# TableCheck API vs TheFork B2B API

> TableCheck scores 57.1 (C) to TheFork B2B's 43.6 (E) for booking availability. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tablecheck-vs-thefork
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tablecheck-vs-thefork.md (~2,200 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tablecheck-vs-thefork.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tablecheck-vs-thefork.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-14

TableCheck API scores 57.1 (C) on agent readiness against TheFork B2B API's 43.6 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. TheFork B2B API leads on schema & documentation and payments & pricing. Both do booking availability.

- TableCheck API: grade C, 57.1/100, rank #661 of 1076. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/tablecheck.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/tablecheck.json
- TheFork B2B API: grade E, 43.6/100, rank #951 of 1076. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/thefork.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/thefork.json
- Best restaurant reservation and local appointment APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/local-bookings/index.md
- All 36 bookings comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/local-bookings/index.md

## Which one, for what

### TableCheck API (C)

Good for: Restaurants and groups in Japan and Asia on TableCheck, and booking or concierge platforms wanting their inventory.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 80 against 35
- Agent ergonomics, 72 against 56
- Maintenance & community, 35 against 15
- Transparency & trust, 66 against 47

Watch for: Access needs an emailed application, case-by-case approval and fees quoted privately

### TheFork B2B API (E)

Good for: CRM, PMS and AI phone-agent vendors and restaurant groups that run on TheFork Manager, mainly in Europe.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 87 against 77
- Payments & pricing, 5 against 0

Watch for: Venue-side only. Credentials cover the restaurants that granted access, and no endpoint lists restaurants


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | TableCheck API | TheFork B2B API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 80 | 35 | TableCheck API +45 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 77 | 87 | TheFork B2B API +10 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 72 | 56 | TableCheck API +16 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 46 | 42 | TableCheck API +4 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 0 | 5 | TheFork B2B API +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 35 | 15 | TableCheck API +20 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 66 | 47 | TableCheck API +19 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **57.1 · C** | **43.6 · E** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | TableCheck API | TheFork B2B API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | TableCheck Inc. | TheFork (La Fourchette SAS) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.tablecheck.com/api/` | `https://api.thefork.io/manager` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth |
| Pricing | Paid | Your plan |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the TableCheck API Terms of Service | Proprietary service under TheFork Partners API Terms of Use (La Fourchette SAS) and any core agreement with TheFork |
| Tools exposed | 20 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | yes |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Terms last updated | 2022-10-11 |  |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2016-12-14 | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text |  |

## Verdicts

**TableCheck API.** TableCheck publishes OpenAPI specs for availability, booking, CRM and POS components and a merchant MCP server with read-only keys, idempotent writes and personal data hidden by default. Access is by email application with case-by-case approval and unpublished fees, the MCP server is still under development, and no audit log or dated changelog was found.

**TheFork B2B API.** A venue-side API with a generated OpenAPI 3.1 schema, an llms.txt written for agents and nine OAuth scopes down to read-only availability. It acts for restaurants and their vendors, not diners, needs partner approval, cannot take card guarantees, and has no public status page, changelog or published prices.

## Before you call either

### TableCheck API

1. Decide which side you act for. Distribution and Web Booking serve diner-facing platforms, while Booking, CRM, POS and the MCP serve the venue
2. Ask the operator for a read-only key before using the MCP, as TableCheck recommends, and avoid cancellations through it
3. Call `hold_table` (MCP) or POST /blockages (REST) before booking, since availability is a snapshot and a blockage expires in 5 minutes
4. Send dates as YYYY-MM-DD and convert the UTC times returned to the venue's time zone from `list_shops`
5. Stay under 10,000 requests per 5 minutes per component and wait for the next window after a 429

### TheFork B2B API

1. Read hasPaymentGuaranteeRequirement in the timeslots response before booking, since the API cannot take a card
2. Check the status field after creating a reservation and treat REQUESTED as unconfirmed
3. Send the timeslot datetime unchanged as mealDate, because times are the restaurant's local time
4. Check for an existing reservation before retrying a failed POST, as no idempotency key exists and 409 signals DOUBLE_BOOKING
5. Cache the access token for its 8,600 seconds and do not request a new one while it is valid

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, TableCheck API or TheFork B2B API?

TableCheck API scores 57.1 (C) on agent readiness against TheFork B2B API's 43.6 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. TheFork B2B API leads on schema & documentation and payments & pricing.

### Do TableCheck API and TheFork B2B API need an API key?

TableCheck API needs an API key. TheFork B2B API uses an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call TableCheck API and TheFork B2B API without installing anything?

Yes. TableCheck API has a hosted endpoint at https://api.tablecheck.com/api/ and TheFork B2B API at https://api.thefork.io/manager.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tablecheck-vs-thefork.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tablecheck-vs-thefork.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "tablecheck", "b": "thefork"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare tablecheck thefork`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/tablecheck.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/thefork.json

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