Is DoorDash, GrubHub or UberEats cheaper? We priced 5 Triangle restaurants
Ordering delivery — in this economy?
It’s no secret that restaurants often charge more for items ordered through a third-party delivery service than they charge for the same items ordered directly from the restaurant.
And because your food and/or drinks may be sitting on a shelf before making its way into the hands of a courier, who then has to transport the items to you, potentially facing literal and figurative roadblocks, it’s certainly not as fresh as it would be if it were instead ordered and enjoyed at the restaurant.
Though we know we probably shouldn’t order food delivery, we do it anyway.
And with the demand comes the supply to meet it.
Companies such as Uber Eats, Grubhub and DoorDash serve as the in-between, connecting locally owned and chain restaurants with customers, some of whom the restaurant may not reach without the third-party platforms and their delivery service.
Raleigh’s Sam Jones BBQ was listed on all three of those platforms almost as soon as it opened downtown a few years ago, Michael Letchworth, one of the restaurant’s co-owners, told The News & Observer in a phone interview.
“Being a fairly new restaurant in that market, I want people to have the chance to get our food, because if we weren’t up there, there’s a 100% chance they wouldn’t order from us,” he said.
Plus, there’s the convenience factor of delivery.
How much does it cost to order food for delivery?
It’s possible to order the same meal from the same restaurant using Uber Eats, Grubhub and DoorDash, and pay three different prices.
We know this because we did it. (Technically, we stopped short of clicking the order now button.)
We set our delivery location to The N&O’s downtown Raleigh office, added one meal from five downtown restaurants to the cart on each of the three popular delivery platforms, and recorded the prices of the food and fees to discover which delivery service offers the best prices.
Here are the five meals we compared:
Chicken burrito bowl from Chipotle
General Tso’s chicken from Peace China
18-inch cheese pizza from Vic’s Pizzeria
Barbecue sandwich from Sam Jones BBQ
Crow burger from Mama Crow’s
For almost all of them, DoorDash had the cheapest prices. That platform offered free delivery for all five restaurants we selected and often had lower tax estimates than the other two.
How do the fees compare?
The base price of food across delivery services was almost the same for each item considered in our comparison. A burrito bowl with chicken from Chipotle cost $10.80 on DoorDash, Grubhub and Uber Eats. An 18-inch cheese pizza from Vic’s Pizzeria cost $17.95 on each delivery service.
However, food prices charged when using a delivery service are sometimes higher than what you’d pay if you ordered directly from the restaurant. For example, General Tso’s chicken with white rice is priced at $12.25 on Peace China’s website, but if you order the item from Uber Eats or Grubhub, you’ll pay about $15 for it.
Restaurants don’t pay a fee to be listed on delivery platforms, but the platforms take a cut of each order, Letchworth said.
“You set the prices yourself, and that is exactly why many restaurants inflate those prices on those third-party apps,” he said.
Sam Jones BBQ asks more money for food ordered through the delivery platforms, but the rate of the price increase isn’t as high as the fee the delivery platforms charge restaurants, Letchworth said.
What are the extra fees for delivery?
Each platform charges fees, including delivery fees and service fees, that you may see when you’re ordering from one of the third-party sites.
Here’s how each platform defines the fees:
- DoorDash service fee: Paid to DoorDash, may vary and may be based on either subtotal, distance from restaurant or a combination. A flat, minimum service fee may apply on small orders.
- DoorDash delivery fee: Flat fee paid to DoorDash
- Other DoorDash fees: May include expanded range fees, beyond local area fees, express fees, small order fees and fees in response to local regulations
- DoorDash government fees: May include bag and bottle fees required by law; some may be retained by DoorDash
- Grubhub service fee: Helps cover operating costs
- Uber Eats service fee and other fees: Vary based on factors including basket size and help cover costs related to the order, such as marketplace services and delivery services (though this is not a delivery fee)
- Uber Eats delivery fee: Helps cover delivery costs and varies for each store based on the location of the person ordering and availability of nearby couriers
Membership programs from DoorDash, Grubhub and Uber Eats
Each of the delivery services offers a paid membership program: DashPass, Grubhub+ and Uber One.
They all cost $9.99 per month. But there are some options that could save some subscribers money:
- The annual payment option for Uber Eats and DoorDash ($96) ends up a couple of bucks cheaper per year compared to the monthly billing plan.
- College students can get a discount on Uber One and DashPass ($4.99 per month or $48 per year).
- Some colleges partner with Grubhub to offer students free Grubhub+.
- Amazon Prime members get Grubhub+ for free.
Here’s what you get with each membership:
- DashPass: $0 delivery fees and reduced services fees on eligible restaurant delivery orders, 5% back in DoorDash credits and no services fees on eligible pickup orders, $0 delivery fees and reduced services fee on eligible orders from grocery, convenience and other orders
- Grubhub+: $0 delivery fees from eligible orders, lower service fees, 5% back on pickup orders and reduced costs for priority delivery on eligible orders
- Uber One: $0 delivery fee and up to 10% off from participating non-grocery stores with a $15 minimum order, $0 delivery fee and 5% off grocery store orders of at least $35, 6% Uber One credits on eligible rides
There are more than 30 million Uber One subscribers, Uber reported in a recent financial filing. Earlier this year, DoorDash said that about 22 million people subscribed to DashPass or Wolt+ (the paid membership program for Wolt, a DoorDash-owned delivery services overseas) at the end of 2024.
Uber One, DoorDash in the news
Uber One and DoorDash have made headlines in recent months.
In March, DoorDash announced a partnership with Klarna, the buy now, pay later service that allows shoppers to purchase items online through installments or delay payment to a later date.
“By offering smarter, more flexible payment solutions for groceries, takeout, and retail essentials, we’re making convenience even more accessible for millions of Americans,” Klarna’s Chief Commercial Officer David Sykes said in a news release.
Following criticism on social media, a Klarna spokesperson told NBC News that, “if people are in a situation where they feel like they have to put their food on credit, that’s a bad indicator for society,” but some people make “a rational decision” to use a buy now, pay later option to help manage money.
In late April, the Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against Uber, alleging that the company charged people for its Uber One subscription without their consent, did not deliver promised savings and made it difficult for people to cancel the subscription.
Uber has said that it was “disappointed” by the FTC’s complaint and denied the allegations, telling CNBC the subscription service’s sign-up and cancellation processes are “clear, simple, and follow the letter and spirit of the law.”
This story was originally published May 1, 2025 at 1:37 PM with the headline "Is DoorDash, GrubHub or UberEats cheaper? We priced 5 Triangle restaurants."
