TheFork alternative · UK · checked 16 October 2026
A TheFork alternative for UK restaurants whose diners come through their own door
On TheFork, what a booking costs depends on where the diner found you. Its own pricing puts a fee on guests from the marketplace and none on guests from your website or your social pages. That line is the whole comparison.
The early-access list hears the opening day first.
Two products under one name
TheFork, for diners
An app and a marketplace where people look for a restaurant and book it, with a loyalty-points scheme for diners. Bookings also reach restaurants through Tripadvisor and partner channels.
TheFork Manager, for the restaurant
The software behind the bookings: reservations, a floor plan and table management, operations, marketing and guest data. It syncs with tills and CRM data; its site does not describe a till of its own.
The business is run by LaFourchette SAS and belongs to Tripadvisor. On 15 June 2026 Tripadvisor announced a put option agreement to sell TheFork to American Express, expected to close before the end of 2026, subject to approvals.
Which door did they come in by?
Take an ordinary week and sort every booking by the way it arrived. TheFork's pricing page sorts them the same way.
- Booked through TheFork's app or site, through Tripadvisor or a partner: a fee per guest on TheFork Manager. Slotora cannot bring you these guests at all.
- Booked on your own website, or from your Instagram or Facebook: no fee on TheFork. On Slotora, the same guests use your booking page, with no fee either.
- Rang, or walked in: entered by your team on either system. On Slotora the host takes the call at the stand with the real free times, and seats a walk-in with one tap.
If the first group is a large part of your week, the marketplace is earning its fee and TheFork is doing a job Slotora does not do. If it is a small part, you are comparing two booking systems, and the table below is the comparison.
TheFork Manager and Slotora, side by side
| TheFork | Slotora for restaurants | |
|---|---|---|
| Diners' marketplace | Yes: TheFork's app and site, plus Tripadvisor and partner channels.theforkmanager.com pricing; App Store | None. Your own booking page only. |
| Cost of a booking | A fee per guest on bookings through TheFork, Tripadvisor and partners. No fee on bookings from your website, Instagram or Facebook.theforkmanager.com pricing (EN, FR, DE) | No fee per guest and no commission, whatever the source. |
| Plans | Subscription tiers, each priced on request; no plan prices are published.theforkmanager.com pricing | A published UK price: £99 a month per location for the first 100 paying restaurants, then £149, plus VAT where applicable, after a 3-day trial. |
| No-show protection | Card guarantees, prepayments and confirmations; on its French and German pages these are not in the lowest tier.theforkmanager.com pricing (EN, FR, DE) | No-shows and late cancellations recorded on each guest's card and shown when they book again. Card guarantees, deposits and no-show fees by your rules, through your own Stripe account once it is connected. |
| Floor and waiting list | A floor plan and table management; a waiting list among the general features.theforkmanager.com | Rooms drawn to scale, named table combinations for large parties, and a waiting list at the door that guests can also join from their phone by scanning a QR code. |
| Groups of restaurants | Group and multi-venue features, and tailored e-mail campaigns, in its top Enterprise tier.theforkmanager.com pricing | Several restaurants run as a group: one menu sent to every site, one owner login that switches between them, and a report for the group; each restaurant keeps its own account. No campaigns. |
Sources for the TheFork column
- theforkmanager.com (EN), read 16 October 2026
- theforkmanager.com — pricing (EN), read 16 October 2026
- theforkmanager.com (DE), read 16 October 2026
- theforkmanager.com — Angebote (DE), read 16 October 2026
- theforkmanager.com (FR), read 16 October 2026
- theforkmanager.com — prix (FR), read 16 October 2026
- App Store — TheFork (UK), read 16 October 2026
- Tripadvisor press release, 2026-06-15
- Travel Tomorrow, 2026-06-17
When TheFork is the better fit
- Marketplace diners, including the ones collecting its loyalty points, are a large share of your covers.
- You want bookings from Tripadvisor to land in your book.
- You want tailored e-mail campaigns sent from your booking system.
What Slotora gives the restaurant instead
A narrower tool, aimed at the people who already know your name.
- A booking page at your own address, where the guest picks the party size, day, room and a free time, and can cancel, change the party size or move to another time from a link.
- A guest card that remembers visits, no-shows and late cancellations, and puts them in front of whoever answers the phone.
- A briefing before service: large parties, first visits, the occasions guests mentioned, the last shift's note.
- One price for the location, with no line on the bill that grows with the number of guests.
What Slotora leaves out
- No marketplace, no Tripadvisor, no bookings from Instagram or Facebook arriving by themselves: guests come to your page.
- No loyalty points, campaigns or till connection.
TheFork questions, answered
Can I bring my TheFork Manager bookings across?
Through a file, not a connection: pick TheFork Manager on Slotora's import screen, and it shows TheFork Manager's own export steps; you check how the file's columns are matched and see a preview before anything is saved. No marketing consent is carried across from a TheFork Manager file.
Does the sale to American Express change anything for my restaurant?
We do not know, and this page will not guess. What is public is that Tripadvisor announced the agreement on 15 June 2026 and expects it to close before the end of 2026, subject to approvals. TheFork's own pages are the place to watch for changes to its terms.
Is this comparison valid in Ireland?
No. We found no evidence that TheFork sells to restaurants in Ireland, so this page is for the UK. The buyer's guide lists what we could show selling in Ireland.
Could Slotora show my restaurant to new diners the way TheFork does?
No. It has no marketplace and no diners' app of its own. It is the book your own guests use, and it charges the same whether one guest books or a thousand.