Restaurant Booking Software Compared: Six Options for Mountain Restaurants (2026)
Zenchef, TheFork, easyTable, ResDiary, OpenTable and AlpineTable compared on price, commission, contracts, seasonal billing and no-show tools. Facts checked on 27 October 2026.
Choosing booking software is mostly a question of money and timing: what you pay each month, what you pay per guest, how long you are tied in, and what happens to the bill while you are closed between seasons.
This guide compares six options a restaurant in the Alps is likely to be offered. Every competitor fact comes from the company’s own website, pricing page, help centre or terms, as published on 27 October 2026. Where a company doesn’t publish something, I say so.
I build AlpineTable, so read the last section with that in mind. I have tried to describe the others the way their own sites do.
Four questions to ask every supplier
Feature lists look alike. These four answers are where the real differences show up.
- Subscription or commission? A fixed monthly price, a fee per guest, or both.
- How long is the contract, and what notice do you need to give?
- What do you pay while you are closed? Is there a seasonal plan or a pause?
- What do no-show tools cost? Check text messages, card guarantees and payment fees separately.
Zenchef (now including Guestonline and Formitable)
Zenchef is a Paris-based restaurant suite. Guestonline’s website now reads “Guestonline devient Zenchef”, and Zenchef says Formitable, Resengo and Zenchef are now the same platform, so restaurants that knew those names are now looking at Zenchef.
- Price: €129, €169 or €249 per month (Reserve, Manage, Grow), published on its French pricing page without saying whether VAT is included. A year costs the same as twelve months.
- Commission: €0 per cover, including bookings from the Zenchef app.
- Extras: text messages are charged per SMS; the card imprint is a paid option on every plan; Instagram and Facebook booking costs €19 a month on Reserve.
- Contract: its FAQ mentions both a one-year minimum and a monthly plan you can cancel at any time.
- Seasons: you can block closure periods for bookings. No pause or seasonal plan is published.
- Strengths: Reserve with Google on every plan, a floor plan on every plan, and POS integrations including Lightspeed, Zelty and L’Addition.
TheFork (TheFork Manager)
TheFork combines booking software, TheFork Manager, with the TheFork app and website for diners. American Express announced in June 2026 that it had agreed to buy TheFork from Tripadvisor; as of 27 October 2026 I found no announcement that the sale had completed.
- Price: three plans (Visibility, Performance, Enterprise). Subscription prices are not published; they are set in each restaurant’s order form. The setup fee in France is €400.
- Commission: a percentage of the average bill for each guest who books through TheFork, Tripadvisor or partner sites. Bookings from your own website, Instagram and Facebook carry no commission.
- No-show tools: card imprint, prepayment, text reminders, the waitlist and the floor plan come with Performance and Enterprise, not Visibility.
- Contract: the minimum term is set in the order form and renews automatically, with 30 days’ notice by registered letter. Leaving before the minimum term makes the remaining fees due.
- Seasons: you can close services for a date range; the terms have no pause clause.
- Strengths: the widest diner reach here, with the TheFork app, Tripadvisor and the MICHELIN Guide.
easyTable (formerly EasyTableBooking)
easyTable is a Danish company with one plan that includes every feature.
- Price: €67 per month billed monthly, or €60 per month on a one-year term, excluding VAT.
- Commission and setup: no fee per booking and no setup fee. The first month is free.
- Contract: no binding contract; you can cancel to the end of the current period. No pause.
- Extras: text messages cost €0.08 each to French, Swiss, Austrian, Italian and German numbers, from a prepaid balance. Guest payments run through Stripe with a 1.6% easyTable fee.
- Strengths: simple, predictable pricing, with Reserve with Google, Instagram and Facebook.
ResDiary
ResDiary has been part of The Access Group since 2023 and is strongest in the UK and Ireland. It has no French or German website.
- Price: €109, €139, €209 or €315 per month excluding VAT, depending on how many bookings you take each month. Going over your limit moves you up a tier. Setup costs €109.
- Commission: none, on any channel.
- Extras: text messages are a €10 monthly add-on plus credits on a separate account; POS and CRM add-ons cost €10 a month each.
- Contract: the term is set in your order. The Access Group’s standard terms ask for 90 days’ notice.
- Strengths: no commission anywhere, and many integrations for UK and Irish groups.
OpenTable
OpenTable is part of Booking Holdings. In Europe it sells two plans, Core and Pro.
- Price: in Germany, €99 or €199 per month. In France and the UK, by quote.
- Commission: €1.50 per seated diner who books through the OpenTable network. Bookings from your own website cost nothing extra.
- Contract: one year as standard, renewing automatically, with 30 days’ notice.
- Strengths: an international diner network that English-speaking visitors already use.
AlpineTable
AlpineTable is built for restaurants that open for a winter season, a summer season, or both. It is the one I make, for the restaurants in the mountain town where I live.
- Price: €39, €89 or €159 per active month excluding VAT (Core, Service, Growth), or a seasonal pass, such as a winter pass from €179 for five months.
- Commission: €0 per cover.
- Seasons: when you close, Pause Mode keeps your booking page and guest book ready for €5 a month on Core, and is included on Service and up. Guests can book next season while you are paused.
- No-show tools: card guarantees from the Service plan, paid into your own Stripe account with no commission from us, and a text reminder the day before.
- Mountain details: bookings can carry gear, lift access and terrace information.
- Limits: no POS integrations yet, and the resort directory on alpinetable.com reaches fewer diners than a national marketplace.
Which one fits?
A short version, based only on the facts above.
- Open most of the year and want POS integrations: Zenchef.
- Need as many new diners as possible, and accept a commission: TheFork, or OpenTable for international visitors.
- Want one simple monthly price: easyTable.
- A UK or Irish group: ResDiary.
- A seasonal mountain restaurant that only wants to pay while open: AlpineTable.
Before you sign
Ask every supplier for a written quote that covers a full year, including the months you are closed. Ask what text messages and card guarantees cost at your volume, and how much notice you need to give to leave.
For a side-by-side table of two of these, see Zenchef vs TheFork vs AlpineTable on this site. To put a number on empty tables, try the free no-show cost calculator.