Square vs. Toast vs. Clover: Choosing the Right Restaurant POS in 2025

Choosing a POS system is one of the most consequential technology decisions a restaurant makes. The right system saves your staff hours every week and gives you real data to run your business.

We've set up and supported dozens of POS systems across South Florida restaurants. Here's our honest breakdown:

Square for Restaurants

Best for: Fast casual, counter service, food trucks, and smaller full-service restaurants.

Square's strength is simplicity. Easy to set up, affordable hardware, and the free tier covers basic ordering. It's a solid fit for simple counter-service operations.

Pricing: Free tier available. Plus: $60/mo per location. Processing: 2.6% + 10¢ in-person.

Toast

Best for: High-volume full-service restaurants with complex operations.

Toast handles complex table management, multi-location operations, and kitchen display systems with serious depth. The tradeoff is cost and complexity.

Pricing: Starter: $0/mo (higher processing fees). Point of Sale: $69/mo.

Clover

Best for: Restaurants that want flexible hardware and a large app marketplace.

Clover's main advantage is its app marketplace. But pricing can be opaque since it's sold through resellers.

Our Recommendation

For most South Florida restaurants, Toast or Clover hits the best balance of capability and long-term value. Boom Media deploys and manages both — we handle hardware setup, staff training, and ongoing support.