Your Own Restaurant Ordering App or Delivery Apps? A Practical Comparison

Delivery apps have become a core part of sales for most restaurants in Egypt. Over time, though, owners notice that a large share of their orders comes from customers who already know them, and they pay a commission on those customers every time.

What delivery apps give you

• Reach to new customers looking for restaurants in your area.
• A delivery fleet in some cases.
• A quick start without building anything.

And what they take

• A commission on every order, including your regulars’ orders.
• Customer data stays with the app, so you cannot reach the customer directly with an offer or a message.
• The app’s name comes first, and your restaurant is one of hundreds on the same screen.
• Ranking and promotion rules are set by the app, not by you.

Your own channel: what it means in practice

An ordering website on your restaurant’s domain, iOS and Android apps in its name, and an operations dashboard where you receive orders and manage branches and offers. A customer who knows you orders from you directly, and their number and order history stay with you so you can reach them again.

When your own channel pays for itself

Work it out yourself: how many orders a month come from repeat customers through delivery apps? Multiply the average order value by the commission rate you pay, then by the number of those orders. The result is what you pay every month on customers who could have ordered from you directly. Compare that with the one-time cost of your own channel, plus hosting and support.

Your own channel will not bring new customers on its own. You steer customers to it: a QR code on the bag and the table, a message with every order, an offer for direct orders, and a link on your social pages.

The three options in front of you

• Staying on delivery apps alone: no build cost, but the commission continues and the data is not yours.
• Building your own system from scratch: full flexibility, but an open-ended cost and months of development before the first order.
• A ready system re-branded in your name: a cost known upfront and a faster launch, with less flexibility than building from scratch.

We built the third option ourselves: an ordering system in your restaurant’s name with a website, iOS and Android apps and an operations dashboard, at a published one-time price of 50,000 EGP at the time of writing, with no commission on orders, delivered within two weeks of payment and a signed contract. You can try it before deciding in the live demo.

The bottom line

Keep delivery apps to win new customers, and build your own channel for your regulars. The right decision comes from your own numbers: how many repeat orders you get, their average value and the commission you pay on them.