Favouritetable vs OpenTable: a sourced comparison for UK restaurants (2026)

Marketplace or software? The decision underneath the decision

OpenTable and Favouritetable are not really the same category of product, and pretending otherwise does you no favours. OpenTable is a global consumer reservation marketplace with restaurant-facing software attached; it has been part of Booking Holdings since 2014, when it was acquired for approximately $2.6 billion^[5]. Favouritetable is restaurant software: a booking diary, table plan, payments engine and guest marketing suite that lives on your own website and in your own brand.

That difference drives everything else. A marketplace's core asset is diner demand, and its commercial model is built around routing that demand. Software's core asset is your operation, and its commercial model is a subscription. If you are opening in an unfamiliar city with no mailing list, marketplace reach has real value. If you already have footfall, a following and returning regulars, you are mostly paying a marketplace to introduce you to people who already know your name.

Favouritetable's position is deliberately simple: on its subscription plans there is no booking commission and no per-cover fee on bookings that come through your own channels, so filling a table on a Tuesday does not get more expensive as you get better at filling tables. The prices are published — FT Lite at £55 per month, FT Pro at £103 and FT Ultimo at £159, each billed annually in advance and quoted excluding VAT; FT Online Ordering is £79 per month on the same billing basis.

We are not going to publish OpenTable's prices or fee amounts, because we could not verify current figures from OpenTable's own pages during our research. You will find numbers quoted on third-party blogs; treat them with suspicion and ask OpenTable for a written quote covering subscription, per-cover charges on both marketplace and your own channels, hardware, setup and minimum term.

What each plan includes

OpenTable's UK restaurant offering is presented as two plans. Core is oriented around getting the operational basics right, and OpenTable's own page describes capabilities such as automated table assignments and customisable floor plans ^[1].Pro is positioned around the guest relationship, with richer guest insight and communication tools than Core^[2][3].Waitlist appears as its own product page rather than a feature listed inside every plan^[4] .

Favouritetable's gating is published in a grid you can read before you talk to anyone. FT Lite suits smaller cafés, coffee shops, bars and small restaurants. FT Pro is aimed at medium single-site pubs and restaurants and is where multi-site capability begins. EPOS integration is included at FT Ultimo. FT Ultimo is for larger single sites or small groups and adds the waiting list, booking enquiries, menu pre-ordering, email, SMS and WhatsApp marketing, and CRM. SMS usage is charged separately.

The practical consequence for an operator is predictability. OpenTable's public pages do not answer every commercial question that determines the final bill, including current UK prices and minimum terms. Favouritetable publishes package prices and feature gating, while either provider should confirm the full contract and renewal terms in writing before signature.

• OpenTable Core: reservation and table management, including automated table assignments and customisable floor plans^[1].
• OpenTable Pro: adds deeper guest data and communication and marketing tooling ^[2][3].
• OpenTable Waitlist: published as its own product^[4].
• Favouritetable: diary, floor plan, capacity optimiser, deposits and no-show charges across plans; multi-site from FT Pro; EPOS integration, waiting list, enquiries, pre-ordering, CRM and email/SMS/WhatsApp marketing from FT Ultimo.

Guest data: the asset you should never rent

The most valuable thing your booking system holds is not the reservation — it is the record of who came, what they ate, what they spent and whether they came back. Favouritetable's position is stated on its own site: your guest data belongs to you. You can export it, you can import an existing database when you join (a supplementary charge may apply depending on complexity), and on multi-site accounts you can segment a shared guest database across venues.

OpenTable's handling of restaurant guest data has attracted trade-press attention over the years, including reporting on historical restrictions around diner data and, more recently, on a 2026 client-agreement change concerning OpenTable's status as a restaurant's primary table-management system^[6]. We are deliberately not paraphrasing that reporting into a slogan; read the source, then ask OpenTable directly what your current agreement says about data export, exclusivity and primacy.

The test to apply to any vendor is simple. Ask: can I export my full guest list, including contact details and visit history, at any time and without a fee? Can I market to those guests directly? And if I leave, what do I keep? Get all three answers in writing before you sign.

Integrations and who answers when service is falling over

OpenTable publishes documented integrations with major POS platforms including Square POS and Toast^[7][8], and operates a restaurant support portal and knowledge base ^[9]. As a global platform inside Booking Holdings, its integration surface and marketplace reach are broader than any UK independent vendor's — that is a legitimate strength if your stack or your group demands it.

Favouritetable's integrations are chosen for UK operators: TISSL and Lightspeed for EPOS, Stripe for payments, Mailchimp for email, Reserve with Google for search-led bookings, SquareMeal and First Table for incremental demand, Really Social and Facebook for social, Deliverect for ordering integration, and Rezcontrol. Partners can build against Favouritetable's API or have Favouritetable integrate with theirs, so a bespoke request is a conversation, not a ticket into a void.

On support, Favouritetable publishes UK-based telephone, email, in-app chat and social support, documentation, online and on-site training and a 24/7 free support line, with phone support included on FT Pro and FT Ultimo. OpenTable publishes a support portal and knowledge base; we could not verify UK-specific support hours or a direct UK phone line from its own pages^[9].If you have ever tried to fix a double-booked Saturday through a web form, you already know why this row matters more than any feature tick.

Favouritetable's service and product have also been recognised by the industry: Booking, Ordering & Payment Solution of the Year at The Caterer Supplier Awards 2026, Restaurant Booking Platform of the Year in the Corporate LiveWire Prestige Awards 2024/25, and Best Restaurant Listing & Reservation Systems Provider at the UK Enterprise Awards 2022. Ask both vendors for references at your size and service style as well.

Moving from OpenTable to Favouritetable

Switching well is mostly about sequencing. Before you give notice, get your current agreement in front of you and confirm the minimum term, renewal date and notice period, plus anything it says about being the primary or exclusive reservation system on your site. Then export your guest data while your account is still live — not after you have cancelled.

Favouritetable supports importing an existing guest database, with a possible supplementary charge depending on how complex the data is, and onboarding is included on the published plans. Because the booking widget embeds on your own website, going live is a swap of a booking button rather than a website rebuild, and it can be staged between service periods.

A realistic plan: demo Favouritetable against your own service pattern and covers, get total year-one costs in writing from both vendors, confirm your notice period, export guest data, load and check it, then switch the widget on a quiet day with the UK team on the phone. Venues that have made this move keep the marketplace listings that genuinely earn their keep and stop paying for the diners who were always going to come to them.