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JET POS vs Toast (October 2026): what each costs a restaurant, and where each wins

By Anika DeshmukhSoftware and comparisons editor·Updated October 21, 2026·How we score

The short answer

Toast is the stronger full-service tool: kitchen display screens, Go 3 handheld POS terminals, self-service kiosks and 24/7 support. You pay for it with $69 a month plus $50 per extra terminal, a 2-year agreement, and Toast as your only card processor.

JET charges $0 a month for software, with online ordering and loyalty included, no contract, and any processor. For a 2-terminal café at $30,000 a month, our model put JET at $26,816 over 24 months against $30,413 on Toast's $69 plan. That assumes JET's processor charges 2.6% + 10¢; at 15¢, and with Toast's 60% new-customer hardware promo, Toast would be about $260 cheaper. JET has no kitchen display system and runs on Android only.

Disclosure: WHICHpos is published by the company that makes JET, so we score JET on the same public grid and publish the same honest cons as every other system. More on our About page.

To keep this fair, we score both systems on the same grid (JET 8.7, Toast 8.1), take every Toast price from Toast's own pages and the fee history from Toast's statements and named press reports, and list where Toast wins before where JET does.

Which fits your restaurant

Toast fits rooms that run on handhelds and kitchen screens. JET fits counters and dining rooms that run on printed tickets and want no monthly software bill.

Your restaurant	Better fit	Why
Full-service, servers work from handhelds	Toast	Go 3 handheld POS terminals, kitchen display screens
Kitchen runs on screens, not paper	Toast	JET has no kitchen display system
Café, bakery or counter service	JET	$0 software, ticket printing, no contract with JET
Takeout-heavy, wants its own online ordering	JET	Own online ordering, delivery zones and loyalty included at $0, but no DoorDash, Uber Eats or Grubhub integration listed; Toast's Core package, which has those integrations, is $219 a month instead of $69
Wants to shop for a card rate	JET	Toast is the exclusive processor; JET works with any processor
Uses iPads	Neither	JET runs on Android; Toast runs only on Toast's own hardware

JET vs Toast side by side

	JET POS (JET Resto)	Toast
Software	$0 a month, every feature	$0 (Starter Kit) or $69 a month for the 1st terminal; +$50 per extra terminal or handheld, +$35 per kitchen display
Card processing	Any processor you choose (JET is integrated with Verifone terminals)	Toast only: 2.49% + 15¢ in person on the $69 plan (3.50% + 15¢ Amex and online); 3.09% + 15¢ or more on the Starter Kit
Hardware	Topaz 2.0 $1,299 (out of stock: pre-order $1,199, ships in 30–45 days) · Onyx MAX $1,800, with cash drawer and printer; pay once	Countertop kit $1,153 ($0 on the Starter Kit); Flex $749; Go 3 handheld $599; KDS $749; printer $329; drawer $99
Card terminal	From your processor (not included)	Toast Tap included in kits
Contract	None with JET; 30-day money-back on hardware. Your processor may have its own term and fees	2 years, then yearly auto-renewal
Kitchen	Printed tickets with table, seat and modifiers	Kitchen display screens or printers
Ordering at the table	Staff Android phones or tablets; guest QR ordering	Toast Go 3 handheld POS terminals ($599 + $50 a month)
Online ordering, loyalty, gift cards	Online ordering, delivery, loyalty and gift credit included; no delivery-app integrations or email/SMS marketing listed	Core package (+$150 a month) and Growth (+$359 more)
Offline	Keeps ringing sales and printing kitchen tickets; syncs on reconnect. Whether cards work offline depends on your processor's terminal	Offline card payments must go online within three days; merchant bears declines
Support	Self-serve: PDF guides, JET University, email ([email protected]); EN/FR/ES	24/7/365 support included
Devices	Android stations, phones and tablets	Toast-approved hardware only
WHICHpos score	8.7	8.1

Verified October 20, 2026 on Toast's pricing page, shop checkout, merchant agreement and processing terms, and on jetpos.ai.

What each costs over 24 months

At $30,000 a month in card sales, Toast's software fees make most of the difference: $2,856 over 24 months for the café and $8,496 for the full-service room. On the café, another $1,608 comes from the 10¢ per-sale fee we assumed for JET's processor; at 15¢, JET's card fees would run $33 a month above Toast's.

24 months of POS cost at $30,000 a month in card sales

Toast at its published in-person rates; JET with a processor at 2.6% + 10¢ and no monthly processor fees (assumed, since JET has no processor of its own), plus a $349 card-terminal allowance per station. *The full-service JET setup has no kitchen display screen and no handheld POS terminals; see the table. List prices before tax, shipping, installation and Toast's 60% hardware promo.

$30,000/month, 24 months	Hardware	Software/mo	Processing/mo	Total/mo	24 months
Café · Toast $69 plan (2 terminals, printer, drawer)	$2,429	$119	$1,047	$1,166	$30,413
Café · Toast $0 Starter Kit (same devices)	$1,276	$50	$1,227	$1,277	$31,924
Café · JET, 2 × Topaz 2.0 (each with printer and drawer) + 2 terminal allowances	$3,296	$0	$980	$980	$26,816
Full-service · Toast $69 plan (4 terminals, 2 handhelds, 1 KDS, 2 printers, 2 drawers)	$6,500	$354	$822	$1,176	$34,724
Full-service · JET, 4 × Topaz 2.0 + 4 terminal allowances + kitchen ticket printer; not the same setup: no KDS screen, no handheld POS terminals	$6,792	$0	$830	$830	$26,712

Café: $15 average sale (2,000 card sales a month). Full-service: $60 average sale (500 sales). All cards in person, none Amex. Toast at its published rates; JET's processor assumed at 2.6% + 10¢ with no monthly fees, and $349 per station for the card terminal your processor supplies (in the range of countertop terminals sold by Square at $299, Shopify at $349 and Lightspeed at $449). Toast list prices match our Toast pricing page.

JET café: 2 × $1,299 + 2 × $349 = $3,296 hardware; processing $30,000 × 2.6% + 2,000 × $0.10 = $980 a month; 24 months = $3,296 + 24 × $980 = $26,816. Toast café: $2,429 + 24 × (119 + $1,047) = $30,413.

Three things change these numbers:

JET's processing rate is an assumption, since JET has no processor of its own. At 15¢ a sale instead of 10¢ (what Toast charges), JET's café comes to $29,216, still $1,197 below Toast's $69 plan. A processor may also add monthly account or PCI fees; at $19.95 a month (Wells Fargo's Clover fees, for scale) that's $479 over two years. An interchange-plus quote can be lower: our Visa and Mastercard fee model gets about 2.2% to 2.35% effective, though that is for a $40 average sale, and small café tickets carry relatively more per-sale fees.
New customers with fewer than 15 locations who sign by December 31, 2026 get 60% off the hardware in their first order, under Toast's hardware promo. Toast can change or end the offer. If it applies to every line, Toast's café drops to about $28,956 and its full-service setup to about $30,824. With that promo and a 15¢ processor, Toast's café would be about $260 cheaper than JET's.
The full-service rows aren't the same setup. Toast's includes a kitchen display and two handheld POS terminals. JET's prints kitchen tickets and takes table orders on staff phones or tablets that aren't priced here, and portable card terminals aren't included.

Online ordering, loyalty and marketing

JET includes some of what Toast sells as add-on packages: online ordering, delivery and loyalty. It doesn't list delivery-app integrations, email or SMS marketing, or a website builder. On Toast's $69 plan, the Core package (online ordering plus DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub integrations) costs $150 a month more, and Growth (loyalty, gift cards, marketing, websites) another $359.

Feature	JET Resto	Toast ($69 plan, first terminal)
Table floor plan, split bills, modifiers, tips	Included	Included in Toast's POS
Online ordering, delivery integrations	Own branded ordering page, delivery zones, dispatch and live tracking included; no DoorDash, Uber Eats or Grubhub integration listed	Core package: $219 a month
Loyalty, gift cards, email and SMS marketing, website	Loyalty points, house accounts and gift credit included (no SMS or email marketing or website builder listed)	Growth package: $578 a month
AI marketing bundle	—	Toast IQ Grow: launched at $499 a month (May 2026)
Kitchen display system	Not offered	$749 per screen + $35 a month
Payroll	Not listed	$69 + $9 per employee bundle (special price for new restaurants; was $90)

On the café above, Toast's Growth package brings the monthly bill to about $1,675 and the 24-month total to $42,629. JET's software stays at $0, though JET doesn't list Growth's email and SMS marketing or websites.

What Toast's fee history tells you

Toast has changed what restaurants and their guests pay more than once since 2023. Each time, restaurants on Toast had no other processor to switch to without replacing the whole system.

June–July 2023: Toast added a 99¢ fee, paid by guests, on online orders of $10 and over through its new online ordering channels, and restaurants couldn't opt out, Nation's Restaurant News reported. The Boston Globe reported it on June 19; it was set to roll out nationally on July 10. On July 19, 2023, Toast said it would remove it. CEO Chris Comparato wrote: "We made the wrong decision."
September 2024: Toast raised processing rates by 0.05 to 0.23 points for some small and mid-sized customers, according to a William Blair analyst note reported by Payments Dive. A Toast spokesperson said it had not raised card rates in the previous 12 years.
Since then: Toast's CFO told investors in November 2024 that it is building "ongoing small targeted price adjustments". In August 2026, Toast again credited "small targeted pricing moves" for part of the rise in its payments take rate.

Toast's contract allows this: it can change card rates on 30 days' notice, and you can leave without the early termination fee if you object in writing before the change takes effect. But leaving usually means new hardware, new software and retraining.

That is the trade-off behind processor lock-in. With a POS that works with any processor, a rate increase means changing one supplier (and possibly its card terminal), not the whole system.

Contracts and leaving

	JET POS	Toast
Term	None with JET (your processor sets its own terms)	2-year agreement, then 1-year auto-renewals; 30 days' written notice to leave at term end
Leaving early	Nothing to cancel with JET; 30-day money-back on hardware. Check your processor's exit terms	Remaining software fees ($150 per month left on the Starter Kit)
Example: leave with 18 of 24 months left	$0 to JET	Café $69 plan: $2,142 · Starter Kit: $2,700 · full-service: $6,372
Price changes	Software stays $0; perpetual license, "no renewal, no shut-off switch"	Software fixed during the first term; card rates can change on 30 days' notice
Hardware after you leave	Yours; keeps running JET	Yours, but Toast software runs only on Toast-approved hardware; reuse with other POS software is reported not to work
Your data	Cloud backup on your account	May be deleted 30 days after termination

Where Toast wins

Full-service tools: kitchen display screens, Go 3 handheld POS terminals and self-service kiosks. JET has no KDS.
24/7/365 support is included in every Toast subscription. JET's support is self-serve: PDF guides, JET University and email.
A $0 way in: the Starter Kit's first terminal costs nothing upfront (a second is $749 plus a $99 Toast Tap and $50 a month; printer and cash drawer extra), if you accept 3.09% + 15¢ per sale.
A bigger suite: payroll, scheduling, marketing, Toast Capital loans and AI tools (Toast IQ), all from one company.
One vendor: hardware, software, card terminal and processing come together, with nothing to set up separately.

Where JET wins

$0 a month for every feature, including online ordering and loyalty, on unlimited stations and locations, with no software bill ever.
No contract with JET: no 2-year term and no early termination fee. Your processor's terms are separate.
Your choice of processor: shop for a rate, and switch if your processor raises it, without touching the POS.
Ownership: pay once for the station, and the license doesn't expire.
Interface, receipts and support in English, French and Spanish.

The trade-off is that you set up a processor and card terminal yourself, JET runs on Android only, and there's no kitchen display or phone support. JET answers buyers by email ("No calls," its site says) and shows the software in recorded demo videos rather than live demos.

If your restaurant is in Québec

Since June 1, 2025, Québec restaurants subject to mandatory billing must send their transaction data to Revenu Québec through a certified sales recording system (SRS) that works with its WEB-SRM, and give every customer a bill from that system. Before you buy any POS, Toast, JET or another, ask the vendor for its Revenu Québec certification and any monthly WEB-SRM fee. JET, made by the company that publishes WHICHpos, is still finalizing its Revenu Québec certification (October 2026). Until it is certified, JET can't be the required SRS for a Québec restaurant subject to mandatory billing.

See JET pricing at jetpos.ai →Toast's full pricing Read the JET review →

Frequently asked questions

Is JET cheaper than Toast?

For a 2-terminal café doing $30,000 a month, our model put JET at $26,816 over 24 months against $30,413 on Toast's $69 plan. That assumes JET's processor charges 2.6% + 10¢; at 15¢, JET comes to $29,216, still lower. If Toast's 60% hardware promo applies and your processor charges 15¢, Toast's café setup comes out about $260 cheaper. JET's total also excludes any monthly account or PCI fees your processor charges.

Does JET have a kitchen display system?

No. JET Resto prints kitchen tickets, with table and seat numbers and modifiers, on a kitchen printer. Toast sells kitchen display screens ($749 plus $35 a month each). If your kitchen runs on screens, Toast fits better.

Can I leave Toast early?

Yes, but Toast charges an early termination fee: the software fees left in your term, or $150 per remaining month on the $0 Starter Kit. Leaving a 2-terminal café plan with 18 of 24 months left costs $2,142. The fee doesn't apply if Toast raises your processing rate or core software fee and you terminate in writing before the change takes effect.

Did Toast charge customers a 99-cent fee?

Yes, in 2023. Toast added a $0.99 fee, paid by guests, on online orders of $10 and over placed through its new online ordering channels. The Boston Globe reported it on June 19, 2023, and Nation's Restaurant News said it was set to roll out nationally on July 10. After restaurants objected, Toast said on July 19, 2023 that it would remove the fee. CEO Chris Comparato wrote: "We made the wrong decision." It was never a 10-cent per-transaction fee.

Can I use my own payment processor with Toast?

No. Toast's processing terms make Toast your exclusive payment processor. With JET you choose any processor (JET is integrated with Verifone terminals) and can switch without replacing the POS.

Has Toast raised its prices?

In September 2024, Toast raised card rates by 0.05 to 0.23 points for some small and mid-sized customers, according to a William Blair analyst note reported by Payments Dive. A Toast spokesperson said it had not raised card rates in the previous 12 years. Its CFO later said Toast is building "ongoing small targeted price adjustments". Toast's contract lets it change card rates on 30 days' notice.

Does JET work on iPad?

No. JET runs on its own Android stations and on Android phones and tablets; iOS isn't supported. Toast doesn't run on iPads either: its software only runs on Toast-approved hardware.

Does JET include online ordering and loyalty?

Yes, at $0 a month: JET Resto includes its own branded online ordering page, delivery zones and live tracking, loyalty points, house accounts, gift credit and scheduled happy-hour pricing. On Toast's $69 plan, the Core package (online ordering) costs $219 a month and Growth (adds loyalty, gift cards and marketing) $578, for the first terminal. JET doesn't list DoorDash, Uber Eats or Grubhub integrations, or email and SMS marketing, which those Toast packages include.

What happens to my Toast hardware if I leave?

You own it, but Toast's software only runs on Toast-approved hardware, and third-party guides report that Toast devices can't be reused with another POS. Toast may also delete your data 30 days after termination, so export it first.

Which is better for a full-service restaurant?

Toast, if your service depends on handheld POS terminals and kitchen display screens. JET suits counter-service, cafés and rooms that run on printed kitchen tickets and want no monthly software bill or contract.

Sources

Every price and rate on this page was checked on October 20–21, 2026 against the pages below. Something out of date? Tell us and we fix it with a visible note.