ResX vs SeatSwiper: Premium Price, Cities and an Honest Review

ResX is built differently from every other service I have compared with mine. By its own description it is an exchange: diners who can’t make a reservation hand it on, and other diners claim it. Its homepage puts it this way: “Claim reservations other people can’t make, or submit yours when your plans change.” I run SeatSwiper, so weigh the product sections with that in mind. Every statement about ResX below comes from its homepage, its claim, submit and About pages, its terms of use and its App Store listing, plus one dated magazine profile, attributed as I go. SeatSwiper is not affiliated with ResX. Last verified 31 October 2026.

The short version

At a glance, with each line backed up below:

• Two different models. ResX’s App Store listing calls it “a free, peer-to-peer exchange to give and take last-minute restaurant reservations.” SeatSwiper is a watcher: you name the table, and it books it on your own Resy, SevenRooms or OpenTable account the moment one opens, at the release or when someone cancels.
• What you can get. On ResX, whatever another diner hands on. On SeatSwiper, the restaurant, date and time window you chose, if a table opens and it wins the race.
• Where. ResX’s About page and App Store listing name New York and London. SeatSwiper works wherever Resy, SevenRooms or OpenTable take reservations, with no city list.
• Price. ResX is free to use, with a Premium tier its App Store listing prices at $14.99, or $119.99 for twelve months. SeatSwiper’s first booking is free, then a flat $5, charged only when it actually books the table, with 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 it wins you the table.
• Neither sells tables. ResX’s listing says “No resale, no bots.” SeatSwiper books in your name, for your own dinner, with nothing resold, transferred or listed.

What ResX says it is

Its About page lists Mena Barakat and Sarah Goldring as co-founders and tells the origin story in one line: “What began as an Instagram account helping people share their last-minute reservations, has since grown into an app connecting diners to the city’s most sought-after tables in both NYC and London.” Entrepreneur, in a profile published 13 February 2026, dates the start: “So, in 2022, they launched their business ResX, a reservation swap platform.” The iPhone app has been on the App Store since April 2023, sold by ResX LLC, and the download link on its site sends Android users to Google Play. Version 2.0.0, released 27 October 2026, is described as a “Re-platform of the app to optimize the user experience, improve load times and responsiveness.”

The homepage headline is “Good things happen last minute,” and the model comes in three steps: Claim (“Get the best tables in town without the weeks of planning”), Share (“Can’t make your reservation? Share it and make someone’s day”) and Earn (“Earn tokens with every booking. Redeem them for exclusive rewards”). Its FAQ page gives the reason it works: “ResX works because our community shares reservations they can no longer use.”

How a handoff works, per its own pages

If you hold a reservation you can’t use, its submit page says you “Upload your reservation confirmations, fees, and more in just a few steps,” and states the upside plainly: “Dodge cancellation fees by passing along your reservation to other hungry users.” ResX says it will “send you a quick ping when your table is claimed.”

On the other side, its claim page has you “Browse last-minute tables submitted by our community of diners” and “Secure your reservation instantly with just a few taps.” The last step reads “Get confirmed 2 hours beforehand & ask the original submitter any questions you have,” and its terms add that by claiming, “you consent to receive text messages about your reservation 2 hours before your selected reservation time.” Entrepreneur’s profile says submitters and claimers can contact each other, “for instance, if the claimer is running late for the reservation.”

One thing I could not settle from its pages: whether a claimed booking is moved into the claimant’s name or stays under the person who submitted it. None of the pages I could read says, and the answers in its FAQ did not load when I checked. If that matters for your evening, ask ResX before you claim. On SeatSwiper the question never comes up: it books on your own account, in your name, and nothing is transferred.

Does money change hands?

Not as a sale, by ResX’s own rules. Its terms of use state, in capitals: “RESX DOES NOT PERMIT RESERVATION HOLDERS TO RESELL, UPSELL, OR MAKE ANY PROFIT FROM RESERVATIONS.” What can pass along is the restaurant’s own charge: the terms say “Reservation Holders may pass through fees actually paid or payable to the restaurant associated with the reservation.”

Read the claimant’s side before your first claim. The terms define Fees as a restaurant’s “fees and/or pre-paid deposits or service fees,” give a claimant a five-minute grace period, and then say the claimant “acknowledges and agrees that they are directly and solely responsible for any Fees for claimed reservations following the expiration of the Grace Period.” Entrepreneur put it more simply: someone can claim a reservation “and become liable for those fees.” As I read those terms, once a claim is more than five minutes old, the restaurant’s deposit or cancellation charge on that booking is yours to cover. Its FAQ also lists the question “Why was I charged a $1.99 fee after claiming a reservation?” That answer did not load for me either, so ask what it covers before you count a claim as free.

Premium, tokens and the price, worked through

ResX’s listing calls the exchange free. The paid layer is ResX Premium, and its homepage lists what it adds:“Early access to all reservations,” “Customize your alerts,” “More bookings per week,” “Earn more tokens from your submissions,” “Priority access before everyone else” and “Unlimited Premium reservations.” Its App Store listing prices ResX Premium at $14.99, with 3-month, 6-month and 12-month plans at $37.99, $69.99 and $119.99, and Entrepreneur’s profile describes the premium tier as costing “$14.99 per month.” Tokens are earned by sharing, and its terms say a premium token used to claim a reservation “will not be refunded upon cancellation of the reservation.” If you came here for a ResX promo code, I don’t have one; that would come from ResX.

SeatSwiper’s full price list: your first booking is free, then a flat $5, charged only when it actually books the table. 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.

These buy different things, so the numbers only go so far:

• Browsing tonight’s feed and claiming what suits you. ResX: $0 on the free tier, subject to the restaurant’s own fees and that $1.99 question. SeatSwiper has nothing like it.
• One specific table, caught at its release. SeatSwiper: $0 if it is your first booking, $5 after that. On ResX it depends on someone handing that exact table on.
• A year of four hard tables. Two caught at release, two through cancellation watches, plus one watch that never sees a table: $0 + $5 + $6 + $6 + $1 = $18 on SeatSwiper. Twelve months of ResX Premium is $119.99, though Premium is optional and the free tier costs nothing.

If its feed has what you want, ResX wins on price outright. The sums only tip toward SeatSwiper if you would otherwise pay for Premium to chase particular rooms.

Where ResX genuinely wins

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

• It is free. Its App Store listing calls the exchange free, and says you can “Post it on ResX for free” when you can’t make a reservation. No SeatSwiper booking after the first beats that.
• It can surface tables no watcher can see. A reservation handed straight from one diner to another is not cancelled back onto Resy, SevenRooms or OpenTable, so a watcher like SeatSwiper, which reads those platforms, has nothing to catch. Passing a table on instead of cancelling it is exactly what its submit page is built for.
• It is people-powered. Its claim page says “Every table comes from a trusted community member,” and you can ask the original submitter questions before you go.
• It helps the person giving up the table. Instead of paying a cancellation fee, you pass the reservation on and earn tokens for it.
• Tonight, without a plan. “The best nights are unplanned,” says its claim page. If you are flexible about where and want to eat well tonight, browsing a feed beats setting up a watch for a room you haven’t chosen. For other ways to find a table tonight, see how to get a last-minute reservation in NYC.
• A well-rated app. 4.8 out of 5 from 769 ratings on the App Store as of 31 October 2026, and it runs on iPhone and Android. SeatSwiper runs in the browser.

What SeatSwiper does differently

The difference is who decides what you get. On ResX you choose from what other people have handed on. On SeatSwiper you name the restaurant, the dates, the party size and the time window, and it watches Resy, SevenRooms and OpenTable and books the table the moment one opens, whether that is new availability at the release or someone cancelling. That makes it as useful for the anniversary dinner you plan a month out as for a table this week. You set it once and follow each watch from DRAFT to ARMED to RUNNING to BOOKED in a live race log, at seatswiper.com. It isn’t tied to New York, London or any list: it works wherever those three platforms take reservations. If you are weighing a service that books against one that only tells you, read reservation alerts vs auto-booking.

It books in your own name, on your own account, so there is no question of whose name is on the booking. And it can’t get your account banned, for two reasons. It books 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. The longer answer is in will a reservation service get my account banned.

The limits, stated plainly. It covers Resy, SevenRooms and OpenTable only. It needs your reservation account login to book as you. At a room where prime seats go in seconds, it can lose a race for a single table. And it cannot see a table that never comes back to those platforms, which is exactly ResX’s territory. I publish no success rate, for the reasons in is SeatSwiper legit.

Who should pick which

Pick ResX if you are in New York or London, flexible about where you eat and happy to take a great table tonight when someone hands one on; if you want to pay nothing; or if you are the one holding a reservation you can’t use and would rather pass it on than pay a cancellation fee.

Pick SeatSwiper if you know the restaurant you want and want it booked in your own name, if it is outside New York and London, or if you are planning around a release rather than tonight. The first booking is free, then a flat $5 charged only on success, with no subscription; a cancellation watch costs $1 to start (charged even if no table opens, not covered by the free first booking, not refunded), plus the same $5 if it wins. The two rarely compete for the same dinner, and plenty of people could use both: ResX for the night you simply want to go out, SeatSwiper for the night you have already chosen.