There’s a special kind of frustration reserved for restaurant operators: managing payroll during a weekend rush, fixing the fryer mid-service, or dealing with a Wi-Fi outage on Friday night. But imagine this: walking into your restaurant one morning, logging into Toast, and realizing you’ve been locked out of your own business.
That’s not a hypothetical—it actually happened.
In July 2025, multiple restaurateurs shared on Reddit that their entire Toast POS system had been hijacked. An attacker got in, changed their login credentials, and effectively hijacked the digital nerve center of their operation. Support was slow to respond. Operations were in limbo. And worst of all, there were no alerts, no warnings, and no easy way back in.
This isn’t just about a glitch or a phishing email. This is about trust—and what happens when the company you’ve entrusted to run your business becomes the weak link in your security chain.
To be crystal clear: as of August 8, 2025, we haven’t seen Toast disclose a platform-wide breach tied to these reports. But multiple public threads and complaints point to a pattern that should make any operator tighten up their login hygiene and ask harder questions about vendor-side security defaults.
What (We Can Prove) Is Happening With Toast's Cloud Based POS System
Phishing & Social Engineering Are Hitting Toast Users
Reddit threads in 2025 describe scam calls and phishing targeting Toast customers—classic “we’re from Toast support, read me this code” nonsense. One post warns directly: “They claim to be Toast.” That’s the first domino for account takeover. If MFA isn’t enforced across the board, you’re one bad text away from a hijack.
MFA: Optional For Most Roles, Mandatory For Some
Toast supports multi-factor authentication (SMS or authenticator app). However, Toast’s own documentation shows MFA can be enabled or disabled by users, and it’s mandatory only for employees with financial permissions—not universally enforced for all admin-level access. That leaves room for weak credential setups unless owners actively turn it on and require it for their teams. Toast Docs
Operators Complain About Support Delays & Lockouts
Public complaints cite slow support, unresolved access problems, and general runaround. BBB complaints (recent) describe login/SMS verification issues and days-long waits; Reddit threads flag UI/login disruptions. While anecdotal, the volume paints a picture of “we’re stuck and can’t ring.”
Toast Has Had Outages & Online Ordering Platform Order Disruptions
Toast documents that third-party order flows can stall when Toast or a partner is down, and third-party uptime monitors have logged API incidents in 2025. Translation: your POS vendor’s cloud health is your health. Toast CentralMoesif
Why Some Restaurants Are Shopping For Toast Alternatives (Receipts Inside)
This isn’t just about security. The “should we move off Toast?” conversation has been simmering for two years. Both full service restaurants and quick service restaurants have been impacted by these issues:
- The infamous $0.99 online-order fee (2023): Toast rolled it out across merchants, backlash was immediate, and Toast reversed it within days. The trust hit lingers.
- Price/fee creep: Trade press called out fee increases and add-ons throughout 2024–2025, pushing some operators to reconsider cost of ownership. Merchant Cost Consulting
- Support pain: Reviews on G2/Capterra consistently mention support delays or inconsistency among the top “cons,” alongside hardware lock-in and contract friction. (Yes, read the fine print.) Payments Dive, The Wall Street Journal
Many businesses, including small businesses, are actively searching for a toast alternative due to these challenges.
Restaurants seeking a better idea or a great alternative to Toast are evaluating toast competitors to find the best fit for their needs.
The Security Gap That Matters: Enforced Basics
Let’s not overcomplicate this. Most takeover stories start with stolen or phished credentials. If your POS doesn’t mandate MFA for all high-privilege accounts, you’re asking for it. Toast supports MFA—but doesn’t require it for every admin role by default, per their docs. That’s the gap. Close it yourself today.
How Toast Stacks Up On “Oh-God-It’s-Friday-Night” Readiness
Sources for the Toast column are pulled from Toast’s support docs, public complaints/reviews, and third-party monitors. Toast Central, Moesif, Payments Dive, The Wall Street Journal
If You’re On Toast Today: Do These 5 Things Now
- Turn on MFA for everyone with elevated access. Use an authenticator app, not SMS where possible. Toast shows you how—just don’t leave it optional. Audit weekly. Toast Docs
- Permission cleanup: Remove former staff, tighten roles, and minimize owner-level access. (Least privilege isn’t just for banks.)
- Phishing drills: Verbally verify any “Toast” calls; never read one-time codes to inbound callers. Report scams to staff weekly. See what’s hitting others.
- Backup your config & data: Export menus, taxes, modifier sets, and reports quarterly. If you lose access, you’re not rebuilding from memory at 4 p.m. on a Saturday.
- Build an offline plan: Decide how you’ll accept payments during cloud or ISP issues (offline mode, backup LTE, floor tickets). Toast’s own docs signal third-party outages happen. Toast Central
When the System Goes Down, What Happens Next?
Let’s face it: in the restaurant industry, downtime is a four-letter word. When your point of sale (POS) system goes dark—whether it’s a power outage, a fried router, or a vendor-side meltdown—every minute offline means lost sales, unhappy customers, and a hit to your reputation. That’s why business continuity and disaster recovery aren’t just IT buzzwords. They are survival strategies.
Enter the cloud based pos system. Unlike old-school, on-premise setups that can leave you stranded when disaster strikes, a cloud based pos gives you a lifeline. With your data and operations living securely in the cloud, you can access your system from anywhere with an internet connection; whether you’re at home, managing multiple locations, or troubleshooting from your phone during a late-night emergency.
For many restaurant owners, this flexibility is a game-changer. But not all cloud based pos systems are created equal. When you’re shopping for a new pos system, look for a security solution that includes SSL encryption, regular data backups, and protection against online attacks. A rock-solid internet connection is non-negotiable (think high-speed fiber or a reliable LTE backup) so your business doesn’t grind to a halt when the Wi-Fi hiccups.
Beyond security and reliability, the best cloud based pos systems offer advanced reporting tools, inventory management, and team management features that help you run a tighter ship. Want to know which menu items are flying out the door, or which staff members are crushing it on Friday nights? Advanced reporting and analytics put those answers at your fingertips.
Some of the most popular cloud based pos systems for restaurants offer a buffet of features: online ordering, table management, customizable reporting tools, and seamless third party integrations. Whether you run a single location or a growing empire, these systems scale with your business and help you unlock your full business potential.
Thinking About Alternatives? Here’s The Shortlist (With Reasons)
We’re vendor-agnostic until we’re not—security and uptime come first. When operators go “anything but Toast,” here’s where they look and why, based on independent roundups:
- SpotOn / Lightspeed / Square / Clover / TouchBistro / Revel: These stacks show up repeatedly as top “Toast alternatives,” with trade-offs across feature depth, payments flexibility, and total cost. Use these lists as a neutral starting point while we sanity-check your requirements. Restaurant Business Online, New York Post, Business Insider, Payments Dive
- What reviewers actually dislike about Toast: Common themes in verified reviews: support inconsistency, hardware/contract friction, and pricing surprises. If those are your pain points, vet rivals specifically on those. Payments Dive, The Wall Street Journal
Pro move: define your must-have security controls (MFA enforcement, admin audit logs, device alerts) and make vendors prove it in writing—before you sign.
A Real-World Pivot (Composite Case)
“Rusty Copper Tavern” moved off Toast after repeated downtime and an account-access mess post-departure of a manager. After migrating to a cloud POS we support (with enforced MFA, role hardening, and LTE failover), they report measured 99.99% uptime and fewer “where’s the login code” emergencies, along with improved order management and stronger customer relationships.
Our Bias (And Your Advantage)
We design, implement, secure, and own outcomes for every piece of tech in your restaurant. That includes:
- Enforced MFA + lockout policies across your POS and key apps
- FlyghtProtect firewall + LTE failover to keep orders flowing
- Ongoing POS audits and “new device/login” alerting where supported
- Response in minutes—not days (because cold fries are a crime)
We’ll happily audit your current Toast, SpotOn, Micros, Aloha, Clover, or Lightspeed setup—for free—and give you a no-BS risk report you can act on immediately.
FAQs (Because It’s 2025 And We Don’t Have Time)
Did Toast have a breach in July 2025?
We didn’t find a public Toast disclosure of a platform-wide breach. We did find 2025 posts about phishing/scam calls targeting Toast users and public complaints about access and support delays. That still warrants action on your side.
Is MFA on Toast required?
Toast supports MFA and requires it only for roles with financial permissions; otherwise it’s user-controlled. Turn it on and standardize it across your admins now.
Has Toast had reliability drama?
They’ve reversed controversial fees after backlash (2023) and documented third-party order disruptions/outages. Third-party monitors also show incidents. Build a “cloud hiccup” playbook.
