simpleERB Alternative

For Venues That Have
Outgrown
The Reservation Book.

simpleERB is cheap and simple on purpose, and that works right up until you start selling events, taking memberships or letting seated guests order from their phone. BookingNinja does the reservations plus all of that, on one flat monthly fee with no cover allowance to run out of, and we build your venue for you in about a day.

Start For Free

No credit card required. No contracts. Cancel anytime.

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

Simple Is Fine, Until It Is Not

simpleERB has taken restaurant bookings since 2012, it is UK-based, and it charges no per-cover fee. Ours is the same commercial model with a much wider product behind it, which matters once the booking stops being the whole job.

Room to Grow Into

Guest types with their own prices, memberships, gift cards and order at table are already there when you need them. There is no evidence simpleERB offers any of the four today.

No Cover Allowance

simpleERB's Starter tier includes 300 covers a month and Plus includes 1,200. Every BookingNinja plan is uncapped, so a strong month costs you the same as a quiet one.

One Screen, Current Design

Capterra reviewers have called the simpleERB interface dated and stitched together. It is a small sample of about ten reviews, but a modern single screen for bookings, floor plan and payments is worth having either way.

We Do the Setup

simpleERB is self-serve and reviewers mention a learning curve. We build your sessions, tables and floor plan with you, normally inside a day.

You Get the Founder

Both companies are UK-based and small. Here, the person who writes the software also sets up your venue and picks up the phone when something is wrong.

Side by Side

BookingNinja vs simpleERB

Both take direct bookings, both are UK-based, and neither charges you per cover. What differs is how far each one goes past the reservation itself.

Table & floor-plan management

BookingNinja
simpleERB

Deposits, prepayments & no-show protection

BookingNinja
simpleERB

Ticketed events

BookingNinja
simpleERB

Guest types with per-guest pricing

BookingNinja
simpleERB

Memberships & recurring billing

BookingNinja
simpleERB

Gift cards

BookingNinja
simpleERB

Order at table (QR ordering)

BookingNinja
simpleERB

Monthly cover allowance

BookingNinja
Uncapped on every plan
simpleERB
300 or 1,200 on entry tiers

Setup done for you (about a day)

BookingNinja
simpleERB
Self-serve

simpleERB publishes its GBP tiers openly and charges no per-cover commission, same as us. Its Pro tier lifts the cover limit; the caps above apply to Starter and Plus. Comparison drawn from publicly available information and accurate to the best of our knowledge, so check simpleERB for the current position.

Membership plans and gift card sales history side by side in the BookingNinja admin
Past the Diary

The Bits You Add
After the Booking.

Most venues that move off a reservation book move for the same reasons. A supper club needs different prices for adults and children. A wine bar wants a members' scheme. The pub garden needs guests ordering without queuing at the bar. All of that sits in the same system as your bookings here.

Memberships
Recurring plans billed automatically, with member perks and booking discounts attached.
Gift cards
Sell branded cards from your booking page and redeem them against a booking.
Order at table
Seated guests scan, order and pay on their phone, and it lands in the kitchen.
Guest types & parties
Adult, child and add-on prices, with pre-orders taken per guest rather than per table.
Live floor plan during service showing seated tables, upcoming bookings and tonight's booking list
Table Management

The Room as It
Actually Is.

simpleERB gives you a drag-and-drop floor plan and table ranking, and those are genuinely good. Ours doubles as the service view: colour-coded by seated, due and finished, so the host stand reads the room off one map instead of cross-checking a list.

Draw your real room
Areas, tables and the odd awkward corner, laid out the way your floor actually looks.
Assignment you can override
Best-fit by party size and priority, with joins for big groups, and a manual move whenever you want one.
Walk-ins and waitlist
Seat a walk-in straight off the plan and work the waitlist when the room fills.
Look ahead
Jump to next Saturday and see how the room will sit before you take the phone call.
Guest choosing their table on a phone during the BookingNinja booking flow
Booking Widget

Fewer Clicks
To Confirm.

A recurring complaint in simpleERB's reviews is the number of clicks a guest needs to finish a booking, and simpleERB has a widget redesign on its 2026 roadmap to address it. Ours is already mobile-first: your branding, your domain, and a short path from slot to paid deposit.

Guests pick their table
Show the live floor plan and let people choose the booth or the window seat themselves.
Prices that add up on screen
Adult, child and add-on rates shown as they go, so the total is right before payment.
Payment in the same flow
Deposit, full payment or a card hold, taken through Stripe without a second page.

When simpleERB Is the Better Buy

Cheap and simple is a real strategy, and for a decent number of venues it is the right one. Here is where I would stick with simpleERB.

  • Bookings really are the whole job. If you seat covers, take the odd deposit and never sell a ticket, a membership or a gift card, simpleERB's Starter tier at £21 a month is hard to argue with.
  • You are steady rather than growing. The cover allowances only bite if you are pushing past 300 or 1,200 covers a month, and the Pro tier removes the limit anyway. A predictable book on a rolling monthly contract is a perfectly sensible place to sit.
  • You already know the software. Reviewers say simpleERB takes a while to learn but works once you have it. If your team is past that point, switching costs you something real and you should be getting something real back.

The moment to look at us is when the wish list stops being about reservations. Events with tiered pricing, a members' scheme, gift cards at Christmas, guests ordering from the garden. That is where a reservation book runs out of road and where we start being worth the money.

FAQ

simpleERB Alternative Questions, Answered

Is BookingNinja a good alternative to simpleERB?
It depends what you need next. Both are UK direct-booking systems with floor plans, deposits, waitlists and no-show protection, and neither takes a cut of your covers. The reason venues move to us is the layer past reservations: per-guest-type pricing, memberships, gift cards and order at table. If reservations are all you want, simpleERB is cheaper and does the job.
What can BookingNinja do that simpleERB cannot?
Four things, based on everything published about the product. Guest types with their own prices, memberships with recurring billing, gift cards, and QR ordering for seated guests. simpleERB is a reservations and table-management product and it is decent at that, so this is a difference in scope rather than in quality.
What happens when a busy month uses up my covers?
With us, nothing, because there is no monthly allowance on any plan. simpleERB includes 300 covers on Starter and 1,200 on Plus, and at least one reviewer has described guests being unable to book once those ran out. Its Pro tier is uncapped if you would rather stay put and upgrade. Annual simpleERB subscribers also get the whole year's allowance upfront, which softens it.
How hard is it to move over from simpleERB?
Not very. simpleERB runs a rolling monthly contract with no lock-in, so nothing traps you. Export your customers and forward bookings, send them to us, and we will load them in while we build your sessions, tables and floor plan. Your new booking page can be live the same week.
Do I lose the floor plan and table management I rely on?
No. Areas, table priority, automatic assignment, joins for large parties, walk-ins and a waitlist are all in, on every plan, and the same plan doubles as the live service view during a shift.
Is there a free plan?
There is. Free Forever costs nothing each month, has every feature switched on, and covers up to 50 bookings a month that take no payment. Past that, a booking needs to carry a payment, and your guest pays a small booking fee at checkout of 2% or 50p, whichever is larger. simpleERB runs a 250-cover free trial instead, which is a different shape of the same idea.
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Outgrowing
Your Booking Book?

Flat monthly pricing, no per-cover fees, no contract, no cover allowance, and a Free Forever plan if you want to try it first.

Start For Free

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