Toast vs Square for Restaurants

Side-by-side from the Top 11 ranking of The 11 Best Restaurant POS Systems. Last verified June 10, 2026.

The short answer

Toast ranks higher on Top 11 (#1 vs #2) for Restaurant owners choosing POS + kitchen management. The most complete, purpose-built POS platform for nearly any restaurant type.

At a glance

ToastSquare for Restaurants
Top 11 rank#1 / The 11 Best Restaurant POS Systems#2 / The 11 Best Restaurant POS Systems
Score (out of 9.4)9.39.1
Best forAll-in-one restaurant platformFlexible and scalable POS
Pricing$$ ($69 to $300+/mo)$ ($0 to $60+/mo)
HQBoston, USASan Francisco, USA
Founded20112009

Toast

The most complete, purpose-built POS platform for nearly any restaurant type.

pos.toasttab.com

See full entry in The 11 Best Restaurant POS Systems

Square for Restaurants

A highly flexible, user-friendly POS with transparent pricing and a great free plan.

squareup.com/us/en/restaurants

See full entry in The 11 Best Restaurant POS Systems

Methodology and scoring weights live at /methodology. No vendor pays for placement — see about.