The Toast alternative built for food trucks

Toast was built for sit-down restaurants. If you're running a truck, you're paying for features you don't need and missing the ones you do.

Why food truck operators leave Toast

You're paying restaurant prices for a restaurant product

Toast's Point of Sale plan starts at $69/month — before processing. At 3.5% + $0.15 per transaction, a truck doing $15,000/month pays roughly $660/month total. TrooNow Starter runs $19/month + Stripe's standard 2.9% + $0.30 — about $470/month for the same volume. That's nearly $2,300/year you're handing to a company that didn't build a single feature for your workflow.

Toast has no idea what a food truck actually needs

There's no live location map. No festival mode. No permit tracker. No SMS location alerts to tell your regulars where you're parked today. No multi-truck fleet console. Toast is table-service software — it was never designed for a truck window.

Hardware lock-in that follows you everywhere

Toast requires their proprietary hardware. When something breaks on a Saturday at a festival, you're waiting on Toast support. TrooNow works on any tablet you already own, with Stripe Terminal or your Square reader for card processing.

You need a whole stack on top of Toast

SMS marketing? That's a $185/month add-on bundle. Loyalty? Same bundle. Live location? Not available at any price. You end up juggling Toast for POS, a separate SMS tool, a separate loyalty app, and a Linktree for your location updates. TrooNow replaces all of it.

See your exact annual savings

Enter your monthly revenue and we'll show you the real cost difference — down to the dollar.

Run the calculator →

Feature comparison

Feature TrooNow Toast POS
Starting price $19/mo $69/mo
Platform fee on orders $0 $0
Processing rate 2.9% + $0.30 (Stripe) 3.5% + $0.15
Tablet POS Any tablet Toast hardware only
Card reader Stripe Terminal or Square Toast reader only
Live location map ✓ Included ✗ Not available
Festival mode + QR pickup codes ✓ Included (Plus) ✗ Not available
SMS location alerts ✓ Included $185/mo bundle
Loyalty program ✓ Included $185/mo bundle
Multi-truck fleet console ✓ Plus plan ✗ Separate account per truck
Permit tracker ✓ Included ✗ Not available
Public marketplace listing ✓ Included ✗ Not available
Bookkeeping + P&L ✓ Pro & Plus ✗ Not available
No-contract trial 14 days free Varies by contract

Common questions

At the Point of Sale plan ($69/mo) with a typical food truck doing $15,000/month in online orders (3.5% + $0.15/transaction), you're looking at roughly $660/month or ~$7,900/year — before hardware costs. Use the calculator above to run your exact numbers.
Yes. TrooNow's setup wizard lets you build your menu from scratch in about 10 minutes — most operators find it faster than they expected. You're not migrating a database; you're building a better one.
If you're on Stripe, TrooNow works with Stripe Terminal readers (BBPOS Chipper 2X or Stripe S700). If you're on Square, your existing Square reader works for both in-person and online orders. No proprietary hardware required.
Toast owns your transaction history — export it before you cancel. TrooNow gives you a clean CSV export of all your data at any time, so you're never locked in.
Food trucks first. The live location map, festival mode, SMS location alerts, permit tracker, and fleet console exist specifically because food trucks need them. Restaurant features (reservations, table QR ordering) are there for operators who run both — but they don't clutter your dashboard if you don't use them.

Ready to stop paying the Toast tax?

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