Toast's own online ordering doesn't take a per-order commission from US restaurants, but it isn't free. Third-party pricing guides estimate the module at about $75 a month, and online card payments go through Toast Payments at 3.50% + 15¢. A WooCommerce ordering site you own swaps that for Stripe's 2.9% + 30¢, plus a plugin, hosting and upkeep, and the two processing rates come out identical on a $25 order. So on fees alone, owning your site saves very little compared with Toast's direct ordering. If you go your own way, do it for control.
Most of the pages ranking for this search come from companies selling their own ordering product. I don't sell one. I build sites, and for plenty of restaurants the honest answer is that they don't need one. Below I put Toast's reported fees next to the running costs of an owned site, work out the cost per order, and show where each option wins.
What are Toast's online ordering fees?
According to independent reviewers, Toast's online ordering costs about $75 a month for the module plus 3.50% + 15¢ per online card payment, with no per-order commission. Toast quotes each restaurant separately, and several 2026 guides note that it no longer posts a fixed processing rate on its pricing page. Take the figures below as what reviewers report, and check them against your own quote. The $75 module fee in particular comes from third-party pricing guides, not from Toast or a major review site, so treat it as an estimate.
| Toast cost line | What's reported | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Point of Sale software plan | $69/month | NerdWallet |
| Starter Kit (pay-as-you-go) | $0/month, but in-person processing of 3.09% to 3.69% + 15¢ | Forbes Advisor |
| In-person card processing | 2.49% + 15¢ | US News |
| Online order card processing | 3.50% + 15¢ | US News |
| Online ordering module | About $75/month (third-party estimate) | Loman, Checkthat |
| Toast Delivery Services | Uber Direct from $6.99 per delivery under 6 miles, plus a default $3.99 guest delivery fee | Toast support |
| Contract | Often 2 to 3 years | POSUSA |
Toast calls its direct ordering commission-free with a flat monthly fee. That's true, and it's the big difference from DoorDash or Uber Eats. If marketplace commissions are what's actually hurting you, read DoorDash commission vs your own ordering site instead. This post is about a narrower choice: Toast's own ordering, or a site you own.
Two things about Toast that owners often miss:
- You can't bring your own processor. Toast locks you into Toast Payments, so there's no shopping the online rate around.
- The 99-cent guest fee. In June 2023 Toast confirmed a 99-cent "order processing fee" on online orders over $10, paid by your guests rather than you. Restaurant owners pushed back hard, and some 2026 pricing guides still list it. Whether it applies to you depends on your account, so get your rep to confirm it in writing.
What does it cost to run your own ordering site?
An owned WooCommerce ordering site has no per-order commission. You pay Stripe's 2.9% + 30¢ per card payment, $0 to about $149 a year for a restaurant ordering plugin, and then hosting, maintenance and kitchen printing. When I build one, it's WordPress and WooCommerce, a restaurant ordering plugin, Stripe for payments, and something that gets each order to the kitchen. The running costs look like this:
| Owned site cost line | Typical price | Source |
|---|---|---|
| WooCommerce | Free, open-source core plugin | WPSlash |
| Restaurant ordering plugin | Orderable Free $0, or Pro $149/year | Orderable |
| Alternative plugins | Barn2 Restaurant Ordering from $59/year; Restaurant for WooCommerce $149/year; FoodMaster $499 for one site | Barn2, WooCommerce.com, WPSlash |
| Card processing (Stripe) | 2.9% + 30¢ per online card payment | NerdWallet |
| Hosting, updates, backups | Depends on host and retainer | Your host and developer |
| Kitchen printing | PrintNode subscription plus a supported receipt printer | PrintNode pricing |
| Delivery | Your own drivers, or a courier you contract directly | Your agreement |
None of these take a cut of each order. Orderable, for one, doesn't charge transaction fees on any plan.
The build is the one-off cost, and it varies the most. A menu with pickup only is a small job. Delivery zones, modifiers, time slots, tipping and automatic printing each add scope. I've broken down US ranges by scope in how much a restaurant website costs in the US.
Is Toast or Stripe cheaper per online order?
On a $25 online order, Toast and Stripe cost exactly the same. Below $25, Toast's reported rate is cheaper. Above it, Stripe's standard rate wins. There isn't much in it either way: Toast has the higher percentage and lower fixed fee, Stripe the reverse.
| Order value | Toast online (3.50% + 15¢) | Stripe (2.9% + 30¢) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| $15 | $0.68 | $0.74 | Toast 6¢ cheaper |
| $25 | $1.03 | $1.03 | Same |
| $40 | $1.55 | $1.46 | Stripe 9¢ cheaper |
| $60 | $2.25 | $2.04 | Stripe 21¢ cheaper |
| $100 | $3.65 | $3.20 | Stripe 45¢ cheaper |
Let's run a month. Say a US restaurant takes 600 online orders at a $40 average ticket, using the reported rates:
- Toast: 600 × $1.55 = $930 in processing, plus about $75 for the module. Roughly $1,005 a month.
- Owned WooCommerce site: 600 × $1.46 = $876 in processing, plus Orderable Pro at $149 a year (about $12 a month). Roughly $888 a month, before hosting, maintenance and printing.
3.50% + 15¢
Toast online card rate (reported)
2.9% + 30¢
Stripe standard online rate
$25
Order value where both cost the same
~$117/mo
Gap at 600 orders a month, $40 average
About $117 a month is real money. But hosting and a maintenance retainer can swallow most of it. I've set out typical US ranges in how much WordPress maintenance costs in the US, so you can put your own figure against that gap. If someone tells you an owned site will save you thousands compared with Toast's own ordering, ask them to show their working. Against DoorDash-style commissions, yes, the savings are big. Against Toast's direct ordering, the fee case is weak.
When does your own ordering site make more sense than Toast?
Owning your ordering site makes sense when you need control, custom rules or a way out of Toast POS. A lower card rate on its own isn't a good enough reason. These are the cases where I'd lean towards owning:
- You're not on Toast POS. Toast Online Ordering runs on Toast POS. If you're on Square, Clover or no POS at all, getting Toast ordering means switching your whole POS and signing a multi-year contract.
- You need rules Toast doesn't handle the way you want. Delivery limited to an actual radius in miles with fees that go up with distance, catering preorders taken days ahead, or add-ons that don't fit neatly into menu modifiers.
- You want the site, domain and customer list on accounts you own. Operators have complained about Toast's price increases. When the stack is yours, no single vendor can reprice your whole ordering channel.
- You sell more than meals. Sauces shipped nationwide, gift cards, meal kits, merch. A WooCommerce store handles all of that without fuss.
- You want content and ordering on one site. Menus, event pages and blog posts that rank, with the order button on the same domain.
When is Toast's own ordering the better choice?
If you already run Toast POS with a Toast kitchen display, your tickets are small, or you just don't want a website to look after, Toast's own ordering is usually the better pick. I'll say that plainly, because it's often the right call:
- You already run Toast POS and a kitchen display. Orders dropping straight onto the KDS, with the menu and sold-out items in sync, matters a lot on a busy Friday night.
- Your tickets are small. Under $25, Toast's online processing actually costs less than Stripe's standard rate.
- You don't want to look after a website. An owned site needs updates, backups and someone to call when it breaks.
- You're happy with Toast Delivery Services and don't want to manage your own drivers.
An owned site won't talk to Toast POS by default
A WooCommerce ordering site doesn't push orders into Toast POS out of the box. Decide how orders reach the kitchen, such as cloud printing or a tablet, before launch, or your staff will end up re-keying them.
Some restaurants do both. They keep Toast POS for dine-in and counter sales, and use an owned WooCommerce site for the things Toast is awkward with, like large catering orders or retail products.
How did I build owned ordering for Whitfield Service Station?
For Whitfield Service Station in Dover, I built owned online ordering on WooCommerce, a custom Google Maps delivery radius plugin and PrintNode cloud printing. It's a UK project I did while working with Aura Clips, a London agency, and it wasn't replacing Toast. It's still my closest first-hand example, and the setup is the same one a US restaurant would need:
- WooCommerce for the menu, cart and checkout.
- A custom delivery radius plugin that uses the Google Maps Geocoding API to check the customer's address against the delivery limit and add distance-based fees.
- PrintNode cloud printing, so every paid order prints on the receipt printer by itself and nobody has to keep glancing at a screen.
The printing piece is what makes it usable for a busy kitchen. A plain WooCommerce store without it isn't. I've written up how that works in how to print WooCommerce orders automatically in a kitchen. If you need pickup time slots, they can go on the same setup.
What should you ask before you decide?
Get Toast's online rate, monthly fee, guest fees and contract terms in writing. Then get straight answers from any developer on ownership, kitchen printing, delivery zones and maintenance. Questions for Toast:
- What's my online card rate, in writing?
- What's the monthly fee for online ordering on my plan?
- Are any per-order fees charged to my guests, such as the 99-cent fee?
- How long is the contract, and what does it cost to leave early?
Questions for any developer quoting an owned site:
- Will the hosting, domain and Stripe account be in my name?
- How do orders reach the kitchen, and what happens if the printer goes offline?
- Are delivery zones a zip code list or a real distance check?
- How do staff mark an item as sold out during service?
- Who updates the plugins each month, and what does that cost?
- Can you show me an ordering site you've built that's live now?
Build time depends mostly on how ready your menu, photos and delivery rules are. Have those sorted before you ask for quotes and you'll get more accurate ones.
What should you do next?
Send me your monthly online order count, your average ticket and the POS you're on now. I'll tell you straight whether an owned ordering site is worth it for you, or whether you should stick with Toast's own ordering. You can see what I build on the WooCommerce stores and online ordering page, or book a 20-minute call.
