VolioToast alternatives in the UK and Ireland
Toast's UK plans start from £80 a month on its own hardware. Alternatives sold in the UK and Ireland, with prices and card rates from their own pages.
Toast sells its restaurant POS in the UK and Ireland on its own hardware, with UK plans from £80 a month as of October 2026 and a card rate it does not print. The alternatives split by what you want to change: a card rate you can read before you sign (Square, SumUp), an iPad POS for a full-service room (Lightspeed), online ordering first (Flipdish), QR ordering on top of the Toast you keep (Storekit, sunday), or a POS in the browser on devices you already own (Volio).
What Toast costs in the UK
Toast’s UK pricing page, read on 11 October 2026, lists two plans:
- Starter: from £80 a month.
- Essentials: £150 a month.
Its pricing page says the upfront costs are “hardware and implementation, which vary depending on your specific hardware packages and installation needs”. Card processing is described as a “simple, flat rate” with no figure. Mobile Order & Pay, online ordering, loyalty, gift cards and Toast Tables are on the plan chart; some are marked “Available with add-on; additional fees may apply”, without a price.
Toast’s help centre also says some Mobile Order & Pay features, such as guests pre-authorising a card to pay at the end, are “not yet available for Canada, Australia, Ireland, and the UK locations”.
What to check in Toast’s terms
Toast’s published merchant agreement (last updated 10 September 2025) sets an initial term in your order, then renews “for successive one (1) year periods”. Leaving early costs the software fees left in the term, or on pay-as-you-go “$150.00 multiplied by the number of months remaining”. Software fees are fixed in the initial term; card rates can change on 30 days’ notice. Its services “may only be used on approved Toast hardware”.
None of that is unusual for a POS sold with hardware. It does mean the date your term ends decides when switching is cheap, so find it before you compare.
Toast alternatives, side by side
| Product | Published prices | Card rates | Contract terms | Read on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toast (with Toast Mobile Order & Pay) | Starter (United Kingdom): From £80, a month Essentials (United Kingdom): £150, a month |
Not published | Published | pos.toasttab.com, Oct 11, 2026 |
| Square for Restaurants | Free (United Kingdom): £0, a month Plus (United Kingdom): £69, a location, a month Kiosk (United Kingdom): £35, a device, a month Free (Ireland): €0, a location, a month Plus (Ireland): €69, a location, a month Kitchen display app, on Free (Ireland): €15, a device, a month Kiosk (Ireland): €35, a device, a month |
Published | Published | squareup.com, Oct 11, 2026 |
| SumUp POS (Point of Sale Pro, POS Plus, Order & Pay) | POS Plus with Order & Pay (United Kingdom): £39, a month Point of Sale Pro (United Kingdom): £49, a month Point of Sale Pro modules, each (United Kingdom): £19, a month Kitchen Display Screen module (United Kingdom): £19, a terminal, a month Kiosk software (United Kingdom): £59, a month Pay-as-you-go card payments (United Kingdom): £0, a month POS Plus with Order & Pay (Ireland): €49, a month Kiosk software (Ireland): €59, a month |
Published | Published | sumup.com, Oct 11, 2026 |
| Lightspeed Restaurant | Basic / Core / Pro (United Kingdom): Not published | Not published | Not published | lightspeedhq.com, Oct 11, 2026 |
| Flipdish | Essential Package: POS & Online Ordering (Ireland): From €139, a site, a month billed monthly, or €119 a month billed yearly Essential Package (United Kingdom): From £139, a site, a month billed monthly, or £119 a month billed yearly Website (Ireland): From €69, a site, a month billed monthly, or €49 a month billed yearly Website & Mobile App (Ireland): From €99, a site, a month billed monthly, or €79 a month billed yearly Self-Service Kiosk software (Ireland): From €79, a site, a month billed monthly, or €59 a month billed yearly |
Not published | Published | flipdish.com, Oct 11, 2026 |
| Storekit | Starter (United Kingdom): Free Pro (United Kingdom): £199, a location, a month |
Not published | Published | storekit.com, Oct 12, 2026 |
| Volio | 30 days of Pro free, then a plan: see the plans and prices | The venue's own provider | Not published | Volio's plans |
From the Ordering System Price Index: each figure as the vendor’s own page printed it, in its currency, on the day shown. “Not published” means no figure was found on the pages read.
A card rate you can read first: Square or SumUp. Square for Restaurants has a free plan in the UK and Plus at £69 a month per location, with in-person card payments at 1.75%. In Ireland, Plus is €69 with unlimited kitchen display devices. SumUp’s Point of Sale Pro is £49 a month with no onboarding fee and “no long-term contracts”; a kitchen display screen is £19 a terminal a month and the kiosk software £59. Both sell card readers and terminals, and both run on an iPad you own.
An iPad POS for a full-service room: Lightspeed Restaurant. Lightspeed’s UK page names its plans (Basic, Core, Pro) but prints no prices. Its euro pages list Basic at €89 a month, Core at €159 and Pro at €249 in Germany, France, the Netherlands and Spain. QR order and pay is an add-on on the euro Basic plan. The full comparison is in the price index.
Online ordering and delivery first: Flipdish. Flipdish bundles its POS with online ordering, a branded website and apps from £119 a month in the UK on a yearly term. Its terms run 12 months and renew unless you give three months’ notice. More in Flipdish alternatives.
Keep Toast, add QR ordering: Storekit or sunday. Storekit’s Grow and Pro plans connect to Toast, Square and Lightspeed; QR order and pay starts on Pro at £199 a month per location. sunday names Toast first among the POS systems it supports; its UK plans are £149 and £199 a month, with QR codes at £3.5 plus VAT each. Neither replaces the till. sunday’s alternatives sets those side by side.
No till to buy: Volio. Volio’s POS, waiter mode and kitchen display run in the browser on phones and tablets you already own, and guests order and pay from the table. It works beside the till you keep, or replaces it.
What Toast does better
- Restaurant hardware it designs and supports: terminals, Toast Go handhelds, kitchen display screens and kiosks. Volio sells no hardware.
- Offline mode that keeps taking orders, printing tickets and taking cards during an outage.
- Support included in every plan, described as “24/7/365” by phone or web messaging.
- Delivery, through its own delivery service and third-party integrations. Volio does no delivery.
- Payroll, scheduling and inventory in the same platform, and a marketplace of certified partners.
- Years in the market. Volio is new: it launched in October 2026.
If you want one supplier for the hardware, the card machine and the payroll, Toast remains a reasonable choice. Most alternatives here ask you to bring more of your own.
Where Volio fits
Volio is one system for the table, the counter and the kitchen. Guests scan a QR code, order from several phones and pay their own part; staff run the floor, the POS and waiter mode on their own phones; the kitchen display runs on a tablet. It can sit beside the till you keep, with a list of what phones paid to match at close, or replace it.
Every plan starts with 30 days of Pro, free, and a venue that cancels keeps its QR menu online, free: see the plans and prices. Payments go to your own account with the payment provider. Volio takes a small fee on a bill paid by phone; guests see it before they pay, or you switch to covering it, and nothing is taken when a guest pays cash or the waiter.
Volio launched in October 2026.
Sources
Pages read on 11 October 2026 unless marked; Toast’s pages refuse automated reads, so they could not be re-read on 12 October.
- Toast pricing, UK: pos.toasttab.com/uk/pricing
- Toast pricing (upfront costs, card rate): pos.toasttab.com/pricing
- Toast merchant agreement: pos.toasttab.com/merchant-agreement
- Toast Mobile Order & Pay, help centre (12 October): support.toasttab.com
- Square for Restaurants pricing, UK and Ireland: squareup.com/gb, squareup.com/ie (Ireland: 12 October)
- SumUp Point of Sale Pro pricing, UK: sumup.com/en-gb/point-of-sale-overview/pos-pro/pricing
- Lightspeed Restaurant pricing, UK and Germany: lightspeedhq.com/uk, lightspeedhq.de (Germany: 12 October)
- Flipdish pricing, UK (12 October): flipdish.com/gb/pricing
- Storekit pricing (12 October): storekit.com/pricing
- sunday FAQ and UK pricing (12 October): sundayapp.com/faq, sundayapp.com/en-gb/pricing
