E-Commerce · head to head
Magento vs Toast
Magento
E-Commerce
Open core commerce platform, free as Magento Open Source and licensed by revenue as Adobe Commerce
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Magento it is open core rather than open source, so B2B, customer segmentation, content staging and the Adobe analytics and recommendation services sit behind the Adobe Commerce licence, and discovering that mid-project converts a free platform into a revenue-banded contract.; Toast starter tier lacks advanced features; most capabilities require paid plans above $69/month
- They diverge on capability: Magento covers Two editions, Toast covers Point of sale.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Magento and Toast actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (E-Commerce).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in Magento
- Two editions
- Complex catalogue handling
- Multi-store and multi-website
- Native B2B in the paid edition
- Multi-currency and multi-region
- Composer module system
- GraphQL and REST APIs
- Hyva and Mage-OS ecosystem
Only in Toast
- Point of sale
- Order management
- Kitchen display system
- Employee scheduling
- Customer management
- Inventory tracking
- Analytics & reporting
- Delivery integration
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Magento
- A retailer with tens of thousands of SKUs and attribute-heavy catalogue logic that SaaS platforms restrictnot Toast
- A multi-brand or multi-region group needing separate websites, currencies and tax treatment from one back officenot Toast
- A B2B seller needing company accounts, negotiated pricing and quoting inside the storefrontnot Toast
- An enterprise with an in-house or retained development team that treats commerce as owned softwarenot Toast
Toast
No use cases recorded yet. See the Toast review.
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Magento
- It is open core rather than open source, so B2B, customer segmentation, content staging and the Adobe analytics and recommendation services sit behind the Adobe Commerce licence, and discovering that mid-project converts a free platform into a revenue-banded contract.
- The Adobe Commerce licence is priced on bands of gross merchandise value, so the platform bill increases as the store succeeds and is largely unrelated to the infrastructure or support you consume.
- A production installation needs a search engine, a cache, a reverse proxy, a message queue and a database tuned together, so hosting is a DevOps engagement rather than a plan, and the first serious traffic event is where under-sizing becomes visible.
- Minor version upgrades regularly break third party modules, so staying current means a regression testing and remediation project several times a year, and merchants who skip upgrades to avoid that end up running software with unpatched vulnerabilities.
- The specialist developer market is small and expensive relative to other platforms, so an agency retainer becomes a permanent operating cost and losing that agency is a genuine business continuity problem rather than a procurement inconvenience.
Toast
- Starter tier lacks advanced features; most capabilities require paid plans above $69/month
- No free tier for advanced features like employee scheduling, inventory, or loyalty programs
- Setup and training time required for complex multi-location deployments
- Payment processing tied to Toast ecosystem; limited flexibility for alternative payment processors
- Hardware costs can be substantial for full-featured setups with multiple terminals and kitchen displays
Pricing, plan by plan
Magento
Free- Magento Open SourceFree
- Unlimited products
- Multiple storefronts
- Advanced marketing
- Adobe Commerce$20000/year
- All Open Source features
- 24/7 enterprise support
- Managed cloud hosting
Toast
Free- Starter KitFree
- Cloud-based POS
- Payment processing
- 1-2 terminals
- Point of Sale$69/month
- Custom hardware configurations
- Advanced reporting
- Core POS features
Which should you pick?
Choose Magento if
- You need two editions.
- You want to start without paying.
- You also want complex catalogue handling.
Choose Toast if
- You need point of sale.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, iOS, Android, Tablets, Web browsers.
- You also want order management.
Questions people ask
- Is Magento or Toast better?
- Neither clearly leads. Magento starts at Free and Toast at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Magento or Toast?
- Magento starts at Free and Toast at Free.
- Does Magento or Toast run on more platforms?
- Magento runs on Web. Toast runs on Web, iOS, Android, Tablets, Web browsers.
- Can I use Magento for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- What is Magento best used for?
- Magento is most often used for a retailer with tens of thousands of skus and attribute-heavy catalogue logic that saas platforms restrict, a multi-brand or multi-region group needing separate websites, currencies and tax treatment from one back office, a b2b seller needing company accounts, negotiated pricing and quoting inside the storefront, an enterprise with an in-house or retained development team that treats commerce as owned software. Of those, a retailer with tens of thousands of skus and attribute-heavy catalogue logic that saas platforms restrict and a multi-brand or multi-region group needing separate websites, currencies and tax treatment from one back office are not what Toast is typically brought in for.
- What can Magento do that Toast cannot?
- Magento covers Two editions, Complex catalogue handling, Multi-store and multi-website, Native B2B in the paid edition. Toast covers Point of sale, Order management, Kitchen display system, Employee scheduling.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Magento: Is Magento free?
Magento Open Source is. Adobe Commerce is not, and it holds back B2B, segmentation, content staging and the Adobe analytics and recommendation layer. Establish which edition a requirement needs before you commit.
Toast: What is the cost of Toast POS?
Toast offers a free Starter Kit tier for one or two terminals with POS and payment processing at no upfront cost, though costs are built into payment processing rates. Paid plans start at $69/month for the Point of Sale plan, with Custom tier available via quote for advanced features.
SourceMagento: How is Adobe Commerce priced?
On bands of gross merchandise value, so the licence grows with revenue rather than with usage. Model it against your three year forecast, not this year's turnover.
Toast: Does Toast include online ordering?
Yes. Toast offers online ordering capabilities where customers can order via QR code while seated (Order & Pay) or through standalone online ordering integrated with the POS for kitchen automation.
SourceMagento: What does it really cost to run?
Licence if applicable, plus tuned infrastructure, plus a specialist agency or in-house team. For most deployments the people and hosting exceed the licence.
Toast: Does Toast offer drive-through capabilities?
Yes. In April 2026, Toast launched a drive-thru product supporting voice ordering through integrations, allowing restaurants to automate drive-through workflows.
SourceMagento: Why do agencies keep mentioning Hyva?
The stock front end stack is slow to develop against, so Hyva, a commercially licensed replacement front end, has become a common default. It is another licence to budget for.
Magento: What happened with Magento 1?
It reached end of life and left merchants on unsupported, unpatched software facing a full replatform. It is the reference point for how long to assume support for any edition you adopt.
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