Neutral comparison, sourced
Tock vs OpenTable for restaurants (2026)
The short version: Tock ($269 to $399 a month plus 2-3% of prepayments) is built around prepaid, ticketed dining and is merging into Resy in summer 2026. OpenTable ($149 to $499 plus per-cover fees) is built around marketplace discovery. Operators have reported dramatic savings moving to Tock, and one documented case of the reverse.
The facts, side by side
Swipe the table sideways for the full comparison.
| Tock | OpenTable | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly price | Essential $269/mo or Premium $399/mo (official post-merger pricing on resy.com) | $149 (Basic), $299 (Core) or $499 (Pro) a month, list price |
| Usage fees | 3% of prepayments on Essential, 2% on Premium, plus card processing (third-party listings cite Stripe ~2.9% + $0.30 or Braintree 2.59% + $0.49); 0% commission only appeared on legacy $699/mo tiers | Network covers $1.50 each on Basic, $1.00 on Core/Pro; own-website covers $0.25 each or $49/mo flat on Basic, $0 on Core/Pro; promoted Bonus Points bookings up to $7.50 per diner (third-party figure); plus a 2% service fee on no-show fees, deposits and prepaid transactions (2026) |
| Contract | Not published; sold through the Resy/Tock sales process | 12-month auto-renewing term (March 2026 agreement); early exit costs 100% (initial term) or 50% (renewal term) of remaining subscription fees plus 100% of remaining cover fees |
| Free tier | None for reservations today; whether the old $0 events-only Intro tier survives the merger is unverified | None |
| Guest data | Tock markets full ownership; exports include name, email, visit history and notes, and operators moving platforms have praised its data transfer | Contract states "Client Data does not include Online Reservation Data"; network-diner data is provided per OpenTable's privacy policy, and export access ends 30 days after termination |
| No-show tools | Prepayment is the core model: guests pay (in part or full) when they book, so no-shows are pre-funded, minus Tock's 2-3% and processing | Deposits and no-show fees supported, now with OpenTable's 2% service fee applied to those transactions |
Published list prices and terms, last verified 2026-07-03. Sources live on each vendor's alternatives page. Always check the vendors' sites for current pricing.
Two different money models
Tock's model taxes prepaid revenue: Essential is $269/mo plus 3% of prepayments, Premium $399/mo plus 2%, with card processing on top. If you sell tasting menus or ticketed events, prepayment is the product, and the commission is the cost of it.
OpenTable taxes seated volume instead: $1.00-1.50 per network cover on top of $149-499/mo, plus a 2% service fee on no-show and deposit transactions since 2026. High-volume rooms feel OpenTable's model hardest; high-ticket prepaid rooms feel Tock's percentage hardest.
What operators report after switching
First-hand accounts cut both ways. One operator: "I'm now using Tock and I swear by it. Love it. $140 a month. Open table was $1100-$1200 a month." The owner of Town in LA calculated over $10,000 a year paid to OpenTable before moving to Tock at about $250 a month. Against that, one restaurant that switched to Tock saw business fall so sharply it returned to OpenTable within a month; the marketplace was carrying it. Know which kind of restaurant you are before you move.
The merger: Tock becomes Resy in summer 2026
American Express announced in February 2026 that Tock is merging into Resy, with migration planned for summer 2026 and Tock's consumer app and site going dark. Anyone choosing Tock today is really choosing the merged Resy platform, so evaluate Resy's tiers and terms too, and ask what the migration means for your data and pricing in writing.
Support and satisfaction
OpenTable's core software rates 4.7/5 on Capterra with complaints concentrated on fees. Tock rates 3.4/5, the lowest of the major platforms, with documented complaints about sales misrepresentation, email-only support and onboarding failures, alongside genuine praise for its data portability and the prepaid model.
Choose Tock if
- Prepaid, ticketed or deposit-heavy dining is your revenue model
- You want clean data portability and lower fixed bills than a busy OpenTable account
Choose OpenTable if
- Marketplace discovery fills a meaningful share of your seats
- You want the larger diner network and 24/7-scale platform support
Questions
Tock vs OpenTable: FAQ
For busy rooms, often dramatically: operators report $140-250/mo on Tock against $600-1,200/mo real OpenTable bills. But Tock takes 2-3% of prepaid revenue, so a high-volume prepaid room pays a real percentage. Run both models on your own numbers; check both vendors' sites for current pricing.
The option with no cover fees at all
TableHelm is free for unlimited reservations at one location, $29/mo for Pro. No contract, no demo call, and your guest book exports free.