Just Eat vs Your Own Online Ordering System: Which Is Better for UK Takeaways?

If you run a takeaway or independent restaurant in the UK, Just Eat is probably part of your week. Orders come in, the tablet pings, and customers who might never have found you place their first order. That visibility is real, and it has genuine value.

But when Just Eat is the only way customers can order from you, that dependency has a cost. Some of it is commission. Some of it is control, and the second kind is much easier to miss. This guide compares both options honestly, so you can decide what the right balance looks like for your business.

What Just Eat gives restaurants

Just Eat is one of the UK's largest food delivery marketplaces, used by millions of customers searching for takeaways every week. For most independent takeaways, that reach is the whole reason they sign up.

What you get:

• Access to a large customer base that is already looking for food
• Visibility without running your own advertising
• An ordering experience customers already know and trust
• The choice of using your own drivers or Just Eat's
• No upfront fee to get listed

For a new takeaway, or one trying to grow its order volume, those are real advantages. Just Eat puts your restaurant in front of people who are ready to order right now.

What does Just Eat actually cost?

This is where it helps to look at real numbers instead of vague talk about "high commission."

Just Eat takes a percentage of each order. The rate depends on who handles delivery.

If you use your own drivers, you pay 14% commission per order. On a £20 order, that comes to about £3.36 (£2.80 commission plus 20% VAT on the commission).

If Just Eat provides the drivers, the rate usually climbs to somewhere around 30 to 35% per order. On that same £20 order, you would keep roughly £13 to £14 instead of £16.64.

On top of this there is often a monthly access fee, usually somewhere between £25 and £50 plus VAT, depending on your agreement and location. Paid placement, which pushes you higher up the app's search results, is an optional extra.

Here is what that looks like over a year. A takeaway doing £2,000 a week in Just Eat orders on its own drivers pays around £14,560 in commission annually. That is not unreasonable for the volume and visibility you get. But it is worth knowing the figure, and worth asking whether every one of those orders really needed to come through Just Eat.

The downside of relying only on marketplaces

The problem was never Just Eat itself. It is what happens when Just Eat becomes your only way of taking orders.

When everything comes through a marketplace, your customers connect their experience to the platform rather than to you. The branding, the customer service and the refund process all sit with Just Eat. You also can't easily reach those customers afterwards, because the data from marketplace orders belongs to the platform. Someone who ordered from you last week is effectively a stranger you have no way to contact about a new dish or a quiet-Tuesday offer.

You are also listed right next to your competitors. Open the app, search for food in your area, and your restaurant shows up beside three or five or ten others. Photos, price and reviews end up doing most of the work of winning the order.

And the platform's decisions land directly on your income. A change to the algorithm, a fee adjustment, a new policy, and your order volume or your margin can move overnight with no warning. Refund disputes go through Just Eat too, and plenty of owners have found those hard to argue.

None of this makes Just Eat bad for your business. It just means that leaning on it as your only channel hands a lot of control to someone else.

What is your own online ordering system?

A direct ordering system is a page or site where customers order from you without going through a marketplace. The order comes straight to you, and nothing is taken per transaction beyond the standard payment processing fee.

A typical setup handles:

• Online payment at checkout
• Menu management, including availability and pricing
• Collection and delivery options
• Opening hours and order cut-off times
• Order alerts to your kitchen or staff

The whole experience is branded as yours. When someone orders through your own system, they are ordering from your restaurant, not from a platform that also happens to show them three competitors on the same screen.

Tools here include MenuDock, along with others like Flipdish and Slerp. The pricing models differ, but most charge a flat monthly fee rather than a cut of every order.

The benefits of a direct ordering channel

Running your own channel alongside the marketplace gives you a few practical things.

The margin on each order is higher. With no per-order commission, more of every transaction stays with you. A £20 order through your own system, after the payment processing fee, leaves you noticeably better off than the same order on Just Eat.

You also own the customer relationship. Set up properly and with the right consent, you can collect contact details from people who order directly, which means you can actually follow up later: a note about a new dish, a loyalty offer, a nudge during a slow week. Those customers are your most valuable audience, because someone who has ordered once is far more likely to order again, and a direct channel gives you a way to reach them outside the app.

Your brand also stays front and centre the whole way through. The ordering page, the confirmation email and the receipt all carry your name instead of the platform's.

It is worth being honest about what "commission-free" actually means, though. There is no per-order platform cut, but standard payment processing fees still apply through whichever provider you connect (Stripe or Square, depending on your setup). These are usually small fixed fees per transaction, not a percentage skimmed by the ordering platform. The monthly subscription for the system applies too. Once you account for both, direct ordering still works out considerably cheaper than marketplace commission at most order volumes. You just want to know what you are paying for.

Should you replace Just Eat completely?

For most independent takeaways, the honest answer is no. Certainly not all at once.

Just Eat earns its keep on discovery. New customers genuinely find you there. Close your listing before you have built up your own customer base or any direct traffic, and you will watch total orders drop before you see any upside.

The realistic move is to stop treating Just Eat as your only channel.

Think of it as a division of labour. Just Eat is good at first-time customers, the people who searched for a pizza or a kebab nearby and stumbled onto you. Your own system is good at the regulars, the people who already know your name, already like your food, and just want an easy way to order again.

Shift even 20 or 30% of those repeat local customers to a channel you own, and you cut the commission on those orders while building a relationship Just Eat can't take away. The listing stays for discovery. The direct channel grows quietly alongside it.

How to start encouraging direct orders

You don't have to do all of this at once. A few of the most effective starting points:

• Put a clear "Order Online" button on your website and make it the most obvious thing on the page. If someone searches your name and lands there, ordering directly should take one tap.
• Add your direct ordering link to your Google Business Profile. It is one of the most underused options UK restaurants have, and your Google listing is exactly what shows up when someone looks you up.
• Print QR codes on menus, receipts, packaging and your shop window. A customer who collects an order and spots "Order directly next time and save" is far more likely to use it than someone who has to go hunting for you online.
• Mention direct-only promotions on social media. It doesn't need to be a big discount. A free side is often enough to start shifting habits.
• Say it out loud at collection. A quick "you can order from our website next time" does more than you would think, because most customers have no idea the option exists until someone tells them.

Where MenuDock fits

MenuDock is built for UK restaurants and takeaways that want a direct ordering channel without building a website from scratch or signing a long contract.

Plans start at £25 a month, with no commission on any order. Payments go straight to your own Stripe or Square account, so MenuDock never holds your money or takes a slice of a transaction. The standard processing fee from your payment provider applies, the same as it would on any card payment anywhere.

It is not meant to replace Just Eat. It sits alongside your marketplace listing and gives you a second channel you own, one that carries your branding and keeps the customer relationship with you rather than with an app.

If you are already on Just Eat and want to start easing your reliance on it, or you simply want to give your regulars a better way to order, that is exactly what MenuDock is for.

Get started with MenuDock →

Frequently asked questions

Should my takeaway stop using Just Eat?

No, not for most restaurants. The common approach is to keep Just Eat for finding new customers and build your own direct channel for the regulars. You want both working together, not one or the other.

How much does Just Eat charge?

It is 14% per order if you use your own delivery drivers. If Just Eat supplies the drivers, the rate usually rises to around 30 to 35%. A monthly access fee and optional paid placement can sit on top of that.

Is direct ordering better than a marketplace?

It depends what you are after. Marketplaces are good at bringing in new customers. Direct ordering gives you more control over your margin, your customer data and your ability to win repeat orders.

How do I get customers to order directly?

Promote the link everywhere you can: your website, your Google Business Profile, printed menus, receipts, packaging, social media and in-store signage. A small incentive for a first direct order helps nudge people across.

Do I need a new website to take direct orders?

Not necessarily. MenuDock hosts your branded storefront on its own subdomain, or you can connect a custom domain. Either way there is no separate website build.

Does MenuDock take commission?

No. It is a flat monthly subscription. Payments land in your own Stripe or Square account and the usual processing fee from your provider applies, but MenuDock takes nothing per order.