For restaurant owners
DoorDash for restaurants: use it for discovery, keep your margin
Getting on DoorDash brings new customers, but the 15–30% commission and the lost customer relationship add up fast. Here's how to use delivery apps for what they're good at, discovery, and move your repeat orders to your own low-fee ordering with Town.
How DoorDash actually works for a restaurant
DoorDash is a marketplace: customers open their app, browse restaurants, and order. For that reach, the marketplace charges a commission, commonly around 15–30% per order depending on the plan, plus fees. It's real exposure, but three things quietly cost you:
1. The commission compounds. A big slice of every online order goes to the platform, on margins that are already thin.
2. You don't own the customer. The name, the email and the repeat order stay with the marketplace, not you.
3. Passing the fee on backfires. Marking your menu up to cover the cut just makes your food look expensive and shrinks orders.
“But I don’t pay the fee, the customer does”
Passing the fee on isn’t a fix. It’s a markup on your own brand.
Your food starts looking expensive
To cover a 25–30% commission, you raise prices on the apps. Now your $12 dish reads $16, and the app is invisible, so the customer just decides you’re overpriced.
Higher prices shrink every order
Marked-up menus mean fewer items per ticket, longer gaps between orders and less impulse. You didn’t dodge the fee, you traded it for your guests’ reduced buying power.
It anchors your brand where you can’t win
When that guest walks in and sees the same dish for less, trust takes the hit, and you still don’t own the customer, the email, or the repeat order.
With Town: your real price, your margin
Customers order on your own site at fair prices, you can even be cheaper than your app price and still make more per order. Keep the margin without the markup, and keep the guest.
The smart play: discovery there, direct orders here
Keep the apps for discovery
New customers who've never heard of you can still find you on DoorDash and Uber Eats. Treat that as paid marketing, not your main channel.
Move repeat orders to your own site
With Town, your regulars order direct at 0% commission, on the same DoorDash Drive and Uber Direct driver networks, so you keep the customer and the margin.
“With Town I built my own website and added online ordering. It works seamlessly, a huge upgrade from paying a marketplace on every order.”
Benny Polisi, Italian Garden
Questions restaurant owners ask
How much does DoorDash take from restaurants?
Should I quit DoorDash and Uber Eats?
Can I still offer delivery without the marketplace commission?
Do I lose my customers if I use Town instead?
Own your orders, not just rent them
Use the apps for discovery, keep your regulars on your own low-fee ordering.