Restaurant · Guide Updated August 2026

Best Food Delivery App for Restaurants: Uber Eats vs DoorDash vs Postmates vs Grubhub

Choosing the right delivery platform comes down to one question: which app gives you the best support at the lowest cost? There are four major players, Postmates, Uber Eats, DoorDash, and Grubhub, and they are not interchangeable. Run them side by side across four metrics: commission, availability, market share, and terms of service.

How Much Commission Does Each App Charge?

Commission is the percentage each platform keeps from every order. It directly determines how much money stays in your pocket. These figures are rough benchmarks. Every app sends a rep to negotiate a custom rate based on your volume, your brand, and your negotiation skills. Use these numbers as a starting floor, not a final answer.

Postmates charges around 30% commission. On a $10 burger, they hand you back $7 and keep $3. Postmates also claims there are no upfront costs to sign up as a merchant.

Uber Eats runs 15 to 30%, depending on what you sign up for. If you handle your own delivery drivers, you pay roughly 15% and Uber Eats simply processes the order and gives you exposure to their customer base. If you use their full system, drivers and all, the rate climbs to around 30%.

DoorDash is the cheapest at approximately 20%. That rate covers driver insurance, driver onboarding, and the full logistics stack.

Grubhub also ranges from 15 to 30%, mirroring Uber Eats, with the final number tied to the service tier you choose.

The takeaway on commission: DoorDash is the lowest flat rate for full service. Uber Eats and Grubhub can match that if you bring your own drivers. Postmates is the most expensive for full delivery at a flat 30%.

How Many Restaurants Are on Each Platform?

Availability means how many restaurants are already listed. More restaurants means more customer habit of opening that app, which is good for you even though you are competing with more choices.

• Postmates: roughly 500,000 restaurants, grocery markets, and traditional retailers. Their strategy is deliberately broad.
• Uber Eats: around 320,000 restaurants, with a strong international footprint.
• DoorDash: around 310,000 restaurants, focused almost entirely on the United States.
• Grubhub: roughly 104,000 restaurants.

Postmates wins on raw numbers, but breadth cuts both ways. A platform packed with grocery stores and retailers is a different experience than one built purely around restaurant ordering.

Which App Has the Most Customers?

Market share tells you how many users are actually ordering on each platform. More users means more potential orders for your restaurant. This is where the decision gets clear fast.

• DoorDash: 50% market share in the United States. That number is not a rounding error. Half of all US delivery orders run through DoorDash.
• Uber Eats: 23%.
• Grubhub: 18%.
• Postmates: 7%.

DoorDash dominates because it focused relentlessly on US market penetration. If you are a US restaurant and you only sign up for one platform, the 50% market share argument points straight at DoorDash.

That said, market share is regional. In certain Canadian cities, for example, Skip The Dishes holds the dominant position. Always check which app your own city’s customers actually use before deciding. The national number is a starting point, not a guarantee.

Why Do the Terms of Service Matter More Than You Think?

This is the metric most restaurant owners skip, and it is the one that can hurt you the most over time.

Terms of service covers three things. First, how easy is it to find and actually read the contract? Second, who owns the customer data, you or the platform? Third, what can each party do with that data?

The data question matters because it represents your business intelligence. How many people ordered from you, when they ordered, what they ordered, and what promotions drove them. That information is the foundation of your marketing. It tells you where to open your next location. It tells you what to put on your next menu.

Here is the risk nobody talks about: the Amazon effect. Amazon noticed which third-party sellers were moving the most product at the highest margins. Then Amazon built its own competing product, pushed it to the top of search results, and quietly buried the original sellers. A delivery platform sitting on your order data can do the exact same thing. They see your bestsellers. They see your margins. They build a ghost kitchen concept that competes directly with you, then rank it above your listing. You brought all the customers to the platform, and they used your data to take them back.

That is why terms of service is not fine print. It is the battlefield for the next decade of the restaurant industry.

Postmates ranks highest on this metric. Their contract is written in plain language, they decode every clause so you can actually understand it, and you own all of your data. You can use it however you want. Postmates will not use or sell your data in any way that harms you as the restaurant owner.

Uber Eats makes their contract easy to find and read, which is a point in their favor. But you co-own the data with Uber Eats, and they reserve the right to use it however they see fit. That means they could, in principle, sell your data in the future.

DoorDash makes their contract hard to find in the first place. On top of that, DoorDash owns the data outright and reserves the right to use it as they see fit, including potentially selling it to larger corporations or building competing concepts.

Grubhub is the least restaurant-friendly on this front. To even access their current terms and conditions agreement, you are required to send in your tax receipt. They reserve the right to use the data however they choose. And perhaps most alarming, they can require you to delete your own data on their command. That is a significant amount of control to hand over.

Should You Sign Up for All Four Platforms?

There is no rule against it. But think through the operational reality first. Every platform you add is another tablet on your counter, another menu to keep updated, another set of commissions to track. If your kitchen cannot handle a surge in order volume without hurting your dine-in experience, spreading across four apps at once will create problems before it creates profit.

A practical starting point for most US restaurants: lead with DoorDash for market reach, and add Uber Eats as your second platform given its 23% share. Evaluate Postmates if data ownership is a priority for your business. Revisit Grubhub only if your specific city has a strong Grubhub user base, and go into that contract with your eyes open.

What Questions Should You Ask the Platform Rep Before Signing?

Every app sends a rep to negotiate with you. That conversation is your chance to protect yourself. Come in with specific questions: What is the exact commission rate for my volume tier? Who owns the customer order data? Can I export my order history at any time? Does the platform reserve the right to promote competing concepts above my listing? What happens to my data if I leave the platform?

You will not win every negotiation, but you will walk in better prepared than 90% of the restaurant owners they talk to.

The Bottom Line

DoorDash wins on market reach and cost. Postmates wins on data protection. Uber Eats sits in a solid middle ground. Grubhub is the most restrictive when it comes to your own data. Whichever platform you choose, the industry is moving fast and customer behavior keeps shifting. The operators who stay informed about where their data goes will be the ones who still control their own business five years from now. Sign the platform, but read what you are signing.

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