Commission-free catering, answered by an AI concierge
A branded catering page on your own domain, the deposits and quotes office buyers expect today, and an AI concierge (the catering roadmap's headline) that answers the inquiry, builds the quote, and books the order while your competitor is still checking voicemail.
Start a catering pageWhat this page covers
What is commission-free catering ordering, and why does it matter?
Commission-free catering ordering means taking large advance orders (office lunches, events, recurring corporate accounts) on your own branded page, keeping 100% of every ticket minus card fees, instead of paying a marketplace like ezCater 15% to 30% to stand between you and the buyer.
Catering is different from takeout. A catering customer plans ahead, wants a quote, expects to pay a deposit and settle on net-30 terms, and often orders for the same office every week. Software built for walk-in takeout cannot handle any of that. DirectOrders is built for it today, and is building the one thing no competitor ships: an AI concierge that handles the inquiry end to end.
Four outcomes when catering is done right
- The highest-margin ticket you run all year, made in off-peak hours.
- Recurring revenue from offices and hospitals, not one-off rushes.
- Corporate buyers who reimburse without a marketplace service fee.
- A relationship and the customer data that stay yours, not a marketplace's.
What you can use today
What's live now, and what's on the catering roadmap
The commission-free catering core is live today: a branded page, a real catering menu, the inquiry-to-quote-to-confirm flow, deposits, and the owner dashboard. The deeper B2B layer and the AI concierge are planted on the roadmap and ship on their milestones. We tag both, honestly, so you know exactly what you get on day one.
- Branded catering page on your own domain
- Separate catering menu with serving sizes, categories, and per-item minimums
- Inquiry to quote to confirm flow, with quote expiry dates
- A configurable deposit and balance-due schedule on every order
- Lead-time windows, an order minimum, and delivery, setup, and service fees
- Eight-stage order tracking, from inquiry to delivered
- An owner dashboard for catering config, menu, orders, and quote building
- Commission-free flat fee with same-day Stripe payouts
- AI catering concierge by voice and chat, built on Voice AI + Menu BrainM4
- Corporate net-30 house accounts with PO uploadRoadmap
- Quotes and proposals with e-signature contractsRoadmap
- Group-order links that roll up to one consolidated kitchen ticketRoadmap
- Recurring and standing orders for offices and hospitalsRoadmap
- Kitchen prep and pack sheets per orderRoadmap
- Tax-exempt handling and per-zone, per-occasion minimumsRoadmap
Roadmap items are planted promises on the DirectOrders milestone plan, not vapor: the remaining M3 ordering depth (net-30, e-signature, group ordering, recurring orders, prep sheets) and the M4 AI concierge each have a target milestone. We never trim the destination; we ship it on schedule.
Why catering is worth it
The highest-margin, fastest-growing channel in the restaurant
The US catering market is roughly $60B to $77B and growing about 5% to 8% a year, with corporate catering the fastest-growing slice. The per-order economics are why operators care.
A catering ticket runs 8 to 10 times a normal order (about $350 vs $35).
Source ↗Catering can be up to a fifth of a restaurant's total sales.
Source ↗of operators expect catering revenue to grow; 74% expect 20% or more.
Source ↗of organizations now run a recurring meal program, up 17% year over year.
Source ↗The leak
Most catering revenue is lost before the kitchen ever hears about it
A catering inquiry is a high-value B2B lead with a clock on it. The restaurant that answers first usually wins the order. Most restaurants are too busy on the line to pick up, so the order quietly goes to a competitor or a marketplace.
of restaurant calls go unanswered, and a quarter come in after hours.
Source ↗lost across the industry every year to unanswered phones.
Source ↗more likely to convert when you respond within five minutes.
Source ↗of B2B orders go to whoever responds to the inquiry first.
Source ↗How the options compare
Catering features across the platforms restaurants actually weigh
Owner.com is commission-free but ships only self-serve ordering and SEO. Toast and Olo have the deep B2B stack but lock it behind a POS or enterprise pricing. ezCater has the demand but takes a 15% to 30% cut. DirectOrders is live today on the commission-free core and is building the B2B depth and an AI concierge no one else has. The DirectOrders column tags what ships today versus what is on the roadmap.
| Catering capability | Owner.com | ezCater | Toast / Olo | DirectOrders |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commission-free, flat fee | 15% to 30% | Add-on / enterprise | Live · flat | |
| Branded catering page + SEO | Marketplace | Live | ||
| Lead times + order minimums | Live | |||
| Deposits + payment schedules | n/a | Live | ||
| Quotes / proposals + e-sign | n/a | Quotes live | ||
| Corporate net-30 house accounts | Tax-exempt | Roadmap | ||
| Group ordering / shared cart | Form only | Roadmap | ||
| Recurring / standing orders | Relish | Roadmap | ||
| Kitchen prep + pack sheets | n/a | Roadmap | ||
| Catering AI concierge | Marketplace only | M4 · building |
Brand names are trademarks of their respective owners. Comparison reflects each platform's publicly documented catering features as of June 2026 and is summarized from the sources cited at the bottom of this page. DirectOrders cells are tagged by status: Live ships today (commission-free flat fee, branded page and SEO, lead times and minimums, deposits and the balance schedule, and quotes); Roadmap is the planned catering depth (net-30 house accounts, e-signature, group ordering, recurring orders, prep sheets); M4 is the AI concierge, which builds on our live Voice AI and Menu Brain. We mark the destination honestly rather than claim parity we have not shipped.
An AI catering concierge that owns the whole inquiry
Every other tool is assistive: a voice agent that captures the call, a chatbot that qualifies the lead, a template that renders a quote, and a human who still has to close. The best-funded player, ezCater with Salesforce, keeps its agent in pilot and locked inside its marketplace. No one ships a restaurant-owned agent that runs the full catering lifecycle. That is the wedge, and our Voice AI plus Menu Brain already are the two hardest pieces of it.
Sample catering call, handled by the agent
IllustrativeCaller
"Hi, I need lunch for about 30 people at our office next Thursday. A few are vegan. Budget is around $600."
DirectOrders agent
"Happy to help. For 30 with 4 vegan at $600, I'd suggest our Mediterranean spread: two family-style mains, a vegan mezze platter that covers the four, salad, and dessert, at $19 a head. That comes to $570 before delivery. I can hold next Thursday at 11:30, take a 30% deposit now, and email you the quote and contract to approve. Want me to set this up as a standing weekly order?"
Behind the answer
Portions and the vegan option come from the restaurant's real menu via the Menu Brain. The deposit and contract wait for the owner's approval before they send.
Answers every inquiry, 24/7
On your own number or chat. It catches the third of calls that go unanswered and the quarter that arrive after hours, so a $2,000 office lunch never goes to voicemail.
Qualifies the lead
Date, headcount, budget, dietary needs, pickup or delivery, setup. The details a human would write on a sticky note, captured and structured.
Builds a menu-grounded quote
It reasons over your actual menu through the Menu Brain, not a generic template, to compose a correctly portioned proposal for thirty people with four vegan at a $600 budget, at two price points.
Quotes, takes a deposit, sends the contract
A real quote with a deposit link and an e-signature contract. You approve before it goes out. The customer books in minutes instead of a week of email.
Sets up recurring orders
The Tuesday-to-Thursday office account and the weekly nurses' station order become standing orders that reorder themselves.
Reconciles day-before changes
When thirty becomes forty-five the night before, it re-portions, re-prices, confirms the deposit difference, and tells the kitchen. No vendor offers this as an autonomous loop.
The line we draw
M4 conciergeThe agent does the busywork. You keep the judgment calls.
The high-value, high-risk steps (deposits, contracts, staffing) always wait for a human. Everything that drains a manager's evening does not.
The agent handles
- Answer catering inquiries 24/7 by voice and chat
- Qualify date, headcount, budget, and dietary needs
- Draft a menu-grounded quote from your real menu
- Send deposit and e-signature contract links
- Run recurring and standing corporate orders
- Do the day-before headcount math and re-pricing
- Print kitchen prep and pack sheets per order
You stay in control of
- Approve every deposit and contract before it sends
- Set your catering menu, pricing, and serving sizes
- Confirm staffing and availability for large events
- Cook the food and own the customer relationship
The math on one big order
What a $1,200 boardroom lunch is worth on each model
Catering margins are thin enough that a marketplace cut can erase the profit on the order. The same ticket, three ways.
ezCater marketplace
15% to 30% effective
off the top, before card fees
Owner.com
Commission-free, 5% customer fee
but no deposits, accounts, or AI
DirectOrders
Flat fee, full B2B stack
commission. Deposits and quotes today; net-30 and the AI concierge on the roadmap.
ezCater commission range per published fee analysis. Owner.com pricing per its published plans.
What we will not pretend
Honest limits, in plain language
An AI that books high-value catering unsupervised is a liability, not a feature. Here is exactly where the line sits.
- The AI proposes. A human approves the money.
- Deposits and contracts always pass a human approval gate before they reach the customer. Catering tickets are high value, errors are expensive, and only 42% of business leaders are comfortable with AI transacting unsupervised. We treat that as a feature, not a limitation.
- We cannot manufacture demand.
- We make sure every inquiry is answered fast and every quote is sharp. We do not promise a specific number of catering leads. Your food, reputation, and local reach still do the heavy lifting.
- Delivery reliability depends on the road.
- Catering delivery runs on your own drivers or on Uber Direct and DoorDash Drive through our delivery orchestration. We schedule and track it, but traffic and third-party drivers are not fully in our control.
- This is drop-off and corporate catering, not full-service events.
- Advance orders, office lunches, recurring accounts, and event drop-off are the focus. Room diagrams, banquet floor plans, and staffing rosters are deliberately out of scope for now.
Built DirectOrders after a decade running operations and engineering for restaurant tech. Talks to operators every week.
Related resources
Frequently Asked Questions
Catering orders require advance scheduling (24 to 72 hours for whole pans, a few hours for platters), per-item minimums, and a separate catering menu with serving sizes calibrated for groups. The buyer is different too: corporate buyers and event planners want to request a quote, pay a deposit, and settle on a net-30 invoice or PO, not tap a credit card at takeout checkout. DirectOrders ships the branded page, catering menu, quote, and deposit flow today, with net-30 and PO support on the catering roadmap.
Yes. Catering is covered by the same flat DirectOrders monthly fee as every other channel. No per-order commission, no marketplace markup, and no service fee passed to your customer. A $1,200 boardroom lunch nets you the full $1,200 minus standard card processing, instead of losing 15% to 30% to a marketplace like ezCater.
Live today: a branded catering page on your domain, a separate catering menu with serving sizes and minimums, the inquiry-to-quote-to-confirm flow, a configurable deposit and balance-due schedule, lead-time and fee rules, eight-stage order tracking, and an owner dashboard for config, menu, and orders. On the catering roadmap: corporate net-30 house accounts, e-signature contracts, group-order links, recurring standing orders, kitchen prep sheets, and the AI catering concierge (milestone M4). Every roadmap item is a committed build target, not a maybe.
It is the headline of the catering roadmap (milestone M4): an AI agent, built on the DirectOrders Voice AI and Menu Brain that already ship, that answers catering inquiries by phone or chat 24/7, qualifies the lead (date, headcount, budget, dietary needs), builds a quote grounded in your real menu, and can set up recurring orders. By design it is never fully autonomous: deposits and contracts always pass a human approval gate before they reach the customer, because high-value catering errors are expensive.
That is on the catering roadmap. The destination: a group-order link opens one shared cart, each person on the floor picks their own meal from your menu, the link closes at a cutoff time, and the kitchen receives a single consolidated ticket with each order labeled by name. No spreadsheet roundup and no phone tag. Today you can take the same order as a single catering inquiry, with per-guest dietary counts captured up front.
Deposits ship today: you set a deposit percentage and a balance-due schedule, and every quote shows the deposit and the remaining balance with its due date. Corporate net-30 house accounts with a PO uploaded at checkout are on the catering roadmap. Deposits filter out tire-kickers and protect you against a canceled five-figure order, which is why dedicated catering platforms treat them as essential.
Yes. Your branded catering page is indexed separately from your main ordering page, with structured data, AI-extractable menu schema, and llms.txt by default. Office managers and event planners searching for catering in your city find your branded page, and AI assistants can cite it, instead of a marketplace listing that costs you a commission.
Explore More Features
Website Builder
SEO-optimized, mobile-first restaurant websites with online ordering built in.
Online Ordering
Checkout as smooth as DoorDash, but you keep 100% of every order.
Delivery
Profitable delivery without the 30% cut. Your drivers, Uber Direct, or DoorDash Drive.
Voice AI
Phone orders handled by AI, plus Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant ordering.
MultiChannels
Instagram, WhatsApp, voice, Google. Every conversation becomes a direct order.
Discovery
Rank on Google and get recommended by ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity.
Menu Brain
NLP-powered menu search, auto dietary tags, allergen detection, and nutrition labels.
Marketing
Email, SMS, push notifications, loyalty rewards, and abandoned cart recovery on autopilot.
Payouts
Your money, fast. No waiting weeks. Get paid when you earn.