Food Delivery Apps for Restaurants in 2021 & Beyond (Featuring five of the very best)

In this article, our team of experts review five of the very best food delivery app solutions for restaurants in 2021. 

The age of technology has allowed for unlimited knowledge and access to be in the palm of our hands. This includes the ability to order any cuisine from any restaurant with just a few clicks.

Recently this need for food delivery has skyrocketed, with studies showing that 31% of those surveyed said they use third-party delivery services at least twice a week.

But what are these food delivery apps, how do they benefit your restaurant, and which are the best food delivery apps for restaurants to choose from.

We have put together this blog post to answer your questions and listed our choices for the best food delivery apps for restaurants.

We have also discussed what these best food delivery apps for restaurants can offer but also discussed what you may want to consider when partnering with such platforms.

Which Food Delivery App is Right for Your Restaurant?

Before we go on to discussing our picks for the best food delivery apps for restaurants that you can choose from, it is beneficial to see what things and features you should look into when making the decision.

With so many of the very best food delivery app for restaurants to choose from, the choice can be quite overwhelming. You need to consider which app offers the best option and befits your restaurant’s profile and needs.

Here are some features that you should consider when making the choice.

1.     Your Restaurant’s Location

The first, and maybe most obvious, consideration is where your restaurant is located and whether the best food delivery app you are considering operates in that area.

As you will see in our list of the best food delivery apps for restaurants not all available apps are suited for everyone and one of the reasons is that not all apps operate in every location or city.

Depending on where your restaurant is located the availability of options will change. Larger more popular cities are spoilt for choice with a variety of delivery apps to choose from whereas smaller areas comparatively not so much.

2.     The popularity of the Delivery App

The second consideration for food delivery app development is the popularity of the delivery app. Not all apps available in your area may be popular among users, and choosing an app that lacks popularity will not benefit your restaurant’s business.

When you consider an app’s popularity you don’t just want to look generically but judge based on your customer base.

There are certain applications that may be more popular among families whereas your restaurant’s brand is targeted at office goers or people who want a quick bite.

Therefore, it is important when choosing the delivery app for your restaurant to do your diligent research. You could also download the apps and see what restaurants they offer and which are most popular. 

3.     The Effect on Customer Relationships

While a delivery app could advertise your brand and have customers ordering from your restaurant you also want to consider whether the app is a good fit and will have a positive effect on your customer relationship.

You want to ensure that the delivery app does the most to keep customers happy. If food is delivered cold or there is a mess up in the order this not only affects the app but reflects poorly on your restaurant.

In fact, the majority of customers will not consider that the driver or order is part of the delivery app and will likely blame the restaurant.

Therefore, you want to consider the quality of the delivery service. Ensure you choose an app that takes efforts to ensure food is handled properly as well as gives adequate importance to customer satisfaction. 

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4.     Fee Structure of the App

Delivery apps usually follow a standard style of fee structure no matter which one you consider.

This includes the delivery app charging a service fee from the customers as well as a percentage of the bill from the restaurant.

The commission rates range from delivery app to delivery app. This fee comes out of the restaurant’s pocket. Therefore, you want to see what it is the delivery app you choose is offering.

This also ties into the profit margin you gain. You want to consider your profit margins and decide the costs before you choose a delivery app to partner with.

Now that you know what factors to consider when choosing a delivery app let’s look at our choices for the best food delivery apps for restaurants.

The Best Food Delivery App for Restaurants

Here are our picks for the best food delivery apps for restaurants that you can choose from.

1.     UberEats

UberEats is available in over 500 cities in 24 countries. UberEats is one of the best food delivery solutions that is an extension of Uber which is a rideshare app.

The app has a decent share of the market, around 25% of the market share, and already has many users with an expectation to grow further.

With its large fleet of drivers, the application is often seen as having faster delivery than some of its other competitors. It should be noted that the drivers are not trained food delivery drivers however but rideshare partners who pick up food so there is a higher chance of mishaps.

With a large number of partnered restaurants and an easy-to-use platform, the application is favored by many customers.

While the app offers a great deal in terms of visibility and customer satisfaction, it should be noted that partners of UberEats report at 30%-40% commission from each order which can be quite expensive for restaurants.

2.     Deliveroo

Starting off as a London-based ordering application, the delivery service is now extending its presence to other countries.

Deliveroo provides itself on fast and efficient delivery providing fast delivery even on holidays or busy hours. Arguably offering one of the fastest deliveries among its competitors.

Deliveroo has been said to charge commission up to 30%.

3.     Foodpanda

Foodpanda is headquartered in Berlin, Germany, and operates in over 40 countries across 5 different continents.

Foodpanda is available to customers to order their favorite meals both online or via their mobile application.

The application is popular due to its convenient ordering process and being quick and simple to use.

The Foodpanda delivery platform also offers exclusive deals, discounts, and vouchers.

Foodpanda has been said to take commission ranging from 25%-30%per order. 

4.     DoorDash

DoorDash is available in 4,000 cities in the US, Canada, and Australia. The application offers easy ordering with the option to order food for pickup or schedule a delivery.

If you are a customer that wants food delivered nice and hot you can look at the restaurant’s “yum score” on the platform which informs users about the food quality and how well a restaurant works with DoorDash.

DoorDash is an especially great choice in the COVID days due to its option to choose contact-free delivery at a specific location of your choice.

As of 2019, DoorDash is said to have a market share of 27.6% thus being a great choice for both customers and restaurants with low fees and a range of locations.

The platform takes around 20% commission of a restaurant’s order which is comparatively on the lower side of what other delivery platforms are asking for.

DoorDash also offers a range of ways your restaurant can receive orders so it can easily fit with your POS technology.

5.     Grubhub

Grubhub, which also owns Seamless is the next delivery platform on our list. The two together operate in over 2700 US cities and have a combined market share of about 26.9%.

Grubhub has bought out a number of smaller services like Foodler and OrderUp which has provided it with a widened range.

As with their wide range of areas they cater to, the platform offers a wide range of commission for restaurants ranging from 15% to 30%.

The platform offers the option to work with your existing delivery drivers so it bridges that disadvantage of being reliant on their drivers for how they handle food and therefore your customer’s satisfaction.

Moreover, they integrate with your POS system and even your website to allow customers to order via a link on your website to order.

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Disadvantages of Using Food Delivery Applications

Using food delivery applications or aggregator sites to offer delivery to your restaurant’s customers offers a range of advantages.

These advantages include, most notably, the ability to reach more clients and thus increase your customer base.

The second and most obvious advantage is that such aggregator sites take away all the elements and hassle associated with providing your customers with delivery options. While you no longer need to get into the nitty-gritty of providing delivery services you still get all the benefits it offers to both your restaurant and your customers.

And these are just two of the advantages you can benefit from. However, as is true with most good things, they all have their disadvantages as well.

In the case of delivery applications, the disadvantages associated with delivery apps have led to restaurants considering alternatives or at least looking to ensure that delivery applications are not their sole means of providing delivery.

Here are some of the disadvantages you should consider when looking to partner with a delivery site.

• When you use such delivery applications you agree to pay commission fees. These commissions are often quite high, especially if you consider the low-profit margins already in the restaurant industry. With certain delivery apps charging as high as 35% commissions per meal, this may not be a viable option for your restaurant.

• Another disadvantage is that when you partner with such applications or providers you forgo access to your customer’s data. By forfeiting such data, you lose valuable information related to your customer’s buying habits. This information is very useful to ensure customer satisfaction, improve your restaurant, offer promotions, and create marketing strategies.

• As we mentioned above, the importance the delivery provider gives to customer satisfaction and how they handle food is no longer in your domain. You are reliant on however the delivery provider functions. This means that you have primarily outsourced control over your customer experience to someone else. However, your restaurant and brand will still be held responsible for any bad experience which can affect your business and lose you valuable customers.

• Third-party delivery applications promote intense competition. When potential customers come onto the site or app, they do not only see your restaurant but are offered a range of restaurants to choose from with competing prices and promotions. Therefore, since customers can so easily compare your restaurant and prices with those of your competitors you have an easy chance of losing said customer.

Should You Use an Online Ordering System Instead?

With studies showing that 60% of US consumers choose to order delivery or takeout at least once a week you want to ensure you do not miss out on this valuable revenue source.

Whether you incorporate online ordering into your restaurant with the help of a third-party delivery platform, choose to deliver from your own service, or use both avenues the choice is up to you.

If you do find, however, that using your own services instead of or in combination with a delivery partner you need to keep certain things in mind such as the extra cost of hiring delivery drivers.

You will also want to build an online ordering system on your website or perhaps even have your own app, maybe even both.  This can be both challenging and costly if you were to hire a node.js developer. This is where Blink comes into play.

Blink provides an online ordering solution for your restaurant. With Blink, you get a scalable yet secure backend connected to a branded pre-designed template of your restaurant’s mobile application and website.

Blink comes with a complete delivery management system, along with dispatch and fleet management.

You have access to pre-integrated payment gateways as well as the option to integrate with your ERP or POS software to offer you real-time inventory and order management.

Blink comes with a load of features which you can see in detail here. But most importantly with Blink’s help to create your own restaurant website and mobile app you are able to overcome some of the disadvantages that aggregator sites pose.

For example, Blink gives you all access to your customer and user data so you know when your customers are ordering most and from where.

You can even easily create great customer relationships with in-built loyalty programs and stronger brand recall.

The ease of the whole process and the advantages are endless.