The best DoorDash alternatives for restaurants, ranked by Zayos.
Published July 2026 · Updated October 4, 2026
DoorDash does three separate jobs, so the best alternative depends on which one you are replacing. For marketplace demand, Uber Eats at 20% to 30%. For cheaper commission with your own drivers, Grubhub from 5%. For pizzerias, Slice. To keep the margin, a direct channel like Zayos.
No setup fee. Month to month. We get you live in under a week.
Sources for the prices and rates in this section: Uber Eats for Merchants pricing; Grubhub for Restaurants pricing; Slice pricing, read 4 Oct 2026. A company can change them; its own page is what counts.
What are you actually replacing when you leave DoorDash?
Almost every list of DoorDash alternatives fails on this point. DoorDash is not one product, it is three, and the right replacement is different for each. Decide which one is hurting you before you shop.
1. Demand
Strangers who have never heard of you, browsing an app at 7pm. Only another marketplace replaces this, and that is what the commission is buying.
2. Delivery labor
A driver at your door in eight minutes. You can buy that on its own, per delivery, without giving anyone a cut of the food.
3. The ordering channel
The checkout your regulars use, the ones who already know your name. This is the expensive one to rent and the easy one to replace.
Most restaurants only need to replace the third one. If half your DoorDash orders come from people who could have typed your name into Google, you are paying a discovery fee for customers who were never lost.
What does DoorDash charge, so you know what to beat?
DoorDash lists its three plans openly, which makes it easy to set the baseline. All three carry no monthly fee, and pickup commission is the same on every plan.
| DoorDash plan | Delivery commission | Pickup commission |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | 15% | 6% |
| Plus | 25% | 6% |
| Premier | 30% | 6% |
Those are headline rates. Marketplace commission across the category runs 15% to 30% base, and 25% to 35% as a blended real cost once delivery, in app advertising and payment processing stack on top. Full breakdown on what DoorDash charges restaurants.
Source for the prices and rates in this section: DoorDash for Merchants pricing, read 4 Oct 2026. A company can change them; its own page is what counts.
Which DoorDash alternative is best for each job?
Each entry is tagged with the job it replaces. The two rival marketplaces come first because they are the literal swap most people are searching for. We build the third one, and it is third for reasons written into its card.
Uber Eats
The straight swapIf what you actually want is a different app sending you orders, Uber Eats is the honest first answer. It is the only alternative with a comparable diner pool in most US markets, the tiers map almost one to one onto DoorDash, and the self delivery rate is meaningfully cheaper than DoorDash equivalent if you already have drivers.
Listed on merchants.ubereats.com, read 4 Oct 2026: Lite 20%, Plus 25% and Premium 30% marketplace fee, all with a 7% pickup fee with validated in-store pricing. Self delivery is a 15% fee. Uber Direct starts at $7.99 per delivery and the Uber Eats Webshop is 2.5% plus $0.29 per order. In the cities its pricing page names, Uber Eats lists a lower Lite rate starting at 15%.
It is the same business model, so it fixes the platform and not the economics. You still do not get the diner's contact details, you are still bidding for visibility with the commission rate, and a 25% take is a 25% take whichever logo is on the bag.
Grubhub
Cheapest marketplace if you deliver yourselfGrubhub separates the marketing fee from the delivery fee, which is why it can be the cheapest marketplace on this page for a restaurant that already has its own drivers. Take the Basic plan and deliver the food yourself and the listed commission is 5% before payment processing, which no other marketplace here matches.
Listed on get.grubhub.com, read 4 Oct 2026: a marketing commission of 5% on Grubhub Basic, 15% on Plus and 20% on All-access. When Grubhub drivers deliver, Grubhub adds a delivery fee starting at 10%. Payment processing is extra and Grubhub does not list the rate.
The higher plans are sold on more marketing inside the marketplace. Basic is the cheapest plan Grubhub lists and the one with the least of it, so the saving is real only if you were not relying on Grubhub for discovery in the first place.
Zayos
Our pick, and we build itFull disclosure: this is our product, which is exactly why it is third and not first. It is not a marketplace, so it will not hand you new diners the way entries one and two do. What it replaces is the channel and the chaos: a branded ordering site on your own domain, and one kitchen tablet that shows your direct orders next to the DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub tickets ingested through Otter, so nobody is re-keying orders across four screens.
Published on /pricing: Operator $399 a month, Operator plus Tablet $499, Concierge $599, each per location, month to month, no setup fee. The restaurant pays 0% commission and keeps 100% of food revenue, and 100% of tips on pickup and dine in. On delivery the tip goes to the driver. The diner pays a flat service fee at checkout: $0.99 pickup, $0.99 delivery, $0 dine in, 10% on catering. We get you live in under a week.
A flat fee is a bet on volume. Below roughly 100 direct orders a month, $499 (Operator + Tablet) is worse arithmetic than a percentage. It is also the youngest platform here: Naya Grill in Pompano Beach is live and taking orders today, and Aker Sweets, Arwa Coffee, Courtyard Cafe, Farooj Abo Alabed, Juice Time, Kunafa King Cafe, Madent Al-Taybat Roastery, Melt N Dip, Rosto Grill & Café, Shishka Lebanese Grill, Socotra Yemeni Coffee & Co., Syrian Shawarma, Tacos Arabes, The Fryer House, Vinny’s and Yummy Grill are live and taking direct orders.
Owner.com
The direct channel with the marketing attachedOwner is the most complete done for you package aimed at leaving the marketplaces: your own site, a branded mobile app, automated SEO pages, loyalty, and email plus text campaigns in one subscription. If your worry about going direct is "nobody will find me", this is the entry that attacks that worry hardest.
Listed on owner.com/pricing, read 4 Oct 2026: $249 a month on the Flexible plan plus a 5% restaurant fee per order, or $499 a month on the Flat Rate plan with no restaurant fee per order. Guests pay a 5% order support fee on both plans.
The Flexible plan's 5% restaurant fee is a percentage, so it grows with your online sales where the Flat Rate plan does not. And the guest side 5% grows with your ticket the same way.
ChowNow
Commission free plus a small diner networkChowNow is the middle ground: commission free direct ordering, plus its own diner facing app that sends some new customers your way. It is not marketplace scale demand and ChowNow does not claim it is, but it is more discovery than a plain ordering page gives you.
Listed on get.chownow.com/pricing, read 4 Oct 2026: Launch $229 a month billed annually or $249 month to month, Grow $319 or $349, Elevate $409 or $449, plus a one time $119 to $499 setup fee and 2.95% plus $0.29 payment processing. 0% commission on orders. Flex Delivery is listed at $7.98 per order.
The setup fee and per transaction processing sit on top of the subscription, and the diner network is a bonus rather than a replacement for DoorDash volume. Do not buy it expecting marketplace demand.
Slice
Best answer if you sell pizzaIf you run a pizzeria, move this to the top of your own list. Slice does nothing but pizza, publishes its prices plainly, and covers ordering, phone orders and hardware in one membership. For that one vertical it is a better DoorDash replacement than anything above it, and we would rather say so than pretend a general platform fits every kitchen.
Listed on slice.com/pricing, read 4 Oct 2026. Online Membership: $39 a month plus $3.00 per order on credit card orders, card processing 2.90% plus $0.30, month to month. Family Membership: $399 a month plus $2.00 per order on online and phone orders, a $1,000 implementation fee, hardware and phone ordering support included. Both state "No per-order fee under $10".
The per order fee scales with success: every online order on the $39 plan adds $3.00 before processing. And it is pizza only, so if you run a grill, a taqueria or a cafe, this option does not exist for you.
Uber Direct
Delivery labor without the marketplaceThe most commonly missed option on lists like this. If the only thing DoorDash gives you that you cannot replace is a driver at the door, buy drivers on their own: a diner orders on your site, and a courier is dispatched for a flat fee per delivery instead of a percentage of the ticket. DoorDash sells the same thing under its Drive product.
Listed: Uber Direct starts at $7.99 per delivery (merchants.ubereats.com, read 4 Oct 2026). Pricing varies by distance and market, so confirm your own rate. DoorDash Drive does not publish a comparable flat rate we could verify.
A flat delivery fee beats a percentage on a big order and loses on a small one. It also brings no demand at all, so it only makes sense once you have a direct channel that people are already using.
Sources for the prices and rates in this section: Uber Eats for Merchants pricing; Grubhub for Restaurants pricing; Owner.com pricing; ChowNow pricing; Slice pricing, read 4 Oct 2026. A company can change them; its own page is what counts.
Side by side, with DoorDash as the baseline.
The last column is the one that compounds. A commission is this month's cost; the customer relationship is every month after it.
| Option | Job it replaces | What it costs | Who owns the diner |
|---|---|---|---|
| DoorDash (baseline) | Demand plus delivery | 15%, 25% or 30% delivery commission, 6% pickup | DoorDash keeps the customer |
| Uber Eats | Demand plus delivery | 20%, 25% or 30% marketplace fee, 7% pickup, 15% self delivery | Uber keeps the customer |
| Grubhub | Demand plus delivery | Marketing commission of 5%, 15% or 20%, plus a delivery fee from 10% if Grubhub delivers; processing extra | Grubhub keeps the customer |
| Zayos | Ordering channel plus kitchen queue | $399 to $599 per month per location, 0% commission | Restaurant, exportable |
| Owner.com | Ordering channel plus marketing | $249 a month plus 5% per order, or $499 flat; guests pay 5% | Restaurant |
| ChowNow | Ordering channel plus light demand | $229 to $449 a month, $119 to $499 setup, 2.95% plus $0.29 | Restaurant |
| Slice | Ordering channel, pizzerias only | $39 a month plus $3.00 per order, or $399 plus $2.00 | Restaurant |
| Uber Direct | Delivery drivers only | From $7.99 per delivery | Restaurant |
Rates as listed by each platform on its own pricing page, read 4 Oct 2026. Payment processing, advertising and delivery fees vary by market; confirm your own rates before switching.
Sources for the prices and rates in this section: DoorDash for Merchants pricing; Uber Eats for Merchants pricing; Grubhub for Restaurants pricing; Owner.com pricing; ChowNow pricing; Slice pricing, read 4 Oct 2026. A company can change them; its own page is what counts.
Does switching marketplaces actually save money?
Run it on 650 marketplace orders a month at a $26 average ticket, which is $16,900 in monthly marketplace volume. Same restaurant, same food, four different bills.
Two honest readings of that. First, switching marketplaces is a real saving: the bill falls from $5,070 to $3,380 a month, each figure being $16,900 times the listed rate. Second, it is not free, because the cheaper plans buy less visibility. The higher plans on every marketplace are sold on more marketing and placement, so some of the saving comes back as fewer orders. Only you can judge how many. The Grubhub figure is before payment processing, which Grubhub bills as an extra and does not list a rate for.
The direct column is a different kind of number: it stops growing. On a flat fee, order 651 costs the same as order 650, and the restaurant keeps 100% of the food revenue, and 100% of tips on pickup and dine in, with the diner paying a flat $0.99 pickup or $0.99 delivery service fee at checkout. Break even against a 25% blended take on a $26 ticket lands at roughly 77 direct orders a month for a $499 Operator + Tablet plan and 92 for a $599 plan.
For a real figure rather than a model: Farooj Abo Alabed, also live on Zayos, is on pace for $40k+ a year in commission not paid to a marketplace: its direct food sales after discounts from 10 Aug to 3 Oct 2026 (55 days), annualized at a 35% blended marketplace cost. Model your own volume with the free AI report or the commission calculator.
Sources for the prices and rates in this section: DoorDash for Merchants pricing; Grubhub for Restaurants pricing; Uber Eats for Merchants pricing, read 4 Oct 2026. A company can change them; its own page is what counts.
Should you leave DoorDash entirely?
Probably not, and any vendor telling you otherwise is selling. The marketplaces are genuinely good at the one thing that is hardest to buy: putting your name in front of somebody who has never eaten your food. Deleting the listing throws that away to save a commission on orders you would have lost anyway.
The version that works is boring. Keep a marketplace listing and judge it on one number only: new customers acquired. Move everyone else, the regulars who already search for your name, the office that orders every Thursday, the pickup crowd who never needed a courier, onto a channel where you keep the money and the customer record.
Then make the kitchen side survivable. Adding a direct channel adds a screen unless the orders land somewhere they already look, which is why order consolidation matters more than any feature comparison on this page. Read how to stop paying DoorDash commission for the step by step, or how Otter ingestion works for the tablet problem.
Leaving DoorDash, answered straight.
What is the best alternative to DoorDash for restaurants?
How much does DoorDash actually charge a restaurant?
Will switching from DoorDash to Uber Eats save my restaurant money?
Can a restaurant leave the delivery apps completely?
How many orders do I need for a flat fee platform to beat commission?
Do I lose my DoorDash orders if I start taking direct orders?
Sources for the prices and rates in this section: DoorDash for Merchants pricing; Grubhub for Restaurants pricing; Uber Eats for Merchants pricing, read 4 Oct 2026. A company can change them; its own page is what counts.
Sources
- DoorDash for Merchants pricing, read 4 Oct 2026: Basic 15%, Plus 25% and Premier 30% on delivery, 6% on pickup, no monthly fee.
- Uber Eats merchant pricing, read 4 Oct 2026: Lite 20%, Plus 25%, Premium 30% marketplace fee, 7% pickup with validated in-store pricing, 15% self delivery, Uber Direct from $7.99 per delivery, Webshop 2.5% plus $0.29 per order.
- Grubhub for Restaurants pricing, read 4 Oct 2026: marketing commission of 5% on Basic, 15% on Plus and 20% on All-access, a delivery fee starting at 10% when Grubhub drivers deliver, and payment processing as an extra with no rate listed.
- ChowNow pricing page, read 4 Oct 2026: Launch $229 or $249, Grow $319 or $349, Elevate $409 or $449, $119 to $499 setup fee, 2.95% plus $0.29 processing, Flex Delivery $7.98 per order.
- Owner.com pricing page, read 4 Oct 2026: $249 Flexible plus 5% restaurant fee, $499 Flat Rate, 5% guest order support fee.
- Slice pricing page, read 4 Oct 2026: Online Membership $39 a month plus $3.00 per order, Family Membership $399 a month plus $2.00 per order and a $1,000 implementation fee, processing 2.90% plus $0.30.
- Zayos pricing: the $399, $499 and $599 tiers per location, no setup fee, 0% restaurant commission, and the flat diner paid service fee of $0.99 pickup and $0.99 delivery.
Every commission figure above was read from the platform's own pricing page on 4 Oct 2026. The 25% to 35% blended cost is a category range covering commission plus advertising plus processing, not a single vendor's rate.
Source for the prices and rates in this section: DoorDash for Merchants pricing, read 4 Oct 2026. A company can change them; its own page is what counts.
See what the apps took from you last month.
The free AI report models your real commission bill and what a direct channel would keep, in about 60 seconds. No card, no sales call.
No setup fee. Month to month. We get you live in under a week.
Not ready yet? Get a free grade of your online ordering.
What would you keep with DoorDash's rate filled in?
The calculator opens at 25%: DoorDash's listed rate for Plus plan. Source: DoorDash for Merchants pricing, https://merchants.doordash.com/en-us/pricing, read 4 Oct 2026. Change any number to your own. The share moved to direct is an estimate you set, not a promise. For DoorDash alone, use the DoorDash fee calculator.
A modeled estimate from the numbers you entered. Not a promise.
0 app orders a month per location pays for the plan.
The $0.99 service fee on pickup and delivery is paid by the diner, so it is not a restaurant cost and is not in these numbers.
How we got this
- What the apps charge
- Orders × share through apps × average order × commission rate × 12 months × locations.
- What Zayos costs
- Plan × locations × 12 months. Nothing per order.
- Commission you stop paying
- App sales × share moved to direct × (commission rate minus 3% card processing, which a direct order still pays).
Total: $0 - Money you keep
- Commission you stop paying, minus what Zayos costs.
- Break-even
- Plan ÷ (average order × share moved to direct × (commission rate minus 3%)).
One measured example: Farooj Abo Alabed, live on Zayos, is on pace for $40k+ a year in commission not paid to a marketplace: its direct food sales after discounts from 10 Aug to 3 Oct 2026 (55 days), annualized at a 35% blended marketplace cost.
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