Offering delivery through a third-party platform is a great way for restaurants and businesses to add a new revenue stream without the overhead costs. Before choosing a partner, it's important to make sure the food delivery pricing model works for your business.
As a three-sided marketplace, the DoorDash platform has to work for all of our users — merchants, Dashers, and customers. That's why, in order to serve all of our partners, DoorDash charges per-order commissions or fees for orders processed through our products.
Keep reading to learn about food delivery pricing from DoorDash, what DoorDash commissions and fees cover, and how they help us bring value to your business and the broader community.
Food delivery pricing: commissions vs. fees
Every business is unique, which is why we offer a variety of products and pricing structures that support different business goals. We recently announced new DoorDash pricing and packages to give businesses more options when it comes to their DoorDash partnership — including the ability to choose a plan based on the commission rate and level of built-in marketing support they want.
Delivery services get a bad rap because of the commission, but DoorDash is bringing us new clients. That's how I look at the commission — we're paying for advertising and customer acquisition.
What is a commission?
When you list your business on DoorDash Marketplace, you pay a percentage of the order subtotal — known as a "commission rate" — for each order processed through our platform.
What is a flat fee?
DoorDash Drive, our white-label solution, connects your business with drivers to complete deliveries placed on your ordering platform. That means when customers order from your website, app, or other channels with DoorDash Drive, we charge a flat per-order fee for you to use Dashers to deliver orders.
What do DoorDash commissions and fees cover?
The commissions and fees that merchants pay to DoorDash support a variety of costs and services that ultimately benefit your business and your customers. Let's take a closer look at some of the initiatives that those commissions and fees cover.
Advertising and marketing
DoorDash helps restaurants increase their brand awareness and boost online visibility, so your business gets in front of more customers. All DoorDash Partnership plans include built-in marketing tools, such as listing your business on the DoorDash app and getting featured in our algorithmic collections like "Fastest Near You" or "Local Favorites". You can add additional marketing programs like Promotions and Sponsored Listings to boost your restaurant's in-app visibility and increase orders as needed. Our platform also helps improve your search engine optimization, so your business appears in search results when people in your area are looking for places to eat.
Being on the DoorDash app helps you go beyond your existing customer base and connects your business to new demographics. In fact, 75% of restaurants agree that DoorDash has allowed them to reach new customers.
Delivery driver costs
DoorDash commissions and fees also provide support for Dashers, or drivers, who make your deliveries possible. We offer Dashers competitive pay and incentives, access to third-party insurance and discounts, background checks, and 24/7 support. Learn more about the Dasher Community at Dasher Central.
Because DoorDash connects you to Dashers, you don't have to spend time or money recruiting and hiring drivers, conducting background checks, purchasing delivery vehicles and insurance policies, or managing their schedules. This provides businesses with a scalable, sustainable way to offer delivery across locations.
Payment processing fees
All DoorDash offerings now cover payment processing (with the exception of Storefront, where you only pay a credit card processing rate of 2.9% of the total transaction amount plus 30 cents per order). That means you have less to worry about when it comes to overhead expenses. And when you sign up for DoorDash, you don't have to pay activation fees, either.
Customer service and support for customers, merchants, and Dashers
Customers, business owners, and Dashers all have unique needs that often require immediate attention. While we're proud that our average delivery time is 35 minutes, we know that issues can arise. If something goes wrong with an order, we have a 24/7/365 team of people ready to quickly resolve any problems. This not only keeps your operations running smoothly, but also makes your customers happy so they'll continue to place orders from your business.
Technology platform costs
It takes world-class, global teams across logistics, engineering, coding, marketing, operations, and more to keep the DoorDash app and website, our Merchant Portal and tablets, and the Dasher app running. We hire the best and expect the best from our employees, who work tirelessly to provide a platform that allows you to accept and manage orders, track and rate Dashers, provide estimated delivery times to customers, and review customer feedback. You also have access to valuable sales data in the Merchant Portal that can inform your menu, marketing strategy, and inventory decisions and help your business grow.
DoorDash also creates partnerships to integrate our platform with POS providers and other technology solutions that are crucial to your business.
Choose how you want to work with DoorDash
Whether you want to list your business on the DoorDash app, get orders through your own website, or use your own drivers, DoorDash has products and pricing that work for you.
DoorDash Partnership Plans
Our DoorDash Partnership Plans* — which enable your business to be featured on the DoorDash app and website — are commission-based, but designed for flexibility.
Our pricing includes three tiers of Partnership Plans with different price points based on the level of marketing support you need. Merchants choose from commission rates of 15%, 25%, or 30% (based on varying levels of built-in marketing), and get 6% commission on Pickup orders across all plans.
Each plan also includes zero credit card processing fees on DoorDash App orders, zero activation fees, and Storefront, which enables commission-free delivery and pickup ordering from your own website (more on that below).
DoorDash Self-Delivery
If you have your own drivers but want to tap into the DoorDash customer base, we recommend Self-Delivery. With this product, you can list your business on the DoorDash App at a lower cost while using your staff to deliver orders.
Storefront
An online ordering system, Storefront helps turn your website visitors into customers. Storefront enables you to add delivery and pickup ordering to your own website at 0% commission and with zero monthly fees — without any mention of DoorDash. You'll pay just a credit card processing fee of 2.9% of the total transaction amount plus 30 cents per Storefront order.
DoorDash Drive
For businesses that already have their own online ordering website or app but need access to on-demand delivery drivers, we recommend DoorDash Drive. This solution connects your business with Dashers to complete deliveries placed on your own platform for a flat per-order fee.
Learn more about DoorDash pricing
Partnering with a third-party platform like DoorDash enables merchants to offer the delivery and pickup solutions that customers expect, without having to manage the logistics. We hope this puts DoorDash's commissions and fees in context and helps you understand how they support a platform that allows businesses to drive incremental sales, customers to safely order from their favorite neighborhood locations, and Dashers to earn when it works for them.
For more help finding a delivery and pickup solution for your business, take our short quiz to get a quick recommendation, or read our blog post Which DoorDash Pricing and Products Are Right for Your Business?
And if you still need help figuring out a solution that works for your needs, contact our sales team. We encourage partners to try a plan for 2-3 weeks — if it's not working for you, you can always switch to a new plan. We are currently offering a 7-day free trial for Basic Plans and a 30-day free trial for Plus and Premier Plans so partners can see which DoorDash products best fit their business needs.
*Partnership Plans are available for restaurants with 75 or fewer locations in the US. 6% Pickup is available to all partners in the US who comply with the DoorDash Merchant Terms of Service, including having DoorDash Pickup menu prices match in-store prices.
