For venues comparing Toast
Toast is a restaurant POS sold with its own hardware, installation and integrated payments. Café QR is a browser-based POS for independent cafés, restaurants and pubs, with QR table ordering built in and no hardware to buy from us.
Toast is a trademark of Toast, Inc. Café QR is not affiliated with or endorsed by Toast. Competitor details checked on 12 October 2026 from their public websites; check current terms with them.
Café QR
Price check · Café QR vs Toast
Checked 12 October 2026
FROM THEIR OWN WEBSITES
Side by side
Prices exclude payment-processing charges unless the row says otherwise. Check the linked provider pages before making a decision.
Monthly price
Card processing
Till
Kitchen display (KDS)
QR ordering
Online ordering
Contract
Hardware
Works offline
Support
Toast may fit a restaurant that wants purpose-built hardware, handhelds and a kitchen display installed and configured for it, with an offline mode and 24/7 customer care.
Its Essentials plan bundles the POS, handhelds and KDS, which may suit a full-service restaurant that wants front and back of house from one supplier.
Café QR may fit an independent café, restaurant, pub or takeaway that wants one system for the till, the kitchen screen and QR table ordering, and wants to see the full price before speaking to anyone. The POS plan is £39 per venue a month and includes the till, waiter app, tabs, floor plan, bookings and your own online ordering page.
It runs in a browser on hardware you may already own, and card payments go to your own Stripe account with no Café QR platform fee. There is no contract and the first month is free.
It is not the right choice if you need to take card payments through an internet outage: offline, Café QR’s till takes only cash and your own payment types.
Ask for the upfront hardware and implementation cost, the card processing rate, the contract length, the price of each extra device, and the price of Mobile Order & Pay.
Then compare the first-year total with Café QR’s published plan, any card readers you buy, and Stripe’s processing on your expected takings.
The app you’ll use
Takings, live orders, tables and what needs you now, on a laptop, a tablet or the phone in your pocket.
Switching from another till
No proprietary hardware, and no setup fee.
Sources
Ask before buying
Toast’s UK pricing page lists Starter from £80 a month and Essentials at £150 a month, with a custom quote above that. Prices include the first hardware terminal subscription, and hardware and implementation are upfront costs.
No. Café QR runs in a browser on an iPad, Android tablet or laptop you already have. You can add Stripe card readers and Star or Epson printers if you want them.
Partly. If the internet drops, Café QR’s till keeps taking cash and your own payment types and uploads those sales when the connection returns, but card payments, tabs and QR ordering wait for it, and offline sales do not reach the kitchen screen. Toast describes an offline mode that keeps orders, ticket printing and card payments going. If taking card through an outage matters to you, weigh it in your choice.
Prefer to talk it through?
Tell us about your venue and we’ll reply, usually within one working day, to plan your setup or show you round the till on a call. It’s an enquiry only: no card, no subscription and no trial started.