Marketplaces can take 15–30% of every order; direct ordering keeps it. Here’s the side-by-side math — and the smart way to use both channels.
June 23, 2026
Every online order a restaurant takes goes through one of two doors: a third-party marketplace like DoorDash, Uber Eats or Skip, or your own direct, commission-free online ordering storefront. The food is the same. The economics are not. This is the math behind that difference — and why most restaurants end up wanting both, used deliberately.
A third-party marketplace lists your restaurant in an app used by millions of people, takes the order, and usually handles the delivery. In exchange it charges a commission on every order. A direct channel is your own branded storefront: the guest orders from you, the order drops straight into your POS and kitchen, and you pay a flat platform fee plus standard card processing — but no per-order commission.
Marketplace commissions depend on the plan you choose and whether the app also handles delivery. DoorDash’s US merchant pricing page (accessed 26 September 2026) lists delivery commissions of 15%, 25% and 30% on its Basic, Plus and Premier plans; Uber Eats sets its marketplace fees by plan and city. Lower-commission tiers usually mean less visibility in the app; higher tiers buy more promotion. On top of commission there can be additional service, marketing and processing fees. The trade-off is real value in return: discovery. Marketplaces bring demand from people who would never have found you, which is genuinely worth paying for — especially for a new location.
Direct ordering isn’t literally free — but it’s a different order of magnitude. You pay your platform subscription and standard payment processing of roughly 2.5%–3.5% per transaction, and you do your own marketing to drive guests to your storefront. There’s no percentage of the order handed to a third party, and just as importantly, you keep the customer’s contact details so you can bring them back.
Put a single $25 order side by side and the gap is obvious.
| Per $25 online order | Third-party marketplace | Direct (commission-free) |
|---|---|---|
| Commission / platform cut | ~$3.75–$7.50 (15–30%) | $0 |
| Payment processing (~3%) | Bundled into their cut | ~$0.75 |
| You keep (approx.) | ~$17.50–$21.25 | ~$24.25 |
| Customer data | Held by the app | Yours to keep |
Now scale it. A location doing 1,000 online orders a month at a $25 average is moving $25,000 in online sales. At a 25% marketplace commission that’s about $6,250 a month — roughly $75,000 a year — leaving the restaurant. The same orders taken directly cost a few hundred dollars in processing plus your platform fee. Even after you spend on marketing to drive direct orders, the difference is the kind of money that decides whether a location is profitable.
The smartest operators run both channels on purpose. Use marketplaces as a paid acquisition channel — a way to get discovered — then move repeat customers to your own commission-free storefront with menu inserts, a QR code on the bag, loyalty rewards and better prices. With Novaryq, direct orders land in your POS and kitchen display today; native DoorDash, Uber Eats and Skip integrations are in progress, so marketplace orders are not yet imported automatically.
Novaryq gives every location its own branded, commission-free storefront, with native DoorDash, Uber Eats and Skip integrations in progress — so you keep direct-order economics now and gain marketplace reach as those integrations roll out. Pricing is transparent and per-location with no per-order commission on direct sales. The whole point is to keep more of every order in the restaurant.
It depends on the app, plan and city. DoorDash’s US pricing page (accessed 26 September 2026) lists 15%, 25% and 30% delivery commission tiers; Uber Eats publishes its fees by plan and city. Additional service and processing fees can apply.
There’s no per-order commission, but you still pay standard payment processing (about 2.5%–3.5%) and a platform subscription. At volume that’s far less than marketplace commissions — and you keep the customer relationship.
Not necessarily. Marketplaces are great for discovery. The goal is to use them to get found, then move repeat customers to your own commission-free storefront where the economics are much better.
Add a QR code and your storefront URL to bags and receipts, offer loyalty rewards and better pricing on direct orders, and run your own marketing. Over time more of your repeat business shifts to the commission-free channel.