Restaurant booking software in the UK and Ireland: the 2026 comparison

Restaurant booking software costs anything from nothing to a few hundred pounds a month. On paper, most of it promises the same thing: a booking page, a floor plan, reminders, protection against no-shows. The differences are elsewhere. First in how it charges: a flat fee, a tier based on bookings, a price per text, a cut of the deposit. Then in how it handles a service: how many tables reach the kitchen at once, whom you ask for a card, what happens after a no-show or when the internet drops. And in everything around the booking: Google, texts, marketing e-mails, reviews, gift vouchers, the till. We scored all nine, using a grid we publish so that you can redo it with your own priorities.

Who is writing. This comparison is published by Bientenu, which sells booking software itself and is in the ranking. We scored it with the same grid as the others, and we say so wherever it appears. The article has no affiliate links, and we have no commercial relationship with any other vendor named. We have not used any of the other products in service and have not contacted their vendors; if one of them spots a mistake, we will correct it. What we write about them comes from their public pages (prices, terms, help centres), read in October 2026, or, where a page could not be reached, from a search excerpt, which we say each time. Bientenu we scored on the software in service on 20 October 2026, including features its website does not describe yet: that is an information advantage, and we point it out where it matters.

Our recommendations

Every product has two scores out of 100: one with price, one without. With price, the first group is Bientenu alone (83.6). Without price, two products are in the first group: Bientenu (81.0) and Resos (70.9). A product within the threshold of the first is closer to it than a reasonable change of weights moves it (12.0 points with price, 11.0 without, measured on our four variants), so we put it in the first group. The ranges of the other products are wide because their vendors publish little; a wide range means “we do not know”, not “worse”. Apart from Bientenu, which we know from the inside, between 19 and 37 of the 47 points are undocumented for each product; we say so for each one we recommend. The right pick depends on what you need most.

To keep a service running at a low price: Bientenu, our software (€30 ex VAT a month). The price is the same at 30, 60 or 90 covers, and no other setup we priced is cheaper. It has the best middle score for no-shows (16 of 18) and for booking rules (14 of 14), though the ranges of the others can go higher. It limits arrivals per half hour in bookings and in covers, can ask for a card hold from new guests only if you wish, charges a no-show the next day with no further step, and lets the team keep working when the connection drops (new online bookings reach the tablet when the network returns). It sends no texts and has no built-in Google button. For loyalty it stops at a birthday e-mail and a review invitation after the meal; support is by e-mail and an assistant inside the software, with no phone line; and it is a product launched in 2026. If Bientenu cost as much as the median of the nine (€165), its score with price would fall from 83.6 to 76.3, still 5.8 points ahead of Resos (70.4). Without price it is in the first group, with Resos (70.9).

To charge no-shows without a contract: Resos (€64.98 a month for 30 covers, €104.98 for 60 and 90, texts extra). It is in the first group without price, not with price. Reminders go by e-mail and text, the no-show charge is automatic, arrivals can be limited in bookings or covers, meal length follows the party size, and there is no commitment. But 19 points are not public, and it sells most features as add-ons (online payments, waitlist, the Google button, paid events). No phone number is listed for support, and a guest who has already failed to show is only flagged to the team.

If you want to sell gift vouchers: ResDiary (£145 a month for 30 and 60 covers, £205 for 90, excluding VAT). It is not in the first group, with or without price. It is the only product here that documents gift vouchers (an add-on at £35 a month, with a 3 % surcharge on sales). It also lists more than 70 till and hotel-system integrations. Against that, 34 points are undocumented, deposits carry a 1.2 % surcharge, and a one-off set-up fee of £99 applies.

The rest. Favouritetable, simpleERB, Access Collins, Tablein, OpenTable and Eat App are outside the first group on both scales. None of these six is the only product to document any feature, so we recommend none of them as a first choice. OpenTable is the largest consumer booking platform in the UK (about 1,317 reviews on Capterra, far more than the others), which is what you would buy it for; but we found no public price and could read only search excerpts of its UK page, so 37 points are open. If you are weighing it, ask for the price in writing, and for the cover fee on guests who come through OpenTable, which the page does not state.

How we compared

We start from the products that publish a plan you can buy in the UK, ordered by how visible they are (review counts on Trustpilot, Capterra and G2). We detail nine: eight vendors with a waiting list and a card hold or deposit, plus Bientenu, our own. Nine others are summarised at the end, with the reason we did not score them.

For prices we took three typical restaurants of 30, 60 and 90 covers, which take 210, 420 and 630 bookings a month of 2.8 guests on average. That is a working assumption: one cover per seat per open day, over 26 days a month, about three in four booked. Each wants a booking page, a waiting list, a card hold or a deposit, and a reminder before the meal: that is the setup whose price we compare. The rest (floor plan, texts, Google button, marketing) is scored as a feature; where you must pay more to get it, the extra counts in the score with price. We give pounds as published and, in brackets, euros at £1 = €1.19008 (European Central Bank reference rate of 20 October 2026, €1 = £0.84028). Eat App, priced in dollars, is converted at €1 = $1.1215 from the same source. Resos and Tablein publish in euros. Bientenu is priced in euros only. After the four comparison tables we give each product two scores out of 100, with and without price, and explain how they are worked out.

The price

Monthly price of the typical setup; where it differs, for 30, 60 and 90 covers. “VAT ?”: the page does not say whether the price excludes VAT. “With SMS”: two texts per booking. Stripe fees not included.

✓ yes · ◐ partly · ✗ no · ? not stated

¹ Evo from £149 plus £10 for the waiting list (LiveWait) makes £159; the page’s own summary says £135, and the “from” price has no published ceiling. Text reminders are an extra we did not count.
² Express (£145) for 30 and 60 covers, Pro (£205) for 90. A one-off set-up fee of £99 is not counted. Card payments carry a 1.2 % surcharge.
Where a plan is picked by monthly volume (Resos, simpleERB, Tablein, ResDiary), the tier is our assumption for each typical restaurant. Eat App’s page does not make clear which plan includes deposits, so we give the range from Core to Pro. The floor plan is not part of the setup: where it costs extra, it is counted as a paid feature (see “Paid features”).

Texts weigh heavily. At Resos, two texts per booking add €42, €84 and €126 a month to the price of the setup. Every other vendor here charges for texts on top as well, each in its own way. Bientenu sends e-mails only, with no extra charge.

During service

✓ yes · ◐ partly, or at extra cost (stated in the cell) · ✗ no · ? not stated

Arrivals. Several let you cap arrivals per time slot so the kitchen does not receive twelve covers in the same minute. Bientenu, Resos, simpleERB, Tablein and ResDiary document it; Resos and Bientenu can also count in bookings, which eases the front desk; Eat App mentions volume capping and pacing tools only in general terms. Favouritetable, Access Collins and OpenTable do not say.

The card hold. Asking everyone puts some guests off; asking no one exposes you to no-shows. Bientenu lets you ask everyone, groups or new guests only; Resos targets groups and services; simpleERB documents a weekend-only deposit for groups of six or more. Among the nine we found only Bientenu documenting a hold for new guests alone; the others do not say.

The no-show. A card hold earns nothing if nobody charges it. At Resos and Bientenu, marking the absence is enough. simpleERB sends you to Stripe to charge it. The others do not say who triggers the charge.

Repeat no-shows. Bientenu lists a guest automatically after two missed bookings and keeps the guest from booking without a card hold; Resos only alerts the team; Tablein lists guest blacklisting as coming soon. The others do not say.

The connection. Among the nine, only Bientenu says the team keeps seating and noting bookings during an outage. Tablein mentions an offline version of its system and Eat App an offline mode, without saying how much works; the others do not say.

Bringing guests in and back

✓ yes · ◐ partly, or at extra cost (stated in the cell) · ✗ no · ? not stated

Here the picture is different. Favouritetable, Access Collins, Tablein, ResDiary and Eat App each list a Reserve with Google button; at Resos it is a paid option, at OpenTable it is listed under the Pro plan, simpleERB offers a booking widget on Google and social pages, and Bientenu offers a link to paste. The other columns are mostly blank: most vendors do not say whether they sell gift vouchers or paid events. If you rely on your software to fill quiet days, win back past guests or sell gift vouchers at Christmas, read the cells of Favouritetable, ResDiary and Eat App first.

Knowing your guests and organising the team

✓ yes · ◐ partly, or at extra cost (stated in the cell) · ✗ no · ? not stated

Most products keep a history for each guest; the gaps are in statistics and in the tracking of changes, useful when several people take bookings. Bientenu documents the whole line, Tablein most of it, and Resos, Access Collins and Eat App parts of it. Favouritetable, ResDiary and OpenTable say little here, and that is reflected in their ranges.

Our score out of 100

We scored 47 specific points, grouped in ten criteria, for an independent restaurant of 30 to 90 covers with a single site. No independent study ranks what restaurateurs expect of booking software, and we did not obtain a UK trade-body ranking; buying guides only agree on the essentials (no-shows, reminders, guest records, booking rules, statistics, the till). The weights below are therefore an editorial judgement. We publish them with their reasons, and four variants further down. Each product receives two scores: with price (all ten criteria, out of 100) and without price (the other nine criteria, scaled to 100).

The detail of the points:

• No-shows (18): e-mail reminder 3, text reminder 2; card hold or deposit 3; charge without a step by the team 3; card hold targeted by group, date or slot 2; new guests only 1; repeat no-shows 2; adjustable cancellation deadline 1; cancellation by the guest 1.
• Price (14): monthly price of the typical setup, average of the three typical restaurants, 11, on a straight line between three marks (11 up to €30, 5.5 at €95, 0 at €300 and above); commission on deposits or per guest brought 3, on a straight line (none 3, 2 % 1.5, 4 % and above 0). A price marked “VAT ?” counts between the amount shown and that amount divided by 1.2; a “from” price or a quote, between the lowest published price we found and €300; with no published price at all, between 0 and 11. The €30 mark is Bientenu’s price, so Bientenu has the maximum; further down we show what a reference price equal to the median of the nine would give.
• Visibility (10): “Reserve” button built into Google 6 (simple link 1.7); audience of a consumer platform 1.5; built-in Instagram or Facebook button 0.5; booking page in several languages 2.
• Bookings (14): meal length by table 2.33; arrival limit per slot 2.33; minimum notice and maximum party size online 2.33; limiting or closing in the middle of a service 2.33; special days 1.17; automatic or manual confirmation 1.17; automatic placement on tables 2.33.
• Service (12): floor plan 2.4; walk-ins 2.4; waiting list 2.4; freed table offered automatically 1.2; synchronised devices 1.2; joined tables or closed area 1.2; history of changes 1.2.
• Guests (7): record with notes, allergies, visits and no-shows 3; tags or VIP 1; statistics 2; share of guests who come back 1.
• Contract (7): no annual commitment 3; short notice and free export 2; import of upcoming bookings 2.
• Team (7): interface in English 1; phone support in English 3; roles and permissions 1.5; data import by the vendor 1.5.
• Loyalty (5): promotional e-mails 1.25 (birthday only 0.42); linked till 1.25; gift vouchers 0.83; review request 0.83; prepaid events 0.83 (bookings that must be paid in advance, for example a New Year’s Eve menu).
• Reliability (6): working without a connection 2.4 (the team keeps seeing, changing and adding the day’s bookings; half if they can only read them); status page and service list sent before the meal 1.2 (half for one of the two); vendor established for three years 1.2; no sale or closure announced 1.2 (half for a sale or merger where the product continues).

When a vendor says nothing. For each point, a product that does it receives all the points; a product whose vendor writes that it does not do it receives none. When the vendor says nothing, we distinguish two cases. A common feature, which almost all booking software has (e-mail reminder, adjustable cancellation deadline, Instagram button…), is counted as present, without exceeding the best score published for that point. A rarer feature (charging without a step by the team, working without a connection, automatic placement…) is counted as absent. The range always runs from “absent” to “present”: the better a vendor documents its software, the narrower it is. A feature that is present in part receives half its points (for example the waiting list of Bientenu, where the team cannot add a guest themselves), except the two steps stated above (simple Google link, birthday e-mail alone). Bientenu, which we publish, is scored on the software in service on 20 October 2026, including features its website does not describe yet: it has no unknown point, so no range. Share of the non-price grid on which our sources say nothing: Bientenu 0.0 %, Resos 28.6 %, Tablein 37.1 %, simpleERB 49.3 %, Eat App 56.9 %, Favouritetable 60.0 %, Access Collins 65.2 %, OpenTable 68.1 %, ResDiary 69.7 %.

Paid features. A scored feature (texts, Google button, floor plan, promotional e-mails…) that is not in the setup and is bought as an option receives half its points, with and without price: it exists, but it costs extra. An option already included in the price of the setup counts in full. The price itself stays that of the setup. So a product that includes everything in its subscription is not caught up by a cheaper one whose every feature is an option.

first group (name in bold)middle scorerangetie: 71.6 to 83.6

20406080100

Bientenu83.6no range

Resos70.458.3–85.8

simpleERB53.841.2–86.7

Tablein53.849.0–81.1

Favouritetable47.729.3–82.4

OpenTable46.720.4–90.9

Access Collins46.227.4–87.9

ResDiary45.325.2–87.6

Eat App44.531.6–85.3

first group (name in bold)middle scorerangetie: 70.0 to 81.0

20406080100

Bientenu81.0no range

Resos70.957.6–88.0

Tablein56.151.0–87.5

simpleERB52.438.4–90.0

Favouritetable51.730.3–92.0

Access Collins49.830.1–96.0

Eat App47.735.0–92.7

ResDiary47.023.6–96.2

OpenTable46.222.0–91.2

Best score of each criterion in bold.

Scores are rounded; their sum can differ from the total by a tenth, and the ranking follows the unrounded scores: with price, simpleERB (53.83) is ahead of Tablein (53.77). Under each total, the range.

How to read these scores. The ranges of the other products are wide: they mostly say what their vendors do not publish, not that they are worse. Bientenu has none because we know it from the inside. So we compare middle scores, and we put products close to the first in the first group. The threshold is not picked by eye: for each weight variant (below) we measure how much the gap of each product to the first changes; the largest change, rounded up to the next half point, gives the threshold. It comes from variant 1; the other three move the gaps by at most 5.35 points with price and 6.80 without. It is 12.0 points with price (11.91 measured) and 11.0 without (10.85). With price, the first group is Bientenu alone; Resos is 13.23 points behind, just beyond. Without price, the first group is Bientenu and Resos; Tablein is 24.86 points behind.

What makes the difference. With price, Bientenu has the maximum for price (14 of 14). With a reference price equal to the median of the nine (€165 instead of €30), its score with price would fall from 83.6 to 76.3, 5.8 points ahead of Resos (70.4). At that reference price, the price score out of 11 would be 11.0 for Bientenu, Resos, simpleERB and Tablein, 10.5 for ResDiary, 10.0 for Access Collins and OpenTable, 9.9 for Favouritetable and 9.6 for Eat App: the price lead of Bientenu would disappear. Without price, Bientenu has the best middle score for no-shows (16 of 18) and booking rules (14 of 14), and the maximum, alone, for guest records (7 of 7); it shares the maximum for contract (7 of 7) with Resos. The ranges of the others can exceed these scores. Bientenu loses points on visibility (4.0 of 10: no built-in Google button and no platform behind it), loyalty (2.1 of 5), team (4.0 of 7: no phone support) and reliability (4.8 of 6: the vendor is less than three years old). Favouritetable, Access Collins, Tablein and Eat App share the best visibility (6.5 of 10), ResDiary has the best loyalty (2.7 of 5), and simpleERB and Access Collins the best team score (5.5 of 7).

If the weights change. We recalculated both scores with four other sets of weights: 1, Google and loyalty count more (visibility 20, loyalty 12; price 8, service 8, bookings 10, no-shows 16, reliability 5); 2, no-shows count more (no-shows 24; price 10, visibility 8); 3, price counts less (price 8; no-shows 21, bookings 15, service 13, visibility 11); 4, rare points count half: a feature that at most one product apart from Bientenu has sees its points halved. The last variant limits Bientenu’s advantage on features only it has; but a feature on which vendors say nothing looks rarer there than it is. Middle scores, with price / without price:

Bientenu is first in all four variants, with and without price; in variant 1 it falls to 74.4 with price (Resos 65.6) and to 72.1 without price (Resos 65.4).

The score in detail, point by point

This table reproduces the whole grid: each row is a point, each column a product. “Features” shows who has what, “Points” what it earns. Tap or click a cell to read, just below, the sentence it rests on. Bientenu is scored on the software in service on 20 October 2026, so it has no “?”; the others are scored on their public pages: a “?” means “we do not know”, not “worse”.

Bientenu, our software

With price 83.6 out of 100; without price 81.0; no range (software in service on 20 October 2026). One of the cheapest, with the best middle score for no-shows and bookings; little to bring guests in.

We publish Bientenu; read this part knowing that. One plan, €30 ex VAT a month, the same whatever the number of covers, with no commission and no stated limit on bookings or e-mails. The service is free until 31 December 2026, then each restaurant gets a 30-day trial. No commitment: cancellation takes effect at the end of the paid month.

The pluses. Two arrival limits per half hour, in bookings for the front desk and in covers for the kitchen, and a button to cap or close online bookings in the middle of a service. A card hold or a deposit (a sum paid in advance, which the guest loses if they do not turn up) can be asked of everyone, of groups, or of new guests only; guests marked VIP are never asked within a set tolerance. A no-show, once marked, is charged the next day with no further step. A guest who misses two bookings is listed automatically. The waiting list can tell people automatically when a table frees up. If the connection drops, the team carries on working and everything syncs when it returns. For a special date you can set an amount per person that every online booking pays in advance, for example a New Year’s Eve menu. A single day or a holiday period can be closed to online bookings without closing the restaurant. After the meal the guest can be invited to leave a Google review. An assistant answers questions inside the software, and each booking keeps a history of who took, changed or cancelled it and which e-mails the guest received. Guest records and upcoming bookings can be imported from an Excel or CSV file, or the vendor does it at no charge, and the account owner can export all the data at any time. The team’s screens and the guest booking page exist in four languages, English included.

The minuses. No texts, no built-in Google button (a booking link goes on the Google profile), no promotional e-mails other than a birthday e-mail, no gift vouchers, no linked till. Booking straight from Google and a link to a till system are planned, with no date: they depend mainly on Google and the till makers accepting Bientenu as a partner. No management of several sites from one account. The terms do not promise an availability rate. During an outage, new online bookings do not appear on the tablet until the network returns, and no charge can be decided. The team cannot add a guest to the waiting list themselves. E-mails to guests follow a fixed template. No phone support: apart from the assistant, the team answers by e-mail. To take payments you must open your own Stripe account, after Bientenu has checked the restaurant. A month that has started is not refunded. The product is taking its first restaurants, and opening an account still goes through a request.

Resos

With price 70.4 out of 100 (58.3 to 85.8); without price 70.9 (57.6 to 88.0). 19 of 47 points undocumented. No commitment and every feature sold separately; the bill climbs with the options.

Resos, a Danish company founded in 2018, sells four plans, excluding VAT or not (the page does not say): Free (€0), Basic (€45, 350 bookings a month), Plus (€85, 750) and Unlimited (€125). The plan depends on the bookings in the month. Online payments (€11.99), the waiting list (€7.99), the Google button (€7.99) and paid events (€19.99) are add-ons. With payments and the waiting list, our setup comes to €64.98 for 30 covers and €104.98 for 60 and 90. Texts cost €0.10 each; e-mail confirmations and reminders are free. Resos charges no commission.

The pluses. No commitment, and the data can be exported for 90 days after you leave. The no-show is charged automatically. Meal length follows the party size, arrivals can be limited in bookings or in covers, and online bookings can be closed with one tap for the rest of the day. The booking page comes in 14 languages, upcoming bookings can be imported, and there is a public status page. Guest records hold allergies and visits, and statistics show where bookings come from.

The minuses. The add-ons quickly make you forget the entry price. No phone number is listed for support: a contact form, an e-mail address and a help centre. A guest who has already failed to show is only flagged to the team. Promotional e-mails go through Mailchimp, and no named till is listed.

simpleERB

With price 53.8 out of 100 (41.2 to 86.7); without price 52.4 (38.4 to 90.0). 29 of 47 points undocumented. A UK support line and a till link; wide ranges because the vendor documents little.

simpleERB sells three plans by monthly covers: Starter £21 (up to 300 covers a month), Plus £47 (up to 1,200) and Pro £80 (unlimited, payments included). On Starter and Plus, card payments are an add-on of about £15 a month (excluding VAT). Our setup uses Plus with the add-on for 30 and 60 covers (€73.78) and Pro for 90 (€95.21); the choice of tier is an assumption, and the page does not say if the other prices exclude VAT.

The pluses. A UK phone line, Monday to Friday, 9:00 to 17:30. E-mail and text reminders at intervals you set (10 texts free, then £40 per 1,000). A deposit that applies at weekends only, for groups of six or more. A cap on covers per time slot. Guests can amend or cancel without calling. Dietary needs and special occasions are recorded. An EposNow link, and full prepayment for set menus, tasting menus or ticketed events. The page says it will not lock you in.

The minuses. You charge a no-show yourself in Stripe. Waiting-list sign-ups are captured when online availability is full, which is only half the feature. Nothing is said about repeat no-shows, adjustable cancellation deadlines, a floor plan, walk-ins or working offline.

Favouritetable

With price 47.7 out of 100 (29.3 to 82.4); without price 51.7 (30.3 to 92.0). 33 of 47 points undocumented. Google and marketing in a fixed fee, at one of the highest prices we priced.

Favouritetable (Favouritetable Services Limited, incorporated in 2010) sells FT Free (free for life, up to 30 online bookings a month), Lite (£69), Pro (£129) and Ultimo (£199) a month, excluding VAT. The waiting list is in Ultimo only, so we priced all three typical restaurants on it: £199, or €236.83. These are monthly prices; a yearly prepayment gives a discount. Texts cost 10p each; e-mails are free.

The pluses. Online card payments, payments for no-shows and payments for late cancellations are included in Lite, Pro and Ultimo. Reserve with Google is in all three paid plans. The visual floor plan is in Pro and Ultimo, and walk-ins are added from it. Ultimo adds the waiting list (staff mark a table ready and the guest confirms or cancels), e-mail marketing with SMS and WhatsApp marketing, and guest review management. Pro and Ultimo add phone support, and there is a Lightspeed till integration. No tie-ins.

The minuses. The price, and the best features sit in the top plan. Texts are charged on top. The support line has no number on the page. Nothing is said about arrival limits, card hold targeting, repeat no-shows, guest records, statistics or working offline.

Access Collins

With price 46.2 out of 100 (27.4 to 87.9); without price 49.8 (30.1 to 96.0). 35 of 47 points undocumented. An Access Group product with phone support.

Access Collins Evo costs from £149 a month per site, Evo Pro from £199, and the LiveWait waiting list £10 per site per month (included, as queue management and digital waitlist, in Evo Pro). Our setup, Evo plus LiveWait, comes to £159, or €189.22, a lower bound: the page’s own summary says £135, and it does not say whether VAT is excluded. Text reminders are an extra (Bronze, £7 for up to 250 texts a month).

The pluses. Phone support from 9am to 5.30pm. A drag-and-drop planner, with bookings mapped to the floor plan, and walk-in bookings. Deposits through Collins Pay. Guest details per table, with notes, deposits and dietary needs. User permissions. Bookings through Reserve with Google. LiveWait tells guests when their table is ready, and Access publishes live status on StatusHub.

The minuses. 35 of the 47 points are open: nothing on arrival limits, targeted card holds, no-show charging, repeat no-shows, contract length or working offline. The “from” prices have no published ceiling. Collins and ResDiary belong to the same group, Access.

Tablein

With price 53.8 out of 100 (49.0 to 81.1); without price 56.1 (51.0 to 87.5). 21 of 47 points undocumented. Many floor-plan and team features, but three features still marked “coming soon”.

Tablein, which has operated since 2015 from Kaunas, Lithuania, sells Starter (€67, 50 reservations), Growth (€117, 150) and Success (€177, unlimited), plus €0.37 for each extra reservation (the FAQ says €0.3). The page does not say whether VAT is included. At 210 bookings a month, Growth plus 60 extra reservations makes €139.20; at 420 and 630, Success at €177.

The pluses. Reserve with Google and an Instagram book-now button. Availability control by time slot or by total guests a day, a quick tool to disable online booking, and automatic or manual confirmation. A visual floor plan, walk-ins, table joining, and a digital reservation book on any device. Tags and notes, guest categories such as VIP, reporting dashboards and custom user permissions. No long contracts.

The minuses. Guest blacklisting, till integrations and the automatic five-star review request are all listed as coming soon. Phone support is available in selected markets only. The waiting list is a sign-up, and the offline version of the system is not described.

ResDiary

With price 45.3 out of 100 (25.2 to 87.6); without price 47.0 (23.6 to 96.2). 34 of 47 points undocumented. Cloud diary with more than 70 till and hotel-system links; the options add up.

ResDiary sells Evo Connect (£109, up to 150 bookings a month), Express (£145, 450), Pro (£205, 1,000) and Ultimate (£295, unlimited), subject to 20 % VAT, so we count them excluding it. Our setup uses Express for 30 and 60 covers and Pro for 90. A £99 set-up fee applies and is not counted. Deposits and payments carry a 1.2 % surcharge, gift vouchers 3 %. Options are monthly: texts £10, CRM and marketing £10, gift vouchers £35, the Event Manager £35.

The pluses. Commission-free reservations from Google Search and Maps. Yield management by covers and time slots. A cloud diary that syncs with an iOS and Android app. Comprehensive analytics. More than 70 certified EPOS and PMS integrations. Founded in 2006 in Glasgow. Access publishes live status on StatusHub.

The minuses. Most of what you would want around the booking is an option with its own price. A set-up fee, a surcharge on deposits, and no word on guest records, floor plan, waiting list or contract length. Together with Access Collins it belongs to the Access Group.

OpenTable

With price 46.7 out of 100 (20.4 to 90.9); without price 46.2 (22.0 to 91.2). 37 of 47 points undocumented. The reference consumer platform in the UK, but no public price and little documented.

OpenTable lists Core and Pro plans but no price: the plans page points to a sales demo. It charges cover fees only for diners who discover your restaurant on OpenTable, and does not publish the amount. Contracts run for one year and renew automatically; notice is due 30 days before renewal. Premium Communications is included with Pro, or £19 a month on Core.

The pluses. The reach: it is the largest consumer booking platform in the UK, and its Capterra page has about 1,317 reviews, far more than any other product here. Core and Pro both include deposits and credit card holds, and in-house and online waitlists. Google’s Reserve a table button is listed under the Pro plan. Updates on outages are published at status.opentable.com.

The minuses. No published price, and a one-year renewing contract. We could read only search excerpts of the UK page, which timed out several times, so 37 of the 47 points are unknown, the most of any product.

Eat App

With price 44.5 out of 100 (31.6 to 85.3); without price 47.7 (35.0 to 92.7). 30 of 47 points undocumented. A global product priced in dollars, with a floor plan, waitlist and Google link.

Eat App, founded in 2015 and headquartered in Dubai, sells Lite ($99), Core ($199) and Pro ($389) a month, or $69, $159 and $299 a month paid yearly; the page does not mention tax. Which plan includes deposits is unclear from the table, so our setup runs from Core to Pro: €177.44 to €346.86 at €1 = $1.1215. Texts are priced on request and included only on Enterprise.

The pluses. Real-time integrations with Google, Tripadvisor and Zomato, and an Instagram book-now button. A real-time digital floor plan, walk-ins and an advanced waitlist. Devices that sync every three seconds. Roles and permissions, performance statistics, and targeted e-mail and SMS campaigns. Automated post-dining surveys by e-mail and text, and an offline mode.

The minuses. The price, in dollars, and little detail on contract, notice or tax. Nothing on UK support or a phone line. 30 of the 47 points are open, and volume capping and database upload are described only in general terms.

The other products we looked at

douug. UK pub and restaurant booking software, one plan at £89 a month with a 30-day trial; its site says there is no per-booking fee. Not scored: we found no independent review page for it (Trustpilot, Capterra, G2), so it is less visible than the eight we scored.

TableTango. A new UK brand of booking software; its page claims a single monthly fee and a trial. Not scored: one Trustpilot review, and the brand dates from 2026. We did not re-check its price.

Sully Booking. Says it is based in Leeds; one monthly fee. Not scored: no Trustpilot page and no review count to be found. We did not re-check its price.

SevenRooms. A booking and guest-management platform for high-end dining, priced on request. Not scored: not re-checked in this round.

TheFork Manager. An English page lists three plans, all “Ask for pricing”. Not scored: quote only, and not re-checked in this round.

HappyChef. A Belgian vendor with a back office in 24 languages, English included; its pricing changed recently. Not scored: not re-checked in this round.

DISH. A German vendor with no UK site. Not scored.

Dojo. A card-machine maker with a virtual queue and deposits; the booking service is sold on request. Not scored: not re-checked in this round.

NomNom. A UK booking product with Stripe deposits and card guarantees; its waiting list was then marked “Coming soon”. Not scored: not re-checked in this round.

Before you sign: eight questions to ask

1. What will I pay at my volume? Resos, Tablein and ResDiary count bookings, simpleERB counts covers: the same figure does not mean the same thing from one vendor to the next.
2. What does a deposit cost me? Up to three layers: the paid option, the vendor’s cut (from none to a surcharge) and Stripe’s fees.
3. Whom can I ask for a card hold, and whom can I let off? Groups, certain days, new guests, regulars: the settings vary a lot.
4. After a no-show, who charges, and how soon? Automatically at some, by hand in Stripe at others.
5. Can I limit arrivals per slot, in bookings or in covers? Ask to see the setting.
6. What happens if the internet drops in the middle of a service? Ask for a demonstration offline.
7. How long am I tied in, and how do I leave? From nothing or almost nothing (Resos, Bientenu, Favouritetable, simpleERB, Tablein) to a one-year contract that renews (OpenTable). Ask whether the export is free after you leave.
8. Who will own it in a year? ResDiary and Access Collins belong to the same group; TableTango is a new brand; HappyChef has just changed its pricing.

Method and limits

Pages read in October 2026; the euro prices are converted at the European Central Bank reference rate of 20 October 2026. Prices change, so check them before you sign. Amounts are monthly, excluding first-month offers and Stripe’s fees, which depend on the card and the country. Several prices do not say whether they exclude VAT; we marked those “VAT ?”.

Our typical restaurants are an assumption: about 75 % of covers booked, 2.8 guests per booking. If you take fewer bookings, products priced by tier or by the text get cheaper; flat-price plans do not change.

The weights of our grid are an editorial judgement, not a measurement. That is why we publish the grid, the reason for each weight and four variants, and put in the first group the products closer to the first than the variants move them (12.0 points with price, 11.0 without).

We tested none of the products in service, so we can say nothing about ease of use or the real quality of support. Capterra and G2 returned errors to our reader, and OpenTable’s UK page timed out several times, so its price and features come from search excerpts only; that is why it has the most open points. We did not obtain a UK trade-body ranking. For Access Collins we could not get the review count, so its place in the line-up rests on its group’s size and its stated client numbers: that is a judgement, not a figure. The Resos points reuse our reading of its pages for another edition of this comparison, and its price, commission and phone support were read again for the UK. Bientenu we know from the inside: we scored it on the software in service on 20 October 2026, including features its website does not describe yet, and we wrote down its gaps just as we wrote down its strengths. It therefore has no range, which is an information advantage: read the ranges of the others as “we do not know”, not “worse”, and a gap of a few points to a competitor with a wide range means nothing. Where information was missing or contradictory, we said so rather than guess.

Sources

Pages read in October 2026, grouped by software.

Bientenu

• The software in service on 20 October 2026

Resos

• resos.com/pricing/
• resos.com/features/
• resos.com/contact/
• ca.trustpilot.com/review/resos.com

simpleERB

• simpleerb.com/pricing
• simpleerb.com/features
• capterra.com/p/265104/simpleERB/pricing/

Favouritetable

• favouritetable.com/pricing
• favouritetable.com/reservationsystem
• favouritetable.com/help/notifying-waiting-guest-that-table-is-ready
• favouritetable.com/help/adding-a-guest-to-your-waiting-list-during-service
• lightspeedhq.com/uk/integrations/favouritetable/
• open.endole.co.uk/insight/brand/365841-favouritetable
• capterra.co.uk/reviews/211402/favouritetable

Access Collins

• theaccessgroup.com/en-gb/hospitality/software/booking-reservations/collins-pricing-mb
• theaccessgroup.com/en-gb/hospitality/sectors/restaurants/table-management/
• help-accesscollins.theaccessgroup.com/en/articles/11602794-add-a-walk-in-booking
• help-accesscollins.theaccessgroup.com/en/articles/11622956-use-livewait
• theaccessgroup.com/en-gb/hospitality/software/booking-reservations/pricing
• help-resdiary.theaccessgroup.com/en/articles/15344974-check-whether-resdiary-is-down

Tablein

• tablein.com/pricing
• tablein.com/features
• getapp.co.uk/software/2080268/tablein-com
• uk.trustpilot.com/review/tablein.com

ResDiary

• resdiary.com/pricing-gbp
• resdiary.com/features
• help-resdiary.theaccessgroup.com/en/articles/15344974-check-whether-resdiary-is-down
• cbinsights.com/compare/opentable-vs-resdiary
• uk.trustpilot.com/review/resdiary.com?page=4
• morningadvertiser.co.uk/Article/2023/07/12/access-hospitality-acquires-resdiary

OpenTable

• opentable.co.uk/restaurant-solutions/plans/
• docs.opentable.com/view/metadata/2sAXxTcWRy
• capterra.ie/compare/17313/1033638/opentable-for-restaurants/vs/simpleerb

Eat App

• restaurant.eatapp.co/pricing
• restaurant.eatapp.co/features
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eat_App
• uk.trustpilot.com/review/eatapp.co

Exchange rate

• ecb.europa.eu/stats/policy_and_exchange_rates/euro_reference_exchange_rates/html/index.en.html

Other products

• douug.com/
• uk.trustpilot.com/review/tabletango.co.uk
• uk.trustpilot.com/review/sullybooking.com

Disclaimer: the data in this comparison come from online research (sources cited, read in October 2026); the data on Bientenu describe the software in service at that date. Bientenu accepts no responsibility for their accuracy.