What Delivery Apps Actually Take — and What a Restaurant Can Do

October 15, 2026 · 6 min read

Ask a restaurant owner how much the delivery apps keep from each order and you will usually get a guess. Ask for the exact number from their contract and you will often get a long pause.

That is the real problem — not the commission itself, but that nobody has done the math. And you cannot fix a number you have never calculated.

The short answer

Before you change anything, do this:

• Open your contract and write down the commission. Not the rate you remember — the one in writing.
• Add the other fees. Delivery fees, marketing or promoted placements, and any per-order charge.
• Subtract your food cost from what is left. That is your real margin on a delivery order.
• Compare it to the same dish sold directly. The gap is what you are paying for the app's reach.

Do that once, for your three best-selling dishes. It takes twenty minutes and it changes how you run the business.

Why the number hides from you

The commission is not a secret. It is on the contract, on a page nobody reads twice, and it is usually described as a percentage of the order subtotal plus fees — which means the true cost per order is higher than the number you remember.

Then there is the part owners feel but never write down: the apps do not bring you a customer. They rent you one. The order arrives, you cook it, you pay the commission — and the customer is still the app's customer. Next month, that person orders again through the app, and you pay again. And again.

That is the difference between a cost and a leak. A cost you can price around. A leak you keep paying for, forever, without ever owning anything.

What restaurants usually answer with

The instinct is to raise prices on the app. It is understandable and it has a limit: the customer compares your app price to everyone else's on the same screen. Raise it too much and you lose the visibility you were paying for in the first place.

The other instinct is to leave the apps. That is usually a mistake too — the reach is real, and for many kitchens delivery is a meaningful share of the day.

The workable position is in the middle: stay on the apps, and build one way to be reached directly.

The move: one link of your own

Your own link is a catalog page with your menu, your prices, and one button that sends the order straight to your WhatsApp. Not an app the customer has to install — just a link, which is the only thing anyone will actually tap from an Instagram story.

What it changes:

• The order arrives written. Items, quantities, extras, total, address. Not a photo of a napkin and a voice note at 9 pm.
• No commission on that order. The margin stays in the kitchen.
• You own the customer. When they order from your link, you have their number — and next time you can tell them about it.

You keep the apps for discovery, and the link for the people who already know you. Two doors instead of one.

What most owners get wrong about the switch

They try to move everyone at once, announce it, and lose the delivery volume while they wait for people to change habits.

Do it backwards. Put the link everywhere the app is not: in the bag with every delivery order, in the thank-you message, in your Instagram bio, on the receipt. The people who liked the food find you. The apps keep feeding the top of the funnel. Give it a month, and count the direct orders.

One more thing worth knowing: you do not need to build anything or install software to get that link. That is the point of doing it with a catalog instead of a platform — and it is why the second byNítida line, modullAPP, exists: modules you turn on when you need them, with no installation and no contract, instead of renting a system month after month for a feature you use twice.

The number to watch

Not your delivery revenue. That number goes up and can still be hiding a bad deal.

The number is: how many orders came through your own link this month. If it grows, you are slowly buying your business back. If it stays at zero, you are still renting your customers.

Calculate the commission once, put the link in the bag, and let it compound.

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Published October 15, 2026 · Commission rates and fees vary by app, plan, distance and contract — read your own agreement instead of trusting a number you heard. Sources for the market figures in this article: Pew Research Center, Claritas, SBA Office of Advocacy, U.S. Census Bureau.