Toast and Square Build Digital Storefronts
Owner
Toast and Square turn the POS into the control center for a restaurant’s whole digital storefront. Because menus, prices, customer data, and orders already live in their systems, they can bolt on websites and online ordering that stay synced automatically, which removes setup work for operators. That makes them especially strong with restaurants that want fewer vendors, even if specialized players still go deeper on restaurant specific marketing and growth tools.
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Toast has pushed far beyond payment terminals into a full digital storefront suite. Its website product auto syncs menus and pricing from Toast POS, and its ordering tools feed guest data from both online and in store transactions into marketing workflows, so one vendor can handle checkout, ordering, and re engagement.
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Square follows the same pattern. Square Online and Square for Restaurants let a restaurant launch a branded ordering page or website, route pickup and delivery orders into the same POS and kitchen flow, and keep menus and customer records unified, which is a strong fit for independent operators who value simplicity over heavy customization.
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Dedicated restaurant software still competes by going deeper on the direct ordering stack. ChowNow built around commission free ordering, branded apps, website tools, and restaurant owned customer data, while Owner bundles websites, ordering, loyalty, and marketing and has scaled from $34M ARR in 2024 to about $80.6M in 2025 by selling that specialized bundle to independents and multi unit operators.
The next step is a tighter race between broad restaurant operating systems and focused growth software. Toast and Square are likely to keep absorbing more of the website and ordering layer, while specialists will keep winning where restaurants want better SEO, repeat purchase marketing, and more control over how they drive direct demand outside the POS.