A free restaurant waitlist app that stays free
bavoli's Free plan includes a full waitlist — every party, no monthly cap — with email notifications when the table is ready, a floor plan so the host stand knows what's open, and 50 reservations a month. $0 forever, no credit card. Below, every other free waitlist app compared honestly.
Most "free" waitlist apps are sized to die on your first busy weekend. Waitlist Me's free plan cannot send notifications at all. TablesReady's includes 150 texts a month — about two Friday nights. NextMe caps around 100. Waitwhile gives you a one-time $2 credit and then meters every message. The trick is always the same: free to write names down, paid the moment you want to tell a guest their table is ready.
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.
One honest note before the comparison: bavoli's waitlist notifications are email today, not text messages. If free texts are non-negotiable right now, TablesReady's 150 a month is the closest thing anyone offers — we would rather point you there than sell you a maybe. If a waitlist that never meters parties, plus reservations and a floor plan in the same free plan, is the better trade, keep reading.
What bavoli's free waitlist includes
The waitlist is not a teaser tier. It is the same waitlist paid plans use, with the notification channel being the only difference by plan. Nothing counts your parties, and a busy Saturday costs the same as a dead Tuesday: $0.
It runs in the browser on whatever the host stand already has — the phone in your pocket, a tablet, the laptop by the register. Nothing to install, no iPad to buy, nothing to train beyond "type the name, tap when ready."
- Full waitlist: every party, no monthly cap, on every plan
- Email notification to the guest when their table is ready
- Floor plan view so seating and the list live in one place
- 50 reservations a month and 50 guest profiles included
- Works in any browser — no iPad, no hardware, no install
- $0/mo forever, no credit card, no contracts
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 — plus 50 reservations/mo, floor plan, guest profiles. $0 forever, no card. | Notifications are email today, not texts. "Powered by bavoli" badge; paid starts at a flat $20/mo. |
| 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 | Waitlist with about 100 texts a month | Caps hard-stop notifications; paid plans from $49.99/mo billed annually. |
| Waitwhile | 50 visits a month and a one-time $2 message credit | Then every message is metered — and the platform now leads with healthcare and government queues, not restaurants. |
The honest part: notifications are email today
Every other app on this page leads with text alerts, so here is the straight answer about ours: when a table is ready, bavoli emails the guest, and the host stand sees the status change instantly. Email reaches the guest's pocket the same way a text does — it just is not a text, and we will not pretend otherwise.
That trade is why the rest of the free plan can be so generous: nothing about your waitlist is metered, 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.
From clipboard to waitlist in an afternoon
If your waitlist is a clipboard, a whiteboard, or shouting names at the door, you are the restaurant this page is for. The clipboard is genuinely good at one thing — it never crashes — and terrible at the rest: no wait estimates, no record of who walked, no way to reach the guest who wandered off, and a $1,500-a-week walkout bleed you never see itemized.
Moving off it is one service, not one project: open bavoli on the host phone, add parties as they arrive, tap when the table is ready. Your staff already knows how to use it, because it works like the clipboard — it just also remembers everything and tells the guest for you.
A waitlist app that also takes reservations
Standalone waitlist apps charge $35 to $60 a month for the list alone, then gate table management and reports one tier up. The moment you want reservations too, you are either paying twice or buying a $129-and-up suite.
bavoli is the whole host stand in one flat price: waitlist, reservations, floor plan, guest profiles, and no-show tracking together — free to start, $20/mo flat when you outgrow Free, and never a per-party, per-cover, or per-message fee at any volume.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a genuinely free restaurant waitlist app?
Yes. bavoli's Free plan includes a full waitlist — every party, no monthly cap — with email notifications, plus 50 reservations a month, a floor plan, and 50 guest profiles. $0 a month with no end date and no credit card. Other free tiers exist but are capped: Waitlist Me's free plan can't send notifications, TablesReady includes 150 texts a month, NextMe about 100.
Does the free waitlist send text messages?
No — bavoli notifies waitlist guests by email today, and we'd rather say that plainly than sell a maybe. If free text alerts are non-negotiable right now, TablesReady's 150 texts a month is the most generous free option in the US. If an unmetered waitlist plus reservations and a floor plan in one free plan matters more, that's bavoli.
Is there a limit on waitlist parties?
No. The waitlist is full and uncapped on every plan, including Free. The Free plan's limits live elsewhere: 50 reservations a month, 50 guest profiles, one floor plan, one staff account.
Do I need an iPad or special hardware?
No. bavoli runs in the browser on whatever you already have — the host's phone, any tablet, the laptop by the register. There is nothing to install and nothing to buy.
How do guests get on the waitlist?
Your team adds parties at the host stand in a couple of taps — name, size, phone or email — and the guest gets an email the moment their table is ready. It is deliberately as simple as the clipboard it replaces.
Is the free plan actually a trial?
No. Free stays $0 for as long as you use it. Separately, every new account gets 30 days of the Professional plan free with no card required; when that ends you land back on Free unless you choose to subscribe. Nothing converts into a charge on its own.
What do standalone waitlist apps really cost?
Waitlist Me runs $34.99–$99.99/mo with texts metered at every tier. TablesReady runs $39–$79/mo billed annually. NextMe $49.99–$79.99. Yelp Guest Manager starts at $129/mo. bavoli's plans are flat — $0, $20, $50, or $100 per location — and nothing is ever metered per party or per cover.