Direct Ordering vs Delivery Apps: What Each Costs a Restaurant and How to Choose

What direct ordering is

Direct ordering means customers order and pay on your own website or app, using an online ordering system for restaurants that you control. They pick dishes, extras and a collection or delivery time, pay by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay, and the order prints or appears on your kitchen screen.

The difference from a delivery app is who the order belongs to. On a marketplace, the customer is the app’s customer: it sets the commission, it keeps the email address and it decides whose menu they see next time. On your own ordering system, the price, the fees, the delivery area and the customer list are yours.

Most restaurants end up with three ways to take orders online:

Why restaurants are moving orders direct

Commission takes the profit on every order

Uber Eats publishes its UK pricing: 30% when Uber delivers and 13% when you deliver or the customer collects, plus VAT. Just Eat charges 14% plus VAT. Full-service restaurants typically keep 3 to 6% of sales as profit, so a 30% commission is several times what the order earns you. Our 2026 commission data has the full rates.

Customers often pay more on the apps

When Which? compared prices in 2021, a Lebanese restaurant’s chicken shish cost £12.95 ordered direct, £13.95 on Just Eat and Uber Eats and £14.95 on Deliveroo. Higher app prices usually reflect the commission, and customers who notice the difference have a reason to order from you.

Many customers would rather order from you

Research by KAM with Slerp found that 62% of UK customers would rather order directly from a restaurant or pub, and that 22 million Brits order a takeaway or delivery from a restaurant or pub at least once a week.

The cost on a normal month

Take a restaurant with £10,000 a month of online orders. Here is the platform cost on four routes, before VAT and card processing:

Marketplace rates are Uber Eats’ 30% and Just Eat’s 14% published UK commission. Direct ordering uses Growtality’s Standard and Pro plans. Excludes VAT and card processing.

You don’t need every order to move. If a third of that £10,000 comes from regulars who switch to ordering direct, the commission saved at 30% is about £1,000 a month.

What to look for in a direct ordering system

Ordering as quick as the app

Photos, clear prices, extras and sizes, saved details for next time and fast payment with cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay. Customers compare your page with the app they used last week, so it has to work in a few taps on a phone.

Collection, delivery and table orders from one menu

One menu should drive collection, your own delivery and table ordering. When an item sells out, it should come off every channel at once. Scheduled menus for lunch and dinner save someone editing prices by hand twice a day.

Your own delivery, on your terms

If you deliver with your own drivers, the system should let you set the delivery radius, minimum order, fee and hours yourself, and get each order’s address and notes to the driver without anyone copying them out by hand.

Orders straight to the kitchen

Direct orders should land on the same kitchen screen or printer as everything else, with notes and allergens on the ticket. A separate tablet for every channel is how orders get missed on a Saturday night.

A customer list that builds itself

Every order should create or update a customer profile: what they order, how often and when they last ordered. That list is what lets you send a “we’ve missed you” message or a loyalty reward without paying a marketplace to reach the same person again.

Clear pricing with no fee on the customer

Check whether the system adds a service fee to the customer’s basket. A surprise fee at checkout sends people back to the app. Ask too whether card processing is included or charged separately.

Questions to ask before you sign

1. What will I pay a month at my current order volume, and at double it, including card processing?
2. Is any fee added to the customer’s order? Can I turn it off?
3. Does it handle collection, my own delivery and table ordering from one menu?
4. Do orders go to my existing kitchen screen, printer or till?
5. Can customers save their details and reorder in a couple of taps?
6. Who owns the customer data, and can I export it?
7. Does it connect to my bookings, loyalty and email marketing?
8. How long is the contract, and what does it cost to leave?

Getting your first direct orders

1. Put the ordering link on your Google Business Profile, your website’s homepage and your social bios.
2. Put a card in every bag that leaves the kitchen, including marketplace orders, with your ordering link and a reason to use it.
3. Give a simple reason to order direct, such as a small first-order offer or loyalty points that only come with direct orders.
4. Keep the marketplaces running while direct orders grow, and track what share of orders comes direct each week.

For more on moving regulars across, read takeaway online ordering and what a 30% commission takes from a £40 order.

How Growtality handles online ordering

Growtality’s online ordering system gives you a branded ordering page for collection, delivery with your own drivers and table ordering, all from one menu. Orders go to the Kitchen Display app, and every customer is saved to the same profile as their bookings and loyalty points, so you can bring them back without paying for them twice.

You pay your plan, from £29 a month, and 1% on completed online orders, with no fee added to your customers’ orders. See plans and pricing, or start a 14-day free trial with no card required.