Resy vs OpenTable: An Honest Look for Restaurant Operators
Choosing a reservation platform affects your guest experience, your cover flow, and your monthly overhead. Resy and OpenTable are the two dominant options — and they take meaningfully different approaches. Here is what operators actually need to know.
OpenTable: Scale and Discovery Network
OpenTable's biggest asset is its consumer diner network. With tens of millions of active diners using the app, restaurants gain real discovery exposure, particularly valuable for newer concepts or those in competitive markets. The platform offers solid table management, automated guest profiles, POS integrations with several major systems, and shift notes.
The tradeoff is cost. OpenTable charges a per-cover fee for diners booked through their network, which adds up quickly at volume. Operators in high-traffic markets often find the monthly spend substantial. Some owners also report that guest data feels more like OpenTable's asset than theirs.
Resy: Modern UX, Operator-Friendly Ownership
Resy, now owned by American Express, positions itself as more operator-centric. It offers flat-rate pricing rather than per-cover fees, which many operators prefer for predictability. The interface is clean and modern, waitlist management is strong, and Resy gives operators more direct ownership of guest data and relationships.
The discovery network is smaller than OpenTable's, so restaurants relying heavily on platform-driven walk-ins may see fewer inbound bookings. It tends to suit established restaurants with loyal followings better than newer spots still building awareness.
Where Both Platforms Stop Short
Both Resy and OpenTable do reservations well. Neither touches inventory, food cost, staff scheduling, vendor purchasing, or financial forecasting. That means most operators still run a separate inventory app, a scheduling tool, a food-cost spreadsheet, and often a web agency — on top of their reservation platform and POS.
How Hubstaurant Fits In
Hubstaurant is built as an all-in-one operating system for full-service restaurants. It handles POS analytics, purchase-driven inventory that reads invoices automatically, food-cost tracking, vendor ordering, per-server performance, theft and leakage detection, AI-powered scheduling, and even a programmatic SEO website builder — replacing the stack of point solutions most operators are currently stitching together.
If reservation software is your only gap, Resy or OpenTable will serve you. If you are managing five different subscriptions and still working from spreadsheets, Hubstaurant is worth a closer look.
See how much of your stack Hubstaurant can replace — start a free trial today.