Every time one of your regulars books through OpenTable, you pay $1 to $1.50. Not to acquire them — they already know you. Just to seat them.
For a small restaurant doing 150 covers a week, that’s $600 to $900 a month in per-cover fees stacked on top of a base subscription. That’s not a minor tech expense. That’s a recurring margin line that compounds every single week, on bookings from people who would have come in anyway.
The short answer: For most independent restaurants doing under 200 covers per week, Resy’s flat monthly fee structure is the better financial decision. OpenTable’s network advantage is real — but it’s shrinking, and it costs you per seat whether those diners found you through OpenTable or through Google. If you fill seats through regulars, walk-ins, or search, you may not need either platform at all.
Here’s the full cost math, the post-merger context that most reviews skip, and the one data pull you need to make before you sign or switch anything.
How OpenTable and Resy Actually Charge Restaurants
The structural difference between these two platforms is the whole ballgame, and most comparison articles bury it.
OpenTable uses a hybrid model: a monthly subscription (the Core plan runs around $249/month per location) plus per-cover fees. Those fees are approximately $1.00/cover for bookings made through your own restaurant widget, and $1.25–$1.50/cover for bookings that come through the OpenTable app or discovery network. OpenTable doesn’t list these rates publicly — the figures above come from restaurant owners and a former OpenTable employee on r/restaurateur.
Resy charges a flat monthly fee. Restaurant owners on r/restaurateur report paying $89 to ~$200/month depending on tier and location, with no per-cover charge on top.
One owner put it plainly: “With Resy you pay a flat monthly fee, around $200. With OpenTable, you pay a monthly fee, around $200. You also pay per person for each reservation. This fee depends on how they place the reservation, and can be up to $3 per person per reservation. It adds up pretty fast.” — u/givezerofoxes
Another confirmed: “We pay $89 a month for Resy. And it does everything OpenTable does. Some months we have 800+ reservations cover so yea saves us a solid amount.” — u/heelsunited
There’s also a trap in OpenTable’s model that’s easy to miss. A former OpenTable employee confirmed on Reddit: “They charge $1 per head if you don’t mark the resos.” No-shows you forget to log still cost you.
And here’s the detail no OpenTable affiliate review will mention: the platform actively markets your competitors to your own diners. As u/taint_odour noted: “They market for people to go to your competitors. Your guests will get an email the next day or so that says ‘Did you enjoy your time at [YOUR RESTAURANT NAME]? Then we think you should go to this place and get 20% off.’”
The per-cover model is how OpenTable turns your existing customer relationships into a recurring cost. Every regular who books through your widget — someone you already earned — costs you a dollar. That’s the food-tech revenue model: a toll booth between you and diners who were coming regardless.
The Real Cost Math: 150 Covers per Week
Let’s make this concrete. Here’s what a 150-cover-per-week restaurant actually pays on each platform.
Scenario: 150 covers/week = ~600 covers/month
If 70% of bookings come through the OpenTable network at $1.50/cover, that’s $630 in cover fees alone. Add the $249 Core subscription: $879/month on OpenTable.
The same 600 covers on Resy: $89–$200/month flat.
Monthly difference: $679–$790/month. Annualized: roughly $8,000–$9,500/year.
| Weekly Covers | OpenTable (est.) | Resy (est.) | Monthly Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 75 covers/wk (300/mo) | ~$564 | $89–$200 | ~$360–$475 |
| 150 covers/wk (600/mo) | ~$879 | $89–$200 | ~$679–$790 |
| 250 covers/wk (1,000/mo) | ~$1,249 | $89–$200 | ~$1,049–$1,160 |
Illustrative figures based on community-reported pricing. Exact numbers depend on your negotiated rate and plan tier. Contact vendors for current quotes.
OpenTable’s counter-argument is that their network generates covers you wouldn’t have gotten otherwise — and those incremental bookings partially justify the per-cover fee. That’s fair. But the math only works if you’re actually getting new diners through OpenTable’s discovery network. Your regulars re-booking through your widget? You’re paying $1 each for that. Every single time.
What the 2024 Amex/Tock Merger Means for Restaurant Owners
Most OpenTable vs Resy articles were written before January 2024. That matters because the competitive landscape shifted.
American Express completed the acquisition of Tock in early 2024 and merged it with Resy. Both platforms now operate under the Amex umbrella as a unified hospitality business unit. Resy and Tock are no longer competing products — they share ownership, roadmap direction, and are effectively one company.
If you’re currently on Tock, pay attention. The platform is being absorbed into Resy’s stack. Monitor your contract terms and watch for feature changes. The ticketed/prepaid dining functionality Tock is known for is being integrated into Resy’s product.
The competitive picture is now: OpenTable (owned by Booking Holdings) vs Resy/Tock (owned by American Express). As u/dicksfish summarized on r/restaurateur: “Tock and Resy are now the same company so it’s Booking Holdings Inc. vs American Express Inc. None of those are very small businesses.”
That’s the honest framing. Neither platform is scrappy or indie-friendly by structure. Resy used to have a curated, invite-only feel that gave it legitimacy in the fine dining world. It’s now a product inside a credit card company. That doesn’t make it a bad tool — the flat pricing still makes sense — but your guest data and booking relationships live inside an Amex infrastructure built to serve its premium cardholders, not your restaurant.
The upside of the Amex connection: Resy integrates with AMEX Platinum dining credits and perks, which can attract higher-average-spend diners in dense urban markets. If your customer base skews toward premium card users, that’s a real advantage.
Discoverability: Does Leaving OpenTable Hurt Your Bookings?
This is the fear that keeps small restaurant owners on OpenTable long after the math says they should switch. It’s worth taking seriously — and being honest about when it’s justified.
OpenTable’s network reach is real. It has more monthly users than Resy and operates in more markets. For restaurants in smaller cities or suburban areas, OpenTable likely has meaningfully more discovery-intent diners browsing its app. That network value is not zero.
Resy’s network is strongest in major urban markets — NYC, LA, SF, Chicago, Miami. Outside those cities, Resy’s discovery reach drops significantly. If you’re running a 60-seat restaurant in a mid-size city, Resy’s network is unlikely to drive meaningful new-diner traffic.
But here’s what changed the calculation for most restaurants: Reserve With Google.
Both OpenTable and Resy integrate with Reserve With Google (RWG), which puts a “Reserve a Table” button directly in your Google Search and Maps listing. For most restaurants, Google-sourced bookings now exceed platform-sourced bookings — and since both platforms support RWG, switching from one to the other doesn’t affect that traffic at all.
u/fe74 said what a lot of owners are discovering: “Google drives business more than OpenTable nowadays. Someone looks up our business and Google sends them to OpenTable. I’m looking for the best alternative to OpenTable also.”
u/tobins75 gave the most practical advice on this: “If you end up switching, check your Referral Reports in OpenTable. If you see a lot of bookings come through Reserve With Google, make sure the solution you are switching to supports RWG.”
In urban markets, Resy also pulls a different kind of diner. As u/Smooth-Assistant-309 noted: “Resy’s audience is a higher net worth customer, but they’re going to have higher expectations on decor and food. For a while, Resy was invite only and they still benefit from that brand perception.”
Before you make any decision: pull that referral report. If more than 30–40% of your bookings come from OpenTable’s own discovery network (not from your widget, not from RWG), OpenTable’s network value is real for your specific restaurant. If most bookings come from your website or Google, you’re paying a significant premium for almost nothing incremental.
When You Don’t Need Either Platform
No comparison article funded by affiliate relationships will write this section. So here it is.
If you run a walk-in-heavy neighborhood spot with strong regulars, a paid reservation platform may simply not be worth it — not OpenTable, not Resy, not any of them.
Free and genuinely usable options exist:
- Google Business Profile booking button — free, integrates directly with Google Maps, no monthly fee
- Eat App free tier — covers basic reservation management at no cost
- TableAgent — free base plan with a paid SMS add-on
- Phone-only — not embarrassing for restaurants under 50 seats that run on walk-ins and calls
For under 200 covers/week, SimplySeated (~$99/month) gives you reservation management without per-cover fees. u/johnp2777: “We used OpenTable for a few years and it just wasn’t worth the money. We don’t need help filling our seats, we just needed something to help manage online reservations, walk-ins, and our tables. We use SimplySeated now, its only like $100 a month.”
u/WildSoapbox dropped OpenTable for a 40-seat restaurant and didn’t look back: “Too expensive, too many no shows. I switched to Yelp [reservations] and I like it a lot better. It’s a very user friendly platform and much more affordable.”
The food-tech industry’s incentive is to convince you that a $250/month platform is table stakes for any restaurant that takes reservations. It’s not. The best reservation system is the one that costs the least for your actual volume and doesn’t charge you to seat people who already love your food.
For more on evaluating the full stack of tools worth paying for, see our guide to best tools for small restaurant owners.
OpenTable vs Resy: Side-by-Side Comparison
| OpenTable | Resy | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Subscription + per-cover fees | Flat monthly fee |
| Base cost (est.) | ~$249/month | ~$89–$200/month |
| Per-cover charge | $1.00–$1.50/cover | None |
| Network strength | Stronger in smaller/suburban markets | Stronger in major urban markets |
| Reserve With Google | ✅ Supported | ✅ Supported |
| Tock integration | ❌ | ✅ (Amex-owned, same company) |
| AMEX Platinum perks | ❌ | ✅ |
| Ownership | Booking Holdings | American Express |
| Best for | Restaurants in non-Resy markets where network drives real incremental bookings | High-volume urban restaurants where per-cover fees would be significant |
Pricing based on community-reported figures — contact vendors for current quotes.
The verdict: Resy wins on cost structure for any restaurant doing more than 100 covers/week in a major metro market. OpenTable only makes financial sense if your referral data shows the OpenTable network drives a meaningful share of your bookings — and those bookings are guests you genuinely wouldn’t have reached otherwise.
If you’re also sorting out your online ordering setup, see our online ordering platform comparison for restaurants. For the rest of your operations stack, the restaurant scheduling software for small teams and restaurant inventory management software breakdowns follow the same format.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does OpenTable charge restaurants per reservation?
OpenTable charges a monthly subscription (Core plan reported at ~$249/month) plus per-cover fees: approximately $1.00/cover for bookings through your own widget, $1.25–$1.50/cover for bookings through the OpenTable app or network. No-shows you fail to mark are still charged at $1/head. OpenTable doesn’t list pricing publicly — these figures come from community-reported operator experience on r/restaurateur, confirmed by a former OpenTable employee.
Is Resy better than OpenTable for a small restaurant doing under 300 covers per week?
In most cases, yes — on cost alone. At 300 covers/week (1,200/month), OpenTable per-cover fees can run $1,200–$1,800/month before the base subscription. Resy’s flat monthly rate keeps your bill predictable regardless of volume. The exception: if you’re in a smaller market where Resy has minimal user presence, OpenTable’s discovery network may offset the cost through incremental bookings. Check your referral data before committing either way.
What changed when American Express acquired Resy and merged it with Tock?
American Express completed the Tock acquisition and merged it with Resy in early 2024. Both platforms now operate under the Amex umbrella. Resy and Tock are no longer competing products — Tock’s ticketed/prepaid dining functionality is being integrated into the Resy platform. Resy’s AMEX Platinum dining integrations are now a central part of its value proposition.
Does switching from OpenTable to Resy hurt your restaurant’s discoverability?
It depends on where your current bookings actually originate — so pull the data first. Check your OpenTable referral report. If most bookings come from the OpenTable discovery network, switching will reduce those. If most come from your own website widget or Google (Reserve With Google), you’ll lose very little — both platforms support RWG integration, so that traffic transfers cleanly.
Are there free or lower-cost restaurant reservation systems worth considering?
Yes, especially for restaurants under 60 seats or those with strong walk-in traffic. Google Business Profile’s booking button is free and integrates with Google Maps. Eat App has a usable free tier. TableAgent is free with a paid SMS add-on. For under 200 covers/week, SimplySeated (~$99/month) provides full reservation management without per-cover fees. Phone-only reservations remain a legitimate option for small, walk-in-heavy spots.
The Verdict
For most independent restaurants, Resy’s flat monthly pricing is the structurally better choice. OpenTable’s per-cover model charges you to seat people you already earned — and at 150 covers a week, that’s a real number on your P&L, not a rounding error.
Before you sign or switch anything, pull your current reservation referral data. If OpenTable’s own network drives less than 30% of your bookings, you’re paying a large premium for marginal discovery value. Run the math for your specific weekly volume — it takes five minutes and the answer will be obvious.
The best reservation system is the one that doesn’t charge you $600 a month to re-seat your own regulars.
