How to Take Online Orders Without Paying DoorDash 30%

A $52 order pops up on your DoorDash tablet. Nice. Then payday comes and you look closer. After the commission, that $52 order paid you closer to $36. The app quietly kept the rest. Do that a few hundred times a month and some weeks you are handing a delivery company more than you take home. Here is the good news. Those same guests can order the same food from your own website, and on your own site you pay a small card processing fee instead of a big marketplace cut. You keep far more of every ticket, and you finally get the customer's name and number instead of the app. This guide walks you through it in plain English, one click at a time. We will do the math on a real order, set up commission-free ordering on your own site, and cover simple ways to move your Brickell condo regulars and Little Havana lunch crowd from the app to your own link, without losing the reach the apps give you.

Where does your 30% actually go? (the math on one order)

Let us start with a number you can feel. Say a family in Doral orders dinner from your restaurant on a delivery app: two entrees, a side, and drinks, for a $50 subtotal.

Most third-party delivery apps (that is the general term for DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub, companies that list your menu and take orders for you) charge a commission, which is a percentage of each order that they keep. In 2026 those commissions commonly run from 15% to 30% per order depending on the plan you are on, and the real cost can climb higher once you add paid promotions and extra service fees. Rates vary by app and plan, so treat these as ranges, not exact quotes.

On the top 30% plan, here is what that $50 order looks like:

• Order subtotal: $50.00
• App commission at 30%: minus $15.00
• What lands in your pocket, before food and labor: about $35.00

Fifteen dollars, gone from a single order, before you have paid for the chicken, the rice, the cook, or the rent. Now remember what restaurants actually keep. A typical independent restaurant nets only about 3% to 5% in profit. On a $50 order that is roughly $1.50 to $2.50 of real profit. A $15 commission does not shave your profit, it can erase it and then some. You can be busy all night on the apps and still go backward.

That is the problem in one sentence: on the marketplace, the app takes the fattest slice of a pie that was already thin. The rest of this guide is about keeping that slice.

What are the two ways to take online orders, and who owns the customer?

There are really only two ways to take an online order, and the difference between them is the whole ballgame.

Way 1: The marketplace (someone else's platform)

This is DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. A marketplace is an app where lots of restaurants are listed side by side and hungry people browse and order. The upside is real: millions of people already have these apps, so they can put you in front of someone who has never heard of you. The downside is the commission we just walked through, and one more thing most owners miss. The customer belongs to the app, not to you. You usually do not get their name, phone number, or email. You cannot text them a slow-Tuesday offer. If DoorDash raises its fees or a competitor buys a promoted spot above you, there is nothing you can do.

Way 2: Your own website (a platform you control)

The other way is first-party ordering, also called commission-free or direct ordering. In plain terms, the order comes in through your own website or an ordering system you control, instead of a marketplace. Because no middleman is taking a cut of the sale, you pay mainly the normal card processing fee (the small percentage any business pays to accept a credit card, usually around 2% to 3%) instead of a 15% to 30% commission. Just as important, you get the customer's information: their name, their email, their order history. That is yours to keep, and it is how you turn a one-time delivery into a regular.

Think of it like this. The marketplace is renting a table in someone else's food hall, and they take a cut of everything you sell. Your own website is your own front door. A healthy Miami restaurant uses both, but leans on the door it owns. A good restaurant website is what makes that front door possible.

How do you set up commission-free ordering on your own website?

You do not need to build anything complicated or hire a developer for a month. Most restaurants can have direct ordering live in a couple of afternoons. Here is the path, step by step.

Step 1: Pick an ordering system

An online ordering system is the tool that shows your menu, takes the order, and collects payment on your website. Several are built specifically to be commission-free, meaning they charge a flat monthly fee or a small per-order fee instead of a percentage of the sale. Common options in 2026 include Square Online, ChowNow, GloriaFood, and Toast, among others. Pricing models differ:

• Free to start: Some tools (for example Square Online and GloriaFood) offer a free branded ordering page with no monthly fee. You still pay standard card processing on each order.
• Flat monthly subscription: Others (for example ChowNow) charge a set monthly price and take 0% commission on your direct orders, plus card processing.

If you already use a point-of-sale system (the POS, the register and payment system at your counter, often Square, Toast, or Clover), start by checking whether it already includes online ordering. Keeping ordering on the same system you ring up sales with means orders and menu updates stay in one place.

Step 2: Create your account and load your menu

1. Go to the ordering tool's website and sign up for a business account using your restaurant's email. Use a dedicated restaurant email, not a staff member's personal one, so you never lose access.
2. Enter your restaurant name, address, and hours exactly as they appear on your sign and your Google listing.
3. Add your menu. Type each item, its price, and a short description. Add a clear photo for your best sellers, since good photos noticeably lift orders.
4. Set up your options and add-ons (sizes, sides, no onions, extra plantains) so the online menu matches how you really serve.

Step 3: Connect how you get paid

1. In the tool's settings, find the Payments section.
2. Connect your bank account so payouts land in your account. The tool will ask for your business bank details and usually a tax ID.
3. Confirm the card processing rate it shows. It is normally in the range of about 2% to 3% plus a few cents per order. That is the main cost of direct ordering, and it is a fraction of a marketplace commission.

Step 4: Put the Order Online button on your website

1. The tool will give you a link to your ordering page and often a button or a snippet of code.
2. Add a big, obvious Order Online button to the top of your homepage and your menu page, so no one has to hunt for it.
3. If your website was built for you, send that link to whoever manages it, or ask your web partner to add the button. If you do not have a website yet, or yours cannot take orders, that is the piece to fix first. Here is how we build restaurant websites that take direct orders.

Step 5: Place a test order

1. From your phone, open your website like a customer would and place a small real order.
2. Check that the order prints or shows up in your kitchen, that the total and tax are right, and that the money hits your account.
3. Fix anything confusing. If ordering feels clunky to you, it will feel clunky to a guest, so smooth it out before you promote it.

That is it. Once a test order flows cleanly from your phone to your kitchen to your bank, you are ready to send real customers to it.

Should you quit DoorDash and Uber Eats?

Short answer: no, not for most restaurants, and not all at once. This is the mistake to avoid in the other direction. The apps are expensive, but they do one thing your website cannot do on its own: they put you in front of people who have never heard of you. Someone new to Miami, scrolling DoorDash from a Brickell high-rise at 9pm, is a customer you would never have reached.

So do not think of it as apps versus your website. Think of it as a funnel (a path a customer travels). Use the marketplace for what it is good at, then move people to what you own:

• Use the apps for discovery. Let them introduce you to new guests and handle the delivery logistics you do not want to run yourself.
• Convert those guests to direct. Once someone has tried your food, give them an easy reason and an easy way to order straight from you next time. That order costs you a card fee instead of a commission.

Over time, your best and most frequent customers, the ones who order every week, shift to your own website, while the apps keep feeding you new faces. You still pay commissions, but only on discovery orders, not on your loyal regulars. That is the balance that actually protects your margin. The next section is exactly how to make that shift happen.

How do you get customers to order direct instead of on the app?

Moving guests to your own ordering link is not about tricks. It is about making the direct option easy to find and slightly better for them. Here are four nudges that work, from easiest to most involved.

1. Put a QR code on every table

A QR code is the little square barcode a phone camera reads to open a link. Turn your ordering page into a QR code (most ordering tools and free QR generators do this in a click), print it on a small table tent or sticker, and add a line like “Order takeout next time, straight from us.” Dine-in guests are your warmest audience. They already like you.

2. Slip a flyer in every delivery bag

Every order that goes out through DoorDash is a chance to win the next one directly. Print a small card that says something like “Thanks for ordering. Next time, order at yoursite.com and delivery is on us.” Staple it to the bag. The app paid to find this customer. This is how you keep them.

3. Build a simple text or email list

When guests order on your own site, you get their contact info. Ask permission to text or email them, then use it sparingly and generously: a slow-Tuesday deal, a new dish, a holiday menu during Miami's busy December to April tourist season. One good text to a list of regulars can fill a quiet night. This is the payoff of owning the customer that the apps never give you.

4. Make your own link the one on Google

When someone searches your restaurant on Google, there is often an Order Online button on your profile. By default it may point to a third-party app. You can point it at your own commission-free page instead:

1. On a computer, sign in to the Google account that manages your Google Business Profile (the free listing that shows your hours, photos, and reviews on Google).
2. Search your restaurant's name on Google so your profile's management tools appear, then open the food ordering or order links settings.
3. Add your own ordering page URL as a custom link, and set it as your preferred link so Google shows it as preferred by the business.
4. Remove or de-prioritize the third-party links if you want the button to go straight to your site.

Note that Google's ordering button now simply sends the guest to your page to check out (the older order-inside-Google system was retired in 2024), so the goal is just to make sure that button lands on your site, not on an app.

What does direct ordering really cost? (card fees vs commissions)

Direct ordering is not free, and it is important to be honest about that. But the costs are small and predictable next to marketplace commissions. Here is the full picture.

The one unavoidable cost: card processing

Any time you accept a credit card, anywhere, a small card processing fee comes out. For restaurants this typically runs around 2% to 3% of the order plus a few cents, and online orders sit toward the higher end of that because the card is not physically present. This is the same fee you already pay on your in-house card sales. It is not a marketplace penalty. It is just the cost of taking a card.

The possible added cost: your ordering tool

Depending on which system you pick, you may also pay either nothing extra (free tools like Square Online or GloriaFood), or a flat monthly subscription (tools like ChowNow), or a small per-order fee. None of these scale up the way a percentage commission does.

See the difference on that $50 order

• On a marketplace at 30%: about $15.00 leaves the order.
• On your own site at roughly 3%: about $1.50 leaves the order.
• You keep about $13.50 more, on that single order, for the same food and the same work.

Run that across even 20 orders a week and you are talking about real money, roughly $270 a week, staying in your restaurant instead of going to an app. That is the money that pays a cook, or your rent, or simply lets you breathe. The one honest tradeoff is that on your own orders you handle or arrange delivery yourself, whereas the app bundles a driver into its cut. Many restaurants solve this by offering pickup direct and letting the apps handle the orders that truly need delivery, or by adding a flat-fee delivery service.

What is one simple first step you can take this week?

You do not have to overhaul everything at once. If this guide feels like a lot, do just one thing this week and you will already be ahead of most of your competitors.

Your one move this week

1. Sign up for one free or low-cost ordering tool (Square Online and GloriaFood are common no-cost starting points) and add your five best-selling items. You do not need your whole menu to begin.
2. Turn your new ordering page into a QR code and print a few table tents.
3. Put the QR code on your tables and counter with a simple line: “Order pickup next time, straight from us.”

That is a single afternoon, and from that moment your next takeout regular can order in a way that keeps the whole ticket in your pocket. Next week, add the rest of your menu and put the button on your website. The week after, point your Google link at it. Small steps, stacked, get you off the commission treadmill.

If you would rather not piece this together yourself, that is exactly what we do for Miami restaurants: build a website that takes direct, commission-free orders and actually gets found. If you want a hand, book a free strategy call and we will look at your setup together, in English or Spanish, and map out the fastest way to keep more of every order.

Frequently asked questions

What is commission-free online ordering for restaurants?

Commission-free online ordering means taking orders through your own website or an ordering system you control, instead of a third-party marketplace like DoorDash or Uber Eats. Because no middleman takes a percentage of the sale, you pay mainly the standard card processing fee (usually about 2% to 3%) rather than a 15% to 30% commission. You also keep the customer's contact information, which the apps normally do not share.

How much does DoorDash take from restaurants?

In 2026, DoorDash's delivery commissions commonly run on tiered plans of roughly 15%, 25%, or 30% of each order, with a lower rate (around 6%) for pickup orders. Uber Eats and Grubhub are similar, generally in the 15% to 30% range, and the real cost can climb higher once paid promotions and extra service fees are added. Rates change and vary by plan, so check your own agreement for the exact numbers.

Do I have to quit DoorDash and Uber Eats to save on commissions?

No, and most restaurants should not quit them outright. The apps are good at one thing your website cannot do alone: putting you in front of new customers who have never heard of you. The smart approach is to use the marketplaces for discovery, then move your repeat guests to your own commission-free ordering link. You keep paying commissions only on new-customer orders, not on your loyal regulars.

What does it cost to take orders on my own website?

The main cost is standard card processing, typically around 2% to 3% of each order plus a few cents, the same fee you already pay on in-person card sales. Some ordering tools are free to start (you just pay processing), while others charge a flat monthly subscription or a small per-order fee. None of these scale up like a percentage commission, so on a $50 order you might pay about $1.50 instead of $15.

How do I make my own ordering link show up on Google?

Sign in to the Google account that manages your Google Business Profile, search your restaurant so the management tools appear, and open the food ordering or order links settings. Add your own ordering page as a custom link and set it as your preferred link, so Google labels it as preferred by the business. You can remove the third-party links if you want the Order Online button to go straight to your site. Google now simply redirects the guest to your page to check out.

Will customers actually order from my website instead of the app?

Many will, if you make it easy and give them a small reason. Diners already in your restaurant are your warmest audience, so a QR code on the table works well. A flyer in each delivery bag offering free delivery on a direct order also converts app customers over time. People use the apps out of habit and convenience, so the job is to make your own link just as easy to find and slightly more rewarding to use.

Can I keep my customer's information if they order direct?

Yes, and that is one of the biggest advantages of direct ordering. When a guest orders through your own website, you typically receive their name, email, and order history, and you can ask permission to text or email them. On a third-party marketplace, that information usually belongs to the app, not to you. Owning your customer list lets you bring people back with a slow-night offer or a new-menu announcement instead of paying to reach them again.

Do I need a new website to take commission-free orders?

Not always, but you do need a website that can hold an Order Online button and send guests to your ordering page. If you already have a modern site, you can usually add ordering to it. If you do not have a website, or yours is outdated and cannot take orders, that is the first thing to fix, because your own site is the front door that makes commission-free ordering possible. A simple, fast, mobile-friendly restaurant site is enough to start.

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If this was useful and you would rather hand it off, book a free strategy call and we will build a plan around your specific restaurant.