DoorDash Alternatives: Delivery From Your Own Website

What a marketplace bundles together

An app like DoorDash or Uber Eats does three jobs for one commission: it gets you found by new guests, it takes the order and the payment, and it sends a courier. The commission is a percentage of the food, so you pay more for all three whenever the ticket is bigger, even when the drive is the same.

White-label delivery splits those jobs up. Your own site takes the order and the payment. A courier network handles only the trip. Finding new guests becomes its own job, which the apps can keep doing if you stay listed.

What white-label delivery is

Uber describes white-label delivery as using a third party for delivery while the ordering happens on your own channels. Guests order on your website or app and see your brand from checkout to the door, not the courier network's. Uber also says the restaurant controls the delivery options and the delivery fee the guest sees.

DoorDash offers the same kind of service as Drive On-Demand, which fulfills delivery orders placed on your own website or app. It lists integrations with ordering and POS providers such as Square, Toast and Olo.

What a courier trip costs, next to a commission

DoorDash publishes a price for Drive On-Demand: $6.99 to $10.99 per delivery order, a flat fee with no commission and no signup, subscription or termination fees. Tips go 100% to the Dasher. Uber prices white-label delivery per order as well, with rates based on distance, speed of delivery and your market, and it shows a quote before you send the request.

Here is how a flat trip compares with the marketplace rates in our breakdown of what DoorDash and Uber Eats charge, on two order sizes.

The commission climbs with the ticket. The trip fee depends on the trip, so the bigger the order, the wider the gap. Keep in mind that the commission also covers ordering and card processing. When you compare, add what your own ordering system and card processing cost to the trip fee.

When the app is still cheaper

Run the math both ways. At 30%, the commission equals a $6.99 trip on an order of about $23.30, because $6.99 divided by 0.30 is $23.30. Below that, the commission is smaller than even the cheapest published trip. At the top of DoorDash's range, $10.99, the 30% break-even is about $36.63. At 15%, a $6.99 trip only wins on orders above $46.60.

So small tickets, long trips that price near the top of the range and plans with a low commission can still make sense on the apps. Delivery from your own site pays off most on larger orders from guests who would order from you anyway.

Who pays the delivery fee

On your own site, you decide what the guest pays for delivery. You can pass on the whole trip, part of it, or cover it above a set order size. Whatever the guest pays comes off your cost for that trip, and you can change it whenever you like.

Set a delivery area and an order minimum

Because a trip is priced by distance and a commission by the ticket, the two settings that matter most on your own site are how far you deliver and the smallest order you accept. Start with an area where trips price near the low end, and widen it once you've seen what real trips cost.

A minimum order, or a delivery fee on small orders, keeps the trip from costing more than the order is worth to you. To set both, look at a month of your app orders: the usual ticket size and how far those guests are from you tell you where the lines should go.

Keep the apps for discovery

The apps are good at one thing your website can't do on day one: showing you to people who don't know you yet. Uber says a store's placement in its app depends on factors including paid advertising, and it differs by plan. That reach is worth paying for when it brings in a new guest.

One way to use both: stay listed for reach, and move regulars to your own site with a card in the bag, your own link on your Google profile and a text before the weekend. Our guide to getting more direct orders covers each step.

What to look for in a delivery setup

• Orders go straight into your POS, with no retyping.
• A courier is booked automatically when the order comes in, so no one on your staff books trips by hand.
• The guest gets tracking and updates under your name.
• Tips go to the courier.
• You can see what a trip costs before it goes out.
• You can pause delivery or change your delivery area when the kitchen is full.

How Webbit handles it

Webbit puts pickup and delivery on your own site. Delivery orders are sent to a courier, and there is no commission on the food. The order, the customer and their contact details stay with you. Plans are $0, $99 or $199 a month, plus a transaction fee, and our guide to commission-free online ordering explains what each one includes.