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A free Toast POS alternative for your website

Toast is a powerful all-in-one restaurant system — and a big monthly bill, proprietary hardware cost and contract. DineKit is a free platform that lives on your own website: menus, QR ordering, table bookings, commission-free online ordering, a free Kitchen Display, and a full free POS — cash and card payments via your own Stripe reader or pay-by-QR. Self-hosted, used by restaurants worldwide. Here’s an honest look at where each one fits.

Get DineKit — Free

How Toast works & what it costs

Toast is a full restaurant operating system. It’s built to run your whole floor, not just your website — so the pricing reflects that.

To get Toast running in a restaurant you’re typically signing up for three separate costs, not one:

POS software — from roughly £119/month on a mid tier, per location (directional — check current pricing for your region).
Hardware — terminals at around £600–£1,000+ each, and most sites need more than one.
Card processing — around 2.49% + 15p on every transaction that runs through it.

On top of that it usually involves a contract and hardware lock-in, and a Kitchen Display Screen is generally a paid add-on on top of the base software. None of that is a criticism — it’s what a proper in-house point-of-sale system costs. Toast is genuinely powerful and all-in-one: tills, kitchen printers, card terminals, staff, reporting, the lot. But it’s a serious total cost and a real commitment, and it’s aimed at running the entire restaurant.

DineKit now includes a free POS too — order pad, open tabs, split bills, cash and card-present payments via a Stripe smart reader (or pay-by-QR), tips and editable service charge, X/Z cash-up, partial refunds, and a Kitchen Display included free. The difference is how you get there: no proprietary terminals to buy, no contract, no lock-in — just your own Stripe account, on any browser or tablet. The comparison below covers both the till and the website.

DineKit vs Toast, side by side

Where they overlap — and where they honestly don’t.

What you need	DineKit	Toast
Price to start	Free	~£119/mo software + hardware
Hardware required	None to get started — pay-by-QR needs no hardware; card-present POS uses a standard low-cost Stripe reader, not a proprietary terminal	Terminals £600–£1,000+ each
Contract / lock-in	No contract, no lock-in	Typically contract + hardware lock-in
Kitchen Display (KDS)	Included free — per-round coursing tickets, fullscreen kitchen-TV mode	Usually a paid add-on
Installable app + multi-tablet sync	Yes — install to any phone/tablet (PWA); many tablets stay in live sync automatically	Proprietary tablets, tied to their hardware
Online menu builder	Yes, free today	Bundled into the platform
QR code menus	Yes, free today	Add-on within the system
Allergen labelling + printable matrix	Yes, free today — per-dish allergens (e.g. the UK’s 14 statutory allergens / Natasha’s Law) with a printable matrix	Not its focus
Works worldwide	Yes — self-hosted anywhere, menus in your own currency and language	Selected markets only
Loyalty points	Yes — earn & redeem points at the till, free	Add-on / higher tier
Own your data	Open-source, self-hosted	Hosted on their platform
Full in-house till / card terminal	Yes — free POS via a standard Stripe reader or pay-by-QR	Yes — proprietary terminals & kitchen printers

Why restaurants choose DineKit

Menus, ordering, bookings, a kitchen display and now a full till — free, on your own website, anywhere in the world.

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Free, forever

The menu builder, QR menus, allergens, ordering, bookings, Kitchen Display and POS cost nothing. No monthly software fee, no per-transaction cut.

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No proprietary hardware, no contract

DineKit is a WordPress plugin that lives on your existing website. Nothing to buy from DineKit, nothing to lock into — the POS uses your own Stripe account and, if you want card-present payments, a standard low-cost Stripe smart reader you can swap or replace freely.

🍳

Kitchen Display included free

A New → Preparing → Ready board with colour-escalating timers and a fullscreen kitchen-TV mode. Every round you fire becomes its own coursing ticket, so firing mains later doesn’t disturb the starters. Toast usually charges extra for this; DineKit includes it.

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Installable app, live on every tablet

Install the staff app to any phone or tablet (PWA) and run many devices at once — a change on one screen appears on the others within seconds, no proprietary tablets, no manual refresh.

⚠️

Allergens done properly

Per-dish allergen labelling with a printable matrix for staff and inspections — the UK’s 14 statutory allergens (Natasha’s Law) ship pre-seeded as one example, and you can add your own. Built in, free, wherever you trade.

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Own your data, worldwide

Open-source and self-hosted, on any WordPress host in any country. Your menus and customers live on your site — with menus shown in your own currency and language.

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Commission-free ordering & a free POS

QR order-at-table, takeaway and delivery — keep 100%, no commission. Plus a full POS: order pad, open tabs, split bills, cash and card-present payments via your own Stripe reader (or pay-by-QR), tips, editable service charge, X/Z cash-up, partial refunds and loyalty points. Live today, free, no lock-in.

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Built-in support

Get help without a licence key or account — send a support ticket from inside DineKit and track threaded replies right in the dashboard, with the wordpress.org forum as a fallback.

When Toast might still be right

We’d rather be straight with you than oversell. Toast still does some things DineKit doesn’t.

You want fully integrated, proprietary hardware. Toast supplies its own terminals, kitchen printers and hardware ecosystem as one package from one vendor. DineKit’s POS runs on your own standard Stripe smart reader (or pay-by-QR) — no bundled hardware to buy, which some larger kitchens prefer to have supplied and supported as a single unit.
You want Tap-to-Pay on a phone, or a built-in processor choice. DineKit is Stripe-only and card-present needs a dedicated Stripe reader — there’s no tap-to-pay-on-phone and no choice of built-in payment processor. If those matter to you, an all-in-one platform covers them.
You’re a bigger or multi-site operation. High volume, several locations and complex service can justify the enterprise hardware and monthly cost. DineKit is single-venue per site — it isn’t built for managing that scale of multi-location estate from one login.

The honest summary: if you need proprietary hardware, tap-to-pay on a phone, a choice of built-in processor, or multi-site scale, Toast is built for that. DineKit is also Stripe-only with payment capture in GBP today (menus display in your own currency worldwide), and there are no gift cards or promo-code engine yet. But if you want a free POS plus a free Kitchen Display, menus, QR ordering, bookings and allergens — running on your own site, anywhere, with no lock-in — that’s exactly what DineKit is for. Many restaurants only need the second.

Common questions

Is DineKit a replacement for Toast?

For most single-site restaurants, largely yes. DineKit now includes a full free POS — order pad, open tabs, split bills, cash and card-present payments via a standard Stripe smart reader (or pay-by-QR) — plus a free Kitchen Display, commission-free ordering, table bookings, loyalty and allergens, all on your own website, free, no contract. Toast’s remaining edge is its own proprietary hardware (terminals, kitchen printers) as one vendor-supported package, tap-to-pay on a phone, and the depth for high-volume, multi-site operations. If you need that, Toast still fits.

Is DineKit really free?

Yes. The menu builder, QR menus, allergen labelling with a printable matrix, opening hours, table bookings, commission-free ordering, the Kitchen Display and the full POS are all free today, with no contract and no proprietary hardware to buy. You just need your own Stripe account, and a low-cost standard Stripe reader only if you want card-present payments (pay-by-QR needs none).

Does DineKit work outside the UK?

Yes — DineKit is self-hosted and used by restaurants worldwide. Menus display in your own currency and language, and allergen labelling is flexible (the UK’s 14 statutory allergens ship as one example; add your own). Two honest notes: payment capture through Stripe is in GBP today, and DineKit is single-venue per site — one location per install.

Can DineKit take online orders and bookings?

Yes — both are live today, not on a roadmap. Commission-free ordering (QR order-at-table, takeaway and delivery) and table bookings with a drag-and-drop floor plan and deposits are free, live features, alongside the full POS and Kitchen Display. See what’s coming next.