For an independent U.S. restaurant, the choice comes down to whether you want to pay a subscription you can see before you talk to anyone. Square for Restaurants starts at $0 per month per location and includes a customer directory, unlimited email marketing, loyalty and Google Reviews monitoring, with text marketing bundled into paid plans. Eat App publishes the most explicit guest-data and messaging limits, from a $0 free tier up to $299/mo Pro, and its 14-day trial needs no credit card. Tock is the pick for prepaid experiences and events at $289/mo with no cover fees. OpenTable remains the reservation-network option at a third-party-reported $149/mo entry plus per-cover fees. SevenRooms, Toast Marketing Suite and Punchh are all quote-only, so you cannot comparison-shop their cost without a sales call.
Multi-unit restaurant and convenience-store brands running enterprise loyalty, offers and subscription programs
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Restaurant CRM software is how an independent restaurant turns one-time diners into repeat guests: a guest database, profiles with tags and notes, email and text campaigns, loyalty, reviews, and reservation history. Prices in this category range from $0 per month to quote-only. Some vendors publish their full rate card; others require a demo before they name a number. Both kinds are listed below, and every figure is labeled with where it comes from.
Supporting detail
7 options, ranked
01
Square for Restaurants
Best for an independent restaurant that wants a guest database, email marketing and loyalty without a subscription fee
PricingFrom $0/month per location
Published, per location, per month. Square Free is $0/mo per location plus processing fees. Square Plus is $49/mo per location and is labeled "Best value" on the vendor's page. Square Premium is $149/mo per location. Square Pro is custom pricing, available to businesses processing over $250,000 per year.
Strengths
+Permanent free tier with unlimited email marketing and a customer directory that captures data automatically and supports segmentation
+Text marketing included on paid plans: 500 messages/month per account on Plus (then 3¢ per message), 2,500/month on Premium (then 1.5¢ per message)
+Loyalty program, promotions, coupons, gift cards and Google Reviews monitoring through Google Business Profile are listed as product features
Show 2 more strengths
+Invoicing, estimates and e-signature contracts included, with recurring invoices and automatic payment reminders
+Processing rates are published: 2.6% + 15¢ in person on Free, 2.5% + 15¢ on Plus, 2.4% + 15¢ on Premium
Watch for
–Gift card load fee is 2.5% on Free and Plus; 0% on Premium
–Square KDS is $30/mo per device on Plus and $20/mo per device on Premium; Square Kiosk is $50/mo per device on Plus and $30/mo on Premium
–Square Restaurant Inventory by MarketMan is an additional $99/mo per location
Show 2 more watch for
–The page lists no team-member, contact or customer-record limit, and no annual billing price
–No independent rating score or review count is published
Published on the vendor's pricing page, with figures shown as a bare "$" and no currency code. Free is $0/mo, limited to 100 guests monthly. Lite is $99/mo billed monthly or $69/mo billed yearly. Core is $199/mo monthly or $159/mo yearly. Pro is $389/mo monthly or $299/mo yearly. Enterprise is quote-only ("Let's talk") for groups running 8 or more venues. The same page also carries an older naming scheme (Free / Starter / Essential / Pro) at $0 / $69 / $159 / $299 and $0 / $99 / $199 / $389, and other pages on the vendor's site list Essential at $199/mo or $159/mo. Sources differ; the vendor's own pages do not agree, so confirm the rate in writing before signing.
Strengths
+Guest database/CRM with profiles, tagging, notes, history and reviews is included on paid tiers, along with a post-dining survey and review-at-table QR codes
+Free tier at $0/mo and a 14-day trial on any plan with no credit card required; the vendor also states commission-free bookings and cancel-anytime terms
+Messaging allowances are explicit: 500 SMS/month on Lite, 2,000 on Core, unlimited on Pro; 100 utility and 100 marketing WhatsApp messages on Lite, rising to 250 and 500 on Core and 500 on Pro
Show 2 more strengths
03
Tock
Best for restaurants, wineries and hospitality groups selling prepaid experiences, events and tickets alongside reservations
4.2 ★ · 96
PricingFrom $289/month
Published on the vendor's pricing page. Platform is $289/month for reservation and table management plus POS integrations. Essential is $289/month plus a 3% fee on prepayments, adding advanced customization and event ticketing. Platform 360 is $459/month, adding advanced analytics with automated guest insights. Premium is $459/month plus a 2% fee on prepayments, adding POS integrations, premium support and experience tools. Essential and Premium are marked "Powered by Tock." Standard payment processing fees apply. The FAQ states the price is one monthly fee with no cover fees and no per-reservation fees. No annual price, per-location price or setup fee is published. An older third-party lineup lists Base $99/mo, Essential $269/mo, Premium $339/mo and Premium Unlimited $899/mo on a one-year contract; sources differ and the vendor's current page governs.
Strengths
+No cover fees and no per-reservation fees; takeout is sold separately at 3% commission with delivery through DoorDash and Uber at no additional cost
+Chargeback Coverage up to an annual aggregate $25,000 per business, with 3D Secure enforcement (credit card holds are excluded)
+Published feature grid covers table management, reservations, walk-in waitlists, events, credit card holds and cancellation fees, deposits, prepayment, customizable guest communications and full floor plan management on web
04
OpenTable
Best for restaurants that want reservation-driven guest profiles, review management and 100+ booking integrations in one listing
4.2 ★ · 1,321
PricingFrom $149/month (third-party reported; vendor says contact us for pricing)
The vendor's plan page states "Contact us for pricing" and shows no dollar figures. Third-party sources list Basic at $149/month, Core at $299/month and Pro at $499/month, with per-cover fees of $1.50 on Basic (free for the first 30 days) and $1.00 on Core and Pro for network reservations, $0.25 each or $49/month flat for own-site reservations on Basic, and a 2% service fee on prepaid experiences. One source states those figures were verified on the vendor's US plans page on August 3, 2026. Premium SMS Messaging is a $25/mo add-on on the vendor's comparison page. The standard contract is one year and auto-renews annually unless you give 30 days' notice. No annual billing price is published.
Strengths
+Published feature list includes a guest database with tags and notes, 360 guest profiles, more guest insights, a pre-shift report and automated email campaigns
+Review management, customizable booking widget, OpenTable profile and listing, Google's "Reserve a table" button and 100+ booking integrations
+Table operations: customizable floor plans, Smart Assign, advanced inventory controls, Access Rules, in-house and online waitlist, mobile app with floor plan
Show 2 more
05
SevenRooms
Best for restaurants that want a built-in guest database with no cover fees on marketplace reservations
Pricing
Not disclosed. The pricing page publishes no monthly price, no annual price, no per-venue rate and no seat price. The only plan named is Starter, described as streamlining core operations to grow revenue and automate repeat business. Higher tiers are implied but not named or priced. A third party states pricing is per venue per month, without numbers. Add-ons are listed without prices: Email Marketing, Event Management, Voice AI, WhatsApp/Text Marketing, API & Integrations and Group Portal. No free tier is published, and trial options are by contacting sales.
Strengths
+Starter includes CRM and guest profiles, branded reservations and waitlist management, table management, reputation management and basic marketing automations
+Access to +50 million DoorDash & Deliveroo Reservation Marketplace users with no cover fees
+100+ integrations plus a flexible API; named channels include Google, DoorDash Reservations, Facebook, Instagram and branded website widgets
Show 2 more strengths
+Reputation management aggregates Google, Yelp, TripAdvisor and Facebook reviews into guest profiles
06
Toast Marketing Suite
Best for restaurants already running Toast POS that want loyalty, email and SMS tied to their order data
Pricing
Not disclosed. The vendor's pricing page shows no plan names, prices, inclusions, limits, add-on fees, free tier or free trial for the Marketing Suite; the commercial path is a demo and contact-sales. The suite is sold as an add-on that requires the Toast POS platform and a Toast Marketing Suite subscription. A third party lists a "Marketing Essentials" bundle at $185/mo covering loyalty, gift cards and email/SMS, states it requires an existing Toast POS subscription, and estimates a restaurant at $50K/mo card volume might pay $1,500–$2,500/mo all-in for the full platform. Those figures are third-party only and are not confirmed by the vendor.
Strengths
+Marketing Suite contents as published: Email Marketing, Guest Loyalty and Gift Card access; the Digital Ordering and Marketing Suite adds Toast Online Ordering and the Toast TakeOut mobile ordering app
+SMS Marketing was added to the suite in the fall 2024 product release for campaigns, promotional offers and real-time messages
+Toast Loyalty accrues on dollars spent or number of visits, redeems from a free item to cash back, and enrolls guests at the register, through a digital receipt, when ordering online or via a sign-up link, with automatic point tracking
Show 2 more strengths
07
Punchh
Best for multi-unit restaurant and convenience-store brands running enterprise loyalty, offers and subscription programs
Pricing
Not disclosed. There is no public pricing page with plan names and dollar amounts. No monthly price, annual price, per-location rate card, seat price, free tier or free trial is published; the commercial path is a free demo or an account representative. The names that appear — Punchh Loyalty, Punchh Offers, Punchh Acquire, Punchh Campaigns, Punchh Subscriptions, Memberships, Accelerate and Data Pipeline — are modules rather than purchasable tiers. The one published pricing statement is for the Data Pipeline add-on: price depends on the number of locations and the frequency of data delivery (lower frequency = higher cost).
Strengths
+Loyalty supports spend-based, visit-based and tiered membership structures, a branded mobile app, social referrals, guest check-ins, experience ratings and fraud monitoring
+Offers covers single-use, multi-use and bounceback offers, unique per-user coupon codes, static and dynamic discounts, and omnichannel in-store and online redemption with franchisee permissions
+Campaigns sends email, SMS and push with WiFi-marketing, SMS opt-in and email-form acquisition, hyper-local franchise controls and automated segments
Show 2 more strengths
+
Side by side
What each one actually includes
Square for Restaurants
Published pricing without a sales call
Yes
Guest database with profiles, tags and notes
Yes
Email marketing
Yes
SMS / text marketing
Yes (paid add-on usage)
Loyalty and rewards
Yes
Reputation and review management
Yes (Google Reviews monitoring)
Free tier
Yes, $0/mo per location
Published free trial
30 days on Plus and Premium
Published independent rating
No
Eat App
Published pricing without a sales call
Yes
Guest database with profiles, tags and notes
Yes
Email marketing
Yes (add-on or included from Core)
SMS / text marketing
Yes
Loyalty and rewards
Loyalty Workflow Suite listed without price
Reputation and review management
Yes (review management $15/mo)
Free tier
Yes, $0/mo up to 100 guests monthly
Published free trial
14 days, no credit card required
Published independent rating
No
Tock
Published pricing without a sales call
Yes
Guest database with profiles, tags and notes
Yes (guest profiles)
Email marketing
No (customizable guest communications instead)
SMS / text marketing
Text reminders and follow-ups listed
Loyalty and rewards
No
Reputation and review management
No
Free tier
No
Published free trial
No
Published independent rating
OpenTable
Published pricing without a sales call
No, contact us for pricing
Guest database with profiles, tags and notes
Yes
Email marketing
Yes (automated email campaigns)
SMS / text marketing
Premium SMS Messaging $25/mo add-on
Loyalty and rewards
No
Reputation and review management
Yes (review management)
Free tier
No
Published free trial
30 days (third-party reported)
Published independent rating
Reviews counted, no score shown
SevenRooms
Published pricing without a sales call
No, not disclosed
Guest database with profiles, tags and notes
Yes
Email marketing
Email Marketing add-on
SMS / text marketing
WhatsApp/Text Marketing add-on
Loyalty and rewards
No
Reputation and review management
Yes (reputation management)
Free tier
No
Published free trial
No
Published independent rating
No
Toast Marketing Suite
Published pricing without a sales call
No, not disclosed
Guest database with profiles, tags and notes
Yes (via POS data)
Email marketing
Yes
SMS / text marketing
Yes (added fall 2024)
Loyalty and rewards
Yes
Reputation and review management
No
Free tier
No
Published free trial
No
Published independent rating
Punchh
Published pricing without a sales call
No, not disclosed
Guest database with profiles, tags and notes
Yes
Email marketing
Yes (Campaigns)
SMS / text marketing
Yes (Campaigns)
Loyalty and rewards
Yes (core product)
Reputation and review management
Guest feedback and experience ratings
Free tier
No
Published free trial
No (free demo only)
Published independent rating
No
Published pricing without a sales call
Guest database with profiles, tags and notes
Email marketing
SMS / text marketing
Loyalty and rewards
Reputation and review management
Free tier
Published free trial
Published independent rating
Square for Restaurants
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes (paid add-on usage)
Yes
Yes (Google Reviews monitoring)
Yes, $0/mo per location
30 days on Plus and Premium
No
Eat App
Yes
Method
How we compared
01
Prices, plan names and feature lists are taken from each vendor's own published pages where those exist. Where a vendor does not publish a figure, the row says so rather than estimating.
02
OpenTable and Toast Marketing Suite publish no prices on their own pages. The dollar figures shown for them come from third-party listings and are labeled as such.
03
Eat App's own pages carry more than one price for the same plan names. Both sets are shown with the range, and the disagreement is called out.
04
Independent ratings are reported only where a score and review count were found. No score has been inferred.
Verdict
Conclusion
Our recommendation
For an independent U.S. restaurant, the choice comes down to whether you want to pay a subscription you can see before you talk to anyone. Square for Restaurants starts at $0 per month per location and includes a customer directory, unlimited email marketing, loyalty and Google Reviews monitoring, with text marketing bundled into paid plans. Eat App publishes the most explicit guest-data and messaging limits, from a $0 free tier up to $299/mo Pro, and its 14-day trial needs no credit card. Tock is the pick for prepaid experiences and events at $289/mo with no cover fees. OpenTable remains the reservation-network option at a third-party-reported $149/mo entry plus per-cover fees. SevenRooms, Toast Marketing Suite and Punchh are all quote-only, so you cannot comparison-shop their cost without a sales call.
Who should choose what
Best published price for a guest database and email marketing
Square for Restaurants
Square Free is $0/mo per location with a customer directory that captures data automatically and supports segmentation, unlimited email marketing, loyalty and promotions. Paid plans are $49/mo (Plus) and $149/mo (Premium) per location, both with a 30-day trial.
Best for guest profiles and messaging under $200 a month
Eat App
Core at $159/mo billed yearly ($199/mo monthly) includes the full guest database/CRM with tags, notes, history and reviews, 2,000 SMS per month, white-labeling and the marketing suite. Lite at $69/mo yearly is enough for a single venue getting off paper.
Platform at $289/mo or Essential at $289/mo plus a 3% prepayment fee covers reservations, table management, events and chargeback coverage up to $25,000 per business annually, with no cover fees and no per-reservation fees.
Best for marketplace distribution without cover fees
SevenRooms
Starter includes CRM and guest profiles, reputation management and basic marketing automations, plus access to more than 50 million DoorDash and Deliveroo Reservation Marketplace users with no cover fees. Pricing is not disclosed, so budget for a sales conversation.
Published entry points in this comparison are Square Free at $0 per month per location, Eat App Free at $0 per month up to 100 guests monthly and Eat App Lite at $69/mo billed yearly ($99/mo monthly), Square Plus at $49/mo per location, OpenTable Basic at $149/mo per third-party reporting, Eat App Core at $159/mo yearly ($199/mo monthly), Tock Platform at $289/mo and Eat App Pro at $299/mo yearly ($389/mo monthly). SevenRooms, Toast Marketing Suite and Punchh do not publish prices.
Do these tools charge per cover or per reservation?
OpenTable does, according to third-party pricing listings: $1.50 per network cover on Basic and $1.00 on Core and Pro, $0.25 each or $49/month flat for own-site reservations on Basic, and a 2% service fee on prepaid experiences. Tock states its price is one monthly fee with no cover fees and no per-reservation fees, though prepayments carry a 3% fee on Essential and 2% on Premium, and takeout carries a 3% commission. SevenRooms states no cover fees on its DoorDash and Deliveroo Reservation Marketplace access. Eat App prices its booking network add-on at $2/cover.
Is there a free trial?
Square Plus and Square Premium each offer a 30-day trial, and Square Free is a permanent $0 tier. Eat App offers 14 days on any plan with no credit card required and a permanent free tier up to 100 guests monthly. OpenTable's 30-day trial is reported by third parties rather than shown on the vendor pages. SevenRooms, Toast Marketing Suite and Punchh publish no free tier or self-serve trial.
What is the difference between a restaurant CRM and a reservation system?
Reservation and table-management functions are separate from guest marketing. OpenTable, SevenRooms, Tock and Eat App combine both: reservations, floor plans, waitlists and a guest database with profiles, tags, notes and history. Square for Restaurants centers on the customer directory, email and text marketing, loyalty and reviews, with its own online ordering rather than a reservation network. Toast Marketing Suite and Punchh are marketing and loyalty layers that require an existing POS platform.
Can these products be used outside restaurants?
Every product listed here is documented and priced for restaurants and hospitality venues. The published features, units of volume (covers, tables, venues) and integrations are restaurant-specific, and no home-service, trade or professional-service packaging is published by these vendors.
+Marketing suite, white-labeling and AI tools (assistant, summaries, reports, upseller, chatbot, database cleanup) are included from Core upward
+Runs on iPhone, Android, web browsers and iPad
Watch for
–POS and payment integration are not included on Lite or Core; the grid prices each at +$39/mo, while Pro includes them
–Published add-ons add up quickly: online waitlist $19/mo, customizable widget $19/mo, deposits and pre-payments $19/mo, CRM and smart reports $39/mo, customizable messaging $39/mo, email marketing suite $39/mo or $49/mo, automation suite $49/mo or $59/mo, review management $15/mo, historic guest spend $59/mo, see-who's-calling $25/mo, booking network $2/cover
–The vendor states add-ons are included free with a Pro subscription
Show 2 more watch for
–Volume limits conflict on the vendor's own pages: one grid shows 100/300/unlimited/unlimited covers per month while another shows unlimited guests across all paid plans; SMS allowances also conflict with the help center's "250 free SMS per month on every subscription"
–Overage is billed per message at local carrier rates with no published rate; AI carries a usage-based fee with no published rate
+"Notify" automated guest alerts, exclusive booking groups and a dashboard booking tool
+POS integrations named: Toast, Upserve, Micros Simphony and 3700, WineDirect, Commerce7, Tripleseat; plus Reserve with Google, MICHELIN booking, Facebook and Instagram booking buttons and Google Analytics
Watch for
–Only two independent ratings were found, both third-party reported: G2 4.2 out of 5 from 96 reviews, and Capterra 3.4 out of 5 from 17 reviews. A third figure, 5 out of 5 from 10 verified hotel-user reviews on Hotel Tech Reviews, is hotel-specific
–No free tier and no free trial are published
–Advanced analytics are gated to Platform 360 and Premium
Show 2 more watch for
–Operator access is a web dashboard and Resy OS; only a guest-facing booking app is published, and no operator iOS or Android app appears
–On-demand phone support is stated for live partners, with an average pick-up time of ten seconds; other plans show chat and email support
+An AI Writing Assistant for content ideas and campaign management, plus a social sharing prompt to Facebook and X after online orders
+Toast Marketing Expert Services is available as a test-phase paid add-on covering email, SMS, social, SEO and printed assets, with a minimum three-month initial term
Watch for
–No prices, plan names, user or contact limits, free tier or free trial are published on the vendor's pricing page
–Requires the Toast POS platform and a Marketing Suite subscription; third-party commentary calls it an expensive add-on on top of an existing Toast bill and notes the lock-in effect
–Access to Marketing > Email Marketing requires the 4.8 Marketing Info permission, and only one Meta account can be connected to a restaurant group's ToastWeb account at a time
Show 2 more watch for
–The vendor's sales-growth claims (70% higher sales growth rate year over year for Digital Ordering and Marketing Suite subscribers, and an "increase sales by 63%" benefit claim) are self-reported restaurant figures
–No independent rating score or review count is published
Subscriptions models published: Free Delivery, Unlimited Monthly, Unlimited Annually, Select Menu Items, Meal Passes, Item-Based Rewards and Online Discount
+Memberships (added module) supports paid member perks, tiered discounting, auto-renew from a saved card in-app, membership analytics and a 90-day membership log
Watch for
–No pricing, plan tiers, user limits, contact limits or location minimums are published
–Deployment is POS-centric: a POS update is required to read membership details in the Scan and Pay flow, and documented payment gateways are PAR Pay, Heartland, First Data, Worldpay (Vantiv), TSYS, Elavon and Chase Paymentech
–Memberships requires Punchh mobile app v3.5.0 or later; app-store listings and ratings are not published
Show 2 more watch for
–The $9.99/30-day, $24.99/30-day and per-gallon figures in the documentation are sample merchant loyalty-program configurations, not software prices
–No independent rating score or review count is published
FlashCrafter