A friendly note: while we utilize AI to assist with research and outline creation, our content is entirely written by humans. We use Em Dashes as part of our style guide because Flyght's CEO is a proper grammar enthusiast and has instilled in us the use of Em Dashes long before ChatGPT was a thing.
If you’re a restaurant operator researching Toast alternatives or hunting for the best POS system for your multi-unit restaurant, or if you’re comparing the best POS systems to find the top solution for restaurant operators, grab a chair (and maybe a stiff drink). We’re about to do a competitive teardown of three top restaurant POS contenders – Toast, SpotOn, and Flyght – in a no-nonsense, operator-first way. This long-form analysis cuts through the marketing fluff and gets real about what matters: payment processing fees and pricing transparency, customer support (or lack thereof), tech stack integration, vendor business models, total cost of ownership, and what it all means for your bottom line. We’ve even pulled in real Reddit feedback from restaurant owners to keep things honest and grounded in reality. (Spoiler alert: there’s plenty of sass and frustration out there with the status quo).
Whether you’re fed up with Toast’s surprise fees, wary of SpotOn’s promises, or simply exploring POS comparisons for multi-unit restaurants, this guide will help you understand the key differences.
Quick Comparison Table: Toast vs SpotOn vs Flyght
To set the stage, here’s a high-level comparison of Toast, SpotOn, and Flyght across the major categories that concern restaurant operators. When evaluating POS systems, it’s crucial to compare features side by side to ensure you’re selecting the best fit for your business needs. This isn’t your typical vendor-produced table full of checkmarks – it highlights fundamental differences in business model, pricing, features, and philosophy that will impact your total cost and peace of mind down the road.
As you can see, the differences run deeper than feature checklists. Toast and SpotOn may both offer a glossy POS with tableside ordering and pretty reports, and both claim to provide all the features a restaurant might need, but their business models and priorities diverge sharply from Flyght’s. In the sections below, we’ll break down each key decision criterion in detail – with data and real-world anecdotes – so you can decide which POS solution makes the most sense for your restaurant(s).
The Payments Game: Fees, Transparency, and Your Margins
Let’s start with the elephant in the dining room: payment processing fees. In the restaurant POS world, payments are the cash cow – and boy, do the big players milk it. Toast and SpotOn are often marketed as POS providers, but their real money is made on transaction fees. This has huge implications for your long-term costs, especially if you’re running millions through the system each year.
Toast’s Fintech-Fueled Model:
Toast is arguably the poster child for a POS-as-fintech model. Their investor presentations openly tout increasing payment fees as a growth lever. If you’ve felt like Toast keeps finding new ways to charge you, you’re not imagining it. In mid-2023, Toast infamously tried to slip in a $0.99 “order processing fee” on online orders over $10 – essentially a tax on your customers that Toast would pocket. Worse, many operators discovered this fee after it went live; Toast didn’t exactly broadcast it upfront, and some reps weren’t proactively warning clients. The backlash was immediate and ugly. “Sneaky… my take is that Toast is run very poorly,” one restaurant owner wrote, after learning about the fee from other operators and realizing their Toast rep hadn’t mentioned it. Reddit threads filled with irate comments, and by late July 2023 Toast had to publicly backtrack and remove the 99¢ fee due to the uproar. But the damage was done – operator trust took a hit. As one restaurateur put it, “I’m happy they’re doing away with it for now, but [it] still left that bitter taste in most owners’ mouths on how they operate their business” (reddit.com). Others predicted Toast would simply “resurface [the fee] in other ways… subscription price creep, transaction fee hikes, etc.”
And indeed, by late 2024 Toast quietly raised its card processing rates for a portion of customers, by roughly 0.20% on average. Toast justified it by saying they hadn’t increased rates in years and could no longer avoid it– which might be true, but it underscores that with Toast (a now-public company), your processing rate is never locked in stone. They have one payment processor (theirs) and they control the dial. Payment processors are the intermediaries that handle credit and debit card transactions, and with Toast, you’re tied to their in-house processor, so any changes to transaction fees are at their discretion. If quarterly earnings demand a squeeze, guess who pays? As a Toast user on Reddit observed, “Toast has one processor and they raise fees on you at will”.
Perhaps the most telling quote comes from a frustrated operator who switched to Toast expecting to save money by surcharging customers. After a few months, he realized something wasn’t adding up: even passing a 3% fee to guests, his costs were nearly the same as before. “I can’t get a straight answer from [Toast]… it feels like they are literally just stealing money from us,” he wrote. He promptly started shopping for alternatives, including other payment processors like Lightspeed Payments, which is an embedded payment processor option for restaurants. Ouch.
SpotOn’s “Free Hardware” Trick
SpotOn, meanwhile, plays a slightly different game with the same deck of cards. They often dangle $0/month plans or free hardware to get you in the door, which sounds great… until you realize you’re signing up for an inflated processing rate. SpotOn’s own pricing sheets show two main options: 2.89% + 25¢ per transaction if you go with the “Quick Start” no-monthly-fee plan, or 1.99% + 25¢ if you pay for a software subscription (expertmarket.com). Either way, you’ll likely pay somewhere in that range. For comparison, 2.89% is even higher than what many Toast clients pay, and SpotOn’s 1.99% plan still isn’t truly flat – it just means you’re paying some fees upfront instead of via rate. Crucially, SpotOn also reserves the right to raise rates, and their strategy of hardware financing through rates is basically Toast’s playbook in a different outfit. If you’re considering hardware financing, keep in mind that credit approval is typically required to determine eligibility for these plans.
The real-world impact of these creeping fees is significant. A multi-unit operator usually sticks around for 3-5+ years on a platform – and those 0.1% here, 0.2% there increases add up to tens or hundreds of thousands. (SpotOn’s contracts, for instance, often have a clause allowing rate changes with 30 days notice.) On Reddit, you’ll find mixed reviews – some small operators are fine with SpotOn’s fees, others feel pinched. One user noted that SpotOn’s big selling point in his area was advertising that customers pay the credit card fees (through surcharging), which can cut costs for the restaurant but can also annoy guests and doesn’t eliminate the fact that SpotOn still takes its cut. Another operator lamented signing up: “Garbage… Worst business decision I have ever made,” they said about choosing SpotOn, citing constant system problems on top of the costs.
When it comes to hardware and payment acceptance, both Toast and SpotOn rely on a card reader as a vital component of their POS systems. A reliable card reader is essential for seamless payment processing and to avoid issues like connectivity problems or transaction lag.
Flyght’s Flat-Rate Difference
Now, let’s talk about Flyght. Flyght’s model is deliberately the opposite of the above. In over 20 years of business, Flyght has never raised its processing rates once. Read that again. The rate you get on day one is the rate you have on day 5,000. There are no locked-in contracts forcing you to accept future increases – it’s a partnership built on stability. Typically, Flyght offers a flat rate around 2.3% + $0.10 and they put that in writing as a fixed margin. Why so low? Because Flyght isn’t trying to subsidize a free POS or impress VC investors with payment revenue growth. They charge for their bundle of services (POS, tech, support) in a straightforward way and use payments to cover actual costs (interchange, etc.) plus a modest margin – then freeze it. For a multi-unit operator, this can mean huge savings over time.
How huge? Let’s illustrate with the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) example from Flyght’s internal analysis: Consider a restaurant group with 5 locations, doing about $12.5M in annual sales, with 85% paid by card (common in restaurants) and an average check of $35 (so roughly 350k transactions/year across 5 stores). Over 3 years, here were the estimated processing fee totals for each provider:
- Toast: ~$1.01 million in card processing fees over 3 years.
- SpotOn “Quick Start” (2.89% plan): ~$1.16 million in fees.
- SpotOn “Counter Service” (1.99% plan): ~$878k in fees.
- Flyght’s transparent flat rate (~2.3% + 10¢): ~$824k in fees.
Yes, you read right – SpotOn’s high-rate plan could cost a mid-size restaurant group over $300k more than Flyght in just three years. Even SpotOn’s “cheaper” 1.99% plan would cost ~$54k more than Flyght over that span. Toast lands about $186k higher than Flyght. To a big corporation those might sound like rounding errors, but to a restaurant group that’s extremely real money. As Flyght’s team put it, that difference (e.g. $186k vs Toast) is “a sous chef’s salary… or three new patios… or 1,000+ hours of comped appetizers”. In other words, it’s money better spent on your business or staff than padding a vendor’s margins.
Bottom line on payments: If you’re evaluating “best POS for restaurants” and focusing on shiny features, be sure to follow the money. The best POS is useless if its payment fees quietly erode your profits. Toast and SpotOn have proven via their actions (and in Toast’s case, explicit statements) that their loyalty is to their revenue, not your savings. Flyght’s approach of flat, transparent rates is a rare thing in this industry – practically unheard of, actually – and it exists because Flyght makes money on services instead of marking up payments. It’s a fundamental difference in philosophy that will show up in your P&L every month.
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): More Than Just the Sticker Price
We touched on the 3-year cost comparison above, but let’s broaden the view: Total Cost of Ownership isn’t just processing fees. It includes hardware, software, support, upgrades, integrations, and the cost of any additional vendors or downtime. One reason operators often seek “Toast alternatives” is that they’ve been burned by unexpected costs after the honeymoon period. It’s like buying a cheap printer and then learning the ink costs a fortune. Total costs can also vary depending on your hardware, software, and service choices.
Here’s how TCO can diverge among our three players:
Toast TCO
Toast famously lures folks in with attractive up-front pricing. The base POS software might be ~$69/month per terminal for the “Starter” plan (as of 2025) and hardware like terminals and handhelds are often subsidized or discounted if you sign a long-term processing agreement. Many restaurants hop on Toast for this reason – it looks affordable and modern out of the gate. However, the real costs balloon over time. We’ve seen how processing fees can increase. Additionally, Toast has a growing marketplace of additional features and add-ons (marketing tools, payroll, etc.) that often come at extra cost. If you add online ordering through Toast, that might be another monthly fee (or higher processing %). Need a particular integration? Possibly another fee.
Over a 5-year period, a multi-unit group might pay hundreds of thousands in processing, tens of thousands in subscription fees, plus whatever they shell out to other vendors for things Toast doesn’t handle (network, support, etc.). And if something breaks outside the POS, you’re paying a third party to fix it (or scrambling yourself). Downtime is another hidden cost – one Reddit user noted he had to literally swipe cards with Square on his phone during a busy Saturday because SpotOn’s system failed and “they kept blaming it on the network” (we’ll get to SpotOn next). With Toast, if your internet or hardware fails, you might be in the same boat – improvising while waiting for different support teams.
SpotOn TCO
SpotOn’s initial pitch can be very enticing: “free” hardware, no software fees on the basic plan, just pay the processing rate. For a small single-location, that might actually be fine if margins are healthy. But for a multi-unit or higher volume operation, that equation often flips. The higher processing rate in the free plan will quickly outstrip the cost of just buying the hardware and paying a lower rate. That’s why SpotOn offers the lower-rate paid plans – any savvy operator doing the math on a high-volume store will choose 1.99% + monthly fees over 2.89% “free”. Yet, even then, as we calculated, SpotOn’s costs over a few years can be significantly more than Toast or Flyght for the same volume. SpotOn also has other costs to consider: a $1,000 installation/training fee (per site) is typical, and if you want premium features like reservations or advanced marketing, those can add $$ or come only in higher-tier packages. These additional features or add-ons can increase your total cost.
Then there’s the external stuff – again, you’ll need to budget for an IT support firm or internal IT staff, since SpotOn isn’t managing your network or other systems. And if you experience technical issues as some reported (crashes, device glitches), the cost is your time and lost business when the system misbehaves. One manager on Reddit, after slogging through 6 months of SpotOn issues, said “I’m taking the L and going to Toast” – essentially eating the sunk cost because the ongoing pain was too high. That’s a TCO fail: when the cost (financial + operational) of sticking it out exceeds the cost of switching.
Flyght TCO
Flyght’s approach to cost is more holistic: one predictable monthly fee, covering nearly everything. You’re not getting “nickel and dimed” for extra modules or surprise fees. When budgeting, a multi-unit operator can actually forecast their tech costs pretty accurately with Flyght: a flat processing rate (that won’t increase), plus a service subscription that includes POS, support, and a complete set of other managed services you’d otherwise hire separate vendors for. That often means fewer vendors and invoices (maybe just Flyght and your food suppliers, instead of Flyght + Toast + network contractor + security company + …).
The example we gave earlier showed Flyght coming in lowest on processing fees over 3 years. When you factor in that Flyght also includes things that Toast/SpotOn customers pay extra for (on-site network gear, security systems, ongoing IT maintenance), the TCO gap can widen further in Flyght’s favor – especially for multi-location businesses. By having one partner handle everything, you avoid the scenario of “every new issue, another vendor, another invoice”. Flyght’s integrated solution can also help reduce labor costs by streamlining staff management and minimizing manual work, which further improves operational efficiency. With Flyght, you’re able to manage your entire business—from sales and inventory to customer data and reporting—from a single platform, making it a truly all-in-one solution that delivers exceptional value for growing restaurants and bars.
To illustrate, imagine you have 5 locations and you’re comparing two scenarios:
- Scenario A: Toast for POS & payments, plus you hire an IT firm for network ($X/month per store), plus a phone provider, plus a camera security installer, etc. You might also use third-party online ordering or loyalty systems if not using Toast’s. You’ll get separate bills for each, and when something breaks, you play referee.
- Scenario B: Flyght covers POS, payments, network, phones, cameras, online ordering integration, loyalty, all in one. You pay one bill and have one throat to choke when anything goes wrong (though with proactive service, there’s less going wrong to begin with).
In Scenario B, even if the one bill looks a bit high, it’s often lower than the sum of all those disparate costs in Scenario A – and it’s certainly less headache. Predictability is a value in itself. Restaurants operate on thin margins; the last thing you need is an unpredictable tech cost swinging up because of some fee change or emergency outage. Flyght aims to give predictable tech costs (flat payments, fixed service fee), which in turn means more predictable margins for you.
Bottom line on TCO
Toast and SpotOn often win on a short-term price comparison (“What, you’ll give me a terminal for free and lower my monthly bill? Sign me up!”). But smart operators look 3, 5, 7 years out. That’s where Flyght’s stable-rate and full-stack model shines, and where the true cost of the others becomes evident. If you run the numbers for your own restaurant(s) – which we highly encourage – include everything, not just the POS subscription. You might be surprised how much that “cheaper” system actually costs in the long haul.
Tech Stack Integration: One Partner vs. Many Vendors (a.k.a. Herding Cats)
Beyond cost, there’s a practical day-to-day issue that operators of multi-unit restaurants know too well: tech sprawl. A modern restaurant might have a dozen different systems running: point-of-sale, payment terminals, kitchen display screens, online ordering tablets, reservation iPads, guest Wi-Fi, employee scheduling software, surveillance cameras, digital menu boards, and the list goes on. Typically, this means multiple vendors. And multiple vendors mean integration pain and finger-pointing when things break. Managing all these systems separately can be overwhelming, which is why having one platform that brings everything together is so valuable.
Let’s compare how Toast, SpotOn, and Flyght handle the full tech stack:
Toast/SpotOn Integrations
POS-Centric Islands. Both Toast and SpotOn are fundamentally focused on their own POS software and maybe a few adjacent services (Toast, for example, offers its own online ordering platform, and SpotOn has some built-in marketing and reservation tools). But neither provides or manages the underlying network or hardware beyond the POS terminals. If your kitchen printer is offline, could be a Toast issue or your network – Toast will troubleshoot their device, but if it’s your router, that’s not their responsibility. Need to set up security cameras? Call ADT or another specialist. Upgrading your Wi-Fi? Hire an IT guy.
In a Reddit thread about “cloud POS” systems, a user complaining about SpotOn said “they are driving me up the wall with issues” – often these issues stem from things like network reliability or integration with delivery platforms (e.g., DoorDash/UberEats). Toast users likewise sometimes find themselves juggling third-party integrations (e.g., using an integrator like ItsaCheckmate or Deliverect for online delivery aggregators, since Toast’s native integration may not cover everything). The more systems, the more potential points of failure. And when those failures happen, guess who becomes the project manager? You. As Flyght’s team notes, restaurants often end up “cobbling together disparate, expensive solutions from multiple providers” and then the owner/GM becomes the de facto IT coordinator to make them all play nice. If something as simple as your internet goes down, Toast or SpotOn support can’t fix it; then you’re calling Spectrum or Comcast, and maybe your firewall vendor, while service grinds to a halt.
To be fair, Toast has a pretty rich ecosystem of integrations (payment, accounting, food delivery, etc.), and they do curate an app marketplace. But integration in this sense just means software data flows, not that Toast will actively help manage those partners. All of this adds friction and complexity for an operator, especially one without dedicated IT staff.
Flyght Integrations: Full-Stack Ownership.
Flyght’s value proposition is that it owns the entire tech stack for you. Instead of you piecing together a puzzle of vendors, Flyght is the one-stop shop. The benefit here cannot be overstated: one number to call for anything. If the internet is down, Flyght is your ISP liaison (and importantly, Flyght provides 4G cellular backup to keep your POS online during outages). If a security camera fails, Flyght installed it – they’ll fix or replace it. If your digital menu board is glitching, Flyght handles that too. No more herding cats. This kind of unified system means Flyght can also do things like monitor everything centrally – they’ll know if your ISP is dropping packets, if a router is overheating, or if a POS terminal’s software needs an update, often before you do.
Flyght’s unified approach is a fully integrated solution that brings together all essential systems—POS, online ordering, employee management, security, and more—into one platform. By integrating restaurant management software, Flyght delivers a seamless experience for both staff and customers, streamlining operations and reducing friction. This comprehensive approach means features like employee management are not just add-ons, but core components of the system, making it easier to manage staff across multiple locations and ensuring operational efficiency.
Additionally, Flyght’s integration of systems means better data unity. If your POS, online ordering, cameras, and even phone system (FlyghtVoice VoIP) are all part of one ecosystem, they can do some neat things like correlating sales data with, say, call volumes or security events. But even if you don’t need that sci-fi stuff, the day-to-day ease of having everything managed together is a sanity saver.. Flyght gives smaller restaurant groups that same advantage as a service.
Outcome: Less Restaurant Downtime, Fewer Headaches.
When systems are unified, you reduce the chain of things that can go wrong. Toast can’t, for example, guarantee your internet doesn’t drop during the dinner rush – but Flyght can significantly mitigate that risk by installing failover connections and enterprise-grade access points. SpotOn can’t advise whether your network is PCI compliant, but Flyght builds it to be compliant from the get-go. The outcome here is a restaurant that runs without tech headaches, rather than a restaurant owner who’s essentially moonlighting as an IT project manager.
In summary, if you relish managing a roster of tech vendors and enjoy troubleshooting why your POS isn’t talking to your third-party delivery tablet while on hold with customer support, then Toast or SpotOn will give you plenty of that action. If instead you think your time is better spent on, you know, running a restaurant, then having a single partner like Flyght to handle the whole tech stack is a game-changer. This is particularly crucial for multi-unit operators who simply can’t be everywhere at once. Flyght becomes your eyes, ears, and hands on the tech side across all stores at all times.
Support & Service: Reactive Helpdesks vs. Proactive Partnership
Let’s talk about customer support – the unsung hero or villain that you only think about when something’s going wrong. In the restaurant biz, things will go wrong at the worst times (Murphy’s Law of Hospitality). How each provider handles those oh-$%*& moments can make or break your night (and maybe your Yelp rating).
Toast Support:
Toast, being a large company, has a structured support system. There’s a phone line, online knowledge base, and you can email or chat in some cases. Many users report that Toast support is generally competent for basic POS issues – but you might have to wait on hold during peak times. If your question or issue is outside the script, first-level support can falter. A user on r/restaurantowners asked for “opinions on Toast,” and one replied that support was fine until more complex things came up, and then it became frustrating.
Another thread titled “Support is AWFUL” had mixed responses, with some saying they never had issues in years, and others complaining of unreturned calls. It likely depends on the rep, the issue and how much you spend with them.
Importantly, Toast’s support ends at the boundaries of Toast’s system. If your network is the culprit or some integration is acting up, Toast’s team isn’t going to remote into your router or fix your internet. So, there’s an inherent limit to what they’ll do. It’s a reactive model – you notice a problem, you call them, they try to help. And as soon as it’s not directly Toast’s fault, you’re on your own. When it comes to system types, Toast primarily supports a cloud based system, which allows for remote troubleshooting and updates, but if you’re running an on premise system with local hardware, support may be more limited and require on-site intervention. For payment methods, Toast support can assist with issues related to mobile payments, such as troubleshooting transactions made via smartphones or tablets.
SpotOn Support:
SpotOn being smaller, some operators find their support more “personal” (often you have a dedicated rep during onboarding). But as one user noted, “the SpotOn rep [talked] a big game” but after signing, the service didn’t live up to expectations. On technical issues, we saw real comments like “I’m on the support line several times a shift and I’m sick of it” from a manager dealing with SpotOn crashes. That indicates either the support couldn’t resolve the root cause or the system kept failing. Neither is good. SpotOn does advertise 24/7 support.
But again, it’s reactive and limited to their product. If your internet hiccups, you’ll likely hear “have you checked with your ISP?” after they rule out a POS bug. One positive: because SpotOn is not as huge as Toast, you might sometimes reach a familiar person or get more hands-on care for POS issues. Yet in aggregate, operator feedback online swings negative when people have chronic problems – the support can’t magically fix a flawed implementation or feature gap. SpotOn also focuses on supporting cloud based systems, which means they can often resolve issues remotely, but if you have an on premise system, support may be less flexible. Their team is also equipped to help with mobile payments, ensuring that transactions via mobile devices are processed smoothly.
Flyght Support:
Flyght’s support model is entirely different by design. We call it “outcomes-based service” and the concept of a Fractional CTO means the support team isn’t just there to reset your password – they’re there to continually improve and align your tech to your business. It starts with 24/7 monitoring: Flyght is watching your systems (POS uptime, network latency, etc.) and often resolves issues before you even know.
For example, if a terminal goes offline, they might see it and reboot it remotely or dispatch help, sometimes before you’ve even discovered the issue in the rush.
Flyght also does something Toast and SpotOn do not: regular strategic check-ins. Those Quarterly Business Reviews we mentioned are essentially high-level support meetings where they say “Here’s what we’ve observed across your tech stack this quarter, here are recommendations, here’s how we can optimize things for you.” That’s a far cry from “press 5 for technical support.” It’s more like having a virtual CTO on retainer. If something major is planned (e.g., you’re opening a new location or launching a new online ordering partner), Flyght will be actively involved to ensure success instead of waiting for you to call with an SOS after it fails.
Crucially, Flyght’s support covers all the systems they provide, whether you’re using a cloud based system for remote access and flexibility, or an on premise system that requires on-site management and hardware support. We understand the unique challenges of both models, including the need for enhanced security and data protection in cloud environments, and the higher maintenance demands of on premise setups. If the internet is slow, we will diagnose the network. If a camera is down, we will troubleshoot or send a replacement. You get the gist! This is what “restaurant technology partner” truly means, we treat your tech like it’s our own. It’s a proactive, empathy-driven approach.
One Flyght client story: A multi-unit bar operator said the biggest change after switching to Flyght was that “I stopped getting 2am phone calls about the system being down.” Why? Because Flyght had already detected and fixed issues (like an overloaded switch causing periodic outages) as part of their proactive service, and they also trained the staff with better contingencies.
Summary of Restaurant Technology Vendor Support
In sum, Toast and SpotOn give you support lines, Flyght gives you a support team – almost like part of your own team. If you’re a small cafe with one iPad, maybe you don’t need that. But if you’re running a serious operation (especially multiple locations), the difference in support models can mean thousands of dollars saved in avoided downtime and countless hours of stress avoided for you and your managers. Remember, in hospitality the cost of a tech outage is not just measured in repair bills – it’s angry customers, comped meals, bad reviews, stressed staff, lost loyalty. Having a partner who actively prevents those outages (rather than just reacting to them) is worth its weight in gold.
Scaling Up: Multi-Unit Management and Fractional CTO Support
Finally, let’s address a critical factor for any restaurant group aiming to grow: scalability and strategic guidance. Running one restaurant is hard; running 5 or 50 is exponentially harder, not least because of the technology standardization and planning required. Here’s how our trio stack up:
Toast – Enterprise without the Enterprise Support
Toast does have an “Enterprise” offering and large clients. They’ll happily sell a chain of 50 restaurants their POS. The technology itself can handle multi-location menu management, centralized reporting, gift cards across locations, etc. So, Toast’s software scales in that sense. However, what Toast doesn’t provide is strategic IT guidance. If you’re growing from 3 units to 10, Toast isn’t going to sit down with you and say, “Here’s how you should configure your network for all new stores, here’s how to integrate your sales data with your data warehouse, here’s a 5-year technology roadmap.” That’s beyond their mandate – they sell the system and you use it.
Some larger Toast clients hire their own IT directors or CIOs to manage these things, which is fine for big groups. But smaller multi-unit groups (say 5 locations) often can’t justify a full-time CTO, yet really need that kind of strategic thinking as they scale. One Reddit commenter mentioned he “ran the Toast operation for a 16 unit group” and eventually couldn’t recommend Toast because as the group grew, the costs and limitations became apparent. Toast gave him tools, but not the partnership to optimize them across 16 locations without significant internal effort and expense.
SpotOn – Growing Pains
SpotOn similarly can technically be used across many sites. They might assign an account manager for larger accounts, but they don’t have a service equivalent to a CTO consulting. If you had, say, 8 restaurants and wanted to deploy SpotOn everywhere, you’d get the system in each, and you’d have to ensure consistency. SpotOn might help import menus to new stores, but you’re largely on your own to ensure that all locations have proper network setups or that you’re leveraging economies of scale (like negotiating better processing rates or integrating a central loyalty program).
The SpotOn playbook doesn’t include advising on those broader concerns. They do offer multi-location reporting and so forth; the limitation is not in the tech per se but in the guidance and holistic oversight. As one internal comparison noted, SpotOn offers “feature add-ons, no leadership” for scaling. This means you can buy more features as you grow, but they won’t help you lead the charge on technology strategy. Managing stock levels across multiple locations is also critical to prevent overselling and ensure accurate menu availability, but you’ll need to set up these processes yourself.
Flyght – Fractional CTO and a Game Plan
Flyght was practically built with the growing restaurant group in mind. The Fractional CTO concept we’ve mentioned is exactly targeted at operators who have multiple locations but maybe not the budget (or desire) to hire a six-figure IT executive. Flyght provides that leadership as a service. Concretely, what does that mean? It means when you plan to open location #6, Flyght is part of those planning meetings to ensure everything from the construction’s network wiring to the equipment order is standardized and optimized.
It means when you want to roll out a new online ordering platform, Flyght’s CTO-level folks help evaluate it, integrate it, test it in one store, and roll it out to others with minimal disruption. It means creating playbooks (for tech configurations, new employee onboarding with tech, etc.) that are used across all locations. Customizing the floor plan for each site is also part of Flyght’s approach to standardizing operations and improving service efficiency. Essentially, you get the benefit of a corporate IT department’s brainpower, without the payroll.
Furthermore, Flyght’s scaling support includes making sure your data and analytics improve as you grow. For instance, a 2-location operation might get by manually pulling reports. At 10 locations, you need consolidated dashboards, maybe even predictive analytics (e.g., comparing location performance, optimizing labor across stores). Flyght can assist with advanced analytics and ensure you’re utilizing the tech to actually drive decisions, not just collect dust.
To put it cheekily: Toast will sell you 10 POS systems for 10 locations. Flyght will help you build a cohesive 10-location enterprise. The difference is significant. Multi-unit scaling isn’t just about duplicating hardware – it’s about coordinating growth. Things like PCI compliance become bigger targets as you grow (if one store’s network is breached, your whole brand reputation is at risk). Flyght stays ahead on compliance and security across all sites. Things like menu updates or pricing changes can be done once and propagated everywhere with Flyght’s oversight (granted, Toast’s software can do multi-store menu pushes too, so that’s equal – but Flyght will make sure it’s done right and that your staff are trained on changes).
There’s also vendor management: as you grow, you might work with other vendors (maybe a new reservations system, or a new inventory management tool). Flyght will coordinate with and manage those vendors on your behalf where possible. It’s like having an advocate who speaks tech, ensuring you get the best out of all your tools.
In summary, for a growing restaurant group, the value of Flyght’s model is exponential. At one location, you might think “I can handle this stuff myself.” At five, you’re probably stretched. By ten, without a partner or internal team, you’re likely flying by the seat of your pants on tech, which can hold back your growth or cause serious issues (security, outages, etc.). Flyght fills that gap in a way Toast and SpotOn simply don’t.
Philosophy & Trust: Vendor vs. Partner (Why It Matters)
Throughout these comparisons, a theme has emerged: the fundamental philosophy of these companies. It might sound fluffy, but it impacts everything – including your restaurant's pricing structure, support, product direction, and ultimately your experience as a customer.
To put it succinctly:
- Toast and SpotOn act like vendors. They sell you a product (and ancillary services) to hit their numbers. Once it’s sold or installed, you’re somewhat on your own to make it fit perfectly into your business. Their revenue model can be at odds with your success (e.g. higher fees = more money for them, less for you). This can directly affect your restaurant's ability to control workflows and deliver a seamless customer journey. They aren’t unethical companies by any means; they have helped many restaurants modernize. But at the end of the day, they operate on a traditional vendor mindset: provide the tool, collect the fee, answer the phone when called, and grow their profits. It’s telling that both companies are heavily investor-backed – they have pressure to deliver returns. As Flyght says, “Vendors optimize for investor returns. Flyght optimizes for operator success.”.
- Flyght acts like a partner. Cheesy as it can sound, Flyght truly behaves as if they are an extension of your team. Why? Because their business model is literally built on long-term relationships and fixed fees. They don’t make more money by squeezing an extra 0.2% on payments or selling you add-ons you don’t need. They make more money when you grow and add more locations. That aligns their interests with yours: if you’re successful and expanding, that’s good for them too. If you struggle or shut down, they lose a customer – so they have incentive to help you thrive, not just survive. This is why they focus on outcomes (like uptime, efficiency, revenue protection) rather than just outputs (like selling a piece of hardware).
A quote from the Flyght team encapsulates it: “The distinction is simple: Toast is a product. Flyght is a partner.”. In practice, this means you can trust that recommendations from Flyght aren’t coming with an ulterior motive to charge you more – often they’re trying to save you money or hassle, because that keeps you around. It breeds a different kind of trust. One operator who switched to Flyght noted, “For the first time I don’t feel like I’m fighting my tech vendor – we’re on the same side of the table.” That’s the ideal feeling: your POS/IT provider should be on your side, not another point of negotiation.
In a world where restaurants have been burned by vendors (hidden fees, poor support, broken promises), Flyght’s partner approach is a breath of fresh air. It’s not that Flyght is perfect or that Toast/SpotOn are evil – it’s about who’s in your corner when things get tough and how transparently they deal with you. Flyght’s 20-year track record of no rate increases, for example, is a trust signal. Toast’s rollback of the 99¢ fee was good, but the fact they tried it (and now raise rates in other ways) makes many wary. SpotOn’s flashy deals invite skepticism about where they’ll recoup that money later.
Ultimately, your relationship with your POS/tech provider is a bit like a marriage (albeit one you can divorce more easily if needed). It works best when founded on aligned goals and mutual respect, not on one party taking advantage of the other.
Conclusion: Choosing the Best Restaurant POS (What Really Matters)
So, after all this teardown, how do you actually choose the best POS system for your restaurant or group? It comes down to prioritizing what really matters for your operation:
- If you value cutting-edge POS features and a big brand name, and you’re willing to tolerate higher ongoing costs and DIY integration, Toast POS might still be your choice. It’s a solid product, no denying that. Just go in with eyes open about the payments and maybe keep a hawk eye on your statements for any “adjustments.”
- If you got a sweet deal from SpotOn and love their interface or specific features, make sure to do the math on the long-term fees. SpotOn can work well for many, but ensure you’re not sacrificing reliability or paying through the nose over time. And have a plan for handling the tech pieces they don’t cover.
- If you’re looking for a true Toast alternative that addresses the common pain points (fees, support, integration) head-on, Flyght is worth serious consideration. Especially for multi-unit restaurants or those planning to scale, Flyght’s model is built to solve exactly the problems that Toast and SpotOn tend to create or ignore. Transparent flat fees protect your margins. Full-stack service reduces vendors and headaches. Fractional CTO support gives you strategic guidance without the payroll. And a partner mindset means someone’s got your back, not a hand in your pocket.
In the end, the “best POS for restaurants” isn’t just about the software – it’s about the system of technology and people supporting your restaurant. It’s about trust and alignment. As an operator, you want technology that empowers your hospitality, not technology that distracts or detracts from it. The POS should be nearly invisible on a good day – just doing its job – and a lifesaver on a bad day – with a team who jumps in to help fix things fast.
Our competitive teardown has shown that Toast POS, SpotOn, and Flyght take very different roads to providing “restaurant tech.” There’s no one-size-fits-all answer, but there is an answer that’s best for you. If you’re tired of feeling like a small fish in Toast’s big pond, or skeptical of SpotOn’s too-good-to-be-true offers, know that alternatives like Flyght exist, offering a more operator-centric approach.
At the end of the day, we’re a bit biased – Flyght’s philosophy of “Restaurants first, tech second” resonates with us. We believe your POS provider should be as passionate about your restaurant’s success as you are, not just excited about their quarterly earnings call. As one Flyght tagline boldly puts it: “Restaurants don’t need vendors. They need Flyght.”.
Choose the partner that lets you focus on what you do best (hospitality and great food), while they handle what they do best (making your tech hum quietly in the background). That’s the recipe for POS happiness – and fewer 2am panic calls.
Sources: Real operator insights from Reddit, Flyght internal battlecards, industry reports (PaymentsDive, Expert Market) on Toast/SpotOn.
