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Direct online ordering vs food delivery apps: what each one actually does for a restaurant
This is not an argument for switching the apps off. It is a plain account of what a marketplace does well, what a restaurant's own online ordering system does well, what each costs, and how to decide which orders belong where.
The short version
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Marketplaces sell discovery
Someone who has never heard of you opens the app hungry and finds you. That is a real service, and the commission is the price of it. The weakness is that you pay the same price on the regular who would have ordered from you anyway.
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A direct site sells ownership
Orders through your own site carry no platform commission on Tuckly, and the customer's name, number and history stay with you. The weakness is that it brings in almost nobody on its own; you have to send people to it.
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Most restaurants should run both
Reach from the marketplace, margin and relationship from the direct site. The practical work is moving the repeat orders across, one QR code and one Google button at a time.
Cost and control, line by line
The lines that differ between the two channels. Food, packaging and labour are the same whichever way the order arrived.
| Line | Food delivery marketplace | Your own ordering site (Tuckly) |
|---|---|---|
| Platform commission | A percentage of the order, set by tier and contract | None |
| Payment processing | Bundled into the platform's deductions | Your payment gateway's published rate, charged by the gateway |
| Delivery | The platform's riders, usually with a fee charged to the customer; or your own drivers on a self-delivery tier | Porter riders in supported Indian cities, your own drivers, or pickup only |
| Customer data | Held by the platform; you usually see a first name and an order | Name, phone and order history on your order screen |
| Discovery | Strong: the app's search, promotions and category pages | Weak on its own: depends on Google Business Profile, social, print and word of mouth |
| Menu and pricing control | Within the platform's listing format and policies | Full: variants, add-ons, availability windows, your own prices |
| Promotions | Platform-run offers, often part-funded by you | Not a confirmed Tuckly feature; ask before relying on coupon codes |
| Software cost | None; paid through commission | Subscription per the pricing page |
Published commission figures, with sources
Where platforms publish rates we quote them. Where they do not, we say so rather than borrow a number from a forum. All checked October 2026; terms change and your contract governs.
| Market and platform | Delivery orders | Pickup orders | Self-delivery | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States, DoorDash Marketplace | Basic 15%, Plus 25%, Premier 30% | 6% | 15% delivery commission | merchants.doordash.com pricing and self-delivery pages |
| United States, Uber Eats Marketplace | Lite 20%, Plus 25%, Premium 30% | 7% (10% without validated pricing) | 15% self-delivery fee | merchants.ubereats.com/us/en/pricing |
| United Kingdom, Just Eat | 30% where Just Eat delivers | Not stated separately | 14% on orders you deliver | just-eat.co.uk partner sign-up page |
| United Kingdom, Deliveroo and Uber Eats | Not published on partner pages | Not published | Not published | Checked October 2026 |
| India, Swiggy | Reported 17 to 25 per cent | Not reported | Not reported | Business Standard, 15 August 2024 |
| India, Zomato | Reported 10 to 28 per cent; fees capped at 30% of order value per a July 2025 report | Not reported | Not reported | NDTV Profit via Verdict, 1 September 2025; Medianama, 9 July 2025 |
| India, industry view | Restaurant association insiders cite 25 to 35 per cent all-in | Inc42, 9 June 2025 | ||
| Australia and Canada | Not published on partner pages | Not published | Not published | Checked October 2026 |
Indian figures are press reports of ranges, not rate cards; Swiggy and Zomato also charge customers a per-order platform fee (₹17.58 including GST and ₹14.9 before GST respectively as of March 2026, per Inc42).
Worked example
What moving a quarter of the orders is worth
A restaurant does 800 marketplace orders a month at an average of ₹450, on a 22 per cent commission, which sits inside the ranges reported above. Commission: ₹99 an order, ₹79,200 a month, ₹9,50,400 a year.
Over six months it moves a quarter of that volume to its own site: 200 orders a month, mostly from regulars who now use the QR on the bag and the Google order button. On those 200 orders the ₹99 goes away. In its place: a gateway fee of roughly ₹10.62 at 2 per cent plus 18 per cent GST on the fee (Razorpay's published rate, May 2026), and, on the delivered share, a rider's cost. If half are pickup, the restaurant keeps about ₹88 on each of those 100 orders and ₹88 minus the Porter trip or its own rider's cost on the other 100. Call it ₹12,000 a month, give or take the rider.
The other 600 orders stay on the marketplace, and the restaurant keeps receiving new customers from it. The commission calculator does this with your own numbers and does not assume any order moves that you have not told it to.
Figures are illustrative and chosen to show the arithmetic, not to predict your results.
Deciding which orders belong where
A checklist to go through with your month's marketplace statement open.
- 1
Separate new customers from repeat ones
Most platform dashboards show new versus returning in some form. The returning share is the part you are paying full commission on for no discovery benefit. That is the pool a direct site targets.
- 2
Look at the pickup share
Pickup orders on a marketplace still carry a commission (6 to 7 per cent in the published US tiers) and the customer walks in anyway. On your own site they carry a gateway fee and nothing else. If pickup is a meaningful share, it is the first thing to move. See the takeaway and pickup page.
- 3
Be honest about delivery capacity
Delivered direct orders need Porter where it operates (India) or your own drivers. If neither is realistic, run pickup on the direct site and leave marketplace delivery on. The delivery management page explains what is supported.
- 4
Count the full cost of a direct order
Gateway fee, delivery cost, packaging, the subscription. The online ordering cost calculator puts a few setups side by side so you are comparing totals, not headlines.
- 5
Decide what you will do to move people
A direct site with no promotion is an empty room. Google Business Profile button, QR on packaging, social bio link, a word at the counter. The promotion guide is the practical sequence.
Thinking about the two channels as different products
The clearest way to compare a delivery app and your own ordering site is to stop treating them as competitors for the same order. They are different products sold to the restaurant, with different prices and different jobs.
What a marketplace is selling you
A marketplace sells attention. It has spent enormous sums getting its app onto phones and getting people to open it when they are hungry. When a new customer finds you there, the commission is the fee for that introduction. It also sells convenience: riders you do not employ, a payment flow you did not build, customer service you do not staff. Some marketplaces, in some countries, also handle the sales tax on orders they facilitate, which is real administrative relief.
The problem is the pricing model, not the service. The commission is charged per order regardless of whether the order needed any of that. The regular who has ordered the same thing every Friday for two years is not being discovered; she is being charged a finder’s fee for the fortieth time. Multiply that by the share of your orders that are repeat and you have the number that makes owners restless.
What a direct site is selling you
Your own ordering site sells ownership. No platform commission on Tuckly, the customer’s details on your screen, your menu laid out your way, your prices. That is the whole proposition, and it is a good one for exactly the orders the marketplace is overcharging for.
It does not sell attention. A direct site does not find new customers. If you launch one and do nothing else, it will sit quietly. The restaurants that make it work treat it as a destination they send people to: from Google Business Profile, from the bag, from the table, from the reply they send on WhatsApp or Instagram. The guide to increasing direct orders is the operational version of this paragraph.
Reading the published rates properly
Where rates are published, the pattern is consistent. In the United States, DoorDash (15, 25, 30 per cent) and Uber Eats (20, 25, 30 per cent) price their tiers by how much visibility and delivery coverage you get, with pickup at 6 to 7 per cent and self-delivery at 15 per cent (both checked October 2026). In the United Kingdom, Just Eat’s partner page quotes 14 per cent for orders you deliver and 30 per cent where it delivers. In India the rates are not published; business press between 2024 and 2026 has reported ranges from 10 to 35 per cent depending on the source and what is included.
Two cautions. First, the percentage is applied to a base defined in the contract, and additional fees can sit outside it; read your statement, not the headline. Second, Indian platforms also charge the customer a per-order platform fee, which does not reach you but does raise the price your customer pays, and that affects how your menu prices compare to a direct order. The guide to how delivery app commissions work goes through a statement line by line.
Running both without confusing anyone
The operational question is how to run two channels without the kitchen hating you. The answer most restaurants settle on: marketplace orders arrive on the marketplace’s tablet or into the POS as they do now; direct orders arrive on the Tuckly order screen with status, timing and the customer’s number. Marketplace orders do not flow into Tuckly today, and the integrations directory is explicit about that. Two screens is not elegant, but it is what most restaurants already have, and the direct screen is the one with the better margin on it.
The one thing to avoid is pricing the direct site higher than the marketplace. The point is that the same food costs the customer the same or less when they order from you, and costs you less to sell. If you want to go further and reward direct customers, note that promotions and coupon codes are not a confirmed Tuckly feature; ask before you plan a campaign around them.
When direct-only makes sense
Some restaurants do go direct-only: a neighbourhood place with a loyal base, a cloud kitchen that has built its own following on social media, a pizza shop whose delivery radius is three streets. For them, the marketplace’s discovery is not worth its price. For everyone else, the sensible position is both, with a steady effort to move the repeat orders across. The alternatives to delivery apps page lays out the other options between those two poles.
Questions people ask when comparing the two
If I start a direct site, should I switch the apps off?
Usually not. The marketplace brings in people who do not know you. Keep it for that and use the direct site for the people who do. Restaurants that go direct-only tend to be ones with a strong local following already.
Why do marketplaces charge less on pickup?
Because they are not paying a rider. Under the published US tiers, pickup sits at 6 to 7 per cent against 15 to 30 per cent for delivery. It is still a commission on a customer who walked through your door.
Do customers mind ordering from a restaurant site instead of an app?
Regulars generally do not, especially when the site works in the phone browser with no download, remembers their details, and costs them no platform fee. New customers rarely find a restaurant site on their own, which is the honest limit of direct ordering.
What do Deliveroo, Menulog or SkipTheDishes charge?
We did not find published restaurant commission rates for Deliveroo (UK), Menulog (Australia) or SkipTheDishes (Canada) on their partner pages in October 2026. Your contract has your rate; this page will not invent one.
How does the customer-side platform fee fit in?
In India, Swiggy and Zomato charge the customer a per-order platform fee (₹17.58 including GST and ₹14.9 before GST as of March 2026, per Inc42) on top of the restaurant commission. On your own site there is no such fee; the customer pays your menu price, any delivery charge you set, and tax.
Does Tuckly take anything on a direct order?
No platform commission. The costs on a direct order are your gateway's fee, delivery (Porter's trip fee where used, or your driver), taxes, and the subscription per the pricing page.
Give your regulars the second door
Keep the marketplace for reach. Put your own ordering link where the repeat customers already look, and stop paying commission on them.
Gateway fees, delivery and taxes are separate. Pricing
Last reviewed 29 October 2026.