systems. I've worked in restaurants for 30 years, and have worked with all sorts of POS systems. This one is pretty straight forward.

Cons

It would be nice to have an ON screen list of 86 items, so you can ensure buttons are reactivated in a timely manner. Also, we recently had a charge back due to someone using someone elses credit card through the online ordering platform. This is where a guest literally orders and pays from their computer or mobile device, so WE at the store level have absolutely no interaction with the guest. I just simply do not understand how the charge back for that fraud comes out of OUR pocket, when it was the POS that approved and allowed the transaction. This seems highly unfair. Every dollar counts. This was a big order too like $200. Might not seem like much, but when you're fighting and scraping to maximize your profits, it hurts.

Pros

The front end functionality is pretty good, though not as good as it was sold. Aloha was better. There are features such as drag and drop table transfers that are pretty neat. Splitting checks is very easy.

Cons

I researched Toast very thoroughly and went through many hours of Q&A with the sales team. I feel duped.

I should have dug deeper and gotten more personal feedback from current users.

The platform has certain features that are very good, but not enough to outweigh all of the bad.

Hands down the worst part of it are their service and support after the sale. If I ever get through to support, they typically have to call me back with a solution...which never happens. My account "manager" responds to every communication with regurgitated boilerplate BS and has yet to solve any of my issues.

We have frequent issues with our card readers, and our warranty period is up in November. They won't replace the crap readers with the newer upgrades.

You don't get nearly the functionality and ease of use on the back end that you pay for. The reporting features are weak at best.

The inventory module is terrible. They claim you can use the tablets to do inventory...which is true, but it takes 4x longer to do it that way because you can't select the fields to enter the numbers and then when you do, often times the quantities change. My account "manager" replied to my complaints about this with "Our inventory module may not be as robust as you need, maybe you could add on one of our partner software companies."

Short story: Run from Toast and never look back. I regret the move every single day.

Pros

This software is incredibly user friendly. Anyone can learn how to use all the functions of Toast if they're willing to go through the plentiful help articles and/or watch the videos. Toast is easy to edit, easy to organize, and the app works much better than other mobile apps we've used for our coffee shop. The reporting options are very helpful, managing active employees, time entries, and menu organization is all very simple!

Cons

If I could change anything, it would be me to make absolutely everything 100% customizable. The only complaint I've ever had with Toast is there are a few things over the years we've wanted to tailor specifically for our business and its locations, but haven't had the ability via Toast. However, there are new features being added consistently, so I have no doubts that the Toast team is committed to making the software as best as it can possibly be.

Pros

Toast software is updated. Constantly, I find this refreshing and knowing that new features and securities are always top of mind from the engineers, we constantly submit future requests to help provide valuable input on the usefulness in the marketplace.

Cons

Often times, toast engineers, create features are pathways to solve issues, and Toast could do a better job at leading the operators know that these features exist, and the problem-solving is built-in

Alternatives Considered

Aloha Cloud, TouchBistro and SpotOn

Reasons for Choosing Toast POS

Functionality, reliability, and features

Reasons for Switching to Toast POS

Price features and trust

Pros

Great analytics but the on boarding and follow up customer service is embarrassing.

Cons

I've been trying to set up online ordering for weeks now. It's been counting a lot of problems because of the basic lack of customer support. They are responsive but spend a lot of time telling you how they understand where you're coming from without actually solving any problems. It got so ridiculous that I asked a basic question about how toast had approved a test transaction outside of the 5 mile delivery radius and what happens if a customer did this. The agent I was poking with actually told me that she didn't know what would happen, or even if those delivery services was functional right now. I asked her frank advice as to whether or not I could trust the system I if I turned it on and she said she didn't know. I was supposed to receive a follow up call from a manager this morning and have now been waiting by my phone for two hours past the appointed time. Also, I was actually charged a fee for setting up online ordering when I first got the system. Just embarrassing.

Pros

Relatively easy to use if set up properly. Easy to adjust menu on the fly. Offline CC processing. Payroll is responsive.

Cons

They do not give you the time of day unless they are trying to sell you something. Waste of money paying them to set it up. We can't even get good support using a free trial of their new service modules . They will just tell you how much this will increase your sales.

Pros

Toast is a simple to use and even easier to train POS platform for all restaurants. Setting up menus and editing are both quick and easy and can be done for multiple restaurants at the same time.

Cons

Some of the reports have a time constant that you can run them for, like 6 months, would prefer to be able to run full year sales reports or more if needed.

Pros

- User friendly
- Intuitive
- Fantastic customer support
- Self updating
- Good price
- Integrated with most scheduling platforms

Cons

There's not much I dislike about Toast. With that said, it can be a bit glitchy at times. It's also a relatively new company, so some of the functions haven't quite been worked out perfectly yet.

Alternatives Considered

Aloha EPOS and Revel Systems

Reasons for Switching to Toast POS

Revel Systems

Pros

The inventory feature on Toast has revolutionized the way we track our products. Being able to enter recipes, add invoices, track waste, etc. - and do it all in one place - is awesome. And the fact that it is all so easy and user friendly is just a bonus!

Cons

We receive a sales report from Toast each morning, which is great. It would be nice if in this email there were a few specific reports that were pushed to you, as opposed to having to click "full report" and pick and choose what you'd like to view on the website. For example: weekly sales summary, hourly sales, payroll detail, etc.

Pros

This POS system is much more advanced compared to others I have used prior. There are many options for inputting whichever items and functions are needed within your business. The overall appearance of this software is much nicer. I also enjoy how user access changes with position ranking, and verification can be implemented for certain features which helps to deter possible theft or misuse. The sales reports are also extremely thorough
. Overall, this is a great pos system for all occupancy levels.

Cons

There have a been a few issues with the connection dropping/printer not receiving orders despite our internet working fine. This has caused quite a few times of commotion due to our high volume occupancy levels which left our kitchen backed up for at least 30 minutes to an hour depending on how fast customer service could resolve the issue. Of course since it is an app it will be prone to crashes, but it is extremely inconvenient when it happens during a rush.