What are some popular online ordering platforms?

When a restaurant decides to sell food online, it's really choosing between two very different business models: renting someone else's audience or building its own. Understanding that split is the key to picking the right platform.

On one side sit the third-party marketplaces — DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub in the U.S., alongside regional leaders like Meituan, Deliveroo, and Lieferando. These platforms dominate the money: market research shows the platform-to-consumer segment held over 71% of industry revenue in 2024, inside a global online food delivery market valued at USD 288.8 billion. That reach is real, but so is the cost.

On the other side are direct ordering platforms — ChowNow, Toast, Square Online, Chowly, Owner.com, and similar tools — that let guests order through the restaurant's own website or app. According to industry analysis, these systems route orders straight to the kitchen with zero commission, charging instead through subscriptions or processing fees.

The tension between the two models comes down to one trade-off: commissions versus ownership. A 2025 industry survey found that 72% of restaurants cite commission fees — typically 15% to 35% per order — as their single biggest challenge with delivery platforms. Meanwhile, 43% of restaurant professionals say third-party apps interfere with the direct customer relationship, largely because many marketplaces withhold customer data.

The economics push in the other direction, too. Consumer research shows 70% of U.S. consumers would rather order directly from a restaurant, preferring their money go to the business itself. Customers who order online also visit 67% more frequently, which makes owning that relationship — not just the transaction — the real prize.

For most restaurants, the practical answer is a hybrid:

• Use marketplaces for discovery and incremental reach
• Drive repeat customers to your own website's ordering flow
• Keep menu, branding, and checkout on a site you control
• Own the customer data that powers marketing and loyalty

That last point is where website design matters more than most owners expect. Since over 70% of restaurant web traffic comes from mobile devices, a direct ordering page has to load fast and convert cleanly — a one-second delay cuts conversion rates by 7%. This is why some businesses, including those AI Business Sites builds sites for, treat commission-free ordering as a core part of the website itself rather than a bolt-on — the ordering system, the branding, and the customer data live in one place the owner controls.

The platform you pick decides who owns your margin and your customer relationships — and that choice shapes profitability long after the order is delivered.

For every $100 a customer spends through a delivery app, a restaurant may keep as little as $65 after commissions. That math is why 72% of restaurants now cite high commission fees as their single biggest challenge with third-party platforms, according to Deliverect's industry analysis.

The fees aren't small. Third-party marketplaces like DoorDash, Uber, and Grubhub — which together command over 71% of the market's revenue, per Grand View Research — typically charge restaurants 15% to 35% per order. On a busy Friday night, that adds up fast.

The second cost is harder to see on an invoice: customer data. When an order comes through a marketplace, the app owns the relationship — the customer's name, preferences, and order history stay in the platform's system, not the restaurant's. That's why 43% of restaurant professionals say third-party apps interfere with the direct restaurant-customer relationship. As one industry comparison puts it, the real question is who owns your margin and your customer data: you, or a marketplace (Chowly).

Customers feel the same way. A Lightspeed survey found that 70% of U.S. consumers would rather order directly from a restaurant — they'd prefer their money go to the business, not the middleman.

That's driving a shift toward direct ordering built into a restaurant's own website, where commissions drop to zero and every order feeds the restaurant's own customer list. The trade-off is that a direct ordering system needs a strong web presence to generate demand — which is why restaurants are increasingly treating their website as the ordering engine itself, not just a menu on a page.

When evaluating how to bring ordering in-house, it helps to look at what the leading direct platforms charge:

• ChowNow: $229/month (annual) plus setup, with 2.95% + $0.29 card processing
• Owner.com: $249/month plus 5% per order, or $499/month flat
• Menufy: $149/month (annual) with no per-order commissions
• Square Online: free plan available, with 3.3% + 30¢ processing

These figures come from published vendor pricing and illustrate the range: most direct platforms replace commissions with subscriptions and processing fees. For restaurants weighing the options, the deciding factors are usually cost structure, who holds the customer data, and whether the platform fits the website they already have.

The takeaway is simple: relying solely on marketplaces means paying a permanent tax on every order. Restaurants that pair their own website with a direct ordering channel — whether a dedicated platform or ordering built into their site, as AI Business Sites does for restaurant clients — keep the margin, keep the data, and keep the customer relationship where it belongs.

The right direct-ordering platform depends less on features and more on how it's built. The category splits into four distinct models, each with a different answer to who owns your margin and your customer data — you, or the platform.

• POS-tied platforms like Toast and Square Online make sense mainly if you're already on that point-of-sale system. Toast's online ordering is included with its POS (plans start free, paid tiers from $69/month), while Square offers a $0/month free plan — though processing on that plan rose to 3.3% plus 30 cents in January 2026.
• Ordering-rails-only options like ChowNow, Menufy, and GloriaFood provide the ordering engine but leave demand generation to you. ChowNow runs $229/month plus 2.95% and $0.29 processing, Menufy is $149/month with no per-order commissions, and GloriaFood's core system is free with a $29/month payments add-on.
• Website-led platforms like Owner.com and Popmenu prioritize your web presence. Owner.com charges $249/month plus 5% per order (or $499/month flat), while Popmenu starts at $179/month with ordering as an add-on.
• All-in-one systems bundle ordering with marketing and reporting. Chowly positions this as the key decision: an ordering system without demand generation "leaves the hardest job to you."

When comparing options, three questions matter most. First, what's the total cost — subscription, processing, and per-order fees combined? Zero commission on direct orders is now table stakes, so look past the headline claim. Second, does the platform integrate with your existing systems? ChowNow connects with 30+ POS systems, while Toast requires its own ecosystem. Third, does it include the website itself? This matters because more than 70% of restaurant website traffic comes from mobile devices, and a one-second page-load delay cuts conversions by 7%, according to Chowly's restaurant website research.

It's also worth noting the consumer side: 70% of U.S. consumers say they'd rather order directly from a restaurant, per Lightspeed's survey data — meaning a fast, mobile-first ordering experience built into your own site isn't just cheaper, it's what customers prefer.

That's why some businesses skip standalone ordering tools entirely and choose a platform where ordering lives on their own website — the approach we take at AI Business Sites, where restaurant ordering is built directly into a custom site rather than bolted on as a separate subscription. Whichever route you take, the goal is the same: own the customer relationship, keep the margin, and make ordering effortless on the device your customers actually use.

The right platform only works if the decisions around it are right. Before signing up for anything, run through a short checklist that protects your margin, your customers, and your sanity.

Start with an honest audit of what you're paying today. If you're on third-party marketplaces, calculate your effective cost per order — 72% of restaurants cite high commission fees of 15–35% per order as their single biggest challenge with delivery platforms. That money is real, and it compounds every week.

Next, pick the model that fits your operation. Direct ordering platforms split into a few camps: POS-tied systems like Toast make sense mainly if you're already on that POS, while website-led options like Owner.com prioritize your web presence. Ask one question of every vendor: who owns your margin and your customer data — you, or the marketplace? It's the framing that matters, because 43% of restaurant professionals say third-party apps interfere with the direct customer relationship.

Then make mobile speed non-negotiable. More than 70% of restaurant website traffic comes from mobile devices, and a one-second delay in page load time cuts conversions by 7%. If your ordering flow lives on someone else's app, you can't control that experience. If it lives on your own site, you can.

Finally, own the data. Every order through your own system builds your customer list, your reordering history, and your marketing reach — assets no marketplace will hand over.

• Audit current commission costs per order
• Choose direct, POS-tied, or website-led based on your setup
• Demand fast, mobile-first ordering on your own domain
• Keep every order inside your own customer database

There's also a simpler path. With AI Business Sites, the ordering is built directly into your website — menus, pickup and delivery, dine-in, and tips included — with payments running through your own Stripe account and no per-order commissions. You own the site, the orders, and the customer data, and everything is set up for you. If that sounds like the version of online ordering you actually wanted, book a free strategy call at aibusinesssites.com/book-a-call and let's talk it through.