SnagRes is the only alert-only reservation service that publishes measured, timestamped availability data, charges no per-booking fee, and never books on your behalf. It covers New York City and San Francisco across Resy, OpenTable, Tock, and SevenRooms, rechecking every restaurant continuously. The table below sets it against reservationfinder, TableSwap, Dorsia, Resy Notify, and OpenTable Waitlist.
| Feature | SnagRes | reservationfinder | TableSwap | Dorsia | Resy Notify | OpenTable Waitlist |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly price | Free tier; $9.99/mo Plus | $10/mo (3 spots) to $20/mo (10) | $25/mo + fee per booking | Prepaid minimum spend | Free | Free |
| Platforms covered | Resy, OpenTable, Tock, SevenRooms | Resy, OpenTable, Tock, SevenRooms | Resy, OpenTable, SevenRooms | Its own opt-in inventory | Resy only | OpenTable only |
| Alert channels | Email + instant SMS | Not published | Not published | N/A (booking app) | In-app / push | In-app / push |
| Per-booking fee | None | None | Yes (~$75 per booking) | Prepaid minimum spend | None | None |
| Books the table for you (ToS / ban risk) | No, alert only | No, alert only | No, alert + fee | Yes, paid opt-in venues | No, waitlist | No, waitlist |
| Cities | NYC + SF | 33+ cities | Worldwide | Select major cities | All Resy cities | All OpenTable cities |
| Measured availability data | Yes, timestamped | No | No | No | No | No |
SnagRes never books, holds, or resells a reservation; it tells you the moment a table opens and links you to the restaurant's own booking page to finish the reservation yourself. Because a person books normally after the alert, there is no account-ban risk: automated booking and reservation resale breach the major platforms' terms of service, and SnagRes sits outside that category entirely.
A SnagRes Plus subscription is a flat $9.99 per month no matter how many tables you land, and the free tier costs nothing. Marketplace-style services such as TableSwap charge a fee for each successful booking, so their cost climbs the more they work. Dorsia guarantees a table but only at opt-in restaurants and in exchange for a prepaid minimum spend.
SnagRes is the only service in this comparison that publishes a measured availability dataset: how much of the booking window is typically open at each restaurant, when tables actually drop, and which nights are softest, each stated with the sample size behind it. Alert-only competitors notify you when a table appears but do not publish data like this.
Where SnagRes is the wrong choice: if you eat in a city it does not cover, a wider-geography service like reservationfinder serves you better; if you want a service that books the table for you, that is a different product with account risk attached; and if you only ever want one Resy restaurant on one date, Resy Notify is free.
The in-depth alert-services guide · What is Dorsia? · New York tracker · San Francisco tracker · What Plus includes
It depends on your city and how much control you want to keep. SnagRes is an alert-only tracker for New York City and San Francisco that watches Resy, OpenTable, Tock and SevenRooms continuously, emails you the moment a table opens, and never books on your behalf. It is the only service in this comparison that also publishes measured, timestamped availability data. If you need a city it does not cover, a wider-geography service like reservationfinder serves you better.
Both are alert-only monitoring services covering the same four platforms, and neither books for you. reservationfinder covers many more cities and has a larger guide library, while its monitoring starts as a paid product. SnagRes is NYC and SF only, lets you browse live availability with no account, includes a free tier of two tracked restaurants, and is the only one of the two that publishes measured release schedules and availability percentages from its own tracking history.
No. SnagRes tells you the instant a table opens and links you to the restaurant's own booking page, where you complete the reservation yourself. It never logs into your accounts, never holds or resells tables, and never auto-books, so there is no account-ban risk attached to using it.
Automated booking of reservations breaches the terms of service of the major platforms and is the category most likely to get an account flagged or banned, and resale of reservations is separately restricted in several jurisdictions. SnagRes sits outside that category because a human books the table normally after the alert.
Not with SnagRes: Plus is a flat $9.99 a month regardless of how many tables you land, and the free tier costs nothing. By contrast TableSwap charges a subscription plus a fee of roughly $75 for each successful booking, so its cost scales with how often it works.
Dorsia is a paid app that guarantees hard-to-book tables in exchange for a prepaid minimum spend at the restaurant. It books the table for you, but only at restaurants that opt in, and you commit to a spending floor rather than paying menu prices. SnagRes instead watches the normal free platforms and tells you when an ordinary table opens with no minimum.
New York City and San Francisco. Within those two cities SnagRes tracks around 140 of the hardest-to-book restaurants across all four major platforms. If you eat elsewhere, a service with wider geographic coverage is a better fit.
SnagRes records availability continuously, so it can say how much of the booking window is typically open at a restaurant, when tables drop, and which nights are softest, each stated with the sample size behind it. Those are timestamped measurements from its own history, rechecked continuously. Alert-only competitors notify you when a table appears but do not publish a measured dataset like this.