DoorDash and Uber Eats charge 15–30% per order and keep the customer relationship for themselves. OrderRail gives you a branded ordering site, direct payments, and a delivery network — without handing over the cut or the data.
| Feature | OrderRail | DoorDash / Uber Eats | Toast / Clover |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commission per order | 0% | 15–30% | Add-on dependent |
| Owns customer data & email list | Yes | No | Partial |
| Contract required | No — month-to-month | Platform terms apply | Often yes |
| Hardware lock-in | None required | N/A | Proprietary terminals |
| Menu pricing control | Full control | Can be altered by platform | Full control |
| Delivery fleet | In-house + on-demand fallback | Marketplace drivers | Varies by add-on |
| Time to launch | 15 minutes – days | Same day | Days – weeks |
A $14 item can net well under $12 after commission, service fees, and payment processing — before tax or the driver tip. Operators frequently don't clock the real number until they add up a full month.
Order history, contact info, and repeat-visit data stay with the marketplace. A restaurant can't email or text a customer who ordered exclusively through a delivery app.
Menu items, prices, and delivery availability have in some cases been added to marketplace listings without an owner's direct involvement — creating pricing mismatches that fall on the restaurant to sort out.
When food arrives late or cold because of a courier delay, the review lands on the restaurant's page — not the delivery platform's.
No — OrderRail routes local orders to an in-house fleet if you have one, and automatically falls back to Uber Direct for anything outside your radius or during a rush. You keep delivery coverage without paying commission on every order to get it.
Both plans include full menu build-out, location configuration, and a walkthrough, so nothing falls on your staff to figure out — most restaurants are live within a few days.
Higher tiers include priority and emergency phone routing — you're not stuck in an email queue during a Friday dinner rush.
No. Most restaurants run both — marketplace apps for new-customer discovery, and OrderRail for regulars, phone-in customers, and repeat business, where the commission adds up fastest.
By default, orders come through a dedicated kitchen printer that works independently of whatever POS you run — nothing to integrate, nothing to break if your POS changes. Direct POS integration is something we take on a case-by-case basis for restaurants that specifically want it, since it varies by which POS you're on — tell us on the demo request form if that's important to you.
Not quite — both still charge a per-order transaction fee on top of their monthly subscription. See the full ChowNow & Owner.com comparison for the breakdown.