DoorDash Or Uber Eats: Which App Takes The Bigger Cut From Your Meal?

Everyone who orders food through apps like Uber Eats and DoorDash knows they're a lot more expensive than dining in or calling directly for pickup. The fact that they're pretty much always a rip-off doesn't stop most of us from using them, though. If you've ever found yourself sitting on the sofa late at night scrolling through the last few restaurants open, you've probably wondered whether DoorDash or Uber Eats is the least worst decision you could be making, financially speaking.

To compare the cost of DoorDash and Uber Eats, you could open both apps, fill your cart the same, and take a look at the final price. It'll vary based on adaptive fees and special offers, but it's not exactly a difficult task. As DoorDashers start crowdsourcing retirement funds and Zohran Mamdani cracks down on delivery apps due to missing driver pay, many of us are worried about where our money is even going when we order delivery.

Unfortunately, it's hard to determine whether DoorDash or Uber Eats takes a bigger cut from what you, the customer, pay. Customer fee structures seem to be similar, but a lot of publicly available information is murky. Fee structures for both customers and restaurants have changed over the years, and both DoorDash and Uber Eats state that their fees are variable and often set algorithmically.  That being said, we do have some numbers to work with. According to a 2023 article from CNET, DoorDash tends to be marginally more affordable than Uber Eats for orders under $50.

Restolabs reinforces CNET's findings while spreading light on where the price difference comes from. The publication offers a sample scenario to better fix some of those usually variable percentage-pegged fees for their articles, so don't take these scenarios as 100% true to what you, personally, can expect to pay.

In this hypothetical, Restolabs estimates that Uber Eats receives an average of $27 from the customer if they include a $10 tip on an order with a $50 subtotal. Using the same theoretical order in a second article which focuses on DoorDash's fee structure, the publication estimates the app would make $24.50 from the customer, again including a $10 tip. Both apps also charge fees to the restaurants they deliver for (it's a big problem in the restaurant industry). So, on that same $50 order, Uber Eats would make around $20 from restaurant-side fees while DoorDash would net $14.

DoorDash and Uber Eats pay their drivers from this income, but according to current and former drivers on Reddit, Uber Eats only pays its delivery drivers around $2 per order while DoorDashers say they earn about the same with additional pay per mile; rising to $4 at most. Since delivery drivers make their living primarily from tips, it's logical to include them as a mandatory cost to the customer. With that in mind, tips can be considered a part of the "cut" the apps take from your meal. Traditionally, the wages of workers are a part of operating costs. For these delivery apps, employee pay is instead the customer's responsibility.

According to DoorDash, app customers always pay service and delivery fees, while small order fees, long distance fees, express fees, and regulatory response fees are sometimes applied. The company also notes that there may be "other fees", and that, when allowed, DoorDash will retain a portion of them.

Uber Eats keeps things more simple. Its help articles list a delivery fee, a service fee, and a small order fee. Functionally, Uber Eats has rolled DoorDash's long distance fee into the small print, as Uber Eats' delivery fee varies based on several factors, including how far the customer is from the restaurant.

This doesn't mean Uber Eats never charges other fees. In Seattle, for example, the company adds a local operating fee equivalent to DoorDash's regulatory response fee; while in California, the app tacks on a California driver benefits fee. In both markets, delivery apps have some legal responsibility for their drivers. In California, they must provide the benefits independent contractors are entitled to. In Seattle, they have to pay on-demand workers minimum per-mile and per-minute rates of about $5 per delivery. Like tips, the fees applied to cover these responsibilities are part of the "cut" the apps take as the regulatory cost is passed on to the customer.

If your worries about delivery app fees are based on ethics, it may be time to ask whether the convenience they offer is worth it. Occasionally you'll want ramen delivered ASAP, sure, but lessening reliance on delivery apps is easier than divining the lesser of two evils.