A restaurant can take an online order in two ways. It can list on a delivery marketplace such as DoorDash, Uber Eats or Grubhub, which brings customers and drivers and takes a percentage of every order. Or it can take the order on its own website through the online ordering that most restaurant point-of-sale systems now include, where the only unavoidable cost is the card fee, and a courier if the food has to travel.
We read the published US pricing of the marketplaces and of the restaurant POS systems the site has reviewed, as it stood on 4 October 2026, and priced one example throughout: a $40 order, before tax and tip. The marketplaces are here as context; the site has not reviewed them. Where a POS provider does not publish a figure, we say so.
What a marketplace takes from a $40 order
Marketplace commissions are charged on the order subtotal, and the plan you choose sets the rate. Higher tiers buy more visibility in the app and promotions for customers.
- DoorDash: 15%, 25% or 30% on delivery orders on its Basic, Plus and Premier plans, so $6, $10 or $12 on $40. Pickup orders are 6%, or $2.40, on every plan. DoorDash says the commission includes card processing: 'No activation fee, no subscription fee, no payment processing fee.' The plans are for restaurants with 75 or fewer US locations.
- Uber Eats: a 20%, 25% or 30% marketplace fee on its Lite, Plus and Premium plans, or $8, $10 or $12, with payment processing listed among what the fee includes. Pickup is 7%, rising to 10% if the restaurant has not validated that its in-app prices match the in-store menu.
- Grubhub: a marketing commission of 5%, 15% or 20% on its Basic, Plus and All-access plans. Delivery by Grubhub's own drivers is extra, and its pricing page says 'Delivery fees start at 10%'. Processing is extra too: Grubhub's own profit calculator applies $0.30 + 3.05%, $1.52 on $40. With Grubhub delivery, the $40 order costs the restaurant at least $7.52, $11.52 or $13.52.
Card processing is the detail that makes the marketplace numbers comparable. DoorDash and Uber Eats fold it into the percentage; Grubhub adds it on top. A restaurant comparing a 15% marketplace plan with its own card rate should compare the whole 15% with the card rate plus delivery, not the 15% alone.
What your own ordering page costs
Online ordering run by a restaurant's POS provider usually charges no commission. What it charges is the online card rate, which is higher than the rate for a card tapped at the counter because the card is not present, and sometimes a monthly fee for the ordering software. On a $40 order:
- Square: $1.46 on its Plus ($49 a month) and Premium ($149) restaurant plans at 2.9% + 30 cents, or $1.62 on the free plan at 3.3% + 30 cents, the rate Square applies to 'card payments made online'. Its online ordering is advertised as commission-free for delivery and pickup.
- Clover: $1.50 at 3.5% + 10 cents. Every Clover quick-service restaurant plan includes 'No-fee online ordering', and Clover's own FAQ says the higher typed-in rate applies where the card is not present, 'like an online sale'. The same card tapped in the restaurant is 2.3% + 10 cents, or $1.02. The plans cost $135 to $245 a month for 36 months, or $849 to $2,648 up front plus $89.95 to $109.90 a month.
- SpotOn: $1.53 at 3.45% + 15 cents on its Preferred processing plan, or $1.72 at 3.79% + 20 cents on its All-In plan. SpotOn applies its keyed-card rate to online orders. Its ordering product, SpotOn Order, is $55 a month per location plus a $200 set-up fee as an add-on to SpotOn POS, and is also part of its Core Bundle ($50 a month plus 0.2% of card volume, capped at $200).
- Toast: Toast's online ordering page says 'No commissions. No hidden fees.', but Toast publishes no card rate on its pricing or payments pages, which describe a 'custom-built rate'. Its blog quotes 3.5% + 15 cents for keyed-in transactions on its standard plan, $1.55 on $40, without saying whether that is the online rate. Our Toast review records the same figure as the online rate other reviewers report.
- TouchBistro says it charges no commission on online orders and that 'card processing fees will still apply', but its online ordering add-on is priced on request and no rate is published.
- Lightspeed includes online ordering in its Essential and Premium restaurant plans (listed at $189 and $399), sells online ordering as an add-on on its Starter plan, and publishes no card rate for any of them. Lavu and PAR publish no online ordering prices at all; PAR quotes every price and says its plans suit multi-location groups, 'ideally 20+ locations'.
DoorDash sells the same kind of product to restaurants as an alternative to its marketplace. Its commission-free Online Ordering, formerly called Storefront, is open to restaurants already on the DoorDash marketplace. DoorDash's learning centre puts its processing fee at 2.9% + 30 cents on the $99-a-month Boost and $249-a-month Pro packages and 3.3% + 30 cents on its Starter package, $1.46 or $1.62 on $40, about the same as a POS provider. DoorDash says customers pay the delivery fee on these orders.
For a pickup order, then, the restaurant's own page costs about $1.46 to $1.72 against $2.40 on DoorDash and $2.80 on Uber Eats. The gap is real but smaller than the headline commissions suggest, because both marketplaces price pickup far below delivery. The card fee is charged on the whole amount the customer pays, tax and tip included, so on a real order it runs a little higher than the subtotal figures here.
Delivery is where the comparison changes
A marketplace's 15% to 30% pays for the driver. A restaurant's own ordering page has no drivers, so POS providers dispatch couriers from DoorDash Drive or Uber Direct and pass the courier's flat fee on to the restaurant:
- Square: $6.99 per DoorDash delivery within 5 miles, plus $1 a mile up to 10 miles ($8.99 in California and $9.98 in New York City), according to its courier pricing policy, last updated 16 March 2026. Square's policy says the fee may be charged to the customer or to the restaurant, and card processing fees still apply. Square removed its own $1.50 dispatch fee on 6 February 2025.
- Toast: $7.49 within 5 miles through DoorDash Drive, or $6.99 within 6 miles through Uber Direct, plus a flat Toast service fee of $1.49 per order and a regulatory surcharge of $2 to $5 in California, New York City and Seattle. Toast deducts the fees and driver tips from the restaurant's daily card payout. Its help article's own worked example uses a $5.49 delivery fee that does not match its fee tables.
- SpotOn: $7.95 per delivery, or $9.95 in California, 'not a percentage of every order'.
- TouchBistro and Lightspeed both dispatch couriers for a per-delivery fee they do not publish.
Absorbed in full, own-channel delivery of a $40 order costs a Square restaurant about $8.45 ($6.99 plus $1.46 in card fees), and a Toast restaurant using DoorDash Drive about $10.53 ($7.49, $1.49 and about $1.55). That is more than DoorDash's 15% Basic plan ($6) and less than its 30% Premier plan ($12). Because a courier fee is flat and a commission is a percentage, the restaurant's own channel looks better the larger the order: on an $80 order, DoorDash Basic takes $12 while Square's cost rises only to about $9.61.
Own-channel delivery pays off most clearly in two cases: when the customer pays the delivery fee, which Square's courier policy allows and DoorDash's Online Ordering makes the default, and on larger orders. It does not bring new customers, which is part of what a marketplace commission pays for. A restaurant can use both: the marketplace to be found, and its own page for repeat customers who already know the menu.
Where the law caps the commission
Several cities cap what a marketplace may charge a restaurant. The caps protect restaurants in those cities only, and most now let the marketplace charge more for optional extras if a basic option at the capped rate is offered.
- New York City caps delivery fees at 15% of the order, card transaction fees at 3%, and 'basic service' fees, such as listing, at 5%. Local Law 79 of 2025 added a fourth category, an 'enhanced service' fee of up to 20%, which an app may charge only if it also offers the 5% basic service. DoorDash, Grubhub and Uber's lawsuit against the caps was dismissed with prejudice in June 2025 under a settlement, and in April 2026 the city announced its first enforcement settlement, more than $875,000 from the delivery app HungryPanda.
- San Francisco caps delivery commissions at 15%, but since 31 January 2023 the cap is met if the app offers a 'core delivery service' at 15% or less, and chain restaurants defined as formula retail are not covered.
- Seattle's permanent 15% cap on what a restaurant pays for delivery services took effect on 30 November 2022, replacing an emergency cap in place since 2020; a restaurant may pay more only for additional services.
- Washington, DC and Minneapolis cap delivery at 15% but let an app charge more if it also offers delivery at 15% or less. Philadelphia caps the total at 15%, 10% for delivery and 5% for everything else, unless the restaurant opts into extra services at a higher rate. Portland, Oregon caps delivery at 15%, or $1.50 on orders under $10, and takeout at 4%, with a similar exception.
- Chicago's pandemic-era cap expired on 31 October 2021.
Uber Eats' own pricing page lists further places where its cheapest plan starts at a lower fee, including Los Angeles, New Jersey and Spokane, and says fees may differ with local regulations, so check whether your city has a cap before choosing a plan. Separately, the Federal Trade Commission published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking on food delivery fees on 16 April 2026. It concerns the fees customers see, not restaurant commissions, and no proposed rule had followed when we checked.
What to do
- Price your own online card rate, not your counter rate. Clover's is 3.5% + 10 cents against 2.3% + 10 cents in person; SpotOn's is its keyed rate. Our guide to keyed card transaction fees explains why card-not-present payments cost more.
- Compare a marketplace's whole commission with your card fee plus delivery. On a $40 order DoorDash Basic costs $6 all in; own-channel delivery that you absorb costs about $8.45 to $10.53 with Square or Toast.
- Charge the delivery fee to the customer on your own page if your POS allows it. Square's courier policy does; ask your provider before you switch the feature on.
- Steer pickup orders to your own page. The saving per order is modest, 68 to 94 cents on $40 against DoorDash's 6%, but there is no courier to pay.
- Check your city's cap. In New York City, a delivery app may not take more than 15% for delivery, whatever plan it offers, or more than 3% for card processing unless it can prove its own processing cost is higher.
- If your POS quotes its card rate rather than publishing it, as Toast, TouchBistro, Lightspeed, Lavu and PAR do for online orders, get the online rate in writing before you sign. Our restaurant processor guide compares the systems on their in-person rates and contracts.
