Heartland POS vs Toast
As a restaurant owner, you’ve got a lot on your plate. And we don’t just mean today’s special.
From staffing and marketing to crafting menus and running the back office, how do you find the time to do it all?
(No, seriously — we’re always trying to figure that out!)
Then there’s choosing the right technology for your business. Bet no one prepared you for how long that task can take. With so many options for restaurant point of sale systems on the market, the buying process can feel as overwhelming as a line out the door when you’re two servers down and just had to 86 your most popular dish.
We want to make the research and decision process a little easier. So, we’ve broken down some key similarities and differences between two popular small business point of sale systems: Heartland Point of Sale (POS) and Toast.
First thing to note: These are two robust solutions packed with features. We know if we tried to cover them all, we’d lose you along the way (no offense taken). Our goal is to give you an overview of what we see as the most important features a restaurant POS system should offer, so for more information on either, be sure to visit these providers' websites.
Whether you’re a brand new eatery or are reevaluating your current systems, we hope you’ll walk away from this guide on your way to finding a solution that helps you run your business — instead of running you ragged. Now, read on to learn:
Heartland vs. Toast
Heartland POS vs. Toast: Packages and pricing
A lot of the differences we’ll cover in this piece relate to feature availability by plan, so let’s kick things off by defining those plans and pricing.
Similarities
Heartland POS and Toast POS are SaaS models, meaning you pay a monthly restaurant POS software subscription fee to use the solution. Both providers offer tiered packages based on your restaurant’s size and needs.
Differences.
As of 5/4/2023, Heartland has two plans for small to midsize restaurants, plus a custom option for enterprise businesses. All plans come with straightforward and flexible pricing without surprise add-on fees.
Heartland Restaurant Essentials: Starting at $89/mo and a great option for single-location restaurants that need to process secure payments, streamline business operations and sell in a restaurant, at a food truck/stand or online.
Heartland Restaurant Complete: Ideal for restaurants with 2+ locations or more complex needs, it’s a scalable and feature-packed solution with additional hardware and integration options. The monthly cost is dependent on a few things, including number of locations and hardware needs.
Toast POS has three set plans, plus an option for custom pricing.
- Quick Start Bundle: For single locations or food trucks, starting at $0/mo for the software (does not include online ordering)
- Core: For any restaurant trying to streamline operations and provide faster service, starting at $69/mo (does not include online ordering)
- Growth: For 1-15 locations looking to add more revenue streams, starting at $165/mo, plus an additional multi-location management add-on if you need to manage multiple locations from a single view
- Custom pricing: Businesses with 16-1,000 locations are considered Enterprise and need a custom quote
Again, this pricing listed above is based on information available on pos.toasttab.com as of May 4, 2023. Pricing and features of both Toast and Global Payments products are subject to change.
Note that while Toast’s Quick Start Bundle appears free because of its $0 monthly software fee, users have to pay for hardware beyond the single included Toast Flex POS terminal and Toast Tap payment device (one Toast Flex and one Toast Tap are included in the kit). This is also called a Pay-as-you-Go plan, which charges a 2.99% + $0.15 processing fee — compared to Standard (Core and Growth) plans’ 2.49% + $0.15 fee. We’ll do a deeper dive into payment processing next.
Let’s quickly address contracts too: According to a Business.com April 2023 review, Toast requires a two-year commitment from customers and charges early termination fees. Heartland requires customers to sign 36-month contracts, but there are no early termination fees.
Heartland Restaurant vs. Toast: Payment processing
Similarities
As of 5/4/2023, both providers offer integrated payment processing with simple, flat-rate pricing.
Differences
Lots to break down here! First, all Toast customers – regardless of plan – must use Toast payment processing. While Heartland Restaurant Essentials customers must use Heartland payment processing, Complete users can integrate with a third-party processor of their choice.
Integrated processing fees vary, too:
- Heartland Essentials and Complete payment rate: 2.6% + $0.10 (card present and card not present)
- Toast Quick Start: 2.99% + $0.15
- Toast Core and Growth: 2.49% + $0.15 (card present); 3.5% + $0.15 (card not present)
It’s important to note here as well that the fees listed above are based on information available on pos.toasttab.com as of May 4, 2023. Pricing and features of both Toast and Global Payments products are subject to change.
Beyond just payment processing, Heartland has a full Payments+ suite. That includes solutions for not only debit and credit card processing, but billing, virtual terminal and various financial services.
Finally, Heartland is a direct processor, and Toast is a payment facilitator. What does that mean — and why does it matter?
In a direct model, the processor acts as a middleman between the merchant (you) and the financial institutions involved. They use encryption to securely forward the transaction details to the issuer or card association for verification. They carry out other anti-fraud measures as well, like tracking the card's country of issue and previous payment history for suspicious activity.
Learn more about the lifecycle of a credit card transaction
Payment facilitators process payments by riding the existing payment rails of larger payment processing ISOs, rather than creating their own. They essentially act as a single MID (merchant ID) with submerchants below them, and they white label the solution as their own.
Because of this, there is no formal underwriting (or risk assessment) process with payment facilitators like this. Why? Well, some pay-facs skip the underwriting step so they can onboard quickly. But doing so means they are much more sensitive to suspicious activity because they don't have the assurances they would have gotten had they used a thorough underwriting process. So to protect themselves, they suspend the merchant’s account while they investigate. That can certainly have a direct negative impact on a restaurant relying on these funds to run their business day-to-day.
Because Heartland is a direct processor with standard underwriting requirements, there is a significant decrease in the likelihood of merchants’ funds being held unexpectedly. And if any significant payment irregularities do occur, Heartland picks up the phone to understand more — no abrupt holds.
Heartland Restaurant vs. Toast: Features and functionality
Restaurant management
Similarities
As of the publication date, both Heartland and Toast restaurant point of sales offer real-time front- and back-of-house restaurant management features including menu, guest, employee (with permissions), tip, tax and inventory management, plus graphical table layout, invoicing and reporting.
Differences
Though both products boast similar features, the difference lies in which plan you’ll find them. As of 5/4/23, you’ll have access to all of the above restaurant management features in Heartland’s Essentials and Complete POS plans. If you need inventory, tip or time management with Toast, though, you’ll need an add-on app.
Additionally, the ability to manage multiple locations is native to Heartland’s Complete plan. But per pos.toasttab.com, if you’re a Toast POS user with two or more locations and want to manage them (and specifically their menus) all from a single point of truth, you’ll need to add on Multi-Location Management — a separate add-on Toast product.
Online ordering and delivery
Online food ordering has grown 300% faster than dine-in since 2014. It now accounts for roughly 40% of total restaurant sales, making an online ordering platform no longer a nice-to-have, but instead a critical piece of your POS system.
Similarities
Both providers have proprietary online ordering solutions and the option to use third-party delivery integrations. With online ordering, you can create a hosted ecommerce website, set delivery zones and create different dine-in/carryout/delivery menus.
Differences
With Heartland, online ordering is included in all plans at no extra cost. As of 5/4/23, Toast customers who want to offer guests this convenience must subscribe to the Growth plan (or higher), or add on Digital Ordering at $75/month.
Once again, we want to reiterate that this pricing listed above is based on information available on pos.toasttab.com as of May 4, 2023. Pricing and features of both Toast and Global Payments products are subject to change.
Mobile ordering (scan to order / scan to pay)
Similarities
After 2020, the demand for contactless dining soared. Toast and Heartland have kept up, both offering merchants their own scan to order and scan to pay features. How does that work? Restaurants that enable the technology invite their customers to order and/or pay for their meals by scanning a QR code with their own iPhone/other smartphone. This may speed up the dining process, reduce kitchen errors and allow you to serve more people with less staff. It’s a win-win for all parties.
Differences
Again, the key difference is not so much in the functionality, but the availability. As of 5/4/23, Toast Mobile Order and Pay™ is an add-on product; scan to order and scan to pay features are built into Heartland Essentials and Complete.
Guest app
Similarities
As of the publication date, Heartland and Toast each have a mobile guest app, helping you get in front of more hungry eyes, drive more revenue and enhance the customer experience. Diners can use it to find nearby restaurants, place takeout or delivery orders, collect and check loyalty program points.
Differences
Heartland Guest takes the functionality a step further. If you’d like to enable the option for your restaurant, your customers can use the app’s waitlist feature, allowing them to get “in line” even before arriving. Talk about a great way to reduce crowds and impress guests.
Any Heartland Restaurant customer can list their business on the app and turn on online ordering, regardless of plan. The Toast TakeOut mobile ordering app is part of Toast’s Digital Ordering add-on at $75/mo (unless you are on the Growth plan or higher).
This pricing listed above is also based on information available on pos.toasttab.com as of May 4, 2023. Keep in mind that pricing and features of both Toast and Global Payments products are subject to change.
Heartland Restaurant vs. Toast: Hardware
Heartland and Toast POS each have user-friendly, on-premise and mobile POS hardware options.
Similarities
Countertop
Heartland Restaurant’s countertop solution, as well as Toast’s (known as Toast Flex), is a touchscreen device with a customer-facing display for easy tipping, signature capture and digital receipts.
Guest self-service
Both providers sell physical kiosks and self-ordering software that puts guests in control of their orders and payment.
Handheld
Heartland Mobile POS and Toast Go® 2 are convenient solutions that let servers take orders and payments tableside.
Differences
The main difference between the POS providers’ countertop and kiosk solutions is not the hardware at all, but rather the operating system. At the time of publication, Toast runs on Android™ and Heartland on iOS. This gives merchants the option to use Heartland Restaurant software on their own Apple® devices. Even the self-order kiosk app can be loaded onto iPads anywhere in your restaurant.
The handheld devices are a different story.
Toast Go® 2 is a mobile extension of Toast’s restaurant software. You can take orders tableside and curbside, process payments and bust lines — reducing wait times and speeding up the dining experience.
Heartland Mobile POS does all of the above, but it also gives you the full functionality of Heartland Restaurant in mobile form. That means its value goes way beyond a tableside payment device: Mobile and cloud-based, you can use it to run back-office tasks wherever you are: Pull up purchase orders in the stock room, run reports from the road or check in on other locations from your food truck. It’s the closest you’ll get to being everywhere at once!
Potential benefits of a mobile POS
Turn tables faster
Improve order accuracy
Increase average ticket
Enhance customer experience
...all with fewer server steps and kitchen mistakes.
Heartland Restaurant vs. Toast: Customer support
Similarities
Most restaurants don’t operate 9-5, so you need more than a 9-5 support model. Fortunately, regardless of your plan, both Heartland and Toast offer 24/7 customer care via phone, email and web. You can also troubleshoot using their knowledge bases and FAQs.
Differences
Restaurateurs who want more hands-on support (including implementation, menu building, integration assistance and more) can choose to purchase Heartland through a dealer or local relationship manager. Doing so gives them the option of in-person training and tech support, instead of phone or virtual only.
At the time of publication, Toast does not offer on-site, local support.
Which is best for my business?
That was a lot of info — how are we feeling? Let’s recap with a super high level overview of both solutions. As of the publication date:
Heartland Restaurant...
is an established solution from a provider that has spent over 25 years servicing restaurants’ unique needs. Though not necessarily the cheapest solution on the market, its flexible and scalable plans are packed with the critical features we know you need to stay competitive and find success. You’ll enjoy flat-rate pricing and don’t have to worry about fees for add-on features appearing on your bill.
Toast POS...
is newer to the market and has modern, sleek hardware to match — plus a very strong brand reputation. Toast offers ample features for running every aspect of your restaurant, but they add up quickly, and you’ll have to tack on additional apps and services to reach feature parity with Heartland POS. But, if you’re a single-location dine-in-only eatery with very basic needs, Toast is a great, inexpensive option.
This pricing listed above is based on information available on pos.toasttab.com as of May 4, 2023. Pricing and features of both Toast and Global Payments products are subject to change.
Now it’s your turn: We’d love to learn about your restaurant. Tell us a little bit about it, and we’ll show you personalized software and hardware options built with your business in mind.
And if you’re still feeling overwhelmed by choices, let’s talk it out! To learn more about Heartland’s restaurant POS technology or just ask a few no-pressure questions, contact us today. We’d love to be a resource.
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Disclaimer: ©2023 Global Payments Inc. Global Payments Integrated and Heartland are service marks of Global Payments Inc.® All rights reserved. All trademarks and service marks contained herein are the sole and exclusive property of their respective owners.
The information provided in this document does not, and is not intended to constitute legal advice; instead, all information, content, and materials available are for general informational purposes only. Information provided may not constitute the most up-to-date legal or other information, and readers of this information should contact their attorney to obtain advice with respect to any particular legal matter, in the relevant jurisdiction. All liability with respect to actions taken or not taken based on the contents here are hereby expressly disclaimed.
Heartland is the point of sale, payments and payroll solution of choice for entrepreneurs that need human-centered technology to sell more, keep customers coming back and spend less time in the back office. Nearly 1,000,000 businesses trust us to guide them through market changes and technology challenges, so they can stay competitive and focus on building remarkable businesses instead of managing the daily grind. Learn more at heartland.us
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