DoorDash vs Uber Eats, the Zayos rate card
Published July 2026 · Updated July 26, 2026
DoorDash publishes 15%, 25% and 30% delivery commission with 6% pickup. Uber Eats publishes 20%, 25% and 30% marketplace fees with 7% pickup, plus a 15% self delivery rate. DoorDash is cheaper to start. Uber Eats is cheaper if you drive your own orders.
Free, no card, about 60 seconds.
What does each one actually charge?
Both published rate cards in one table, pulled from each marketplace's own merchant site on July 26, 2026. The last column is our call on that row, and it is not the same vendor every time.
Swipe the table sideways to see all four columns.
What does a tier upgrade cost me in dollars?
Same restaurant, same $20,000 a month of marketplace sales, run through every published rate on both apps. This is base commission only, before delivery, promotion and processing fees stack on top.
DoorDash Basic, or Uber Eats Lite in a published lower rate city
Uber Eats Lite in most cities
DoorDash Plus or Uber Eats Plus
DoorDash Premier or Uber Eats Premium
The distance between the cheapest and the most expensive published tier is $3,000 a month on identical sales. That is the whole argument in one number. A tier upgrade is an advertising purchase, so hold it to an advertising standard: it must produce enough new orders, from people who were never coming to you anyway, to cover the extra points.
One more thing worth saying plainly, because it is the number most owners find on their own statement rather than on a pricing page. The published rates above are base commission. Once delivery, promotion and payment processing costs stack, the blended real cost of marketplace volume typically lands between 25% and 35%. When somebody quotes you a marketplace number, always ask whether they mean base or blended.
If I can only be on one, which one?
You want the cheapest published way onto a marketplace
Basic is 15% delivery commission against Uber Eats Lite at 20% in most cities, and pickup is 6% against 7%. On $20,000 a month of marketplace sales that gap is $1,000 a month, every month, for reach that is broadly comparable in most American cities. If cost is the deciding factor and you are not in one of the exception cities below, this is the answer.
You already pay drivers, or you are in one of the published lower rate cities
Uber Eats publishes a 15% self delivery fee, which is the cheapest published reach either marketplace sells, and DoorDash does not publish an equivalent tier. Separately, Uber Eats publishes a lower Lite rate of 15% delivery in select cities including Portland, New York City, Los Angeles and Seattle, which ties DoorDash Basic. Check your own city before assuming the 20% applies to you.
You have decided to spend at the top tier anyway
Both top tiers are 30%. At that identical headline rate, Uber Eats Premium includes a complimentary year of Uber One, ad credit matching up to $100 a month ($1,200 a year), a premium menu photo package valued at $250+, and reimbursement of the marketplace fee if you get fewer than 20 orders in a month for the first 6 months. DoorDash Premier includes its own guarantee, refunding that month's commission under 20 orders, but not the ad match or the photography. Same price, more in the box.
Neither of them is a rip off for what it does
A marketplace does something your own website cannot: it puts you in front of people who have never heard of you, at the exact moment they are deciding what to eat. Nobody browses a restaurant website they do not already know. If you are new, or in a location with no walk by traffic, paying 15% to get discovered is a rational marketing spend. The mistake is not being on them. The mistake is still paying discovery rates on year three regulars who would have ordered from you anyway.
Can I get commission free direct ordering from DoorDash or Uber Eats?
Yes, from both, and this is the part most comparisons skip. Each marketplace publishes a direct ordering product that costs a fraction of its own marketplace rate.
Online Ordering by DoorDash carries 0% commission on direct orders, with no monthly fee and no commission based fee. DoorDash states the only charge is payment processing, the kind you pay on a dine in order, and that customers pay the delivery fee on delivery orders. Uber Eats Webshop charges 2.5% plus $0.29 per order, and Uber Direct, its courier product for your own orders, starts at $7.99 per delivery.
Those are real numbers and they are far below 15% to 30%. The question they raise is not about price. It is about who holds the relationship. If your direct channel is built by the company that also owns the marketplace channel, your guest list, your menu and your ordering page all live in one house, and it is the same house you are trying to become less dependent on. Some operators are fine with that. Some are not. Decide on purpose rather than by default.
Where does Zayos fit in this?
We wrote this page, so the disclosure comes first, and so does the honest part: we are not telling you to leave the apps. Discovery is a real service and a new restaurant with no foot traffic should pay for it.
Zayos is what you run alongside them so the regulars have somewhere cheaper to land. It is $499, $599 or $699 per month per location, month to month, no setup fee. Direct orders carry a small diner paid service fee at checkout, $0.99 pickup, $2.99 delivery, $0 dine in and 10% catering. The restaurant never pays it and keeps 100% of food revenue and 100% of tips. The $599 tier ingests your Uber Eats, DoorDash and Grubhub tickets through Otter so both apps and your own orders land on one kitchen tablet, which is the operational fix for the two tablet problem this page keeps circling.
One restaurant is live and taking orders on it today: Naya Grill, in Pompano Beach and West Palm Beach, keeping $48k+ a year that used to leave as commission. Eight more storefronts are built with ordering opening at each launch. We are a Fort Lauderdale company and that is the size of our track record, which you should weigh honestly against two companies with national scale. Keep the app that discovers you. Move the regulars.
What owners ask about the two apps
If I can only be on one app, which one should it be?
What is the difference between 15% and 30% on the same app?
Is the 30% tier ever worth it?
Which is cheaper for a pickup heavy restaurant?
I have my own drivers. Does that change anything?
Do either of them charge me a monthly fee?
Both of them offered me commission free ordering on my own website. Is that real?
Should I just be on both?
Sources
- DoorDash published partnership plans: Basic 15% delivery and 6% pickup with 0% for 7 days, Plus 25% delivery and 6% pickup with a 30 day free trial and DashPass member access, Premier 30% delivery and 6% pickup with a 30 day free trial and an order guarantee refunding that month's commission under 20 orders. DoorDash states no activation fee, subscription fee, software fee, cancellation fee, contract fee or any other monthly fee, and that plans can be switched any time in the Merchant Portal. Tablet $6 a week after the trial. merchants.doordash.com/en-us/products/pricing and merchants.doordash.com/en-us/products/marketplace, accessed July 26, 2026.
- DoorDash direct ordering: Online Ordering by DoorDash carries 0% commission on direct orders with no monthly fees or commission based fees, the only charge being payment processing, with customers paying delivery fees on delivery orders. merchants.doordash.com/en-us/products/storefront, accessed July 26, 2026.
- Uber Eats published merchant pricing: Lite 20% marketplace fee and 7% pickup, Plus 25% after a 0% intro rate for 30 days, Premium 30% after a 0% intro rate for 30 days, Self delivery 15%, and lower Lite delivery fees of 15% in select cities including Portland, New York City, Los Angeles and Seattle. Uber Direct starts at $7.99 per delivery. Webshop is 2.5% order processing plus $0.29 per order. merchants.ubereats.com/us/en/pricing, accessed July 26, 2026.
- Uber Eats tier inclusions: Lite merchants are not eligible for Uber One, Plus receives Uber One benefits at no additional cost plus ads and offers, and Premium adds a complimentary Uber One membership for 1 year, ad credit matching of up to $100 per month ($1,200 per year), a complimentary premium menu photo package valued at $250+, and reimbursement of the marketplace fee if the merchant does not receive at least 20 orders in a month, for the first 6 months. merchants.ubereats.com/us/en/pricing, accessed July 26, 2026.
- Zayos pricing: zay-os.com/pricing.
Dollar figures in the volume section are our arithmetic on the published rates above, not vendor claims. Marketplace rates vary by city and by negotiated agreement, and both companies change them, so confirm your own rate in your merchant portal before you plan against it. If a figure here is out of date, tell us and we will correct it.
See what both apps took from you last month.
The free report reads your real order mix and puts a number on it, so you know which tier you can actually justify. About 60 seconds, no card, no call.