How is a flat monthly fee different from per-cover pricing?

Seatly is a flat monthly subscription from £59 and charges nothing per cover at any tier. On a per-cover plan you pay a fee for each diner the platform's network sends you, on top of any subscription, so that part of the bill rises with the covers it books.

Is Seatly a marketplace? Will my restaurant be listed alongside competitors?

No. Seatly is not a consumer marketplace. There is no diner-facing directory, no "people who booked here also looked at" nudges, no competing restaurants in the booking flow. The widget sits on your own website and your bookings stay yours.

How long does setup actually take?

Embedding the widget on your existing website is a one-line script tag, usually done in under ten minutes. Setting up your weekly availability, opening hours, and capacity takes another few minutes in the admin dashboard. Most restaurants are taking bookings on the same day they sign up.

What if my website is on Wix or Squarespace?

WordPress, Shopify and custom HTML sites use the inline script tag. On Squarespace the script tag goes in a Code Block; running scripts there needs the Core plan or higher (or a legacy Business or Commerce plan). Wix and GoDaddy block third-party JavaScript, so those use our hosted iframe embed instead — it works on any Wix plan (tested May 2026), and on GoDaddy you will need the plan tier that allows code embeds. There are setup guides for WordPress, Shopify, Squarespace, Wix and plain HTML sites.

Can I export my customer data if I leave?

Yes. Data export and the right to erasure are first-class features in the admin dashboard, built in for UK GDPR compliance. The export is available at any time, including after cancellation. The restaurant is the data controller; Seatly is the processor.

Seatly for Independent Restaurants

The booking system for UK independent restaurants.

Built for venues that want to keep their bookings, their branding, and their customer data — without per-cover commissions or annual contracts. A flat monthly subscription from £59.

Around a 5-minute read.

Talk to us Calculate Your Savings

What independents are up against

Per-cover platforms charge a fee for each diner their network sends you, on top of any subscription, so the bill rises with the covers they book. Seatly charges nothing per cover at any tier.

The subscription platforms have terms of their own to read before you sign. ResDiary's GB terms default to an annual rolling term with 90 days' written notice before the anniversary, plus a £99 setup fee. Access's standard terms, which cover DesignMyNight, set a 36-month initial term unless your order says otherwise.

For restaurants without any online booking at all, the alternative is not a competitor platform — it is the phone. Diners under forty increasingly will not call. A website without a booking widget loses them to the next restaurant on Google.

What Seatly is built for

01. Flat monthly fee, no per-cover charges. Starter £59, Professional £89, Business £129 a month. Seatly charges nothing per cover at any tier.
02. Monthly rolling, cancel anytime. No annual contracts. No 90-day notice period. Data export remains available after cancellation.
03. White-label widget on your own site. The booking flow stays on your domain, in your brand colours, with your restaurant name. No marketplace branding in the diner's journey.^*
04. Text reminders included on every tier — 200 on Starter, 400 on Professional, 1,200 on Business (pooled across all sites). Cuts no-shows without bolting on a third-party reminder service.
05. UK GDPR, booking database in London. The restaurant owns its customer records, and export and erasure are one-click operations.

Seatly versus the three usual alternatives

OpenTable has been quote-only in the UK since January 2025; its last published UK rate card (archived 14 December 2024) was £179 to £299 a month plus £2 per seated network cover, with bookings from your own website free. TheFork publishes no prices; it charges a percentage of the average bill per guest on bookings from TheFork, Tripadvisor and partners, and bookings from your own website, Instagram and Facebook are included. Quandoo took its last new bookings on 30 September 2026; its last published rates (archived 21 January 2026) were £39 a month on Pro plus £3.90 per Quandoo network cover and a £249 setup fee. ResDiary's published UK price list runs £109 to £295 a month plus VAT, with booking caps below the top tier and a £99 setup fee (checked 10 August 2026). Always check pricing with the provider.

	Seatly	Marketplace platforms	Subscription platforms	Phone only
Example		OpenTable, TheFork, Quandoo (closed Sep 2026)	ResDiary, DesignMyNight
Monthly fee	£59 to £129 flat	Quote-only (OpenTable last published £179 to £299; TheFork publishes none). Quandoo was £29 to £99	ResDiary £109 to £295 + VAT; DesignMyNight (Access) from £149 per site	£0
Per-cover fee	£0	OpenTable £2 per seated network cover (last published). TheFork a percentage of the bill on its own network's bookings, rate not published. Quandoo was £3.90 per network cover	£0 (ResDiary and Access each say 0% commission)	n/a
Setup fee	£0	None listed by OpenTable or TheFork. Quandoo was £249 to £749	ResDiary £99; none listed by Access	£0
Contract	Monthly rolling	Per agreement	ResDiary: annual rolling, 90 days' notice (its GB terms); Access: 36-month initial term	n/a
Widget on your site	Yes, white-label	Often redirects out	Varies by vendor	No
Customer data ownership	Restaurant	Governed by each platform's terms — ask to see them	Restaurant (export terms vary)	Restaurant
Booking database	London, UK	Varies — ask each platform	Varies — ask each vendor	n/a

What you keep when you switch

01. Your customers. Every diner who books becomes a record in your database, not a platform's. Names, contact details, preferences, booking history — yours to keep, export, or delete.
02. Your brand. No marketplace logo in the widget. No competing restaurants in the booking journey. The diner sees you, start to finish.^*
03. Your margins. Per-cover fees stop. Setup fees stop. Seatly charges nothing per cover at any tier.
04. Your exit option. Monthly rolling, cancel anytime, export your data on the way out. You stay because the product works, not because the contract says so.

When something else is the right choice

We are not trying to be the right answer for every restaurant. A few cases where the alternatives genuinely earn their fee:

• Fine dining in central London or other tourist cities where the marketplace network materially drives inbound covers. There, the per-cover fee is real customer acquisition cost.
• Multi-site groups with central reservations that need the operational tooling and integrations a Group platform provides.
• Restaurants that genuinely want a marketplace directory listing as their primary discovery channel — though for most UK independents outside major tourist destinations this is rarely the case.

For most independent UK restaurants — single site, owner-led, taking bookings from locals who already know the place — flat fee plus your own website is the maths that adds up.

Switching is painless

01. Check your current contract. If you are on a subscription platform with a notice period, serve notice as soon as you have decided to switch. If you are on a per-cover marketplace, you can usually turn it off whenever.
02. Export your customer and booking history from the old system while the account is still live.
03. Paste one line of code into your website. It goes in as a script tag on WordPress, Shopify, Squarespace (Core plan or higher) and custom-built sites, and as our hosted iframe on Wix.
04. Point new bookings at Seatly and let the existing bookings on the old system play out. No migration drama, no double bookings, no downtime.

We're onboarding our first cohort of UK independents one at a time. If you want a second pair of eyes on a contract or a hand walking through the embed, get in touch.

Common questions

How is a flat monthly fee different from per-cover pricing?: Seatly is a flat monthly subscription from £59 and charges nothing per cover at any tier. On a per-cover plan you pay a fee for each diner the platform's network sends you, on top of any subscription, so that part of the bill rises with the covers it books.
Is Seatly a marketplace? Will my restaurant be listed alongside competitors?: No. Seatly is not a consumer marketplace. There is no diner-facing directory, no "people who booked here also looked at" nudges, no competing restaurants in the booking flow. The widget sits on your own website and your bookings stay yours.
How long does setup actually take?: Embedding the widget on your existing website is a one-line script tag, usually done in under ten minutes. Setting up your weekly availability, opening hours, and capacity takes another few minutes in the admin dashboard. Most restaurants are taking bookings on the same day they sign up.
What if my website is on Wix or Squarespace?: WordPress, Shopify and custom HTML sites use the inline script tag. On Squarespace the script tag goes in a Code Block; running scripts there needs the Core plan or higher (or a legacy Business or Commerce plan). Wix and GoDaddy block third-party JavaScript, so those use our hosted iframe embed instead — it works on any Wix plan (tested May 2026), and on GoDaddy you will need the plan tier that allows code embeds. There are setup guides for WordPress, Shopify, Squarespace, Wix and plain HTML sites.
Can I export my customer data if I leave?: Yes. Data export and the right to erasure are first-class features in the admin dashboard, built in for UK GDPR compliance. The export is available at any time, including after cancellation. The restaurant is the data controller; Seatly is the processor.

Looking at a specific competitor? Our Seatly vs OpenTable , vs ResDiary , and vs Quandoo pages cover side-by-side pricing and switching in depth.

Running a specific cuisine? See our page for Indian restaurants or for Mediterranean and Turkish restaurants . Our buyer's guide compares ten platforms against the same six criteria.

Ready to keep your bookings?

We are onboarding UK independents into the first cohort now. Tell us about your venue and we will walk you through the switch end-to-end.

Talk to us See the savings on your covers

* A note on Seatly branding. Seatly branding is optional and entirely your choice. A single toggle in your admin Settings controls whether a small "Powered by Seatly" line appears on your booking widget AND in confirmation, reminder, and cancellation emails. It is OFF by default on every tier, including Starter — nothing carries Seatly branding unless you switch it on. When you do, you receive a tier-matched discount on your subscription (£5/month on Starter, £10/month on Professional, £15/month on Business). You can turn it on at any time; switching it back off ends the discount at your next invoice and locks the toggle for 30 days, so the discount cannot be claimed and immediately reversed.

Now onboarding

Talk to us

We're onboarding the first restaurants now, one at a time. Leave your details and we'll be in touch for a chat — happy to answer any questions. Founding-customer pricing, no setup fee, no contract.

Just your name, email and role — everything else is optional.

We'll only contact you about Seatly. No spam. Unsubscribe any time.

Prefer to chat? Email us at info@seatly.uk