◆ Definition

What is first-party ordering? Zayos, plain answer for operators

Published July 2026 · Updated July 26, 2026

Quick answer

First-party ordering is when a diner orders through a channel the restaurant owns, its own website, its own app or its own QR code, so the restaurant holds the customer record and the margin. Third-party ordering happens on a marketplace like DoorDash, which owns both.

Not sure which side most of your orders sit on? The free AI report reads your public channels and tells you. No card.

Who owns what on each kind of order?

The word first-party sounds like jargon until you write down the list of things that either belong to you or do not. Same food, same driver, same diner. Different owner.

Ownership of the order and the customer record on first-party versus third-party restaurant orders
What is at stake First-party Third-party
The diner’s full name Restaurant Usually a first name only
Email address Restaurant Platform
Phone number Restaurant Masked or platform-held
Order history Restaurant Platform
Permission to contact them again Restaurant Platform
Menu, prices and photos Restaurant Restaurant, inside platform rules
The commission on the ticket None 15% to 30% base, 25% to 35% blended
Who the diner thinks they bought from The restaurant The app

The last row is the one that compounds. A diner who believes they bought from an app goes back to the app. The published commission ranges in the table are the platforms’ own, collected on our commission statistics page.

Is a DoorDash button on my own website first-party?

No, and that specific setup is the most common way an owner pays commission on traffic they already earned. Four cases worth ruling on before you argue about them with a vendor.

A button on your site that opens DoorDash

Third-party

The order is placed on the marketplace, the commission is charged, and the customer record goes to the platform. Your website was a referral link. Plenty of restaurants pay a marketplace to serve diners who arrived on the restaurant’s own homepage, which is the most expensive traffic you will ever buy.

An ordering page on a subdomain like order.yourname.com

Usually first-party

If the checkout happens there, the restaurant is the merchant of record, and the customer record lands in a system you can export, it is first-party even though a vendor built it. The domain is a branding detail. The contract is the deciding document.

Phone orders taken at the counter

First-party

The oldest first-party channel there is. The problem is not ownership, it is that nobody writes the number down. A phone order that leaves no record is a first-party order you failed to keep.

A marketplace-branded storefront on your own domain

Read the contract

Some vendors put your logo on a page while retaining the diner data and charging a percentage. Ask two questions: can I export the customer list tomorrow, and what percentage of the ticket do you take. The answers define the category, not the wallpaper.

What does first-party change inside the building?

Less than owners expect on the line, and more than they expect in the office. On the pass, a first-party ticket should print, alert and route exactly like a marketplace ticket. If it lands on a fourth tablet with a different sound, service suffers and the staff routes around it. The fix is an order aggregator that puts every channel in one feed.

In the office it changes what you can do on a slow Tuesday. With first-party orders you have a list: who ordered, what they ordered, when they last came in. You can text 40 lapsed regulars about a catering tray. On third-party volume you have a deposit and a rating, and the only way to reach those diners again is to buy them again.

One more practical note. First-party does not mean you drive the food yourself. Delivery is a separate purchase, dispatched per order at a flat cost. Ownership of the diner and ownership of the car are different questions.

Where Zayos fits

Zayos is a first-party ordering system: the storefront runs on the restaurant’s own brand, the customer record belongs to the restaurant, and there is no commission on food revenue. Plans are $499, $599 and $699 per location per month, month to month, no setup fee. The diner pays a flat service fee at checkout, $0.99 pickup and $2.99 delivery, and the restaurant keeps 100% of food revenue and tips.

If you are weighing first-party against the apps, the DoorDash comparison lays out both cost models, and how it works covers the onboarding timeline.

Five questions, answered straight.

What is the difference between first-party and third-party ordering?
First-party ordering happens on a channel the restaurant owns, its website, its app, its QR code or its phone line, and the restaurant keeps the customer record and 100% of the food revenue. Third-party ordering happens on a marketplace such as DoorDash, Uber Eats or Grubhub, which owns the diner relationship and charges a commission on every order.
Do I own my customer list on DoorDash or Uber Eats?
Assume not, then check your platform agreement for the exact terms. Marketplaces hand the kitchen what it needs to cook and hand off the order, typically a first name and a delivery note. If you cannot export a list of names, emails and phone numbers and email those people yourself, you do not own the list.
Is my online ordering page first-party if a vendor built it?
Yes, if the checkout runs on your channel, you are the merchant of record, and you can export the customer data. Who wrote the code does not decide the category. Two contract questions do: what percentage of each ticket does the vendor take, and can you leave with your customer list.
Can I run first-party and third-party ordering at the same time?
Yes, and most independents should. Treat the marketplaces as paid discovery for diners who have never heard of you, and treat first-party as the place you keep the ones you already earned. The expensive mistake is paying app commission on a regular who orders the same lunch every Tuesday.
How do diners find my first-party ordering page?
The channels that actually move people are the ordering link on your Google Business Profile, a QR code on the bag and the receipt, a table tent, a sign at the register, and the link in your Instagram bio. None of them cost a commission and all of them reach diners who already like your food.

Find out who owns your diners.

The free AI report checks your ordering channels and shows the split in about 60 seconds. No card, no call.

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More terms defined in the operator glossary.