Best Restaurant Reservation Alert Services in 2026
Updated August 16, 2026 · 9 services compared · Written by the ResTracker team
Every fully booked restaurant has cancellations. The tables come back at odd hours, usually in the 24 to 72 hours before a seating, and they are gone in seconds. A reservation alert service watches for those openings so you do not have to. Below are the nine services worth knowing about, what each one costs, and the single question that should decide which one you pick: when a table opens, do you want an email about it, or do you want it booked?
Short answer
- Want the table booked for you: ResTracker, $9.99 to $19.99 per month, 30-day free trial, no fee per booking. Auto-books on Resy.
- Want the widest platform coverage: ReservationFinder, $10 to $20 per month, 7-day trial. Covers Tock and SevenRooms too, but you book the table yourself.
- Want to spend nothing: Resy Notify and OpenTable Notify Me. Free, one restaurant and date each, and the alert goes to the whole waitlist at once.
- Booking two or three tables a year in NYC: AutoRes or TablePass, which charge roughly $18 to $27 per successful booking instead of a subscription.
How this comparison was put together
ResTracker publishes this guide and ResTracker is one of the nine services listed, so read it with that in mind. Every price, trial length and feature below was taken from each service's own public pages on August 16, 2026. Where a service has changed its pricing recently, we say so instead of quoting a number that may already be stale. We do not take affiliate commissions from any service on this page.
Reservation alert services compared
| Service | Price | Free trial | Platforms | Books for you | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ResTrackerOurs | $9.99 or $19.99/mo | 30 days, no card | Resy, OpenTable | Yes | Anyone who wants the table booked automatically without per-booking fees |
| ReservationFinder | $10 or $20/mo | 7 days | Resy, OpenTable, Tock, SevenRooms | No | Diners who want the widest platform coverage and are happy to book by hand |
| Resy Notify | Free | Not applicable | Resy | No | A free baseline you should switch on regardless of what else you use |
| OpenTable Notify Me | Free | Not applicable | OpenTable | No | A free baseline for OpenTable restaurants |
| TableSwap | $15/mo (see note) | None advertised | Resy, OpenTable, SevenRooms | Partial | Diners who want a conversational assistant and international coverage |
| TableTurn.nyc | ~$50/mo | None advertised | Resy | Yes | NYC diners chasing Resy tables who do not mind the price |
| TablePass | $18/booking or $29+/mo | None advertised | Resy, OpenTable | Yes | Occasional NYC diners who would rather pay per table than subscribe |
| AutoRes | $21.99–$26.99/booking | Not applicable | Resy, OpenTable, SevenRooms | Yes | One-off special occasions at a restaurant on their list |
| Dorsia | $175–$25,000/yr | Not applicable | Direct restaurant partnerships | No | Diners who will commit to a minimum spend for guaranteed access |
Prices checked August 16, 2026. Services change pricing without notice, so confirm before you subscribe.
The three levels of reservation help
Almost every service on this page falls into one of three categories, and picking the right category matters far more than picking the right brand inside it.
Free built-in alerts
Resy Notify and OpenTable Notify Me. Free, single-platform, and the alert reaches the entire waitlist at the same instant. Worth switching on for every restaurant you care about, because it costs nothing and occasionally works.
Continuous monitoring services
ReservationFinder, TableSwap and the alerting half of this market. They check far more often than you could, cover several platforms, and email or text you a booking link. You are still the one who has to book, which means the alert only helps if you are near your phone.
Services that book the table
ResTracker, TableTurn, TablePass and AutoRes. Software claims the table the moment it appears, which is the only approach that reliably beats other diners at restaurants where tables vanish in seconds. The difference between these four is what it costs: a flat subscription, or a fee for every table booked.
Every service, one by one
ResTracker
$9.99 or $19.99/mo- Free trial
- 30 days, no card
- Books for you
- Yes
- Platforms
- Resy, OpenTable
- Coverage
- Any Resy or OpenTable restaurant, any city
ResTracker watches Resy and OpenTable around the clock for the restaurants, dates, times and party size you choose. When a matching slot appears it emails you immediately, and for Resy restaurants it can complete the booking for you before you have even opened the email. It is the only service in this comparison that combines a 30-day free trial, flat monthly pricing with no booking fees, and automatic booking.
Pricing: Regular is $9.99 per month and tracks 5 reservations at a time. Pro is $19.99 per month, tracks unlimited reservations, adds multiple dates per restaurant and Priority Release monitoring for restaurants that drop tables at a fixed time each day. There are no per-booking fees on either plan.
Booking: Auto-books on Resy, including during the free trial. OpenTable is alert-only.
Strengths
- 30-day free trial, the longest of any service here, and no credit card required to start
- Automatic booking on Resy is included on every plan, including the trial
- Flat monthly price with no fee per reservation booked
- Works in any city, not just New York
- Track a restaurant across several specific dates instead of a single night
Limitations
- Auto-booking is Resy only. OpenTable restaurants get instant alerts but you book them yourself
- Does not cover Tock or SevenRooms
ReservationFinder
$10 or $20/mo- Free trial
- 7 days
- Books for you
- No
- Platforms
- Resy, OpenTable, Tock, SevenRooms
- Coverage
- 19+ US cities
ReservationFinder monitors four platforms, which is the broadest coverage in this comparison, and sends an email or SMS with a direct booking link when something opens. It is purely an alerting service: you still have to tap through and book the table yourself, so how well it works depends on how fast you can reach your phone.
Pricing: Basic is about $10 per month for up to 3 restaurants. Pro is about $20 per month for up to 10 restaurants, adds SMS alerts and lets you follow a whole city for same-day openings.
Booking: Alert only. The service states plainly that it never holds or books the table for you.
Strengths
- Covers Tock and SevenRooms in addition to Resy and OpenTable
- SMS alerts on the Pro plan
- Can follow an entire city for same-day availability
Limitations
- Never books for you, so you are still racing everyone else who got the same alert
- The 7-day trial is short for this use case, since some restaurants go a week or more between cancellations
- Restaurant limits of 3 and 10 on the two plans
Resy Notify
Free- Free trial
- Not applicable
- Books for you
- No
- Platforms
- Resy
- Coverage
- Resy restaurants only
Notify is Resy's own waitlist. You tap the bell instead of the book button, and when a table is released Resy pushes a notification to everyone waiting for that restaurant and date at once. The alert is not a reservation. The first person to open the app and tap through gets the table, which is why popular nights are often gone within seconds.
Pricing: Free, built into the Resy app. Restaurants pay Resy, so diners are not charged.
Booking: Alert only, and the alert goes to every diner on the waitlist at the same time.
Strengths
- Free
- Comes straight from Resy, so nothing is scraped or delayed
Limitations
- The same alert goes to the entire waitlist simultaneously, so it is a race
- One restaurant and date per Notify, with no time window or party-size flexibility
- Resy only
OpenTable Notify Me
Free- Free trial
- Not applicable
- Books for you
- No
- Platforms
- OpenTable
- Coverage
- OpenTable restaurants only
OpenTable's equivalent of Notify emails you when a table matching your request opens up. Like Resy Notify it is free, single-platform, and leaves the booking race to you. Coverage is inconsistent, since not every restaurant enables it.
Pricing: Free, built into OpenTable.
Booking: Alert only.
Strengths
- Free
- Native to OpenTable
Limitations
- Not offered by every restaurant
- No auto-booking, and no flexibility across dates or time windows
TableSwap
$15/mo (see note)- Free trial
- None advertised
- Books for you
- Partial
- Platforms
- Resy, OpenTable, SevenRooms
- Coverage
- US plus some international cities
TableSwap runs as an AI assistant over iMessage. You tell it what you want, it watches Resy, OpenTable and SevenRooms, and it messages back with times and booking links. For a short list of very hard restaurants the team will phone the restaurant for you. It is closer to a concierge than to a booking bot.
Pricing: Listed at $15 per month with no per-reservation charges when we checked. TableSwap has changed its pricing more than once in the past year, including a period at $25 per month plus $75 per successful reservation, so confirm the current number before subscribing.
Booking: Mostly sends options and booking links. For a small set of restaurants, staff will call on your behalf when the booking window opens.
Strengths
- Conversational, so there are no forms to fill in
- Covers cities outside the US
- Human help for a handful of famously hard rooms
Limitations
- Pricing has moved around a lot, which makes it hard to plan around
- Does not automatically complete a normal booking for you
- No free trial advertised
TableTurn.nyc
~$50/mo- Free trial
- None advertised
- Books for you
- Yes
- Platforms
- Resy
- Coverage
- New York City
Formerly known as Resy Sniper, TableTurn is a New York service focused on Resy. It monitors releases and cancellations and tries to book for you. The automation is the selling point, but at roughly $50 a month for one city and effectively one platform it is the most expensive subscription in this comparison.
Pricing: Around $50 per month, subscription only.
Booking: Attempts to book on your behalf when a table is released.
Strengths
- Automatic booking
- Built specifically around Resy release behavior
Limitations
- Roughly five times the price of a flat-rate alert service
- New York only
- Resy focused, so OpenTable restaurants are largely out of scope
TablePass
$18/booking or $29+/mo- Free trial
- None advertised
- Books for you
- Yes
- Platforms
- Resy, OpenTable
- Coverage
- New York City, roughly 100 restaurants
TablePass books hard NYC tables for you and charges mainly per booking. If you want two or three specific nights a year and nothing else, paying per table can work out cheaper than any subscription. If you are hunting continuously, the per-booking fees add up quickly.
Pricing: A la carte is $18 per successful booking. Gold is $29 per month billed annually and includes 3 reservations, then $12 each. Platinum is $49 per month billed annually and includes 5 reservations, then $10 each. A Black tier starts around $499 per month.
Booking: Books into your own Resy or OpenTable account and texts you the confirmation.
Strengths
- Pay only when a table is actually secured on the a la carte plan
- Books into your own account and confirms by text
Limitations
- New York only, and limited to a curated restaurant list
- Per-booking fees on top of the monthly tiers
- No free trial
AutoRes
$21.99–$26.99/booking- Free trial
- Not applicable
- Books for you
- Yes
- Platforms
- Resy, OpenTable, SevenRooms
- Coverage
- About 70 restaurants across New York, London, Paris and a few other cities
AutoRes charges per successful reservation rather than per month, and covers a curated list of about 70 restaurants across several cities. Nothing is charged if the booking does not land, which makes it low risk for a single anniversary dinner and expensive for anyone booking regularly.
Pricing: No subscription. Regular restaurants are $21.99 per successful reservation and premium restaurants are $26.99, with no charge if the booking fails.
Booking: Books the table for you using your linked Resy or OpenTable account.
Strengths
- No subscription, and no charge when a booking fails
- Covers SevenRooms as well as Resy and OpenTable
- Some international coverage
Limitations
- Roughly the price of a month of most subscriptions for a single table
- Only works for restaurants on their list
- Requires linking your reservation accounts
Dorsia
$175–$25,000/yr- Free trial
- Not applicable
- Books for you
- No
- Platforms
- Direct restaurant partnerships
- Coverage
- Partner restaurants in major cities
Dorsia is not monitoring anything. It negotiates access directly with restaurants and sells that access as a membership with a minimum spend attached. It belongs in this comparison only because people evaluating alert services often run into it, and it solves a different problem at a very different price.
Pricing: Membership tiers run from roughly $175 per year to $25,000 per year, with minimum spend commitments at the restaurant.
Booking: Not an alert service. Tables are held for members through direct deals with restaurants.
Strengths
- Tables are genuinely held rather than raced for
- No monitoring or alerts to manage
Limitations
- Only works at partner restaurants
- Minimum spend requirements on top of membership
- Far more expensive than any monitoring service
Subscription or pay per booking: the actual math
The two pricing models cross over at around three bookings a year. Below is what a year costs if you land six tables, which is roughly one every other month.
| Service | Model | 1 table a year | 6 tables a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| ResTracker Pro | $19.99/mo flat | $239.88 | $239.88 |
| ResTracker Regular | $9.99/mo flat | $119.88 | $119.88 |
| AutoRes | $21.99–$26.99 per booking | $22–$27 | $132–$162 |
| TablePass Gold | $29/mo + $12 per extra booking | $348 | $384 |
| TableTurn.nyc | ~$50/mo flat | $600 | $600 |
| ReservationFinder Pro | $20/mo flat, alerts only | $240 | $240 |
The pattern is simple. Pay-per-booking wins for a single anniversary dinner. A flat subscription wins as soon as you are chasing tables continuously or tracking several restaurants at once, and it is the only model where adding another restaurant costs nothing.
How to choose in about a minute
Is your restaurant on Resy?
Then automatic booking is available to you, and it is worth having. Tables at the hardest Resy restaurants are claimed within seconds of release, which no human reading an email can match.
Is it on Tock or SevenRooms?
Your options narrow to ReservationFinder, TableSwap or AutoRes. ResTracker does not cover those platforms today.
Are you outside New York?
TableTurn and TablePass are NYC only, and AutoRes covers a curated list in a handful of cities. ResTracker and ReservationFinder work anywhere their platforms operate.
How long can you wait?
This is the question people get wrong. Cancellations at a given restaurant can be a week or more apart, so a 7-day trial often expires before a single alert fires. A 30-day trial is long enough to actually see the service work.
How many restaurants are you chasing?
One specific table on one specific night suits pay-per-booking. Several restaurants, or one restaurant across several possible dates, suits a flat subscription with no per-restaurant cost.
Is any of this allowed?
Monitoring publicly visible availability is legal, and using a service that tells you when a table opens is no different from refreshing the page yourself, only more patient. Services that book on your behalf do so through your own account, which is why they ask you to link it.
Reservation platforms set their own terms about automated access, and those terms change. If it matters to you, read the terms for the platform you book on before subscribing to any service here. ResTracker is not affiliated with or endorsed by Resy or OpenTable, and neither is any other third-party service on this list.
Try the auto-booking option free for 30 days
ResTracker watches Resy and OpenTable around the clock for the dates, time window and party size you pick, emails you the moment a table appears, and on Resy books it for you before you have opened the email.
The trial runs 30 days, includes auto-booking, and does not ask for a card. That is long enough for the cancellations to actually show up.
Start your free trialFrequently asked questions
What is the best restaurant reservation alert service?
It depends on what you want to happen when a table opens. If you want the reservation booked for you automatically without paying a fee per booking, ResTracker at $9.99 to $19.99 per month is the best value and includes a 30-day free trial. If you want the widest platform coverage and are happy to book by hand, ReservationFinder covers Resy, OpenTable, Tock and SevenRooms for $10 to $20 per month. If you want to spend nothing, turn on Resy Notify and OpenTable Notify Me first.
Which reservation services actually book the table for you?
As of August 2026, ResTracker (Resy), TableTurn.nyc, TablePass and AutoRes complete the booking on your behalf. ReservationFinder, Resy Notify, OpenTable Notify Me and TableSwap send you an alert or a booking link and leave the booking to you. Automatic booking matters most for restaurants where tables disappear within seconds of being released.
Which reservation alert service has the longest free trial?
ResTracker has a 30-day free trial and does not ask for a card to start it. ReservationFinder offers 7 days. The other services in this comparison do not advertise a trial. Trial length matters more than it looks, because a restaurant can go a week or more between cancellations, and a 7-day trial can easily end before you ever see an alert.
How much do restaurant reservation alert services cost?
Flat monthly subscriptions run from about $10 to $50 per month. Pay-per-booking services charge roughly $18 to $27 for each reservation they secure. Free options exist inside Resy and OpenTable themselves. Membership programs like Dorsia start around $175 per year and run to $25,000 with minimum spend requirements.
Is it cheaper to pay per booking or subscribe monthly?
Pay-per-booking is cheaper if you are chasing two or three tables a year. A subscription is cheaper the moment you are hunting continuously or tracking several restaurants at once. Six bookings in a year costs about $132 to $162 with AutoRes, $384 with TablePass Gold, and $239.88 with ResTracker Pro, which does not charge per booking at all.
Is there a free way to get restaurant cancellation alerts?
Yes. Resy Notify and OpenTable Notify Me are both free and built into those apps. The limitation is that the alert goes to every diner on the waitlist at the same instant, so you are racing everyone else, and you can only set one restaurant and date per alert with no time window or party-size flexibility.
Do reservation alert services work for same-day tables?
Yes, and same-day is often when they work best. Most cancellations land in the 24 to 72 hours before a seating, and a meaningful share arrive the morning of. Keep monitoring switched on right up to the date rather than giving up a few days out.
Are restaurant reservation alert services legal?
Using one is legal, and monitoring public availability is not against the law. Individual platforms set their own terms about automated access, and services that book on your behalf do so through your own linked account. If that matters to you, read the terms of the platform you book on before signing up for any monitoring service.
Can I use more than one reservation service at the same time?
Yes, and it is a reasonable strategy. Turning on the free Resy and OpenTable alerts costs nothing and stacks fine with a paid monitoring service. Running two paid subscriptions for the same restaurant rarely helps, since the constraint is how fast a table can be claimed, not how many alerts you receive.
How fast do reservation alerts arrive?
Good services check continuously and alert within a minute or two of a table appearing. That gap is the whole game at popular restaurants, which is why automatic booking outperforms any alert: software that books the moment a slot appears beats a human reading an email, no matter how fast the email arrived.
City reservation guides
Restaurant-by-restaurant advice for the hardest tables in each city, including when they release reservations and how far out to look.