What Does Table Reservation Software Cost? A Worked Example for 500 Covers a Month

Search for the cost of table reservation software and most pages give you a monthly figure. That figure is only part of the bill. For many restaurants the larger line is what the platform charges per booking, and that depends on where each booking came from. This post works through one realistic month, using the same arithmetic as the cover-fee model behind our blog calculator, so you can run it again with your own numbers.

The short answer

• Free to $29 a month. TableHelm's House plan is free for one location with unlimited reservations. Full House is $29 a month flat (£25 in the UK). Neither charges per cover.
• $149 to $499 a month at OpenTable before any per-cover fees, depending on the tier. Some comparison guides list different tiers altogether, so confirm the current figures before you decide.
• Per-cover fees turn a fixed subscription into a cost that rises with your busiest months.

Three numbers a price list leaves out

1. The network cover fee. A booking that arrives through a marketplace's own diner search is charged per cover. On OpenTable's Basic plan that is $1.50 a cover. On Core and Pro it is $1.00.
2. The direct cover fee. A booking taken through your own website widget costs $0.25 a cover on Basic, or a $49 monthly flat fee if that works out cheaper. Core and Pro do not charge for direct covers.
3. The percentage fee on money you collect. From early 2026, OpenTable adds a 2% service charge on deposits, no-show penalties and prepaid experiences booked through its site, as reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer in January.

How the worked example is calculated

Every OpenTable figure below follows one formula: the monthly subscription, plus network covers multiplied by the network rate, plus direct covers at the direct rate. On Basic the direct charge is capped at the $49 flat fee, so the cheaper option is the one billed. Core and Pro carry no direct-cover charge. TableHelm's figures are the published prices, with no per-cover element at all. Our cover-fee calculator calculates the arithmetic involved. It is a way to compare plans, not a quote from any vendor.

The worked example: 500 covers a month

Take a restaurant that seats 60 and takes 500 covers a month. Of those, 300 come through OpenTable's network and 200 come through its own website widget. We leave out add-ons such as SMS packs and assume no deposits, so the figures show the platform cost alone.

Read the Basic row carefully. The 200 own-site covers would cost $50 at $0.25 each, which is one dollar more than the $49 flat fee, so the flat fee applies. On every OpenTable plan the network covers are the largest line: $450 on Basic and $300 on Core and Pro, against subscriptions of $149 to $499. Core comes out cheaper than Basic this month because Basic's network rate is higher, but Pro costs more than both, because its subscription is higher and its per-cover rate is no lower than Core's.

The same restaurant in a quieter month

Now take a quieter month with 200 covers: 100 through the network and 100 through the restaurant's own widget. Basic comes to $149, plus $150 in network fees, plus $25 in direct fees (100 at $0.25, which is below the $49 flat fee, so per-cover billing applies). That is $324 a month, or $3,888 a year. Core comes to $399 a month, or $4,788 a year. Pro comes to $599 a month, or $7,188 a year. Full House stays at $29 a month, or $348 a year.

The pattern is consistent across both months. Full House costs the same whatever your volume. OpenTable's cost moves with every booking that arrives through its network, which is why the busiest month is the one to budget for.

What the comparison does not show

This is not a like-for-like feature comparison, and it should not be read as one. OpenTable has a diner discovery network that TableHelm does not have. Guests on TableHelm book through your own site, your Google profile and Instagram. If a large share of your covers arrive through that network, the per-cover fee may be paying for bookings you would not otherwise get. If most of your guests already book directly, a flat fee of $29 a month, or nothing at all, keeps the cost predictable.

The free plan is also a different product from the paid one. House includes unlimited reservations for one location, a booking page and widget, a floor plan, a waitlist, a guest book, confirmation emails and CSV export. Full House adds no-show protection through card holds, reminder emails and texts, review requests and reports. Texts are capped at 500 a month on Full House, and the free plan sends email only. Compare the features you actually use, not the headline price.

The 2% fee on money you collect

The percentage fee is easy to miss because it scales with money rather than covers. Suppose a restaurant collects $2,000 a month in deposits and no-show fees through OpenTable. At 2%, that is $40 a month, or $480 a year, on top of the subscription and cover charges. The example is illustrative: the fee applies only to the transactions it covers, and the terms should be checked directly with the vendor before you rely on the figure.

How to run the sum for your own restaurant

1. Pull three months of reservation reports and split covers into those that came through a marketplace and those booked on your own site or by phone.
2. List every charge the platform makes: the subscription, per-cover fees, add-on packs, and any percentage fee on deposits or no-show fees.
3. Multiply the monthly charges by 12 and compare annual totals, not the headline price.
4. Repeat the sum for a quiet month and a busy one. Per-cover costs move with volume, so plan for the busiest month you expect.

Where this leaves a restaurant choosing now

A restaurant with a steady stream of direct bookings can keep its software cost close to zero, or to $29 a month if it needs card holds and reminder texts. A restaurant that depends on a marketplace for most of its covers has a harder question: whether the bookings it gets are worth the per-cover charges. That is a judgement about your own guests, and no price table can answer it for you.

Common questions

Is table reservation software free?

Some is. TableHelm's House plan is free for one location with unlimited reservations and needs no card to start. Most of the larger platforms charge a monthly subscription, and several add per-cover fees on top.

Why do per-cover fees matter more than the subscription?

Because they grow with the bookings you take. A $149 subscription is fixed, but 300 network covers at $1.50 add $450 a month on top of it, and that figure rises in every busy month.

Does the 2% OpenTable fee apply to every booking?

No. It applies to transactions made through OpenTable's reservations site that include deposits, no-show penalties or prepaid experiences, as reported in 2026. Check the current terms before relying on the figure.

Are the OpenTable prices in this post final?

They are list prices as reported by the third-party sources we checked, and those sources do not all agree. We could not confirm every figure on OpenTable's own plans page, so treat these numbers as a starting point and check the vendor's current pricing before you decide.