Switch to Gusto from Toast Payroll: Honest Restaurant Guide

Q: How much is Toast Payroll?

Payroll is priced in your Toast contract. The POS + Payroll bundle for new restaurants starts at $69/mo + $9 per employee.

Q: Can Gusto import my Toast payroll history?

Toast isn't on Gusto's transfer-automation list. Enter earlier payrolls during setup, or start in January.

Dad’s short answer

Staying on Toast POS? Toast Payroll’s tip and timecard sync is hard to beat, so stay. Leaving Toast POS, or payroll is the problem? Gusto is a clean next step.

Toast Payroll is built into Toast POS: hours and tips flow straight from the register.⁸
Payroll pricing is by contract. Toast's bundle for new restaurants starts at $69/mo + $9 per employee, POS included.⁷⁶
Staying on Toast POS and happy with tips? Stay. Leaving Toast POS, or payroll is the sore spot? Gusto is worth a look.

Provider	Best for	Starting price
Gusto	Most small teams that want payroll taxes filed for them, in one state (Simple) or several (Plus)	Simple $49/mo + $6/person; Plus $80/mo + $12/person¹
Patriot Software	The lowest full-service price for teams of 2 or more	Full Service $37/mo + $5/worker; Basic $17 + $4 if you file taxes yourself⁹
QuickBooks Payroll	People already doing their books in QuickBooks	From $88/mo + $6.50/employee, bundled with Simple Start accounting¹⁰
Square Payroll	Shops and restaurants already on Square POS	$35/mo + $6/person; contractor-only $6/person¹¹
OnPay	Teams in several states that want one flat rate	$49/mo + $6/person, multi-state included¹²
Toast Payroll you	Restaurants running Toast POS, with tips and shifts flowing in	Quoted; POS + Payroll bundle for new restaurants from $69/mo + $9/employee⁷

Starting list prices from each company’s pricing page, verified Oct 31, 2026. Add-ons and promos not included. Confirm on their site.

Start on Gusto’s website →

Goes through our referral page first. We earn a reward if you sign up; your price doesn’t change.

Who this is for

You run payroll on Toast today. Gusto fits you if:

You're leaving Toast POS, or run several concepts on different registers.
You want time tracking, scheduling and next-day pay in one plan (Plus).¹
Month-to-month, cancel anytime.¹
Gusto files federal, state and local payroll taxes on every plan.²

Why Gusto, compared with Toast

Dad story

Picture a taco shop. 12 people on the schedule.

Toast's bundle for new restaurants: $69 a month plus $9 a person. $177, POS included.⁷

Gusto Simple: $49 plus $6 a person. $121, payroll only.¹

Those aren't the same thing.

One is a register and payroll.

The other is payroll that doesn't care what register you use.

Compare apples to apples. Or tacos to tacos.

(Made-up business. Real prices, checked Oct 31, 2026.)

List prices from each company's own site, read on Oct 31, 2026. Promos and quotes vary.

	Toast Payroll	Gusto
Published pricing	Payroll priced by contract: the fee is the greater of a monthly minimum, a per-employee rate times active employees, or a base fee plus per-employee rate. Toast's POS + Payroll bundle for new restaurants starts at $69/mo + $9/employee. See current pricing.⁶⁷	Simple $49/mo + $6/mo per person. Plus $80/mo + $12/mo per person. Premium $180/mo + $22/mo per person.¹ Month-to-month, cancel anytime.¹
What's included	Payroll Essentials: payroll processing and tax filing, digital onboarding, HR toolkit, Toast Pay Card and PayOut. Payroll Pro adds applicant tracking and ACA dashboards.⁷	Unlimited payroll runs, including off-cycle. Automatic federal, state and local payroll tax filings, including W-2s, 1099s, Form 940 and Form 941.²
Contractor payments	Toast's pricing page doesn't list contractor terms. Ask your rep.	US contractors cost your plan's per-person rate, and only in months you pay them.¹ The contractor-only plan closed to new customers on Oct 1, 2026.³
State tax filings	Tax filing is included. Toast notes local filings may not be available in some jurisdictions.⁸	Simple covers one state. Plus and Premium cover multiple states.² Registering in a new state is an add-on; price varies by state.¹
Switching into Gusto	Not on Gusto's import list. Plan to enter earlier payrolls from Toast's reports, or start in January.	Not on Gusto's transfer-automation list, so you enter earlier payrolls in setup: quarter-to-date totals for past quarters plus this quarter's pay stubs.⁴⁵

What Toast customers complain about

We read recent public reviews on Oct 31, 2026 and kept only themes that came up more than once. These are our paraphrases, not quotes, and some reviews are from employees rather than owners. Your experience may be fine; if so, the fix is to stay.

Support that goes in circles. The biggest theme: long waits, conflicting answers and technical issues left open.²⁴
Tax mix-ups. One restaurant owner described a tax payment problem that led to a penalty before Toast refunded it, then switched.²⁴
Billing and payment frustrations come up often, though many are about processing rather than payroll.²⁴
It's a package deal. Payroll pricing lives in your Toast contract, which makes it harder to price on its own.⁶

What it costs for your team

Change the numbers, or type in your last Toast bill. Dad does the multiplication.

Your numbers

✓ Prices checked Oct 31, 2026

Current provider

What you pay now ($/mo, optional)

W-2 employees

Contractors paid / mo

States

List prices from each company’s own pricing page. Promos, add-ons and taxes not included. Quote-only providers show “quote only.” How we calculate

Start on Gusto’s website →

Goes through our referral page first. We earn a reward if you sign up; your price doesn’t change.

Where Toast is genuinely better

Tips and hours from the POS, including tip pooling and overtime across locations.⁸
7-day support by chat and phone.⁸
A first-filing promise: Toast says it covers fines up to $4,000 if your first quarterly filing isn't accepted (terms apply).⁸
Guided setup with a dedicated setup specialist and a guided first payroll.⁸

Your Toast-to-Gusto checklist

Do these in order. Grab a coffee. It's mostly downloading PDFs. Want to tick them off? Use the interactive switching checklist; it remembers your progress.

Company tax IDs. Your EIN, legal name exactly as the IRS has it, and whether you file Form 941 (quarterly) or 944. Pull your federal deposit schedule while you're in there.
State account numbers. State withholding account number, state unemployment (SUI) account number and current rate, and any local tax IDs. Toast has these on file. Copy them before you cancel.
Year-to-date payroll. A YTD payroll register for every employee paid this year, including people who quit. Gross pay, taxable wages, withholding, deductions, check dates.
Prior quarter 941s and tax payments. Copies of every Form 941 and state quarterly return filed this year, plus proof of tax deposits. Gusto asks for YTD reports and documentation of this year's tax payments.²⁵
Employee W-4s and direct deposit. Each person's federal W-4 (and state form), pay rate, pay schedule, deductions, garnishments, PTO balances, and bank details.
Contractors. Names, W-9s, and what you've paid each one this year, so 1099s come out right.
Plan to type in earlier payrolls. Gusto asks for quarter-to-date totals from the last pay stub of each finished quarter, plus every pay stub from the current quarter. Include people who already left.⁵
Agree who files what. Only one provider can file a quarterly return for a given quarter. If both file, the second one gets rejected.²⁵ Get Toast to confirm in writing which quarters it will file.
Run one payroll in Gusto, then cancel. Download every report and tax form from Toast first. Once you lose access, those PDFs get hard to find.

Why the end of the year is the easiest time to switch

Gusto handles quarterly returns starting with the quarter of your first Gusto check date.²⁵ So the cleanest plan is a first Gusto payday in January 2027.

Toast finishes 2026: the Q4 Form 941 and your 2026 W-2s. W-2s are due to employees and the SSA by February 1, 2027.²⁶ Get Toast to confirm in writing that it's filing them.
Gusto starts 2027 with a clean slate. With a first check date in Q1, Gusto's list is just the pay stubs from the current quarter.⁵ Start in January and that's close to nothing.
Any other quarter works too. You'll just be entering more history.

If you sign up through our link by Jan 31, 2027 and run a paid payroll, Gusto's referral terms say you get a $100 Visa gift card. We get a referral reward too.²⁷

FAQ: Toast to Gusto

Can I keep Toast POS and use Gusto for payroll?

You can run payroll anywhere, but you'd lose Toast Payroll's built-in tip and timecard sync and move hours over yourself or through an integration. Check before you switch.

How much is Toast Payroll?

Payroll is priced in your Toast contract.⁶ The POS + Payroll bundle for new restaurants starts at $69/mo + $9 per employee.

Can Gusto import my Toast payroll history?

Toast isn't on Gusto's transfer-automation list.⁴ Enter earlier payrolls during setup, or start in January.

Does leaving Toast Payroll affect my Toast contract?

It might. Payroll is part of your Toast agreement. Ask your Toast rep what changes before you set a date.

Sources, checked Oct 31, 2026

Every number on this page comes from one of these pages. Prices change; if a vendor updates its page, theirs wins.