How to Take Online Orders Without Paying Delivery App Commissions

Delivery apps take a commission on each order they bring you. You can take online orders without that commission by selling from your own ordering page, but it isn't free: you still pay card processing, you may pay for the ordering software, and you either deliver yourself or pay a courier per trip. This guide walks a restaurant through the options step by step, trade-offs included.

Product details come from each company's own pages as of October 2026. Plans and prices change, so check the current terms before you sign anything.

1. 01

   Work out what the apps cost you now

   Add up last month's commissions and fees from each app, then divide by the number of orders to get the cost per order. If the app shows which orders came from new customers and which from repeat ones, note both. The apps earn their fee when they find people who have never heard of you. Your regulars, who already know where you are, are the orders worth moving to your own page.

   Our guide to AI ordering systems includes a worked example of the commission math.

2. 02

   Choose how you will take orders

   There are three common routes. Each one sends orders to you directly, with no commission per order.

   Option A: the ordering add-on from your POS company

   If you already use Square, Clover or Toast, start here. Each sells online ordering that feeds its own POS, so web orders reach the kitchen the same way counter orders do. Square offers an online ordering profile with no monthly fee, and Clover and Toast sell their own ordering for restaurants on their systems. You still pay card processing on every order.

   Good for: restaurants happy with their POS. Trade-off: you get the POS company's page design and features, and changing POS later means setting up ordering again.

   Option B: a commission-free page from a delivery company

   DoorDash offers commission-free online ordering you can link from your website, Google profile and social pages. DoorDash says the restaurant pays only payment processing on those orders, its own drivers make the deliveries, and customers pay the delivery fee.

   Good for: restaurants already on the app that want delivery without hiring drivers. Trade-off: your direct orders still run on another company's platform and terms.

   Option C: ordering built into your own website

   A custom ordering page lives on your own domain, matches the rest of your site and follows your exact rules for sizes, specials and delivery zones. Card payments go to a payment account in your name. Try our sample ordering demo to see the customer's side and the kitchen ticket, or read about the ordering system we built for a restaurant, where orders land on a kitchen tablet.

   Good for: restaurants that want their own design, their own customer list and rules a template can't handle. Trade-off: it costs more to set up than an add-on, and someone has to keep it running.

3. 03

   Decide on pickup, delivery or both

   Pickup is the simplest place to start: no drivers, no delivery zone and no insurance questions. You can launch with pickup only and add delivery once the page is bringing in orders. For delivery there are two ways to do it:

   • Your own drivers. You keep the delivery fee and control the service, but you carry the wages, the schedule and the insurance. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners advises checking personal auto policies closely, because business use may be excluded, and notes that commercial auto policies can cover employees' own cars driven for the business. Talk to your insurance agent before the first delivery.
   • On-demand couriers. DoorDash Drive On-Demand and Uber Direct deliver orders placed on your own channels for a fee per delivery rather than a commission. In October 2026 DoorDash listed $6.99 to $10.99 per delivery, and Uber listed prices from $7.99. DoorDash says Drive On-Demand connects with ordering and POS systems such as Square and Toast, so a courier can be requested automatically.
4. 04

   Send orders to the kitchen the way it already works

   The cleanest setup puts web orders into your POS, so they print or appear on the kitchen screen next to counter and phone orders. If your POS can't take orders from outside software, they can go to a tablet or a ticket printer of their own instead. Try to avoid a counter covered in tablets, one per service, each chiming separately.

   Before launch, place test orders: one for pickup and one for delivery, each with add-ons and a special request. Follow each from the customer's phone to the kitchen and out the door, and check the receipt and the payout.

5. 05

   Put the ordering link where customers already look

   • Your Google Business Profile. Google lets you add your own ordering link in the profile's food ordering section and mark it as preferred for pickup, for delivery, or both. Delivery apps can appear there too, and Google says they must remove their links within 5 business days of your request.
   • Your website, with an Order online button near the top of every page, not only on the menu page.
   • Your phone greeting and your receipts, with the short address of your ordering page.
   • Every app bag, with a menu card that carries your own ordering link.
   • Your social profiles, in the bio link and the posts.
6. 06

   Give regulars a reason to order direct

   People order wherever it is easiest. Make your page at least as quick as the app, then give regulars a reason to use it: a small pickup discount, a free side on direct orders, or reward points that only count on your own page. Each month, compare direct orders with app orders, and what each channel cost you after fees.

The trade-offs, plainly

• Discovery. Apps put you in front of people who have never heard of you. Your own page only gets the customers you send to it, so it can make sense to stay on the apps for new customers and steer regulars to order direct.
• Costs that remain. Card processing, software fees, courier fees or driver wages. Compare them with the commission, order by order.
• Upkeep. Someone has to keep the menu, prices and hours right on your page as well as on each app.
• Your customer list. Orders on your own page come with the customer's name and contact details, so you can tell them about specials yourself, within the privacy policy you publish.
• Control. Your rules for delivery zones, fees and hours, with no app deciding where you appear in its list.

When to get help

If your POS already includes an ordering add-on and you only want pickup, you can likely set it up without outside help. Get help when you want ordering that matches your website, rules the add-on can't handle, or phone, web and counter orders in one place. Our online ordering service builds ordering into your own site with no commission per order, and our POS systems page covers connecting it to the register.