Covered vs TheFork · UK 2026

Switching from TheFork? Here’s why operators move to Covered.

Same widget on your own site. Same Google Reserve. Zero commission per cover, flat £49 a month, and your customer list is yours.

Five reasons

The structural differences that matter.

What it costs / what you own
TheFork
Covered
Commission per cover
~£2 per diner on marketplace bookings
£0 — flat monthly only
Customer list ownership
Held by TheFork; limited export
Yours. Full CSV / JSON export anytime
Pre-orders + ticketed bookings
Not offered
Native, with WhatsApp pre-order chasers
Deposits + no-show charges
Limited; via add-on
Native Stripe — first-class
Monthly cost
€/£ per cover + base subscription
£49 flat — no per-cover tax
Why operators switch

You’re paying TheFork to introduce you to your own regulars.

European-volume independents earn the bulk of their bookings from direct channels — the venue’s own site, Google, Instagram, walk-ins. TheFork’s marketplace charges a commission on every cover regardless of whether the diner found you through the marketplace or already knew you. For a venue doing 1,500 covers a month on TheFork, that’s an extra ~£3,000 in marketplace fees over the course of a year. Covered ships the same widget on your own domain, the same Google Reserve link, and your guest data sits in your account on day one. The £49/month doesn’t scale with your service — bigger nights cost the same as smaller ones.

Run your restaurant. Not TheFork’s funnel.

Flat £49 a month. Monthly billing. Cancel anytime. No commission, no hostage data, no marketplace tax.