What Dineplan does

Dineplan (Pty) Ltd is a privately held South African technology company founded in 2011 and headquartered in Claremont, Cape Town. It operates a dual-sided online restaurant booking platform that connects diners with restaurants across South Africa, listing more than 1,360 restaurants and accumulating over 320,000 verified diner reviews. The company serves two primary segments: restaurants and hospitality businesses on the supply side, and South African consumers seeking restaurant discovery and booking on the demand side.

The platform combines a consumer-facing mobile application (iOS and Android) and responsive website for restaurant discovery, browsing, and instant online reservations, with a browser-based restaurant management software suite accessed at restaurants.dineplan.com. Core technology includes cloud-based reservation management, a real-time live booking widget deployable on restaurant websites, Google Business listings, and social media channels, and an instant-booking flow where participating restaurants accept reservations without manual approval. The product suite has been extended beyond core reservations to include Online Ordering for takeaway and delivery, Ticketing for restaurant events, QR-code Digital Menu functionality, and a Voucherplan subsidiary offering universal and restaurant-specific gift vouchers with 36-month validity. Verified ratings and reviews are restricted to diners who actually booked and dined through the platform.

Dineplan's business model rests on multiple revenue streams: individually-negotiated monthly or annual subscription fees paid by restaurant partners, a non-refundable per-booking Platform Fee on prepaid reservations, transaction and settlement fees on reservation prepayments, online orders, voucher sales, and ticket sales, plus SMS and WhatsApp notification credits (12-month expiry). Distribution to diners is product-led via mobile apps and website, while restaurant acquisition is sales-led with a dedicated Sales Development Representative team targeting restaurant groups in Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Durban. The company is POPIA and GDPR compliant and maintains offices only in Cape Town with a small team.

Name

Dineplan

Legal name

Dineplan (Pty) Ltd

Website

https://dineplan.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2011

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Dineplan is a privately held South African online restaurant booking platform founded in 2011, operating a two-sided marketplace connecting 1,360+ restaurants across South Africa with diners via mobile apps, web, and an embedded reservation widget.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Restaurant Reservation & Booking Software

akta.pro primary industry

Restaurant Reservations & Dining Booking Platforms (BPAMAIAK)

akta.pro secondary industries

Dining Reservations & Restaurant Booking (HSACALAF), Restaurant/Table Reservation & Booking Engines (THALADAH)

Keywords

• Restaurant reservations
• Online booking platform
• Restaurant management software
• Dining marketplace
• Restaurant discovery app

Headquarters

HQ city

Cape Town

HQ country

South Africa

HQ region

Africa

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Restaurant Subscription Fees: Monthly or annual subscription fees charged to restaurant partners for access to the reservation management software, online ordering platform, and other services. Fees are agreed in writing between the Company and Proprietor.
2. Platform Fee on Prepaid Bookings: A non-refundable service charge applied per booking transaction when diners prepay through Dineplan. The Platform Fee is inclusive of VAT and remains non-refundable even if the booking is cancelled.
3. Payment Processing and Settlement Fees: Transaction and settlement fees charged on reservation pre-payments, online orders, voucher sales, and ticket sales. Fees are detailed in the Proprietor Registration Form.
4. Voucher Services: Revenue generated through the sale of digital restaurant vouchers. Restaurants can opt-in to accept universal Dineplan vouchers.
5. Ticketing Platform: Fees from selling tickets for restaurant events including entrance management.
6. SMS and WhatsApp Credits: Credits purchased by restaurants for transactional and marketing notifications to customers. Credits expire after 12 months if unused and are non-refundable.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Dineplan operates a dual-sided restaurant booking and reservation management platform that connects South African diners with restaurants. For diners, it provides a mobile app and website to discover restaurants by cuisine and location, make instant or request-based reservations, read verified reviews, and purchase digital gift vouchers. For restaurants, it offers a browser-based reservation management software with an embedded live booking widget, online ordering, ticketing, digital menus, voucher management and payment processing under monthly subscription and transaction-fee terms.

Product overview

Dineplan operates as a dual-sided restaurant reservation platform combining a consumer-facing restaurant discovery and booking application with a comprehensive restaurant management software suite. The core offering includes the Dineplan Consumer App and web platform for diners to discover, browse, and book restaurants with instant online reservations or request-based bookings. The restaurant-side software provides browser-based reservation management with a live booking widget that integrates into restaurant websites, Google Business listings, and social media. The platform extends through several integrated modules: Online Ordering for takeaway orders with collection or delivery options, Ticketing for restaurant events, Digital Menu functionality accessible via QR codes, and Voucherplan for gift voucher management with universal and restaurant-specific voucher types. Additional features include diner ratings and reviews (restricted to verified booking holders), prepayment and payment processing for deposits and orders, and SMS/WhatsApp/Email notification systems. The platform focuses primarily on the South African restaurant market with listings across major cities including Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, Pretoria, Stellenbosch, Franschhoek, and Hermanus.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Dineplan Restaurant Reservation Software Browser-based reservation management software for restaurant partners to manage bookings, guests and online reservations received from multiple channels including their own websites, Google Business listings and social media.
• Dineplan Consumer App (iOS & Android) Mobile application for diners to discover restaurants by cuisine and location, browse listings and ratings, make instant online bookings or reservation requests, manage reservations on the go and purchase digital vouchers.
• Dineplan Vouchers (Voucherplan) Digital gift voucher platform offering both universal Dineplan vouchers redeemable at any participating restaurant and restaurant-specific vouchers, valid for 36 months from purchase.
• Dineplan Online Ordering Platform Online ordering platform enabling restaurants to receive and process takeaway orders, with options for customer collection or restaurant delivery and integrated payment processing.
• Dineplan Ticketing Platform Ticketing platform allowing restaurants to sell tickets for events and manage event entrance and coordination.
• Digital Menu Functionality Digital menu feature allowing guests to view restaurant menus online via QR code scanning and restaurants to update and manage menu items.

Quantifiable outcome

• Platform powers reservations for 1,360+ restaurants across South Africa
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration5 records

Feature6 records

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Tock: Tock (owned by Squarespace) is a reservation and ticketing platform offering booking management, prepayment, and event-ticketing features for restaurants. Its prepayment and ticketing modules overlap directly with Dineplan's feature set.
• Resy: Resy is a restaurant reservation platform owned by American Express, primarily serving the US market. It offers diner booking, restaurant management software, and integration with payment networks, making it a close functional peer to Dineplan.
• SevenRooms: SevenRooms is a restaurant CRM and reservation platform serving hospitality businesses globally with reservation, ordering, marketing, and guest-data tools. Its product scope closely mirrors Dineplan's reservation-plus-marketing-plus-ordering offering.
• ResDiary: ResDiary is a UK-headquartered restaurant reservation and table-management platform operating across multiple markets. It targets independent and group restaurants with a similar value proposition to Dineplan's restaurant-side software.
• Quandoo: Quandoo is a restaurant reservation marketplace operating across Europe, Asia, and South America with similar diner-discovery and booking features. It is a comparable mid-sized peer to Dineplan in terms of market positioning.
• Zenchef: Zenchef is a European restaurant marketing and reservation platform offering booking management, customer engagement, and online ordering for restaurants. It competes in the same SMB-restaurant software niche as Dineplan.
• TheFork: TheFork (formerly LaFourchette, owned by Tripadvisor) is a leading online restaurant reservation platform in Europe and Australia. It offers the same core diner-discovery and instant-booking functionality that Dineplan provides in South Africa.

Regional players

• TableCheck: TableCheck is a Japan-based restaurant reservation and table-management platform with global presence. It targets independent and chain restaurants with reservation, POS integration, and analytics, making it a comparable Asian-focused peer.

Broad incumbents

• OpenTable: OpenTable is the global leader in online restaurant reservations, owned by Booking Holdings. It operates a similar dual-sided marketplace model connecting diners with restaurants and is the dominant global benchmark for Dineplan's core business.

Emerging players

• Eat App: Eat App is a restaurant reservation and guest management platform operating primarily in the Middle East and Asia. It offers comparable reservation, CRM, and floor-management features targeted at SMB and mid-market restaurants.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Dineplan