# TheFork B2B API vs Tock

> TheFork B2B scores 43.6 (E) to Tock's 12.4 (F) for restaurant reservations. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/thefork-vs-tock
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/thefork-vs-tock.md (~2,000 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/thefork-vs-tock.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/thefork-vs-tock.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

TheFork B2B API scores 43.6 (E) on agent readiness against Tock's 12.4 (F), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Tock leads on maintenance & community and transparency & trust. Both do restaurant reservations.

- 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
- Tock: grade F, 12.4/100, rank #1062 of 1076. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/tock.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/tock.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

### 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:
- Reliability, 35 against 25
- Schema & documentation, 87 against 5
- Agent ergonomics, 56 against 0
- Security & auth, 42 against 0
- Payments & pricing, 5 against 0

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

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

### Tock (F)

Good for: Restaurants and wineries taking reservations and experience bookings, and for diners booking in person.

Ahead on:
- Maintenance & community, 23 against 15
- Transparency & trust, 52 against 47

Watch for: No public API or MCP server an outside agent can call. The docs index reads "Docs coming soon"


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | TheFork B2B API | Tock | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 35 | 25 | TheFork B2B API +10 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 87 | 5 | TheFork B2B API +82 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 56 | 0 | TheFork B2B API +56 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 42 | 0 | TheFork B2B API +42 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 5 | 0 | TheFork B2B API +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 15 | 23 | Tock +8 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 47 | 52 | Tock +5 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **43.6 · E** | **12.4 · F** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | TheFork B2B API | Tock |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | Platform |
| Vendor | TheFork (La Fourchette SAS) | Tock (American Express) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.thefork.io/manager` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP |  |
| Auth | OAuth | API key |
| Pricing | Your plan | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under TheFork Partners API Terms of Use (La Fourchette SAS) and any core agreement with TheFork | Proprietary service under the Tock Terms of Use (effective 12 February 2026) and merchant terms |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Terms last updated |  | 2026-02-12 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2025-11-24 |
| Customer content may train models |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | yes |

## Verdicts

**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.

**Tock.** Tock takes reservations and experience bookings for restaurants and wineries and now feeds its venues into Resy. There is no public API or MCP server an outside agent can call today. api.exploretock.com publishes reservation data models without endpoints, and the Terms of Use forbid automated access to the site.

## Before you call either

### 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

### Tock

1. Don't plan to call Tock from another agent. Hand the booking to the person on exploretock.com or in the Resy app
2. Do not script the Tock website, which the Terms of Use forbid. A venue wanting data should ask Tock through its dashboard account

## Questions

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

TheFork B2B API scores 43.6 (E) on agent readiness against Tock's 12.4 (F), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Tock leads on maintenance & community and transparency & trust.

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

TheFork B2B API has a hosted endpoint at https://api.thefork.io/manager. No hosted endpoint is listed for Tock.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with TheFork B2B API or Tock

- [Chope vs TheFork B2B API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/chope-vs-thefork.md)
- [Chope vs Tock](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/chope-vs-tock.md)
- [Eat App Partner API vs TheFork B2B API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/eat-app-vs-thefork.md)
- [Eat App Partner API vs Tock](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/eat-app-vs-tock.md)
- [OpenTable APIs vs Tock](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/opentable-vs-tock.md)
- [Resy vs TheFork B2B API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/resy-vs-thefork.md)
- [Resy vs Tock](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/resy-vs-tock.md)
- [TableCheck API vs Tock](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tablecheck-vs-tock.md)
- [OpenTable APIs vs TheFork B2B API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/opentable-vs-thefork.md)
- [Square Appointments (Bookings API) vs TheFork B2B API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/square-appointments-vs-thefork.md)
- [TableCheck API vs TheFork B2B API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tablecheck-vs-thefork.md)
- [SevenRooms vs TheFork B2B API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sevenrooms-vs-thefork.md)
- [SevenRooms vs Tock](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sevenrooms-vs-tock.md)
- [Square Appointments (Bookings API) vs Tock](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/square-appointments-vs-tock.md)