Why are food delivery apps so expensive?
Third-party delivery platforms tack on heavy service fees, delivery charges, and commissions of up to 30 percent that drastically inflate prices for customers. For restaurants, these steep cuts eat away at margins and force owners to lose money on orders unless they raise menu prices to cover the difference.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Calling the restaurant directly to place a pickup order
- 2Driving to the restaurant to pick up food in person
- 3Using the native ordering app of the specific restaurant
- 4Raising menu prices exclusively on third-party delivery apps to offset commission costs
- 5Refusing to use delivery apps entirely and encouraging customers to dine in, order directly for pickup, or use in-house delivery
- 6Creating your own online ordering portal
- 7Pulling all third-party apps entirely
- 8Putting take out over the phone on websites and social media
- 9Having an in-house delivery driver instead
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I told her because I have to give $3.10 of every $10 order to DoorDash in order to use their “services”, and frankly I lose money every time an order goes out the door unless I jack my prices sky-high to cover the difference… which I’m not currently willing to do.”source ↗
“Owners get screwed by the 30%”source ↗
“DoorDash charges 28% fees to restaurants; so prices are generally adjusted to offset some of that cost”source ↗
“I hear a lot of people complain they are broke then pay $17 extra for door dash delivery I don’t get it.”source ↗
“Services like DoorDash and UberEats make food service more expensive for no reason at all.”source ↗
“It's actually closer to 40% unless you spend a few hours each quarter telling a sales rep you are going to drop them unless you negotiate lower. People don't see it.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 2Why are marketplace seller fees so high?
- 3How to avoid paying $250 a month for routine website maintenance
- 3Why is there no spending limit or fraud detection for sudden credit spikes?
- 4Why does everything feel so expensive and impossible to keep up with?
- 3Why is eating out so expensive now when the food quality is worse?
- 5Why are service fees so expensive for tiny repairs?