SkyTab vs Toast: Cost and Fees Calculator
Enter your volumes to compare estimated monthly costs and fees for SkyTab and Toast across the selling types both offer, using published US pricing.
Full POS system
Estimates combine processing fees and monthly subscriptions on the plans noted above. One-time hardware, setup, and add-ons are excluded. Rates are published or typical US pricing as of mid-2026 and may have changed.
How the SkyTab vs Toast calculator works, and how the two compare
SkyTab is Shift4's restaurant POS, known for bundling hardware free in exchange for a processing agreement. SkyTab costs $29.99 per month per terminal with hardware included at no upfront cost; processing is set in your agreement (modeled here at 2.6% + $0.10) and 36-month terms are standard. Toast is the leading restaurant-specific POS platform in the US, with proprietary hardware and mandatory in-house payment processing. Toast's Core plan is $69 per month at 2.49% + $0.15 in person; the $0 Starter Kit bundles hardware but charges 3.09% + $0.15, online orders run 3.50% + $0.15, and hardware is proprietary at roughly $800 per station.
How they are similar: Where they overlap: both SkyTab and Toast cover running a full point-of-sale system, which is what this calculator compares. They also share the same commercial model: both operate as a point-of-sale platform where software subscriptions and card processing come as a package. In both cases the bill is driven by a percentage of each sale plus any fixed per-transaction fee, which is why your average transaction size changes the effective rate as much as the headline percentage does.
How they differ: SkyTab's free-hardware, low-subscription model minimizes upfront cost, but the multi-year contract and required Shift4 processing are the trade-off to read carefully before signing. Toast is restaurant-only and all-in: the deepest food-service feature set on the market, but you must use Toast processing, hardware has near-zero resale value, and contracts commonly run 2 to 3 years.
Assumptions used in this calculator
- SkyTab is modeled on: $29.99 per month per terminal, hardware included, 36-month agreement standard (2.6% + $0.10 modeled).
- Toast is modeled on: Core plan $69 per month at 2.49% + $0.15; Starter Kit $0 per month at 3.09% + $0.15.
- Rates are published or typical US pricing as of mid-2026 and change often; quote-based providers are modeled at representative rates. Always confirm current pricing with the provider.
- One-time hardware, setup, add-on apps, keyed-in transactions, international cards, and chargeback fees are excluded from the monthly figures.