Toast POS UK Review: Pricing and Contract
Toast POS in the UK starts at £80 a month for Starter and £150 for Essentials, with card payments built in through Toast. The catch is that the card rate, the hardware price and the contract length are all left off the public pages, and leaving early means paying the rest of the software term, so do not sign until all three are in writing.
Checked 1 November 2026 against Toast's UK pricing page and UK merchant agreement. Editorial review of published terms; we have not used Toast in a venue.
What is the Toast POS system?
Toast is a restaurant till system from Toast, Inc., sold in the UK through Toasttab UK Limited. It covers order taking, table and course management, a kitchen display and handheld ordering, with card payments processed inside the same platform. Toast supplies the hardware and recommends against bringing your own. For pubs, cafés and full-service restaurants it competes with Tevalis and Zonal.
Toast POS UK pricing
| Plan | Monthly fee | What Toast lists |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | Starting at £80/month | cloud POS, real-time reporting, integrated payments, hardware configuration, installation and go-live support. Pricing includes first hardware terminal subscription. Additional charges apply for subsequent devices. |
| Essentials | £150/month | everything in Starter plus a kitchen display system and the all-in-one handheld POS |
| Custom | Custom quote | Any number of devices, custom hardware |
| Card processing rate | Not published (the plan table says "Per transaction flat rate") | |
| Hardware and installation | Not published ("Upfront costs include hardware and implementation, which vary depending on your specific hardware package and installation needs") | |
Toast's page says it was last updated on 9 February 2026; we checked it on 1 November 2026.
Worked example: a £5,000 a month café
Because Toast does not publish its card rate, the honest worked example is about the parts you can price:
- Starter software alone: £80 ÷ £5,000 = 1.6% of card takings before a single card fee
- Each 0.1 percentage point on the unpublished card rate: £5,000 × 0.1% = £5.00/month
- A year of Starter: 12 × £80 = £960; a year of Essentials: 12 × £150 = £1,800
- For scale, card fees alone on a 1.69% pay-as-you-go reader: £5,000 × 1.69% = £84.50/month
At this size Toast's Starter fee is roughly the same as the entire card bill on a simple reader, before Toast's own card rate is added. That is a fair price if you need table plans, course firing and a kitchen screen. It is a poor one for a counter-service café that only needs to take payments, which should stay on a reader and a free till app.
Toast contract terms
The UK merchant agreement (last updated 10 September 2025) sets out how the contract runs. The length of the initial term is not published; it is set in your Order. After that it renews automatically for successive one-year periods, unless you give at least 30 days’ written notice before the end of the current term. Leaving before the term ends means an early termination fee equal to the remaining software subscription fees for the rest of the current term, plus any processing fee on software financing: on Starter, 12 × £80 = £960 for every year remaining.
Software subscription fees stay unchanged during the Initial Term. However, Toast can change other fees and processing rates on 30 days’ written notice. There is one useful exit. If you give written notice before a fee or rate change takes effect, the early termination fee does not apply. Diarise the renewal date the day you sign, because missing the 30-day window commits you to another year.
Toast payments and card machines
Payments run through Toast, with Adyen N.V. of Amsterdam named as the payment provider in the UK agreement, and every plan is sold with that integrated processing. Do not plan on keeping a separate merchant account for your card sales without Toast confirming it in writing. If you already pay a good rate elsewhere, check it against Toast's quote with our free statement review before committing; the difference is £5.00 a month for every 0.1 point at £5,000.
Support and reliability
Customer care by phone, email and web runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and is included in every subscription. Offline mode keeps Toast Flex and Toast Go devices working if the internet drops. Both matter more for a busy dinner service than any feature list.
Alternatives to Toast
Compare Tevalis and Zonal for multi-site hospitality, and SumUp POS for a smaller venue with published prices. The full list, with the card machines each till accepts, is in EPOS systems compared, and our restaurant card machines guide covers the payment side.
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Frequently asked questions
How much does Toast POS cost in the UK?
Toast's UK pricing page lists Starter from £80/month and Essentials at £150/month, with a custom quote for anything bigger (page last updated 9 February 2026, checked 1 November 2026). The Starter price "includes first hardware terminal subscription"; extra devices cost more. Hardware, installation and the card processing rate are on top and are not published.
What card processing rate does Toast charge in the UK?
Not published (the plan table says "Per transaction flat rate"). Ask for the rate in writing before signing. On £5,000 a month of card sales, every 0.1 percentage point is £5.00 a month, so the rate matters as much as the plan fee.
Can I use my own card machine with Toast?
Payments are part of the Toast platform: every plan lists "Payment processing integrated with POS", and the UK merchant agreement names Adyen N.V. of Amsterdam as the payment provider. Toast also says it advises against using your own hardware because it cannot support equipment not bought through Toast.
How long is a Toast contract and what does leaving early cost?
The initial term is set in your Order, so its length is not published. After it ends the agreement renews automatically for successive one-year periods unless you give at least 30 days’ written notice before the end of the current term. Leaving early triggers an early termination fee equal to the remaining software subscription fees for the rest of the current term, plus any processing fee on software financing. On Starter, each 12 months left on the term is 12 × £80 = £960.
Is Toast available in the UK?
Yes. Toast, Inc. sells in the UK through Toasttab UK Limited, with its own UK pricing page and UK merchant agreement. Customer care by phone, email and web runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and is included in every subscription.