Toast POS vs Clover: Which Should Run Your Restaurant?

Toast Pricing, Explained

Toast lists three restaurant tiers on its pricing page (per pos.toasttab.com, page dated August 20, 2026): a $0/month Starter Kit for single locations with up to 2 terminals, Point of Sale at $69/month, and a custom-quoted Build Your Own tier that adds inventory, scheduling, marketing, and payroll modules. New restaurants can bundle POS + Toast Payroll for $69/month plus $9 per employee per month. The listed price covers your first hardware terminal subscription; every additional device costs extra.

Hardware, per the same NerdWallet review: the Countertop Starter Kit $1,203, the Handheld Starter Kit $1,113, a Toast Go 3 handheld $599, and a Toast Tap reader $149 — or $0 upfront if you accept the higher processing rate. A two-device setup (countertop kit plus one Go 3) is $1,802, which is the figure our Toast vs Square comparison uses; the three-device setup priced below adds a second Go 3 for $2,401. Same price list, different basket. Toast also offers 0% financing by application, which is worth comparing against other options in our equipment financing guide. Offline mode (orders, tickets, and card payments keep working without internet) and 24/7/365 Toast Care support are included in every subscription.

Clover Pricing, Explained

Clover retired the old “Counter Service / Table Service” plan names. Today Clover.com prices restaurants through the Restaurant Growth software plan — $89.95/month for the first device, $109.90 for two, $129.85 for three — wrapped in hardware bundles for full-service and quick-service dining. Processing bought direct from Clover.com is 2.3% + 10¢ in-person and 3.5% + 10¢ keyed-in, on every tier.

Full-Service Dining Bundles (Clover.com, Aug 24, 2026)

Quick-service bundles run cheaper: a Clover Mini setup is $849 upfront plus $89.95/month, and a Station Duo counter setup is $1,899 plus $89.95/month. Two details bite full-service operators: the Starter bundle's Station Solo cannot accept tap-to-pay or mobile wallets (Clover's own comparison table limits those to Flex and Station Duo), and tableside ordering and firing only arrives on the Standard bundle. Price the tier you will actually need in your startup cost plan, not the teaser tier.

Year-One Cost: A 40-Seat Full-Service Example

Assume a 40-seat neighborhood restaurant doing $75,000 a month in card sales ($900,000 a year) at a $45 average check, which works out to about 20,000 card transactions. It needs one countertop station and two handhelds so servers can fire courses tableside. Here is what year one costs on each system, buying hardware outright.

Note the basket: this is a three-device Toast setup at $2,401. Our Toast vs Square comparison models a smaller two-device restaurant, where the same NerdWallet price list gives $1,802 (countertop kit + one Go 3). The prices match across both pages; the number of devices does not.

Three honest caveats. First, the hardware is not identical: the Toast setup includes two handhelds, the Clover Standard bundle only one (a second Flex adds $749 upfront and roughly $19.95/month based on Clover's device pricing). Second, Toast's rate is reported, not published; your quote may land higher or lower. Third, if you buy Clover through a bank at 2.9% instead of 2.3%, that $2,072 advantage flips to a $3,300 deficit on the same volume. Processing rate, not software price, decides this comparison.

Run Your Own Numbers: 3-Year Cost Comparer

Plug in your projected card sales and average check. Rates are pre-filled with each vendor's published or reported 2026 numbers — edit them to match the actual quote in front of you. Processing dwarfs software cost at almost any volume, which is why a 0.19-point rate difference moves the total more than a $40/month software gap.

The Bank-Reseller Trap

Clover is owned by Fiserv, and Fiserv distributes it through thousands of banks, independent sales organizations, and even warehouse clubs. Each channel sets its own processing rate, monthly fees, and contract. Clover.com says it plainly at the top of every pricing page: “Prices shown are only available on Clover.com.” The same Station Duo your bank rep demos may come with a completely different rate sheet than the one Clover publishes.

This is where Clover deals go wrong. The hardware looks free, the software fee looks small, and the processing rate is buried in a merchant agreement written by the bank, not by Clover.

To be clear about what the Clover-specific risk actually is: it is not that a contract exists. Multi-year terms are normal in this industry. Toast runs two to three years with an early-termination fee of its own (NerdWallet, August 2026), and Clover.com's own subscription option runs 36 months. The difference is quote variability — because Clover is sold through thousands of independent channels, two restaurants on identical hardware can end up on completely different rates, fees, and terms, and neither one matches the page you read on Clover.com. Toast keeps its rate off the website, but it sells direct: one rate sheet, one party to negotiate with, and one set of terms to compare against the next quote.

Five questions to ask before you sign any Clover paperwork

1. 01What is my exact in-person rate and per-transaction fee, and does it match the 2.3% + 10¢ on Clover.com?
2. 02Am I buying the hardware, or leasing it? If leasing, what is the total of all payments versus the retail price?
3. 03What is the contract term, and what is the early-termination fee in dollars?
4. 04Which monthly fees are on the statement besides software: PCI, statement, gateway, batch, minimums?
5. 05Who do I call for support at 11pm on a Saturday: Clover, the bank, or a third-party ISO?

If the rep cannot answer all five in writing, buy from Clover.com directly or walk. Read promo terms with the same care: as of August 2026, Clover.com was running a $450 statement credit on Station, Mini, or Flex that required a 3-year contract of its own. Offers like that come and go — treat this as a snapshot and confirm what is actually on the table the day you sign.

Choose Toast If / Choose Clover If

If you are still pre-opening, the POS decision belongs in the same spreadsheet as your lease, build-out, and opening inventory. Our how to start a restaurant guide walks through where the POS sits in that timeline, and the budget template has a line for processing fees so they stop hiding inside “other expenses.”

Alternatives Worth a Look

Neither Toast nor Clover is the right answer for every room. Three others earn a demo:

Whatever you pick, re-check the vendor's pricing page the week you sign. Toast updated its page on August 20, 2026 and Clover runs hardware promotions on 90-day and year-end cycles, so the numbers on this page carry a date for a reason.