Does Seatly lock me into an annual contract like ResDiary?

No. Seatly is monthly rolling. You can cancel at any time with 30 days' notice, and your data is exportable on the way out. ResDiary typically requires an annual commitment, with early-termination penalties if you try to leave mid-contract.

Is Seatly cheaper than ResDiary for a UK independent restaurant?

Yes, usually. ResDiary Standard is estimated at around £149 per month based on publicly available information; higher tiers (Premier, Resboss) run £199 to £299 per month. Seatly Starter is £59, Professional £89, Business £129. UK pricing for ResDiary is quote-based, so verify directly with the provider.

Can I switch from ResDiary to Seatly without losing my customer data?

Yes. ResDiary provides a customer and booking export (CSV format) on request. Seatly can accept this data during onboarding. Note that you need to wait for your current ResDiary annual term to end — or accept the early-termination fee — before the switch takes effect.

Does Seatly replace ResDiary entirely, or just the booking widget?

For most UK independents, Seatly replaces ResDiary entirely: the customer-facing booking widget, the staff admin dashboard for managing bookings and availability, and the automated booking emails. Seatly does not replace ResDiary's enterprise-specific features like integrated POS syncs (Vita Mojo, Lightspeed, ICR Touch) or advanced table-mix allocation algorithms. If your operation depends on those specifically, ResDiary may still be the right fit.

When might ResDiary still be the right choice over Seatly?

Multi-location groups with existing POS integrations they depend on (Vita Mojo, Lightspeed, ICR Touch), restaurants that rely on ResDiary's automatic table-mix allocation for optimal seating, or chains with established workflows around deposits, gift cards, and phone booking routing — features Seatly does not yet match in Phase 1. For a single 40-cover independent booking locals through their own website, the dependencies are rarely there.

Seatly vs ResDiary

The ResDiary alternative without the annual lock-in.

Monthly rolling contract. Flat subscription from £59. One line of code on any website. For UK independents who want ResDiary's fundamentals without the 12-month commitment or the enterprise price tag.

Why independents outgrow ResDiary

ResDiary built its platform for a different kind of restaurant: mid-market chains, multi-location groups, venues with integrated POS systems and complex deposit flows. That legacy shows up in two ways that catch independents out.

First, the annual contract. You sign for twelve months before you've even taken your tenth booking. If the fit isn't right — wrong feature set, your team doesn't use it, the admin UI fights the way you actually work — you're still paying until renewal.

Second, the feature bloat. You pay for POS integrations you don't need, a table-mix algorithm that assumes a 120-cover fine-diner, and a phone-booking module you'll never turn on. A 40-cover bistro uses maybe 20% of what's in the box.

Seatly is the opposite trade: smaller feature set, built tight around the daily operation of an independent venue, monthly rolling so you can leave if it's not a fit.

Side-by-side comparison

ResDiary figures are estimated from publicly available information and industry reporting. UK pricing for ResDiary is quote-based and varies by tier, location count, and add-ons. Always verify current pricing directly with the provider.

	Seatly	ResDiary
Monthly subscription	£59 to £129 flat	~£149 to £299 tier-dependent
Per-cover fees	£0 at every tier	£0 on standard tiers
Contract term	Monthly rolling, cancel anytime	Annual commitment typical
Setup	Paste one line of code, live in minutes	Onboarding process with training
Widget branding	White-label by default^*	White-label available
Website platform	WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, Shopify, custom	Any website, but more involved to embed
Feature surface	Focused — the fundamentals, done well	Broad — deposits, POS, gift cards, rate limits
Customer data ownership	Restaurant owns it, export anytime	Restaurant owns it, export on request
Data residency	London, UK	UK (Scottish-headquartered)
Target customer	UK independent restaurants, 1 to 5 sites	Mid-market chains, multi-location groups

The maths on a real restaurant

A 40-cover independent on ResDiary Standard, paying the estimated £149 monthly subscription on a 12-month contract. Here's how the annual bill lines up against Seatly Professional.

ResDiary Standard

£1,788

per year

£149/month × 12 months

Locked in for the full year

Seatly Professional

£1,068

per year

£89/month × 12 months

Cancel any month with 30 days' notice

Annual difference

£720

Plus the bigger lever: the right to leave if it's not a fit.

Figures are illustrative and based on publicly available ResDiary tier information. UK pricing for ResDiary is quote-based and varies by configuration. Always verify current pricing directly with the provider.

The 40-cover figure is illustrative — Seatly can scale up to 5,000 covers a month on all tiers. Want to run the maths on other competitors and on your own cover numbers? The TCO calculator on the homepage compares Seatly against ResDiary, OpenTable, DesignMyNight, Eat App, Tablein and the paper diary.

What changes when you switch

01. No lock-in. Monthly rolling, 30 days' notice to cancel. If Seatly isn't right for your venue after three months, you're not trapped until next spring.
02. Smaller price, same fundamentals. Booking widget, admin dashboard, automated emails, customer database, real-time availability — the 20% of ResDiary your restaurant actually uses.
03. Faster to set up. A single line of code pasted into your website. No onboarding call required. Your team can be managing bookings within the hour.
04. Your data stays portable. Export everything — bookings, customers, availability — whenever you want. No proprietary-format exports, no "we'll send it in 30 days" stalling.

When ResDiary is still the right choice

ResDiary is a serious platform with real depth. Some restaurants genuinely need the features we haven't built:

• Multi-location groups with POS integrations — Vita Mojo, Lightspeed, ICR Touch, Zonal. If your bookings need to sync into your EPOS for floor management and end-of-night reconciliation, ResDiary's integration catalogue is deeper than Seatly's Phase 1.
• Deposits and pre-payments at booking. Fine-dining venues charging £30 per head to secure a reservation, or Sunday roast venues taking 50% up front, need a deposit flow. ResDiary has this. Seatly Phase 1 does not (planned for Phase 2).
• Table-mix allocation algorithms. A 120-cover venue juggling 2-tops, 4-tops, 6-tops, and big tables in real time benefits from ResDiary's automatic seating logic. A 40-cover independent rarely does.
• Established chain workflows. Gift cards, SMS confirmations tied to loyalty, phone-booking routing from a central reservations team, rate-limit controls per service. If your operation already runs on these, switching creates more pain than it's worth.

If none of those describe your restaurant, you're paying for features your team doesn't touch.

Switching is painless (once your contract ends)

The one real friction with ResDiary is the annual contract. Here's the playbook.

01. Check your renewal date. Give ResDiary the required notice before the annual term renews automatically — this is usually 30 to 90 days, buried in the contract. Miss the window and you're locked in for another year.
02. Export your data. Request a full customer and booking export from ResDiary support. CSV is the standard format. Get this in writing before you cancel.
03. Overlap for 30 days. Embed the Seatly widget on your site while the last bookings play out on ResDiary. New bookings go to Seatly from day one; the ResDiary dashboard stays available for any bookings taken before the switch.
04. Cancel and move on. Once your last ResDiary booking has been served, cancel. We'll help with the handover if you get in touch during onboarding.

Common questions

Does Seatly lock me into an annual contract like ResDiary?: No. Seatly is monthly rolling. You can cancel at any time with 30 days' notice, and your data is exportable on the way out.
Is Seatly cheaper than ResDiary?: Yes, for most independents. ResDiary Standard is around £149 per month; Seatly Starter is £59, Professional £89, Business £129. UK pricing for ResDiary is quote-based, so verify directly with the provider.
Can I export my customer data when switching?: Yes. ResDiary provides a customer and booking export (CSV) on request. Seatly can accept this during onboarding.
Does Seatly do everything ResDiary does?: No. Seatly covers the fundamentals — widget, admin dashboard, automated emails, customer database, availability. It does not yet match ResDiary's POS integrations, deposit flow, or table-mix algorithms. If your operation depends on those specifically, ResDiary may still be the right fit.
When might ResDiary still be the right choice?: Multi-location groups with complex POS integrations, fine-dining venues requiring deposits at booking, or established chains with workflows built around gift cards and phone-booking routing.

Ready to ditch the annual contract?

We're onboarding UK independents into the first cohort now. Tell us about your venue and when your ResDiary contract renews — we'll walk you through the handover.

* 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.