Why choosing the right aggregator mix matters
UK restaurants routinely lose 25-35% of gross delivery revenue to aggregator fees. On the average independent, delivery is 30-50% of total revenue — which means the aggregator relationship is the single biggest structural cost decision after rent and payroll.
The 2024-2026 window changed the calculus. The Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act came into force in October 2024, and food and utility inflation squeezed contribution margins below the point where 30% commission is comfortably absorbable. The operators who protected margin through 2025 did it by rebalancing the mix — moving spend toward the cheaper plans on each platform and building a direct-order channel to recapture repeat customers.
The three platforms below are all healthy businesses with real audiences. This piece is not about which one to boycott — it's about which plan on which platform actually leaves you with a contribution margin at your ticket size.
Deliveroo deep-dive
Ownership. Deliveroo plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE: ROO) since 2021. Amazon holds a significant minority stake, first invested in 2019 and cleared by the CMA in 2020.
Coverage. UK-wide, deepest fleet density in London and strong penetration in Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Mid-tier city coverage sits behind Just Eat but ahead of Uber Eats outside the big five.
Headline commission. 25-30% for self-delivery (Marketplace), 30-35% for full Delivery by Deliveroo. Deliveroo Editions — the company's cloud-kitchen sites — sits at the higher end because kitchen tenancy and utilities are bundled into the take rate.
True all-in take rate: 30-38%. Featured placement runs £150-500/month per campaign. In-app ad auctions cost £0.20-1.50/click depending on cuisine density. When a restaurant funds part of a promo code, the customer-side service fee is often shifted onto the restaurant on those orders. A mid-market restaurant should budget the top of the range.
Customer profile and payment terms. Deliveroo Plus subscribers skew higher-income and higher-frequency. Average tickets on Deliveroo tend to run £5-10 above Just Eat for the same restaurant — offsetting some of the commission premium at higher AOV but crushing small-ticket QSR economics. Payment settlement is T+7, the slowest of the three, with cash-flow implications for smaller operators.
Uber Eats deep-dive
Ownership. Uber Eats is a division of Uber Technologies Inc. (NYSE: UBER). Uber's global-scale infrastructure — couriers, payments, mapping, membership — sits behind the food product.
Coverage. UK-wide with growing depth outside London. Rider-fleet investment through 2024-2025 closed most of the metropolitan gap versus Deliveroo, though Uber still trails Just Eat in smaller UK cities and towns.
Headline commission. Two plans: Marketplace (restaurant uses its own drivers) around 15%, Delivery by Uber (Uber's fleet) around 30%. A "Priority" upsell layers additional placement on either plan for an extra percentage.
True all-in take rate: 25-35%. Sponsored Listings use a Google Ads-style auction; cost per acquired order lands at £1.50-4.00 depending on cuisine. Boost campaigns are split between restaurant and Uber, with Uber One member discounts partly funded by the restaurant on opted-in orders.
Payment terms and Uber One. Weekly settlement is standard — the fastest cash-flow of the three, a real advantage for smaller operators. Uber One members (free delivery over a minimum basket, reduced service fees) grew materially through 2024-2025 and tend to have higher basket sizes and order frequency; on funded-discount campaigns, part of the discount is borne by the restaurant.
Just Eat deep-dive
Ownership. Just Eat is part of Just Eat Takeaway.com N.V., dual-listed on the London Stock Exchange and Euronext Amsterdam. Just Eat has the longest UK operating history of the three — the brand predates the smartphone aggregator era and still has the largest onboarded restaurant base.
Coverage. UK-wide and notably strong in mid-tier cities where Deliveroo and Uber Eats have thinner rider coverage. In towns of 30-150k population, Just Eat is often the dominant — sometimes only — aggregator with meaningful order volume.
Headline commission. Just Eat separates ordering from delivery. Order-Only (restaurant self-delivers, Just Eat provides marketplace + payment) is around 14%. Delivery by Just Eat (Just Eat couriers) is around 26-30%.
True all-in take rate: 14-30%. This range is genuinely wider than the other two because plan choice matters so much. Order-Only with modest promoted placement holds around 16-19%; Delivery by Just Eat with active featured placement lands at 28-32%.
Onboarding footprint. Just Eat has been the default UK aggregator for independent chicken shops, kebab houses and pizzerias for over a decade — most are already onboarded, frequently on Order-Only with their own delivery in place. That installed base is a real asset when negotiating other channels.
The £20 pizza order — 3-way math
Let's price the same customer order — a £20 pizza-and-drink meal — across all three aggregators and both plan tiers. Assumptions: restaurant food cost 30% (£6.00), labour + rent + overhead allocation per order £4.50, card payment, modest featured-placement allocation.
| Line item | Deliveroo (30%) | Uber Eats Marketplace (15%) | Uber Eats Delivery by Uber (30%) | Just Eat Order-Only (14%) | Just Eat Delivery (26%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Food value | £20.00 | £20.00 | £20.00 | £20.00 | £20.00 |
| Commission on food | −£6.00 | −£3.00 | −£6.00 | −£2.80 | −£5.20 |
| Payment gateway (~2.5-2.9%) | −£0.50 | −£0.50 | −£0.50 | −£0.58 | −£0.58 |
| Featured / placement allocation | −£0.60 | −£0.30 | −£0.50 | −£0.30 | −£0.50 |
| Aggregator net revenue to you | £12.90 (64.5%) | £16.20 (81.0%) | £13.00 (65.0%) | £16.32 (81.6%) | £13.72 (68.6%) |
| Food cost (30%) | −£6.00 | −£6.00 | −£6.00 | −£6.00 | −£6.00 |
| Labour + overhead | −£4.50 | −£4.50 | −£4.50 | −£4.50 | −£4.50 |
| Contribution margin | £2.40 | £5.70 | £2.50 | £5.82 | £3.22 |
On a £20 pizza, Deliveroo full-service and Uber Eats Delivery by Uber leave you with roughly £2.50 to cover the fact that not every order is on time, some are cancelled, and some get 1-star reviews you have to comp. Just Eat Order-Only and Uber Eats Marketplace — both self-delivery plans — leave more than double that. This is why volume-driven QSRs with £10-20 tickets almost always centre their aggregator strategy on Just Eat Order-Only and use the full-service tiers as secondary channels.
The £40 premium dinner order — 3-way math
The same math on a larger £40 order — a two-person dinner from a mid-market casual restaurant, same 30% food cost, same £4.50 labour + overhead per order:
| Line item | Deliveroo (30%) | Uber Eats Marketplace (15%) | Uber Eats Delivery by Uber (30%) | Just Eat Order-Only (14%) | Just Eat Delivery (26%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Food value | £40.00 | £40.00 | £40.00 | £40.00 | £40.00 |
| Commission on food | −£12.00 | −£6.00 | −£12.00 | −£5.60 | −£10.40 |
| Payment gateway (~2.5-2.9%) | −£1.00 | −£1.00 | −£1.00 | −£1.16 | −£1.16 |
| Featured / placement allocation | −£1.20 | −£0.60 | −£1.00 | −£0.60 | −£1.00 |
| Aggregator net revenue to you | £25.80 (64.5%) | £32.40 (81.0%) | £26.00 (65.0%) | £32.64 (81.6%) | £27.44 (68.6%) |
| Food cost (30%) | −£12.00 | −£12.00 | −£12.00 | −£12.00 | −£12.00 |
| Labour + overhead | −£4.50 | −£4.50 | −£4.50 | −£4.50 | −£4.50 |
| Contribution margin | £9.30 | £15.90 | £9.50 | £16.14 | £10.94 |
At £40 AOV the picture changes materially. Deliveroo and Delivery by Uber are still expensive in percentage terms, but the absolute margin is healthier — roughly £9.50 per order, enough to be profitable across cancellations and comps. This is the mathematical case for Deliveroo on premium casual: the audience overlap with higher-basket customers offsets the higher take rate on unit economics, as long as the ticket size stays high.
The fourth path — direct order via WhatsApp and QR
A fourth channel has quietly become material in UK restaurant delivery through 2025-2026: direct order via WhatsApp Business API and QR-code menus. The pattern is most visible in Manchester's Northern Quarter, Shoreditch, Peckham, and Leith — operators running roughly 70% aggregator / 30% direct as a stable mix.
The reasoning is simple. A repeat customer who already knows they want your Neapolitan margherita or Thursday-night curry doesn't need Deliveroo's discovery layer — just a fast way to reorder. WhatsApp already sits on their home screen; a QR sticker on last week's pizza box lands them in a mobile menu with no app install.
How direct ordering actually works
- Customer scans a QR code on their previous order's packaging (or a table sticker for dine-in), or messages the restaurant's WhatsApp Business number.
- They see a rich menu, browse categories, add items to a cart — either inside WhatsApp or in a lightweight web menu.
- They pay via Apple Pay, Google Pay, Stripe card, or cash on delivery.
- The order lands in the same POS Live Queue as Deliveroo, Uber Eats, and Just Eat orders — the kitchen doesn't need to check five screens.
- Status updates ("Being prepared", "Rider on the way, 8 min") push back to WhatsApp automatically.
Cost sits at roughly £0.03-0.08 per WhatsApp conversation in Meta fees, plus payment processing on the direct order (~2%). For a restaurant doing 60 orders/day of which 20 come direct, that's roughly £30-60/month in Meta conversation fees versus 25-35% commission on the same 20 orders/day at £25 average — a difference of thousands of pounds per month at scale.
See exactly how the direct-order route works
Real screenshots of Online eMenu's Live Queue with Deliveroo, Uber Eats, Just Eat, WhatsApp and QR orders on the same board — plus the £8/month UK Ordering Suite that bundles all five channels.
See WhatsApp orderingWhich aggregator for which restaurant type
There is no single right answer — the correct mix depends on average ticket, delivery zone, and whether you have driver capacity. General guidance:
| Restaurant type | Typical AOV | Recommended primary mix |
|---|---|---|
| QSR (chicken, kebab, pizza slice, burger) | £8-15 | Just Eat Order-Only + Uber Eats Marketplace + WhatsApp direct. Avoid Deliveroo full-service — margin doesn't survive it. |
| Premium casual (Neapolitan pizza, sushi, gastropub takeaway) | £22-45 | Deliveroo (audience premium) + Uber Eats Marketplace + WhatsApp direct. Just Eat as opportunistic third channel. |
| Late-night (post-11pm burger, doner, cookies) | £12-25 | Uber Eats + Deliveroo (both have the strongest late-night rider coverage in London and major cities). Just Eat as third channel. |
| Family bundle / dinner-for-four | £35-70 | Deliveroo + Just Eat Delivery + WhatsApp direct. Bundle economics are healthier at all three even at full commission. |
| Cloud kitchen / dark kitchen | Varies | Deliveroo Editions if available in your city + Uber Eats Delivery + Just Eat. Direct channel is harder without a physical touchpoint. |
| Mid-tier town independent | £15-30 | Just Eat Order-Only (deepest coverage outside big cities) + WhatsApp direct + Uber Eats where rider coverage supports it. |
UK-specific notes — Fair Tips, MTD VAT, Natasha's Law
Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023 — Fair Tips Act
In force since October 2024. Impact on aggregator orders is limited because Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat riders are not restaurant employees — in-app tips flow to the rider or a rider tip pool. But if you run self-delivery via Marketplace or Order-Only and collect tips, those tips now require 100% pass-through to workers, a written tipping policy, and three years of records. The Act also strengthens the case for direct-channel ordering — tip allocation happens inside a single POS ledger rather than being reconstructed from three aggregator statements each month.
Making Tax Digital (MTD) for VAT — per-channel reporting
MTD for VAT requires digital record-keeping and API-based submission to HMRC. For restaurants running four or more sales channels, the practical challenge isn't the submission — it's the reconciliation. Each aggregator issues its own monthly statement in its own format, and none align cleanly on order-level detail. A POS that tags every order with channel of origin and outputs a single MTD-ready ledger removes weeks of manual bookkeeping per year.
Natasha's Law — allergen labelling sync
Natasha's Law requires full ingredient and allergen labelling on pre-packed for direct sale (PPDS) food. For delivery, allergen information must be presented to the customer before purchase — not just on packaging on arrival. The same allergen dataset has to appear correctly in your Deliveroo, Uber Eats, Just Eat, website and WhatsApp menus. Manual sync across five channels is where compliance breaks down — a central menu system pushing allergens to every channel is now the operational standard.
How to negotiate a better commission
Aggregator commissions in the UK are more negotiable than most operators assume, but the levers that actually move rate are specific:
- Volume + rating combined. A 4.7+ rated restaurant doing 200+ orders/week has genuine leverage. A 4.2-rated restaurant doing 40 orders/week has essentially none. Get the rating floor to 4.5+ first, then negotiate.
- Exclusive-hour windows. Offering Deliveroo (or Uber Eats, or Just Eat) exclusive coverage on your late-night hours (10pm-1am) or a specific menu item in exchange for a 2-5 percentage point commission reduction is a trade both sides can live with.
- Plan downgrade as a real threat. "We're going to move to Marketplace/Order-Only if we can't get the full-service rate under X" is a credible threat only if you have or can source driver capacity. Local courier networks (Stuart, Gophr, and regional partners) exist to close this gap.
- Deliveroo Editions for cloud kitchens. If you're a cloud kitchen or planning a delivery-only brand, Deliveroo Editions bundles kitchen tenancy at select sites — the rate is higher but the fixed cost profile is dramatically simpler than signing a physical lease.
- Ads spend as bargaining chip. Committing to a minimum monthly Sponsored Listings spend on Uber Eats or Deliveroo often unlocks account-manager attention and small percentage-point concessions elsewhere in the contract.
- Quarterly reviews. Book a formal quarterly review with your account manager. Bring the numbers: order volume trend, rating trend, share of orders per channel. Rate reviews happen — they just don't happen automatically.
Frequently Asked Questions
What commission does Deliveroo charge UK restaurants in 2026?
25-30% for self-delivery (Marketplace) plans, 30-35% for full-service Delivery by Deliveroo. True all-in take rate typically 30-38% once featured placement and ads are included.
How much does Uber Eats take from UK restaurants?
Around 15% on Marketplace (restaurant self-delivers), around 30% on Delivery by Uber (full service). True all-in take rate 25-35% with Sponsored Listings and Boost campaigns.
What is Just Eat's commission for UK restaurants?
Around 14% on Order-Only (restaurant self-delivers), around 26-30% on Delivery by Just Eat. True all-in take rate 14-30% depending on plan and promoted placement.
Which UK aggregator has the lowest true take rate?
Just Eat Order-Only (~14%) and Uber Eats Marketplace (~15%) — both self-delivery plans. If you have driver capacity, always ask about these tiers before signing full-service contracts.
Do UK restaurants really lose 25-35% of delivery revenue to aggregators?
Yes, and often more when featured placement, in-app ads, peak surcharges, and promo funding are counted. Only the self-delivery plans (Uber Eats Marketplace, Just Eat Order-Only) reliably keep the true all-in take below 20%.
How does the Fair Tips Act 2024 affect delivery orders?
In force since October 2024. Impact on aggregator delivery is limited because riders aren't restaurant employees. Restaurants running self-delivery must now formalise tip pass-through policies and keep records for three years.
What is the best aggregator mix for a QSR in the UK?
Just Eat Order-Only as primary (low commission on small-ticket orders), Uber Eats Marketplace as secondary, WhatsApp/QR for direct repeats. Avoid Deliveroo full-service at £8-15 tickets — contribution margin doesn't survive it.
How can UK restaurants reduce delivery commission spend?
Five levers: (1) shift to self-delivery plans where possible; (2) build a direct WhatsApp/QR channel at 0% commission; (3) negotiate quarterly based on volume and rating; (4) consolidate low-ROI featured placements; (5) offer exclusive hours in exchange for rate cuts.
What does the £20 pizza order really pay the restaurant?
Contribution margin: roughly £2.40 on Deliveroo full-service, £2.50 on Uber Eats Delivery, £3.22 on Just Eat Delivery, £5.70 on Uber Eats Marketplace, £5.82 on Just Eat Order-Only. Direct order via WhatsApp/QR: ~£8.50.
What is the direct-order alternative to aggregators in the UK?
WhatsApp Business API + QR menus, with orders flowing into the same POS Live Queue as aggregator orders. Meta fees ~£0.03-0.08 per conversation versus 25-35% aggregator commission. Online eMenu's Ordering Suite bundles Deliveroo, Uber Eats, Just Eat, WhatsApp and QR at £8/month for UK restaurants — see pricing.