JustReservd vs SeatSwiper: Platforms, Price and an Honest Review

Of every service in this category, JustReservd is the one whose model sits closest to mine. Its homepage line is “Other services notify you. We book it.” It books on your own Resy account, in your name, and charges only when a booking is confirmed. I run SeatSwiper, so weigh the product sections with that in mind. Every statement about JustReservd below comes from its own homepage, FAQ, restaurant and release-schedule pages and blog, attributed as I go. SeatSwiper is not affiliated with JustReservd. Last verified 26 October 2026.

The short version

At a glance, with each line backed up below:

• Platforms. JustReservd’s FAQ says its restaurants are “all on Resy,” and its blog says “Resy only, for now.” SeatSwiper books Resy, SevenRooms and OpenTable.
• Where. JustReservd works from a curated New York list; its sitemap lists 48 restaurant pages. SeatSwiper is not tied to a list or a city: it works wherever Resy, SevenRooms or OpenTable take reservations.
• Account safety. SeatSwiper publishes how often it reads your account and why it can’t get your account banned. I could not find JustReservd’s site addressing account bans either way.
• Price. Close to level. JustReservd charges $5 per confirmed booking, with free alerts and no subscription. SeatSwiper’s first booking is free, then a flat $5, charged only on a successful booking, with no subscription. A cancellation watch costs $1 to start, charged even if no table opens, not covered by the free first booking and not refunded, plus the same $5 if it wins you the table.
• Same account model. Both book on your own account, in your name.

What JustReservd says it is

Its page title promises “Automatic booking for impossible to reserve restaurants.” The flow, per its FAQ: you connect your Resy account once, “just your login credentials,” pick a restaurant, a date, a party size and the times you would take, and switch on auto-reserve. The FAQ adds “You can have 5 active alerts at a time.” On timing, its blog says “Between releases we check availability about every five minutes, to pick up cancellations,” switching to “checking every second or so in the minutes around that moment” for restaurants whose release time it tracks. It is candid about the gap: “a table that is cancelled and re-booked within a couple of minutes can be missed.” And it says plainly, “It is not a guarantee,” which is true of every service here, mine included.

What we have in common

Credit first, because the overlap is real. JustReservd’s homepage says “The second a table opens, we book it in your name.” SeatSwiper also books on your own Resy, SevenRooms or OpenTable account, in your name, for your own dinner, with nothing resold, transferred or listed. Both watch for new releases and for cancellations, both charge only when a table is booked, and neither sells a subscription. (If you are still deciding between a service that books and one that only alerts, start with reservation alerts vs auto-booking.) Between these two, the decision is platforms, place and the fine print.

The price, worked through

Per JustReservd’s FAQ, “Setting alerts and getting notified is free,” and auto-reserve costs $5 per booking, charged only when it confirms a reservation. “There is no subscription.” The same FAQ says that fee is non-refundable once a booking is confirmed, so cancel the table later and the $5 stays spent.

SeatSwiper’s full price list: your first booking is free, then a flat $5, charged only when a booking succeeds. No subscription. A cancellation watch costs $1 to start, charged when the watch begins even if no table ever opens, not covered by the free first booking and not refunded, plus the same $5 if the watch wins you the table.

• One table caught at release. JustReservd: $5. SeatSwiper: $0, because the first booking is free.
• Four a year. JustReservd: $20. SeatSwiper: $15, the first free and then three at $5.
• Ten a year. JustReservd: $50. SeatSwiper: $45.

Cancellation watching tips it the other way, and I won’t pretend otherwise. JustReservd charges nothing to watch a taken slot and $5 if it books. On SeatSwiper, three cancellation watches that land one table cost $8 ($3 if that table is your first booking) against $5 there. So SeatSwiper is ahead by $5 once, and JustReservd by $1 per cancellation watch. Price is not the reason to pick either of us.

Resy only and a New York list, or three platforms and any room

This is where the two part ways. JustReservd’s FAQ says “We focus on the hardest-to-book restaurants in NYC, all on Resy,” and its blog repeats it: “Resy only, for now.” Its sitemap lists 48 restaurant pages, Lilia and Torrisi among them. If yours is missing, the FAQ asks you to email a suggestion, adding “We’re expanding to more cities and platforms.”

Plenty of hard tables live off that map. Semma, in New York, books on SevenRooms. Bavel, in Los Angeles, takes reservations on OpenTable. By JustReservd’s own description of its coverage, neither is a room it books today. SeatSwiper watches any restaurant on Resy, SevenRooms or OpenTable, in any city where those platforms take reservations, with no list to be added to. That matters more than it sounds: you travel, a new room opens, and the table you want next month is rarely the one you wanted last month.

Your login, and your account’s safety

Any service that books in your name needs your reservation account connected, SeatSwiper included. JustReservd is more open than most about how it holds that connection: its blog says “Your Resy password is stored encrypted,” used, it says, only to keep the connection active and to book for you, and that “You can disconnect your Resy account in Settings at any time.”

The other question is whether a service like this can get your account banned. SeatSwiper can’t, for two reasons. It books on your own account, in your name, one table for your own dinner, with nothing resold. And it checks every few minutes, never nonstop: a watch reads at most once every 5 minutes, every 2.5 minutes in the final day before the reservation, at irregular times, under a per-account daily read cap. I could not find anything on JustReservd’s site, as of 26 October 2026, that addresses account bans either way, so if that worries you, ask it directly. The longer answer is in will a reservation service get my account banned.

Where JustReservd genuinely wins

There are real reasons to pick it, and I would rather you hear them from me.

• Free alerts. If an email heads-up is enough, you pay nothing at all.
• Free cancellation watching. It charges nothing unless a watch books, which beats SeatSwiper’s cancellation-watch pricing, set out in full above.
• Public release schedules. Its release-schedule pages say it continuously monitors Resy’s booking calendar “to learn when each restaurant releases new reservation dates,” and show days ahead, release time and the next release date. Its Lilia guide says “Tables at Lilia typically open 28 days ahead at 10:00 AM ET.”
• A fallback across your times. Its blog says “we try them in chronological order and keep the first one that books,” and “You only get one reservation, and one charge.”
• Candour. It names its limits, including that “Member-only tables are invisible to us.”

The case for SeatSwiper

If your restaurant is on JustReservd’s New York Resy list and you mostly chase release-day drops, the two will feel alike. Everywhere else, SeatSwiper reaches further: the SevenRooms and OpenTable rooms JustReservd says it doesn’t cover, restaurants outside New York, and the room that isn’t on anyone’s curated list. It books the moment a table opens, whether that is new availability or someone cancelling. You set a watch once and follow it from DRAFT to ARMED to RUNNING to BOOKED in a live race log, in the browser at seatswiper.com. And because it books one table on your own account and checks every few minutes rather than nonstop, it can’t get your account banned.

The limits, stated plainly. It covers Resy, SevenRooms and OpenTable only. It needs your reservation account connected. At a room where prime seats go in seconds, it can lose a race for a single returned table. I publish no success rate, for the reasons in is SeatSwiper legit.

Who should pick which

Pick JustReservd if your restaurant is on its New York Resy list, if free email alerts are most of what you want, or if you plan to run many cancellation watches and want to pay nothing for the ones that never book.

Pick SeatSwiper if your table is on SevenRooms or OpenTable, outside New York, or simply not on a list, or if you want a service that publishes how often it touches your account. Still weighing the field? I have done the same for AutoRes and Reservation Booker.