Takeaway commission calculator: what marketplaces really cost.
Marketplace commission is charged on every order, so it grows with your sales. Here’s how to work out what it costs your takeaway each month, and how much of that you could keep on orders that come to you directly.
How much commission do UK takeaway delivery apps charge?
Most UK takeaway delivery apps charge independent takeaways 13–35% commission per order, often more once card processing and marketing fees are added. The Food Ordering Co works differently: one flat monthly subscription, zero commission, however many orders you take.
More money for your business.
What could you save?
LET'S DO THE MATHS£2,470.05 back in your pocket each month
An estimate, not a guarantee. Assumes these sales move direct for 12 months. Compares commission with our subscription only; excludes VAT, payment processing, delivery and other costs. Use your own rate — 25% is an example, not a market average.
How we worked this out
On a £30 order, commission can take up to £10.50 before the food has even left the kitchen. Move £2,000 of monthly sales from a 25% commission platform to our flat £29.95 fee, for example, and roughly £470 stays in your business each month instead of going to commission. Move even a portion of your delivery-platform sales to your own branded ordering app and the fees you'd have paid on every order stay in your business instead.
The calculator uses the same sum: the sales you move direct, multiplied by your commission rate, minus our £29.95 monthly subscription. The yearly figure is 12 times the monthly one.
Sources: the Just Eat partner sign-up FAQ and Uber Eats merchant pricing. See the full commission comparison.
The formula
Monthly commission = monthly sales through the marketplace × commission rate. A takeaway doing £10,000 a month through a platform that charges 25% pays £2,500 a month, before any other fees the platform adds.
UK marketplace commission commonly runs from around 13% to 35% of each order, depending on the platform and whether it delivers for you. Check your own contract or statement for your real rate, and see the platform comparison for the published figures and their sources.
Commission is calculated on the order total, so it takes the same slice of a small order as a large one. It also scales in a straight line: double your marketplace sales and you double your commission. That’s why a takeaway that feels comfortable at £3,000 a month can find the bill hard to ignore at £15,000.
Which commission rate should you use?
The headline rate on a marketplace’s website is rarely the only number that matters. Rates commonly differ depending on who does the delivery, and the figures we can point to from published sources look like this:
- Just Eat: 14% on self-delivered orders and 30% when Just Eat’s own couriers deliver, plus VAT on the commission.
- Uber Eats: 13% for self-delivery or pickup and 30% when Uber Eats delivers, plus a one-off activation fee.
- Deliveroo: no official UK rate card is published, but independent reporting commonly puts it in the 25–35% range, sometimes with separate marketing or service charges.
If you take a mix of delivered and collection orders, your real rate is somewhere between the low and high figures. The most reliable source is your own statement: divide the total commission and fees deducted last month by the total order value, and use that percentage in every calculation below. Where a platform charges VAT on its commission, include it, because it’s a real cost to you even though it appears as a separate line.
Worked examples
Commission on sales at different rates. For comparison, our flat subscription is £29.95 a month whatever your sales.
| Monthly sales | Commission at 15% | Commission at 25% | Commission at 30% |
|---|---|---|---|
| £5,000 | £750.00 | £1,250.00 | £1,500.00 |
| £10,000 | £1,500.00 | £2,500.00 | £3,000.00 |
| £20,000 | £3,000.00 | £5,000.00 | £6,000.00 |
What it looks like on a single order
Monthly totals can feel abstract, so start with one order. On a £30 order at a 25% commission rate, the platform keeps £7.50 and £22.50 reaches you. That has to cover the ingredients, the packaging, the wages of whoever cooked it and your overheads, and it’s before any VAT the platform adds to its commission. The same £30 order placed through your own app reaches you in full, apart from the card processing fee charged by Stripe.
Now multiply. A takeaway taking 400 marketplace orders a month at an average of £25 turns over £10,000, and at 25% that’s £2,500 in commission. The average order value matters less than the number of orders, which is why the calculation rewards moving your most frequent customers rather than your biggest single spenders.
How much of your sales could move direct?
Very few takeaways move everything at once, and they don’t need to. Marketplaces keep introducing new customers, so the realistic goal is to convert the regulars who already know you. Here’s what happens to commission on £10,000 of monthly sales at 25% when part of it comes through your own app instead, compared with the flat £29.95 subscription:
| Share moved direct | Sales moved | Commission avoided | After subscription |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10% | £1,000 | £250.00 | £220.05 |
| 25% | £2,500 | £625.00 | £595.05 |
| 50% | £5,000 | £1,250.00 | £1,220.05 |
The last column is the commission you’d avoid minus the subscription, so it shows the net difference before other costs. Even the cautious 10% row comes out ahead at this rate, but that’s an example, not a forecast. Your own share depends on how many customers you can persuade to switch.
The break-even point
A flat fee only makes sense if the commission it replaces is larger. Divide the £29.95 subscription by your commission rate to see how much monthly sales you need to move direct before it pays for itself:
- At 15% commission: about £200 of monthly sales moved direct covers the subscription.
- At 25% commission: about £120 of monthly sales moved direct covers the subscription.
- At 30% commission: about £100 of monthly sales moved direct covers the subscription.
Below those figures, the subscription costs more than the commission it replaces on that slice of sales, so it’s worth being honest about how many orders you realistically expect to take direct. Above them, every extra order you move is commission you keep.
Costs the commission figure leaves out
Commission is the largest line, but it isn’t the only one, on either side of the comparison.
On marketplaces
Depending on the platform and your agreement, you may also face VAT on commission, a one-off activation fee, and separate marketing, promotion or service charges. These vary by contract, so add them to your effective rate rather than treating the headline percentage as the whole cost.
On your own ordering app
Direct orders aren’t free of cost either. Card payments are processed by Stripe, and Stripe’s own processing fees apply on top of our subscription, and your customers pay a separate 50p platform fee per order at checkout, which isn’t taken from your takings. The STAR thermal printer that prints orders in your kitchen is a one-off £294.99. We’re not currently VAT registered, so no VAT is added to the subscription today. If you deliver direct orders yourself, the cost of delivery is yours too.
None of this changes the direction of the sum, but it does change the size of it, which is why our own calculator is deliberately conservative: it compares commission with the subscription only and says so.
How to check your real numbers
- Download last month’s statement from each marketplace you use and note the gross order value and the total deducted.
- Divide the deductions by the order value to get your effective rate, and do it per platform because rates differ.
- Estimate how many of those orders came from customers who have ordered from you before. These are the ones a branded app can realistically win.
- Enter your sales and rate into the calculator, then adjust the sales figure to a cautious share of the total.
- Subtract Stripe’s fees from the result to see a realistic picture, and repeat it with a lower share to check the sum still works.
Turning regulars into direct orders
Marketplaces are good at putting your takeaway in front of people who have never ordered from you. The commission is the price of that introduction. But once a customer knows you, paying the same percentage on every repeat order is harder to justify.
That’s where a branded ordering app of your own fits: put your app’s details on the bag, the flyer and the table talker, so a customer who found you on a marketplace can order direct next time. Every order through your own app pays you in full, and the flat £29.95 monthly fee doesn’t change however many orders come through. Read the guide to taking online orders for how the two channels work together.
Work it out for your own numbers
Our savings calculator at the top of this page lets you set your own monthly sales and commission rate and shows the difference against the subscription. It compares commission only, so allow for Stripe’s card processing fees, which aren’t included in the subscription. See what’s included and what isn’t.
Its results are estimates, not guarantees. They assume the sales you enter move direct for twelve months, and they don’t include VAT, payment processing, delivery or other costs. Use your own commission rate: 25% is an example, not a market average.
Common questions
Does zero commission mean no other costs?
No. Zero commission means we don’t take a percentage of your direct orders. The £29.95 monthly subscription still applies, along with Stripe’s processing fees, the 50p platform fee your customers pay on each order, and any delivery arrangements you make yourself.
Do I have to leave the marketplaces?
No. You can keep your marketplace listings for the new customers they bring, and build direct orders alongside at your own pace. The calculation above only counts the sales you actually move.
Is there a fixed-term contract?
There is no fixed-term contract. You pay a monthly subscription, and we explain the payment and cancellation arrangements before you get started.
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