A free restaurant waitlist app that stays free
A full waitlist on every plan, including Free. Guests join by QR code, get notified when their table is ready, and your host stand runs on whatever phone is already in the apron.
- Every party, no monthly cap
- Guests join by QR code or link
- $0/mo forever, no trial clock
- No credit card to start
- Runs in any browser, no hardware
bavoli's Free plan takes the opposite bet. The waitlist itself is full and uncapped on every plan: add every party, quote waits, seat from the floor plan, and guests get an email the moment their table is ready. It costs $0 a month with no end date and no credit card, and it comes with the rest of a real front-of-house system: 50 reservations a month, one floor plan with up to 10 tables, and 50 guest profiles.
How it works
Add a party
Name, party size, contact. Two taps on the host phone.
Table's ready
One tap sends an email (Free) or text (paid). The guest knows instantly.
Seat and repeat
The floor plan shows what's open. Tap to seat, and the next party moves up.
Every free waitlist app, compared honestly
These are the real free tiers as of July 2026, verified from each vendor's public pages. Caps and prices change, so check theirs before you commit.
The pattern to watch is the unit each one meters: texts, parties, or visits. Whatever the unit, the cap is set so that one good weekend pushes you onto a paid plan.
| App | Free tier | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| bavoli | Full waitlist, every party, email notifications when the table's ready, and a QR/link join page so guests add themselves, plus 50 reservations/mo, floor plan, and guest profiles. $0 forever, no card. | Free-plan alerts are email; SMS is included on paid plans starting at $20/mo, with no per-text fee. "Powered by bavoli" badge on Free. |
| Waitlist Me | Add parties only; the free plan cannot send notifications | Notifying guests starts at $34.99/mo, and texts are metered: 1,000 included, $0.02 each after. |
| TablesReady | 150 texts and 100 parties a month | Roughly two busy nights, then paid plans from $39/mo billed annually. |
| NextMe | Free tier with a low notification cap, reported in the low hundreds per month | We could not confirm current paid pricing on a first-party page, so check theirs directly before comparing. |
| Waitwhile | 50 visits a month, a one-time $2 message credit, and 5 emails per visit | The 50-visit cap is the binding limit for a restaurant, and paid plans start at $31/mo. |
What you get on Free
QR self-serve join
Guests scan a code at the door, add themselves, and see their live place in line. No app to download.
Floor plan and waitlist together
See open tables and the queue in one view. Seat from the list into the plan without switching screens.
Wait time quotes that stick
Quote by party size, save the number with the guest, and re-quote when the room slows down. No more memory-based guesses at 8pm.
Reservations included
50 a month on Free, unlimited on paid. The waitlist and the book live in the same system, on one flat price.
The honest part: free means email, texting comes with paid
Every other app on this page leads with text alerts, so here is the straight answer about ours: on the Free plan, bavoli emails the guest when the table is ready, and the host stand sees the status change instantly. Paid plans text them: SMS is live, sent from a real US number, and included in the flat plan price on Starter, Professional, and Premium.
The difference from everyone else in the table is how texting is priced: it is included in the flat price rather than sold back to you two cents at a time or as credit packs. Nothing about your waitlist is ever metered per party, and the same $0 plan includes reservations, a floor plan, and a guest list that other vendors sell as separate tiers. If per-message pricing is the thing you are escaping, this is the escape.
What changes on the waitlist when you outgrow Free
On the list itself, almost nothing changes when you start paying, because the list is not the part that is capped. What changes is how you reach the guest and how many people can work the stand. Starter at $20/mo turns on SMS included in the plan price and adds staff accounts so two hosts are not sharing a login. The "Powered by bavoli" badge comes off on Professional.
The 50-a-month cap on Free counts reservations only (waitlist parties are uncapped), so a door-driven room can sit on $0 for a long time. Which Free limit you hit first, and exactly what the upgrade changes, is laid out on the free reservation software page rather than told twice here. Either way, nothing upgrades on its own: there is no card on file to charge.
When a free waitlist app is not the right fit
There are rooms this is wrong for, and it is cheaper to say so here than after you sign up. If free text messages are the entire requirement and paying for them is off the table, the Free plan is not your answer: bavoli notifies by email at $0 and by SMS on paid plans. TablesReady's 150 free texts a month is the more honest recommendation for that restaurant, and it is in the comparison above.
It is also the wrong shape for a stand that needs several people logged in at once, because Free includes one staff account, and for a group trying to run four rooms off one list. And if the door never backs up, you do not have a waitlist problem: a 30-seat room with no line needs a booking page instead of a queue, and there is a page on this site about the free version of that.
Where it does fit is narrow and common: an independent restaurant whose door jams on the weekend, a host with a phone in their apron, and no appetite for a monthly fee for the privilege of writing names down.
Running your waitlist: a practical guide
Frequently asked questions
Keep reading
More honest comparisons and pricing breakdowns for independent restaurants.
- The free reservation system this waitlist comes with
- How the waitlist works, in detail
- All four flat plans, including what Free covers
- Online reservations, included free
- The floor plan your waitlist seats into
- Cheap restaurant reservation software with no per-cover fees
- The best OpenTable alternatives for 2026, ranked