calculator

Restaurant Commission Calculator: Compare All Delivery Apps

Compare DoorDash, UberEats, and Grubhub commission rates side by side against a zero-commission flat fee. Pick your restaurant size and see exactly how much each platform takes per order, per month, and per year, with a tier-by-tier breakdown of Basic, Plus, and Premier visibility plans plus a hybrid math model for restaurants running multiple platforms.

Delivery apps charge restaurants 15-30% commission on every order. On a $35 average order, that is $5.25 to $10.50 per order going to the platform. A medium restaurant doing 500 orders/month at the typical 25% rate pays $4,375/month in commissions, or $52,500/year. A flat-fee ordering system like DirectOrders costs $249/month regardless of volume, saving this restaurant $49,512/year. The picture is identical on UberEats (15-30% across Lite/Plus/Premium tiers) and Grubhub (10-20% on Marketplace plus 10% extra for Premium visibility), and most restaurants who run all three platforms pay an effective blended commission of 24-28%.

Commission savings calculator

Pick your restaurant size to see how much you could save

Orders/mo

Avg order ($)

Calculating for

500 orders/mo at $35

DDUEGH

Marketplace

DirectOrders

0% commission

Commission per order

$8.75

$0.00

Monthly fee

$249

Monthly total

$4,375

$249

Annual total

$52,500

$2,988

+ marketing fees, tablet rental, inflated menu prices

Includes website, AI ordering, SMS marketing, delivery, customer data

You save with DirectOrders

$4,126/mo$49,512/yr

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Your estimated annual savings

$49,512/year

That's 94% less than marketplace commissions. The more orders you do, the bigger the gap.

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What you get for $249/mo with DirectOrders

Zero commission

Keep 100% of order revenue

Branded ordering site

Your brand, your domain, your prices

Customer data ownership

Name, email, phone on every order

SMS & email marketing

AI-powered retention campaigns

Delivery management

Uber Direct, DoorDash Drive, own drivers

Menu Brain AI

AI menu enrichment & optimization

How to use this calculator

Pick a restaurant size preset

Small fits cafes and food trucks (200 orders/mo, $28 AOV). Medium covers most single-location restaurants (500 orders/mo, $35 AOV). Large reflects high-volume operations (1,200 orders/mo, $42 AOV). Or use Custom and pull the real numbers from your POS for the most accurate output.

Choose your platform commission tier

DoorDash and UberEats both run a 3-tier model (Basic ~15%, Plus ~25%, Premier/Premium ~30%) with different exposure and ad placement at each tier. Grubhub runs Marketplace at 10-20% plus an optional 10% Premium add-on for boosted visibility. Pick the tier you actually pay; if you do not know, ask your account rep or check your last marketplace statement.

Read the per-order, per-month, per-year totals

The calculator shows commission per order (commission rate × AOV), monthly commission (per-order × monthly orders), and annual commission. The flat-fee comparison shows the same totals at $249/month so you can see the dollars in absolute terms.

Adjust for hybrid models

If you run more than one platform, run the calculator once per platform with that platform's order share, then add the totals. A restaurant doing 60% of orders on DoorDash Premier (30%), 25% on UberEats Plus (25%), and 15% on Grubhub Marketplace (15%) pays a blended commission of about 26.25% across the full order book.

Compare vs flat-fee math

The bottom of the calculator shows the full-year commission total alongside the flat-fee total ($249 × 12 = $2,988). The annual savings number is the dollar difference: that is what direct ordering keeps in your bank account, before factoring in customer-list value or retention revenue.

How the math works

Marketplace commission is a flat percentage of the order subtotal, applied on every single order, forever. The math is brutally simple: monthly orders × AOV × commission rate = monthly commission. Multiply by 12 for the annual figure. There are no economies of scale: order #1 and order #10,000 both cost the same percentage. Volume does not earn you a discount; in fact, the more you sell, the more you pay. Flat-fee direct ordering inverts this curve. The platform fee is fixed at $249/month regardless of volume. At 100 orders/month, that is $2.49 per order. At 500 orders, $0.50. At 2,000 orders, $0.12. The cost-per-order curve drops asymptotically toward zero as volume grows. This is the structural reason restaurants moving from marketplace to direct see expanding margins as they grow, while restaurants stuck on marketplaces see their margins stay flat (or shrink, as the platforms periodically raise rates). The three big marketplaces price slightly differently but all converge to the same effective range. DoorDash's Basic/Plus/Premier tiers run roughly 15%/25%/30% with the higher tiers buying more app real estate, ad impressions, and free-delivery promotions. UberEats's Lite/Plus/Premium follow the same shape (~15%/25%/30%). Grubhub's Marketplace runs 10-20% with a Premium add-on at 10% extra, totaling 20-30% if you take both. The tiered model is intentional: it makes the higher commissions look optional, but in practice most restaurants on Premier/Premium tiers report that dropping to Basic kills order volume by 50-70%, because basic-tier listings get buried below sponsored Premier results. The other commission-like cost most calculators leave out is Marketplace Facilitator tax handling. Marketplaces collect and remit sales tax on your behalf in most US states, which is convenient, but on a $35 order at 8% sales tax, the marketplace handles $2.80 of tax that flows through to the state. Your gross-to-net statement shows you only the post-tax/post-commission deposit, which makes the commission feel smaller than it actually is. Always work from gross order revenue (subtotal before tax and tip), not net deposit, when computing commission impact. The calculator output is the dollar gap between commission and flat-fee. To get the full picture you should also factor in: payment processing fees (typically 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, charged by both options, which therefore cancels out), tablet rental on marketplaces ($25-30/month, usually included in flat-fee platforms), paid promotions on marketplaces (5-30% on top of base commission for promoted listings or free-delivery campaigns), and potential delivery fee subsidies if you offer free delivery on direct orders.

The formula walkthrough

Single-location restaurant, 500 orders/month at $35 AOV, currently on DoorDash Premier (30%)

Monthly orders × AOV (gross)$17,500

− DoorDash Premier commission (30%)$5,250

− DoorDash tablet rental$26

− Promoted listing add-on (avg)$150

Net deposit from DoorDash$12,074

Same volume, flat-fee platform$17,500

− Flat fee$249

Net deposit (direct)$17,251

+ Monthly difference$5,177

+ Annual difference$62,124

Platform-by-platform commission tiers

Feature	DoorDash	UberEats	Grubhub	Direct ($249/mo)
Lowest tier commission	15%	15%	10-20%	$0
Mid tier commission	25%	25%	+10% Premium	$0
Top tier commission	30%	30%	+5% Premier	$0
Tablet rental	$26/mo	$0	$0	Tablet included
Customer data shared
Brand visibility on app	Tier-dependent	Tier-dependent	Tier-dependent	Owned domain
Marketplace Facilitator tax
Multi-location supported
Cap on commission				Hard cap

What each platform costs by volume

DoorDash Premier (30%) at any volume$10.50/order

DoorDash Plus (25%) at any volume$8.75/order

UberEats Plus (25%) at any volume$8.75/order

Grubhub Marketplace+Premium (30%)$10.50/order

Grubhub Marketplace (15%) at any volume$5.25/order

Direct ordering at 100 orders/mo$2.49/order

Direct ordering at 500 orders/mo$0.50/order

Direct ordering at 2,000 orders/mo$0.12/order

Marketplace cost-per-order is volume-independent: every additional order costs the same percentage. Direct ordering's cost-per-order falls on a hyperbolic curve as volume grows. The structural difference compounds over time: a year-1 restaurant doing 500 orders/month and a year-5 restaurant doing 2,000 orders/month pay the same flat fee, while their marketplace counterparts pay 4x more per month at the same growth.

Case Study

Restaurant running DoorDash Premier (60% of orders), UberEats Plus (25%), Grubhub Marketplace (15%) at 800 orders/month, $35 AOV

Three-platform stack

DoorDash commission (60%, 30%)$5,040/mo

UberEats commission (25%, 25%)$1,750/mo

Grubhub commission (15%, 15%)$630/mo

Total monthly commission$7,420/mo

Blended effective commission26.5%

Annual commission$89,040

Direct-first hybrid (after 90 days)

Direct ordering (50% of orders)$249/mo

DoorDash Plus (25% of orders)$1,750/mo

UberEats Lite (15% of orders)$630/mo

Grubhub dropped$0

Total monthly cost$2,629/mo

Annual cost$31,548

Takeaway: Most restaurants who run all three marketplaces are paying a 24-28% blended effective commission across their entire delivery book. Adding a direct ordering channel and shifting repeat customers (typically 40-60% within 90 days) cuts the blended cost by half or more. The remaining marketplace presence can usually drop to Basic/Lite tiers since direct ordering covers retention; you keep marketplaces only for new-customer acquisition.

Industry insight

Why marketplace commission rates do not decrease with volume

Marketplaces price on a per-transaction basis because their cost structure is per-transaction: each order requires a courier dispatch, app render, payment process, and customer support pool. Per-order economics also keep them recession-proof; they earn proportionally to what restaurants earn. Flat-fee SaaS platforms have a different cost structure: most of the platform cost is fixed (servers, support, product engineering) and per-order marginal cost is near-zero. That structural difference is why one model scales linearly with your bill and the other amortizes flat. It is not a pricing trick; it is the underlying economics.

Watch out

Hidden marketplace add-ons most calculators miss

Sponsored listings and ad-placement bidding (5-15% on top of base commission), free-delivery promotions where you absorb the delivery fee (5-30% effective add), tablet rental ($25-30/mo on DoorDash; included on UberEats/Grubhub), basic-tier order suppression (~50% volume drop if you downgrade), and 'Marketplace Plus'/'Premium' opt-ins that add 5-10% for boosted visibility. The base commission is rarely what you actually pay; pull a 90-day statement and divide net deposit by gross order revenue to find your real effective rate.

Commission calculator FAQ

How much commission do delivery apps charge restaurants?

DoorDash charges 15-30%, UberEats charges 15-30%, and Grubhub charges 10-20% on Marketplace with optional Premium and Premier add-ons of 10% and 5% respectively. The most common rate across all platforms is 25-30% for full marketplace exposure. On a $35 order, that is $8.75-$10.50 going to the platform before any tablet rental or paid promotion fees.

What is a commission-free ordering system?

A commission-free ordering system charges a flat monthly fee instead of taking a percentage of each order. The restaurant keeps 100% of the order revenue minus standard payment processing (typically 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, the same rate marketplaces effectively pay). The cost per order decreases as volume increases. At 500 orders/month, a $249 flat fee works out to $0.50 per order versus $8.75 per order at 25% commission.

At what order volume does a flat fee become cheaper than commissions?

At a 25% commission rate and $35 average order value, the break-even point is about 29 orders per month. At 30% commission, break-even drops to 24 orders. At 15% commission, it rises to 48 orders. Most restaurants do 200-2,000 orders/month, making the flat fee significantly cheaper. The break-even formula is: $249 / (AOV × commission rate).

Do I lose marketplace customer traffic if I switch to direct ordering?

You do not need to leave marketplaces entirely. Most restaurants keep their marketplace listings for discovery while building their direct ordering channel. The strategy is to shift repeat customers to direct ordering over time, typically 40-60% of orders shifting within 90 days using bag inserts, Google Business Profile links, table tents, and SMS marketing. After year 1, evaluate dropping marketplaces to Basic/Lite tiers (10-15%) for top-of-funnel only, while direct handles all repeat traffic.

What is the difference between DoorDash Basic, Plus, and Premier?

DoorDash Basic charges ~15% commission and limits the restaurant to a low-priority listing with a small delivery radius. Plus charges ~25% and provides a wider delivery radius and higher app placement. Premier charges ~30%, includes the largest delivery radius, prominent placement, and DashPass-funded customer free-delivery promotions. The tradeoff is real: Basic-tier restaurants typically see 50-70% lower order volume than Premier, but at half the per-order cost. Most restaurants find the math favors Plus or Basic for ROI, but the data is platform-specific.

How is UberEats different from DoorDash on commission?

UberEats Lite/Plus/Premium follows roughly the same 15%/25%/30% structure as DoorDash. The functional difference is that UberEats does not charge a tablet rental ($26/mo savings vs DoorDash) and tends to carry slightly higher AOVs in metro areas due to its rideshare-customer overlap. Grubhub typically runs lower base commission (10-20%) but charges a 10% Premium add-on for the same kind of visibility boost, and Grubhub's marketplace volumes have been declining nationally so the absolute commission paid is often lower simply because the order count is lower.

How is Grubhub different from DoorDash and UberEats?

Grubhub uses a layered commission model: a base Marketplace rate of 10-20%, plus an optional Premium tier (+10% for higher placement) and an optional Marketplace Plus tier (+5% for additional visibility boosts). The lowest realistic Grubhub bill is 10% on Marketplace alone; the most common stack is 25-30% on Marketplace + Premium. Grubhub also runs Grubhub for Work (corporate accounts) which often comes with negotiated lower rates for high-volume restaurants. National order share has shifted toward DoorDash and UberEats over the last 3 years, so Grubhub commission costs have decreased in dollar terms for most restaurants while staying high in percentage terms.

What about the tablet rental fee?

DoorDash charges $26/month for the order tablet (or you can use your own POS integration for free; ask your rep). UberEats and Grubhub include the tablet at no charge. On a flat-fee direct ordering platform like DirectOrders, order routing goes to your existing tablet, POS, or printer with no rental fee. Across a year, the DoorDash tablet alone runs $312, which is more than the entire flat-fee subscription's first month and a half.

How do I calculate my real effective commission rate?

Pull a 90-day marketplace statement. Find total gross order revenue (subtotal before tax/tip) and total net deposit to your bank. Divide (gross - deposit) by gross. That is your real effective commission rate, and it is almost always higher than the headline base rate because it includes paid promotions, free-delivery campaigns you ran, and any platform fees you opted into. Most restaurants on Premier tiers find the real rate is 28-33%, not the advertised 30%.

Does the flat-fee model include payment processing?

Payment processing (typically 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction) is charged by the card networks and is roughly the same across both options. Most flat-fee direct ordering platforms list it transparently as a separate line item. Marketplaces bundle it into their commission rate but pay the same underlying network rate. On a $35 order, processing is approximately $1.32 either way. The flat fee + processing combined is still 80%+ cheaper than a 25-30% marketplace commission once volume is healthy.

Can I run direct ordering and marketplaces at the same time?

Yes, and most restaurants do for the first 6-12 months. Marketplaces stay good at acquiring net-new customers; direct ordering wins the repeat traffic at near-zero per-order cost. The hybrid model is usually: keep DoorDash/UberEats at Plus tier for discovery, route all your bag inserts, Google Business Profile, social bio links, and SMS retention to direct. After 90 days, 40-60% of orders typically shift to direct without losing marketplace acquisition.

Is there a commission-free option that is also free?

Free direct-ordering tools exist (Square, Toast Online Ordering at lower volumes, basic Stripe checkout) but they typically lack marketing automation, multi-channel ordering, voice/AI integration, and customer-list management, so the practical TCO ends up similar to a $249-499/mo paid platform once you piece together the missing functionality. The honest answer is that there is no truly free commission-free ordering platform that also includes the marketing and operations layer; you either pay $0 in fees and do the marketing manually, or pay a flat fee and get the system included.

Related resources

Commission-free ordering guide Ordering fees explained DoorDash fee calculator Break-even calculator DoorDash vs DirectOrders UberEats vs DirectOrders Grubhub vs DirectOrders Pricing

Next steps

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