How Much Does OpenTable Cost UK Restaurants?

If you are weighing up booking systems, the first question is usually the hardest to answer: how much does OpenTable cost UK restaurants? It sounds like it should be a simple number. It isn’t — and that’s the most important thing to understand before you sign anything.

OpenTable’s UK pricing page lists two plans — Core and Pro — but shows “Contact us for pricing” against both, not figures. The pound amounts that circulate for British restaurants are third-party estimates; OpenTable itself points you to its sales team for a quote. So rather than quote you numbers that may not match your contract, let’s do something more useful: explain the model. Because the model is what determines your bill — this year, and every year you grow.

The structure that matters: subscription plus commission

OpenTable’s pricing works on two layers stacked together:

1. A fixed monthly subscription for the software.
2. A per-cover commission — a fee for every seated diner who arrives through OpenTable’s network.

That second layer is the one to watch. It means your cost is tied to your covers. Fill more tables through the network, and the variable part of your bill rises with you. The subscription is predictable; the commission is not. It scales with how busy you are.

There’s an important nuance here, and it’s fair to OpenTable to spell it out: on the higher tiers, bookings that come through your own website typically carry no per-cover fee. The commission mainly applies to diners OpenTable’s marketplace sends you — the people who found you by searching its app or site rather than yours.

This structure is the durable, verifiable point. Whatever the exact figures are in your quote, the shape is the same: a base fee, plus a charge that grows with your covers.

What the published figures look like (and why to treat them carefully)

OpenTable’s UK page shows no figures — just “Contact us for pricing” — so the clearest published numbers are its US plans, in US dollars, as reported by independent industry trackers (we’ve taken these from Tekpon and Eat App, both current for 2026 — see Sources). Treat the table below as third-party-reported US pricing — indicative of the shape of the bill, not your UK quote. Note the UK line-up is only Core and Pro; the Basic tier below is US-only. Confirm anything that matters directly with OpenTable.

A few other terms worth knowing:

• Some directories still quote an older, lower set of tiers (around $39 / $249 / $449). The $149 / $299 / $499 figures above are the current ones per the 2026 sources — worth knowing in case you see the older numbers elsewhere.
• The contract terms come straight from OpenTable’s own UK pricing page: the standard contract is one year and auto-renews annually, and you need to give 30 days’ notice before the renewal date to stop it. (Their words: “let OpenTable know 30 days prior to the scheduled renewal date.”)
• In early 2026 OpenTable added a 2% service fee on deposits, prepaid experiences and no-show penalties — confirmed by an OpenTable spokesperson to the Philadelphia Inquirer. It’s a US change and applies only to those transactions, not to ordinary reservations.
• Setup fees are not publicly disclosed. We won’t put a number on something we can’t source.

You may also see a “£0.50–£2 per cover” UK range, or a “£299/month” UK Pro figure, on third-party comparison sites. The sites publishing those numbers flag them as assumptions, not official OpenTable pricing. We’re not going to repeat them as fact, and neither should anyone selling against OpenTable. If you want UK numbers you can rely on, get them in writing from OpenTable directly.

What you’re actually paying for

It’s easy to frame commission as pure cost, but that’s not honest. The per-cover fee buys something real:

• Discovery and reach. OpenTable runs one of the largest diner networks around. People open the app actively looking to book a table tonight, and its marketplace can put you in front of them — covers you might never have won otherwise. That’s the genuine value the commission pays for.
• Free own-website bookings on higher tiers. On Core and Pro, reservations from your own site don’t carry the per-cover fee, so the commission falls mainly on incremental network diners rather than your regulars.
• A mature, familiar platform. Reviews, waitlist and table management, a large integration ecosystem including POS, and a brand diners already trust.

If a meaningful share of your bookings come from people discovering you on OpenTable for the first time, that reach can be worth paying for. It’s a real trade.

The catch: a charge that grows with your success

Here’s the structural snag. The busier you get, the more the network commission adds up — and a lot of those “network” diners are people who’d have come to you anyway. A regular who books through the OpenTable app instead of phoning still counts as a network cover. You can end up paying a per-head fee on loyalty you already earned.

That’s the durable point, and it has nothing to do with whether the figure is $1.00 or £1.50: commission scales with your covers; a flat fee does not. Two restaurants paying the same subscription can end up with very different bills purely because one is busier. Growth becomes a cost line.

The flat-fee alternative

This is exactly the problem we built NomNom to avoid. Our pricing is £17.99/month, everything included. 14-day free trial, no contract, no setup fee. No per-cover commission. No charge for being busy. A packed Saturday costs the same as a quiet Tuesday.

Everything sits inside that one price:

• Commission-free web booking on your own branded page
• Stripe payment integration for deposits and card holds
• SMS messaging* and push notifications
• Daily data exports — a full Excel export of your bookings, plus the next 7 days of arrivals reports in PDF
• Unlimited devices

The difference in philosophy is the difference in the bill. OpenTable’s model is built around a marketplace, so it charges for the covers that marketplace sends. NomNom’s model is built around your booking page, so when guests book direct, there’s no middleman and no per-cover fee eating into your margins.

The honest trade-off: NomNom doesn’t run a giant diner marketplace, so you won’t get OpenTable’s discovery reach. If you’re relying on a big network to fill empty tables, that matters, and it’s fair to weigh it. But if most of your bookings already come from people who know you — regulars, locals, word of mouth — paying commission to a network for them is hard to justify.

So, how much does OpenTable cost UK restaurants?

The honest answer: it depends on your covers, your tier, and a quote OpenTable doesn’t publish. The model is subscription plus per-cover commission, and that commission grows as you do. Verify the exact figures with OpenTable before you decide — and read the renewal and cancellation terms closely.

Then ask the simpler question: would you rather pay a fee that rises every time you fill a table, or a flat monthly price that never punishes a busy night?

If a predictable bill sounds like the right fit, you can try NomNom free for 14 days — no card required, no setup fee, no sales calls. Have a look at how our commission-free booking works, or browse our other guides on the blog before you commit to anyone.

*SMS credits purchased separately.

Sources

Plan prices are quote-based and reported by third-party trackers (mid-2026); the contract terms and per-cover model are from OpenTable’s own UK pages. Verify current figures directly with OpenTable.

• OpenTable — Pricing & Plans (UK) — contract terms, quote-only pricing, and the per-cover model
• Eat App — OpenTable Pricing
• Tekpon — OpenTable Pricing
• The Philadelphia Inquirer (14 January 2026) — OpenTable’s new 2% service fee