Direct Ordering vs Deliveroo: Which Is Better for Restaurants?
Direct ordering vs Deliveroo: the short answer
Direct ordering makes more money per order. Deliveroo takes 25–35% commission on every order, and a direct ordering platform costs a fraction of that. What Deliveroo has is reach. It puts you in front of people who've never heard of you, and direct ordering only really works once you have customers who already know your name.
So most restaurants that make decent money from delivery use both. Deliveroo finds the customers. Direct ordering keeps them.
What does Deliveroo actually cost?
Deliveroo takes 25–35% of every order, depending on your contract and where you are. On a £30 order that's £7.50 to £10.50 gone before you've paid for the food, the staff or the rent.
Plenty of restaurants run on net margins of 3–9%. At 30% commission, a Deliveroo order can lose you money.
The commission isn't the whole bill either. There are tablet and equipment fees. If you want promoted placement, you pay a marketing contribution on top. Some contracts come with packaging requirements. And you never get the customer's details, so you can't market to them later.
What direct ordering costs
Direct online ordering platforms usually charge a monthly subscription or a smaller percentage, often under 5% of the order value. Some charge a flat fee no matter how many orders you take.
With Flipdish online ordering, customers order through your own branded website or app and pay you directly. Nobody takes 30% off the top.
Here's what that looks like over a year:
| Scenario | Monthly orders | Avg order value | Annual Deliveroo commission (30%) | Annual direct ordering fee (est.) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small takeaway | 300 | £25 | £27,000 | ~£2,400 |
| Growing restaurant | 800 | £28 | £80,640 | ~£4,800 |
| Multi-location group | 2,500 | £30 | £270,000 | ~£12,000+ |
The more orders you do, the wider the gap gets.
What direct ordering gives you that Deliveroo doesn't
The big one is customer data. Deliveroo owns the relationship. You don't know who ordered, so you can't email them, send them a loyalty offer or ask them back. With direct ordering you get their contact details, what they ordered and how often.
You also get to look like yourself. On Deliveroo your listing looks like every other listing in the app. Your own branded app or website is your name, your colours, your menu.
Loyalty is yours to run - your own loyalty programme, push notifications, email campaigns. You can't do any of that with customers who order through Deliveroo.
And you set the prices. Some restaurants charge more on Deliveroo to cover the commission. On your own channel you can charge less or run deals, and nobody takes a cut.
What Deliveroo gives you that direct ordering doesn't
Mostly, people. Deliveroo's app has millions of users in the UK and Ireland. If you've just opened in a new area, or nobody knows your name yet, that's exposure you'd struggle to get on your own.
Those people find it easy to order, too. A lot of them already have a Deliveroo account with their card saved, so trying you for the first time takes a few taps.
Deliveroo also pays for its own advertising. You get the traffic without spending your own marketing budget.
The most common profitable strategy
Growing restaurant groups mostly do this:
- Use Deliveroo to find new customers. Think of the commission as ad spend.
- Move those customers to direct ordering with receipts, inserts in the bag, loyalty rewards and follow-up offers.
- Keep them ordering direct, where each order costs you far less.
Take a customer who orders a £30 meal through Deliveroo six times a year. Deliveroo gets £9–£10 from each order, so £54–£60 a year from that one customer. Get them ordering direct and that money stays with you.
Flipdish AI marketing tools can automate the win-back campaigns and loyalty nudges that move customers from marketplaces to direct.
Direct ordering vs Deliveroo: side-by-side
| Factor | Direct ordering (Flipdish) | Deliveroo |
|---|---|---|
| Commission per order | Low fixed fee or % | 25–35% |
| Customer data | Full access | None |
| Brand control | Complete | Limited |
| Discovery for new customers | Requires marketing | Built-in |
| Loyalty programme | Yes | No |
| App and website | Branded | Deliveroo-branded |
| Profitability per order | Higher | Lower |
Should you leave Deliveroo entirely?
Usually not, unless the commission is genuinely sinking you. Pull out of Deliveroo overnight and that revenue disappears before your direct channel is ready to replace it.
Shift gradually. Stay on Deliveroo while you build up direct orders. Once direct is 50% or more of your delivery revenue, you're in a much better position when you sit down to negotiate commission with Deliveroo.
How Flipdish helps
Flipdish does direct online ordering, branded mobile apps and a full restaurant POS system. In-store, kiosk, online and phone orders all go through the one platform.
You can run direct ordering alongside Deliveroo, with every order landing in the same kitchen queue. The built-in AI marketing tools help move customers off third-party platforms and onto your own.
If you're paying Deliveroo more than £20,000 a year in commission, direct ordering pays for itself quickly.
Want to stop handing a third of every order to a marketplace? See Flipdish online ordering pricing or look through the full Flipdish product suite.