Guide

How to choose a booking system for your independent restaurant.

A practical evaluation framework for UK independents. Pricing models, contract terms, data ownership, and an honest decision table including Seatly, OpenTable, ResDiary, Quandoo and six alternatives.

Last updated 10 August 2026. Around an 8-minute read.

The wrong question to ask first

"Should I use OpenTable or ResDiary?" is the wrong starting point. You will end up optimising for the loudest brand rather than the right fit for your venue.

The right question is this — what does a booking system actually need to do for my restaurant, and what am I willing to pay to get it? Once you can answer that in plain English, you have your shortlist.

This guide walks through the six criteria that matter for most UK independents, then gives you a decision table comparing ten providers against them.

How to choose a UK restaurant booking system: 6 criteria that matter

  1. 01. Pricing model

    The biggest single lever. Subscriptions charge a set monthly fee for your tier. Per-cover models charge a fee on each diner the platform's network sends you. OpenTable's last published UK rate card charged £2 per seated network cover, and Quandoo charged £3.90 per network cover before it closed. On a per-cover plan, every busy service costs more. For a 40-cover venue doing 1,500 covers a month, the difference between a subscription and per-cover can be four figures a month. Watch for booking caps too. Several subscription platforms (ResDiary, Tablein, simpleERB) meter bookings or covers per month, so a strong month can push you into a higher pricing band.

  2. 02. Contract term

    Monthly rolling means you can leave if the fit is wrong. Annual contracts lock you in for twelve months before you've taken your tenth booking. The enterprise players (OpenTable, ResDiary) default to annual. The independent and indie-focused providers (Seatly, Tableo, Tablein, simpleERB) default to monthly. Annual may come with a discount — check whether the discount is worth the lock-in.

  3. 03. Data ownership

    Your customer list is your most valuable long-term asset. Marketplace platforms are also consumer apps: diners who book through the marketplace's own app or website become its users too, and its privacy policy may let it suggest other restaurants to them. Some also gate export options. White-label platforms usually treat the restaurant as the data controller, with clean export at any time. Read the DPA, not just the marketing copy.

  4. 04. Website platform compatibility

    Does the booking widget embed cleanly into your existing website — WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, Shopify, GoDaddy, or a custom site? Some platforms are opinionated about where you host. Some require a separate microsite. Some redirect your diners off your site to book. One line of script tag, embedded where you are already, is the benchmark.

  5. 05. UK GDPR posture and data residency

    UK GDPR is not optional. Where is my customer data physically stored? Who are the sub-processors? How is international transfer handled? Is a DPA available? Platforms that send UK data abroad have to name the safeguard they rely on, such as the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework or Standard Contractual Clauses, so ask which one and read it.

  6. 06. Feature surface

    You pay for the whole feature set even if you only use 20%. A 120-cover fine-diner genuinely uses integrated POS, deposit flows, table-mix algorithms, gift cards, rate limits. A 40-cover bistro usually doesn't. Of the features listed on the provider's pricing page, which ones would you actually open during a shift?

Types of restaurant booking systems explained

Before you start comparing products, it helps to know that booking software falls into four broad shapes:

  • Marketplace platforms (OpenTable, DesignMyNight). Your restaurant appears on their consumer-facing app or website. Diners can discover you through their network. You pay a subscription, and on OpenTable a per-cover fee on bookings that come through the marketplace; Access publishes 0% commission on DesignMyNight bookings. Good for venues that need inbound discovery (fine-dining in tourist areas, destination restaurants). Quandoo, previously in this group, took its last new bookings on 30 September 2026 — see our Quandoo replacement guide . The newest entrant is Deliveroo, which launched in-app table booking in London in May 2026 (built on SevenRooms) with a wider UK rollout planned.
  • White-label platforms (Seatly, ResDiary, Tableo, Tablein, Eat App, simpleERB). Booking widget embeds on your own website under your branding. Monthly subscription (ResDiary's is tiered by booking volume). No per-cover fees on most tiers. Good for venues whose customers already know them and book direct.
  • EPOS-bundled / all-in-one (Dojo, and till providers that fold a booking module into their hardware). Bookings come packaged with the EPOS and card terminals from a single vendor — one bill, one contract, hardware bought outright or paid for monthly. The customer-facing booking page is typically the vendor's own (Dojo sends diners to web.dojo.app) rather than your domain. Good for venues that want one supplier and don't mind tying payments, tills and bookings to it — see Seatly vs Dojo for a closer look.
  • No booking system (paper diary, phone only). Still viable for small venues with strong walk-in trade. The hidden cost is the no-show rate — industry reporting puts walk-in-only no-show rates materially higher than venues using automated text or email reminders.

Most UK independents land on a white-label platform. The per-cover economics of the marketplace model only make sense if you can prove a meaningful share of your covers come through the marketplace (typically 30% or more), and most independents can't.

Decision table — ten options compared

Figures marked ~ are estimates from public reporting, and those marked reseller-listed come from Dojo's resellers rather than Dojo. The rest are from the provider's own published UK price list or last published rate card, verified 14 July 2026, with ResDiary, Tableo, Collins and Quandoo re-checked on 10 August 2026. OpenTable's are its last published UK rate card (archived 14 December 2024) and Quandoo's the last rates it published (archived 21 January 2026). Several providers are quote-based, so your quote may differ — always verify directly. Subscriptions are per venue, per month, exclusive of VAT, except OpenTable's and Quandoo's, whose pages gave no VAT basis.

Provider Model Monthly Per-cover Contract
Seatly White-label £59 to £129 £0 Monthly rolling
OpenTable Marketplace Quote-only (last UK: £179 to £299) £2 per seated network cover (last published) Annual
ResDiary White-label £109 to £295, booking caps below top tier £0 (ResDiary says 0% commission) Annual rolling, 90 days' notice
DesignMyNight / Collins Marketplace From £149 per site £0 (Access publishes 0% commission on bookings) 36-month initial term, then 12-month renewals, 90 days' notice
Eat App White-label ~£129 ~£0 Annual
Tableo White-label £0 (capped) to £146, unlimited on paid plans £0 Monthly
Quandoo ⚠ closed Sep 2026 Marketplace £29 to £99 (last published) £3.90 (network bookings only) Varies, £299 cancellation penalty
simpleERB White-label £21 to £80, cover caps below top tier £0 Monthly
Tablein White-label £60 to £157, 50 or 150 reservations included below top plan £0 Monthly
Dojo EPOS bundle £149 + VAT (reseller-listed) £0 (reseller-listed) Not published for bookings
Paper diary None £0 £0 —

Deeper comparisons for the journeys we hear about most often: Seatly vs OpenTable , Seatly vs ResDiary , Seatly vs Bookatable , and our Quandoo replacement guide .

Best UK restaurant booking system by restaurant type

Fine-dining in central London, Edinburgh, Bath, tourist-destination city

OpenTable earns its fees if diners genuinely find you through the network. Run a three-month test: tag which bookings originate from OpenTable versus your own site. If >30% are from the network, stay.

Multi-location group with POS integrations

ResDiary is the natural default. Its Vita Mojo, Lightspeed and ICR Touch integrations are deeper than most white-label peers. The annual contract is the cost of that depth. If you want bookings and the till in one bundle from a single vendor, Dojo packages EPOS, card terminals and bookings together — convenient, but with a Dojo-branded booking page and a contract term you have to ask Dojo for.

40-cover independent whose bookings come from their own website

A white-label subscription is the match, but check the caps before comparing headline prices. At this volume simpleERB is £80 (its £21 and £47 tiers cap at 300 and 1,200 covers a month), and Tablein charges for every reservation beyond the 50 or 150 its cheaper plans include, which pushes a 400-booking month onto its £157 plan. Seatly (£59 to £129, monthly rolling, unlimited bookings at every tier) and Tableo (£59 on Organise, unlimited covers on every paid plan) hold their headline price as you get busier.

Cocktail bar, late-night venue, events-driven hospitality

DesignMyNight / Collins is purpose-built for this segment (from £149 per site). More expensive than generic booking software but includes event ticketing, marketing, and a younger consumer audience through the DesignMyNight discovery site. If ticketing is the only draw, Seatly's Business tier now covers ticketed events (free, deposit, or pre-paid entry) sold through your own website — the case for DesignMyNight is the discovery audience, not the ticketing itself.

Pub or gastropub taking table bookings

Depends which side of the bar your bookings come from. A food-led independent pub or gastropub booking tables for the dining side works well on a white-label widget on its own website. Seatly's £59 Starter covers unlimited bookings, the walk-in queue with text-when-ready notifications on the Professional tier suits busy Sunday services, and Business adds ticketed events for quiz nights and tasting menus. Bar-led venues chasing a night-out crowd tend to lean towards DesignMyNight / Collins, the segment specialist above, for its consumer discovery audience. If your till is part of an EPOS ecosystem, check the contract before buying anything separate. Several of the big pub EPOS providers bundle a reservations module you may already be paying for.

Venue currently on paper or phone only, 30 covers or fewer

Start with simpleERB (from £21 with a 300-cover monthly cap), Seatly Starter (£59, unlimited bookings), or Tableo. Tablein works too if you'll stay within the 50 reservations a month its £60 Starter plan includes. The bar to benefit from automated email confirmations and a customer database is low. If the fit isn't right after three months, you'll have lost less than the cost of a decent night out.

How we think about Seatly (written by the people making it)

We built Seatly for UK independent restaurants of any size, from 30-cover bistros to 150-cover gastropubs and multi-site groups. What unites our customer base is that they're independents (not chains), UK-based, and take most of their bookings through their own website. If you run a venue that fits that description, we'd like to talk regardless of size.

Where we're a weaker fit is well-covered above — OpenTable network dependencies, complex POS integrations, consumer-marketplace discovery traffic. That's about feature match, not cover count.

Where Seatly wins. Lowest flat-rate entry point of the UK-focused white-labels (£59). Monthly rolling, no annual contract. One line of code embed on most websites. UK GDPR, booking database hosted in London. Widget stays under the restaurant's branding by default.*

Where Seatly doesn't. No POS integrations. No consumer-marketplace inbound traffic. If any of those are must-haves for your operation, a different provider is the right answer.

We're onboarding the first cohort of UK independents, one at a time. The product is a year old on the inside but still unbranded on the outside. If that stage fits your risk tolerance, get in touch.

Common questions

What should I look for in a restaurant booking system?
Six criteria matter for most UK independents: (1) pricing model — flat monthly vs per-cover; (2) contract term — monthly rolling vs annual lock-in; (3) data ownership — who controls your customer list; (4) website platform compatibility — does the widget embed cleanly on WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, Shopify, or your custom site; (5) UK GDPR posture and data residency; (6) feature surface — are you paying for capabilities you will actually use. Start with those, not brand names.
What is the difference between marketplace and white-label booking software?
Marketplace platforms (OpenTable, DesignMyNight) put your restaurant on their consumer-facing app or website. OpenTable charges a per-cover fee on bookings that come through its network; Access publishes 0% commission on DesignMyNight bookings and charges a subscription instead. White-label platforms (Seatly, ResDiary, Tableo, Tablein, Eat App) embed a booking widget on your own website with your branding, charging a monthly subscription (ResDiary's is tiered by booking volume). Marketplace is good if you need the inbound diner traffic. White-label is good if most of your bookings already come direct from your own website and you want to stop paying commissions on them.
How much should a UK restaurant booking system cost?
For a 40-cover UK independent, subscriptions run from around £21 to £295 per month depending on provider, tier and booking caps. Marketplaces that charge per cover add a fee on every diner their network sends you, so the total cost scales with volume — OpenTable's last published UK rate card charged £2 per seated network cover, and Quandoo charged £3.90 per network cover before it closed. Not every marketplace works that way: Access publishes 0% commission on DesignMyNight bookings. A budget of £60 to £150 per month covers most independents on a white-label subscription without per-cover fees.
Do I need a booking system if most of my bookings come from walk-ins?
Probably yes, for two reasons. First, diners increasingly expect to book online — even if they would normally walk in, some will check online availability before travelling. Second, even a small share of online bookings gets you a customer database with email addresses and visit history, which supports reminders and cancellations. A £21 to £89 per month white-label system often pays for itself with a handful of saved no-shows.
Which booking system is best for a UK independent restaurant?
It depends on your must-haves. If inbound diner traffic from a consumer app is critical, a marketplace such as OpenTable is the route, with per-cover fees. If you want a white-label widget on your own website with no per-cover fees and no annual lock-in, Seatly is built for that, alongside Tableo, simpleERB and Tablein. ResDiary has deeper POS integrations but defaults to an annual rolling term and caps bookings on every tier below its top one. Check booking limits as well as headline price — simpleERB from £21 with cover caps, Tablein from £60 with 50 reservations included, Seatly from £59 with no caps. Shortlist three or four that match, and sign monthly-rolling if you can, so you can leave if the fit is wrong.
Are there UK restaurant booking systems with no per-cover fees?
Yes. The main white-label platforms — Seatly, Tableo, Tablein and simpleERB, and ResDiary by its own account — charge a monthly subscription with no per-cover fees on their standard tiers (though several meter bookings or covers per month). The platforms that charge per cover are marketplace operators such as OpenTable, whose last published UK rate card charged £2 per seated network cover. Quandoo's last-published rate was £3.90 per cover on bookings through Quandoo's website, app and partner network; it took its last new bookings on 30 September 2026. For a restaurant taking most of its bookings through its own website, a no-commission subscription platform is typically the lower total cost of ownership.
What is the best booking system for a small UK restaurant on a budget?
For a small independent under 50 covers focused on direct bookings from its own website, the cheapest credible options are simpleERB (published from £21 per month, capped at 300 covers a month), Tablein (from £60 per month with 50 reservations included) and Seatly Starter (£59 per month, unlimited bookings, monthly rolling). All three avoid per-cover fees. simpleERB has the lowest entry price but meters covers; Tablein charges for each reservation over its allowance, which makes it pricier than it looks once you get busy; Seatly is the newest, built specifically for the UK independent segment, with no caps at any tier. Monthly rolling matters more than the headline price — you can leave after the first month if the fit is wrong.
What is the best booking system for a UK pub?
It depends which side of the bar the bookings come from. Food-led pubs and gastropubs booking tables for the dining side work well on a white-label widget on their own website. Seatly (£59 to £129 per month, unlimited bookings, with a walk-in queue and text-when-ready notifications on the Professional tier, and ticketed events on Business) is built for exactly that, and there is a dedicated page for food-led pubs at seatly.uk/for/pubs that covers the split trade and what we do not do. Bar-led venues chasing a night-out crowd tend to lean towards DesignMyNight/Collins (from £149 per month per site) for its consumer discovery audience, though Access's standard terms set a 36-month initial term unless your order says otherwise. Many pub EPOS systems also bundle a bookings module — check what your till contract already includes before paying for anything separate.

If Seatly sounds like the shape you want

We're onboarding the first cohort of UK independents now. Tell us about your venue and we'll tell you honestly whether Seatly's a fit — and which provider to look at if it isn't.

Talk to us Compare the costs

* 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.

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