Ranking the Top Food Delivery Apps

The UberEats app? Maybe the DoorDash app? What’s the best food delivery app for you? Let’s look at the top ones and find out.

DoorDash

The DoorDash app gets some of the highest marks overall. Especially if you live in a city in North America, as DoorDash is partnered with over 300,000 restaurants in towns large and small across the United States and Canada. And DoorDash isn't just for restaurant orders—it does grocery deliveries too.

A few of Doordash's advantages include extensive pickup options, with many participating restaurants offering takeout, a Yum Score that rates a restaurant's food and delivery time, and a partnership with Chase credit cards that allows users to earn up to $60 annually in DoorDash credits.

As for DoorDash pricing, the delivery fees vary by restaurant; costs for users are usually between $2 and $6 per order. There's also an option to get a DoorDash Pass called DashPass: $9.99 per month gives you free delivery for orders $12 and up. It's worth understanding how restaurants base these fees. The app offers three plans to restaurants: Basic, restaurants pay 15% of orders; Plus, they pay 25% for promotion; Premier, they pay 30% and agree to keep customer fees lower in exchange for a guarantee of high volume.

 

Grubhub

If you've only heard of one food delivery app, Grubhub is probably it; it's got extensive nationwide coverage, in over 4,000 U.S. cities; that's wider than DoorDash's reach. Grubhub has a similar $9.99 monthly deal for free $12-plus deliveries and offers about the same delivery and take-out options as DoorDash does.

As with DoorDash, Grubhub pricing outside of its subscription plan varies by restaurant, but usually falls into the range of 5% to 10% of the food prices. For orders under $10, you can expect to pay $2 for delivery. While what you pay depends on the restaurant, your location, and what you order, most fees fall into the $2.50 to $7.50 range.

 

UberEats

UberEats has been steadily chomping down market shares across the globe, operating in over 40 countries and counting. Again, we see a $9.99 subscription plan here; the UberEats Pass gives you free deliveries and 5% discounts on orders over $15. Plus, free deliveries on grocery orders over $30.

UberEats fees vary, by restaurant, by location, and by the number of Uber drivers who are available. You can expect the fee to be around 15% to 20% of your food order. More if your order is under $10 or under $15, which come with respective $2 and $3 small-order fees.

Uber has an advantage over others in that there is always a fleet out there ready to deliver. You can usually count on prompt deliveries that you can track in real-time in the same way you can on Uber's ride-sharing app. But remember Uber drivers aren't experts in food delivery, and the occasional cold meal or sloshed-around order can arrive.

 

Instacart

As its name suggests, Instacart is a grocery delivery app, often offering delivery or in-store pick-ups in about an hour. The app connects you to over 20,000 retailers across North America, including well-known names such as Safeway, Publix, Wegmans, Costco, and more. These deliveries can include ready-made meals. You can also use Instacart to order from specialty shops, pet stores, and pharmacies such as CVS.

But you pay for these privileges. Instacart fees go from as little as $3.99 to as high as $35 and more. Their Instacart Express plan ($9.99 per month / $99 per year) gives you free delivery on orders over $35. Without a plan, you're likely looking at a delivery fee of $3.99 plus 5% of your total grocery bill.

 

Caviar

Don't expect to find a bunch of fast food on the Caviar app; this one caters more to fine diners. Caviar connects you with far fewer restaurants than other food delivery apps. And Caviar doesn't have a far reach, operating in about a dozen big cities and just as many regions in the United States. What Caviar offers that other apps don't, is a stronger focus on local restaurants with exclusive deals from those more upscale eateries. What about Caviar's prices? It's not cheap. Per-delivery fees range from $2 to $9, plus a flat fee of 18% of your order.

With just a few taps on your phone, the best food delivery services are literally at your fingertips. Which of these delivery apps will you be tapping soon?

Prices listed are as of December 2021.

Written by William McCleary for Knockaround.