FlashCrafterRestaurants playbook
Toast Marketing's email, SMS and loyalty tools, the limits and rules that come with them, and how Square, SpotOn, Klaviyo and restaurant-only platforms compare (data seen through October 1, 2026).
Toast Marketing is the email, text-message and loyalty layer that Toast sells on top of its point-of-sale system. It builds its guest list from Toast orders, loyalty sign-ups, gift cards and digital receipts. If you searched "toast pos marketing", you are probably trying to answer one of three questions: what does it include, what does it cost, and is it worth it compared with other options.
One point matters before anything else. Every Toast source we found describes Toast Marketing as restaurant software. Toast's own product page is titled "Restaurant Email & SMS Marketing Software", and its SMS setup article includes restaurant-specific alcohol rules. We found no Toast statement that the platform is sold to plumbers, contractors, home-service companies or professional-service firms, and no integration with field-service, CRM or scheduling tools. If you run an independent service business, this page tells you what Toast Marketing is, then shows what the same category looks like in products that are closer to your work (Square, SpotOn's small-business plans and Klaviyo).
The rest of the page covers Toast's published and reported pricing, its SMS and email limits, the legal rules that apply to any business texting customers, market data on restaurant marketing, and how rival products price and get reviewed. Some Toast pages (pricing and the marketing product page) could not be loaded directly, so several Toast figures come from third parties and are labeled that way. Treat them as a starting point for a written quote, not a final price.
No Toast source describes it that way. Toast's product page calls it "Restaurant Email & SMS Marketing Software". The SMS setup article is written for restaurants and includes an alcohol age-gating rule. A search for Toast being used by plumbers, contractors or professional-service firms returned nothing relevant. We also found no integration between Toast and field-service, CRM or scheduling software.
The mechanics explain why. Toast's native marketing runs on guest data from Toast point-of-sale transactions and online ordering. The email list is built from online ordering, loyalty, eGift cards, digital receipts, Toast Local, Tables and the branded app. Toast loyalty and marketing work only with Toast POS and cannot be bought standalone. A business that does not run Toast POS has no source of guest data for these tools.
The other products in this category are mostly restaurant-focused too. Owner.com, Popmenu, Lightspeed Restaurant and BentoBox publish nothing for home-service, trade or professional-service use. Owner.com's demo form requires a recognized restaurant name. BentoBox is now sold only to Clover POS customers. The products with a credible non-restaurant path are Square (which routes trades and professional services to a separate Services vertical), SpotOn's small-business plans, and Klaviyo (general-purpose email and SMS, though built mainly for e-commerce). Those are covered below.
Toast does not publish plan names, prices or contact limits for Marketing on a page we could read. Its pricing page and its marketing product page both returned HTTP 403 to our fetches, and the vendor pricing capture does not list this information. What follows is third-party reporting, so confirm it with Toast in writing.
Marketing Essentials is reported at $185 per month and includes loyalty, gift cards, email and SMS. Owner.com, a competitor, repeats that figure in its Toast pricing article (published May 15, 2025, modified June 3, 2026). Restaurant Dive reported it on October 8, 2024 as the tier that contains SMS marketing. Toast's SMS support article also says SMS is included in the Marketing Essentials suite and needs no other Toast module. The same Owner.com article lists Toast POS at $69 per month and Digital Storefront Essentials at $75 per month, and says contract and termination terms are not specified.
A standalone Toast Email Marketing add-on at $75 per month appears only in search-result summaries, and one result gave a $75 to $200 range for Toast Marketing. We did not verify either. Toast also publishes "Toast Campaigns (SMS Variable Pricing) Terms and Conditions", which says pricing varies by usage tier, measured from actual SMS usage and the prior month's average subscribed-email contacts. We could not read the tier table, so contact tiers and per-message fees are unknown.
Other context on Toast's cost structure: Toast POS is listed at $69 per month on Capterra with a free version and no free trial. The base POS plans per Owner.com are a Starter Kit (free software, hardware and onboarding fees extra), Point of Sale at $69 per month and Build Your Own (custom pricing). Toast's branded mobile app for restaurants sits in the Digital Storefront Suite at $299 per month (Premium), per Restaurant Dive. A 'Toast IQ Grow' offering (an AI marketing agent plus a human Marketing Success Manager) launched May 5, 2026 at $499 per month, and Toast's CEO called it the fastest-growing new offering the company has launched.
Some reviewers say Toast's built-in email tool is weak. A secondary source says it is 'widely panned' and that many users add Klaviyo or ActiveCampaign. We found no standalone review listing for Toast Marketing; all ratings are for Toast POS overall.
| Item | Figure | Source type |
|---|---|---|
Marketing Essentials (loyalty, gift cards, email, SMS) | $185/month | Third party (Owner.com; Restaurant Dive Oct 8, 2024) |
Toast Email Marketing standalone | $75/month; one result also said $75–$200 for Toast Marketing | Search summaries only, unverified |
Toast's support articles are the most reliable source on how the tools behave. They matter because several limits shape what a small business can actually send.
SMS: Each location gets 500 texts per month with no daily limit. Up to 46,000 additional texts per month per location can be bought, but single-month boosts are not available, and sending stops when you hit the limit. Messages are 160 characters (70 with emojis), up to 4 segments, with one link per campaign. MMS and images or GIFs count as 3 texts each, with a 1 MB maximum. CSV upload is capped at 5,000 rows. Sending is allowed from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., and the business is responsible for the recipient's time zone.
SMS setup requirements: explicit opt-in is required, and existing contacts cannot be imported without new opt-in. The business needs an active, live website on a domain it owns. A dedicated toll-free number can take up to 14 business days to verify. Toast says it may suspend SMS access after a large number of unsubscribes following an upload.
SMS content rules: prohibited content is 'SHAFT-C' (sex, hate, alcohol, firearms, tobacco/cannabis), plus debt collection, high-risk loans and gambling. Alcohol promotion is allowed only if the website has age-gating that requires a birthday; a yes/no 'Are you 21?' prompt is not enough. Carrier and CTIA monitoring can block alcohol-related texts, and a vendor critique says Toast is not responsible for carrier-blocked messages.
Third-party limits on SMS: one phone number per restaurant group, no two-way conversational messaging, and US-only sending.
Email: a 28-day cap applies to automated campaigns per guest. The initial import covers the past six months only. Guests unsubscribe through the link in the email.
Loyalty: a competitor (FaveCard, which sells a rival product) notes Toast loyalty works only with Toast POS, has no Apple or Google Wallet pass and cannot be bought standalone. Treat that as a competitor's characterization.
Toast is large and growing, which is why its marketing tools matter in this category. At Q2 2026 Toast had about 180,000 locations, up 22% year over year, after adding a record roughly 9,500 net locations in the quarter. ARR was $2.4 billion and gross payment volume $60.7 billion (Toast 8-K, August 4, 2026, a primary source).
The wider restaurant industry is under pressure. The National Restaurant Association (NRA) reports more than 1 million outlets, 15.7 million employees and $1.55 trillion in projected 2026 sales. Sixty percent of operators reported reduced traffic, 42% were not profitable, and nine in ten cite food, labor, insurance, energy and swipe fees as significant challenges. The NRA release gives no technology or marketing adoption figures.
On technology, 26% of operators use AI tools, and marketing is the top use: 19% of full-service and 15% of limited-service operators. Ten percent use AI for admin tasks and 6% for ordering. Sixty percent plan more technology investment for customer experience (Restaurant Dive on the NRA State of the Industry, February 18, 2026).
Toast's own 2026 Voice of the Restaurant Industry Survey (April 3–20, 2026; n=676; margin of error ±4%; run by a vendor) found marketing is a challenge for 14% of operators, down 2 points. Inflation is 27%, hiring 22% and foot traffic 15%. Eighty-seven percent are comfortable with AI.
Loyalty is where most marketing spend concentrates. Diner loyalty enrollment was 48% in 2025, up from 46%, and weekly engagement was 47%, up from 34% in 2023. Ninety-three percent of members check for deals. Sixty-one percent of delivery customers and 54% of quick-service patrons say loyalty influences their choice (PYMNTS, February 24, 2026). Loyalty members account for 39% of restaurant visits (Circana) and spend 38% more per visit according to Paytronix platform data, a vendor-published figure.
Two further figures come from secondary summaries and were not confirmed on a primary page: 61% of limited-service and 52% of full-service operators are investing in loyalty or rewards technology, and about 75% of traffic is off-premises (NRA, 2025). TouchBistro (vendor-compiled, citing the NRA and its own report) reports 81% of operators have a website, 51% of full-service restaurants run a loyalty program, 66% send customized promotions, 7 in 10 restaurants are single-unit and 9 in 10 employ fewer than 50 people.
No direct survey exists, so these needs are inferred from operator surveys, vendor documentation and review text.
Repeat visits and traffic recovery. With 60% of operators reporting lower traffic, operators cite loyalty, targeted promotions and guest-relationship investment (Bar & Restaurant summary of the NRA 2026 report).
Low-labor automation. Marketing is the top AI use case, and vendors sell to that. SpotOn quotes a customer saying marketing takes under 15 minutes per week (a testimonial, not independent).
Checkout-level loyalty. Rewards should apply automatically at the POS, with enrollment by phone number or email and no app download (Loop Fans buyer's guide, vendor-published).
Guest data tied to orders. Segments such as ordered in the last 30 days, lapsed guests and high spenders. Klaviyo's Toast integration is built around these.
Direct online ordering to offset third-party commissions. Owner.com's Capterra reviewers cite eliminating third-party commissions of 'typically 25-30%'.
Predictable cost. Fees dominate Toast's complaints. Per-order fees and add-ons dominate Popmenu's and BentoBox's.
The same logic carries over to a service business even though the products differ: you want customers to come back, you want messages to go out without staff time, you want customer records connected to completed jobs or payments, and you want a bill you can predict.
If you run a service business, three vendors publish something closer to your situation than Toast does. None of them lists a native integration with ServiceTitan, Jobber or Housecall Pro on the pages we read.
Square. Square's Restaurants pricing page lists Square Free at $0 per month per location, Square Plus at $49 and Square Premium at $149, plus processing fees, with Square Pro on custom pricing for businesses processing over $250,000 per year. NerdWallet and The Restaurant HQ list the same tiers. Square's own navigation routes home and commercial services, contractors and specialists, and professional services to a separate Services vertical, so check that page for your plan. Even so, the Restaurants page ships tools that apply to trades: unlimited invoices and recurring invoices, deposits, automatic payment reminders, estimates by email, text or link that convert to invoices, contracts with e-signature, Tap to Pay on iPhone and Android, ACH via invoice at 1% with a $1 minimum, and a customer directory with segmentation. Marketing tools include a loyalty program, unlimited email marketing and Google Reviews monitoring. Text marketing is not available on Free; Plus includes 500 messages per month per account then 3 cents each, and Premium includes 2,500 then 1.5 cents each. Plus and Premium offer a 30-day free trial. Square does not state that Restaurants plans are intended for home-service businesses, and no field-service integrations are named. Other Square pages and third-party sources give different plan prices (one search result listed Plus at $29 and Premium at $69; another cited Loyalty from $45 and Marketing from $15). Square's own press release and pricing page support $0/$49/$149, so use that and confirm on Square's site.
SpotOn small business. SpotOn's small-business pricing page lists a Terminal plan at $25 per month and a second plan at $90 per month, with $240 hardware, self-guided setup and card-present processing of 2.45% + $0.15 (Amex 3.19% + $0.15) and keyed 3.45% + $0.15. Its industry pages (Professional Services, Plumbers, Automotive) disagree with the pricing page: they call the second plan 'Terminal + Website' at $90 per month plus a $175 website setup fee, and list $200 hardware instead of $240. SpotOn does not explain the difference, so treat $200 versus $240 as unreconciled. Both plans include a handheld POS, integrated payments, offline mode, a virtual terminal with invoicing and recurring payments, and 24/7 support. No quoting, scheduling, dispatch, job-costing or CRM features appear. No annual pricing, free trial or per-contact limits are published. Industry pages say 'no long-term contracts' but that is a summary, not a quoted contract term. SpotOn's restaurant plans are a separate matter: All-In at $0 per station with a 2-year minimum term, POS Essentials at $55 per station, and DIY Marketing at $0 with the POS, Marketing Assist at $95 per month and Loyalty at $65 per month (restaurant page).
These four are worth knowing if you read comparisons that mention Toast, but none publishes service-business plans.
Owner.com. Two plans on a month-to-month basis with no long-term contract: Flexible (called Flex in the FAQ) at $249 per month plus a 5% restaurant fee per order, and Flat Rate (called Flat in the FAQ) at $499 per month with no restaurant fee, recommended for restaurants with $5,000 or more per month in online sales. A 5% guest order support fee applies on both plans. Both plans include the website, online ordering, branded app, loyalty and rewards, AI-powered email and text campaigns, setup and migration, chargeback protection and 24/7 support. Annual pricing, trial terms and usage limits are not published; the only free offer is a demo. Owner.com's POS page lists a native Clover integration and connections to Toast, Square and Lightspeed; SpotOn is not listed, and the pricing page itself names no POS partners.
Popmenu. Monthly-billing prices are Starter $179, Essentials $299 and Premier $499; prepaid annually they are $159, $269 and $449 (about 10% off). Essentials includes 500 SMS and Premier 5,000. Online ordering is an add-on on all three plans with a flat $1.00 per order fee, and many other add-ons (AI marketing with segmentation, waitlist and reservations, MMS, gift card integration) carry unpublished prices. A secondary source reports online ordering at about $50 per month per location, additional locations at $300, AI marketing at about $300 and onboarding at $1,300 or more; these are not confirmed. The AI phone answering add-on is $349 per month, priced on a demo page. Plans are sold through a demo; there is no standing free tier. Regional prices differ (Canada C$199/C$349/C$599, UK £149/£220/£380, prepaid annually).
Lightspeed Restaurant. Starter 69 USD, Essential 189, Premium 399 and Enterprise by quote. The page shows the number and 'USD' but does not say 'per month', and it does not state an annual price. An aggregator listed older tiers ($59 annual / $69 monthly, $149 / $179, $269 / $319) that conflict with the current page and may be outdated. The pricing page lists no native email or SMS marketing product. Reservations are an add-on on all plans and Kitchen Display is $30 per screen per month. Payment processing rates, hardware prices and contract terms are not published.
BentoBox. BentoBox is no longer sold standalone: its site says 'BentoBox is now Clover' and its products are available only to Clover POS customers. Fiserv announced the acquisition on October 18, 2021, citing more than 7,500 restaurant concepts across 14,000 locations, and completed it on November 22, 2021. Clover launched 'Clover Hospitality by BentoBox' on May 17, 2025. BentoBox's own pricing page returned a 404. Third-party price lists ($119 / $279 / $479, $0.99 per order, 3% processing) come from an undated secondary source and are not confirmed by BentoBox or Clover.
Most review listings rate the whole product, not the marketing tool. Toast has no standalone Toast Marketing listing, so its scores describe the POS overall. G2 pages returned HTTP 403, so every G2 figure below comes from a search summary, and several products show different counts on different dates.
Toast POS shows 4.1 from 554 reviews on Capterra (ease of use 4.2, customer service 3.7; sentiment 79% positive, 8% neutral, 13% negative). On G2, figures range from 4.5 (198 reviews, older Toast cite) to 4.2 (367 reviews, search snippet); sources differ. Trustpilot shows 2.8 from 1,487 reviews on the fetched page and 2.5 from 1,491 in a snippet, with regional pages showing other values; reviewers complain about support, billing and payment delays, though some praise the software.
For the others, see the table. Owner.com's own claim of 4.8 across 1,000+ reviews mixes platforms and is a vendor aggregate. Klaviyo's Trustpilot score (1.6) is far below its Capterra and G2 scores (4.6); Trustpilot reviewers cite billing increases, support behind a paywall and account suspensions, and a competitor analysis ties pricing complaints to the February 2025 move to active-profile billing.
| Product | Platform | Rating (count) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
Toast POS |
Toast (Capterra): support wait times and untrained reps; high costs, processing fees and mandatory hardware; remote-management limits; poor onboarding; refund and billing disputes; external integration problems and outages. A secondary source adds that the built-in email tool is widely panned.
Square (Capterra): processing fees add up, updates disconnect printers, support lags on complex issues, advanced features cost extra and it needs internet.
SpotOn: slow or unreliable phone callbacks and a 'broken' API access process (Software Advice); on Trustpilot and Capterra, unexpected fees, hard-to-reach support, installation delays and stability issues. A secondary review (Loop Fans, which sells a loyalty product) cites billing mismatches, a 2-year minimum on the $0 plan and a $995 conversion fee.
Owner.com (Capterra): limited customization, orders sometimes failing to transmit to Toast, rewards and gift cards that do not integrate with the in-store POS, variable ROI with some 'zero growth' reports, and communication lapses after onboarding.
Popmenu (Trustpilot): unresponsive support, 'charge for everything', the $1 per-order fee, SEO promises not met, charges continuing after cancellation and template-looking sites.
Klaviyo (Capterra): pricing that is 'expensive and confusing', technical glitches and a steep learning curve.
Lightspeed (Capterra): complex self-directed setup, slow email support, paper waste, limited customization and credit-card refunds that need back-office access; a search summary adds difficult third-party delivery integrations.
BentoBox (Capterra): no source-code access or plugin marketplace, higher price than WordPress or Squarespace, billing discrepancies between quoted and actual charges, and feature redundancy when a CRM or gift card system already exists.
The Restaurant HQ weights pricing at 30% (free trial, base cost, add-on transparency), general features at 25–30% (reporting, analytics, templates, POS integrations), advanced features at 10–20% (automation, AI, segmentation), support at 10–15% and an expert score at 10–15%. Its marketing roundup covers SpotOn, Punchh, Hootsuite, Mailchimp and Tattle, and names Square, Toast, Lightspeed and TouchBistro only as comparisons. It does not evaluate Toast Marketing, Owner.com, Popmenu, Klaviyo or BentoBox.
Capterra and Software Advice report four sub-ratings: ease of use, features, value for money and customer service. They add review-sentiment splits (Square 80/13/7 positive, neutral, negative; Klaviyo 95/4/1).
A vendor-published buyer's guide (Loop Fans) recommends checking: verified POS integration with real-time API sync rather than nightly file imports; enrollment at the POS without an app; automated birthday and lapsed-guest campaigns; data export, with restrictions treated as a red flag; and reporting such as active members in the last 90 days and campaign redemption.
Comparison articles repeatedly raise hidden add-on fees, per-order fees, contract length and termination terms, and POS lock-in. Several of these publishers (Foodshot, Owner.com) sell competing products, so weigh their claims accordingly.
POS. Owner.com connects to Toast, Square, Clover and Lightspeed. Popmenu integrates with Toast, Square, NCR Voyix, Clover, SpotOn, Deliverect and Genius (per a search summary of its integrations page, which returned 403). Klaviyo lists Toast, Square, Lightspeed, Resy, OpenTable, Olo and Thanx. BentoBox works with Clover only. Toast loyalty and marketing work only with Toast POS.
Toast and Klaviyo. Klaviyo's Toast integration syncs Placed Order, Fulfilled Order, Ordered Product, Prepared Order and Refunded Order events plus 3 years of history. Klaviyo states that 'Toast does not sync email and SMS consent with Klaviyo', so consent has to be re-collected or uploaded by CSV. Search results also indicate a Mailchimp integration through Toast's partner marketplace; the Klaviyo setup article is login-gated.
Reservations. OpenTable, Resy, SevenRooms and TheFork connect to Lightspeed (Aleno and Eat App also appear). Toast's Local app is being rebuilt with Resy reservations across 20,000 locations, per Yahoo Finance. Lightspeed's loyalty partners include Marsello and Toggle, and an integrator lists a Mailchimp connector.
Third-party delivery. DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub integrations appear in complaints about Lightspeed and Toast. Toast's DoorDash integration is $30 per month, per Owner.com.
Online ordering and gift cards are core to Toast, Square, Lightspeed, SpotOn and Owner.com; for Popmenu, online ordering is an add-on.
Service-business tools. We found no listed integration between any product here and ServiceTitan, Jobber or Housecall Pro. SpotOn's third-party-listed integrations include QuickBooks, Xero, Mailchimp, Shopify and Gusto (unverified against vendor pages). Lightspeed syncs accounting to Xero, QuickBooks Online and MYOB; QuickBooks Online is the one overlap with typical service-business accounting.
These apply to any business that texts or emails customers, not just restaurants. Several come from secondary summaries because the FCC and eCFR pages returned 403, so check current text with your lawyer or the agency before relying on dates.
Consent. Promotional texts need prior express written consent. Per a secondary summary, statutory damages under the TCPA are $500 to $1,500 per message. Toast's own SMS terms require a record of consent. The FCC adopted a one-to-one consent rule in December 2023, and the Eleventh Circuit vacated it on January 24, 2025, the day before it took effect (secondary).
Revocation. Effective April 11, 2025, revocations must be honored within 10 days, and 'stop', 'quit', 'end', 'revoke', 'opt out', 'cancel' and 'unsubscribe' must be recognized. One part of the rule (revocation applying across all message types) was delayed to January 31, 2027 (secondary).
Send hours. 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the recipient's time zone (Toast support). Third parties say Florida, Oklahoma and Washington narrow this to 8 a.m.–8 p.m., and Maryland as well; Florida and Oklahoma also have a three-call-per-24-hour limit (secondary).
Carrier rules. Carrier and CTIA monitoring of SHAFT-C content can block alcohol-related texts.
Email (CAN-SPAM, FTC). Requires an accurate header, a truthful subject line, an ad disclosure, a physical postal address and a working opt-out honored within 10 business days. Penalties are up to $53,088 per email, and the business stays responsible when a vendor sends on its behalf.
Alcohol (restaurants and bars). State rules vary. Secondary sources say happy-hour limits include one beverage type per day, hour caps and midnight cutoffs, and Massachusetts bans happy-hour promotions entirely. Alcohol content in email, SMS or social often needs age verification. Meta requires 21+ targeting for US alcohol ads.
Menu content (restaurants). Chains of 20+ locations under the same name must show calories on menus, including internet menus (FDA; secondary summary). That applies to website and online-ordering menus built on Owner.com, Popmenu, BentoBox and the POS vendors. Whether it covers third-party delivery menus is described as ambiguous.
Before you commit, know what you cannot confirm from public pages: Toast's own pricing and marketing pages, including contract length and early-termination fees (the $185 and '$5,000' termination figures are third-party only); Toast's contact tiers and per-message fees under variable pricing; Popmenu's contract terms and SMS overage rates; BentoBox and Clover Hospitality pricing under the Clover model; Square Loyalty and Marketing prices on Square's own pages; Klaviyo's paid-tier prices on its own page; SpotOn small-business annual pricing, trial and hardware price ($200 versus $240); direct G2 figures for any product; and market-share data for any marketing product. No Toast source states the platform is meant for home-service, trade or professional-service use.
Practical playbook
If you run a service business and not a restaurant, do not start with Toast. Toast Marketing runs on Toast POS guest data and no Toast source describes service-business use. Start with Square's Services vertical or SpotOn's small-business plans, and ask each vendor in writing whether it supports your customer records, invoicing and follow-up needs. Why it works: Toast loyalty and marketing work only with Toast POS and are described as restaurant software. Square routes trades and professional services to a separate Services vertical, and SpotOn publishes small-business pricing and industry pages for plumbers, automotive and professional services.
If you are a restaurant on Toast, ask Toast for a written quote that lists the Marketing Essentials price (reported at $185/month), SMS usage tiers under the variable pricing terms, contract length and any early-termination fee. Do not rely on the third-party figures. Why it works: Toast's pricing page was not readable, the $185 and '$5,000' termination figures are third-party only, and comparison articles repeatedly flag hidden fees, contract length and termination terms as the main risk.
Set up opt-in at the point where customers already interact with you (online ordering, loyalty sign-up, digital receipts) and keep a record of each consent. Do not plan on uploading an existing contact list into Toast SMS. Why it works: Toast requires explicit opt-in, does not allow existing contacts to be imported without new opt-in, and requires a record of consent under the TCPA. Statutory damages are reported at $500–$1,500 per message.
Set send times inside 8 a.m.–9 p.m. in the recipient's time zone, and use 8 a.m.–8 p.m. if you text customers in Florida, Oklahoma, Washington or Maryland. Honor stop-type replies ('stop', 'quit', 'end', 'revoke', 'opt out', 'cancel', 'unsubscribe') within 10 days. Why it works: Toast makes the business responsible for the recipient's time zone, third parties report narrower state windows, and the FCC revocation rule effective April 11, 2025 lists the words that must be recognized.
Budget the 500 texts per location per month (MMS counts as 3), keep messages to 160 characters with one link, and space automated email campaigns knowing a 28-day cap applies per guest. Decide in advance whether you need to buy additional texts, since single-month boosts are not available. Why it works: Toast stops sending at the limit, does not offer one-month boosts, and caps automated campaigns per guest at one every 28 days.
If you need segments such as ordered in the last 30 days, lapsed guests or high spenders, test Klaviyo's free plan (250 active profiles, 500 emails/month) with the Toast integration. Plan to re-collect SMS and email consent, because Toast does not sync consent to Klaviyo. Why it works: Klaviyo's Toast integration syncs order events and 3 years of history, and it is built around those segments. A secondary source says many Toast users add Klaviyo or ActiveCampaign because the built-in email tool is widely panned, though that is one source's view.
Add up your monthly online-order sales and compare Owner.com's Flex plan ($249 plus 5% per order) with its Flat Rate ($499, recommended at $5,000 or more per month in online sales), then compare both with your current third-party commissions. Why it works: Owner.com reviewers cite avoiding third-party commissions of typically 25–30%, and the vendor itself says Flat suits restaurants with $5k+/month in online sales. Both plans also carry a 5% guest order support fee, and some reviewers report variable ROI.
Before buying, confirm real-time POS sync (not nightly imports), enrollment by phone number or email without an app, automated birthday and lapsed-guest campaigns, full data export, and reports on active members in the last 90 days and campaign redemption. Why it works: These criteria come from a vendor-published buyer's guide and address the complaints reviewers raise most often: integration failures, lock-in and rewards that do not apply at the in-store POS.
If you promote alcohol by text, make sure your website collects a birthday rather than using a yes/no '21?' prompt, and check state happy-hour rules before sending. Why it works: Toast allows alcohol promotion only with birthday-based age-gating, carriers may block alcohol-related texts, and state rules on happy-hour promotion vary.
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Vendor pages change. Figures are as published on the capture date; confirm before deciding.
Toast POS | $69/month | Owner.com; Capterra |
Digital Storefront Essentials | $75/month | Owner.com |
Digital Storefront Suite (Premium, includes branded app) | $299/month | Restaurant Dive |
Toast IQ Grow (AI marketing agent plus Marketing Success Manager) | $499/month, launched May 5, 2026 | Yahoo Finance; Toast 8-K |
Toast DoorDash integration | $30/month | Owner.com |
Contract length and early-termination fees | Not published; a '$5,000' termination figure is third-party only | Not confirmed |
Toast's own pricing and marketing pages could not be loaded. All dollar figures except the Toast 8-K facts come from third parties, and Owner.com sells a competing product.
| Area | Rule or limit | Source |
|---|---|---|
Included SMS | 500 texts/month per location; up to 46,000 more per location can be bought; no single-month boosts | Toast SMS FAQ (primary) |
Message format | 160 characters (70 with emojis), up to 4 segments, one link per campaign; MMS/images/GIFs count as 3 texts, 1 MB max | Toast support (primary) |
Send window | 8 a.m.–9 p.m.; business responsible for recipient time zone | Toast support (primary) |
Consent | Explicit opt-in; existing contacts cannot be imported without new opt-in | Toast support (primary) |
Setup | Live website on an owned domain; toll-free number can take up to 14 business days | Toast support (primary) |
CSV upload | 5,000 rows maximum | Toast support (primary) |
Email automation | 28-day cap on automated campaigns per guest | Toast Email FAQ (primary) |
Email import | Past six months only | Toast Email FAQ (primary) |
Two-way texting, multiple numbers | Not supported; one number per restaurant group; US-only | Mindshare (third party) |
Toast support articles, with third-party notes labeled.
We found no survey that asks restaurant owners directly what they want from marketing software, and no market-share data for Toast Marketing, Owner.com, Popmenu, Klaviyo or SpotOn marketing specifically.
| Statistic | Source / year |
|---|---|
About 180,000 Toast locations at Q2 2026, up 22% year over year; record ~9,500 net adds; ARR $2.4B; GPV $60.7B | Toast 8-K, Aug 4, 2026 (primary) |
Toast IQ Grow launched May 5, 2026 at $499/month | Yahoo Finance; Toast 8-K |
1M+ outlets, 15.7M employees, $1.55T projected 2026 sales; 60% reported reduced traffic; 42% not profitable | NRA press release, 2026 |
26% of operators use AI; marketing is top use (19% full-service, 15% limited-service); 60% plan more customer-experience technology investment | Restaurant Dive on NRA, Feb 18, 2026 |
Marketing a challenge for 14% of operators (down 2 points); inflation 27%, hiring 22%, foot traffic 15%; 87% comfortable with AI (n=676, ±4%) | Toast 2026 Voice of the Restaurant Industry Survey via Stacker/ABC17, Sep 26, 2026 (vendor-run survey) |
Loyalty enrollment 48% in 2025 (46% prior); weekly engagement 47% (34% in 2023); 93% of members check for deals | PYMNTS, Feb 24, 2026 |
Loyalty members are 39% of visits (Circana); members spend 38% more per visit (Paytronix data, 2026) | Paytronix blog (vendor-published) |
81% have a website; 51% of full-service run loyalty; 66% send customized promotions; 7 in 10 single-unit; 9 in 10 under 50 employees | TouchBistro, 2026 (vendor-compiled) |
61% limited-service / 52% full-service investing in loyalty tech; ~75% of traffic off-premises | Restaurant Velocity summary of NRA (secondary, unconfirmed) |
Primary sources are marked. Vendor-run or vendor-published figures are labeled as such.
Klaviyo. Klaviyo is general-purpose email and SMS. Its free plan is $0 per month for up to 250 active profiles and 500 emails per month, plus $5 per month of mobile messages and $5 of Composer usage, with email support for the first 60 days only. Paid plan prices could not be read from Klaviyo's page. Third parties report email plans from $20 per month (251–500 profiles) and email plus SMS from $35, with ranges up to about $720 or more per month; those predate Klaviyo's current plan names and may be stale. Billing is monthly, by active profile, and an active profile is any profile that can be emailed regardless of consent status. Klaviyo did not publish native Jobber, Housecall Pro or ServiceTitan integrations; a third-party connector (Integrately) advertises Jobber to Klaviyo client sync. Klaviyo has no main iOS or Android app. It is built mainly for e-commerce, and Housecall Pro and ServiceTitan have their own native marketing add-ons.
| Product | Plan prices | Marketing-related limits and fees | Pricing source |
|---|---|---|---|
Toast Marketing | Marketing Essentials $185/month (reported); standalone email $75/month (unverified) | 500 SMS/month per location; usage-tiered variable pricing | Third party; Toast pricing page not readable |
Square (US) | Free $0, Plus $49, Premium $149 per location per month | Text marketing on Plus (500/month then 3¢) and Premium (2,500/month then 1.5¢); unlimited email; 30-day trial on Plus and Premium | Square pricing page and press release; conflicting figures appear on some third-party pages |
SpotOn small business | Terminal $25/month; second plan $90/month (plus $175 website setup on industry pages) | Hardware $240 (pricing page) or $200 (industry pages); processing 2.45% + $0.15 card present | SpotOn small-business pricing page |
SpotOn restaurant | All-In $0/station; POS Essentials $55/station | DIY Marketing $0 with POS; Marketing Assist $95/month; Loyalty $65/month; SMS fees by volume | SpotOn restaurant pages |
Owner.com | Flex $249/month + 5% per order; Flat $499/month | 5% guest order support fee on both; email, SMS, loyalty, app included; month-to-month | Owner.com pricing page |
Popmenu | Monthly $179 / $299 / $499; prepaid annual $159 / $269 / $449 | 500 SMS (Essentials), 5,000 SMS (Premier); $1.00 per online order | Popmenu pricing page |
Klaviyo | Free plan $0; paid tiers reported from $20 (email) and $35 (email + SMS) | Free: 250 active profiles, 500 emails/month, $5 mobile messages | Free plan from Klaviyo; paid prices third party |
Lightspeed Restaurant | Starter 69, Essential 189, Premium 399 (USD; period not stated) | No native email/SMS product listed; KDS $30/screen/month | Lightspeed pricing page |
BentoBox / Clover | Not published by BentoBox or Clover | Available only to Clover POS customers | Third-party list: $119 / $279 / $479, $0.99 per order, 3% processing (undated) |
Vendor-published pricing where the vendor page was readable; third-party figures labeled. Restaurant-only products are included for comparison and are not marketed to service businesses.
Capterra
4.1 (554) |
Ease of use 4.2, customer service 3.7; 2026 |
Toast | G2 | 4.5 (198) or 4.2 (367) | Search summaries; sources differ |
Toast | Trustpilot | 2.8 (1,487) or 2.5 (1,491) | Fetched page versus snippet |
Square for Restaurants | Capterra | 4.4 (54) | Value 3.9, customer service 3.9 |
SpotOn (restaurant) | Capterra / Software Advice | 4.2 (371) | Support 4.19; data through May 2026 |
SpotOn | Trustpilot | 4.5 (620) | 74% five-star, 16% one-star; 76 reviews in last 12 months |
SpotOn | G2 | 4.4 (240 or 237) | Search snippets, undated |
Owner.com | Capterra | 4.6 (111) | Updated Sep 29, 2026 |
Owner.com | Vendor site | G2 4.8, '1,000+ reviews' | Vendor claim, mixed platforms |
Owner.com | G2 via Foodshot | About 4.8 (369+) | Secondary, undated |
Popmenu | G2 | 4.7 (22) | Search summary |
Popmenu | Trustpilot | 3.2 (54) | Only 2 reviews in last 12 months |
Klaviyo | Capterra | 4.6 (539) | Customer service 4.3, ease of use 4.5; updated Sep 29, 2026 |
Klaviyo | G2 | 4.6 (1,356) | Search summary; snippets showed 1,046–1,356 |
Klaviyo | Trustpilot | 1.6 (369) | 57% one-star, 36% five-star |
Lightspeed Restaurant | Capterra | 4.4 (216) | Support 4.3; reviewer mix 98% small business |
Lightspeed | G2 | 4.0 (294), 4.5 or 4.3 (54) | Search summaries conflict |
Lightspeed | Trustpilot | 3.8 (2,515) | Company-wide, not Restaurant alone |
BentoBox | Capterra | 4.5 (29) | 2026 |
BentoBox | G2 | 4.6 (6) | Search summary |
Ratings seen 2026 unless noted. G2 pages could not be loaded directly. Counts are small for several products; Popmenu and BentoBox G2 numbers are based on very few reviews.
Privacy and loyalty. California's CCPA requires a 'Notice of Financial Incentive' for rewards programs that exchange benefits for data, and the California Attorney General has named loyalty programs, including in food services, as an enforcement priority. Colorado has 'bona fide loyalty program' rules.
Workflow constraints from vendor documentation: Toast SMS consent cannot be imported from existing lists; Toast does not sync consent to Klaviyo; Toast email imports six months of contacts and applies a 28-day automated-campaign cap; Toast SMS needs a live website and a verified toll-free number (up to 14 business days); Toast and Owner.com loyalty and gift-card data stay in the vendor's system, and Owner.com reviewers say rewards do not integrate with in-store POS.