Are delivery apps good for restaurants?
It depends on the restaurant. Here's what the research says, both ways, so you can judge for yourself. Every finding shows its source, date and what kind of evidence it is.
This isn't a boycott.
Delivery apps help many local businesses find customers and deliver when they can't. We're not asking anyone to stop using them. We're asking you to make them your last choice: eat in, collect or order direct first, especially from places you already know.
Question 1
Do apps bring extra business?
The studies disagree. Independent restaurants seem to gain less than chains, and many app orders come from customers who already know the restaurant.
Evidence that apps add business
- Peer-reviewed
Delivery apps raise restaurants’ total takeaway sales and bring more dine-in visits. The gain for fast-food chains is about four times that for independents, and for independents, app orders mostly replace their own takeaway orders.
Source: Li & Wang, Management Science (US), Oct 2024
- Peer-reviewed
Each 1 won of app sales added 0.86–0.97 won to total sales, so only 4–14% was taken from other channels. Measures sales, not profit after commission, during 2020.
Source: Kim & Lee, Journal of Economic Theory and Econometrics (Korea), Sep 2024
- Company-commissioned
Over 8 in 10 restaurants said working with delivery platforms increased their revenue, and 52% reported higher dine-in revenue. Self-reported; sample size not published.
Source: Capital Economics for Deliveroo, via Retail Times, Mar 2024
- Company-commissioned
Platforms added about £323m (1.4%) to London restaurant revenue.
Source: Deloitte for Uber Eats, Dec 2019
Evidence that apps take business away
- Working paper
The arrival of delivery apps took customers away from dining in and reduced restaurant employment, especially front-of-house jobs.
Source: Müller & Neumann, Paderborn University (US), 2025
- University summary
Delivery platforms made restaurant closures more likely, with more closures than openings. The risk was highest for young, small independents in crowded areas.
Source: Raj & Eggers, via Knowledge at Wharton (US, 2012–2018), May 2025
- Company data
70% of Deliveroo orders go to restaurants the customer has used before.
Source: Deliveroo loyalty report, via The Caterer (sponsored), Aug 2024
- Vendor survey
73% of monthly takeaway buyers had already decided what and where to order before opening an app.
Source: Flipdish (Censuswide, 1,031 people), lockdown-era survey
Question 2
What's left from a £25 order?
Left for the restaurant from a £25 order after food, packaging and fees, before staff, rent and energy. A model with stated assumptions, not measured data.
| How you order | Left for the restaurant |
|---|---|
| App delivery at 30% | £5.88 |
| App delivery, plus a 20% discount the restaurant pays for | £3.22 |
| App collection at 13% | £10.13 |
| Restaurant’s own driver, ordered direct | £7.41 |
| Own website, customer collects | £12.81 |
Vendor model Source: Super44 (restaurant software vendor), Oct 2026.
If you do use an app, choose collection
Uber Eats charges restaurants 30% when its couriers deliver (33% on Uber One orders), and 13% for collection or when the restaurant delivers itself, all plus VAT. Collecting your order means the restaurant pays much less.
Source: Uber Eats UK merchant pricing, read 25 Oct 2026
Question 3
When do apps help, and when do they cost?
Apps are likely to help
- Delivery-only takeaways and dark kitchens (about 1 in 7 outlets on the apps)
- Places with no drivers or online ordering of their own
- New openings that need to be found
- Quiet nights and crises such as lockdown
- Extra orders when the kitchen has spare capacity
Apps are likely to cost
- Restaurants that rely on dine-in and drinks
- Orders from regulars who would otherwise order direct, collect or eat in
- Restaurants that also pay for app discounts
Our summary of the findings on this page, plus Dark kitchens study (University of Sheffield-led), via Verdict Food Service, Feb 2026; Raj, Sundararajan & You (Uber Eats in lockdown), 2020, rev. 2023.
Question 4
What do owners and customers say?
- Vendor survey
Of 112 UK operators, 85% see a benefit in taking orders direct, but only 24% do. 53% think commission is unfair or are unsure, and 46% still rely mainly on the apps.
Source: Slerp survey, Apr 2026
- Journalism
Owners quoted by Which? were split: one said commission becomes unviable once VAT, rent and pay are counted; another said leaving an app would make them invisible to online orders.
Source: Which?, Jun 2021
- Journalism
Tortilla left Deliveroo in 2024 because commission was hurting margins. Its like-for-like revenue then fell 5.9% in the first half of the year. Apps bring real volume that is hard to replace quickly.
Source: Restaurant Online, Jul 2024
- Company-commissioned
55% of adults say they would pay up to 10% more to support local independent takeaways.
Source: Just Eat (Development Economics; Censuswide, 2,101 adults), Mar 2026
What we don't know
- No independent UK study measures how many app orders are genuinely new customers, or profit by channel.
- The main independent UK operator surveys are paywalled; the recent survey we cite is run by a direct-ordering vendor.
- Deliveroo does not publish a standard UK commission rate, and we could not open Just Eat’s own terms.
- Most UK owner quotes we found date from 2020–21.
More research: commission and prices, riders and tipping andother ways to order. Spotted something wrong or out of date?Tell us.
Researched 25 October 2026.