For restaurant owners · before you sign or renew
Are you sure you want Toast?
Read what restaurant owners have said in public, in their own words, and what Toast’s own merchant agreement says in writing. Then decide with clear eyes.
- 34 quotes from owners & operators
- 6 recurring themes
- Every quote linked to its source
What the contract says
Four terms worth reading before you sign. Quoted or summarized from Toast’s published agreement; your own order form may differ.
Rates can change with 30 days’ notice
Card processing rates and other non-software fees can change “at any time during the Term” with 30 days’ written notice.
Automatic 1-year renewals
After the initial term, it renews for successive one-year periods unless you give written notice at least 30 days before the term ends.
Early termination fee
Remaining software subscription fees for the rest of the term, or $150 per remaining month on Pay-as-you-go, plus any software-financing fee.
Toast’s software, apps and card processing run only on Toast-approved devices
What §4.7 says: the Services “may only be used on approved Toast Hardware,” and “Toast may alter which devices are approved as compatible with the Services in Toast’s discretion from time to time,” with reasonable notice in most cases.
What “Services” means (§17, Definitions): Toast’s websites, Software, the Toast Platform, Toast Apps, supported integrations with third parties, customer support, and the Payment Processing services described under Section 7 (Payment Processing) of this Agreement or any other current or future services offered by Toast.
“Software” is defined as Toast’s point-of-sale restaurant, hospitality and retail management system.
In plain words: the Toast POS software, the Toast apps and Toast’s card processing must be used on devices Toast approves, and Toast decides which devices those are. Under §4.10, each Toast device also needs an active software subscription, or Toast may deactivate the device or bill the software fee for it. The agreement doesn’t say whether Toast hardware can be used with another processor or another POS.
The quotes below are individual experiences, shared publicly by owners and operators on Reddit, X, review sites, and in news coverage. Each one links to where it was said.
Support & onboarding
The most common complaint we found, and it comes up even from owners who otherwise like the system.
“Great when it works, but if you need help you may as well light it on fire.”
“As a company, there's little to no support and you will need to learn how to get around the issues yourself, full stop.”
“Customer support is lacking. Phone support is painful, Follow up by assigned managers is one sided.”
“Their set up process is horrible. No support for the set up. Basically just have to find and then hire a guy to set it all up for you.”
“…we did have to commit for two years, though, which wasn't an issue - at the time, when support existed.”
“Their hardware is great, but it's not worth the issues with customer service. Trying to complete a change of ownership for over a month.”
“…we’ve had to figure out a lot of the things are on our own through trial and error as customer service hasn’t always been the best.”
“Once you’re signed up your account manager will ghost you and the support is useless.”
Processing fees & rate changes
Owners describing what they actually pay once every fee lands, and notices of increases mid-contract. (See §6.2 above.)
“…it comes out to like 3.8% in the end when my official rate is 2.35%+10 cents for one of my restaurants that uses toast.”
“When we signed on, it was fair and reasonable in cost. They just sent a notice that they were TRIPLING our fees. I can’t fathom how the same service for equipment that we paid for already is suddenly worth 3x’s the cost.”
“TOAST fees including credit card processing fees are very high.”
“They charge so much in merchant service fees…”
Add-ons & monthly charges
Low cost to get in, then a monthly charge for each module or connection. Several of these come from owners who like the product.
“Pricing. It's not expensive to get into, but they like to add charges ( monthly ) to everything.”
“During this time, they have added more modules and all of them cost money. Today, I was looking for tip pooling. It used to be included but now it is part of a module that costs $149 per month and includes Toast Payroll.”
“They also nickel and dime you for everything you want to connect.”
“We currently use Toast for our POS and it’s been really good however, it is VERY expensive. With 2 handhelds and a few integrations, we’re paying almost $800/ month.”
“We’re paying $179 just to be able to connect to quickbooks.”
“…the monthly fees, hidden fees, fees for every single thing add up and it becomes a very expensive monthly bill.”
Contract terms & switching
Multi-year terms, auto-renewal, an early termination fee, and a requirement to use Toast-approved hardware. (See §8.1, §8.4 and §4.7 above.)
“Locked into a 2 year contract that auto-renews in 1 year intervals if you don’t give them adequate cancellation notice…”
“I cant cancel without a big fee and their services are not worth the money”
“I would have Went a different route but it’s extremely hard to switch to a different POS”
“Want to shop around for processing rates? Can't do it.”
“I’m ripping all my toast pos terminals out. I have 5-6 terminals and one handheld.”
Outages & reliability
Problems during service and in the numbers, as owners describe them.
“Bugs. Lots of weird bugs and down time during dinner service!”
“NYC wine bar/restaurant in Hell’s Kitchen (@purpletongueny) is experiencing ongoing POS/payment failures with @ToastTab, significantly disrupting service and revenue.”
“Today the sales and A/R reports and cash did not tie out. I called and they said it was a known problem that they are getting other calls on and they are working on it.”
“This isn’t our first major issue, and every time it takes a while to get it fixed. If you have a restaurant that does decent volume, I would suggest getting a more dependable POS with a customer service that can actually help and not just provide lip service.”
“Either way it is costing me too much money and I need to move.”
The 2023 online-ordering fee
Context: In July 2023, Toast began adding a $0.99 fee to guests’ online orders of $10 or more. After pushback from restaurant owners, Toast reversed the fee on July 19, 2023. Its CEO wrote, “We made the wrong decision.” Letter filed with the SEC ↗
The quotes below were made during Toast’s 2023 fee rollout and reversal. The fee is no longer charged.
“These are my customers. Why are you charging my customers?”
“Today it's 99 cents. Tomorrow it could be $2 or $3. It's at their discretion. We have no control over it.”
“And now it appears to the customer like we're penalizing them for ordering online.”
“People are incredibly angry and feel incredibly betrayed”
“I feel like [Toast] showed us that we can’t trust them to be a business partner”
“For my restaurant that is upwards of $400 a month. Not to mention they will still be charging a monthly fee for the service itself.”
In fairness to Toast
Plenty of restaurants run well on Toast. A few things worth knowing:
- BBB A+. Toast, Inc. is listed as BBB-accredited with an A+ rating.
- Solid overall review scores. On Software Advice and GetApp, Toast averages 4.1 out of 5 across 554 reviews. Its lowest category scores are customer support (3.7) and value for money (3.8).
- It reversed the 2023 guest fee within days of rolling it out, and its CEO publicly said it was the wrong decision.
- You can exit on a rate increase. Under §6.2, if you don’t accept a processing-rate change and give written notice before it takes effect, you can terminate without the early termination fee (other than any software-financing fee).
- Many of the owners quoted here like parts of the product. Their complaints are specific, which is why they’re worth reading.
Free, no obligation
Know what you’re paying before you commit.
Send us a recent processing statement, or your Toast quote, and we’ll walk through it with you line by line in a 15-minute call: the rate, the monthly charges, the contract terms, and what to ask before you sign or renew. If what you have makes sense, we’ll tell you that too.
About these quotes. Quotes on this page are public statements made by third parties, reproduced verbatim (an ellipsis “…” marks a trim) and linked to their original sources. They reflect the speakers’ own experiences and opinions, not verified facts or the views of NCS Pays. 2023 fee quotes date from Toast’s July 2023 fee rollout, which Toast reversed. Contract terms are from Toast’s published U.S. Merchant Agreement (last updated Sept 10, 2025); individual agreements may differ.
Toast is a trademark of Toast, Inc. NCS Pays is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Toast, Inc.
© 2026 Keith Christy · NCS Pays · King of Prussia, PA · 267-673-4013