Waitlist and check-in guides
Straight answers to the questions people ask about waitlists and walk-in check-in. Each guide answers in the first paragraph, then shows its work.
What happened to the NoWait app?
The standalone NoWait app no longer exists. Yelp acquired NoWait in 2017 for $40 million and folded it into Yelp Waitlist, which is now part of Yelp Guest Manager, Yelp's...
Updated 2026-10-02Best waitlist apps compared: which one fits what you run
The best waitlist app depends on what you run. Best for restaurants that seat parties: Yelp Guest Manager or TablesReady. Best for multi-location queues and bookings at scale:...
Updated 2026-10-02How to manage a waitlist
Managing a waitlist means capturing everyone who is waiting, keeping them in fair arrival order on one list your whole team can see, and clearing people off as they are helped,...
Updated 2026-10-02How these guides are written
We make Acorn Check In, a free check-in tool for any business with a door. A visitor scans a QR code, types their name, and lands on one shared live list your team watches. That is all it does, so these guides do not pretend it is the answer to everything.
Where another tool fits the job better, the guide says so by name. A restaurant that seats parties needs table management, and Acorn Check In has none. Competitor pricing is described by its shape, with a link to the vendor's own pricing page, because a reprinted number goes stale and a link does not.
Every guide carries the date it was last checked. Comparisons are re-read each quarter.