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Restaurant booking system prices: who publishes them, and what a 60-cover restaurant pays a year
What UK booking systems publish about price: ResDiary's reported tiers, Dojo's flat fee and the demo-only pages at OpenTable and SevenRooms.
"How much does OpenTable cost", "how much is ResDiary", "resdiary vs opentable": the searches say the choice of booking system is a price fight, and the suppliers' own pages mostly refuse to have it in public. We read what was published on one day and worked it for one restaurant.
What this is, and is not. A desk check of pricing as published or reported on 1 October 2026. We did not take a demo or trial any product, ResDiary's own page keeps its plan prices behind a form and OpenTable's would not load for us, so the tier figures come from the comparison sites named in the source line. Prices and terms change; read the live pages and the contract before signing.
Three ways to be charged
| Model | Who | What is published or reported |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly tier by booking volume | ResDiary | As reported by a comparison site in August 2026: Evo Connect £109 a month for up to 150 bookings; Evo Express £145 for 450; Evo Pro £205 for 1,000; top tier £295 unlimited; £99 setup; annual rolling term, 90 days' notice before the anniversary; no per-cover commission. On ResDiary's own page: add-ons £10 to £35 a month, and a surcharge of 1% on deposits and payments and 3% on gift vouchers. |
| Flat fee tied to card payments | Dojo Bookings | From £149 a month plus VAT (some resellers quote £99), no per-cover fee, pre-orders and SMS included. Requires Dojo for card payments, with its own transaction fees and terminal (£179 plus VAT or £15 a month). 12-month minimum, then monthly; early exit billed at the remaining contract value. |
| Per-cover by quote | OpenTable, SevenRooms | No UK price published; "Request a demo". OpenTable's US tiers are US$149, US$299 and US$499 a month with US$1.50 per network cover on Basic and US$1 on Core and Pro; website, phone and walk-in bookings carry no cover fee on those plans. SevenRooms is quote only. |
Quandoo, which many UK restaurants used, has left the UK market as of 30 September 2026, which is part of why these searches have risen.
The example restaurant
A 60-cover neighbourhood restaurant open six evenings and three lunches, 600 bookings a month, half of them through its own website and Google, a quarter by phone, a quarter from a marketplace listing.
The sums, where a figure allows one
| System | Basis | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| ResDiary Evo Pro (reported tier) | £205 × 12 + £99 setup; 600 bookings fits the 1,000 cap | £2,559 in year one, £2,460 after |
| ResDiary Evo Express | 450-booking cap, too small at 600 | not applicable |
| Dojo Bookings | £149 × 12 plus VAT, before card fees and terminal | £1,788 plus VAT, plus whatever Dojo's card rates cost against your current provider |
| OpenTable, at US rates for illustration | US$299 × 12 + 150 network covers × 2.5 heads × US$1 a month | US$8,088 if the UK quote matched the US page, which it may not |
Dojo is cheapest on the booking line and most expensive to leave, because the card payments move with it. ResDiary is the only one priced on bookings rather than covers or payments, which suits a restaurant whose bookings do not grow with the marketplace. The per-cover model costs least when the marketplace brings few diners and most when it brings many, which is the opposite of what a restaurant wants to pay for.
What the price does not include
Moving the diary and the customer list; retraining the floor; the month in which both systems run; and, for the per-cover systems, the question of whose customer the diner is afterwards. None of the pages prices that.
Where Overlyft fits
An AI Reservations and Events Assistant set up by Overlyft works inside whichever of these the venue uses, and inside the phone and the inbox beside it. It confirms bookings, chases the unconfirmed ones the day before, quotes the no-show policy when it does, and answers the function enquiries with a priced reply the same day. It is not a booking system and does not replace one; it is the person on the phone and at the keyboard that a diary cannot be.
Short answers from this page
What does a restaurant booking system cost?
On 1 October 2026 UK comparison sites reported ResDiary at £109 to £295 a month by booking volume plus a £99 setup fee, and Dojo Bookings from £149 a month plus VAT on a 12-month minimum with Dojo card payments required. ResDiary's own page shows only add-ons and a 1% payment surcharge. Others quote on request or charge per cover.
Source: ResDiary pricing page and UK comparison sites named in the guide, read 1 October 2026
Where this comes from: ResDiary pricing page (add-ons, 1% surcharge on deposits and payments, 3% on gift vouchers; plan prices behind a form), read 2026-10-01; Seatly UK comparison of ResDiary and Dojo (ResDiary verified 10 August 2026, Dojo 14 July 2026); BestBookingSystems and RestaurantBookingSystem.com pages on Dojo and OpenTable pricing; OpenTable UK site (quote only); data/seo/research/covers.md on Quandoo's UK exit on 30 September 2026; all read 2026-10-01. Desk check only: ResDiary's tier prices and Dojo's figures are as reported by the comparison sites named, and OpenTable's own pricing page refused our reader; ask each supplier for a written quote before deciding.
AEO Lookup editorial team
We write practical guides for people who run small UK firms, and we check every fact against its source on the date shown. Read how we review, or tell us if something has changed.
