ResDiary or Dojo? A diary, or a payments relationship.
ResDiary sells a dedicated booking diary and publishes what it costs. Dojo sells bookings inside a card terminal and EPOS bundle, and publishes no booking price at all. Two names on the same shortlist, two different things to buy — here is the side-by-side.
Seatly makes a competing product, so read this the way you would read anything written by a rival: check it. Every figure carries where it came from and the date we last verified it — ResDiary's own published UK price list, verified 10 August 2026, and Dojo's reseller listings, verified 14 July 2026 — and either vendor can move its prices without telling us. Our own pitch is one section near the bottom, labelled as such.
Around a 5-minute read.
The short answer
ResDiary suits a venue that wants a dedicated booking diary from a company that publishes its price list, and can live with an annual rolling term and a monthly booking cap on every tier below the £295 top one. Dojo suits a venue that wants payments, an EPOS and bookings from one supplier on one bill, and accepts a 12-month minimum and a hardware-led install to get it.
So the deciding question is rarely which is cheaper on the booking line. It is whether you are buying a diary or a payments relationship, because that is the thing you will still be holding in year two.
There is a third shape — flat monthly, rolling, software only — and it is ours, so it sits further down where you can take it or leave it.
Side by side
ResDiary's figures are from its own published UK (GBP) price list and its GB terms and conditions, verified 10 August 2026. Dojo publishes no booking price, so its figures are reseller-listed — taken from Dojo Partner Provider reseller guides and third-party reviews, verified 14 July 2026 — and reported rather than published, which makes them a starting point rather than a quote. Both exclude VAT. Confirm your own numbers with each vendor before you sign anything.
| ResDiary | Dojo | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Dedicated booking diary and widget, software only | Card terminals + EPOS + booking bundle from a payments company |
| Booking pricing | £109 to £295/month + VAT, published tier by tier | No published price; reseller-listed from £149/month + VAT, and some resellers quote £99/month |
| Booking caps | 150 bookings/month on the entry tier, rising by tier; unlimited on the top tier | Not published |
| Setup fee | £99 | Not published |
| Contract and notice | Annual rolling term, 90 days' notice before the anniversary (GB terms) | 12 months minimum, then monthly rolling; early termination billed at the remaining contract value |
| Hardware | None required | Terminal £179 + VAT to purchase or £15/month to rent; payments plan from £39.99/month (under £100k turnover) |
| Where diners book, and whose brand | White-label available; any website, but more involved to embed | Diners redirect to web.dojo.app to complete the booking |
| Extras and integrations | 1.2% surcharge on deposits and payments, 3% on gift vouchers; add-ons £10 to £35/month each | Reserve with Google included; payment webhooks only, no booking webhooks documented |
| Customer data ownership | Restaurant owns it, export on request | No self-serve export documented in support or developer docs |
Where ResDiary is strong
- 01. It publishes its prices. Every tier, from £109 to £295 a month plus VAT, sits on ResDiary's own GBP price list, so you can work out what you would pay before you speak to a salesperson. In this market that is rarer than it should be.
- 02. The diary has real depth. POS integrations (Vita Mojo, Lightspeed, ICR Touch, Zonal), real-time table-mix optimisation, gift cards, pre-orders and phone-booking routing. A 120-cover venue juggling table combinations through a full service is the operation it was built for.
- 03. No commission on any channel. ResDiary's own claim is 0% "regardless of where the booking is made" — your website, social, Reserve with Google or DesignMyNight. The subscription is the booking cost.
- 04. There is a large company behind it. The Access Group completed its acquisition in July 2023 and sells it co-branded as Access ResDiary. If procurement cares who owns your supplier, that answer is easy to give.
What you take on with it
- • An annual rolling term. ResDiary's GB terms renew automatically unless you give 90 days' written notice before the anniversary, and reviewers describe being held to 12-month minimums.
- • Booking caps on every tier below the top one — 150 bookings a month on the £109 Evo Connect, 450 on the £145 Evo Express, 1,000 on the £205 Evo Pro. A strong month can move you up a band rather than simply filling the room.
- • A £99 setup fee before the first month's subscription.
- • Extras outside the headline price: add-ons at £10 to £35 a month each covering text messaging, POS and PMS integrations, gift vouchers, pre-orders and the phone module, plus payment-processing surcharges of 1.2% on deposits and payments and 3% on gift vouchers, on top of Stripe's own fees.
Where Dojo is strong
- 01. One supplier for the whole counter. Card payments, the till and the booking diary arrive together, on one bill, with one number to ring when something breaks. That genuinely cuts the number of vendors you have to think about.
- 02. Someone sets it up for you. Onboarding is sales-led and the hardware gets installed rather than posted. If nobody on your team wants to own the setup, that is worth something.
- 03. Reserve with Google is live. We verified it in June 2026 on a Southampton venue's Google listing, where the reservation panel names Dojo as the booking partner. Seatly does not offer Reserve with Google, so this one is a straight point to Dojo.
What you take on with it
- • No published price. The £149 a month plus VAT above is reseller-listed, some resellers quote £99, and the only way to know your own number is to ask for it in writing.
- • A 12-month minimum before it rolls monthly, with early termination billed at the remaining contract value.
- • Diners leave your website to finish booking. The widget redirects to web.dojo.app, a pattern we have observed on UK restaurant sites, so the last step of the booking happens on Dojo's page rather than yours.
- • Hardware underneath the software: a terminal at £179 plus VAT to buy or £15 a month to rent, and the Fix payments plan at £39.99 a month for venues under £100k turnover, billed separately from the bookings.
The third option — and yes, this bit is our pitch
Flat monthly, on your own website
Seatly is £59 to £129 a month flat, monthly rolling, cancel anytime, with no booking caps at any tier and no setup fee for founding members. The price is on the website rather than behind a quote form, and the booking flow stays on your own domain, in your colours and under your restaurant's name*, so the diner never gets handed off to a vendor's page to finish.
The honest limit: Seatly does not do card terminals or an EPOS. If what you want is payments, till and bookings from one supplier, that is Dojo's argument, and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
Common questions
- Which is cheaper, ResDiary or Dojo?
- On the entry tiers, ResDiary — on paper. Evo Connect is £109 a month plus VAT and caps you at 150 bookings a month; Dojo is reseller-listed from £149 a month plus VAT, with some resellers quoting £99. A busier venue climbs ResDiary's tiers — £145 for up to 450 bookings a month, £205 for up to 1,000, £295 for unlimited — so the like-for-like answer moves with your volume. Both figures exclude VAT. Dojo publishes nothing at all, so the only way to price it properly is to get a written quote.
- Which ties you in for longer?
- Dojo asks for a 12-month minimum up front, then rolls monthly, and early termination is billed at the remaining contract value. ResDiary's GB terms default to an annual rolling term that renews unless you give 90 days' written notice before the anniversary, and reviewers describe being held to 12-month minimums — miss the notice window and you are in for another year. Neither is monthly rolling.
- Does either need hardware?
- ResDiary does not — it is software only. Dojo is hardware-led: terminals are £179 plus VAT to buy or £15 a month to rent, and the Fix payments plan is £39.99 a month for venues under £100k turnover, billed separately from the booking software.
- Do ResDiary or Dojo charge per cover?
- Neither charges a per-cover fee on standard bookings. ResDiary states 0% commission regardless of where the booking is made; the extras to watch there are the £99 setup fee, add-ons at £10 to £35 a month each, and payment-processing surcharges of 1.2% on deposits and payments and 3% on gift vouchers, charged on top of Stripe's own fees. Dojo's costs sit in the bundle instead — card processing, the terminal, the EPOS — so the booking line on its own never tells you the whole bill.
- Is there an option with no annual contract?
- Yes, and it is ours, so weigh it accordingly. Seatly is £59 to £129 a month flat, monthly rolling, cancel anytime with no notice period, no booking caps at any tier, and no setup fee for founding members, with the booking flow on your own website under your own branding. The honest limit: it does not replace card terminals or an EPOS.
Weighing either of them against us rather than against each other? Seatly vs ResDiary and Seatly vs Dojo cover how each compares to Seatly head-to-head. If you are earlier in your research, the guide to choosing a UK restaurant booking system walks through 10 platforms against the same six criteria.
Still deciding between the two?
Tell us what your venue actually needs — the diary, the payments, or both — and we will tell you straight whether Seatly is the right fit or whether one of the two above is. We are onboarding UK independents into the first cohort now.
* A note on Seatly branding. Seatly branding is optional and entirely your choice. A single toggle in your admin Settings controls whether a small "Powered by Seatly" line appears on your booking widget AND in confirmation, reminder, and cancellation emails. When enabled, you receive a tier-matched discount on your subscription (£5/month on Starter, £10/month on Professional, £15/month on Business). The toggle defaults to ON for Starter accounts and OFF for Professional and Business — you can change it whenever you like.
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