Toast is the best restaurant POS most restaurants will ever use, and this article is not going to pretend a WooCommerce plugin outguns it on coursing, tableside handhelds or payroll. If you run a fifty-cover full-service restaurant with a bar and a patio, Toast is built for you in a way nothing on WordPress is.
What you should understand before signing is exactly what you are signing, because Toast’s commercial terms are the tightest in this comparison.
What the Toast contract actually says
Three clauses from Toast’s own merchant agreement and pricing pages, worth reading twice:
- Toast is the exclusive provider of payment processing. You cannot bring your own acquirer. The published in-person rate is 2.49% + $0.15.
- The software may only be used on approved Toast hardware. Bought outright, taken on a $0-down starter kit, or leased through Toast Easy Pay over 180, 360 or 540 days, with Toast owning the equipment until you buy it out.
- Leaving early costs the remainder. The early termination fee is the remaining software subscription fees for your term — or, on pay-as-you-go, $150 multiplied by the months remaining.
The Point of Sale plan starts at $69 per month, per location, with add-ons around $50 each for things like online ordering and gift cards. None of that is hidden; it is simply a commitment, and a restaurant with thin margins should price the exit as carefully as the entry.
Toast does not integrate with WooCommerce
There is no first-party connector, and WordPress is not on Toast’s integrations list. Toast’s answer to your website is Toast Websites and Toast Online Ordering — its own products, writing into its own menu.
That is coherent product design, and it means a restaurant already selling online through WooCommerce — retail products, gift vouchers, meal kits, merchandise, a delivery menu — has to run two businesses side by side, or abandon one.
Cost
| Toast | OpenPOS | |
|---|---|---|
| Software | From $69/mo per location, plus ~$50/mo add-ons | One-time purchase, per site |
| Processing | Toast only, 2.49% + $0.15 in person | Your own acquirer, your own rate |
| Hardware | Approved Toast hardware only; buy or lease | Any tablet or PC with a browser |
| Leaving | Early termination fee; leased hardware returns | Nothing to terminate |
| WooCommerce | No integration | It is WooCommerce |
Where Toast is genuinely better
- Restaurant-native depth. Coursing, fire times, handheld tableside ordering, tip pooling, payroll, labour reporting. A retail cart with tables bolted on does not have these concepts, and OpenPOS does not claim to.
- Ruggedised hardware built for a kitchen pass. Spill-proof, drop-tested, and supported by someone whose job it is.
- Restaurant-grade offline mode on that hardware, with integrated card capture, independent of your web host.
Where OpenPOS is better
- No contract and no exit fee. A one-time purchase. There is nothing to terminate.
- No mandated processor. Keep your acquirer and your rate; Stripe Terminal, Square, Authorize.net, BlockChyp, Clearent, Vipps and LayBuy are supported.
- Your website and your restaurant share one system. Vouchers, merchandise, meal kits and the dine-in menu all live in one WooCommerce catalogue.
- Restaurant features included, not sold as add-ons. Floor plans, table merge and transfer, kitchen display screens, no-touch QR ordering.
- Any hardware. A €150 Android tablet and an 80mm thermal printer will run a café.
Which should you choose?
Choose Toast if food service is your whole business and its complexity is real: multiple courses, a bar, a large roster, tip distribution, a kitchen that needs fire times. Pay the subscription, accept the processing rate, and get on with cooking.
Choose OpenPOS if you are a café, bar, food truck, bakery or small restaurant where the menu is a list of things with prices; if you also sell online through WooCommerce; if a multi-year hardware lease and an exclusive processing clause is not a trade you want to make.
The dividing line is not size, it is whether your kitchen needs choreography or just tickets.
Frequently asked questions
Does OpenPOS have a kitchen display screen?
Yes, and you can watch it without logging in on the live KDS demo. It also prints kitchen tickets to a thermal printer if you prefer paper.
Can OpenPOS do recipe costing and ingredient depletion?
No. That is a food-cost problem, and Toast handles it. We wrote about where the honest limits are rather than overclaim.
Can waiters take orders on their phones with OpenPOS?
Yes. It installs as a Progressive Web App on any phone or tablet, with a login per staff member. No app store, no per-device fee.
Is there a Toast plugin for WordPress?
Not a first-party one. Toast’s integrations list does not include WooCommerce, and its own ordering products are the intended answer.
Toast pricing and contract terms above were read from toasttab.com’s pricing pages and merchant agreement in July 2026, US listings in USD. Terms change and vary by deal — read your own contract.
Take an order on a table in the restaurant demo (test / test123). Restaurant mode is included in OpenPOS — one payment, no lease, no exit fee. Prefer to try first? Install the free OpenPOS Lite on WordPress.org.