By Aadeel Khaan, Founder of Fork Time · Reviewed by Abeer, Co-founder and CTO Assets: screenshots resy_pricing (Tock tiers visible), opentable_plans_us.
FORK TIME JOURNAL · VERIFIED AUGUST 2026
Tock vs OpenTable: what the comparison means now that Tock lives inside Resy
Disclosure first: Fork Time sells a reservation system, so we compete with both products below. Every price here is from the vendor's own pricing page, verified August 2026, and the honest starting point is that this comparison changed shape in 2024: American Express bought Tock for $400 million and is folding its roughly 5,000 venues into Resy through 2026. You are no longer choosing between two companies. You are choosing between OpenTable's marketplace model and a Tock that survives as two plan tiers inside Resy.
THE PRICES, SIDE BY SIDE
Tock inside Resy: $269 a month with a 3% fee on prepayments (Essential) or $399 with 2% (Premium), flat, no per-cover fees. OpenTable: $149, $299 or $499 a month in the US, plus $1.00 to $1.50 for every cover the network sends, a $0.25 widget fee on Basic, and 2% on prepaid Experiences; Australian pricing is quote-only. OpenTable's standard agreement runs one year and auto-renews with 30 days' notice. The structural difference is the entire decision: OpenTable's cost rises with every network booking, Tock's rises only with prepaid volume.
WHAT EACH ONE IS ACTUALLY FOR
Tock earns its keep when money moves before the meal. Prepaid tasting menus, wine dinners, ticketed events, chef's counters: Tock built the category's best tooling for selling a seat like a ticket, and that tooling survives intact inside Resy. If deposits and prepayment are your business model rather than your insurance policy, this side wins on capability, not just price.
OpenTable earns its keep when strangers fill your room. The largest diner network in the category, and every operator thread reaches the same verdict: pay the per-cover fee where the marketplace genuinely originates demand, and resent it where it bills you for guests who searched your name. One widely shared operator complaint is that the fee applies even to bookings arriving from your own Google profile, which is a configuration you can fix, and a bill many venues discover before they fix it.
WHAT OPERATORS IN THE THREADS ACTUALLY SAY
The largest community thread comparing the two runs to 32 comments, started by an owner already paying Tock $250 a month and weighing the switch. The recurring themes, paraphrased: Tock's prepaid tooling is praised and its smaller diner network accepted as the trade; OpenTable's network delivers in tourist-heavy markets and gets accused of bidding on restaurants' own names in search; and nobody in the thread reports that features decided their choice, the fee model against their local diner habits did.
IF YOU ARE ON TOCK TODAY
The migration is the live issue, not the comparison. Get three things in writing from your account manager: whether your current Tock pricing carries into the Resy-sold tiers or resets, when your migration window lands and what happens to bookings and prepaid tickets sold across the cutover, and whether guest and ticketing history transfers complete. Venues that chose Tock to avoid Resy now need a decision rather than a default; venues that chose it for ticketing keep the capability either way.
THE THIRD OPTION BOTH SIDES IGNORE
Both platforms treat the phone as someone else's problem, solved by a marketplace of bolt-on voice vendors. If the bookings you lose are the ones that ring while your team is on the floor, the comparison above prices the wrong thing. Fork Time is the reservation system that answers the phone itself, $99 to $299 flat per location, no per-cover fees, 14-day trial without a card, and a demo line you can call before talking to anyone. It does not bring a diner network; if OpenTable's marketplace fills your room, that remains OpenTable's argument. Full field: best reservation systems, ranked by fit →
EVERY CALL ANSWERED
The comparison neither page will run: call them, then call this.
The demonstration uses examples based on your restaurant and service style.