The Toast online ordering solution aims to offer a “seamless” user experience through strategic features and software. Many customers as well as restaurants know it as a kind of gold standard in the industry—and plenty disagree with that statement. 

Of course, the true test of any restaurant technology company lies with its customer reviews. We’ve reviewed information about this leading software platform, to see whether it deserves to rank as the best POS system for restaurants. 

You’ll see how Toast stands up to the reign of customer expectations and the steady downpour of negative-bending comments on its new fee schedules.  While their dominant market presence may be a fact, their service also needs to set the standard. Read on to find out more. 

Here you’ll find a detailed breakdown of what goes into the Toast online ordering solution before we dive into real user reviews for the final word.

Key Takeaway: Toast leads the online ordering category, but falls short for customers and restaurants by prioritizing profit over experience and support. 

Overview of Toast Online Ordering

Toast—and solutions like Toast Go 2—is favored among restaurant owners because it is incredibly well-known. They also offer a range of fixed for common restaurant puzzles, such as how to process payments and handle off-premise orders. Does it mean they are the top company for getting into the food ordering online? Maybe not.

Some say that their new portable POS systems might be the best product they have purchased for their restaurant since it speeds up service times by 50%. That’s not to mention the effect increased efficiency has on growth and increased restaurant sales.

Interface Experience

Many reviewers of the Toast online ordering platform will emphasize the ease with which they can navigate the payment technology. In fact, these reviews will typically mention that Toast has a simple and satisfying interface that helps them start putting the tool to work right aware. 

Beyond the software, users of their paid terminals also say that the combination could approach being ideal, if it weren't for some drawbacks to fees and support described by more customer surveys and feedback. 

Restaurant Integration 

For the most part, Toast attempts to play nice with other restaurant systems as well as third-party services. But, as with any online ordering software system, there are positive and negative reviews about the ability of its time-saving cost reduction through automations and integrations. 

The truth is that such large systems, similar to Salesforce, are not as agile as they once were. With software stacked upon software, there are sure to be technical difficulties with producing the same results across different restaurant environments and concepts. 

Customer Feedback on Toast Online Ordering

While Toast is often celebrated for it’s ease-of-use, customers frequently cite various issues that inspire them to seek new alternatives as online ordering integrations. 

One of the first issues to appear while using Toast online ordering is the challenge to train and get up to snuff with its requirements. One user says “if you don’t set enough time to train, it will be challenging to understand.” 

While the tool may be simple and streamlined for analytics and reporting or managerial tasks, the need to effectively train staff presents issues for the user who just joined the team. Ultimately, beyond the ease of data intelligence, this means labor expenses rather than the labor savings possible through other tools. 

Beyond this, customers also notice the frequency of forced software updates that lead to system downtime and lost opportunities to impress customers with stitchless service. 

Overall, when you look at the full spectrum of experiences on Toast, just one word comes to mind: Mixed. This is increasingly true as Toast faces heat for levying fees against restaurants—as well as their customers. More on this in the next section. 

Toast Pricing: A Multitude of Fees

Toast does offer several different software plans for online ordering, and this is appreciated. However, the minimum plan, for Toast Now, starts at $75 per month—without considering additional fees and service charges. 

POS Hardware packages themselves begin at $750 for a single location with a single terminal, moving steeply upward when we’re talking about enterprise restaurants, or simply multi-location restaurants. Even if you merely needed another terminal, the costs would climb to punish your expense book to the degree of your success as a business. 

If you include online ordering, the Growth Plan begins at $165—again, before any fees, service changes, or hardware and equipment costs. This plan includes delivery service management. 

Finally, you might choose a custom plan— but there’s really no telling what you end up paying at the end of the month. Toast is frequently criticized for its reliance on fees for its business model, in which no new services are offered before charges begin to climb. 

Toast Adds Fees For Your Customers

When users report a negative experience, that’s one thing. But, when people who don’t even subscribe to Toast’s online ordering have something to say about the customer experience, there’s a problem. 

We see this with the additional fee that Toast leverages against customers for placing orders over $10. Since almost no order is less than $10, there is no way for customers to mitigate this fee, meaning a resentful experience for customers who didn’t expect to pay quite so much for the convenience. 

Restaurants themselves see none of these proceeds. In addition, they cannot opt out of the fee program to save their customer’s 99 cents on each order and save themselves the explanation. Of course, this fee doesn’t apply to every restaurant; Toast decides. 

Then, Toast comes with plenty of boasting about its integration with external apps, services, and ordering options. For the most part, as an industry giant, this appearance seems deserved, but negative reviews highlight issues with connections and the need for additional development as innovations appear daily. 

By far, the most consistent flavor of review for Toast online ordering is its lack of sufficient customer service. Unfortunately, customers are frequently forced to wait, and wait, and wait for assistance with downtime, fee explanations, and anything else they may need. 

Frequently Asked Questions About Toast Online Ordering

Learn from the most frequently asked questions about Toast online ordering by reviewing these quick and simple answers. You’ll see more about how Toast does business and brings online ordering to the restaurants it serves. 

Look to these responses if you have remaining questions about the legitimacy and trustworthiness of POS platforms like Toast. 

What is the order processing fee for Toast?

As of June 2023, Toast added a new 99-cent fee to all orders over $10 for customers themselves, not restaurant invoices. In addition to variable charges per transaction, Toast levees fees against your customer to collect funds that don’t obviously concern their business. 

Are Toast and DoorDash the same?

While Toast uses a partnership with DoorDash to facilitate their delivery service, this is an exclusive contract. While they are really not the same company, any delivery fulfilled by Toast will actually be a white-labelled DoorDash Drive order.

How many restaurants use Toast?

Toast works with over 85,000 restaurants in the US. This means that while Toast has a nearly global influence on the restaurant industry, their business practices betray that they are motivated by little more than mere profit, adding fees without offering new forms of sufficient customer support. 

If you’re searching for an alternative to Toast, demo Revolution Ordering to see how online ordering is handled with integrity and innovation.