Square vs Toast vs Lightspeed: Which POS is Best for Food and Beverage Businesses?

Square is the best POS system for restaurants and other food and beverage businesses, earning the spot thanks to its low price, ease of use, and extensive hardware range. Its range of affordable ecommerce, marketing and scheduling add-ons also makes it easily scalable, making it a favorite for ambitious small businesses.

Toast is a close second, offering more advanced inventory management and reporting tools than Square, making it a better option for established full-service restaurants with complex operations.

Lightspeed Restaurant offers equally advanced tools to Toast, particularly in its built-in loyalty and marketing features. However, Lightspeed lags behind Square and Toast, owing to its limited hardware range and usability issues.

Square vs Toast vs Lightspeed: Which Is Best?

Square is the best overall POS system for food and beverage businesses, especially for small, growing businesses. However, Toast and Lightspeed are still great options for established businesses.

Here’s a quick comparison of Square, Toast and Lightspeed:

Square for Restaurants: Best for growing hospitality businesses

Square for Restaurants is the best overall POS system for hospitality businesses, particularly for small businesses that need a POS system they can scale up with. It offers a free POS software plan and hardware, and paid plans that start from just $49 per month.

Besides low costs, Square’s POS system comes with a functional set of features, such as tip sharing, an integrated kitchen display system (KDS) and live reporting. It also offers useful add-ons such as staff scheduling, an ecommerce website builder and email marketing software.

Where does Square fall short?

Square is missing a few advanced features, such as recipe costing and ingredient tracking, as well as cost versus profit management. These are offered by rivals Toast and Lightspeed Restaurant, and are vital for helping large restaurants with complex inventories reduce wastage.

Square also doesn’t have a training mode, unlike Lightspeed and Toast, which could slow down new employee onboarding. That said, it was the easiest-to-use POS system that I tested, so most users should pick it up quickly.

Toast: Best for established full-service restaurants

Toast is a close second to Square, with its slightly higher price and less user-friendly interface being the main factors dragging it down a notch. Still, it’s a great option for established restaurants, especially full-service ones, that need a POS system with advanced features.

With Toast, you can seamlessly connect your POS, online ordering, kitchen display system (KDS), and inventory. It also offers advanced inventory management tools, such as recipe ingredient tracking and costing, as well as cost versus profit analysis, all of which can help busy restaurants reduce wastage.

On top of this, Toast offers built-in reservation management tools (most competitors only offer integration with third-party apps), advanced menu settings (create different menus for different times of day), and add-ons such as loyalty program building (set spending and create a points system), email marketing and gift card creation. These are all features that can help full-service restaurants run more smoothly.

Where does Toast fall short?

Most of Toast’s best features, such as its AI-powered POS benchmarking tool, come as paid add-ons. They are available individually or as part of an add-on bundle that can quickly push your monthly spend to over $500. This means Toast isn’t the best value for money for small businesses looking for the most features for the lowest price.

Additionally, unlike Square and Lightspeed Restaurant, Toast isn’t compatible with iOS tablets, only those that run on Android. This makes it a poor choice for restaurants with an iPad-based POS system looking to switch providers but keep the same tablets.

Lightspeed Restaurant: Best for businesses looking to create a loyal customer base

Lightspeed Restaurant is best for established restaurants seeking integrated customer retention, offering built-in email/SMS marketing, automated loyalty campaigns, and table-side customer profile prompts during order entry.

Unlike rivals Square and Toast, these tools are built into the order processing pipeline, so staff are prompted to either assign an order to a customer in the directory or create a new customer profile before completing an order.

It also offers advanced management features, such as ingredient usage tracking, cost versus profit breakdowns for menu items, and automated resupply orders.

Where does Lightspeed Restaurant fall short?

During testing, I ran into a few glitches and found Lightspeed’s menu confusing, making it a challenging system for beginners to use. The platform also has a relatively steep learning curve, particularly for staff who are unfamiliar with POS systems. Navigating between different features and settings can take some time, and the layout isn’t always as intuitive as it could be.

Another drawback is that some features can feel unnecessarily complicated, meaning everyday tasks may need more steps than expected. This could slow down service during busy periods, especially when staff are still getting used to the system.

Square vs Toast vs Lightspeed: Which Is the Best Value for Money?

Winner: Square

Square offers better value for money than Toast and Lightspeed Restaurant, as it offers a free plan that’s more functional and comes with cheaper processing fees than Toast’s.

Square is also more transparent with its pricing overall. Toast and Lightspeed don’t publish their hardware costs, which makes comparison difficult.

Here’s a side-by-side look at each provider’s pricing:

Which POS system has the cheapest software plans?

Toast offers the lowest baseline software entry price at $0 to $69 per month, but Square ($0 to $149 per month) provides lower total software costs once Toast’s paid add-on bundles (up to $503 per month) are factored in.

On the surface, Toast and Square appear to be similarly priced, since Toast advertises its Point of Sale plan at $69 per month, the same price as Square’s Plus plan. However, this doesn’t account for Toast’s add-on bundles, which drag its monthly pricing up to $503 per month. Many of the features in these bundles, such as ecommerce and mobile ordering, are included at no extra cost on Square plans.

Which POS system has the lowest card processing fees?

Square provides the lowest processing fees among paid tiers at 2.4% + $0.15 (Premium) and 2.5% + $0.15 (Plus), while Lightspeed offers the lowest standard flat fee for entry tiers at 2.6% + $0.10 compared to Square Free (2.6% + $0.15).

Toast has the highest processing fees if you opt for its free pay-as-you-go plan, with fees creeping up to 3.69% + $0.15 if you choose add-ons. That’s because with this plan, you’re essentially paying for software and hardware over time with high transaction fees.

Which provider has the cheapest hardware?

Square provides the most affordable transparent hardware pricing, ranging from $59 for basic card readers to $899 for countertop registers, whereas Toast and Lightspeed require custom quotes.

On the other hand, Toast charges an additional $50 per month software fee for all its hardware, while Square and Lightspeed don’t – making Toast the most expensive option for hardware in the long term.

Square vs Toast vs Lightspeed: Which Has the Best Software Features?

Winner: Toast

Toast offers the best POS software features for managing a hospitality business, with Lightspeed Restaurant being a very close second. Square trails behind, but only a little in this category, mainly because it doesn’t offer the same advanced inventory management tools as Toast and Lightspeed.

Here’s a closer feature-by-feature comparison:

How do order and table management features compare?

Winner: It’s a tie

Square, Toast and Lightspeed are quite evenly matched when it comes to their order and table management features. However, each platform has its strong suit. Square excels at online and mobile ordering, while Toast and Lightspeed Restaurant offer great table management.

When it comes to in-person orders, all three platforms offer solutions for counter-service and table-service, offering customer displays and handheld POS devices. Here’s where each provider stands out:

• Square offers its own free ecommerce platform builder and free QR code ordering (something that’s only available as a paid add-on with Toast).
• Lightspeed allows wait staff to assign orders to specific seats, allowing for a seamless, tailored guest experience, well-suited to fine dining.
• Toast allows its table plan to be edited from both the frontend and backend of its POS system, while Square and Lightspeed only allow editing from the backend.

Post-order, all three platforms offer flexibility when it comes to how customers pay, allowing bills to be split by percentage, amount and menu item.

Square and Toast include native automatic tip-pooling and distribution features, whereas Lightspeed Restaurant lacks built-in tip sharing and requires external management.

Which POS system is best for inventory management?

Winner: Toast and Lightspeed tie

Toast and Lightspeed Restaurant offer the best inventory management, providing recipe costing, ingredient-level tracking, and cost-vs-profit analysis that Square’s native tools lack. This makes these two providers better suited to larger, more established businesses with a lot of moving parts that need to keep a close eye on where money is spent and minimize wastage.

This doesn’t mean that Square is bad for inventory management. Like Toast and Lightspeed, Square still offers core tools such as bulk CSV uploads, low-stock alerts, and automatic resupply ordering. These tools are more than enough for small businesses to keep track of stock and avoid running out of favorite menu items.

Which system offers native reservation management?

Winner: Toast

Toast is the only POS system among the three to include built-in, native reservation management with automated seating allocation based on party size. Square and Lightspeed don’t, but they allow businesses to integrate third-party reservation platforms into their POS systems.

With Toast’s reservation management tool, staff will be able to not only accept reservations but also to automatically assign seating based on guest count, and the host will be able to keep track of service progression. This allows for a more seamless reservation-to-service experience for guests that isn’t possible with Square and Lightspeed.

How do loyalty and marketing tools compare?

Winner: Lightspeed Restaurant

Lightspeed Restaurant offers the best marketing and loyalty tools for keeping customers engaged, although Square and Toast are close joint seconds. With Lightspeed, businesses will get access to email and SMS marketing tools, loyalty programs, automated marketing campaigns, gift card creation and customer tabs, so you have a history of all previous orders.

Toast and Square also offer these features, but what gives Lightspeed an edge over competitors in this department is that its customer retention tools were built into the sales process. When finalizing an order, I was prompted to either assign an order to a customer in the directory or create a new customer profile.

This encourages staff to gather data, such as phone numbers and emails, from customers for marketing purposes, and makes it easy for customers to be rewarded for their loyalty.

Reporting and analytics

Winner: Toast and Lightspeed tie

Toast and Lightspeed are tied at the top spot when it comes to reporting and analytics. They have a slight edge over Square since they provide cost versus profit analysis. This makes Toast and Lightspeed better suited to more established businesses interested in reducing wastage.

That said, all three providers have detailed reporting dashboards and let businesses access and filter reports on a variety of topics, including menu items, staff, discounts and refunds.

Square vs Toast vs Lightspeed: Which Offers the Best Hardware?

Winner: Square

Square has the best hardware range, offering a wide variety of card machines and accessories, as well as a terminal with a built-in customer display and card machine.

Toast is a close second, but it doesn’t offer quite as many card machine options or accessories as Square, and its terminals don’t have built-in card machines.

Meanwhile, Lightspeed scored lowest for hardware during testing, mainly because it offers a tablet-based POS system, meaning it doesn’t sell physical terminals or customer displays. It only offers tablet stands.

Square’s hardware range

Square’s hardware is white and grey, giving it a sleek, modern appearance similar to Apple products. A highlight is that its terminals come with built-in card readers, so restaurants or cafes that do counter-service don’t need to purchase separate card machines.

Learn how Square compares to the competition in our guide to the best POS system for cafes.

Here’s what you can get with Square:

• Card machines ($59-$399): a compact card machine (no screen or PIN pad) that connects to the main POS system via Bluetooth, and two handheld touchscreen devices (one with a built-in receipt printer) that run POS software.
• Countertop terminals/registers ($149-$899): Two types, a tablet-stand with built-in card reader, and a physical terminal with built-in customer display and card machine.
• KDS screens ($20-$30 per month): Three touchscreens ranging from 10 inches to 21.5 inches (wall-mounts also sold).
• Hardware bundles ($399-$1,899): Five hardware bundles featuring either tablet case, tablet stand or terminal with a combination of accessories (printers, cash drawers, barcode scanners, etc.).
• Accessories: Printers (seven models, including receipt and kitchen), cash drawers (three models), cases (for smartphones and tablets), kitchen scales (one model), cables, mounts and replacement parts.

Toast’s hardware range

Toast hardware is supplied in black by default, with optional white finishes available for terminals and handheld devices. It’s less eye-catching than Square’s, but all Toast terminals and card machines are heat-and spill-resistant, making them perfect for busy kitchens or bars.

While Toast’s hardware pricing is quote based, here’s what you can get:

• Card machines: A compact card reader (no screen or PIN pad) and a handheld touchscreen device that runs POS software. Only the handheld device is available to purchase individually; the compact reader comes in a kit with a terminal.
• Countertop terminals/registers: A 14-inch touchscreen terminal. One kit comes with a customer display, increasing the price, and a compact card reader is also included in each terminal kit.
• KDS screens: A 22-inch touchscreen with a wall mount.
• Hardware bundles (N/A): No hardware bundles, but all terminals come with Toast’s compact card machine and a security router.
• Accessories: Printers (receipts, kitchen, label, one model each), cash drawer (one model).

Lightspeed’s hardware range

Lightspeed is a tablet-based POS system, which means it doesn’t sell physical terminals or customer displays, only tablet stands. What Lightspeed does sell is a range of third-party card machines and accessories, but it doesn’t advertise the price of any of its hardware.

Here’s what you can get with Lightspeed:

• Card machines: Four types, three Verifone models with PIN pads and screens, and a compact contactless card reader. Lightspeed software can also be downloaded onto smartphones to turn them into handheld POS devices.
• Countertop terminals/registers: No physical terminals, but Lightspeed sells three types of tablet stands, two for iPads (one with a built-in card reader), and one for Androids (no built-in reader).
• KDS screens: One type, a 21.5-inch touchscreen that’s heat and spill-resistant.
• Hardware bundles: Not available.
• Accessories: Printers (four models, receipt, kitchen and label), cash drawer (one model), barcode scanner (one model), charging stations (if using smartphones as handheld devices) and cases (for tablet and smartphones).

Square vs Toast vs Lightspeed: Which Is Easiest To Use?

Winner: Square

Square was the easiest-to-use POS platform that I tested by a long shot, with Toast falling somewhere in the middle when it comes to usability, and Lightspeed Restaurant being one of the most difficult-to-use platforms.

Part of what made Square so easy to use was its clear signposting throughout most tasks, and its well-organized menu. I also liked the search bar, which meant I could quickly locate the features I wanted. The only real common POS issue I encountered was a glitch when creating a floor plan, since I found that saved changes didn’t appear in the backend.

Toast was also quite an easy platform to navigate, especially its backend, which made great use of a white background and spacing to distinguish functions. That said, I had trouble making amendments to orders and splitting a bill, mainly due to the use of the vague term “update” to describe a variety of possible amendments.

With Lightspeed Restaurant, the frontend, where orders are processed and customer tabs created, was very intuitive, but I struggled a lot with the backend. My main gripe was that the backend menu featured a lot of unlabelled icons that required hovering to interpret. This meant that I was never sure where features were located. I also encountered glitches when trying to bulk upload items.

Square vs Toast vs Lightspeed: What Are the Best Alternatives?

If neither Square, Toast, nor Lightspeed Restaurant is right for your food and beverage business, here are some alternative POS systems that might fit the bill:

You can find more detailed recommendations and reviews in our rankings of:

• The best restaurant POS systems
• The best POS systems for food trucks
• The best POS systems for bars
• The best iPad-based hospitality POS systems.

Methodology: How Did We Compare Square, Toast and Lightspeed?

The Expert Market team has tested and assessed 11 different EPOS systems to bring you this list, along with the other POS reviews you can find on our site. We’ve spent over 160 hours researching these EPOS platforms and over 20 hours testing them.

During that time, we used our learnings to evaluate how each EPOS system fared in six core areas that are important to businesses. These areas (explained in greater detail below) were broken down into around 12 subcategories each. Scores in each of these subcategories were subsequently amalgamated to arrive at an impartial, overall ranking for each provider.

Here’s what we looked at:

• Software (30%): The breadth of features included in the EPOS software and how valuable they are to the average business, including inventory management, marketing and customer engagement tools, and refund management.
• Usability (20%): User testing task completion scores, workflow speed for placing orders and splitting bills, interface navigation intuitiveness (via card sorting), and task emotion/satisfaction metrics.
• Hardware/equipment (15%): The variety of equipment available to purchase or rent, with special importance given to key items, such as physical terminals, customer displays and accessories.
• Help & support (15%): How effective and reachable the customer support teams are, with bonus points given to EPOS systems with help centres and training modes.
• Pricing (10%): The price of the system, how it compares to competitors and whether it’s good value for money.
• Reputation (10%): Aggregate user sentiment from verified review ecosystems (Reddit, Trustpilot, G2, Capterra), likelihood-to-recommend scores from hands-on testing, and brand search volume/market adoption.