Most comparisons of reservation systems line up thirteen names, attach a star rating to each and leave you to work out what the difference is. This one does four, with their own figures attached and the places we could not find a figure named as such.
Four, because these are the four we have written a full comparison of and whose prices we read on their own pages. A list of thirteen where nine were copied from another list does not help you — those lists are full of prices that stopped being true a year ago.
Prices below were read in September 2026. Check them before you sign; they move, and one moved while this was being written.
The question almost every comparison skips
A reservation system handles the bookings that arrive through your website. That is exactly half the job.
The other half rings. In an average restaurant, five to fifteen calls an evening are lost — mostly in the hour before service and during the peak, precisely when nobody can pick up the handset. Those callers do not leave voicemail. They ring the restaurant that answers.
None of the four systems below is built for that, with one exception. This is not a detail at the bottom of a feature list; it is the difference between a diary that fills and a diary that looks full. What a missed call actually costs works through the arithmetic.
Two kinds of system
Before you put prices side by side, you need to know you are comparing two different things.
A diary of your own. You pay a fixed monthly fee for software: a widget on your own site, a floor plan, guest profiles, confirmations. The guests are yours and the system charges nothing per guest. Guestplan and Zenchef work this way.
A guest network. The platform has an app where people look for restaurants, and sends you diners who were not looking for you. You pay for each one, every month, again. TheFork and OpenTable work this way — both with software attached, but the business model is in the covers.
The second is not worse. For a new place on a quiet street, paying for reach is often exactly the right spend. But it is a different spend, and it grows with your good nights rather than with your software.
Guestplan — commission-free and Dutch, but the phone keeps ringing
Guestplan is a Dutch system with Dutch support, and it shows: it does what a Dutch business needs without making you work through an international configuration module.
Prices on their own page: Pro €49.99 a month, Business €109.99, Ultimate €229.99. No setup fee, no commission per guest, 30 days free. Deposits are in every plan, but the fee per deposit differs: €2.99 on Pro, €0.99 on Business, free on Ultimate.
What it does well: a booking widget in your own house style, table and floor management, waitlist, gift cards, Reserve with Google, apps for your team, reminders by email and SMS. The interface is why people stay with it.
Where it stops: at the telephone. Guestplan does not take calls, at any price. And reservations are the only thing that fits in it — a caller who wants to order a takeaway finds nowhere for that to go.
Note: Guestplan cut its prices in September 2026. If you come across €59.99 somewhere, you are reading an old list. Our own Bubo vs. Guestplan comparison goes through it point by point.
Zenchef — the only one that also answers, and where that call ends
Zenchef is the largest of the four in Europe and has absorbed Formitable and Resengo. If you are a Dutch business that once used Formitable: that is Zenchef now.
Prices: they do not publish them. The plans are called Reserve, Manage and Grow and no amount is attached. Independent comparisons put it around €49 a month per location; that is a third-party figure and we could not read it on their site. Ask for it in writing.
What it does well: Zenchef is the only one on this list that answers the phone. Their AI Call picks up during and after service, books tables and answers questions, in several languages. Alongside that: Google Reserve, Instagram Reserve, review management and guest marketing — on those four points they do more than we do. They charge no commission per guest, and they are right to say so.
Where it stops: at what happens after the call is answered. The call ends in a table. A caller who wants to order, pay a deposit or buy a gift card runs out of road, because a reservation platform has nowhere to put any of that.
And then the processing fees, which they do publish: 2–6% on cards depending on your plan, 3.5–6% on Amex, €0.29–3.29 on iDEAL and €0.05–0.12 per SMS. In the Netherlands almost everyone pays by iDEAL, so that line is not a footnote. WhatsApp is announced, not shipped. Point by point in the Bubo vs. Zenchef comparison.
TheFork — reach you pay for by the head
TheFork belongs to Tripadvisor and has a large audience across Europe. People open the app to find a restaurant, not to find you — and that is precisely what you are buying.
Prices: also not published. Their own pricing page says "ask for pricing" beside both plans. What it does say is how the commission works, and that is worth reading: it is a percentage of the average bill per guest, not a fixed amount per cover. Reservations through your own website, Instagram and Facebook are included with no commission.
That percentage matters more than it looks. A fixed amount per guest costs a bistro what it costs a fine-dining room. A percentage does not: the higher your average spend, the more each network guest costs. Independent comparisons quote roughly €2 to €4 a guest and subscriptions between €30 and €75 a month, but those are third-party figures.
Where it stops: the phone, and the guest. A reservation through the network is a guest the platform knows and can keep marketing to afterwards. More in the Bubo vs. TheFork comparison.
OpenTable — the same model, in dollars, and dearer
OpenTable works like TheFork but publishes everything — which puts it ahead on transparency and a long way behind on price.
Prices from their own page: $149 a month Basic, $299 Core, $499 Pro. On top of that $1.50 for every guest the network sends on Basic, $1.00 on Core and Pro. And on Basic you also pay $0.25 for every guest who books through your own website — or $49 a month to make that stop. Prepaid experiences carry a 2% service fee.
Work that through for a good month. Two hundred network covers on Basic is $300 on top of the $149 — the subscription has doubled before you have served anybody twice.
Where it stops: same place. No phone, and the guest stays the network's. The Bubo vs. OpenTable comparison does the arithmetic.
Bubo — the diary and the phone in one system
We sell two things that other providers sell as two products, and with us it is one.
Prices: the booking dashboard with online booking is €49 a month, free for your first six months. No commission per guest, on any channel. The phone assistant starts at €29 a month for 60 minutes and runs through €59, €149 and €289 to 800 minutes — you pick on call volume, not on features. €149 once to set it up, waived if you stay a year. It is all on the pricing page.
What makes it different: the call and the diary are the same system. Bubo answers in 70+ languages, looks at the same availability as your booking widget, and the call does not have to end in a table — it can also become an order, a deposit or a gift card. Numbers are verified by text before a table is held.
Where it stops: we have no guest network. We do not send you diners who were not looking for you — we answer what comes in. Reserve with Google is coming, Instagram Reserve is not. We do not do review management or guest marketing; Zenchef does.
Side by side
| Per month | Commission per guest | Answers the phone | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guestplan | €49.99 / €109.99 / €229.99 | None | No |
| Zenchef | Not published (~€49, third party) | None | Yes — tables and questions |
| TheFork | Not published | % of the average bill | No |
| OpenTable | $149 / $299 / $499 | $1.00–1.50 network, $0.25 own site on Basic | No |
| Bubo | €49, first 6 months free | None | Yes — tables, orders, deposits, gift cards |
| Widget on your own site | Deposits | Price published | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guestplan | Yes | Yes, €0.99–2.99 each | Yes |
| Zenchef | Yes | Yes, through the booking flow | No |
| TheFork | Yes, commission-free | Yes | No |
| OpenTable | Yes, $0.25 a guest on Basic | Yes, 2% on experiences | Yes |
| Bubo | Yes, plus your own booking page and QR | Yes, over WhatsApp | Yes |
Which one suits which kind of business
You are full and the phone is the problem. Then you are not buying reach. You are buying something that answers: Zenchef or Bubo, and the difference is in what that call is allowed to become.
You are new and nobody knows you. Then a guest network earns its money, and TheFork or OpenTable is an honest spend — as long as you work out what those guests cost you a month and look again a year later.
You just want a tidy diary and no fuss. Guestplan, and you are done. Dutch, commission-free, price on the page.
You take orders, or you would like to. Then half this list drops away, because a reservation system has nowhere to put an order.
Still unsure: book a demo and let Bubo ring you with your own menu loaded. That is quicker than reading another comparison.
Frequently asked questions
What does a restaurant reservation system cost on average?
A fixed monthly fee runs roughly between €25 and €230 depending on what is in the plan. Commission models start lower — sometimes at €0 — and climb with your covers.
Is a free reservation system a good idea?
It depends where the business model sits. Free systems earn through commission per guest, through mandatory discounts, or through a contract you cannot leave. Above a handful of reservations a month, a fixed fee is almost always cheaper.
Which reservation system answers the phone?
Of these four, only Zenchef, with AI Call, and Bubo. The difference is what the call is allowed to become: with Zenchef a table or an answer, with Bubo also an order, a deposit or a gift card.
Can I switch without losing my reservations?
Yes, but ask explicitly. Existing reservations, your guest database and the link on your website are three separate things, and not every provider moves all three. Put it in an email before you cancel.
Do I need both a reservation system and a phone assistant?
It does not have to be two subscriptions. With us it is one system with one diary, where the phone is a channel alongside your website. Two separate systems that cannot see each other's availability is exactly how the same table goes out twice.