How Much Is Online Ordering Costing Your Restaurant?

Online ordering should make your restaurant more money. But how much of each online sale are you keeping?

A customer places a $50 order. Your restaurant makes the food, handles the rush, and gets it out the door. Then the payout hits your account, and somehow, $50 looks a whole lot smaller.

That’s because the price you’re quoted for online ordering is rarely the full cost.

Depending on how you accept an online order, your costs may include marketplace commissions, payment processing, ordering software, restaurant-paid delivery, hardware, and optional add-ons.

For restaurants already operating on tight margins, those costs aren’t just line items. They can be the difference between an order that generates profit and one that barely does.

So, how much is online ordering truly costing your restaurant?

Let’s break down where the money goes, and more importantly, how to figure out how much of every online sale you’re keeping.

1. Marketplace Commissions

For most restaurants, marketplace commissions are the biggest cost of online ordering.

Third-party platforms offer something valuable: immediate access to customers who are already hungry and looking for somewhere to order. But restaurants pay for that reach on every transaction.

DoorDash, for example, publishes commission rates of 15% on its Basic plan, 25% on Plus, and 30% on Premier for delivery orders. Pickup orders carry a 6% commission across all three plans.

Put that into real dollars. At a 25% marketplace commission, $25 of every $100 in online sales goes to the platform before food, labor, packaging, rent, or other operating costs.

That tradeoff can make sense when the marketplace brings you a customer you might not have reached otherwise. But when that customer returns through the same channel, you continue paying $25 per $100 in sales, even though they already know your restaurant.

As sales grow, so does the total commission. At that rate, $4,000 in marketplace sales means $1,000 in commissions. Use the same benchmark when comparing alternatives: how much does your restaurant pay for every $100 in online sales through each channel?

The goal isn’t necessarily to eliminate marketplaces. It’s to understand what you’re paying them for: customer acquisition, convenience, or simply access to customers who already know your restaurant.

2. Payment Processing Fees

Commission-free online ordering still has a cost. Removing the marketplace commission does not eliminate payment processing fees, ordering software charges, or fulfillment costs, such as packaging and restaurant-paid delivery.

Every time a customer pays online with a credit or debit card, that payment has to be processed, and payment processing comes with its own cost. Depending on the provider, that typically means a percentage of each transaction, often plus a small fixed fee.

That’s a normal cost of accepting digital payments. What matters is knowing exactly what you’re paying for.

Payment processing and online ordering software are two different services. If a provider rolls everything into a vague “transaction fee,” it becomes much harder to tell whether you’re getting a competitive processing rate or simply paying another platform markup.

When comparing providers, ask two questions:

What am I paying to process the payment? And what am I paying for the ordering platform itself?

The clearer that breakdown is, the easier it becomes to compare the true cost of each order.

3. Monthly Software Fees

Some online ordering systems replace per-order commissions with a flat monthly subscription. Depending on your order volume, that can be a much better deal.

A predictable monthly fee stays the same whether you process 50 orders or 500. That means the sticker price alone doesn’t tell you whether the software is expensive. You have to compare it with the revenue flowing through it.

Consider two restaurants paying the same $150 monthly subscription. One generates $3,000 a month in direct online orders, making the software equivalent to 5% of that revenue. Another generates $30,000, bringing the same cost down to just 0.5%.

The more direct orders you process, the less significant a flat monthly fee can become.

Instead of asking, “How much does this software cost?” ask:

“For every dollar I generate through online ordering, how much am I paying the platform?”

That number tells you much more than the price advertised on the website.

4. Delivery Fees

Direct ordering doesn’t mean giving up third-party delivery. With EZOnline Ordering, customers can order through your restaurant’s branded ordering channel, while delivery can be handled by your own drivers or a supported third-party delivery service, depending on your setup.

Services such as DoorDash Drive On-Demand illustrate how third-party delivery can support orders placed through a restaurant’s own channels. Confirm which delivery services are supported by your ordering setup.

Delivery still has a cost. Ask which services are available, how charges are calculated, and how much your restaurant pays versus what the customer pays.

Compare ordering and delivery costs separately. For every $100 in online sales, include the delivery charges your restaurant actually covers. Evaluate pickup orders separately so delivery costs don’t distort the comparison.

5. Operational costs

The cost of online ordering also includes the work it creates for your team.

Monitoring separate systems, updating menus in multiple places, and manually entering orders into your POS all take staff time. During a busy shift, those extra steps can also lead to missed orders, incorrect modifiers, and kitchen mistakes.

A platform that looks inexpensive on paper can become costly if daily tasks require more labor or errors lead to remakes and refunds.

Before choosing a system, walk through how an order reaches your kitchen, how menu changes are handled, and what happens when an order needs a correction or refund.

Look for a setup that fits your workflow and reduces the steps your staff must manage from order to fulfillment.

6. The Add-Ons That Quietly Increase Your Bill

A low starting price can look less affordable once you add the features your restaurant needs.

Loyalty programs, marketing tools, customer messaging, reporting, and integrations may cost extra, depending on the provider and plan. Individually, those additions might seem manageable. Together, they can quickly change the total.

Some providers list a starting plan and offer marketing, loyalty, or restaurant management tools as optional extras. The advertised price may look competitive on paper, but adding the tools your restaurant will actually use can raise the monthly bill.

Before comparing providers, ask for an itemized quote covering your required features, locations, and integrations.

Compare the complete setup your restaurant needs, not just the starting price.

Calculate Your Real Online Ordering Cost

The clearest comparison starts with each ordering channel separately. Compare the same month and order type: delivery with delivery, pickup with pickup.

Count each cost once. If a commission already includes payment processing or delivery, do not add those charges again.

For example, DoorDash Marketplace commissions cover payment processing and Dasher delivery logistics, along with other services. Only add costs billed separately, such as optional advertising or promotions your restaurant funds.

Use this calculation for each channel:

Monthly channel costs ÷ sales through that channel × 100 = effective ordering cost percentage

• Direct ordering through EZOnline: Monthly platform fee + payment processing + delivery costs your restaurant absorbs + any separately billed channel add-ons
• DoorDash Marketplace: Marketplace commissions + any separately billed fees, advertising, or restaurant-funded promotions

Use food and beverage sales before channel fees, excluding taxes and tips, for both calculations. For direct delivery, subtract customer delivery payments from the delivery expense to find the amount your restaurant absorbs.

Include channel-specific hardware or shared software costs consistently. Spread one-time hardware costs over the same period, and count only the share attributable to that channel.

Illustrative example: If one channel generates $20,000 in monthly sales and costs your restaurant $2,400, its effective ordering cost is:

$2,400 ÷ $20,000 × 100 = 12%

That means 12 cents of every sales dollar goes toward that channel’s ordering costs, before food, labor, rent, and other operating expenses.

Compare the results alongside what each channel provides, including customer discovery, delivery, and marketing.

Knowing what you keep from each channel helps you decide where to encourage repeat orders.

The Question Isn’t Whether Marketplaces Are “Bad”

Third-party marketplaces aren’t the enemy. Dependence on them can be.

Platforms like DoorDash can be powerful customer acquisition tools. They put restaurants in front of people actively deciding where to eat, and that discovery can translate into genuinely new business. In fact, DoorDash reports that in 2025, more than 55% of orders at new restaurants on its platform came from customers browsing rather than searching for a specific restaurant.

For a brand-new customer, paying a marketplace commission can make sense. You’re paying for reach, discovery, and potentially a customer you wouldn’t have acquired otherwise.

But what happens when that customer already knows you?

If they enjoyed the food and want to order again next Friday, continuing to pay marketplace-level acquisition costs for that repeat order becomes harder to justify.

That’s why a smarter online ordering strategy doesn’t have to choose between marketplaces and direct ordering.

Use marketplaces to get discovered. Use your direct channel to build the relationship.

Give returning customers an easy way to order directly from your restaurant without inserting the same high-cost middleman into every transaction.

That’s exactly the gap EZ Online Ordering is designed to close. Restaurants get a direct ordering channel built around their own business, making it easier for customers to come back and order directly.

Pair that with RevitPay’s restaurant payment processing to support direct ordering and payments with a setup tailored to your restaurant.

The goal isn’t to get off the marketplaces. It’s to stop paying acquisition-level costs for every customer forever.

Because generating more online sales is only half the equation.

The other half is keeping more of every sale you’ve already earned.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does commission-free online ordering mean no fees?

No. Commission-free means there is no per-order platform commission. Payment processing, software subscriptions, delivery, and optional features may still cost extra. Ask for a breakdown of both restaurant-paid and customer-paid charges. DoorDash’s own commission-free website ordering, for example, still carries payment processing fees.

Is direct online ordering cheaper than a marketplace?

It can be, but compare the complete cost of each channel. Direct ordering may involve software, processing, and delivery charges, while a marketplace commission can bundle several services together.

DoorDash Marketplace commissions, for example, include payment processing and Dasher delivery logistics. Count those costs once, then compare delivery with delivery and pickup with pickup.

Can customers order directly and still get delivery?

Yes. Services such as DoorDash Drive On-Demand let restaurants arrange third-party delivery for orders placed through their own channels. Confirm that your ordering platform supports the service, then check delivery coverage, charges, and how much your restaurant will pay.

Do I need to replace my POS to offer direct ordering?

That depends on the ordering platform and your current POS. Before choosing a provider, confirm compatibility and ask how orders reach the kitchen, whether menus sync, and how refunds are handled. Include any integration charges or additional staff steps in your comparison.

Find Out What You’re Really Paying

There’s one easy way to find out whether your current setup is working for you: run the numbers.

Pull your online ordering and processing statements from the last month. Calculate costs separately for each channel, count bundled fees only once, and compare each total with that channel’s sales. Use the same period and separate pickup from delivery.

You’ll have a clearer picture of what each channel costs and how much of each sale your restaurant keeps.

RevitPay can review one recent payment processing statement and help you understand your costs, with no commitment to switch.

For more support, explore RevitPay’s resources:

• Accounting and reporting tools can provide greater visibility into payments and reconciliation.
• RevitPay Guides offers additional resources on payment processing and cost management.

You already did the work to earn the order. Make sure you know how much of it you’re keeping.