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.
Last updated 14 July 2026. Around a 6-minute read.
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 on every cover that arrives through it. On the last rate card OpenTable published for the UK, that fee was £2 per seated diner from its network. That network includes regulars who searched your restaurant's name on Google, landed on your OpenTable profile instead of your website, and booked there.
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 marketplace rates for demand you created, on top of a subscription that has been quote-only in the UK since January 2025, so you can't even see the price without a sales call.
There's a contractual squeeze too. OpenTable's standard contract is a one-year term that renews automatically unless you give 30 days' notice, and in April 2026 it updated its client agreement to require partner restaurants to designate OpenTable as their primary table-management system, a change already drawing regulatory scrutiny in the US.
Seatly exists because there should be a booking platform that charges restaurants once a month and otherwise stays out of the way.
How much does OpenTable cost in the UK in 2026?
OpenTable stopped publishing UK prices in January 2025. Its UK plans page now lists two packages, Core and Pro, both marked "contact us for pricing". The only way to get a 2026 figure is a sales call. What we can tell you is what the last published UK rate card said, and what OpenTable lists in the US today.
| Plan | Last published UK rate* | Current US list (context) |
|---|---|---|
| Core | £179/mo + £2 per seated network cover | $299/mo + $1 per network cover |
| Pro | £299/mo + £2 per seated network cover | $499/mo + $1 per network cover |
* UK rates from OpenTable's own UK plans page as archived between October 2024 and January 2025, when the prices were withdrawn. OpenTable's US site also lists a cheaper Basic plan at $149/month, but the UK plans page doesn't offer it. Always verify current pricing directly with the provider.
Two details in that rate card matter. Bookings made through your own website were free of cover fees. The £2 applied to seated diners arriving through OpenTable's app, website and partner network, and the fee is charged per seated cover, not per booking, so a table of six from the network is £12.
Nothing suggests the shape has changed since the prices went quote-only. A UK operator reviewing OpenTable in October 2025 described paying "£2 per cover in addition to the monthly fee". In the US, OpenTable has also rolled out a 2% service fee on payments it processes, such as deposits and no-show charges; that hasn't been documented for the UK so far. Treat these figures as the region to expect a quote in, and get the current number from OpenTable directly.
Side-by-side comparison
OpenTable figures use its last published UK rate card. See the pricing section above for the full breakdown. Always verify current pricing directly with the provider.
| Seatly | OpenTable | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly subscription | £59 to £129 flat, published | Quote-only (last published UK: £179 to £299) |
| Per-cover fees | £0 at every tier | £2 per seated network cover (last published UK rate) |
| Contract term | Monthly rolling, cancel anytime | One-year term, auto-renews (30 days' notice) |
| 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 seating around 1,500 covers a month. Assume 500 of those arrive through OpenTable's diner network (where the cover fee applies) and the remaining 1,000 book direct on the restaurant's own website. Using OpenTable's last published UK rates, here's how the monthly cost lines up.
OpenTable Core
£1,179
per month
Subscription: £179
500 network covers × £2: £1,000
Seatly Professional
£89
per month
Subscription: £89
Per-cover fees: £0
Annual difference at that mix
£13,080
Every year, at those rates. Staying with you, not going to a booking platform.
Figures are illustrative and use OpenTable's last published UK rate card (withdrawn January 2025; UK pricing is now quote-only and your quote may differ). Per-cover fees applied to network and discovery bookings only; bookings from your own website carried no cover fee. 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 onboarding our 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
- How much does OpenTable cost in the UK?
- OpenTable no longer publishes UK pricing — its UK plans page lists Core and Pro with "contact us for pricing" (verified 14 July 2026). The last rates it published, withdrawn in January 2025, were Core at £179/month and Pro at £299, plus £2 per seated cover on network bookings; bookings from your own website carried no cover fee. Current US list prices are $149 to $499/month plus cover fees. Expect a UK quote in that region and confirm with OpenTable directly.
- Is Seatly really cheaper than OpenTable for a UK independent?
- For most UK independents, yes. OpenTable's last published UK rates were £179 to £299 per month plus £2 per seated cover on network bookings. Seatly charges a flat monthly fee from £59 with no per-cover fees at any tier. The more of your bookings flow through the OpenTable 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.
Looking at the wider market? Our buyer's guide to UK restaurant booking systems compares 10 platforms — including OpenTable, ResDiary, Quandoo, Dojo, and Seatly — against the same six criteria: pricing, contracts, data ownership, embedding, GDPR, and feature fit.
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 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.