Should my restaurant use delivery apps?

PUBLISHED 12 JULY 2026 · 5 MINUTE READ · BY FORKCAST

Short answer: yes, but not as your only order channel. Delivery apps bring people who have never heard of you, and that is worth something. The commission they take out of every single order is also worth something, mostly to them. The fix is not quitting the apps. It is making sure you are not the only venue in Sydney with no way for a customer to order straight from you.

The real cost of the app tax

Every platform sets its own commission and terms, and those terms change, so check your current merchant agreement for the exact number rather than trusting a figure from a blog post. What stays true across every platform: the cut comes out of every order, every day, for as long as you use the app, and it usually lands right after food cost as your biggest expense line. Run 100 orders a week through an app and you are handing over a slice of every single one, forever. Run those same 100 orders through your own site and you keep the lot.

The apps also own the customer relationship, not you. They have the phone number, the order history, and the app notification that says "craving something?" with your competitor's menu right underneath yours. You did the cooking. They did the marketing, on your dime.

When delivery apps still make sense

• New venues with no audience yet. Discovery is genuinely useful in year one. Nobody finds a brand new venue by accident.
• Quiet delivery zones you cannot service yourself. If you have no driver and no time to set one up, an app beats no delivery at all.
• Overflow on your busiest nights. Extra volume through the app when your own kitchen and floor are already maxed out.

What does not make sense is a regular, repeat customer who already knows and likes you, ordering through an app every single week, and you paying commission on a customer you already earned.

How to get more orders direct

• Give people somewhere to go. A simple ordering or booking link on your own website. If your website is a static menu photo with no way to act on it, every visitor bounces back to the app they came from.
• Put the link where people already are. Your Google Business Profile, your Instagram bio, a QR code on the receipt and the table. Three seconds to find, one tap to use.
• Give repeat customers a reason. A loyalty perk, a text when a seasonal dish is back, a small direct-order discount that still beats what the app takes off you. You are not discounting the food. You are keeping the margin the app would have taken.
• Track where orders actually come from. If you cannot tell app orders from direct orders, you cannot tell if the fix is working. Even a simple tally at the till for a fortnight tells you the split.

One way to think about the maths: every order that moves from an app to your own site keeps you the commission that order would have cost. A handful of regulars ordering direct instead of through an app can cover a lot in a month.

Where Forkcast fits

An optional Care Plan keeps everything updated month to month if you would rather it was handled for you. It is never required, and dropping delivery apps is never required either. This is about giving a direct path a fair chance to earn its keep next to the app.

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