ChooseOutWhy Is My Food More Expensive on Delivery Apps?
The £14 burger that costs £17 on Uber Eats is not a mistake. Restaurants knowingly price higher on apps to recover the platform's commission, and the markup typically runs 10-25%.
The platform commission
Uber Eats, Deliveroo and Just Eat charge UK restaurants 25-35% commission on every order. That is huge: most casual dining restaurants run on 8-15% net margin. Without raising prices, every delivery order would be a loss.
The commission funds:
- Courier pay (the platform takes a cut, the rest goes to the driver).
- Customer support and dispute handling.
- Marketing and customer acquisition.
- App development and infrastructure.
- Profit margin for the platform.
It does not fund anything the restaurant directly controls.
How restaurants respond
Three patterns:
1. Raise app prices. The most common. A 15-20% markup recovers most of the commission while keeping prices competitive enough to win orders.
2. Reduce portion sizes on delivery. Less common but it happens: slightly smaller portions on app orders to claw back margin.
3. Skip the apps. Some restaurants refuse to be on third-party platforms at all. Usually established places with a strong direct customer base.
How big the markup actually is
A rough survey of UK restaurants, comparing in-store / direct prices to app prices on the same items:
- Independent takeaways: 10-20% markup.
- Mid-tier independents and small chains: 15-25% markup.
- High-margin chains (pizza, dessert, drinks): 8-15% markup.
- Premium restaurants: 5-15% markup (smaller because their prices are already high).
A few outliers run identical prices in-store and on apps, usually new restaurants treating apps as customer acquisition. These are rare.
Why some apps are more expensive than others
The same restaurant can have slightly different prices across Uber Eats, Deliveroo and Just Eat:
- Different commission rates. Uber Eats and Deliveroo typically charge 25-30%; Just Eat varies more, with some legacy restaurants on lower rates.
- Different promo participation. A platform running an aggressive promo passes some of the cost to the restaurant, which the restaurant offsets with slightly higher base prices.
- Different fee structures. Some platforms charge a flat fee per order; others charge percentage. Restaurants set prices to optimise for their best-paying platform.
The result: the same burger can be £16.50 on one app and £17.99 on another, with no quality difference.
What you can do
Three responses, in order of impact:
1. Order direct from the restaurant. Skips the markup entirely. 2. Compare across all three apps. Captures the price variation between platforms. 3. Use promos that exceed the markup. A 25% off code on a 15% markup leaves you 10% better than direct ordering, but only when the promo is real and unrestricted.
Why is the same burger more expensive on Uber Eats than in the restaurant?
Because the restaurant pays Uber Eats 25-35% commission on every order. To stay viable, restaurants raise app prices 10-25%, so customers absorb part of the commission via menu markup.
Are food delivery prices regulated in the UK?
No. UK delivery pricing is set by restaurants and platforms with no specific consumer-pricing regulation. General consumer law (Consumer Rights Act 2015) covers misrepresentation, but not pricing levels.
How can I tell how much markup a restaurant has on apps?
Compare the restaurant's in-store menu (often on Google or their own website) to the prices on Uber Eats, Deliveroo or Just Eat. The difference is the markup; typically 10-25% in the UK.