Toast POS vs. Square for Restaurants: What They Actually Cost a Bakery Over a Year
The $1,032/year gap between these two isn't the number that decides anything by itself. What decides it is your monthly card volume, your add-ons, and how big the migration bill would be if you guessed wrong.
The listed gap is $1,032/yr — add-ons and processing terms can erase or double it
Before add-ons (online ordering, loyalty) and processing-rate differences, which can swing the real total either direction.
A bakery's average ticket runs two very different sizes: an $8-15 counter sale and a $75-400 custom-cake deposit. That split matters more to your actual annual cost than either platform's base monthly fee, because where a percentage-based processing rate applies to a $300 cake order versus a $12 coffee-and-croissant sale changes the real math far more than $7.33/mo (the difference between $89 and $175) ever will.
Base cost vs. real annual cost
| Line item | Square for Restaurants | Toast POS |
|---|---|---|
| Base monthly fee | $89 | $175 |
| Base annual cost | $1,068 | $2,100 |
| Online ordering | Included | +$50/mo |
| Loyalty program | Included | +$50/mo |
| Hardware | Standard iPad | Proprietary — separate cost |
| Processing rate | Fixed, published rate | Negotiable by contract |
Toast POS: $175/mo base ($2,100/yr)
Toast's headline rate looks like the more expensive choice, and on the software line alone, it is. But Toast's processing rates are negotiable rather than fixed — a bakery doing meaningful monthly card volume can sometimes talk down the per-transaction rate in a way Square's published pricing doesn't allow for. The failure mode here is signing the default processing contract without ever asking whether the rate is negotiable, then quietly overpaying for years because nobody re-opened the conversation after volume grew.
Square for Restaurants: $89/mo base ($1,068/yr)
Square's published card-present rate (commonly around 2.6% + 10¢, in line with its standard retail pricing) is fixed and non-negotiable, but it's competitive out of the gate with no contract to negotiate in the first place. For a bakery under roughly $15k/month in card sales, the combination of the lower base fee and a decent default processing rate usually beats Toast on pure annual cost, even before Square's bundled loyalty and online ordering are factored in.
Base annual software cost
Where the real total shifts
- Under ~$15k/month in card sales: Square's lower base fee plus its bundled add-ons usually wins on total cost — you're not doing enough volume for Toast's negotiable processing rate to close the $1,032/yr gap.
- $15k-40k/month: this is where it's worth actually calling Toast's sales team about processing rates instead of assuming the sticker price is final. At this volume, a half-point rate difference can be worth more per year than the $1,032 base-price gap.
- Above ~$40k/month or multiple locations: Toast's kitchen-display routing and MarginEdge integration start saving real labor hours on top of any processing-rate negotiation, which is usually enough to justify the premium outright.
Toast charges separately for online ordering ($50/mo) and loyalty ($50/mo) — Square bundles both at the base tier. Add those in and the effective annual gap can shrink to a few hundred dollars, or vanish entirely, depending on which add-ons you'd actually use.
Questions to ask before you sign either processing contract
- Is the quoted processing rate fixed for the contract term, or can it be renegotiated as volume grows?
- What's the early-termination fee if we outgrow this platform in 18 months?
- Are online ordering and loyalty already included, or are they add-ons that change the real monthly total?
- Does switching require new hardware, and who bears that cost?
- How is a $300 custom-cake deposit processed differently than a $12 counter sale — same rate, or a separate invoicing flow?
Run the free audit with your real headcount and current spend to see which one — plus the rest of your stack — actually fits.