Analyze your third-party delivery profitability by platform. See the real cost of DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub commissions with per-order P&L, break-even analysis, and delivery menu pricing strategy.
Commission rates are only part of the story. When a restaurant signs up for DoorDash at 25%, the actual per-order cost is significantly higher once you account for packaging upgrades (tamper-evident bags, insulated containers, branded stickers), incremental labor for tablet management and order staging, and the loss of customer data ownership.
A 25% commission on a $16 order is $4.00 in direct fees. But add $0.85 for delivery-grade packaging, $1.40 for the extra labor to manage the tablet, bag the order, and hand it to the driver, and the true cost rises to $6.25 per order, or 39% of the order value. For operators running a 32% food cost, that leaves just $3.63 in profit, a razor-thin 22.7% margin before any overhead allocation.
The customer ownership issue compounds the margin problem. Delivery platform customers belong to the platform, not your restaurant. They receive promotions from competitors, they leave reviews on the platform (not your Google listing), and they can be redirected to a different restaurant with a single algorithm change. Building volume on third-party platforms without a parallel first-party ordering channel creates dependency risk.
All three major platforms use tiered commission structures where higher rates buy more visibility and delivery fulfillment. DoorDash Basic (15%) and Uber Eats Lite (15%) are marketplace-only listings where the restaurant handles its own delivery. The mid-tier options (DoorDash Plus at 25%, Uber Eats Standard at 25%, Grubhub Standard at 20%) include platform delivery and moderate search placement.
Grubhub consistently offers the lowest rates at each tier. Its Basic plan at 10% is the cheapest marketplace listing available, and its Premium tier at 25% matches what DoorDash and Uber Eats charge at their mid-tier. The trade-off is market share: DoorDash holds roughly 67% of US food delivery, Uber Eats holds 23%, and Grubhub holds about 8% (as of early 2026, per Bloomberg Second Measure).
Negotiation leverage depends on your volume. Restaurants doing 100+ delivery orders per day can often negotiate 2-5 percentage points off standard rates. Multi-unit operators with 5+ locations have even more leverage. The key negotiation tactic is to run on all three platforms simultaneously and use the competitive pressure to ratchet down rates on your highest-volume platform.
The most effective lever for improving delivery profitability is delivery-specific pricing. All major platforms allow restaurants to set different menu prices for delivery versus in-store orders. Consumer research from McKinsey (2024) found that 70% of delivery customers expect prices to be somewhat higher on delivery platforms, and order frequency does not decline meaningfully at markups below 20%.
The optimal markup depends on your commission tier and food cost. At a 25% commission rate with 30% food cost, a 15% markup transforms a barely-profitable delivery order into one with a 12-14% margin. At 20% markup, delivery margins can approach dine-in levels. The key is to apply the markup uniformly across the menu rather than selectively, so customers do not notice price disparities on specific items.
Some operators take a hybrid approach: keep hero items (signature burgers, popular combos) at or near dine-in prices to drive conversion, then add 20-25% markup on sides, drinks, and add-ons where price sensitivity is lower. This strategy maximizes order volume while recovering margin on the high-profit items that make up a significant portion of each order.
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Many operators charge 15-20% more on delivery apps to offset commissions. The platform handles the higher price display.
Delivery Revenue
$14.50
per order
Commission
$3.63
per order (25.0%)
Total Cost
$10.27
per order
Net Profit
$4.23
29.2% margin