Here is SevenRooms and Allvio measured against the same 43 capabilities in this POS system comparison, from the register at the counter to a campaign result in March. SevenRooms is included on fourteen, does part of the job on one at no extra cost, sells one as a named add-on module, leaves one that their published material does not settle, and sits outside twenty six. That twenty six is the reason this page exists, and it is not a criticism. SevenRooms is a reservations and guest experience platform. It has never claimed to be a till, a roster or an ordering page, and a table that treated those rows as failures would be worthless to you.
Two things they do better than we do
Their guest profiles are better than ours. That is the plain reading of their own material: over a hundred data points per guest, preferences, tags, occasions and itemised spend, and nothing else in this category assembles a diner as thoroughly. Their floor plan is better than ours too. SevenRooms ships a floor plan editor with table cloning and rotation, and their onboarding asks you to lay out rooms, seating areas, tables and table combinations. Allvio holds tables, sections, capacity and status and puts a booking on a table, and has no visual floor plan designer yet. Concede both, because they are true.
The rest of their reservations block is complete: the diary, bookings from your own site, deposits and no show protection, the waitlist and walk ins, confirmations and reminders, ticketed events and set menus, and availability rules and trading hours, which their getting started material describes as shifts and access rules you configure yourself. On the guest side, notes, preferences and allergies and segments such as regulars and lapsed are included, and so are SMS campaigns, automated birthday and win back messages, and campaign results tied back to spend. Allvio takes deposits at booking and does not yet charge a no show or late cancellation fee automatically, so that row favours them as well.
Capability | SevenRooms | Allvio |
|---|---|---|
Selling and taking payment | ||
Touchscreen till for counter and table service | Not what it does | Yes |
Card, cash, split and part payments | Not what it does | Yes |
Table plan and open tabs | Not what it does | Yes, no floor plan designer |
Kitchen screens or dockets | Not what it does | Yes |
Stock counts and low stock alerts | Not what it does | Part of it, stock moves with sales |
Discounts, happy hour and price levels | Not what it does | Yes |
Gift cards | Not what it does | Yes |
Refunds, voids and exchanges | Not what it does | Yes |
Cash up and end of day | Not what it does | Yes |
Online ordering | ||
QR ordering at the table | Not what it does | Yes |
Pickup and takeaway from your own site | Not what it does | Yes, commission free |
Menu built and changed in one place | Not what it does | Yes |
Modifiers, sizes and dietary flags | Not what it does | Part of it, no nested modifiers |
Online payment and split bills | Not what it does | Part of it, no online bill split |
Upsells and promo codes | Not what it does | Part of it, no automatic upsells |
Orders land straight in the kitchen | Not what it does | Yes |
Bookings and reservations | ||
Booking diary | Yes | Yes |
Floor plan and table assignment | Yes | Part of it, no visual floor plan designer |
Bookings from your own website | Yes | Yes |
Deposits and no show protection | Yes | Part of it, deposits but no automatic fees |
Waitlist and walk ins | Yes | Yes |
Confirmations and reminders to guests | Yes | Yes |
Ticketed events and set menus | Yes | Part of it, no ticket pricing tiers |
Availability rules and trading hours | Yes | Yes |
Knowing your customers | ||
One customer record | Part of it, included | Yes |
Visit and spend history | Yes, spend via a till connection | Yes |
Notes, preferences and allergies | Yes | Yes |
Segments such as regulars and lapsed | Yes | Yes |
Loyalty and rewards | Not what it does | Yes |
Marketing | ||
Email campaigns | Costs extra, a named add-on module | Yes |
SMS campaigns | Yes | Yes |
Automated messages such as birthday and win back | Yes | Yes |
Campaign results tied back to spend | Yes | Yes |
Your team | ||
Rostering | Not what it does | Yes |
Clock in and out | Not what it does | Yes |
Timesheets ready for pay | Not what it does | Yes |
Leave and availability | Not what it does | Yes |
Staff app on their own phone | Not what it does | Part of it, phone browser, no native app |
Back office | ||
Invoices and quotes | Not what it does | Yes |
Payroll and payslips | Not what it does | Yes |
Not what it does | Yes | |
Seeing how you are doing | ||
Sales and end of day reporting | Not what it does | Yes |
Reporting on your phone | Check with them | Part of it, phone browser, no native app |
The rows that change an owner's week
Visit and spend history is included on both sides, and the qualifier matters. Their own CRM material has visits arriving natively and lifetime and itemised spend arriving through point of sale connections, so the number that makes a profile worth reading depends on your till being on their supported list, somebody arranging that connection, and it still working next winter. In Allvio the till is not a partner, it is the same subscription, so spend lands on her profile because it was the same sale.
One customer record is the row where they come back as part of the job, which reads oddly for the product with the best profiles in the category until you look at what the row asks. It asks whether one record serves the register, the diary and your own ordering page. Deep guest profiles inside the diary are not the same thing as one contact your counter staff are also writing to.
Email campaigns is the only row where money moves. The capability is genuinely good, and their own pricing page sells it as a module above the entry plan, with the entry level carrying basic messaging rather than campaigns. So the March newsletter is a bigger bill and a conversation, not a switch. Nothing in that is unfair. It is just worth knowing while you are budgeting rather than afterwards.
Then the twenty six. The till, card and cash handling, kitchen dockets, cash up, QR ordering, commission free online ordering from your own site, loyalty, rostering, clock in and out, timesheets, leave and your sales reporting sit outside SevenRooms, and every one of them is a row a restaurant POS system already holds. Each is a product to choose, pay for, set up and train staff on, each keeps its own copy of your prices and your people, and each has its own support number at seven on a Friday. Invoicing, payroll and the books are in the Allvio subscription too, and that is all they get here.
Reading the totals honestly
Fourteen included and twenty six outside does not mean thin. It means specialised, and SevenRooms is the most specialised guest product on the market. Reporting on your phone we could not settle from what they publish, so the table says check with them rather than guessing at a cross. The real question is the one no feature list answers: who buys, sets up, pays for and maintains the twenty six capabilities the platform does not cover, and whether the guest on table four is the same person in every one of them. In a group with a reservations coordinator and a marketing manager, that has an owner. In a venue where you are also plating desserts, a hundred fields are a hundred invitations to do data entry you will not get to.
Who should buy SevenRooms anyway
A premium group with several venues, a host on the podium and somebody whose actual job is guest marketing should buy SevenRooms and use it hard. It will repay that team in a way a broader product will not. For a single room where you are the reservations manager, the marketer and the person on the pass, Allvio Complete, the all in one business software plan, is $399 per month ex GST for one location with every app switched on, plus $299 per month per extra location, no per user charge, with a 30 day trial that needs no card.
Frequently asked questions
Is SevenRooms a POS system?
No. It is a reservations and guest experience platform, and 26 of the 43 rows sit outside it: the till, card and cash handling, kitchen dockets, cash up, ordering from your own site, loyalty, rostering, timesheets, leave, the back office and sales reporting. Specialised is not thin, but it does mean a venue on SevenRooms buys a till separately.
Does SevenRooms include email marketing?
Not at the entry level. Email campaigns are sold as a named add-on module above the base plan, with basic messaging included lower down. SMS campaigns, automated birthday and win back messages and campaign results tied back to spend are included. Price the email module in before you plan a campaign around it.
Does SevenRooms show what a guest has spent?
Visits are recorded natively, but lifetime and itemised spend arrive through a point of sale connection. That means your till has to be on their supported list, someone has to set the connection up, and it has to keep working. When the diary and the register are one subscription, spend lands on the profile because it was the same sale.
What is the best SevenRooms alternative for a single venue?
SevenRooms suits a group with a reservations coordinator and a marketing manager. For one room where you are all of those people, Allvio covers the diary, the till, ordering, the guest record, campaigns, rostering and the books in one subscription at $399 per month ex GST, with a 30 day trial and no card. SevenRooms still has deeper guest profiles and a visual floor plan designer.
Every cell above comes from each vendor's own published material, checked in August 2026. Products change constantly: always confirm current capability directly with each vendor before deciding.