Quick service / counter / Kitchen display
Kitchen display for counter service
Scored and compared prices dated
The short answer
The job of a counter KDS is speed and visible pace, not course timing, so the deciding question is whether it bumps as fast as the till takes orders and whether online orders land on the same screen. Toast's KDS does this natively if you are already on Toast; TouchBistro's local-network version is the one to consider if your wifi gets congested at peak, which is more common in a busy food court or strip mall than most people plan for.
Reviewed by the editorial team · updated 11 August 2026
Step 3
What matters most to you?
Pick one or two. Everything below re-scores instantly, and we show you the maths.
Winner overall
Toast
The one built for restaurants only, with the lock-in that implies.
The trade-off
You are locked to Toast payment processing. There is no bringing your own processor.
Why it won
- price
- ease of setup
- support
- volume
- integrations
Our scores, 1 to 5, defined on the methodology page.
Everything else, ranked the same way
| # | Product | From | Contract | Card rate | Score | Price checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Toast The one built for restaurants only, with the lock-in that implies. | Free, then $69 | multi-year is typical | 2.99% + 15¢ on the free Starter Kit, 2.49% + 15¢ on the $69 plan | 3.6 | Pricing checked 10 Aug 2026 |
| 02 | TouchBistro iPad-based, runs on a local network, keeps working when the internet does not. | From $69 | annual | through TouchBistro Payments, required for new customers | 3.2 | Pricing checked 10 Aug 2026 |
What's different about buying this for quick service / counters
A counter kitchen is judged on ticket time, plainly displayed, so the team can see whether they are keeping pace with the line at the till or falling behind it. That is a different design goal from a dining room screen holding a course back, and it is worth checking that a KDS actually shows elapsed time per ticket rather than just a queue, because that visible number is what lets a team self-correct mid-rush.
Toast's KDS reads directly off Toast orders, counter and online both, at around $25/month on top of the core plan, and the bump logic is built for exactly this throughput case. TouchBistro's version runs over the restaurant's own local network rather than a cloud round-trip, which matters specifically when a lot of devices are fighting for the same wifi at once, a real problem at a busy counter that a quieter site will never notice.
Questions people actually ask
- Can online orders and counter orders share one screen?
- Yes, provided both are running through the same POS vendor. That is the actual point of buying the KDS from whoever sold you the till rather than a third party.
- Is a KDS worth it below a certain order volume?
- Below roughly 150 covers a day the case is weaker; a printed ticket and a clip rail can still work fine. Past that, a screen with proper bump behaviour earns back its monthly cost in fewer missed or late tickets.