Commission free online ordering in Tampa, and how Zayos prices it.
Published July 2026 · Updated July 26, 2026
Commission free online ordering means a Tampa restaurant pays a flat monthly fee, not a percentage of every ticket. Zayos charges $499 to $699 per location per month. The diner pays $0.99 pickup or $2.99 delivery at checkout, and the restaurant keeps 100% of food revenue and tips.
What does commission free actually have to mean?
There is one test, and it takes ten seconds. If your bill goes up when your sales go up, it is a commission. The label on the line item does not matter. Marketing fee, growth fee, revenue share, per-order fee, partner fee: if the number moves with your revenue and it comes out of your account, you are paying commission.
That test matters more in Tampa than most people expect, because the market is stacked with low-ticket counter service. Ybor City and West Tampa built their reputations on lunch, and Seminole Heights runs a lot of casual, high-frequency, modest-check business. A pricing model that takes a percentage or a flat cut per order lands hardest on exactly those operators. A $1.50 per-order fee is 13% of an $11.50 Cuban sandwich and 3% of a $46 Bayshore dinner order. Same fee, wildly different pain.
The second test is quieter and it costs more over time: who owns the diner? A storefront sold to you by a marketplace can genuinely be zero commission and still leave you renting your own regulars. You never get the email, you never get the phone number, and every reopening announcement after a storm goes out on someone else’s terms.
Which commission free claims survive the test?
Five pricing shapes are sold in this market as commission free. Only one of them is. Print this and hold it next to whatever contract is in front of you.
| What the vendor says | What it actually is | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| 0% commission on your own website, sold by a delivery marketplace | True on commission. You still pay card processing on every order, roughly 2.9% plus $0.30, and the marketplace keeps the diner relationship and the order data. | Half true |
| Commission free, we only take a small flat fee per order | A per-order fee paid by the restaurant is a commission wearing a different hat. A $1.50 fee on an $11.50 Ybor lunch is 13%. On a $46 dinner it is 3%. It punishes exactly the counter-service operators who can least afford it. | No |
| Free for the first 30 days, revenue share after that | A commission with a start date. Read the term length and the cancellation clause before the trial ends, because that is the moment the pricing you agreed to actually begins. | No |
| Commission free, plus a percentage marketing or growth fee | A percentage of sales taken by the vendor is a commission regardless of the noun in front of it. If it scales with your revenue and you pay it, it is a commission. | No |
| Flat monthly subscription, diner pays a disclosed checkout fee, restaurant keeps 100% of food revenue and tips | This is the version that holds up. Your cost does not move when sales move. The service fee is printed at checkout so the diner sees it, and it never comes out of your ticket. | Yes |
What is commission actually taking off a Tampa ticket?
Take an $11.50 lunch order, the kind an Ybor or West Tampa counter does a hundred times between eleven and two. Marketplace commission plans run 15% to 30% on delivery before anything else is added. At the top plan, 30%:
- Ticket$11.50
- Marketplace commission at 30%− $3.45
- Food cost at 30%− $3.45
- Left for labor, rent, utilities, packaging and profit$4.60
The marketplace takes exactly as much off that lunch as the food itself costs. That is the whole argument in one line, and it is worse at low tickets than at high ones, which is why Tampa’s lunch-driven counter operators feel this before the Hyde Park dinner houses do.
On direct ordering the same $11.50 arrives as $11.50. The diner pays $0.99 for pickup on top of it, disclosed at checkout, and the restaurant pays a flat subscription that does not care how many sandwiches went out. At a $34 average ticket and a 28% blended rate, each direct order keeps about $9.52 that a marketplace would have taken, which means the $499 Operator plan pays for itself at roughly 53 direct orders a month. Under two a day.
Every input above is stated so you can replace it. Run yours in the commission calculator, or see the full DoorDash cost teardown for a Tampa restaurant.
What do I give up by going commission free?
Three real things, and any vendor who tells you otherwise is selling.
You give up discovery, unless you keep the apps
A marketplace puts you in front of people who have never heard of you, and Tampa has a lot of those between spring training, cruise passengers and spring break. This is why we do not tell operators to delete their listings. Keep the apps for strangers, own the regulars.
You pay in slow months too
A commission is zero when sales are zero. A subscription is not. August in Tampa Bay is the deepest trough of the year, and $499 is still $499. The trade is that March, when you are doing your best volume, costs you the same $499 instead of five figures in fees.
You have to do the marketing yourself
Direct ordering does not fill itself. Table tents, receipt inserts, a QR code at the register, an email to your list. The upside is that the list is yours, so the work compounds instead of renting attention back every month.
What Tampa owners ask before switching
Is Zayos really commission free, or is there a catch?
At what order volume does a flat fee beat a commission?
Does commission free mean I lose DoorDash and Uber Eats?
Who pays the service fee, me or the customer?
How is this different from raising my DoorDash menu prices?
Do you have Tampa restaurants on this today?
What is the real switching cost?
Disclosure on our own footing: Zay Revenue Group is a Fort Lauderdale, Florida company. Naya Grill in Pompano Beach and West Palm Beach is our live restaurant. Storefronts are built and open ordering at launch for Shishka Lebanese Grill, La Vie Mediterranean, Yummy Grill, aura, Courtyard Cafe, Mr. Smoke, Yalla Market and Tap That Ash. We have no Tampa customers yet.
Find your real blended rate.
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