If your restaurant is full service and accepts reservations then having a way for customers to book tables online is a must. Unfortunately, paying for some of the more well known 3rd party reservation apps is expensive. Fortunately, you have options.
Below I explain the best way to integrate a delivery plugin using your website or Facebook page. Alternatively, I also list my top 3rd party services at both the high and low ends of the pricing spectrum.
Add Reservations Capabilities to Your Website
Bookly Plug-In
Why I Recommend Them
OpenTable and Resy are great, but they are EXTREMELY expensive. Bookly will charge you a one time fee of $89 for the software that will accomplish most of what the big players do. Adding Bookly to your website is easy even for a beginner.
How They Can Improve
There is no table management system involved with Bookly. Bookly is not designed to be restaurant-specific, meaning you have to monitor your reservations to ensure you don’t end up overbooked.
How They Compare to the Competition:
They are not nearly as feature-rich as the 3rd party apps, but for a restaurant only doing a handful of covers a night they cannot be beaten!
Add Reservations to Your Facebook Page
Check Front
Why I Recommend Them
Checkfront is more or less the Facebook version of bookly, allowing customers to book reservations directly from your Facebook page. I recommend using them in conjunction with Bookly.
How They Can Improve
Like Bookly, there is no table management integration. It would be great if both were able to work together though!
How They Compare to the Competition:
At $49 a month, Checkfront really has no one that does what they do directly from Facebook.
3rd Party Reservation Apps
Open Table
Price: $249/Month + $1 Per Cover
OpenTable is the standard-bearer of reservation apps. With a customer base more than 5 times larger than the best of the competition, OpenTable owns the market.
Not being on OpenTable means not taking advantage of the marketing that comes with their large market share. If you are depending on your reservation app to be a primary driver of business, then OpenTable is the way to go.
Best For: Restaurants with less than 151 covers per month or that wish to aggressively grow sales.
Resy
Price: $399/Month
Resy is much smaller than Opentable with a customer base of less than 20% that of OpenTable. However, that customer base has been steadily rising largely thanks to its structure. Unlike OpenTable, Resy offers a flat rate of $399 per month to use their reserve regardless of the number of covers.
Best For: Restaurants with more than 151 covers per month that are not reliant on the reservation system for marketing power.