◆ Zay-OS vs Grubhub for Restaurants
Grubhub takes ~30%. Zay-OS gives you a direct channel and pulls Grubhub onto one tablet.
Grubhub Marketplace charges 20% commission + 10% delivery = ~30% blended on a typical order. Zay-OS does not try to be a marketplace — it gives the restaurant a branded direct-ordering site (zero commission) and ingests every Grubhub, Uber Eats, and DoorDash order onto the same kitchen tablet via Otter.
Quick answer
Grubhub for Restaurants is a marketplace charging 20-30% commission plus 10% delivery (~30-40% blended). Zay-OS is the operator-side layer that adds a commission-free direct channel on your domain and ingests Grubhub, Uber Eats, and DoorDash orders into one tablet via Otter. Keep Grubhub for discovery; win repeats direct.
Side by side
Marketplace vs direct channel + ingestion.
Feature
Grubhub for Restaurants
Zay-OS
What it is
A marketplace + delivery network. Grubhub IS the channel — diners search Grubhub for "shawarma near me" and tap your tile.
An operator OS. Zay-OS gives the restaurant its own branded direct-ordering channel plus ingests every marketplace (Grubhub included) onto one tablet.
Take rate on food revenue
20% marketplace commission (basic) + 10% delivery if Grubhub drives = ~30% blended. Grubhub Premium tier reaches 30% marketplace + 10% delivery = ~40% on those orders.
Zero commission on food revenue. Flat $499-$699/mo. Diner pays $2.99 per order at checkout, or 10% above $29.99. Restaurant keeps 100%.
Customer ownership
Grubhub owns the diner. Restaurant gets no name, no email, no phone, no order history. Every reorder costs ~30% again.
Restaurant owns every diner record. CRM with full order history, exportable, with reorder SMS + email + push bundled in.
Branded checkout
Grubhub-branded tile inside the Grubhub app. Restaurant logo + photos appear, but checkout is Grubhub.
Branded direct-ordering site on yourrestaurant.com. Your colors, your menu photography, your checkout flow.
Tablet flow
Grubhub tablet on the line, separate from your DoorDash tablet, separate from your Uber Eats tablet, separate from your POS. Classic tablet hell.
Otter pulls Grubhub, DoorDash, Uber Eats, and direct orders into one kitchen tablet, one ticket flow, one alert sound.
Florida focus
Grubhub is national. No regional tuning for FL operators.
Florida-first. SEO + GEO tuned for all 40 Florida metros (Miami, Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville, Fort Lauderdale, Hialeah, Cape Coral).
Contract
Annual marketplace contract with auto-renew clauses. Hard to exit without 30-90 day notice depending on plan.
Month-to-month every plan. Cancel any time. Full data export.
Keep Grubhub. Win the repeats direct.
Grubhub for discovery. Zay-OS for everything that follows.
Grubhub genuinely brings first-time diners. Keep that. The 25-35% commission you pay for a first-time diner is rough but defensible — the trap is paying it again on every repeat. Zay-OS gives those diners a reason and a place to come back direct (saved cart, faster checkout, $5-off direct-order incentive), and ingests the Grubhub tablet into your kitchen flow so the operational tax of running both disappears.
Grubhub keeps doing
- ◆ First-time-diner discovery in the app
- ◆ Grubhub-driver delivery network
- ◆ Grubhub-funded promo placements
- ◆ Their marketplace-side payment + tax handling
Zay-OS starts doing
- ◆ Branded direct ordering on your domain
- ◆ Otter ingestion of Grubhub onto one tablet
- ◆ Customer CRM with reorder messaging
- ◆ QR codes on bags to steer repeats direct
The math at three volume tiers
What Grubhub costs at 30% blended.
$35 average ticket, blended ~30% Grubhub take. The recovered margin assumes 25% of those orders shift to direct on Zay-OS within 6-12 months.
400 orders/mo
Single small location
Grubhub take ~$4,200/mo. Recovered margin from a 25% direct shift: ~$1,050/mo, or $12.6k/year. Zay-OS flat $599 still net-positive.
1,000 orders/mo
Mid-volume location
Grubhub take ~$10,500/mo. Recovered margin from a 25% direct shift: ~$2,600/mo, or $31k/year. Net of the $599 platform fee: ~$24k/yr.
2,500 orders/mo
High-volume location
Grubhub take ~$26,250/mo. Recovered margin from a 25% direct shift: ~$6,500/mo, or $78k/year. Net of the $599 platform fee: ~$71k/yr.
Straight answers
Grubhub for Restaurants comparison questions.
Should I drop Grubhub if I sign up for Zay-OS?
No — keep Grubhub for first-time-diner discovery. The Grubhub marketplace genuinely brings you diners you would not otherwise reach. The hybrid playbook (recommended) keeps Grubhub running for discovery and steers the repeat orders to direct ordering on your branded Zay-OS site, where the restaurant keeps 100% instead of paying ~30%.
How much does Grubhub actually cost vs Zay-OS?
Grubhub Marketplace base is 20% commission on every order. Add Grubhub-delivered (you do not run your own driver) and it is another 10% — so ~30% blended on a typical order. Grubhub Premium reaches 30% + 10% = ~40% on those orders. Zay-OS is a flat $499-$699/mo regardless of order volume, with zero commission on food revenue. On a $40 ticket: Grubhub takes $12 (basic) to $16 (Premium); Zay-OS direct takes $0 from the restaurant.
Can Zay-OS pull my Grubhub orders into the same tablet?
Yes — on Operator + Marketplace ($599) and Concierge ($699), Otter ingests every Grubhub, Uber Eats, and DoorDash order into the same kitchen tablet as your direct orders. One screen, one ticket flow, one alert sound. The Grubhub tablet comes off the line.
Why does Grubhub IS the marketplace mean Zay-OS is not competing with Grubhub the same way as DoorDash?
DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub are all marketplaces — they all take ~30% to bring you discovery + delivery. Zay-OS does not try to BE a marketplace. We give you a direct channel (zero commission, you own the diner) and ingest the marketplaces so you can run both without tablet hell. Grubhub keeps doing what marketplaces do well; Zay-OS does what marketplaces structurally cannot do — let you keep the diner.
What does a typical Grubhub-heavy restaurant save with Zay-OS in 12 months?
A single location doing 800 orders/mo via Grubhub at a $35 average ticket pays Grubhub roughly $8,400/mo at 30% blended. If 25% of that volume shifts to direct on Zay-OS over 6-12 months, the recovered margin is ~$2,100/mo, or ~$25k/year, before counting the lift from owning the customer list and being able to text repeats directly. Run grader.zay-os.com on your numbers for the specific answer.
Is Zay-OS just another marketplace?
No. There is no Zay-OS app where diners browse 500 restaurants. Zay-OS gives each restaurant its own branded direct-ordering site, its own customer list, and its own kitchen tablet that aggregates direct + marketplace orders. The product is the operator OS, not a discovery marketplace.
Stop paying Grubhub for repeats you already earned.
Keep Grubhub for discovery. Run direct on Zay-OS for everything else. Otter pulls the tablet into one screen so the kitchen never notices.