The OpenTable alternative for UK independents.
No per-cover fees. No annual contracts. Your branding, your website, your customer data. A flat monthly subscription from £59.
Why independents are leaving OpenTable
OpenTable was built for a different kind of restaurant. Its network and its pricing model assume you need their diner-facing marketplace to drive bookings, and that you're happy to pay a fee every time someone books a table — whether that diner found you through OpenTable or through your own front door.
For most UK independents, that maths doesn't work. The diners booking your restaurant are locals and regulars who already know you. You're paying for a marketplace you don't need, on top of a subscription fee, on top of a per-cover charge that scales every time you get busy.
Seatly exists because there should be a booking platform that charges restaurants once a month and otherwise stays out of the way.
Side-by-side comparison
OpenTable figures are estimated from publicly available US rate cards converted to GBP. UK pricing for OpenTable is quote-based and may differ. Per-cover fees apply to network and discovery bookings. Always verify current pricing directly with the provider.
| Seatly | OpenTable | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly subscription | £59 to £129 flat | £112 to £374 tier-dependent |
| Per-cover fees | £0 at every tier | £0.75 to £1.12 per cover |
| Contract term | Monthly rolling, cancel anytime | Annual commitment typical |
| Widget branding | White-label by default* | OpenTable branded |
| Booking flow | Stays on your website | Typically redirects to OpenTable |
| Customer data ownership | Restaurant owns it | OpenTable controls it |
| Data export | Available any time | Limited |
| Data residency | London, UK | United States |
| UK GDPR posture | Built in, DPA available | SCCs with US transfer |
| Setup | Paste one line of code | Sales process, weeks |
The maths on a real restaurant
A 40-cover independent taking around 1,500 bookings a month. Assume 500 of those come through OpenTable's diner network (where per-cover fees apply) and the remaining 1,000 come direct from the restaurant's own website. Here's how the monthly cost lines up.
OpenTable Basic
£672
per month
Subscription: £112
500 network covers × £1.12: £560
Seatly Professional
£89
per month
Subscription: £89
Per-cover fees: £0
Annual difference at that mix
£6,996
Every year. Staying with you, not going to a booking platform.
Figures are illustrative and use publicly available OpenTable rate card estimates converted to GBP. UK pricing for OpenTable is quote-based and may differ. Per-cover fees apply to network and discovery bookings only. Always verify current pricing directly with your provider.
The 40-cover figure is illustrative — Seatly can scale up to 5,000 covers a month on all tiers. The more of your covers flow through OpenTable's network, the bigger that gap gets. Want to run it on your own numbers? The TCO calculator on the homepage lets you plug in your own volume.
What you keep when you switch
- 01. Your customers. Every diner who books becomes a record in your database, not OpenTable's. Names, emails, booking history, preferences — yours to keep, export, or delete.
- 02. Your brand. The booking widget shows your colours, fonts, and restaurant name. Not ours. No "Seatly" branding in the widget by default.*
- 03. Your traffic. Diners book directly on your website. No redirect to a competing restaurant marketplace. No "people who booked you also looked at this other place" nudges.
- 04. Your margins. Every booking stops costing you a cover fee. The savings compound every month.
When OpenTable is still the right choice
We're not trying to talk everyone out of OpenTable. There are venues where OpenTable genuinely earns its fees:
- • Tourist-destination fine dining in central London, Edinburgh, Bath. The OpenTable network genuinely surfaces inbound diners from the consumer app.
- • Large chains with complex floor management who need enterprise features, physical reservation terminals, and deep PMS integrations.
- • Venues whose bookings genuinely come from OpenTable rather than their own website. If you can prove 30% or more of your covers originate from the OpenTable network, the per-cover fee becomes customer acquisition cost rather than a tax on existing customers.
If none of those describe your restaurant, the maths is simple: you're paying a marketplace fee on covers your marketplace isn't bringing in.
Switching is painless
- 01. Export your data from OpenTable before your contract ends — booking history and customer list, usually in CSV.
- 02. Paste one line of code into your website. The Seatly widget works on WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, Shopify, or any custom site.
- 03. Point new bookings at Seatly and let the last OpenTable bookings play out. No migration drama.
We're pre-launch and onboarding the first cohort of UK independents one at a time. If you're on OpenTable and ready to switch, get in touch and we'll walk you through the handover personally.
Common questions
- Is Seatly really cheaper than OpenTable for a UK independent?
- For most UK independents, yes. OpenTable charges a monthly subscription (estimated from £112 based on public rate cards) plus a per-cover fee on network and discovery bookings. Seatly charges a flat monthly fee from £59 with no per-cover fees at any tier. UK pricing for OpenTable is quote-based, so verify directly with the provider — the more of your bookings flow through their network, the larger the gap.
- Who owns my customer data?
- You do. Your restaurant is the data controller and owns the customer data. You can export or delete it at any time. Seatly never uses it for advertising or shares it with other restaurants.
- Does the widget work on my existing website?
- Yes. One line of JavaScript, pasted into your site. WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, Shopify, or a fully custom site — all tested. The widget is fully white-labelled to your brand.
- Is there a contract?
- No. Monthly rolling, cancel at any time. You can export your data on the way out.
- When might OpenTable still be the right choice?
- If your restaurant genuinely depends on diner traffic from the OpenTable consumer app, or if you need physical reservation terminals and multi-property enterprise features. For most UK independents booking locals through their own website, those features are paid for but rarely used.
Ready to stop paying per cover?
We're onboarding UK independents into the first cohort now. Tell us about your venue and we'll walk you through a switch from OpenTable end-to-end.
* A note on Seatly branding. Seatly branding is not shown in the booking widget by default — the widget stays under your colours, fonts, and restaurant name. Seatly branding can appear in two places, and both are optional: (1) confirmation, reminder, and cancellation emails include a small "powered by seatly.uk" line in the footer by default, but this can be turned off per tenant on request; (2) restaurants who opt into our referral programme can enable a "Powered by Seatly" badge on the widget in exchange for a subscription discount — this is off by default.