“Online ordering” gets used as if it’s one thing, but for a restaurant owner deciding whether to set it up, it’s really three different questions with three different price tags: should customers be able to order through a third-party delivery app, should they be able to call or text an order in, or should they be able to order directly through your own website without anyone taking a cut? The answer changes depending on your volume, your staff, and how much of your margin you’re willing to hand over for convenience.
The three paths, and what each one actually costs
Third-party delivery apps (DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub) handle discovery, payment, and often the driver — but commission rates typically run 15% to 30%+ per order depending on the plan and market, and that’s before marketing fees some platforms add on top. We break the real math down in DoorDash fees for restaurants in 2026. Phone and text orders cost nothing in commission but tie up a staff member’s attention during exactly the hours you’re busiest, and mistakes creep in when someone’s scribbling an order between table checks. Your own website ordering — a menu customers can order from directly, with payment processed at a normal card-processing rate instead of a delivery-app cut — sits in between: some setup cost up front, close to nothing per order after that.
When phone-only is actually fine
Not every restaurant needs to build this out. If your to-go volume is small, your regulars mostly call the same order in every week, and picking up the phone during a rush isn’t actually a problem for your team, adding a website ordering system is solving a problem you don’t have yet. There’s no rule that says every restaurant needs an app or an online cart — plenty of places run well on a phone and a notepad.
When it’s worth setting one up
The math tends to flip once a few things are true at the same time: the phone is genuinely getting missed or busy during peak hours, a meaningful share of to-go orders are already going through a delivery app (and its commission), or customers are asking “do you have online ordering?” and getting a no. At that point, a website with a real order button usually pays for itself in avoided commission within the first weeks, not months — though exact payback depends on your order volume and current commission spend, so the timeline looks different restaurant to restaurant.
What it actually takes to set one up
Three things have to exist for online ordering to work: a digitized menu with accurate prices (not a photo of a printed menu), a way to take payment online, and a way for the order to actually reach the kitchen without someone re-typing it off a screen. Building this from scratch with a developer or a big platform can run into real money and take weeks. GoodPages builds this as part of a restaurant website — menu, hours, and an order link, live fast, starting at $149 with optional $39/month hosting if you want it maintained. It’s built mobile-first, since most people ordering food on their phone are doing exactly that: ordering on their phone.
The commission-free alternative worth knowing about
If the bigger goal is delivery, not just online ordering off your own site, it’s worth knowing GFGF also runs restaurant delivery where restaurants keep 90% of the order total, instead of handing over the 15–30%+ that most delivery apps take. You can list your restaurant with GFGF to be considered as delivery coverage expands — coverage varies by area and driver availability, so it isn’t live everywhere yet, but the online ordering side of a GoodPages site works for any restaurant regardless of delivery coverage.
Common questions
Do I need online ordering if I already have a Facebook page? A Facebook page can show your menu, but it’s rarely built for someone to actually place and pay for an order in a couple of taps — and it’s not something Google indexes the way a real website is when someone searches for your food.
Is it worth it for a small, one-location restaurant? Often yes, specifically because a small restaurant has the least room to absorb a 20%+ delivery commission on volume it could be taking direct. It’s less about size and more about how much to-go and delivery business already exists.
What if I’m already on a delivery app and don’t want to duplicate work? You don’t have to choose one or the other — a lot of restaurants keep the delivery app for the customers who found them there, and add their own ordering link for repeat customers and search traffic, so the commission-free channel grows over time without giving up the app’s reach.
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