Which restaurant reservation system is best?

It depends on which problem costs you the most. OpenTable if you need to be discovered. SevenRooms if marketing automation across a group drives your revenue. Tock if you sell prepaid and ticketed dining. Now Book It if gift cards and functions matter in Australia. Fork Time if guest calls, messages and enquiries are going unanswered during service.

Which reservation systems charge per-cover fees?

OpenTable charges $1.00 to $1.50 per network cover, and in the United States a 2% service fee on deposits and prepaid dining. Tock charges 2% on prepaid reservations. Fork Time, SevenRooms, Resy, Now Book It, Eat App and Toast Tables do not charge per cover.

Which reservation systems include AI phone answering in the base price?

Fork Time does, from $199 a month. SevenRooms sells Voice AI as a separately priced add-on. OpenTable offers third-party voice partners to Core and Pro customers. Now Book It connects Sadie, a third-party product, priced separately.

What does "not publicly documented" mean in this table?

That the capability was not found in that vendor's public documentation on the date checked. It is not a claim that the capability does not exist. Ask the vendor directly, and tell us if a row needs correcting.

How often is this comparison updated?

Quarterly, and whenever a vendor ships something that changes a row. The verification date is at the top of the table. Prices and capabilities change; if you find one out of date, email support@forktime.ai and we will correct it.

Does Fork Time bring new diners to my restaurant?

No. There is no marketplace and no discovery network. Fork Time works on the demand you already have. If being found is your problem, OpenTable is the better purchase.

COMPARE · VERIFIED JULY 2026Compare restaurant software by the work it actually does

Fork Time is an AI front of house: it answers guest calls and messages across phone, email, SMS, WhatsApp and web chat, and holds the reservation book itself. This page compares it against every major restaurant reservation platform on the capabilities that separate them, using each vendor's published documentation and pricing, checked on the date shown. Where a capability is not documented publicly we write that, rather than claiming it does not exist. Where another platform does something Fork Time does not, we say so, and four of the rows below are ours to lose. Fork Time publishes this comparison and is one of the products in it.

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Which one fits your restaurant

If your problem is	The answer is
Calls and enquiries going unanswered during service	Fork Time
Needing to be discovered by new diners	OpenTable
CRM, marketing automation and events across a group	SevenRooms
Ticketed and prepaid dining	Tock, now merging into Resy
Gift cards and functions in Australia	Now Book It
The lowest entry price	Eat App
Already running Toast POS	Toast Tables

OpenTable United States pricing, captured 4 August 2026.

The full comparison

Verified 25 July 2026 against each vendor's public product and pricing documentation.

Guest conversations

	Fork Time	SevenRooms	OpenTable	Resy	Now Book It	Toast Tables
AI answers the phone	Included	Add-on, priced separately	Third-party partners on Core and Pro; own product in beta	Not publicly documented	Via Sadie, a third-party product	Not publicly documented
AI answers email	Included	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented
AI answers SMS	Included	Not publicly documented	Automated messages	Not publicly documented	Automated confirmations	Not publicly documented
AI answers WhatsApp	Included	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented
AI answers web chat	Included	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented
One inbox across every channel	Included	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented
Catering enquiry qualified in the conversation	Included	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented
Answers only from approved restaurant knowledge	Included	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Sadie answers from an uploaded knowledge base	Not publicly documented
Transfers rather than guessing when unsure	Included	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Sadie transfers calls	Not publicly documented
Concurrent calls	Included	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented
Languages	12	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented

Bookings and the floor

	Fork Time	SevenRooms	OpenTable	Resy	Now Book It	Toast Tables
Reservation system included	Included	Included	Included	Included	Included	Included
Table allocation for reservations	Included	Auto-seating	Smart Assign	Included	Included	Included
Table allocation for walk-ins	Included	Auto-seating	Included	Included	Included	Included
Three ranked walk-in options with timing and conditions	Included	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented
Waitlist	Included	Included	Included	Included	Included	Included
Waitlist feeds cancellation recovery	Included	Priority Alerts	Availability alerts	Resy Notify	Standby workflows	Not publicly documented
Ranked recovery offer prepared for the team	Included	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented
Time-to-refill recorded	Included	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented
Capacity pacing against the kitchen	Included	Included	Included	Included	Included	Not publicly documented
Large-party approval gate	Included	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented
Guest raises hand from the table	Included	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented
Guest browses menu after being seated	Included	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	via Toast

Protecting the booking

	Fork Time	SevenRooms	OpenTable	Resy	Now Book It	Toast Tables
Deposits or card holds	Included	Included	Included	Included	Booking guarantees	Not publicly documented
Card requested per booking, scored by risk	Included	Policy-based	Policy-based	Policy-based	Policy-based	Not publicly documented
Regulars book with nothing asked	Included	Depends on policy	Depends on policy	Depends on policy	Depends on policy	Not applicable
Card charged only when the team marks a no-show	Included	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented
Every recommendation explains its reason	Included	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented
Team can override any recommendation	Included	Not applicable	Not applicable	Not applicable	Not applicable	Not applicable

Guests

	Fork Time	SevenRooms	OpenTable	Resy	Now Book It	Toast Tables
Guest profiles and visit history	Included	deepest in category	Included	Included	Included	Included
Profile updates from every channel	Included	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented
Per-guest RSVP by name	Included	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented
Branded invitation to the rest of the party	Included	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented
Dietary needs attached to the guest, not the booking	Included	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented
Full data export on leaving	Included	Not publicly documented	Diner data exports on OpenTable's terms	Documented, with reported friction	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented

AI assistants

	Fork Time	SevenRooms	OpenTable	Resy	Now Book It	Toast Tables
MCP server for compatible AI assistants	Included	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented
Guests can complete a booking inside an assistant	Included	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented
Operator can run the restaurant from an assistant	Included	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented

Where Fork Time loses

	Fork Time	SevenRooms	OpenTable	Resy	Now Book It	Toast Tables
Diner discovery network	None	None	The largest in the category	Strong in major metros	None	None
Gift cards	Not offered	Not publicly documented	Gift experiences	Not publicly documented	Included	Not publicly documented
Ticketed events and functions	Not offered	Included	Limited	via Tock	Included	Not publicly documented
CRM, segmentation and marketing automation	Guest records only	deepest in category	Included	Included	Included	Limited
Multi-venue reporting and benchmarking	Not offered	Included	Included	Included	Included	Not publicly documented
POS integrations	Two: CloudWaitress, Square	Extensive	200+ documented	Extensive	20+	Native to Toast

Commercial terms

	Fork Time	SevenRooms	OpenTable	Resy	Now Book It	Toast Tables
Published pricing	Yes	No, quote	Yes	Yes	No, quote	Yes
Monthly price	$99 / $199 / $299 USD	Roughly $299 to $499+, quoted	$149 / $299 / $499	$249 to $399	Flat, quoted	$50 to $199
Per-cover fees	None	None	$1.00 to $1.50 per network cover	None	None	None
Other transaction fees	None	Not publicly documented	2% on deposits and prepaid dining, United States	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented
AI answering included in the base price	Yes	No, add-on	No, partner integration	Not applicable	No, priced separately	Not applicable
Free trial	14 days	Not publicly documented	30 days on Basic	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented	Not publicly documented
Setup time	About 30 minutes	Two to four weeks	Fast	Fast	Onboarding-led	Fast
Contract	None	Varies by quote	Varies by plan	Varies	Varies by quote	Toast agreement
Ownership	Independent, founder-led	DoorDash	Booking Holdings	American Express	Valsoft-connected AI, independent platform	Toast

How to read this table

"Not publicly documented" does not mean "cannot do it." It means the capability was not found in that vendor's public product or pricing documentation on the date checked. Several of these platforms are large and ship quickly. If you are evaluating one seriously, ask them directly and ask us to correct the row.

The rows Fork Time loses are the important ones. No diner network, no gift cards, no ticketed events, guest records rather than a marketing platform, two POS integrations rather than twenty. If any of those is what you are buying, one of the other platforms above is the better purchase, and we would rather you knew that before a demo than after a month.

One correction we made to our own page. Until recently this comparison said SevenRooms does not answer the phone. That is no longer true. SevenRooms Voice AI is real and at scale: ElevenLabs, which powers it, reports more than 400,000 calls handled across 600 or more venues. The difference that survives is commercial rather than technical. Their voice product is a separately priced add-on on a quote-based platform. Ours is included in a published price.

SevenRooms pricing plans, captured 4 August 2026.

Compare Fork Time directly

Head to head

Fork Time vs OpenTable → /compare/fork-time-vs-opentable
Fork Time vs Now Book It → /compare/now-book-it-alternative
Resy vs OpenTable → /compare/resy-vs-opentable

Alternatives to each platform

OpenTable alternatives → /alternatives/opentable-alternatives
SevenRooms alternatives → /alternatives/sevenrooms-alternatives
Now Book It alternatives → /alternatives/now-book-it-alternatives
Resy alternatives → /alternatives/resy-alternatives
Slang AI alternatives → /alternatives/slang-ai-alternatives
Maple alternatives → /alternatives/maple-alternatives

Neither is our product

OpenTable vs SevenRooms → /compare/opentable-vs-sevenrooms

By category

What is AI front of house → /ai-phone-answering#what-is-ai-front-of-house
AI phone answering for restaurants → /ai-phone-answering

Slang AI pricing, captured 4 August 2026.

Platforms not in the table above

These are compared on their own pages rather than in the matrix, because either their pricing is not published in a form that compares, or they serve a different buyer.

Tock. $199 to $699 a month plus 2% on prepaid reservations. Ticketed and prepaid dining. Currently merging into Resy under American Express, with the Tock app closing.

Eat App. $49 to $389 a month with a free tier, operating in 90+ countries. The lowest real entry price in the category. Starter tiers meter messages.

Yelp Guest Manager. $99 to $279 a month, with Yelp Host answering calls from $149, or $99 for Guest Manager customers. Direct reservations require Guest Manager.

ResDiary. Flat monthly pricing, long-standing in Australia and the United Kingdom, part of the Access Group. Current pricing and AI capability not verified for this table.

Quandoo. Winding down. New bookings stop 30 September 2026 and the platform closes 31 December 2026.

Obee and WowApps. Australian flat-fee platforms. Not yet verified for this table.

SEE IT ON YOUR OWN SERVICECLOSING CTA

Compare it against what you run now.

The demonstration uses examples based on your restaurant and service style.