Many booking platforms charge a per-cover fee on the bookings they bring you — even repeat guests who first found you there. TableTango™ never does: one plan at £29.99 a month per venue, with your first 30 days free from go-live — no card to start, and there's nothing per cover and your guest list stays 100% yours.
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Restaurant booking software splits into two business models, and the difference shows up on your bill every single night.
TableTango is firmly in the second camp. To be fair to the marketplaces: their real strength is discovery — they can genuinely put your restaurant in front of new diners. If filling seats with strangers is your main need, a listings platform may suit you. But if you mostly want to run the bookings you already attract, paying a finder's fee on guests who already found you is money you don't need to spend.
It's not about one platform's headline number — those are usually quote-only and vary by contract, so we won't pretend to know yours. It's about the shape of the two models. A per-cover fee is charged on every seated diner, so it climbs every time you have a good night. TableTango never charges per cover — it's one flat £29.99 a month per venue. Plug your own platform's per-cover rate into the right-hand column and the pattern holds.
| The same busy month | TableTango | A per-cover platform |
|---|---|---|
| Covers seated in a month | 1,000 | 1,000 |
| How you're charged | One flat plan fee | A fee on every cover |
| What a busier night costs | Nothing extra | More — the bill scales with covers |
| Charged again on repeat regulars? | No | Typically yes, on network bookings |
| Roughly what you'd pay | £29.99 flat, per venue | Subscription + commission on every cover |
The busier you get, the wider the gap — because the per-cover bill climbs with every good night while TableTango's price stays put. And it keeps charging on the regulars you brought in yourself. £29.99 is £29.99, whether you seat 100 covers or 1,000.
Models are stable; specific prices move around and are often quote-only, so we've stuck to the model rather than guess at anyone's numbers. Marketplace platforms are typically built to charge for the seats they touch. TableTango runs your bookings for one flat fee.
| TableTango | Typical per-cover platforms | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | One flat monthly plan | Subscription + per-cover commission |
| Monthly fee | £29.99, per venue | A monthly subscription (varies, often quote-only) |
| Per-cover commission | Never | Charged on seated diners (rate varies) |
| Charged on repeat regulars? | No | Typically yes, on network bookings |
| Email confirmations & reminders | Included as standard | Varies by platform |
| SMS confirmations, reminders & review invites | On SMS credit — 100-credit starter grant, then buy credit | Varies by platform |
| 24/7 AI chat booking | Included as standard | Rarely a core feature |
| Waitlist & cancellation fill | Included as standard | Varies by platform |
| Your guest data | Stays 100% yours | Platform typically owns the diner relationship |
| Contract | None — cancel anytime | Often a longer commitment |
For context, not every alternative charges per cover — some other systems are also flat-fee and commission-free, and they're a fair option too. Where TableTango differs is the package: one plan at £29.99 per venue with AI chat booking, the full booking engine, email reminders, reminder texts, waitlist auto-fill and no-show prevention — designed for a single independent rather than a multi-site group. There are also free routes — a Google booking link or a plain form — but those are a front door, not a booking system, with no real-time availability, confirmations or reminders behind them. We cover those honestly on our free booking tools page.
Dropping the per-cover fee is the headline. The rest is a full front-of-house brain — messaging, waitlist, events and review tools, all in the one plan. (Sending texts draws on separately funded SMS credit; the tools themselves are part of the plan.) Everything a busy independent needs, nothing you'd need an IT department for.
In your plan
Also in your plan (texts run on SMS credit, not the monthly price)
On the roadmap — gift vouchers you'd sell and keep 100% of too: no commission, paid into your own Stripe account, redeemed at your own venue. See the roadmap.
Email confirmations and day-before reminders reach your guests as standard wherever a guest gives an email address. Texts are not part of the monthly price: a one-off 100-credit starter grant lets you try them, then you buy credit when you want more. One credit is one message segment, so a long or emoji message uses more than one. Worried about the empty-table surprise? Every booking is risk-scored and flagged, an email day-before reminder goes out as standard, and reminder texts — one of the most effective ways to cut no-shows — go out automatically, with a waitlist that quietly re-texts the next matching guests when someone cancels. If cutting no-shows is your main reason to switch, we've written a practical UK playbook on how to reduce restaurant no-shows. Run tasting menus or supper clubs? They're included and commission-free too — see the restaurant event booking system. And if you're weighing up the incumbent specifically, here's the commission-free OpenTable alternative view.
The reason marketplaces charge per cover is that they treat the diner as theirs. TableTango treats every guest as yours. Names, numbers and visit history belong to your restaurant — never sold, never shared, and never used to market to your guests or to send your diners to another restaurant. It's UK-made, UK-hosted and GDPR-friendly, with a standing DPA available and one-tap guest export and erasure for data requests. Every booking page carries a small "Powered by TableTango", and the link works on your website, Google Business profile, Instagram bio, Facebook or a QR code by the door.
No sales call, no onboarding wait, no hardware, no app for guests to download. Sign up with an email and password, verify your UK mobile with a 6-digit text code, name your venue, then follow a guided checklist (with an AI setup helper) to add your tables, hours and details. Your page stays paused until you tap "Go live", so nothing happens before you're ready. Your first 30 days are free from go-live, no card up front, no contract — then it's £29.99 a month per venue, and you can cancel any time with one email.
I'm Graham, the founder — I built TableTango in the UK after watching independents lose covers to missed calls and pay per-cover fees on their own regulars. Questions before you start? Email hello@tabletango.co.uk and a real person (me) replies within a working day.
It means TableTango never charges you a fee per seated diner — no per-cover commission, ever. It's one plan at £29.99 a month per venue, and it never charges per cover, per deposit or per event. Marketplace platforms typically charge a fee for diners booked through their network, and that charge usually keeps applying to repeat regulars too. With TableTango, a great Friday costs you exactly the same as a quiet Tuesday.
That depends entirely on your platform and contract, and the rates are usually quote-only — so we won't put words in anyone's mouth. The point is the shape of it: a per-cover fee is charged on every seated diner, so it climbs every time you have a good night and keeps applying to regulars you brought in yourself. TableTango never does — it's a flat £29.99 a month per venue whether you seat 100 covers or 1,000, so the busier you get, the more a commission-free price tends to win.
Email confirmations and a day-before reminder reach your guests as standard wherever a guest gives an email address. Reminder texts, waitlist offers and post-visit review invites are not part of the monthly price: they run on SMS credit, starting with a one-off 100-credit starter grant, then credit you buy. One credit is one message segment.
Completely. Names, numbers and visit history belong to your restaurant — never sold, shared, or used to market to your guests or send your diners elsewhere. TableTango is UK-made, UK-hosted and GDPR-friendly, with a standing DPA available and one-tap guest export and erasure for data requests. You also get a built-in guest book: who your regulars are, their usual table and any allergies, surfaced automatically next time they book.
Not necessarily — and we won't pretend the marketplaces are useless. Their genuine strength is discovery: putting you in front of new diners. You can keep a listings platform purely for net-new discovery and run TableTango for everything you already attract — your website, Instagram link, QR code and repeat regulars — so you stop paying a finder's fee on guests who already know you. That's a perfectly good way to use both.
No contract and no setup fee. Your first 30 days are free from go-live with no card details up front — it's your no-risk way in, not a trial that expires — then it's £29.99 a month per venue. You set it up yourself in about five minutes, and you can cancel any time with one email — your data exports out with you. Nothing goes live until you tap "Go live".
One plan at £29.99 a month per venue, with your first 30 days free from go-live — no per-cover commission, your guest data yours. No card to begin — cancel anytime.
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