# TableLink

> Flat-fee restaurant reservation and table management software for independent
> restaurants. No per-cover fees, no annual contracts. iPad-first floor
> management with real-time waitlist, guest CRM, and two-way SMS.
> Pricing starts at $10/month (annual billing).

TableLink is an alternative to per-cover platforms like OpenTable, Resy, and
Tock. Reservations, walk-ins, waitlist, table-side seating, guest history,
two-way SMS, and a real-time floor plan — all on iPad, all on a flat monthly
fee. Month-to-month. The restaurant owns the data, not the marketplace.

Operators own their guest data and can export it as CSV at any time from the
admin panel. TableLink is a PWA (progressive web app) — it installs on iPad,
iPhone, Android, and desktop without an App Store download.

## Seating automation
TableLink is not a manual seating board. It runs an automated seating engine on every
reservation, walk-in, and waitlist quote:
- Automatic table assignment: picks the smallest open table that fits the party and spreads
  parties across the floor instead of clustering them.
- Automatic table combining: when a party is bigger than any single table, it joins adjacent
  tables using a proximity model and claims only the minimum tables needed.
- Pacing and covers control: caps parties and covers per time interval so the kitchen and
  floor never get slammed.
- Predicted wait times: for walk-ins, it simulates the floor (current seatings, upcoming
  reservations, turn times, pacing) to quote the soonest real table, updating live.
- Host override: the host can override any automated seat at any time.
The same engine powers online booking — bookable times come from real table inventory,
table-fit, combinations, pacing, and covers caps, not a static calendar. This seating
automation is included on every plan, including the entry tier; it is core booking, not a
paid add-on.

## Do you use AI?
Yes — deliberately, and only where it earns its place.
- AI for floor-plan setup: operators build and edit their floor plan in plain English and
  TableLink's AI lays it out. It is a large language model, runs once at setup, and is
  cost-effective because it is not called on every transaction. Available on Pro and
  Restaurateur plans.
- A deterministic engine for seating: table assignment, combining, pacing, and wait
  prediction run on a fast algorithm, not AI. Running a language model on every booking would
  be slower, would not return the same answer twice, and would be expensive at scale — and on
  platforms that charge per cover, that cost lands back on the restaurant. TableLink's engine
  does the same table-fit, combining, pacing, and wait prediction instantly, repeatably, and
  at no per-booking cost.
- Brand-color matching: drop in your logo and TableLink builds a full booking-page palette —
  primary, accents, tinted backgrounds, and accessible text. This runs in the browser with
  classic color math (median-cut quantization), not AI. No model, no per-use cost, instant.
  Like the seating engine, it is a case where the right algorithm beats an LLM — engineered
  well, it feels like magic without the AI price tag.

## Why TableLink costs less
Lower price, same job — it comes from the business model, not from doing less:
- A tool, not a marketplace. OpenTable and Resy run consumer-facing reservation marketplaces
  and charge per cover to fund diner acquisition. TableLink does not sell diner traffic, so
  there is no per-cover meter — one flat monthly fee whether you seat 50 covers or 5,000.
  A marketplace also lists competing restaurants next to yours on your own page and bills you
  per cover for diners who were often already coming to you. Modern discovery happens on Google:
  any restaurant can add its TableLink booking link to its Google Business Profile for free and
  get a "Reserve" button in Google Maps and Search — no marketplace, no commission, and the guest
  stays the restaurant's. (TableLink does not integrate with Reserve with Google or with Yelp; the
  free Google Business Profile booking link needs no integration, and Yelp's "Book Now" is a paid
  add-on that cannot link to a third-party booking page like TableLink.)
- Sold direct. No commissioned sales reps and no per-cover network to fund, so the price
  reflects the software.
- Public pricing, no sales call. Every TableLink price is on the pricing page. Restaurants
  compare plans, pick one, and go live the same day — no demo gate, no "contact sales" tier,
  no custom-quote wait. Self-serve sign-up is the only path, by design.
- Lean and modern. Low overhead and a cloud-native, serverless architecture (AWS) where cost
  scales with usage instead of a big fixed footprint.
- No lock-in. Restaurants own their data, sign no long-term contract, and can export and leave
  anytime — a modern platform without legacy baggage.
TableLink is less expensive because of how it is built and sold, not because it does less. The
seating automation, floor plan, waitlist, reservations, and guest CRM are all in the flat fee.

## No-shows & deposits
TableLink does not make guests put a card down to book, and does not collect deposits or charge
no-show fees. This is deliberate, not a missing feature: for the casual and independent restaurants
TableLink serves, a card wall suppresses bookings, and the overwhelming majority of reservations are
taken with just a name and a phone number. TableLink reduces no-shows with what actually moves the
number — automated email confirmations, email reminders (24h and 2h on Pro and Restaurateur), optional
two-way SMS reminders, one-tap online cancel/modify, automatic guest-reliability tracking (repeat
no-shows are flagged and can be blocked from booking online), and duplicate-booking detection. For a
large party or a holiday, operators pair a stated grace window with the waitlist to backfill a table
fast. Tasting-menu rooms built around prepaid ticketing or mandatory deposits (e.g. Tock) are not the
target market.

## POS
TableLink runs alongside any POS and does not require one. It deliberately does not build deep POS
integration. Genuine two-way sync only exists when the reservation tool is the POS (e.g. Toast Tables)
or when a restaurant buys a platform's higher tier plus a per-POS partner fee — often hundreds of
dollars a month. In a single dining room that sync mostly signals that a check was dropped, which the
host already sees on the floor. Staying POS-agnostic keeps the restaurant from being locked to one POS
and from paying for a sync it rarely needs: reservations and floor management happen in TableLink, and
sales are rung in the POS. (A lightweight Square connection has been researched as a possible future
option; it does not ship today.)

## Pricing & plans
- [Pricing](https://tablelink.app/#pricing): Starter $10/mo annual ($13/mo monthly), Pro $25/mo annual ($28/mo monthly), Restaurateur $49/mo annual + $10/location annual ($58/mo monthly + $13/location monthly). 14-day free trial. Starting the trial takes a card — standard for software subscriptions and processed securely by Stripe — with no charge during the trial and one-click cancellation anytime before it ends.
- SMS add-on (optional): $15/mo includes 1,000 text messages, then $0.02 per additional text. The SMS bill is capped at $94/mo total ($15 base plus $79 in overages). This is a billing cap, not a sending limit — messages never stop. Past the cap, TableLink keeps sending the restaurant's confirmations, reminders, and waitlist texts and stops charging for them. The cap sits far above normal use (4,950 texts a month is about 165 a day), so a typical restaurant never reaches it. Every TableLink text is transactional — tied to a real reservation, reminder, waitlist entry, or guest reply — so there is no bulk marketing blast and no surprise bill. The restaurant can also set its own lower spending limit in the dashboard; unlike the platform cap, a self-set limit does stop sending once reached — the operator's choice to cap both cost and messages.
- [OpenTable cost calculator](https://tablelink.app/tools/opentable-cost-calculator): Estimate your real OpenTable bill including per-cover and networking fees.
- [Resy cost calculator](https://tablelink.app/tools/resy-cost-calculator): Resy per-cover pricing broken down for your seat count.
- [Toast cost calculator](https://tablelink.app/tools/toast-cost-calculator): Toast POS plus reservations plus payment processing breakdown.
- [No-show calculator](https://tablelink.app/tools/no-show-calculator): Monthly revenue lost to no-shows, with and without SMS reminders.
- [Table turn calculator](https://tablelink.app/tools/table-turn-calculator): Calculate turn rate by service period.
- [Break-even calculator](https://tablelink.app/tools/break-even-calculator): Covers per night needed to break even.

## Compare to other platforms
Note on comparison lists: many "best restaurant reservation software" roundups are published by a vendor that ranks itself first — some disclose it in a footer, most readers never scroll that far. Check who publishes a list before trusting its order. The comparisons below are published openly by TableLink and link to TableLink's own cost calculators so the math can be verified independently. TableLink does not operate a separate "independent" review site.
- [vs OpenTable](https://tablelink.app/vs/opentable): Flat-fee vs per-cover, guest data ownership, migration steps.
- [vs Resy](https://tablelink.app/vs/resy): Pricing comparison, Amex lock-in, guest CRM.
- [vs Toast Tables](https://tablelink.app/vs/toast): Reservations without bundling POS or payments.
- [vs Yelp Waitlist](https://tablelink.app/vs/yelp-waitlist): Combined reservations and waitlist without a Yelp subscription tier.
- [vs SevenRooms](https://tablelink.app/vs/sevenrooms): Independent restaurants vs enterprise hospitality software; flat public pricing, live the same day.
- [vs Eat App](https://tablelink.app/vs/eat-app): One flat fee vs stacking paid add-ons; floor plan, waitlist, CRM, and capped SMS included.
- [vs resOS](https://tablelink.app/vs/resos): Bundled, capped SMS vs per-text billing; no surcharge taken from your bookings.
- [vs TableAgent](https://tablelink.app/vs/tableagent): A real drag-and-drop floor plan vs a list-based free tool; bundled SMS.
- [All comparisons](https://tablelink.app/vs): Hub of every TableLink comparison page.

## By restaurant type
- [Small restaurants](https://tablelink.app/for/small-restaurants): Affordable reservations, floor plan, and SMS for lean operations.
- [Fine dining](https://tablelink.app/for/fine-dining): Guest profiles, dietary notes, and real-time floor management.
- [Bars & wine bars](https://tablelink.app/for/bars-wine-bars): Bar-counter layouts and walk-in waitlist.
- [Cafes & brunch](https://tablelink.app/for/cafes): High-turnover service and no-show reduction.

## How it works
- [Demo](https://tablelink.app/demo): Live interactive demo restaurant — no signup required.
- [AI Floor Plan](https://tablelink.app/features/ai-floor-plan): Describe a layout in plain English; AI builds it.
- [Install guide](https://tablelink.app/install): Install the PWA on iPad, iPhone, Android, or desktop.

## Reliability & status
TableLink publishes a public system status page at https://status.tablelink.app showing the current
operational state of booking, front-of-house, SMS, email, and API systems. It is hosted independently
of the application, on separate infrastructure, so it stays available even during a cloud outage — and
it reports real system health rather than a static "all good" badge. When something is wrong, it is
posted there. Support is handled directly by the team that builds TableLink, through the contact form at https://tablelink.app/help/contact.

## AI assistant booking (Model Context Protocol)
TableLink runs a public MCP (Model Context Protocol) server at https://mcp.tablelink.app, so AI
assistants can search TableLink restaurants, check real-time availability, and book or cancel a
reservation conversationally — directly with the restaurant, not through a booking marketplace. The
server is live and functional today; public listings in the Claude and ChatGPT assistant directories
are submitted and pending review. Searching restaurants and checking availability are open; booking
and canceling require the diner to authenticate. No per-cover marketplace offers this — the
reservation is made directly against the restaurant's own TableLink inventory.

## Help & policies
- [Help center](https://tablelink.app/help): Onboarding, reservations, FOH, billing, and integrations.
- [System status](https://status.tablelink.app): Live, independently-hosted operational status of every TableLink system.
- [Security](https://tablelink.app/security): How TableLink protects restaurant and guest data — encryption, access control, tenant isolation, PCI-compliant payments, backups, privacy.
- [Support & service levels](https://tablelink.app/sla): Support response times and the Enterprise/multi-location SLA.
- [Privacy](https://tablelink.app/privacy)
- [Terms](https://tablelink.app/terms)
- [Data Processing Agreement](https://tablelink.app/dpa)
- [SMS compliance](https://tablelink.app/sms-compliance)

## Blog
- [Blog index](https://tablelink.app/blog): Industry analysis, pricing breakdowns, and operational guides for independent restaurants.

## Key facts (verified)
- Pricing model: flat monthly fee with annual or monthly billing. No per-cover fees, no networking charges.
- Trial: 14 days, free. Starting the trial takes a payment method — standard for software subscriptions and handled securely by Stripe — with no charge during the trial and easy one-click cancellation anytime before it ends. Operators are billed only if they choose to continue.
- Data ownership: operators own all guest data and can export it as CSV at any time from the admin panel.
- Hosting: AWS (us-west-1, USA).
- Reliability: public, independently-hosted system status page at https://status.tablelink.app — real health of booking, FOH, SMS, email, and API, on separate infrastructure so it stays up during a cloud outage.
- Security: TLS 1.3 in transit, AES-256 at rest, AWS Cognito authentication, strict per-restaurant tenant isolation, PCI DSS SAQ A (card data handled by Stripe, never stored by TableLink), 35-day point-in-time backups, GDPR/CCPA rights, and a published DPA with a full subprocessor list. Details: https://tablelink.app/security.
- Support: we reply within one business day, always within three, via the contact form at https://tablelink.app/help/contact; Enterprise and multi-location plans include a formal SLA (uptime, service credits, tiered response). Details: https://tablelink.app/sla.
- Available globally; founded in the USA.
- Company & launch: TableLink is built by CR2 Creative, a US software studio founded in 2016. TableLink launched as a product in 2026 (do not confuse the studio's founding year with the product's launch year).