Toast vs ChowNow, compared by Zayos
Published July 2026 · Updated October 4, 2026
Toast is a restaurant point of sale that includes online ordering. ChowNow is an ordering layer that runs on the point of sale you already own. Toast lists plans from $0 and $69 per month and no processing rate. ChowNow lists $249 to $449 per month plus a setup fee.
No setup fee. Month to month. We get you live in under a week.
Sources for the prices and rates in this section: ChowNow pricing; Toast pricing, read 4 Oct 2026. A company can change them; its own page is what counts.
Are you actually choosing between these two?
Most Toast vs ChowNow articles line the two up like they do the same job. They do not. Toast is the register. ChowNow rides on the register. Before you compare a single price, work out which of these two sentences is true for you.
Get this wrong and you will spend a month comparing $69 against $249 without noticing that the $69 quietly includes replacing every terminal on your line.
“My point of sale is up for renewal, or I am opening a new place.”
You are choosing a whole platform. Ordering is one line item in a decision that also covers terminals, payments, payroll and reporting. Toast belongs on your list. ChowNow does not solve the register problem at all.
Compare Toast against other point of sale systems, not against ChowNow.
“My register is fine. My online ordering is the problem.”
You are choosing an ordering channel. Ripping out a working point of sale to fix an ordering page is a large, expensive way to solve a small, cheap problem. ChowNow belongs on your list. So does anything else that integrates with the register you own.
Compare ChowNow against other ordering layers, not against a whole point of sale.
There is a third case that trips people up: you already run Toast and you are wondering whether to add ChowNow on top of it. That is a real configuration. Toast is one of the point of sale systems ChowNow names in its integration list.
What does each one list, line by line?
Every figure here was read on the company's own pricing page on 4 Oct 2026. Where a company does not list a number, this table says so and does not guess.
Swipe the table sideways to see both columns.
Sources for the prices and rates in this section: ChowNow pricing; Toast pricing, read 4 Oct 2026. A company can change them; its own page is what counts.
How do you compare the price honestly?
Split the bill into three lines and the comparison stops being confusing. Software is the line you are really choosing. Processing is a line you pay somebody no matter what. One time costs are the line everybody forgets until the first invoice.
The software line, which is the real choice
Toast Point of Sale plan: from $69 per month. Toast Starter Kit: from $0 per month in software, with online ordering as an add on that has no price shown. ChowNow: $249, $349 or $449 per month on monthly billing, or $229, $319 or $409 if you pay annually.
Read on its own, Toast lists the smaller number. Read in context, the $69 is the price of a system you are only paying if you also moved your register and your payments to Toast.
The processing line, which only one of them lists
ChowNow lists 2.95% + $0.29 per transaction. Toast lists no processing rate on its pricing page. The rate is part of the quote.
One caution when the quote arrives: an online order is a card not present transaction, which is a different rate from an in person swipe almost everywhere in payments. Ask Toast for both rates in writing before you sign. It is the single most common reason a quote and a first statement do not match.
The one time line, which nobody budgets
ChowNow lists a $119 to $499 setup fee, a $99 annual Apple developer fee if you take the branded app, and $250 to $420 for a printer. Toast does not list a setup fee or a hardware price on its pricing page, so those lines come in the quote. Neither approach is dishonest. One puts the one time costs on the page and the other puts them in the proposal.
Sources for the prices and rates in this section: ChowNow pricing; Toast pricing, read 4 Oct 2026. A company can change them; its own page is what counts.
So which one should I actually pick?
Four situations, four answers. Find yours.
You are opening a new restaurant, or your point of sale contract is ending
You have to buy a register anyway. Buying one that already carries commission free online ordering, with a listed software price from $69 per month, is the cleaner move than buying a register and then bolting a second vendor from $249 per month onto it. Toast is the better answer here.
Your register works and you are not touching it
Retraining a kitchen and a front of house on a new point of sale costs real money in mistakes, comps and slow tickets for the first two weeks. If Square, Clover, Revel, SkyTab or Genius is running fine, ChowNow adds the ordering channel and the branded app without any of that. It is the right call even though its listed monthly price is the larger one.
You want your own app icon on a regular's phone
ChowNow sells a branded mobile app under your own name. Toast routes guests to your mobile web page and to the shared Toast TakeOut app. If the goal is an icon with your logo on it, ChowNow is the one that publishes that product, and the $99 Apple developer fee is Apple's charge, not a markup.
You run full service, with a bar, coursing and handhelds
An ordering layer does nothing for tab transfers, seat level coursing, or a server firing a second course from a handheld at the table. That is point of sale depth, and Toast builds only for restaurants. ChowNow is not competing for this job and does not claim to be.
Sources for the prices and rates in this section: ChowNow pricing; Toast pricing, read 4 Oct 2026. A company can change them; its own page is what counts.
Where does Zayos fit in this?
Full disclosure, since we wrote this page: Zayos is a third option, and it is built for the operator whose real problem is neither of the two above. If your register is fine and your direct ordering is fine, but most of your volume still arrives from the delivery apps at a 15% to 30% base commission, 25% to 35% blended real cost once delivery, marketing and processing fees stack, then the ordering button was never the bottleneck.
Zayos is $399, $499 or $599 per month per location, month to month, with no setup fee. Direct orders carry a small service fee paid by the diner at checkout, $0.99 pickup, $0.99 delivery, $0 dine in and 10% on catering. The restaurant never pays it and keeps 100% of food revenue, and 100% of tips on pickup and dine in. On delivery the tip goes to the driver. Naya Grill in Pompano Beach runs on it. Farooj Abo Alabed, also live on Zayos, is on pace for $40k+ a year in commission not paid to a marketplace: its direct food sales after discounts from 10 Aug to 3 Oct 2026 (55 days), annualized at a 35% blended marketplace cost.
If you are buying a register, buy a register. Toast is good at that. If you need an ordering layer on the register you own, ChowNow is good at that. We are the answer to a different question, and the free report will tell you in about a minute which question you are actually asking.
Questions owners ask about Toast and ChowNow
Do I have to switch my POS to use Toast online ordering?
Is ChowNow really commission free, or is the 2.95% a hidden commission?
Which one is actually cheaper for a single location?
Does ChowNow work with Toast?
Which one gets me the guest data?
I only do about 200 online orders a month. Does either make sense?
What about delivery cost on a direct order?
Sources for the prices and rates in this section: ChowNow pricing; Toast pricing, read 4 Oct 2026. A company can change them; its own page is what counts.
Sources
- ChowNow published pricing: Launch $249, Grow $349, Elevate $449 per month on monthly billing ($229 / $319 / $409 annual), $119 to $499 setup fee, 2.95% + $0.29 per transaction, Flex Delivery $7.98 per order, $99 annual Apple developer fee for branded mobile apps, printer $250 to $420, contact caps 500 / 2,000 / 5,000. get.chownow.com/pricing, read 4 Oct 2026.
- ChowNow direct ordering and integrations: 0% commission on every direct order, 20+ point of sale integrations naming Toast, Square, Revel, Clover, Genius (Heartland) and SkyTab, and the statement that the restaurant owns 100% of diner contact and ordering data. get.chownow.com/products/direct-online-ordering.
- Toast plans: Starter Kit from $0 per month, Point of Sale plan from $69 per month, Build Your Own custom quote, online ordering (Digital Storefront) as an add on with no price shown, and no processing rate or delivery price on the page. pos.toasttab.com/pricing, read 4 Oct 2026.
- Toast online ordering: no commissions on Toast Online Ordering, and Toast Delivery Services via Uber Direct. pos.toasttab.com/products/online-ordering.
- Zayos pricing: zay-os.com/pricing.
Vendor pricing changes. If you are reading this months after the date above, confirm the current numbers on each vendor's own pricing page before you sign anything. If you spot a figure here that is out of date, tell us and we will correct it.
Sources for the prices and rates in this section: ChowNow pricing; Toast pricing, read 4 Oct 2026. A company can change them; its own page is what counts.
Before you pick either one, see the numbers.
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