Free Restaurant Booking System UK: What Is Really Free

A free restaurant booking system in the UK usually means one of four things: a free tier with a hard cap on bookings, free software that earns money from commission, a free trial, or a free Google or social button that still needs a provider behind it. The genuinely free-forever options are small. As listed in October 2026, resOS is free for up to 25 bookings a month and Eat App is free for up to 100 guests a month. Both stop being free the moment you need deposits, SMS or real volume.

What "free" actually means

The last row catches people out. Google does not run your reservation book. Its own Business Profile help says that when guests book through Google, your provider might charge you, so check with the provider.

The real free tiers, compared

These are the free plans we could verify on the vendors' own pages in October 2026.

On the resOS free plan the add-ons are not available. That means no Online payments add-on (deposits, prepayments, no-show fees, £9.99 a month on paid plans) and no Reserve with Google add-on (£6.99 a month). Both can only be bought on a paid plan, according to resOS's pricing page. Eat App's page lists unlimited guests on its paid Lite plan but does not show a free-tier checklist for deposits, so check that before you rely on it.

Free trials are not free tiers, but they let you test for a month. As listed in October 2026: TableTango gives 30 days free then £29.99 a month, Tablein gives a 14-day trial, and TablePort gives 30 days with no card. resOS also lists a 90-day money-back guarantee on its paid plans.

What free tiers leave out

• Volume. 25 bookings a month is roughly six a week. A restaurant taking 400 bookings a month is past the cap within days.
• Deposits and card holds. These are the main no-show defence (see how to reduce no-shows) and are almost always a paid feature.
• SMS reminders. Email reminders are usually free. SMS costs the vendor money, so it is usually metered or an add-on. resOS lists £0.04 per SMS in GBP.
• Waitlist, reporting and integrations. Often held back for higher tiers.
• Support and data export. Check whether a free account can export its guest list.

When "cheap" costs more than it looks

Entry prices are a poor guide. Tablein's pricing page lists a Starter plan at about €67 a month with 50 reservations included and €0.67 for each extra one, and a Growth plan at about €117 with 150 included and €0.37 for each extra. A restaurant taking 140 bookings a month pays €67 plus 90 extra reservations at €0.67, or about €127 on Starter. The Growth plan at €117 is cheaper at that volume. The cheapest sticker price is not always the cheapest bill.

Commission is a different shape of cost. The numbers here are an illustration, not any vendor's rate. Suppose a marketplace charged £2 a diner and sent you 300 diners a month: that is £600, against a flat £49 a month for a standalone system. Whether that is a good deal depends on one question: would those 300 people have booked with you anyway? Fees on genuinely new diners are advertising. Fees on your regulars are a tax. TheFork and OpenTable do not publish UK plan prices that we could verify, so ask for the fee schedule in writing and ask how the system recognises a returning guest.

Five questions to ask any "free" vendor

1. What is the booking or guest cap, and what happens on the day I pass it?
2. Are deposits, SMS reminders and the Google booking button included or paid add-ons?
3. Is there any fee per cover, per diner or per booking, including from Google, Meta or marketplace channels?
4. Can I export my full guest list and booking history for free, in a usable file?
5. What is the price of the next tier up, and is there a contract or notice period?

Write the answers down. If a vendor will not put the answer to question 3 in writing, treat the product as commission-based.

Outgrowing a free plan

Free tiers are fine for testing the idea or running a very small book. Move up when you pass the cap, when you want deposits for large groups, or when you spend more time on no-shows than the plan costs.

When you move, keep the process simple: export guests and future bookings, import them into the new system, run both for a week, then switch your Google and website links. Our booking system guide has the 30-day switching plan.

If you also run a till, a booking system built into the same platform removes double entry. TablePort Reservations is £49 per location per month ex VAT with no per-cover fees, and there is a 30-day free trial with no card required. For a full price comparison, see the booking system cost guide.