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If you're stuck between Toast vs Clover Point of Sale (POS systems), our research found that Clover is the best choice. While both POS systems offer an excellent restaurant toolkit and 5/5 business management features, Clover offers a wider variety of plugins and its own industry-leading CRM system — making it a shoo-in for larger businesses that prioritize customer retention.
Toast is still a solid option though, especially for smaller businesses with complex inventories. The Android-only POS offers a great free plan, the best stock management tools of any system we've reviewed, and its restaurant features give our POS front-runner, Square, a run for its money.
Scroll down to see how Clover and Toast weigh up when it comes to features, value offerings, support tools, and more. Or, if it's quick quotes you're after, our free POS comparison tool can offer you custom prices in minutes.
In this guide:
Tech.co rating for restaurants Score out of 5 for general restaurant suitability, based on Tech.co's independent market research. | Best Restaurant POS for: Tech.co's verdict to help you identify the most suitable choice for your restaurant | Price from The typical lowest starting price. The lowest price available for your business will depend on your needs. | Transaction fees from The lowest possible fee that will be incurred with each transaction. | Key benefits | Drawbacks | Get started | ||
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Clover POS | ||||||||
4.5 | 4.0 | |||||||
Great customer loyalty app | Best Android hardware | |||||||
Free (but transaction fees apply) | ||||||||
2.3% | 2.49% + 15¢ | |||||||
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We pride ourselves on making thorough, research-informed verdicts at Tech.co. When reviewing POS systems, we consider a broad range of touchpoints, from industry-specific features to business management and growth capabilities. This ensures our recommendations are as well rounded as possible. Jump to our research and testing section to learn about this process in greater detail.
Toast vs Clover: Battle of the POS Systems
Both POS systems fair well in our testing: Clover receives a hospitality score of 4.5/5, and Toast trails slightly behind with a score of 4/5.
Clover's competitive retail and CRM features make it accessible to a wider selection of businesses — especially those focusing on growth and development. Its steep entry price of $60 per month for stores and $90 for restaurants could deter businesses with smaller budgets. On the other hand, Toast is only suitable for Android-compatible hospitality businesses, but its restaurant features are some of the best on the market.
Here's a breakdown of some of our main research findings:
- Toast's POS is Android exclusive, while Clover is compatible with Android and iOS devices.
- Clover offers both a retail and restaurant-specific POS, while Toast is reserved for food and drink businesses only.
- Toast offers a free plan and Clover only offers a 30-day day free trial.
- Clover's extensive CRM program is included in the package while its only available as an add-on with Toast.
- Toast and Clover both receive full marks (5/5) for stock management, but Toast is better for businesses with large or complex inventories.
- Clover offers stronger help and support tools, but both POSs fall short in this area, with Clover securing a support score of 3/5, compared with Toast's dismal 1/5.
- Toast's ‘Test Mode' is the best training mode we've reviewed, while Clover only offers training articles.
![Toast inventory management features](https://images.tech.co/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/20082416/100c85914464778e4748a446f6494b23-640x480.jpg)
![toast pos logo](https://images.tech.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/14095157/toast-pos-logo-scorecard.png)
Pros
- Great for Android users
- Strong menu customization
- Support for tableside ordering and payment
ConsÂ
- Doesn't work on iOS devices
- No integrated payment processors
- Limited help & support offered
For more information about this provider, check our Toast POS review here.
![clover pos](https://images.tech.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/13111506/clover-logo-scorecard.png)
Pros
- Great for companies that started online but need a physical presense
- Good range of hardware options
- 30-day free trial
ConsÂ
- Need pre-existing website unlike Shopify, for example
- Additional features cost extra and can become expensive
- No inter-store transactions
To learn more about this POS system and its different pricing tiers, read our Clover pricing review.
Best Value for Money: Toast
With a near-perfect price score of 4.8/5, our research suggests Toast is much better value than Clover, which only secures a price score of 3/5.
Except for Clover's Professional Services package, which only costs $14.95 per month, both providers offer fairly similar pricing packages. Clover offers nine different plans for hospitality and retail businesses, with prices ranging from $60 to $290 per month. In contrast, Toast offers four paid restaurant plans and its prices start at $69 per month and enterprise options are available, too.
Clover only offers combined hardware and software packages, which somewhat justifies its higher price tag. What's more, Clover's transaction rates are slightly more affordable. Its card-present transactions cost between 2.6% 10¢ to 2.3% + 10¢, compared with Toast's pricier rates that range from 2.99% + 15¢ to 3.5% + $0.15.
However, unlike Clover, Toast's Pay-as-you-go Starter Kit lets businesses get started absolutely free, making it one of the most cost-effective POS systems we've reviewed.
To see how the provider's restaurant-focused plans compare side by side, check out our comparison table below:
Toast vs Clover: Pricing and Features Comparison
Brand | Plan | Price | Transactional fees | Benefits | ||||||
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Clover | Toast POS | Clover | Toast POS | Clover | Toast POS | Clover | Toast POS | Clover | Toast | Clover |
Quick Service Starter | Quick Start Bundle | Quick Service Standard | Core | Quick Service Advanced | New Restaurant Basics | Full Service Starter | Growth | Full Service Standard | Build Your Own | Full Service Advanced |
$100 per month | $140 per month | $69 per month | $190 per month | $110 per month | $160 per month | $165 per month | $210 per month | Bespoke | $310 per month | |
| 2.99% + $0.15 |
| 3.5% + $0.15 |
| 3.5% + $0.15 |
| 3.5% + $0.15 |
| 3.5% + $0.15 |
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Which has the best free plan?
Unlike Clover, which lacks a free version, Toast offers a generous free plan, letting businesses get started on the POS without shelling out monthly fees. Toast's free Starter Kit offers every feature vendors need to get off the ground as well, from order and table management and reporting to round-the-clock customer support. Alternatively, if you're intent on trying out Clover's software before you buy, you can trial the POS for 30 days with its free demo.
As surging inflation rates continue to squeeze food and drink businesses across the US, free POS plans have never been more attractive. However, it's important to point out that free options do tend to lack advanced capabilities that you may require as your business grows. Free plans typically charge steeper transaction rates than paid packages, often making them a pricier alternative in the long run.
Best for Business Features: Clover
While Toast takes the edge for restaurant features —with a POS scoring 4.9/5 in the category compared to Clover's still impressive score of 4.6/5 — our research suggests that Clover's toolkit is stronger overall. This is because Clover's CRM and wider business development features are more advanced, making the system more useful for a broader array of businesses.
With a 4.5/5 score for business development, compared to Toast's 4/5, Clover offers the best CRM system we've researched. The engagement solution automatically records customer data onto a database and gives buyers multiple ways to access perks. The POS even boasts its own loyalty app, Clover Rewards, which is a huge win over Toast, as the provider doesn't even include CRM features in its paid packages.
Both point-of-sale systems offer an online mode, useful bill splitting, receipt customization, and table management features, but Toast actually has stronger till features overall, securing a research score of 4.3/5 in the category, compared to Clover's 4/5. This is largely due to Toast's outstanding dedicated training mode ‘Test Mode', which allows restaurant managers to train their staff without interfering with sales data.
When it comes to running a restaurant, food is the biggest variable cost and finding a POS with advanced inventory capabilities is an effective way to reduce waste and look after your bottom line. Fortunately, both Clover and Toast boast a five-star rating for stock handling features, making them both solid options for businesses with large or complex inventories. In fact, Toast has the best restaurant inventory management tools of any other POS we've researched, possessing a number of advanced capabilities from food cost reports to real-time updates.
However, unlike Toast, Clover's inventory features cater to both restaurant and retail stocks, allowing just about any vendor to benefit from them. Clover's unique Items with Variants tool makes it much easier for all businesses to deal with product modifications because the system lets vendors attach a distinct price, cost, SKU, and item code to each product variant.
Since Toast and Clover's features excel in different areas, the value they'll bring to your business will depend on your needs and industry specialism. Hospitality businesses with specific inventory requirements will probably benefit more from Toast's toolkit, but most other vendors will gain more from Clover's well-rounded feature package.
Best for Help and Support: Clover
Finding a POS with a robust customer support system is an important way to ensure your day-to-day operations run smoothly. If you're looking for a reliable support center, Clover offers stronger options than Toast but, unfortunately, both providers fall short in this field.
Landing a support score of 3/5 in our restaurant research category, the plus here is that Clover has its own knowledge center and offers support via email and phone. However, it does lack dedicated live chat options. Similarly, Toast also lacks live chat channels and doesn't even offer support via email, which contributes to its dismal support score of 1/5 – the worst help center we've reviewed.
If your business requires advanced support tools, like live chat and 24/7 phone support, we would recommend opting for Square instead. This POS secures a perfect 5/5 help and support score in our wider research.
How Do Toast & Clover Compare With the Competition?
With a score of 4.5/5 in our restaurant category, Clover is one of the best hospitality-focused point-of-sale systems we've reviewed, second only to our best POS system for small businesses, Square which secures a score of 4.7/5. Toast is the ninth strongest restaurant POS we've reviewed and this is largely due to the provider's lackluster support options. It lags behind the well-balanced solutions, like Zettle, EPOS Now, and TouchBistro.
To learn more about how Toast and Clover stack up against their competition, read our guide to the best restaurant POS systems, or take a look at their top alternatives below:
Tech.co rating for restaurants Score out of 5 for general restaurant suitability, based on Tech.co's independent market research. | Best Restaurant POS for: Tech.co's verdict to help you identify the most suitable choice for your restaurant | Price from The typical lowest starting price. The lowest price available for your business will depend on your needs. | iPad app Is there a version of the software made specifically for iPad use? | Android app Is there a version of the software made specifically for Android tablet use? | 24/7 support | Hardware packages | ||
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FEATURED PROVIDER | BEST VALUE FOR MONEY | ![]() | ||||||
Zettle POS | Epos Now Hospitality POS System | TouchBistro POS | SpotOn POS | Talech POS | Lightspeed | Shopify POS | ||
4.5 | 4.7 | 4.4 | 4.2 | 4.2 | 4.2 | 4.1 | 4.1 | 3.8 |
Best for onboarding new staff quickly | Best all-round restaurant POS system | Best for food trucks | Retail and hospitality businesses | Best help and support | Businesses that need attention, due to a dedicated support and sales team, and negotiable bundling. | Best small business growth features | Best for ecommerce | |
Free (but transaction fees apply) | Free (but transaction fees apply) | $99 | $15 per month | $29/user/month | ||||
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Sells $899 starter kit that includes iPad, cash drawer, printer, portable card reader. | Options include: Contactless reader ($49), Portable terminal ($299), Square terminal and stand ($799) | First carder reader is $29 and the price of ready-made store kits ranges from $249 to $699. | Offers a wide selection of hardware from handheld tablets to industry-specific terminals | Sold separately but works with lots of third-party devices | Offers several hardware options for businesses including include touchscreen monitors and payment terminals. | Offers lots of compatible hardware including a tablet, cash drawer, receipt printer, and kitchen printer | Offers kits for iPads, MacOS devices, Windows PCs but all are $POA. | Sells a range of third-party hardware options from card readers to barcode scanners and hardware bundles. |
Our Research and Testing: How Did We Score Toast & Clover?
The right POS system has the potential to streamline almost every area of a business. We understand this better than anyone at Tech.co, and this is why we go to great lengths to make sure our recommendations are thorough and well-informed.
When researching Toast and Clover, we focused on six major categories of interest: till features, business management, inventory management, business development, price, and help and support. After analyzing how the point-of-sale systems fair against each of these metrics, we awarded them a score out of five for each category, as well as an overall five-star ranking. These scores help us determine their strengths in relation to other systems and their suitability for different types of businesses.
We also conduct user testing to assess the usability of each system and use a different research framework for restaurant and retail-specific POS systems. B doing this, we are able to determine their strengths across industries. Lots more goes into how we rank and review our products and services, so read our full research breakdown to learn more.
Toast vs Clover: Which is Better?
On the other hand, Toast may lack Clover's advanced CRM toolkit and retail capabilities, but its excellent suite of restaurant features (which score 4.9/5 compared with Clover's 4.6/5) and generous free plan still make it a great option for plenty of food businesses — especially those just getting started. Its incompatibility with iOS software will exclude it from many customers though, so it's worth noting this before moving forward with the system.
However, Toast and Clover aren't the only promising restaurant point-of-sale systems on the market. If you're looking to narrow down your search, use our free comparison tool to receive tailored quotes from the best names in POS business.