Note: two companies use the name Maple in this category. maple.inc is the US voice AI platform founded in December 2023 by Aidan Chau, serving 1,000-plus restaurants. callmaple.ai is a separate UK product with different pricing, from £150 a month. This page addresses maple.inc, and says so in the first section. Conflating them would be an error a reader spots immediately.
MAPLE ALTERNATIVES · REVIEWED JULY 2026
5 best Maple alternatives for restaurants
The best Maple alternatives in 2026 are Fork Time for restaurants that want the reservation system included rather than integrated, Loman for high-volume phone ordering with payment, Slang AI for multi-location groups wanting benchmarking, Hostie for multilingual guest experience, and Yelp Host for the lowest published entry price. Maple is a US voice AI platform founded in December 2023 that answers calls, takes orders and books reservations, states it serves more than 1,000 restaurants and has answered over a million calls, and integrates with OpenTable, SevenRooms and POS systems including Toast, Square and Clover. It sells as a base voice product with optional Orders, Bookings and Native Integrations modules priced separately. Restaurants compare alternatives mainly on two things: the total once modules are added, and the fact that the reservation system remains a separate subscription. Fork Time publishes this comparison.
WHICH MAPLE THIS IS
Two products in this category use the name. This page covers maple.inc, the US platform founded in December 2023 by Aidan Chau. A separate UK product at callmaple.ai sells AI phone answering from £150 a month with a 100-call starter tier. If you are comparing the UK product, the pricing below does not apply to you.
WHAT MAPLE DOES WELL
Say the strong things first, because they are true. Maple is order-native in a way most reservation-led products are not: complex orders, modifiers, allergies and combos, with secure payment taken on the call and the ticket injected into the POS. It integrates broadly, including Toast, Square, Clover, Quantic and SkyTab, and announced an OpenTable integration for reservations. It states more than 1,000 restaurants, over a million calls answered since launch and a 92% resolution rate without human intervention, and most restaurants are live within 24 hours.
For a venue whose phone is mostly orders, that is a strong product and this page will not pretend otherwise.
WHY RESTAURANTS COMPARE ALTERNATIVES
The price is modular. Maple sells a base voice product with Orders, Bookings and Native Integrations as separately priced modules. That suits a venue that needs one of them and adds up for a venue that needs all three. Get the total for your configuration in writing before comparing it with anything else.
It sits on your reservation platform. Maple integrates with OpenTable and SevenRooms rather than holding the book itself, so the reservation subscription continues underneath. The published price covers one product in a stack of two.
It is built around the phone. Guest demand also arrives by email, WhatsApp, SMS and web chat, and the catering enquiry that lands in an inbox at six on a Friday is not a phone call.
It leans to orders. That is a strength for takeaway-led venues and a mismatch for a full-service dining room whose phone is bookings, functions and questions.
THE FIVE ALTERNATIVES
1. Fork Time: best when the reservation system should be included, not integrated
$99 reservations, $199 with AI answering phone, email, SMS, WhatsApp and web chat under fair use, $299 with phone ordering through CloudWaitress or Square. Published USD, one price, no modules. No per-cover fees, no contract, 14 days free, live in roughly half an hour.
Why consider it instead. Fork Time is the reservation system, so there is no platform bill underneath and no integration between the AI and the book. It answers five channels rather than one. It scores each booking for no-show risk before asking for a card, prepares ranked offers to refill cancellations, ranks three ways to seat a walk-in, and provides an MCP server so compatible AI assistants can check availability and book. Everything is in one price rather than assembled from modules.
Where Maple wins. Scale and ordering depth. More than 1,000 restaurants against Fork Time's early base, a million calls answered, and POS coverage across Toast, Square, Clover, Quantic and SkyTab where Fork Time supports CloudWaitress and Square only. If phone ordering into your specific POS is the job, Maple almost certainly integrates with it and Fork Time may not.
Limitations. Young platform, small disclosed customer base, no diner marketplace, phone ordering limited to two partners, support led from Australia.
Best fit. Independent full-service venues, one to three sites, where the phone is bookings and enquiries rather than orders, and where paying for a separate reservation platform no longer makes sense.
2. Loman AI: best for high-volume phone ordering with payment
Starter around $249 a month with 500 minutes then per-minute overage, Premium around $399 plus a $149 setup fee, which is the tier containing ordering, reservations and POS integrations.
Why consider it. Direct competition with Maple on its home ground: full orders with payment on the call, posted to major POS systems.
Where Maple wins. Disclosed scale and breadth of POS partnerships. Limitations. Per-minute overage means the total grows with volume, and there is no system of record.
3. Slang AI: best for multi-location groups
From $399 per location per month. States 2,000-plus locations, with native guest satisfaction scoring and cross-venue benchmarking.
Why consider it. The largest disclosed footprint in the voice category and reporting depth Maple does not advertise.
Where Maple wins. Ordering. Slang sends an SMS ordering link rather than completing the order on the call. Limitations. No system of record, and the highest entry price here.
4. Hostie AI: best for multilingual, hospitality-led calls
Essential from $199, Premium from $399, Hospitality Plus from $599 per location per month. Reservation integrations, takeout ordering and 20 languages sit on Premium.
Why consider it. Conversational quality and language coverage for rooms where the call is part of the hospitality.
Where Maple wins. Ordering depth and POS breadth. Limitations. The entry tier excludes the reservation and ordering capability most buyers are comparing.
5. Yelp Host: best low-cost entry
$149 a month for up to 500 calls, $99 for Yelp Guest Manager customers, $0.25 per call beyond 500, with up to 30 days free.
Why consider it. The lowest published price in this comparison and a real trial.
Where Maple wins. Ordering, integrations and scale. Limitations. Direct reservations require Yelp Guest Manager, and phone ordering is not live.
THE COST COMPARISON THAT ACTUALLY MATTERS
Four of the five products above, and Maple itself, require a reservation platform underneath. Their published price covers the voice layer only.
Fork Time's $199 covers the voice layer and the reservation system together. If the platform you would otherwise keep is OpenTable, add its subscription plus $1.00 to $1.50 per network cover, which at 150 network covers a week is roughly $7,800 a year in cover fees before anything else.
Ask every vendor on this list the same question: what is the total for my configuration, including the platform underneath, for twelve months. The answers separate faster than any feature table.
VERDICT BY RESTAURANT TYPE
Takeaway or order-led venue on Toast, Square, Clover or SkyTab: Maple, or Loman. Ordering is the job and both do it well.
Independent full-service restaurant where the phone is bookings and enquiries: Fork Time. One price, five channels, and the book included.
Multi-location group wanting benchmarking: Slang AI.
Fine dining prioritising conversational quality and languages: Hostie Premium.
Lowest entry price, especially on Yelp Guest Manager: Yelp Host.