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At first glance, UpMenu and Toast both serve restaurants — but they’re solving different parts of the problem. UpMenu is built around getting your restaurant selling online: commission-free ordering, a branded mobile app, website builder, and marketing tools. Toast is a full POS-anchored platform combining hardware, software, and payment processing for in-house and digital operations. That core difference shapes almost every comparison below.
Neither tool has usable third-party review data in our research set, so there are no scores or verdicts to share here — just the grounded facts.
Pricing at a Glance
| Plan | UpMenu | Toast |
|---|---|---|
| Entry | $49/month, billed monthly | $0/month, billed monthly (Starter Kit) |
| Mid | $89/month, billed monthly | $69/month, billed monthly (Point of Sale) |
| Top published | $169/month, billed monthly | — |
UpMenu publishes three flat-rate tiers — $49, $89, and $169, all billed monthly — making it straightforward to budget. Toast publishes two plans: a Starter Kit at $0/month and a Point of Sale plan at $69/month. Toast’s pricing page also notes hardware kits, flat-rate processing, and payroll bundles, and it invites visitors to request a custom quote — so your real cost will depend on hardware and add-ons beyond those two published software prices.
What Each Platform Does
UpMenu: Online-First Restaurant Ordering
UpMenu positions itself as everything a restaurant needs to succeed online. Its core is a commission-free online ordering system, meaning restaurants keep more of each sale rather than paying a cut to a third-party platform. Around that, it layers a drag-and-drop website builder with 40+ templates, branded iOS and Android mobile apps, a QR code digital menu, and delivery management with a courier app.
On the marketing side, UpMenu includes a loyalty program, restaurant CRM, customer data platform, email marketing, SMS marketing, gift cards, and a feedback system. It also covers order aggregation — pulling orders from multiple delivery platforms into one screen — and supports Google Food Ordering.
For multi-location operators, UpMenu has restaurant franchise management software and multi-branded portals. Its POS is listed as “coming soon,” and it currently offers mobile POS, delivery POS, quick service POS, and online ordering POS options. Notably, UpMenu explicitly calls out specific restaurant formats: pizza ordering, food truck ordering, and contactless ordering.
Toast: POS-Anchored Restaurant Platform
Toast describes itself as combining hardware, software, and payment processing with third-party integrations. The POS and operations suite includes a point of sale, kitchen display system, handheld POS, self-ordering kiosk, and a Toast IQ assistant. Payment processing and tips management are part of the platform, along with a Toast Now management app.
For front-of-house and guest experience, Toast includes online ordering, Toast Mobile Order & Pay®, Toast Tables™ for reservations, a guest CRM, and a branded mobile app. On the marketing side, there’s email marketing and gift cards.
Toast also covers supply chain and accounting through xtraCHEF cost analytics, inventory management, and a supplier and accounting suite. A payroll suite and team management suite are listed products. For delivery, Toast has Toast Delivery Services®, Toast Local, and integrations with Grubhub, Uber Eats, and DoorDash. Multilocation management is also a listed capability.
Toast explicitly names the restaurant types it covers: quick service, full service, fast casual, bar and lounge, cafe and bakery, casual dining, food truck, fine dining, hotel restaurant, catering and events, drive-thru, sports and entertainment, and more. It also lists availability across North America, Europe, and Australia.
Finance products — capital loans and instant deposit — round out the platform.
Feature Comparison by Theme
Online Ordering & Digital Presence
Both platforms include online ordering and branded mobile apps. UpMenu leads on the website-building side, with a dedicated drag-and-drop restaurant website builder, 40+ templates, a restaurant CMS, and a landing page builder — all explicitly captured. UpMenu also calls out commission-free ordering directly in its positioning, and includes a WordPress restaurant plugin for restaurants already on that CMS.
Toast includes online ordering and a Digital Storefront Suite, but the website-building depth isn’t detailed to the same level in its captured features.
POS & Hardware
Toast’s foundation is its POS hardware and software stack — physical terminals, handheld POS, self-ordering kiosks, kitchen display systems, and payment processing are core captured features. This is where Toast’s differentiation lives.
UpMenu’s full POS system is listed as “coming soon.” It currently lists mobile POS, delivery POS, quick service POS, and online ordering POS options, but a full in-house restaurant POS is not yet a delivered feature.
Marketing & CRM
Both tools list email marketing, gift cards, a loyalty or rewards program, and a guest/customer CRM. UpMenu additionally lists SMS marketing, a feedback system, and a restaurant customer data platform. Toast’s marketing suite is captured at a category level without equivalent SMS or feedback detail in the fact sheet.
Delivery
UpMenu includes delivery management with a courier app, order aggregation across multiple delivery platforms, and a white label delivery app. Toast lists Toast Delivery Services®, Toast Local, and named integrations with Grubhub, Uber Eats, and DoorDash.
Multi-Location & Franchise
Both platforms list multilocation management. UpMenu specifically names restaurant franchise management software and multi-branded portals. Toast lists multilocation management as a captured feature.
Finance & Back-Office
Toast captures a payroll suite, team management suite, xtraCHEF cost analytics, inventory management, capital loans, and instant deposit — a meaningfully broader back-office and finance set than what’s captured for UpMenu. UpMenu captures analytics and reporting, restaurant CRM, and customer data platform, but not payroll, cost analytics, or capital products.
Pricing Transparency
UpMenu publishes all three of its plan prices upfront — $49, $89, and $169/month billed monthly — so you can model your cost before speaking to anyone. Toast publishes a $0 Starter Kit and a $69/month Point of Sale plan, but hardware, payment processing rates, and add-on modules aren’t broken out in the captured pricing, and a custom quote is also offered. If total cost of ownership matters to your decision, both tools are worth a direct conversation, but UpMenu gives you a cleaner starting number.
Choose UpMenu If…
- Your priority is commission-free online ordering and you want a published price you can budget against today
- You need a restaurant website builder, 40+ templates, and a CMS without a separate tool
- You want SMS marketing, a feedback system, and a restaurant customer data platform alongside email and loyalty
- You run a pizza shop, food truck, or franchise/multi-branded operation and want tooling called out for those formats
- You’re ordering-first and can wait on a full in-house POS (listed as coming soon)
Choose Toast If…
- You need a physical POS with hardware — terminals, kitchen display systems, handheld devices, and self-ordering kiosks — as the center of your operation
- Payment processing built into the platform matters to you
- You want payroll, team management, xtraCHEF cost analytics, capital loans, or instant deposit from a single platform
- You operate in fine dining, hotel restaurants, drive-thru, sports and entertainment, or other formats Toast explicitly names
- You need operations that span North America, Europe, or Australia
Pricing and features reflect what was captured from each vendor’s published pages as of the fetched dates above. Verify current plans directly with each vendor before making a final decision.