What a delivery app really takes from a €30 order

Most owners can tell you their rent to the cent. Ask what Deliveroo took last month and the answer is usually "a lot". Fair enough. The statements don't make it easy.

So let's work it out properly, with one ordinary order.

The order

Two 12″ pizzas and a garlic bread, delivered on a Friday night. The guest pays €30.00. That's the number on the screen, and it feels like your number. It isn't.

Uber Eats publishes its Irish rates

Of the big three, Uber Eats is the only one that puts its Irish restaurant prices on its own website. As of November 2026:

• 30% when Uber's couriers deliver the order, or 33% when the guest is an Uber One member
• 13% when you deliver it yourself
• 13% when the guest collects
• A €650 activation fee for the tablet, printer, menu set-up and photos, taken out of your first payouts

On our €30 order with Uber's couriers, that's €9.00. If the guest has Uber One, it's €9.90.

Just Eat and Deliveroo don't

Neither publishes a rate card for Irish restaurants. Rates are agreed one restaurant at a time, and they depend on who delivers, how many orders you do and what was agreed when you signed.

You'll find figures online anywhere from 12% to 35%. Most of them come from companies selling an alternative, so I wouldn't plan around any of them. The only number that counts is the one in your contract. If you can't find it, ask your account manager to email it to you. It's a normal request.

Where the €30 actually goes

Here's the same order with Uber's published 30% delivery rate:

Out of €30, about €10 is left to pay the people who made it, the lights and the rent. The app took nearly as much as that.

One more thing to look for: VAT on the commission itself. Some statements add it on top of the fee. If you're VAT-registered you can usually claim it back. If you're not, it's a straight cost.

The same order on your own website

Now the guest orders the same food from your own website and collects it. You still pay a card fee. I've used Stripe's standard rate for European cards, 1.5% + 25c.

That's €8.30 more from exactly the same food. At 40 orders a week, it adds up to more than €17,000 a year.

The part the comparison sites leave out

Your own website doesn't come with drivers or new customers.

If you deliver, you pay for it, either with your own driver or a courier you book per delivery. On a short trip that still costs far less than €9, but it isn't free. And the apps are genuinely good at putting you in front of people who've never heard of you. Your website won't do that on day one.

So I wouldn't leave the apps tomorrow. I'd stop paying app commission on the guests who already know you. The family that orders every Friday found you years ago. Every time they order through an app, you're paying 30% to be introduced to people you already know.

Four things to do this week

1. Work out your real rate. Take last month's statement from each app and divide the total fees by the total sales. Include any promotions or "boost" charges, because they come out of the same payout.
2. Ask for your rate card in writing from every app you're on.
3. Count your regulars. Most apps show how many of your orders come from repeat guests. That's the money you could move first.
4. Put your own ordering link where regulars already look: your Google profile, your Instagram bio and a card in every bag.

Keep the apps for new faces. Just know exactly what they cost you, and give your regulars a cheaper way to order.