OpenTable alternatives, judged on the only number that matters: the invoice.
Most comparison pages line up feature checkmarks and call it a day. Feature lists don't bill you at the end of the month. Per-cover pricing does, and it bills hardest on the nights you actually did well.
Published 3 August 2026 · Written by the TableHub team · All figures sourced below
The problem with per-cover pricing
OpenTable's published plans start at $149 a month for Basic, $299 for Core, and $499 for Pro. That subscription is the part people quote. It is not the part that hurts.
On top of the plan you pay per seated cover. Roughly $0.25 to $1.00 for a diner who found you on your own website, and up to $1.50 for a diner routed through OpenTable's network. So a full Saturday costs more than a dead one. Fill the room and the bill goes up. That is the whole design.
For a 60-seat neighbourhood place doing 900 covers a month, the per-cover line can quietly outgrow the subscription itself. Here is what that looks like with the numbers written out.
What is a “cover” on OpenTable?
A cover is one seated guest — not one booking. A table of four that shows up and eats is four covers, and you are billed four times. A party that books and never arrives is normally not billed, because the fee attaches to the seated diner rather than the reservation.
Two rates matter, and the difference between them is where the money goes:
- Direct covers — the guest booked through the widget on your own website or your Google listing. Cheaper, roughly $0.25 to $1.00 each depending on your contract.
- Network covers — the guest found you inside OpenTable's app or site. Up to $1.50 each, because you are paying for the referral as well as the software.
This is the line most owners miss when they compare quotes. A quiet month looks cheap. A packed month, or a month where OpenTable's own app sends you more traffic, quietly triples the variable half of the bill.
What OpenTable actually costs per month in 2026
The subscription is the advertised number. The real monthly cost is the subscription plus every cover you seated. Here are the published plans and what each one includes before per-cover fees are added.
| Plan | Monthly subscription | Direct cover fee | Network cover fee | Typically suits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $149 | $0.25–$1.00 | up to $1.50 | Small rooms wanting bookings and little else |
| Core | $299 | $0.25–$1.00 | up to $1.50 | Most independents — the common default |
| Pro | $499 | $0.25–$1.00 | up to $1.50 | Groups needing deeper reporting and marketing tools |
Quoted prices are the published US rates and are commonly negotiated on longer contracts. Ask any vendor for the per-cover rate in writing before you sign — it is the number that decides your bill, and it is the number least likely to appear on the pricing page.
Three restaurants, three invoices
All three are on the $299 Core plan. The only thing that changes is volume and how many of those covers came through the network rather than your own site.
| Monthly covers | Plan | Per-cover fees | OpenTable total | TableHub total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 200200 direct / 0 network | $299 | $100$100 direct + $0 network | $399 | $299 |
| 400250 direct / 150 network | $299 | $350$125 direct + $225 network | $649 | $299 |
| 900500 direct / 400 network | $299 | $850$250 direct + $600 network | $1,149 | $299 |
At 900 covers the gap is $850 a month, or $10,200 a year. That is a part-time host, or the deposit on a new walk-in.
What you should actually compare
If you are shopping for an OpenTable alternative, four questions separate the real options from the rebrands.
- Do you get the diner's contact details? Not a masked relay address. A real email and a real mobile number you can export. If you cannot export the list, you are renting your own regulars.
- Is pricing flat? A per-cover fee is a tax on a good night. A flat fee is a fixed cost you can plan around.
- Does it cover pickup as well as bookings? Most reservation tools stop at the table. Pickup is where the 15–30% delivery commission lives, and it is usually a separate vendor.
- Can you message the list? A CRM you cannot text is an address book. The value shows up on a slow Tuesday when you need 20 covers by 6pm.
Where TableHub sits, honestly
TableHub is a flat $299 a month. No per-cover fee, no commission on pickup orders beyond the card processing Stripe charges. You get menu, bookings, pickup, offers, and the diner CRM on your own domain, and the contact details belong to you.
What we do not have: OpenTable's discovery network. They send you strangers from their app. We do not. If a meaningful share of your covers come from people browsing OpenTable itself, keep that in the calculation, because those are covers you would have to replace with your own marketing.
Our argument is that network covers are the most expensive covers you buy, and that a restaurant with 1,200 names, emails and mobile numbers on file does not need to rent an audience. But that is an argument, not a guarantee, and you should run your own numbers before switching.
One more thing worth knowing at onboarding: we take your floor plan up front and encode it, so double bookings are prevented in the backend rather than caught by a host with a highlighter.
Run your own covers through it.
Bring last month's numbers to a 20-minute call and we'll do the math on your actual volume, not a made-up restaurant.