It depends on the city rather than the brand. In New York, Resy holds far more of the hardest tables, with 60 of the 80 we track versus 11 on OpenTable. In San Francisco it reverses, and OpenTable holds the largest share at 23 of 60.
No, Tock is not owned by Resy, but the two are converging. Both are now owned by American Express, which is folding Tock into Resy, though as of 2026 they still run as separate booking systems with different release mechanics.
Resy uses rolling daily releases with free cancellation on most tables, while Tock sells prepaid tickets or deposits for tasting-menu restaurants and forfeits that deposit on a no-show. Resy suits standard dining rooms, and Tock suits multi-course prix fixe experiences.
There is no single best app, because the hardest tables are split across all four platforms and each restaurant picks its own. The best approach is watching whichever platform your target restaurant uses, rather than committing to one app and missing the rest.
SevenRooms is a white-label reservation widget that restaurants embed on their own websites, so you book on the venue's own page rather than in a shared marketplace. Because there is no central app to browse, its tables are the easiest of the four to overlook.
As of 2026, there is no clean cross-platform difficulty score, so the useful measure is where the hard tables sit. Resy is hardest to keep up with in New York, Tock is hardest to plan around because of timed prepaid drops, and SevenRooms is hardest to find at all.
Four services handle nearly every hard reservation in New York and San Francisco, and they do not work alike. Resy, OpenTable, Tock, and SevenRooms each release tables on their own schedule, set their own deposit rules, and cover different kinds of restaurant. As of 2026, SnagRes tracks 140 of the hardest tables across all four and re-checks every one every 15 minutes.
The honest answer to which platform is hardest is that it depends on the city and the specific restaurant, not the logo. The costly mistake is watching one platform and assuming it holds every table you want, because in New York that mostly survives while in San Francisco it falls apart.
In New York, 60 of the 80 hardest tables we track sit on Resy, with 11 on OpenTable, 6 on Tock, and 3 on SevenRooms.
In San Francisco the split flips, with just 12 of 60 on Resy, 23 on OpenTable, 19 on Tock, and 6 on SevenRooms.
Tock gathers the tasting-menu rooms, while SevenRooms hides tables on restaurants' own sites instead of in a marketplace.
No single platform is a complete strategy, since the hardest tables are spread across all four in both cities.
Resy is the platform most people picture when they think about hard reservations, and in New York that reputation is earned. Its toughest tables concentrate there, where 60 of the 80 hardest rooms we track book through Resy.
Most Resy restaurants use a rolling daily release, adding one new day at the far edge of the calendar each morning.
The window runs a set number of days ahead, and the drop usually lands at a fixed hour, with 9 or 10 AM common.
Cancellations run underneath that edge and supply a large share of the tables that actually become bookable.
Resy offers a free built-in waitlist called Notify, which queues you and alerts you only when it decides to.
OpenTable is the oldest and broadest of the four, and its defining trait is simplicity. It carries the widest mid-tier coverage, so many very good but bookable restaurants live here, and it quietly holds the most hard tables in San Francisco.
Booking windows tend to be long, and availability is the easiest of the four to read at a glance.
A points program rewards repeat diners, which none of the other three platforms offer in the same way.
Cancellation is usually lenient, with a free cutoff and no deposit on most tables.
Its hard tables concentrate in San Francisco, where OpenTable holds the single largest share we track.
Tock was built for tasting-menu restaurants, and it behaves less like a reservation book than a ticket box office. Rooms like Benu, Angler, and State Bird Provisions release through it.
Many Tock tables are prepaid, sold as tickets or held with a deposit that is forfeited if you no-show.
Releases are usually timed rather than rolling, dropping a block of dates at a set moment, often once a month.
There is generally no open waitlist, so a missed drop means waiting for the next one or a rare cancellation.
Its hard tables cluster at the ambitious tasting-menu end, which is why Tock punches above its size in San Francisco.
SevenRooms is the platform most diners have never heard of, and that is exactly the problem. It is a white-label booking widget that restaurants embed on their own websites, so there is no central marketplace to browse.
You book on the restaurant's own page rather than in an app that lists every venue using the tool.
That design makes its tables the easiest to miss, because they never appear in a feed people scroll.
Release and cancellation rules vary by restaurant, since each venue configures its own embedded widget.
Its hard tables are scattered a few per city rather than concentrated, so single-platform watchers overlook them.
In New York, watching Resy first is a defensible shortcut, because 60 of the 80 hardest tables we track live there. In San Francisco that shortcut breaks completely, since only 12 of the 60 hardest SF tables book through Resy, while OpenTable holds 23 and Tock holds 19.
So the practical rule is simple, and it is that watch-only-Resy advice fails in San Francisco and misses SevenRooms in both cities. The reliable move is to watch whichever platform each specific restaurant actually uses, which is why we monitor all four at once and re-check every 15 minutes.
How Resy, OpenTable, Tock, and SevenRooms differ: release timing, deposits, and where the hardest NYC and SF tables concentrate, as of 2026.
Resy vs OpenTable vs Tock vs SevenRooms: which is hardest to book on?
A head-to-head comparison of how Resy, OpenTable, Tock, and SevenRooms release tables, and where the hardest reservations concentrate in New York and San Francisco.
Keep reading: When each platform releases tables · How Resy reservations work · The hardest tables to book