2026 head-to-head · Toast read 7-11 November 2026, SpotOn read from spoton.com on 11 November 2026
Toast vs SpotOn
This pair is not a fight on price. Toast puts a website inside Growth at $578 a month on a two-year agreement: $21,961 over three years. SpotOn sells the same job in pieces on top of a $55-a-station register — website $65 a month plus $350, ordering $50 a month plus 20 basis points, a $750 station — which is $10,100 over three years at $40,000 a month in card sales, on a lower card rate too. So the honest answer is SpotOn, by $11,861. What it is not is yours: SpotOn's own knowledge base says SpotOn owns the domain for as long as you keep the website service, and its website terms bill a waived $295 design fee the day you cancel its processing. $199 once is the version that outlives both.
SpotOn's bill is $11,861 smaller over three years, and the website is still not yours: at US list prices read 11 November 2026, software, hardware and the site, before card processing.
Toast: website in Growth, $578/moSpotOn: +$65/mo for the siteThree years: $21,961 vs $10,100ShopLaunch: one payment
The three-year total
Software and hardware only, before card processing, before tax. SpotOn's number includes a register and online ordering that we do not sell — the line being compared is what a website adds on top of one.
Toast, 3 years at Growth
$21,961
$578 × 36 = $20,808 software + $1,153 kit, 2-year term The pack with the website
SpotOn, 3 years, full stack
$10,100
$1,980 POS + $750 station + $4,680 bundle + $2,690 site At $40,000/mo in cards
ShopLaunch, once
$199
Website + menu + QR posters No register required Nothing recurs.
What each one charges in 2026
Toast, on Traditional
BasicRegister, reports, 24/7 support — no online ordering
GrowthAdds the Toast website, gift cards, loyalty, SMS and email
$578/mo
Pay-as-You-GoNo software fee: 3.09% (Basic) to 3.69% (Growth) + 15¢ a card
$0/mo
SpotOn, restaurant
All-InHardware and software paid through the card rate — 2.79% + 20¢; processing minimums apply, 2-year minimum term
$0/station
POS Essentials2.45% + 15¢ in person · Station 15 $995 → $750 · handheld $495 → $297, implementation extra
$55/station
Core BundleSpotOn Order, Profit Assist, GoTo Place, Marketing Assist — plus 20bps of GPV, capped at $200
$50/mo
SpotOn Order aloneCommission-free ordering, menu page, QR codes, GoTo Place app — $200 setup
$55/mo
SpotOn WebsiteDesigner, hosting, domain, SEO, two edits a month — $350 setup, POS clients only
$65/mo
Build Your OwnCustom rates and bundles for multi-unit and high-volume groups
quoted
The countertop starter kit is $1,153 up front on Traditional (Toast Flex terminal, Tap card reader, router) or $0 on Pay-as-You-Go, and it is yours, not leased. The checkout states a 2-year software agreement that then renews a year at a time unless either side gives 30 days' written notice. Leaving early costs the software fees left in the term, or $150 for each month left on Pay-as-You-Go — fourteen months left is $3,066 on Core, or $2,100 on the $0 plan.
Card rates on Traditional are 2.49% + 15¢ in person and 3.50% + 15¢ online, for American Express and for any card that is not present. Toast's own terms restrict its services to approved Toast hardware, and its pricing page marks online ordering, the Toast website, loyalty and gift cards as add-ons with no price shown. The website itself lands in Growth at $578 a month; an existing customer adds it through a Digital Storefront add-on whose price is not on the pages we read.
SpotOn publishes two POS plans and prices everything else as an add-on, which is why it looks so cheap next to Toast until the website comes back in. POS Essentials is $55 a station a month and its card on the pricing page calls it month-to-month; All-In is $0 a station with the hardware inside, and it is not free — the page says so itself: you pay for the hardware and software over time with a higher credit card processing rate, 2.79% + 20¢ against 2.45% + 15¢, with a monthly processing minimum and a 2-year minimum term. On Essentials the hardware is Station 15 at $995, sold at $750, a handheld at $495 ($297), a guest display $200, a router $300 — and implementation is charged on top and not priced.
The website is where this stops being a POS comparison. SpotOn Website is $65 a month plus a $350 one-time setup fee, and the product page answers the standalone question before you ask it: "SpotOn Website is available exclusively to SpotOn POS clients." Hosting, a domain, security and built-in SEO are inside, with two designer edits a month and a dashboard you can edit yourself. The exit terms sit in SpotOn's website service description: the $295 design fee is waived and "will only become due if you decide to cancel credit card processing with SpotOn", and if you keep the site without SpotOn processing the fee goes from $65 to $75 a month. On the domain, SpotOn's public knowledge base is unusually direct: "SpotOn will own the domain as long as you continue our website services with us. If you choose to leave SpotOn, we can release the domain for you to transfer to your new host" — after ICANN's 60-day lock on a new registration. And the pages are built on SpotOn's platform: the same FAQ says it cannot import an existing site, and nothing in it offers an export.
The two rate cards split by pennies rather than dollars: 2.45% + 15¢ against Toast's 2.49% + 15¢ in person, and 3.45% + 15¢ against 3.50% + 15¢ keyed or online. On $40,000 a month in card sales that is about $16 a month, or $576 across three years — real, and not the reason to pick either. American Express is the exception on both sides: 3.19% + 15¢ on Essentials, and SpotOn's payment-processing page puts the All-In Amex rate at 3.19% + 25¢ while the pricing page prints no Amex line for All-In at all. Ask for it in writing.
The three-year math, with the assumptions written down
Toast Growth: 36 × $578$20,808
Toast countertop kit, paid once$1,153
Toast, three years with a website$21,961
SpotOn POS Essentials: 36 × $55$1,980
Station 15 at the lower price$750
Core Bundle at $40,000/mo: 36 × ($50 + $80)$4,680
SpotOn Website: 36 × $65 + $350 setup$2,690
SpotOn, register, ordering and website, three years$10,100
SpotOn the other way, ordering at $55 + $200 setup$7,600
Toast Core with no website: 36 × $219 + kit$9,037
SpotOn Essentials and hardware, no bundle, no site$2,730
ShopLaunch Local Pack, paid once$199
SpotOn undercuts Toast, over three years, by$11,861
Still in your account, against Toast Growth$21,762
What the $40,000 is. A worked example, not a vendor figure: $40,000 a month in card sales and 1,000 card payments. At that volume the Core Bundle is $50 + 20bps ($80) = $130 a month; at $100,000 a month the 20bps hits its $200 cap and the bundle becomes $250. Below $40,000 it is cheaper in proportion. Implementation is charged on both SpotOn POS plans and SpotOn does not publish it, so it is the one line missing from the $10,100 — and on Essentials it is a real number, not a rounding.
The second SpotOn road is cheaper still. SpotOn Order is sold on its own at $55 a month plus a $200 setup, which with the same register, hardware and website lands at $7,600 for three years. It does not carry Profit Assist, Marketing Assist or the capped-GPV formula; if you would not use them, it is the better buy and we are not going to price it away.
And All-In is a third road. $0 for the hardware and software, $2,690 for the website, and the 0.34 of a point plus 5¢ you pay on every card instead — about $186 a month at this volume, or $6,696 across three years, making the true cost about $9,386. Below roughly $7,500 a month in cards, All-In is the cheaper plan outright; above it, Essentials is. Both All-In numbers carry a 2-year minimum and a processing minimum that SpotOn does not publish.
Three things both of them get wrong about a website
Different products, one structure: in both systems the page a guest opens is a feature of an account, and the account exists because of a terminal.
1. The website is an add-on, not a product
Toast: the site arrives with Growth at $578 a month, or as a Digital Storefront Pro add-on that shows no price on any page we read, and Toast's terms restrict the service to approved Toast hardware. SpotOn: $65 a month plus $350, sold "exclusively to SpotOn POS clients". Neither will sell a page you can take to another host, and neither prices it as a thing — it is a line that exists while the register does.
2. Leaving costs money, and the site leaves with the account
SpotOn: the website terms waive a $295 design fee and make it due "if you decide to cancel credit card processing with SpotOn", then raise the site from $65 to $75 a month if you keep it without their processing; All-In layers on a 2-year minimum and a processing minimum. Toast: the exit is the software left in the 2-year term — $3,066 at Core with 14 months to run, $8,092 at Growth — and the site stops with the pack.
3. The domain and the files
SpotOn: "SpotOn will own the domain as long as you continue our website services with us" — released on exit, after ICANN's 60-day lock — and its sites are "platform-based", so an existing site cannot come in and these pages cannot go out. Toast: no download is offered anywhere on its pages. What you keep in both cases is your words, your photos and your menu; the rebuild is the hidden line in the contract.
None of that is a scandal. Renting a maintained website for $65 a month is a reasonable thing to buy, releasing a domain on exit is more than some competitors offer, and SpotOn writes its terms down where you can read them — which is how we can quote them. The point is narrower: the thing a guest actually looks at is owned by whoever owns the register, and the day the register changes, the page is rebuilt from a Word document and a folder of photos. A one-time page removes that whole class of problem, because the deliverable is the file.
Where SpotOn is the better buy
You want a register, handhelds, a kitchen display and table maps
You want the website designed for you, with two edits a month
You want ordering, loyalty and marketing wired into the POS
You are comfortable with SpotOn owning the domain while you stay
$65 a month is easier than a build, and you would rather rent
A one-time page wins when you
Have a register you are not replacing
Need the menu printed and on the table tomorrow
Do not want a 2-year minimum or a processing minimum
Want the domain and the files in your own name
Would rather not pay $295 to change processor later
Side by side
Same room, same job, two ways of paying for it — and the parts that decide what happens in month 25.
Toast (Core / Growth)
SpotOn (Essentials / All-In)
ShopLaunch
List price today
$69 / $219 / $578 a month, plus a $1,153 kit
$0 a station (All-In) or $55 a station, hardware $415-$995
$49 / $199 / $499, once
The website
In Growth at $578/mo, or a Digital Storefront add-on with no published price
$65/mo + $350 setup; SpotOn POS clients only
Built for you in 24 hours
Online ordering
From Core ($219), or Digital Storefront Essentials, unpriced
Core Bundle $50/mo + 20bps (cap $200), or SpotOn Order $55 + $200 setup
No. We take no orders or payments
Contract
2 years, then a year at a time
Month to month on Essentials; 2-year minimum on All-In
None
Leaving early
Software left in the term: $3,066 at Core with 14 months to run; $150 a month on Pay-as-You-Go
$295 design fee if you cancel processing; site goes to $75/mo without it; buy-out in the order form
Nothing to cancel
Who owns the domain
Yours, on a domain you register; the site stays behind
SpotOn, while you keep website services; released on exit after 60 days
Yours, registered in your name
Can the site move
No download; it stops with the subscription
No — platform-based, no import, no export offered
Yes. The HTML, the CSS and the images are the deliverable
Card rate, in person
2.49% + 15¢ (Traditional)
2.45% + 15¢ Essentials · 2.79% + 20¢ All-In
We process nothing
Card rate, online or keyed
3.50% + 15¢
3.45% + 15¢ Essentials · 3.79% + 20¢ All-In
We process nothing
A full-service room
Coursing, kitchen display, delivery-app integrations, 24/7 restaurant support
Table maps, handhelds, kitchen display, loyalty and marketing tools
No POS, ever
Three-year software + hardware
$9,037 at Core · $21,961 at Growth
$7,600-$10,100 with ordering and a website, at $40,000/mo
$199
Time to live
Install scheduled with Toast; no published timeline
Website in about a week, per SpotOn; 48 business hours once your content is in
24 hours from a completed form
SpotOn: spoton.com/pricing read 11 November 2026 — All-In $0 a station, card present 2.79% + 20¢, keyed 3.79% + 20¢, processing minimums and a 2-year minimum term; POS Essentials $55 a station, 2.45% + 15¢ (Amex 3.19% + 15¢), keyed 3.45% + 15¢; Station 15 $995 sold at $750, Station 10 $550 at $415, handheld $495 at $297, guest display $200, router $300, implementation charged separately; Core Bundle $50 a month plus 20bps of GPV capped at $200. Amex on All-In is 3.19% + 25¢ per spoton.com/solutions/payment-processing, which the pricing page does not print. SpotOn Website $65 a month plus a $350 setup, "available exclusively to SpotOn POS clients" (spoton.com/solutions/websites). The $295 design fee, the $75-a-month rate without SpotOn processing, and the $65 figure come from spoton.com/legal/website-terms, a page effective 16 December 2019, which is why we quote the current $350 setup and the 2019 clauses separately. Domain ownership and the platform/import answer: SpotOn's public knowledge base, FAQ | SpotOn Website. SpotOn Order $55 a month plus $200 setup: spoton.com/solutions/online-ordering. Toast: pos.toasttab.com/pricing for the approved-hardware wording and the two-year agreement; the Traditional Starter Kit prices — $69 Basic, $219 Core, $578 Growth, the $1,153 kit, 2.49% + 15¢ in person and 3.50% + 15¢ online — from Toast's checkout as read and published on 7 November 2026 by expresso.io/blog/toast-pricing; the early-termination formula from Toast's Merchant Agreement (last updated 10 September 2025) as summarised by Orbix POS on 21 October 2026. The $40,000 monthly volume, the 1,000 payments and the $7,500 crossover are our worked examples, not vendor figures. Prices are US list, before tax.
What the $199 actually is
Not a template you fill in, and not a replacement for a register. We take your hours, prices and photos, build each piece, and hand back files and a live link.
A mobile page on a real URL — hours, prices, photos, tap-to-call, directions. One link for your Instagram bio, Google listing and texts.
A digital menu with one QR per table — print-ready PDF, no app for the guest, no waiting for a printed card.
Three print-ready posters — window hours, counter QR, menu board. A4 and A3.
Five Instagram posts (1080×1080) with the captions written.
The files themselves — the HTML, the stylesheet and the images, in a folder you can hand to any host or any printer.
One form, five minutes. Live the next business day. No app for you or your guests, no monthly fee, and no cut of anything you sell.
Which package does this job?
The page and the menu are the Local Pack. No register, nothing that renews, and nothing that charges $295 on the way out.
Starter The link
One page, one QR, done.
$49one-time
Delivered in 1 business day
One-page mobile site — hours, prices, photos, address, tap-to-call
Call and directions buttons, pinned to the screen
QR poster PDF for the counter and the window
Your own edit key, so a price change is a minute of your time
Payment is taken by Polar Software, Inc., our merchant of record, on their checkout page — we never see your card. By ordering you agree to our terms and refund policy. The files are yours to keep and reprint.
Questions this comparison raises
Is Toast or SpotOn cheaper?
SpotOn, and by a wide margin: $10,100 against $21,961 over three years — on a register, online ordering and a website at $40,000 a month in card sales. Toast's route to a website is the $578 Growth pack on a two-year term ($20,808 of software plus the $1,153 kit); SpotOn's is $55 a station plus a $750 station, a $4,680 Core Bundle at that volume and $2,690 for the site. SpotOn's card rate is lower too. Toast's case at that price is a deeper restaurant POS: coursing, a kitchen display, delivery-app integrations and 24/7 restaurant support.
Is SpotOn's $0 All-In plan free?
No. SpotOn's own FAQ says the hardware and software are paid for over time through a higher card rate — 2.79% + 20¢ against 2.45% + 15¢ on Essentials — with a monthly processing minimum and a 2-year minimum term. At $40,000 a month in cards that premium is about $186 a month, or $6,696 across three years. Below roughly $7,500 a month the plan is the cheaper of the two; above it, Essentials is.
How much does a SpotOn website cost?
$65 a month plus a $350 one-time setup, and only as an add-on to SpotOn POS: the product page says SpotOn Website is "available exclusively to SpotOn POS clients". The website service terms add two exit charges — a $295 design fee that is waived and becomes due if you cancel SpotOn card processing, and a rise from $65 to $75 a month if you keep the site without their processing. Those clauses sit on a page dated 16 December 2019 while the current page states a $350 setup, so get both in the order form.
Who owns my domain if SpotOn builds the site?
SpotOn's words: "SpotOn will own the domain as long as you continue our website services with us. If you choose to leave SpotOn, we can release the domain for you to transfer to your new host." A released domain is subject to ICANN's 60-day lock if it was registered recently. If you bring a domain you already own, SpotOn connects it and your registrar keeps billing you — that is the arrangement to ask for in writing, because it is the one where the domain stays yours.
Where is Toast's website, and what does it cost?
In the Growth pack at $578 a month, which also adds gift cards, loyalty and SMS and email marketing, on the same two-year agreement as the rest of Toast's software — $21,961 over three years with the kit. A restaurant already on Toast adds it through a Digital Storefront Pro add-on that shows no price on the pages we read, so the number to ask for in writing is: what does my monthly bill become if I add the website to my current pack?
Do I need either register to have a page?
No. A page with your hours, your menu and your phone number needs no terminal, no account and no card reader behind it. Buy the register on its own terms — SpotOn's month-to-month Essentials or Toast's two-year Core — and buy the page from someone who does not sell hardware, so the next change of POS costs you a link, not a rebuild.
Who takes the payment, and is my card safe?
Polar Software, Inc., our merchant of record, takes it on their checkout page. Your card details are entered there, never on this site, and they handle the receipt and the tax. We never see your card number.
One page, printable, for the person who signs
Both stacks, the three-year totals at $40,000 a month, and the three clauses that decide who owns the page when you change register, on one printable A4 page.
Where the numbers come from. SpotOn: spoton.com/pricing read 11 November 2026 — All-In $0 a station with hardware included, 2.79% + 20¢ card present and 3.79% + 20¢ keyed, processing minimums and a 2-year minimum term; POS Essentials $55 a station, 2.45% + 15¢ (Amex 3.19% + 15¢), 3.45% + 15¢ keyed; Station 15 $995 at $750, Station 10 $550 at $415, handheld $495 at $297, guest display $200, router $300, implementation charged separately; Core Bundle $50 a month plus 20bps of GPV capped at $200. spoton.com/solutions/payment-processing for the Amex rates and the "paid for over time through a higher rate" wording. spoton.com/solutions/websites for $65 a month, the $350 setup and "available exclusively to SpotOn POS clients". spoton.com/legal/website-terms, a page effective 16 December 2019, for the waived $295 design fee, the $75-a-month rate without SpotOn processing and the $65 base. SpotOn's public knowledge base, FAQ | SpotOn Website for domain ownership, the 60-day lock and the platform answer. spoton.com/solutions/online-ordering for SpotOn Order at $55 a month plus a $200 setup. Toast: pos.toasttab.com/pricing for the approved-hardware wording and the two-year agreement, read 11 November 2026; the Traditional Starter Kit prices — $69 Basic, $219 Core, $578 Growth, the $1,153 countertop kit, 2.49% + 15¢ in person and 3.50% + 15¢ online — from Toast's checkout as read and published on 7 November 2026 by expresso.io/blog/toast-pricing; the early-termination formula from Toast's Merchant Agreement (last updated 10 September 2025) as summarised by Orbix POS on 21 October 2026. The $40,000 monthly volume, the 1,000 payments and the $7,500 crossover are our worked examples, not vendor figures. ShopLaunch does not sell POS hardware, card processing or online ordering with payment. Prices are US list, before tax; vendors change them. Last checked 11 November 2026. Something out of date? Tell us and we will correct it with the source.
Send your shop once. We build the page, the menu, the posters and the posts, and hand it back the next business day — with the files. Nothing to cancel, nothing welded to a terminal, and nothing that stops working when you change POS.
