The real cost of Toast, Square, and Clover in 2026.

Every restaurant POS advertises a starting price. Toast says $0/month. Square says $0/month. Clover says $14.95/month. Those numbers are technically correct and practically useless.

The real cost of running a restaurant on these platforms is dramatically higher once you add the modules most restaurants actually need. We went through every vendor's published pricing — not sales quotes, just what's on their websites — and built out what a typical single-location, full-service restaurant actually pays.

What "typical" means

For this comparison, we're looking at a single-location restaurant that needs: a point of sale, a kitchen display, online ordering, reservations, staff scheduling, and basic loyalty. That's not an unusual requirement — that's table stakes for running a modern restaurant.

Toast

Toast's $0/month Starter Kit is real, but it comes with processing rates of 3.09% + 15¢ per transaction instead of the standard 2.49% + 15¢. On $50,000/month in card sales, that 0.6% difference costs you an extra $300/month — far more than the $69/month POS plan.

Most restaurants on Toast end up on the $69/month plan with add-ons:

That doesn't include hardware ($499-$1,034 per terminal), processing fees (2.49% + 15¢), or the separate reservation and scheduling tools you'll need from third-party vendors.

Adding reservations and scheduling

Toast doesn't include reservations. Most restaurants pair it with OpenTable or Resy.

OpenTable's Basic plan is $149/month plus $1.50 per cover for diners who book through OpenTable's network. A restaurant seating 200 covers per month through OpenTable pays $149 + $300 = $449/month just for reservations. Their Core plan is $299/month, and Pro is $499/month.

For scheduling, 7shifts is the most common pairing. Their Entrée plan is $34.99/month per location. The Works plan with labor compliance and unlimited employees is $76.99/month.

The real monthly total

That's $9,660 per year in software and hardware costs for a single location. And you're managing three separate logins, three separate billing relationships, and three separate support lines.

Square

Square for Restaurants is simpler to price but has significant gaps. The free plan covers basic POS. The Plus plan at $60/month adds course management and table management. But Square has no native KDS, no native reservations, and no native scheduling. You're back to third-party tools for all three.

What PlateFlow costs for the same setup

PlateFlow charges a 0.4% platform fee on card transactions, and Stripe's standard processing rates (2.9% + 30¢) apply separately. No hardware costs. No contract. No early termination fees.

The real problem isn't any single vendor

The real problem is that restaurants are forced to assemble a stack of disconnected tools because no single vendor includes everything. Each tool adds its own monthly fee, its own hardware, its own contract, and its own data silo.

PlateFlow is one system. One login. One bill. One operational record. That's the point.