Delivery app commission: the real cost per order ​

Delivery apps bring you customers you would not otherwise reach, and for many takeaways they are worth having. They are also, for most, the biggest single cost after food and staff. This guide shows how to work out what an order through an app really costs you, using your own statement, and when it is worth moving your regular customers to an ordering site of your own.

What the apps publish ​

Rates depend on the app, on who delivers, and on your agreement.

• Uber Eats publishes its UK rates. When we checked (11 October 2026) they were 30% of the order when Uber delivers (33% for Uber One members’ orders), 13% when you deliver yourself or the customer collects, and a one-off activation fee of £650, all excluding VAT (Uber Eats UK pricing).
• Just Eat and Deliveroo set your rate in your partner agreement, and their public pages did not show a rate card we could check. Figures you see quoted online are second-hand. Use the rate on your own contract or statement.

Working out the real cost of an order ​

Take one recent statement and work through it line by line:

1. Commission: the percentage times the order value. Check whether it is charged on the food alone or on the total including the delivery fee.
2. VAT on the commission: the app’s fee is a service, and VAT is added to it. If you are VAT-registered you can usually reclaim it. If you are not, it is part of the cost.
3. Other fees: per-order charges, a monthly fee, tablet or equipment fees, and any one-off activation fee spread over a year.
4. Promotions you funded: “20% off” or free-delivery offers you paid for.
5. Refunds and adjustments: orders the app refunded and charged back to you.

Add those up and divide by the number of orders. As an example, at Uber Eats’ published 30% for orders it delivers, a £20 order costs £6.00 in commission plus £1.20 VAT: £7.20, or 36% of the order if you cannot reclaim the VAT, before you have paid for a single ingredient.

The cost you do not see on the statement ​

The customer orders through the app, so the app decides where your menu appears and next to whom, and the relationship sits with the app. Someone who has ordered from you twenty times through an app is usually not someone you can send an offer of your own. That matters most for your regulars: the people who would have ordered from you anyway.

When your own ordering site pays ​

An ordering site of your own is not free either. You pay for the software and for card processing, and you have to tell people it exists. It tends to pay when:

• You have regulars. The apps are good at finding new customers. Repeat orders from people who already know you are where commission hurts most.
• You can deliver, or customers collect. If you rely on the app’s riders, you still need a way to deliver.
• You tell customers. A card in every bag, a sign at the counter, a line on the receipt, your Google Business Profile pointing at your own site.

Most venues keep the apps for new customers and grow their own channel alongside. It is rarely an overnight switch.

How this works with Yumee ​

Yumee gives you an ordering website under your own name, with a branded iOS and Android app on request, at 0% commission: we charge for the software, not a share of your orders. The customers who order there, and their order history, are yours. If you also use Deliveroo, its orders can come onto the same kitchen screen as an add-on, so the kitchen works from one queue instead of three tablets. Uber Eats is awaiting Uber’s approval.

To see the commission on your own numbers, try the calculator on our pricing page, or call us and we will put a comparison in writing.

Sources ​

• Uber Eats, UK restaurant pricing, checked 11 October 2026.
• Just Eat and Deliveroo: your partner agreement and statements.