Comparison

Kessel vs Toast

Restaurant depth, on a term you cannot leave.

Kessel vs Toast, in short

Toast and Kessel are both point-of-sale systems that run a restaurant floor and kitchen. Toast is restaurant-only, sells its own proprietary hardware, and is typically sold as a quoted package on a multi-year term. Kessel is a single published plan at $49 per location per month with no software contract, runs on Stripe Terminal or on the phone you already own, and prices cards at interchange plus 0.60% + 30¢ so the network cost is visible rather than blended. Toast has the deeper restaurant feature set; Kessel has the shorter commitment and the transparent rate.

Kessel software: $49 / monthPer location, every feature, unlimited staff.
Kessel cards: 0.60% + 30¢On top of interchange, passed through at cost.
To start: NothingTap to Pay on the phone you own.
Kessel contract: NoneMonthly. A hardware lease has a term; software does not.

Credit where it is due

What Toast is good at

Toast is built for restaurants and it shows. Coursing, kitchen routing, handhelds, online ordering and delivery integrations are all first class, and for a large multi-station kitchen that depth is worth paying for.

The crux

A quote is not a price

The number that matters is not the one on the proposal, it is the one you cannot change for three years. Quoted pricing means the rate you get depends on how hard you negotiated, proprietary hardware means leaving costs you the hardware too, and a term means the decision you make this month is the decision you live with through two menu changes and a slow winter. Kessel publishes one price, on a month, on hardware that is Stripe’s rather than ours.

Side by side

Kessel and Toast, dimension by dimension

Models, not digits. We do not publish Toast’s rates: they change, and a stale number here would be a lie told at your expense. Check theirs on their own site and put it into the estimator below.

Compared on the same nine dimensions as every other page here
Dimension	Kessel	Toast
Card pricing model	Interchange plus 0.60% + 30¢. The networks’ cost passes through untouched and our margin is one visible line.Kessel	Typically a quoted rate negotiated per venue, packaged with hardware and software.
Software fee	$49 per month per location. One plan, every feature, unlimited staff.Kessel	Quoted tiers per venue, with modules such as online ordering and payroll priced separately.
Cost to start taking cards	Nothing. Tap to Pay on the phone in your pocket, today.Kessel	A hardware package, specified and installed before the first service.
Hardware	Stripe Terminal at Stripe’s price. Buy it, or lease or finance it and pay nothing on the day.Kessel	Proprietary Toast hardware, which does not work with any other system.
Contract	None on the software. Monthly, cancel whenever you like. A hardware lease has a term; the software does not.Kessel	Commonly a multi-year term with an early-termination cost.
Accounting	A real double-entry ledger. Every sale posts a balanced transaction or it does not post at all.Kessel	Deep restaurant reporting, with accounting handled by export.
Inventory	A stock ledger you can audit, with purchase orders, suppliers, cost layers and real margin per line.Kessel	Recipe-level inventory on the relevant module.
Getting your data out	CSV export of catalog, orders, customers and ledger, plus a read/write API. No exit fee.About even	Export and an API, with the depth depending on your package.
AI	Proposes, never applies. Catalog Studio, add-on suggestions measured from your own baskets, dispute drafts. A person clicks Apply.About even	Assorted assistive features across the platform.

Where the money goes

One sale, two routes

The difference is not how much a card costs. It is whether you can see how much a card costs.

When Toast is the better choice

Toast is a serious restaurant platform and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Pick it when the kitchen is the whole business.

A large kitchen with multiple prep stations, coursing and expo routing that has to be exactly right on a 300-cover night.
You want first-party online ordering, delivery integrations and restaurant payroll from one vendor with one support number.
You are opening a new venue with a build-out budget, where a specified and installed hardware package is a feature rather than a cost.

Moving across

There is no one-click Toast import

There is no one-click Toast import. Export your menu as CSV and we will map it with you, which for a normal menu takes an afternoon. Check your term and any early-termination cost before you move: that is usually the binding constraint, not the technical work.

Export

Get your catalog and customers out of Toast as CSV.

Map

Send it to us. We map items, variants, modifiers and taxes with you, usually in an afternoon.

Sell

Tap to Pay works the same day. Readers ship after.

Your numbers

Put your Toast statement into this

Total fees divided by total card volume gives your real effective rate. That is the only honest number to compare against, and it is the one we ask for.

Card volume a month$45,000

Average sale$34

About 1,324 card transactions a month. This is the input that decides the answer, so use your real one rather than a round number.

Your current rate2.60% + $0.10Their per-transaction fee$0.10

Both halves, off your own statement. A percentage on its own cannot describe any real rate card, and on a small sale the fixed fee is most of the bill: 2.6% + $0.10 on a $3 coffee is 5.93% effective, not 2.6%. On your numbers it works out at 2.89% effective.

Assumed interchange on your mix1.55%

The one figure here we cannot know. Interchange depends on your own card mix, and a debit-heavy counter sits well below a rewards-credit-heavy one. Default is a typical United States card-present blend, plus $0.12 per transaction. Send us a statement and we will replace this guess with your actual mix.

What you pay now: $1,302 / month

Kessel, all in: $1,572 / month

+$270

a month WORSE on Kessel at this average sale, and we would rather show you that than hide it.

Break-even is an average sale of about $93.81. Above that Kessel is cheaper; below it, the fixed 30¢ costs you more than the percentage saves, and a flat rate is the better buy.

An estimate, not a quote. It assumes your whole volume is card present, and the interchange figure above is an assumption you can change. The two numbers that are not assumptions are ours: interchange + 0.60% + 30¢ and $49 a month.

Questions

Kessel and Toast

Is Kessel a Toast alternative for restaurants?

Yes, for most independent restaurants. Kessel runs tables, courses, seats, several open checks on one table, a kitchen display and a now-serving board, and splits a bill evenly, by amount, by item or by seat. Toast goes deeper on large-kitchen routing and first-party delivery; Kessel is a published $49 per location with no term.

Can I use my Toast hardware with Kessel?

No. Toast hardware is proprietary and locked to Toast. Kessel runs on Stripe Terminal readers and on Tap to Pay, so you can start selling on a phone the same day and add readers as they arrive.

What happens to my Toast contract if I switch?

That is between you and Toast, and it is the part to check first. Read your term and any early-termination cost before you plan a move. Kessel has no software contract, so switching to us is not the thing that locks you in.

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