Delivery apps or your own online ordering for a restaurant.

The short answer

The apps sell you reach: they put your menu in front of people who have never heard of you, and they deliver. You pay for that reach on every order, including orders from regulars who would have found you anyway. That is the whole trade-off.

• DoorDash has three plans, Basic, Plus and Premier. You pay a percentage of each order's subtotal, higher on the plans with more reach, and a lower percentage on pickup orders. DoorDash says there is no monthly fee, signup fee or cancellation fee, and that the commission covers your listing, marketing, Dasher delivery, customer support and card processing.
• Uber Eats has Lite, Plus and Premium plans with a marketplace fee charged as a percentage of orders, a self-delivery plan for restaurants with their own drivers, and a pickup fee that is lower when your app pickup prices match your in-store prices.
• Your own ordering page has no commission. You pay for the ordering software, card processing, delivery if you offer it, and whatever it takes to make people use it.

Our view: keep the apps for the customers they find you, and work steadily to move your regulars to ordering direct. Leaving the apps outright makes sense for few restaurants, and keeping every order on them makes sense for fewer.

One order, worked through both ways

Commission rates change by plan and by contract, so take the figures from your own merchant portal and last month's statements, and fill in two columns for an order of your usual size.

Through a delivery app:

• The menu price of the food, which is the subtotal the commission is charged on. If you mark up app prices, use the marked-up figure.
• Less the commission at your plan's delivery rate, or the pickup rate for pickup orders.
• Less your share of any promotion you fund, such as a discount or free delivery.
• Less ads, such as sponsored listings, divided by the orders they brought.
• Less any tablet or equipment fee, divided by the month's orders.
• The customer's delivery and service fees go to the app, not to you, so they do not appear in your column.

Through your own ordering page:

• The menu price of the food.
• Less card processing on the order total.
• Less the ordering platform's fee per order, or its monthly fee divided by the month's orders.
• Less delivery: your driver's time and vehicle costs, or the on-demand courier's charge, minus any delivery fee the customer pays you.
• Less what it cost to win the order, such as a printed card, an email or an ad.

Packaging and the food itself cost the same in both columns, so leave them out of the comparison. The gap between the two columns, multiplied by the orders that could come direct, is what moving regulars is worth to you.

What the higher plans buy

On DoorDash, Basic has the lowest commission and local exposure. Plus adds a wider delivery radius, a lower delivery fee for customers and access to DashPass members. Premier adds the widest range and an in-app ad DoorDash manages, plus a commission refund promise if you get few orders, which comes with conditions. DoorDash says you can switch plans at any time in the Merchant Portal, and changes take up to five business days.

On Uber Eats, Plus and Premium buy more visibility in the app, a lower delivery fee for customers and a place in its membership programme, which carries an extra fee on members' orders. The self-delivery plan charges its own fee when your staff deliver, with Uber's couriers available for further addresses, or when your staff are busy, at a higher fee.

The question for each upgrade is whether it brings new customers, or charges more on orders you already had. Look at your own figures before and after a change, ideally a few weeks on each plan. DoorDash's own advice is to run a plan for two to three weeks before switching.

Menu prices on the apps

DoorDash says restaurants can set different prices for delivery orders, and many do, to cover the commission. Pickup is different: its lower pickup rate depends on your DoorDash Pickup prices matching your in-store prices, and Uber Eats charges a lower pickup fee on the same condition.

That gives you a plain message for your own page: "Order direct for our in-store prices." It is true, it costs nothing and customers understand it. Put it next to the order button on your website, on your Google profile and at the counter.

Do not let the menus drift apart. A dish that is sold out in the kitchen but still on the app, or a price change made on the till and nowhere else, turns into refunds and bad reviews. One person owns the menu in every place it appears.

Who keeps the customer

An order through an app is the app's customer first. DoorDash's merchant terms say a restaurant may process the data DoorDash gives it, including personal information, only as needed to perform under the agreement, and may not sell or share it. In plain terms, the phone number on a DoorDash order is for that order, not for your mailing list.

Your own ordering page is where you meet the customer directly. Ask for what the order needs, and ask separately, with a box they tick themselves, whether they want offers by email or text. Keep the answer with their details, and send marketing only to people who said yes, as text message consent rules explains for texts.

The apps also sell ordering tools for your own channels. DoorDash's Online Ordering, which it says carries no commission but a payment processing fee, and Uber Eats' Webshop, which charges a processing fee and a flat fee per order and lists access to customer data among its features. Read what each one gives you before you choose.

What your own ordering needs

Your own ordering can come from your till or point of sale provider, a separate ordering platform, or the apps' own ordering tools above. Whichever you choose, it has to do these well:

• The menu stays in step with the till, including items the kitchen has run out of.
• Opening hours, holiday closures and the last order time match your Google profile.
• Prep times can change on a busy Friday, so customers are not promised twenty minutes when the kitchen needs forty.
• Allergen information sits on each dish, with a line saying the kitchen confirms what is safe.
• Orders reach the kitchen on a screen or printer staff already watch, with a sound when one arrives.
• Refunds and mistakes have a named person and a way to reach them.

Put the order button where people look first: at the bottom of the phone screen on your website, on your Google profile and in your Instagram bio. The menu should be a page that loads fast on a phone, with a PDF as an extra if you keep one. Our restaurants page lists what else a restaurant site needs.

Delivery: your drivers or a courier on demand

Pickup is the cheapest way to start ordering direct: no driver, no delivery area, and customers who live nearby. Many restaurants launch their own ordering for pickup only and add delivery later.

For delivery, you can employ drivers, which means wages, insurance, vehicles and quiet hours you still pay for, or book a courier per order. Uber Direct delivers orders placed on your own website, app or phone line, without the order going through the Uber Eats marketplace. Uber says you set the delivery options and the fee you charge customers, and pay a fee per delivery. DoorDash lists a similar product called Drive On-Demand.

Work out the delivery line from the worksheet above for both options. A courier per order costs more each time but nothing on a quiet Tuesday. Your own driver is cheaper per order only when they are busy.

Google's ordering links

Google Business Profile can show links for placing a food order, up to ten of them, and a single link to your menu. Google says links to some providers can appear on your profile automatically, from its partners. Customers who search your name then see the apps' links next to yours.

• Add your own ordering link in your profile, under food ordering or pickup and delivery.
• Set it as the business preferred link, so it sits at the top.
• Remove providers you do not use. Google says providers must remove their links within five days of a removal request.
• Do not switch off the setting for accepting orders on your profile unless you mean it: Google says that hides every ordering link, your own included.

Check the profile on a phone after any change, and again each month, because partner links can come back.

Move regulars to ordering direct, without leaving the apps

Customers who already know you are the ones to move. New customers will keep finding you on the apps, and that is fine. The steps that work best cost little:

• Same prices or lower on your own page than on the apps, and say so.
• One reason to order direct that the apps do not give: a free side on pickup orders, a stamp card, or the dishes you only sell in-house.
• Tell people where they already are: on the receipt and the counter for walk-in customers, on the takeaway bag for pickup orders, on your Google profile and at the top of your website.
• Ask direct customers whether they want offers, and send those who say yes a short message when something is worth telling, such as a new dish or a holiday menu.
• Sell gift cards on your own site, which brings people back to your own channel. See how to sell gift cards on your website.

Before you put cards in delivery bags, read your app agreement for anything about marketing to its customers. A regular who orders through an app because it is easier is still a regular. Give them a reason to switch, and leave the choice with them.

A monthly message to opted-in customers, a reminder before your busy nights or a thank-you after a first direct order can run on their own: see automation. If you advertise the direct offer, send the ad to a landing page for that offer, not to the home page.

When the apps are worth it, and when to cut back

The apps earn their commission when you are new and nobody knows you, when your food travels well and most of it is eaten at home, when you cannot run drivers, and late at night when you would otherwise be closed for delivery.

Cut back, or move down a plan, when most app orders come from people who already know you, when promotions and ads take a growing share of each order, or when app orders crowd the kitchen at the hour your dining room is full.

Take a neighbourhood pizza place where most app orders come from the streets around the shop and arrive on Friday and Saturday nights. Those customers already know the place. A card at the counter, a pickup price that matches the shop and the order link at the top of its Google profile can move some of them to ordering direct, while the apps keep bringing people from further away.

A middle path many restaurants use: stay on the apps for delivery, turn your own page into the home of pickup and regulars, and review the split every quarter.

What to check each month

• Orders by channel: each app, your own page, phone and walk-in.
• What you received per order in each channel, after commission, fees and promotions.
• How many direct orders came from repeat customers.
• Refunds, missing items and complaints by channel.
• Whether Google shows your own ordering link first.
• Whether the app menus still match the till.

If direct orders are not growing, look first at where the order button sits on your website and your Google profile. More often than not, customers order through the app because it was the first link they saw. A website with the order button on the first screen fixes most of that.