Kovo vs Maple: Which Fits Your Restaurant?
Maple is reservation-aware phone AI with OpenTable and a 92% resolution claim. Kovo is a $99 order line. Compare where the call ends and where it prints.
On this page
The reservation book at the host stand is half sold by Tuesday. The phone beside it does two jobs: it takes the table, and it takes the order for someone eating at the bar.
Maple is built for the first job. It is reservation-aware restaurant phone AI with OpenTable integration and basic order handling, priced by quote, and it publishes a 92% resolution rate across 1,000+ locations, which is the vendor's number rather than an audit.
The second job is where the money hides. A call that ends with a held table is revenue you can plan for. A call that ends with "order online, the link is on our site" is revenue you lost politely, and it never appears in a resolution rate.
TL;DR
- Kovo is one store, one line, one subscription: $99 for 750 connected minutes or $299 for 5,000, with the ticket printed to Toast, Square, Clover, Olo, Epson, or Star.
- Kovo books tables in its own book and charges the card the shop already holds while the caller is on the line, so a takeout call can end paid.
- At 600 calls of three minutes, Unlimited costs $299, about 50 cents an answered call, against a $32 to $48 phone ticket.
- Maple is reservation-aware phone AI with OpenTable integration and basic order handling, sold on a quote (checked October 2026).
- It publishes a 92% resolution rate across 1,000+ locations, a vendor claim that measures calls handled, not tickets printed.
What each product is
Kovo answers one store's phone, takes the order in the caller's words, reads it back, and writes the finished ticket to Toast, Square, Clover, Olo, an Epson Server Direct Print printer, or a Star CloudPRNT printer. One store, one line, one subscription.
It books tables in its own reservation book, built from the shop's hours and holiday exceptions, one seat per slot, with a confirmation text. With cards on, a card the shop already holds is charged while the caller is on the line, so the ticket reaches the kitchen during the call. A first-time caller gets a Stripe Checkout link by text and the line stays open until payment lands, so the number never enters the call, the recording, or the model. Starter runs $99 for 750 connected minutes and Unlimited $299 for 5,000. Minutes are connected call time: a call under 10 seconds is never billed, and at the cap the calls forward to your own phone. Order limits are the shop's own, defaulting to 10 items and 8 of one item.
Maple is restaurant phone AI built around the reservation book. It documents an OpenTable integration, per its published pages, and handles orders at a basic level, which is a different center of gravity from a product whose output is a kitchen ticket. It is priced by quote, so there is no published number to put beside Kovo's $99 and $299, and the honest instruction is to ask for the all-in monthly cost at your call volume in writing. The published strength is a 92% resolution rate for standard call types across 1,000+ locations. Treat that as the vendor's claim and then read it carefully: resolution usually counts the calls the system handled without a handoff, and it does not count the calls that ended with a caller deciding to eat somewhere else. In-call card payment is not advertised and the path from a phone order to your POS is not spelled out, so ask both on the demo.
The 30-second comparison
Published facts, dated October 2026. Confirm anything not documented before you sign.
| Kovo | Maple | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $99/mo for 750 connected minutes; $299 for 5,000 | Quote-based; no public list price, checked October 2026 |
| Reservations | Kovo's own book; reads and texts a page for OpenTable or Resy | OpenTable integration documented; confirm whether it writes the booking |
| What the call ends with | Order read back, then ticketed | Table held, or order taken at a basic level, per the vendor |
| Where the ticket lands | Toast, Square, Clover, Olo, Epson Server Direct Print, Star CloudPRNT | Not publicly listed — confirm the POS path |
| Card handling | Known card charged on the call; link for a first-time caller | In-call card payment not advertised; confirm the path |
| Website chat | Yes, same engine, embeddable | Not publicly listed — confirm |
| Published claims | None beyond the plan numbers | 92% resolution rate, 1,000+ locations, per the vendor |
| Setup | Import menu, test call, 14-day trial | Not publicly listed — confirm timeline and owner |
Row two is the one that settles it. If a caller asking for a table for six has to end up in the OpenTable book, Kovo books its own table instead, and the rest of the comparison is about the takeout line you also own.
What a 92% resolution rate measures
A resolution rate is a containment number. It tells you how often the system finished a call on its own, which is genuinely useful if you are buying an answering layer. It does not tell you how often a call ended in money.
Take a shop with 600 calls a month and a reservation book. Suppose 3 minutes is the average call, which is one answer, one correction, and a read-back. That is 1,800 connected minutes, so Kovo Unlimited at $299, or about 50 cents an answered call. Starter's 750 minutes would cover roughly 250 of those calls, which is why a shop with steady takeout ends up on Unlimited.
Now apply the rate. Industry estimates put around 60% of missed restaurant calls at someone trying to order or book, which is the uncomfortable part: the calls that go unanswered are mostly the ones worth answering. A 92% resolution rate on the calls that do get answered still leaves the question open. How many ended in a ticket on your POS, and how many ended with the caller sent to the website?
- 150 missed calls a month × $35 = $5,250 in orders nobody saw.
- 150 missed calls a month × $85 = $12,750.
That multiplication is worked through in what missed calls cost a restaurant. The point here is narrower: a containment rate cannot be compared with a printed ticket, and one of them is what your P&L sees. The pricing page shows the Kovo plans without a call.
Two questions to ask on the Maple demo
"What share of my calls ends in a ticket on my POS?" Ask for a number and a definition. If the answer is a resolution rate, ask again for the ticketed share. A vendor who can produce both is telling you something about the product's real job.
"Does the OpenTable integration write the booking, or read the book?" Reading availability and writing a reservation are different engineering problems. OpenTable publishes its own voice AI partner list for its reservation products, so check the vendor's status there before you rely on a two-way claim. The Kovo vs Hostie comparison goes deeper on the reservation-led case.
The decision, by situation
Three restaurants, three answers. One of these rows is not ours.
| Your situation | Pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A full-service room whose tables live in OpenTable and whose phone is mostly tables and guest questions | Maple | Reservation-aware handling and documented OpenTable integration are the product; Kovo books its own table, not yours |
| A room where any caller's card has to be charged inside the call and the booking has to land in the existing book | Maple, or a vendor with both documented | Kovo charges a card it already holds and books in its own book, so both of those requirements sit outside it |
| A shop where takeout is the revenue, the phone is orders and hours, and tables are taken at the host stand | Kovo | Published price, self-serve setup, and a ticket in the POS the kitchen is already reading |
The comparison hub carries the rest of the shortlist.
Who should pick Maple
Pick Maple if the reservation book is the business: it is reservation-aware phone AI with an OpenTable integration documented on its site, and the fine dining guide covers the room where the tables pay the rent.
FAQ
Does Kovo book tables?
Yes, in its own reservation book: availability from the shop's hours and holiday exceptions, one seat per slot, a confirmation text, and a desk board. What it does not do is write a booking into OpenTable or Resy. Maple is the reservation-aware product here, with OpenTable integration documented, so a room whose bookings have to land in OpenTable should compare Maple against OpenTable's voice AI partner list rather than against a $99 takeout line.
What does a 92% resolution rate actually measure?
It measures the share of calls the system handles without handing off, which is a containment number and not an order number. A call where the caller is told to order online is resolved. On 600 calls a month, a 92% rate still leaves 48 calls handed off or dropped, and it says nothing about how many of the rest ended in a ticket on your POS.
What does Kovo cost at 600 calls a month?
A 600-call month at three minutes a call is 1,800 connected minutes, which fits Kovo Unlimited at $299 and works out to about 50 cents an answered call. Starter's 750 minutes covers roughly 250 calls at that length, so a shop with a reservation book and steady takeout usually lands on Unlimited. Both plans are listed without a sales call.
How is a card paid on a Kovo order?
Three paths. With cards off, the order is confirmed and the caller pays when they collect. With cards on, a card the shop already holds is charged off-session while the caller is still on the line, so the ticket reaches the kitchen during the call. A first-time caller gets a Stripe Checkout link by text, types the number on Stripe's page, and the line is held open until payment lands, which vaults the card for next time. No card number is spoken to the agent on any path.
What orders will Kovo turn away?
The limit is the shop's own: defaults of 10 items in total and 8 of one item, both editable, plus an optional order-value limit, and zero turns any of them off. Above a limit the call rings the shop handset if the owner asked for that; otherwise the agent says the order is too large to send through and keeps taking what fits. A platter that needs a deposit and a lead time is still a person's job, and wait time is the owner's own number rather than an estimate.
Final Thoughts
Maple and Kovo sit on opposite sides of one question: whose book does the call end in? Maple answers the table, documents OpenTable, and publishes a resolution rate. Kovo answers the ticket, publishes a price, and books its own table.
If your revenue is allocated by a reservation book, buy the product that owns the book, and use OpenTable's partner list to check the claim. If your revenue arrives as takeout and the phone is the bottleneck, the decision is smaller than a comparison table makes it look.
Walk one real order through whichever product you choose: a large half-and-half, a side, a correction, a read-back, then the ticket. Kovo starts at $99 with 14 days free and no card at signup. Take a test call once the ticket matches what the caller said.