Intro
Even though LSPD is not limited to restaurants alone, it has acquired Upserve to revolutionize the restaurant industry. And just like many other board members I own LSPD too (15% weight). Also, Toast declares Lightspeed as a direct competitor in their S-1 https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001650164/000119312… . For this reason, I wanted to see how the two companies compare — in terms of product offering as well as an investment.
Who is Toast?
Toast ($TOST) https://pos.toasttab.com is an end-to-end SaaS platform for restaurants that is about to go public on September 22. Toast’s platform provides a comprehensive suite of SaaS products and financial technology solutions including integrated payment processing, restaurant-grade hardware, and a broad ecosystem of third-party partners.
What Toast does
It connects front and back-of-house operations across dine-in, takeout, and delivery channels. As of June 30, 2021, 48,000 restaurant locations (29,000 customers), processed over $38 billion of gross payment volume (TTM) through Toast where customers can optimize operations, increase sales, engage guests, and maintain happy employees.
Lightspeed vs Toast as a product
This is how LSPD defines their superiority over TOST in terms of product offering: https://www.lightspeedhq.com/referrals/lightspeed-restaurant…
Toast doesn’t include Lightspeed in their POS comparison found here:
https://pos.toasttab.com/compare
This is the direct comparison on Capterra: https://www.capterra.com/restaurant-pos-software/compare/136…
Here are the Trustpilot reviews for Toast:
https://www.trustpilot.com/review/toasttab.com
And here for Lightspeed:
https://www.trustpilot.com/review/lightspeedhq.com
From what I’ve seen and read LSPD is definitely not a subpar product compared to a restaurant-only competitor TOST. I feel that toast is the one falling behind. And reviews confirm that. However, I take all reviews with a grain of salt and just use the average score to cut through the noise. However, there are some bad reviews that talk about customer support being an issue on both services. I guess when someone is unhappy will most likely express their frustration.
If I was a restaurant owner today I’d choose Lightspeed for their modern approach and better functionality as well as avoiding limitations of a counter. TOST however seems to be increasing their customer base at a rapid clip especially during/after covid.
Lightspeed vs Toast as an investment
Revenue Growth in the last quarter
LSPD 220%
TOST 118%
Gross Margins in the last quarter
LSPD 50%
TOST 22%
Last Twelve Months (LTM) Revenue
LSPD 301 million
TOST 1.18 billion
Customer locations
LSPD 150,000
TOST 48,000
Net Retention Rate
LSPD 100%+ (couldn't find exact number)
TOST 114%
Market Cap
LSPD 17.8 billion
TOST 17-20 billion in IPO
Maybe this isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison because LSPD is not only focused on restaurants. However, as an investment, we should take into consideration the entirety of each company.
Concluding Thoughts
I personally think LSPD is the better long-term investment here. Better margins. Better top-line growth. Better product. Better potential because of the ever-expanding TAM. However, I see TOST as a fine investment too. My only concerns are their low margins and if the acceleration in growth is only due to covid tailwinds and an easy to compare against covid quarter. The only certain thing is that such services are needed by restaurant owners. Competition is good, both for clients and investors. I’d love to hear your thoughts.