Guide · choosing a system
Free restaurant booking systems: what “free” really costs
A booking system costs money to run: servers, support, the people who build it. When a restaurant pays nothing, somebody else is paying, and usually it is the restaurant after all, a little at a time, in ways the sign-up page does not lead with. Here are the five places to look before you choose.
Published · A buyer's checklist, not legal advice.
Cover fees and commission
The first place to look is a charge per guest. A fee per cover, or a commission per booking, charged on some or all of the bookings that arrive, scales with your success: the fuller your Saturday, the bigger the bill. Where it applies only to bookings from the supplier's own app or website, it sounds fair until you notice that your regulars have started booking there because it was the first result they saw.
Ask three questions. Which bookings carry a fee: all of them, or only those from the supplier's own channels? Is the fee per booking or per guest seated? And can you see, month by month, which channel each booking came from, so you can check the invoice against your own diary?
Who owns the guest list
Your guest list is the most valuable thing a booking system holds, and the word "free" tells you nothing about who controls it. Under UK GDPR the controller is whoever decides why and how personal data is used; a processor acts only on the controller's instructions. A booking supplier acting as your processor has to delete or return the data at the end of the service, at your choice. A supplier that treats the diners as its own customers, with its own account and its own marketing, is a controller of its own copy.
Before you sign, ask to see an export: the whole guest list, with visit history and marketing consent, as a file you can open. If it is only available on request, or only for a fee, that is the price of leaving.
In Slotora the guest book is yours. The owner or a manager exports it as a CSV whenever they like; the mailing export holds only the guests who said yes to marketing; one guest's data can be downloaded or erased from their card; and before an account is deleted the page offers the guest book as a CSV first.
Text messages and add-ons
Confirmations and reminders are where a free plan often turns into a paid one. Text messages cost the supplier money for every message sent, so check whether they are included, sold in bundles or charged one by one. Check the same for a second user, a second room, deposits, a floor plan and the reports.
List what you actually use on a normal week and price the free plan with those switched on. Slotora's guest confirmations and reminders are e-mails, and the floor plan, the waiting list, the reports and every member of staff are inside the one monthly price.
Booking caps and the busy month
Check whether a free plan counts bookings or covers and stops, or starts charging, above a monthly number. A cap that is generous in February can be tight in December, which is exactly when a change of system hurts most. Ask for the number, what happens when you reach it, and whether a booking already taken can be lost when you do.
- 1
Count last December
Take your busiest month, add a quarter for growth, and compare that with the cap.
- 2
Count the people, not only the bookings
A system that charges per user prices the host, the manager, the owner and the Saturday extra separately.
- 3
Count the way out
Add the cost of exporting your list and moving your future bookings, in hours if not in money.
A fixed monthly price instead
Slotora has no free plan, and says so. It has one price per location, for every booking, cover, table, member of staff and device: £149 a month in the UK, £99 for the first 100 paying UK restaurants on the Founding price, held for 12 months, and €179 a month in Ireland. There is no commission per booking or per cover, and when a guest pays a deposit, the money goes to your own Stripe account. It is free for 3 days when it opens, then month to month.
Whichever way you lean, put the two side by side for a whole year rather than a month. Take last year's covers, split them by where the bookings came from, and apply each supplier's fees, message bundles and caps to that year as it really was, December included. Add the hours your team spends on the system and the cost of leaving it. A free plan that stays cheaper after that sum is a good choice, and you will know why; one that only looked cheaper in the first month is the one this guide is written to catch.
- One price whatever December brings: the invoice is the same in a quiet month and a full one.
- Your guest list, exportable by you at any time, with marketing consent kept apart.
- The reports show where each online booking came from, by the word in the link the guest used.
Free booking systems: short answers
Is there a free restaurant booking system with no catch?
Every system is paid for somehow. Look for the fee per cover or booking, the price of text messages, caps on bookings or users, and how you get your guest list out.
Who owns the guest data in a booking system?
You do, as controller, when the supplier only processes it for you; at the end of the service it must delete or return the data at your choice. Check the contract.
Does Slotora have a free plan?
No. It has one monthly price per location with no commission, and a free trial when it opens.
Sources for the data protection points (checked 24 October 2026)
Pricing for the UK and Ireland · The guest book and GDPR requests · Your own online booking page