Key findings
5/16
charge per-cover or commission fees on top of any subscription
8/16
are flat-rate with no cover fees at all
6/16
publish no price at all and route you to a sales quote
Two ways to charge for a reservation
Almost every platform in this set falls into one of two camps. Marketplace platforms (OpenTable, TheFork, Quandoo) charge a per-cover fee - a small amount for every guest seated from a reservation - usually higher for diners who arrive through the platform's network and lower for diners who book on your own website. Because the fee scales with every cover, a busy venue can pay far more in fees than in subscription. Flat-rate systems charge a fixed monthly price with no per-cover commission, so the cost is the same whether you seat 200 covers a month or 2,000.
The honest catch for a benchmark: the platforms that charge cover fees mostly do not publish the exact rates. Only OpenTable lists per-cover figures (about $0.25 per website cover and around $1.00 per network cover in the US, plus a subscription from roughly $149/month) - and even those are vendor-published rates that vary by plan and region, so confirm them directly. That is why the numbers we can verify below are subscriptions and fee models, not a single normalized cover-fee figure. Want your own numbers? Use the restaurant booking fee calculator.
Fee model by platform
| Platform | Pricing model | Cover / commission fees | Starting price* | Pricing verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CoverManager | Quote only | Charges cover / commission fees | Quote only | Not re-verified |
| DinnerBooking | Quote only | Charges cover / commission fees | Quote only | Not re-verified |
| OpenTable | Subscription + per-cover fees | Charges cover / commission fees | from 149/mo | Not re-verified |
| Quandoo | Subscription + per-cover fees | Charges cover / commission fees | from 29/mo | Not re-verified |
| TheFork | Subscription + per-cover fees | Charges cover / commission fees | Quote only | Not re-verified |
| ResDiary | Quote only | Not disclosed | Quote only | Not re-verified |
| SevenRooms | Quote only (enterprise) | Not disclosed | Quote only | Not re-verified |
| Yelp Guest Manager | Quote only | Not disclosed | Quote only | Not re-verified |
| aleno | Flat subscription | No cover fees (flat rate) | from 49/mo | Not re-verified |
| GuestOnline | Flat subscription | No cover fees (flat rate) | from 59/mo | Not re-verified |
| Libro | Flat subscription | No cover fees (flat rate) | from 0/mo | Not re-verified |
| Resy | Flat subscription | No cover fees (flat rate) | from 249/mo | 2026-08-11 |
| Superb | Free tier + transaction fees | No cover fees (flat rate) | from 0/mo | 2026-07-31 |
| Tablein | Flat subscription | No cover fees (flat rate) | from 67/mo | 2026-07-31 |
| Tock | Subscription + % of revenue | No cover fees (flat rate) | from 249/mo | 2026-08-11 |
| Zenchef | Flat subscription | No cover fees (flat rate) | from 69/mo | Not re-verified |
*Lowest published monthly plan in the vendor's primary currency (USD, EUR, or GBP by region); shown for scale, not as a like-for-like currency comparison. "Quote only" means the vendor publishes no price. "Not re-verified" rows were quote-based or could not be read automatically in the last pricing pass - treat those figures as unconfirmed and check with the vendor. Resos is excluded to keep the benchmark independent.
Methodology
- Scope: 16 restaurant booking and reservation platforms commonly evaluated by independent restaurants (Resos, the site operator, is excluded from the tables).
- Sources: each platform's own published pricing page. Where a vendor only offers quote-based pricing, it is recorded as "Quote only" rather than estimated.
- Verification: 4 of 16 platforms had their pricing re-verified against the live vendor page (see the "Pricing verified" date per row). The rest were quote-based or could not be read automatically and are labelled unconfirmed.
- Cover fees: reported categorically (charges fees / no fees / not disclosed) because most fee-charging vendors do not publish exact per-cover rates. No per-cover figure is asserted unless the vendor publishes it.
- No fabrication: every number here traces to a published vendor source; nothing is modelled or inferred.
Last updated 2026-08-13. Related reading: Booking system pricing compared · OpenTable pricing explained · OpenTable alternatives · Best commission-free booking systems · Restaurant booking fee calculator
Frequently asked questions
Which restaurant booking systems charge cover fees? +
Of the 16 major platforms in this benchmark, 5 charge per-cover or commission fees (marketplace platforms such as OpenTable, TheFork, and Quandoo), 8 are flat-rate with no cover fees, and 3 do not disclose their fee model publicly. A per-cover fee is charged for every guest seated from a reservation, on top of any monthly subscription, so the total scales with how busy you are.
How much are restaurant booking cover fees? +
Published per-cover rates are hard to pin down because most marketplace platforms quote them privately. OpenTable is the main platform that publishes figures: roughly $0.25 per cover booked through your own website and around $1.00 (US) per cover booked through its network, on top of a subscription from about $149/month. Treat these as vendor-published rates and confirm the current numbers directly, since they vary by plan and region.
Do any booking systems have no cover fees? +
Yes. 8 of the 16 platforms here charge a flat monthly subscription with no per-cover commission, including Resos, Tablein, and Zenchef. For a full list and the trade-offs, see our guide to commission-free booking systems.
Why do so many booking platforms hide their pricing? +
In this benchmark 6 of 16 platforms publish no price at all and route you to a sales quote. Quote-based pricing lets a vendor tailor the number to each restaurant, but it also makes cover fees and commissions harder to compare up front - which is part of why flat-rate systems that publish a fixed price have become popular with independent operators.
Cite this benchmark
Writing about restaurant booking costs? You're welcome to reference or link to this study:
Restaurant Booking Fee Benchmark 2026 - https://restaurantbookingsystem.com/tools/restaurant-booking-fee-benchmark/ Free booking-cost review
See what your booking system is really costing you
Tell us your current system and booking volume. We will send a plain-English comparison of your likely fees and savings options.