Choice vs Toast
Choice is a European alternative to Toast: same crm & marketing use case, headquartered in Czechia and governed by EU GDPR, while Toast is based in the United States.
By the EU Alternatives team Last updated
- Jurisdiction
- EU / EEA
- Primary privacy law
- EU GDPR
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- No
- Open source
- No
- Free tier
- No
Restaurant POS, kitchen screens, online ordering and payroll in one system built only for food service. The 0 dollar starter kit is offset by processing fees near 3 percent, with software plans up to 69 dollars a month before add ons. Toast, Inc. is publicly listed on the NYSE, run from Boston, and sells only in the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland and Australia.
- Jurisdiction
- United States
- GDPR by default
- Requires DPA + TIA
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- Yes
Choice vs Toast at a glance
| Choice | Toast | |
|---|---|---|
| Headquarters | Czechia | United States |
| Data jurisdiction | EU / EEA | United States |
| Primary privacy law | EU GDPR | Requires DPA + transfer assessment |
| US CLOUD Act exposure | No | Yes |
| Best for | Teams that need crm & marketing built for European data-protection requirements | Teams already invested in the Toast ecosystem |
Choose Choice if…
- You want a provider governed by a European privacy regime
- GDPR or public-sector data-protection requirements apply to you
- You'd rather back the European tech ecosystem
Stick with Toast if…
- You depend on integrations only available in the Toast ecosystem
- Your organisation has no EU data-residency constraints
- Migration costs outweigh the jurisdiction benefits for now
Why choose Choice over Toast?
The decisive argument is data jurisdiction. Toast is headquartered in the United States, which means personal data processed through it can be subject to non-EU legal regimes: the US CLOUD Act, FISA 702, or similar laws depending on the provider. After the 2020 Schrems II ruling, EU organisations must carry out a transfer impact assessment for every such data flow.
Choice removes that overhead. As a Czechia-based provider, it operates under EU GDPR, and data stays inside the EU/EEA by default. For regulated sectors such as health, public administration, and finance, that's not a nice-to-have but a requirement. For everyone else, it's concentration-risk insurance: you avoid depending on a single jurisdiction that can change the rules without warning.