Third-party delivery apps take 30%. A custom ordering system takes zero.
DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub charge 15–30% commissions per order. A custom online ordering system on your own domain charges a one-time build cost. For a restaurant doing $60k/month in third-party delivery, the custom system pays for itself in weeks. Fixed scope, fixed price.
Your restaurant is paying 15–30% commission per order to third-party delivery apps — commission that comes directly out of your margins, on orders from customers who would prefer to order directly from you.
The commission structure of third-party delivery apps converts restaurant operators into low-margin fulfilment partners for the app companies. DoorDash's base commission rate is 15% for their basic tier; their standard tier is 25%; their premium tier is 30%. On a $40 order at 25% commission: $10 goes to DoorDash, before the restaurant's food cost, labour, and packaging. Most restaurants operate at 5–15% net margin — the commission structure makes third-party delivery neutral-to-negative on a per-order basis.
The rationale for accepting the commission: the app's customer acquisition. Customers who don't know the restaurant discover it through the app. For customer acquisition, the commission is the CAC. For repeat customers — the customers who have already discovered the restaurant and would order again anyway — the commission is pure margin loss.
The first-party ordering strategy: a custom ordering system on the restaurant's own domain captures the repeat customer orders at zero commission. The app handles customer discovery; the first-party system handles retention. A restaurant that converts 30% of its repeat delivery customers to direct ordering eliminates 30% of the commission cost.
A custom food ordering system with your menu, your branding, Stripe Checkout for direct payments, and integration with your existing POS — eliminating the delivery app commissions on direct orders.
Menu management
Restaurant admin panel with menu item management: name, description, price, photo, category, modifier groups (size, toppings, preparation options), availability by day and time, and sold-out toggling. Menu updates take effect immediately without a developer.
Online ordering flow
Menu browsing with category navigation and search. Item customisation with modifier selections. Cart management. Delivery address entry with validation. Order timing (ASAP or scheduled). Stripe Checkout for payment. Order confirmation via SMS and email.
Order management
Kitchen-facing order queue with new order alerts, order status workflow (received → confirmed → preparing → ready → delivered), and order history. Print receipts via a connected receipt printer via a print API.
POS integration
Integration with the restaurant's existing POS system (Square, Toast, Clover, or direct via API) for automatic order creation on the POS when an online order is received. Eliminating the manual re-entry of online orders into the POS.
Branded web experience
The ordering system on the restaurant's own domain, with the restaurant's branding, not DoorDash's. The customer's experience is with the restaurant brand, not the delivery app brand.
One honest number to start.
Fixed-scope, fixed-price. The number below is the starting point — final scope is built from your brief.
A custom food ordering system with your menu, your branding, Stripe Checkout for direct payments, and integration with your existing POS — eliminating the delivery app commissions on direct orders.
Three steps, every time.
The same repeatable engagement on every project. No surprises, no mystery, no billable ambiguity.
Brief & discovery.
We send you questions, then get on a call. Output: a written scope with every step, feature, and integration listed.
Build & ship.
Fixed schedule, weekly reviews. No scope creep unless you change the scope — and if you do, we reprice it transparently.
Warranty & retainer.
30-day warranty on every launch. Most clients stay on a monthly retainer for ongoing features and maintenance.
Why Fixed-Price Matters Here
Commission elimination has a calculable monthly value. Fixed price makes the payback period calculation possible before committing.
Related engagements.
Questions, answered.
The custom ordering system handles the order taking and payment. Delivery logistics can be handled three ways: the restaurant's own delivery staff (the system provides the driver-facing order view and address management); a third-party dispatch service like DoorDash Drive (white-label delivery for direct-order restaurants, at flat fee per delivery rather than commission per order); or pickup-only for restaurants that don't offer delivery.
Maintained — the third-party app accounts stay active for customer discovery. The strategy is capturing the repeat customer orders on the first-party system, not eliminating the apps entirely. The apps continue to provide discovery; the first-party system captures retention orders at zero commission.
Yes — the ordering system integrates with the existing POS via API or via an integration middleware. The POS doesn't need to change. Online orders appear in the POS as standard orders from a specific source.
A web-based ordering system with menu management, Stripe Checkout, and POS integration: $25k–$38k. Adding a mobile app for iOS and Android: $45k+ (the web ordering system can be installed as a PWA for a native-feeling mobile experience at no additional cost). Fixed-price.
Ordering systems typically take 8–12 weeks.
Tell Ryel about your project.
Describe what you’re building and what outcome you need. You’ll have a written, fixed-price scope within the week.