Alternatives to Just Eat,
including when to stay.
There are four real options, not two. Here is what each one costs, who ends up owning the customer, and the cases where paying commission is still the right decision.
Start a projectWhat you are actually choosing between
There are four options, not two, and they are not mutually exclusive. Most takeaways that get this right end up running two of them at once.
1. Stay on the aggregators
Just Eat, Uber Eats and Deliveroo. You pay commission per order and you get discovery you cannot buy anywhere else. Uber Eats publishes its UK list rate — 30% plus VAT when their riders deliver, 13% plus VAT when you deliver or the customer collects. Just Eat and Deliveroo do not publish rates at all; they are agreed per restaurant, so your contract is the only number that counts.
2. A white-label ordering vendor
Flipdish, Hungrrr and others: their platform, your branding, a monthly fee instead of commission on most plans. Faster to launch than a build and genuinely capable. The questions to ask are what you can change, and what happens to your customer data if you leave.
3. Your own platform, built for you
The ordering site, the menu model, the delivery rules and the kitchen routing built around your shop and owned by you. Slower to launch than option 2, and afterwards the code, the data and the decisions are yours. No commission to anybody.
4. Do nothing differently, but change the mix
Underrated. Keep the apps and simply stop subsidising them: price app items to cover the commission, put inserts in every app bag, and give the regulars a reason to ring you instead. Costs nothing and recovers some of the margin immediately.
The four options, side by side
| Aggregators | White-label vendor | Built for you | Change the mix | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost shape | Commission per order | Monthly fee, sometimes per order | Build cost, then hosting and card fees | Nothing |
| Published rates | Uber Eats only: 30% + VAT, or 13% + VAT | Rarely published | Quoted per job | n/a |
| Time to live | Days | Days to weeks | 4 to 10 weeks typically | Today |
| Who owns the customer | The platform | Usually you, but check the exit terms | You | The platform |
| Discovery | Strong — their whole product | None of its own | None of its own | Strong |
| Fits an awkward menu | Within their template | Within their model | Yes | n/a |
| Till, kiosk and website in one | No | Sometimes, within their range | Yes | No |
The honest reading of that table is that the aggregators win on discovery and lose on everything else, which is exactly why "both" beats "either".
When staying on the apps is the right answer
We build the alternative, so take this section as the test of whether the rest of the page is worth trusting.
You are new, or new to the area
Nobody is searching for your name yet. The apps are the cheapest way to be found at all, and paying 30% on orders you would not otherwise have had is not a loss.
Almost all your orders are first-timers
If your order history is mostly one-off customers, there is no base of regulars to move, and your own platform will be a quiet website for a while.
You cannot deliver and do not want to
Their rider network is a real service. Running your own drivers has its own costs, rotas and insurance, and for some shops the app rate is cheaper than the alternative.
You have nobody to run it
Your own platform needs somebody to change prices, pause the menu and read the reports. It is twenty minutes a week, but it is twenty minutes somebody has to actually do.
When your own platform wins
The same numbers order from you every week
This is the whole case. Commission on a stranger is marketing; commission on the regular who has ordered forty times is rent. Look at your statement for repeat numbers before you decide anything else.
Your average order is large
Percentage fees scale with the basket. A shop with a £30 average feels the rate twice as hard as one with a £15 average, for identical work.
Your menu is complicated
Deals, halves, swaps and sizes are where templates fight you, and where staff end up correcting orders by phone.
You already want a till, a kiosk or loyalty
If you are buying those anyway, having them share one menu and one stock count with your ordering site is the cheapest version of all four.
Work out your own number before you talk to anybody
Not ours, not an average, yours. Put your real orders a week, your real average order value and the commission rate on your own contract into the calculator. It shows the yearly figure, and what would stay with you if a share of those regulars ordered direct instead.
Most owners have never seen that number written down. It usually settles the argument faster than any sales conversation, including ours.
Before you ask.
What is the cheapest alternative to Just Eat?
How much does Just Eat charge?
Can I leave Just Eat and keep my customers?
Will my own website actually get orders?
Do you charge commission?
Ready to get started?
Tell us what you need. We will scope it, price it and build it.
Start a project →