restaurant reservation software
Resy vs Tock
Resy and Tock both book high-demand independent dining rooms, but they were built to solve the reservation problem from opposite ends. Resy is a classic reservation and table-management platform (waitlist, notify, and a guest CRM) that fills seats and runs the floor, then leans on reminders and optional card holds to keep guests honest. Tock started from the no-show itself and rebuilt booking around prepayment: deposits, tickets, and prepaid tasting-menu seats a guest has already paid for before they walk in.
That difference is the whole decision. No-shows are not a rounding error (30% of Americans no-showed in the past year), and on a 3-5% net margin an empty booked table is revenue you never get back. Resy fights the No-show with communication and optional card holds; Tock makes it structurally hard by taking the money up front. One fits a room that turns tables all night, the other a room that sells a fixed experience. One thing that is no longer a difference: both now sit under American Express, which acquired Tock in 2024, so ownership is not the line between them.
| Resy | Tock | |
|---|---|---|
| No-show defense | ResyPrevention by communication: automated confirmations and reminders, waitlist and notify to backfill a cancellation, and optional credit-card holds on the highest-demand slots. Effective, but the seat is only promised until the guest actually arrives. | TockPrevention by prepayment: deposits, full prepaid tickets, and firm cancellation windows mean the guest has money on the line (or already spent) before service, which structurally removes most of the flake risk rather than just discouraging it. |
| Booking model it fits | ResyA la carte reservations for rooms that seat, turn, and rebook tables through the night. Standard dining, bars, and neighborhood restaurants where the value is the table itself, not a fixed menu. | TockPrepaid and ticketed experiences: tasting menus, chef's counters, wine dinners, pop-ups, and events where the seat is a set price and the kitchen is buying ingredients against a known cover count. |
| Guest data and network | ResyA guest CRM with visit history, tags, and notes, plus the American Express-backed diner network that helps a sought-after room get discovered and rebooked by people already inside that ecosystem. | TockCaptures the booking, the prepayment, and event attendance, which is unusually rich intent data, though its audience skews toward experience-seekers hunting a specific event rather than everyday walk-up reservations. |
| Reminders and messaging | ResyAutomated reservation reminders and waitlist notify texts, which land because ~50% prefer restaurant texts and 81% have opted in to business texts. The message is the deterrent, so its job is to make the guest remember and cancel early if plans change. | TockAutomated reminders wired into the prepay and deposit workflow, so the confirmation, the payment, and the cancellation policy all travel together in one flow and the reminder is backed by real money, not just goodwill. |
| Pricing model | ResyFlat monthly SaaS tiers with no per-cover fee, positioned deliberately against OpenTable's cover-based model, so a busy room is not taxed on every seat it fills. | TockFlat monthly subscription plus optional payment processing on the deposits and tickets it collects, so your cost scales with how much prepayment you take rather than raw cover count. |
| Where it can cost you | ResyThe discovery network is a genuine draw, but a card hold is a softer deterrent than money already paid, so a determined flake can still leave you with an empty, unrecoverable seat on a full night. | TockPrepayment is the strongest no-show defense there is, but it adds friction at the moment of booking and only works where guests accept paying ahead. Force it on a casual room and you quietly suppress bookings. |
The verdict
Which one, and the catch either way.
Bottom line
Questions
What buyers ask.
Is Tock better than Resy at stopping no-shows?
Do Resy and Tock charge per cover like OpenTable?
Which should a tasting-menu restaurant choose?
References
Every figure on this page drills down.
4 sourced statistics cited here across 4 publications. Each number links to the research hub, and each entry there links out to its primary source.
- 01Restaurant Dive, OpenTable launches initiative to combat diner no-shows (2024)
- 02Restaurant365, What Is the Average Profit Margin for a Restaurant? (2024)
- 03SevenRooms, Improving Your Restaurant Waitlist Management with a Virtual Waitlist (2024)
- 04EZ Texting, 2024 SMS Marketing Consumer Behavior Report (2024)
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