Square vs Toast POS 2026: Honest Head-to-Head at £20K/mo Card Volume
Quick verdicts
Single-location restaurant, month-to-month
Zero contract, 1.75% processing vs 2.49%, no hardware lock-in. At £20K/mo card volume, Square saves £3,000–£4,000 year one.
High-volume restaurant committed 2+ years
KDS workflow, online ordering integration, and pay-at-table handheld are materially better than Square's restaurant features at volume above £25K/mo.
Kitchen display system
Toast's KDS is the best in the sub-£300/mo category. Square's is functional but thin.
Processing cost at £20K/mo
1.75% = £4,200/yr. Toast 2.49% = £5,976/yr. £1,776/yr processing difference outweighs the software price gap.
Switching and exit flexibility
Cancel online, no fees, hardware works with other processors. Toast: 4-figure ETF, proprietary hardware becomes e-waste.
Affiliate disclosure: We earn referral fees from both Square and Toast. Neither vendor reviewed this comparison before publication.
The one-line answer
Start on Square if you’re under £25K/mo card volume or want month-to-month flexibility. Switch to Toast when (and if) you outgrow Square’s kitchen workflow and are ready to commit for two years.
The processing cost arithmetic — the number nobody shows you
At £20,000/month card volume:
| Square | Toast Essentials | |
|---|---|---|
| Software | £0/yr | £828/yr |
| Processing | £4,200/yr (1.75%) | £5,976/yr (2.49%) |
| Hardware (one-time) | £49–£429 | £799–£1,799 |
| Contract | None | 2–3 years |
| Year-one total | £4,249–£4,629 | £7,603–£8,603 |
| Year-two total | £4,200 | £6,804 |
The year-one gap is £3,354–£3,974. The year-two gap (hardware amortised) shrinks to £2,604. Over two years, Square saves the typical £20K/mo restaurant £5,958–£6,578 versus Toast — more than enough to upgrade the kitchen workflow when the business validates.
Where Toast wins regardless of cost
Toast’s kitchen display and handheld ordering are genuinely in a different tier to Square’s restaurant features. If your kitchen has 3+ stations, multiple courses, and handles 200+ covers on a busy night, Toast’s operational workflow is worth its premium. The question is whether you’ve validated that level of operation before signing a 2-year contract.
Where Square wins regardless of features
Zero contract risk. At any point you can cancel, export your data, and move. This is not a small thing — the restaurant industry has a 60% failure rate in the first year. Starting on Toast with a £5,000 hardware investment + a 2-year contract is a meaningful risk for a business that hasn’t proven it can sustain £25K+/mo card volume.
The verdict
For first-time POS buyers and operators below £25K/mo card volume: Square. For established high-volume restaurants committed to staying in the Toast ecosystem for 2+ years: Toast. If you’re in between, start on Square and evaluate Toast when you’ve outgrown it.
Last tested: 2026-05-01