ROLLER Alternative

A ROLLER
Alternative
That Seats Families Too.

ROLLER is attractions software. It sells admission, runs a POS and puts wristbands on the gate, and it does that well. If your venue also has a cafe, a kitchen and a room full of tables, you need the covers side booked properly too. That is what we built, waivers included.

Start For Free Try your booking page

No credit card required. No contracts. Cancel anytime.

Try out what your booking page could look like.

Paste your current booking link. We’ll build a working BookingNinja demo with your venue’s details and branding.

No account or email needed. Your demo stays available for seven days.

Use your venue’s booking link, or the website where guests find it.

Where a booking page can’t be read, we’ll use your website to make an approximate demo.

No Per-Cover Fees
Flat pricing, even on your busiest nights
Free Forever Plan
All features, no card needed
Family-Run Support
Real people, not a call centre
Why Switch

Play Sessions and Covers, in the Same Book

Most soft play and activity venues are two businesses in one building. ROLLER is excellent at the gate. The table side is where a venue like yours tends to end up on paper diaries and guesswork.

A Price on the Website

ROLLER quotes you on a sales call, and usage fees, where they apply, are billed in arrears on the 5th for the month before. Ours is on our pricing page: £42 a month ex VAT plus a 1% transaction fee on payments, then card processing. You can work out your bill without booking a demo.

Tables, Not a Guest Tab

In ROLLER, food is a POS tab opened when someone orders and settled when they leave. Here a family books table 12 for 11am, and it shows on your floor plan before they arrive.

Sized for One Site

The attractions stack assumes turnstiles, wristbands and an HQ layer over several parks. A single soft play with a cafe pays for a lot of that and uses very little of it.

Money Up Front, Per Child

Set a price per guest type and take a deposit or the full amount per head at the point of booking. Party groups that have paid tend to turn up.

Nothing Behind a Tier

Parties, memberships, gift cards, waivers, order at table. All of it is on from day one instead of arriving when you move up a plan.

You Get the Person Who Built It

ROLLER runs 24/7 phone support on every plan, and that is a real strength. What we offer is different: a small UK team where I build the thing, answer the emails and set your venue up with you.

Side by Side

BookingNinja vs ROLLER

Two different categories of product. ROLLER is admissions and POS for attractions. BookingNinja books sessions, parties and tables in one reservation book.

Monthly price published on the website

BookingNinja
ROLLER
Quote only

Transaction fee published

BookingNinja
1% on payments
ROLLER
Not published

Table and floor-plan reservation book

BookingNinja
ROLLER

Guests choose their own table as they book

BookingNinja
ROLLER

Guest types with a price per category

BookingNinja
ROLLER

Deposits and prepayments taken per head

BookingNinja
ROLLER
Tickets paid at checkout

Table chains for large party groups

BookingNinja
ROLLER

Party and group booking management

BookingNinja
ROLLER

Memberships with recurring billing

BookingNinja
ROLLER

Gift cards and order at table

BookingNinja
ROLLER

Digital waivers with e-signature

BookingNinja
ROLLER

Kiosks, RFID and cashless wristbands

BookingNinja
ROLLER

Plan you can start on for free

BookingNinja
Free Forever
ROLLER
14-day trial

ROLLER does not publish pricing, so there are no figures of theirs on this page. BookingNinja's prices here are read from our live pricing: a monthly plan fee plus a 1% transaction fee on payments, with card processing on top. Everything else is drawn from public sources and correct as far as we know; check with ROLLER for the current position.

Live floor plan during service showing seated tables, upcoming bookings and today's booking list
Capacity & Covers

Saturday Morning,
On One Screen.

Four party rooms, a 10am play session, and a cafe that will do 90 covers. ROLLER counts the admissions and opens tabs when people order food. BookingNinja books the tables as well, so the floor is a live map rather than a headcount and a printed list.

Sessions against real tables
Capacity per session, and each booking sits on an actual table in an actual area.
Assignment does the sums
Best fit by party size and area priority, chained tables for the 14-child birthdays, and you can move anything by hand.
Walk-ins on a wet Tuesday
Seat them off the plan and run a waitlist when the play frame is full.
Look ahead
Open next Saturday and see the room as it stands before you commit to another party enquiry.
BookingNinja floor plan editor with tables, areas and decorations being placed on a room layout
Venue Setup

Draw the Building
You Actually Have.

Toddler zone, main frame, two party rooms, the cafe and the six tables nobody wants by the toilets. Put them all on the plan, set covers and fill order per area, and the booking flow works to your rules instead of a generic capacity number.

Areas that match the room
Add floors and areas, place tables, and set minimum and maximum covers on each one.
Chains for the big ones
Bolt specific tables together into one bookable option when a party outgrows a single table.
Fill the room in order
Rank areas and tables so quiet corners go last and your staff are not running the length of the building.
We build it with you
Setup is done for you, layout included, so day one is a working diary and not a blank canvas.
Guest selecting a table on their phone during the BookingNinja booking flow
Guest Experience

One Parent, One Phone,
Paid Before They Arrive.

A mum books the 10am session on your own website, says two adults and three under-fives, picks the table by the window and pays a deposit. All of it lands as one booking with a table attached.

Priced per guest type
Under-ones free, walkers one price, adults another, add-ons on top, each counted against capacity.
Take it up front
Full payment, a deposit per head, or a card held against a no-show, decided per session.
They pick the table
The floor plan is in the booking flow, so a parent can choose a spot near the toddler zone.
Waiver signed before they arrive
Attach a waiver to the session and the booking sends its own signing link. One per child, signed by the adult bringing them.

When ROLLER Is the Right Call

ROLLER is a mature product used by thousands of venues, with serious backing, and there is a shape of venue it fits better than we do.

  • Your building runs on admissions hardware. Self-service ticketing kiosks, RFID or cashless wristbands, access control on the gate and check-in devices across a big site are what ROLLER was designed around. We do none of that.
  • Multi-site HQ and reseller channels are load-bearing for you. ROLLER has HQ management across several venues and OTA channel distribution in the product. BookingNinja is aimed squarely at direct bookings on your own website.

Trampoline park chain with turnstiles and wristbands: talk to ROLLER. One or two soft play or activity sites where the cafe matters as much as the play frame: that is the venue we built this for.

FAQ

ROLLER Alternative Questions, Answered

Is BookingNinja cheaper than ROLLER?
I cannot tell you, because ROLLER does not publish prices. Their pricing page lists four tiers and a 14-day trial and then asks you to book a call. What is documented is the shape of the bill: a subscription, usage fees where they apply billed in arrears on the 5th for the previous month, payment fees taken out of your payouts, and implementation sold as a paid extra. Ours is on our pricing page. Starter is £42 a month ex VAT plus a 1% transaction fee, and Gold is £75 plus 1%. The fee comes off each payment as it is taken, and card processing by Stripe or Square sits on top. Get their quote and put the two side by side.
We run soft play and a cafe. Which parts does ROLLER not cover?
The covers side. ROLLER's food and drink is POS driven: mobile ordering, guest tabs settled at the end of the visit, kitchen printing. It is not a reservation book, so there is no booking against table 12 at 11am and no floor plan of the room. If your kitchen is a real part of the business, that gap is the thing you feel on a Saturday.
Can we book play sessions and tables at the same time?
Yes, that is the whole point of the page. A session controls the capacity for the play frame, and the same booking sits on a table in the cafe with guest types and a deposit attached. Your staff see both on one plan instead of reconciling a ticketing screen against a paper diary.
Does BookingNinja do parties, memberships and gift cards?
Yes, and so does ROLLER. The difference is commercial rather than functional. Party bookings, memberships with recurring billing, gift cards and order at table are all switched on here whichever plan you are on. ROLLER's plan table puts mobile food ordering on its Premium tier and marks waivers, loyalty and text messages as extra-cost items.
How long does setup take?
About a day, and we do it rather than handing you a checklist. Sessions, tables, guest types and pricing get built with you on a call. ROLLER lists implementation as a paid extra, one Capterra reviewer mentions complicated setup at the start, and G2 reviewers put the average implementation at about two months, so budget differently for that.
What does ROLLER do that BookingNinja does not?
Admissions hardware. Self-service kiosks, RFID and cashless wristbands and access control integrations are all theirs and none of them are ours. They also have multi-venue HQ management and reseller channel distribution. Waivers used to sit on this list and no longer do: we have digital waivers with typed or drawn signatures built in. If the hardware or the HQ layer is what you need, we are not the answer and I would rather say so now.
Does BookingNinja do digital waivers?
Yes. You write the waiver, attach it to whichever sessions need one, and every booking on those sessions gets its own signing link by email, with reminders three days and one day before the visit if it is still unsigned. Parents sign for their children on the same form, signatures can be typed or drawn, and you can share the link with the rest of the party so each family signs for their own. Signed waivers land in a searchable register with the exact wording that was agreed to, the time and the IP address kept against each one. Set a validity period and a family who signed last month does not have to sign again. Signing happens once the booking is made rather than during checkout, so a waiver never costs you a sale.
Is there a free plan?
There is a Free Forever tier at nothing a month, with every feature switched on and 75 bookings a month that carry no payment. Past that, a booking has to include a payment, and the customer pays a booking fee at checkout of 2.5% or 50p, whichever is higher. No card needed to start and nothing to sign.
Is BookingNinja UK-based?
Yes. Small UK company, founder led, and the person who replies to your email is the person who wrote the code. ROLLER has a London office, prices in GBP and answers the phone around the clock, but it is an Australian-founded global business and you will be talking to a support desk rather than the people who built it.
More Comparisons

Switching From Something Else?

Weighing up a few booking systems? See how BookingNinja compares to the others.

ResDiary Alternative

Flat monthly pricing without per-cover fees, paid add-on modules or long contracts.

Compare

Beyonk Alternative

How BookingNinja compares to Beyonk on the 4% booking fee, who keeps a fee you pass on to guests, and running sessions and cafe tables together.

Compare

Booked It Alternative

Switch from Booked It, keep charging families the same booking fee, and keep the difference. Plus where your takings land and how the move works.

Compare

BookMyParty Alternative

How BookingNinja compares to BookMyParty for soft play and play centres: booking on your own site, the cafe and waivers in the same system, and how the two bills are built.

Compare

Bookteq Alternative

Bookteq handles facility hire. Here is what changes when your bookings are people at tables.

Compare

Bookwhen Alternative

How BookingNinja compares to Bookwhen for venues that seat guests at tables.

Compare

Play, Parties
and Covers, Booked.

Live this week. £42 a month plus 1% on payments, all on the website, nothing to sign.

Start For Free

Free Forever plan: 50 no-payment bookings a month. Upgrade anytime.