Both are all in one restaurant platforms. The difference that matters once you are doing real volume is how they charge: Toast takes a percentage of every dollar you process, Foodhub charges a mostly flat fee and leaves your tickets alone. For a high turnover venue, that single difference can be worth tens of thousands a year. Here is the honest, side by side read.
On features, these two are closer than their marketing suggests. Both run point of sale, online ordering, kitchen displays and integrated payments from one platform. If you line up the spec sheets, neither does much the other cannot. So the spec sheet is not where the decision is made.
The decision is made on how each one charges. Toast takes a percentage of every transaction you process, and that percentage is mandatory, because you cannot bring your own payment provider. Foodhub charges a mostly flat platform fee and takes no commission on your own or marketplace orders, with only payment processing on top. When you are quiet, the difference is small. When you are busy, a percentage that never stops growing is the most expensive line in your tech stack, and that is the whole game.
Toast: a percentage of every sale, mandatory Toast payments, no shopping your rate. Foodhub: a mostly flat platform fee, no commission on your own or marketplace orders, just processing on top.
Toast runs on its own proprietary Android terminals you cannot reuse elsewhere. Foodhub supplies EPOS terminals, kiosks and payment devices as part of the platform. Both are restaurant grade.
Toast typically locks you into a two to three year term with early termination fees. Foodhub agreements are lighter, which matters if your circumstances change.
This is the quiet one. Foodhub gives EPOS partners a free marketplace listing and charges no commission on those orders, just processing. Toast charges its card not present rate on online orders. On a delivery heavy venue, that adds up fast.
Numbers make this real. Take a single venue turning over $1,000,000 a year in card and online sales, which is an ordinary number for a busy cafe, restaurant or takeaway. Below is the indicative annual cost of the payments and platform side under each model. These are worked estimates using each provider's published or widely reported rates, not a formal quote, and your real figures depend on your card mix, online share and the deal you negotiate. The point is the shape, not the cent.
| Cost line | Toast | Foodhub usually lower |
|---|---|---|
| Platform / software | Plan fee, around $800 to $1,200 a year for a single venue | Flat platform fee, often quoted around $2,500 to $3,000 a year |
| In person processing | ~2.49% to 2.99% on card present sales, mandatory | ~1% to 1.6% on processing, by volume |
| Online order cost | Card not present rate, around 3.5% on online sales | $0 commission on own and marketplace orders, processing only |
| Indicative payments total | ~$25,000 to $30,000 a year | ~$13,000 to $19,000 a year |
| Contract | 2 to 3 year lock in, exit fees | Lighter term |
The headline is simple. On a million dollars of sales, the percentage model can cost a venue many thousands of dollars a year more than a mostly flat one, and none of that buys extra capability, it is purely the cost of how the bill is structured. Double the turnover and you roughly double the gap, because a percentage scales with your success and a flat fee does not. That is why, for a genuinely busy venue, this is rarely a close call.
One more thing that lands hardest on high turnover venues. From 1 October 2026, surcharging on Visa, Mastercard and EFTPOS is banned in Australia, so you can no longer pass the card fee to the customer. The fee comes out of your margin instead, and the more you process, the more it hurts. That makes the difference between a percentage model and a flat one matter more from October, not less, and it is a real reason for a busy venue to run the numbers now rather than later.
We rate suppliers independently, and we earn a fee from some of them, including Foodhub. That is exactly why we put both sides in writing, including where Toast is the better answer. Here is the balanced picture.
Foodhub does not publish a fixed price list, and we will not invent one. The fee is set on a usage based model, so a single terminal cafe and a three site group pay very different things. What we can tell you is the shape of it, and the rough range venues report. The contrast with Toast is the structure: Foodhub is mostly flat with no commission on your orders, while Toast is a percentage of every sale with mandatory payments. The strip below is the Foodhub model.
These are indicative figures based on what venues report and the published model, not a formal quote. The real number depends on your terminals, volume and which parts of the suite you take. For the full Toast pricing structure, including its processing rates and contract terms, see our Toast review. Getting you an accurate, negotiated Foodhub number and comparing it honestly against Toast for your venue is exactly what we do, free.
Foodhub is one option. Here is how it sits alongside the other POS systems we review, so you can weigh them side by side.
Weighing up a few systems? These break down the same way, on total cost for a real venue, not the marketing.
Tell us your rough monthly card and online volume and we will run the real Foodhub versus Toast numbers for your venue, not a generic estimate. We are a Foodhub partner, so we can get you an accurate negotiated quote, and we will tell you honestly if Toast or another option suits you better. Free, no obligation, reply within 48 hours.
