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What’s the cheapest food delivery service?
That’s a question lots of people are asking today. So we did some research to find the answer.
In this post, you’ll find:
- Which food delivery app we think is cheapest
- A breakdown of how each food delivery service sets its prices so you can order smarter and get a good deal
- Coupons and promo codes to help you save money
- An experiment where we tested 5 popular services against each other
Basically, we’re going to give you the simplest answer possible and then offer you a more detailed breakdown in case you geek out on this stuff like we do.
Which food delivery app we think is cheapest:
Postmates.com
If you get food delivered frequently, your cheapest option is probably Postmates Unlimited, a subscription that offers “free delivery on orders from all merchants on the Postmates platform when the cart size is over $20.”
It’s only $9.99 per month, which means you could be saving money after just 3 orders since Postmates’ flat rate delivery fee is currently $3.99 for orders from partner merchants. Postmates Unlimited customers are also never subjected to surge pricing, which can amplify your savings.
Back in 2016, Postmates revealed that Unlimited customers tend to use the service 8.6 times more than non-subscribers. So if you’re a casual food orderer looking for a one-time deal, the subscription probably isn’t right for you.
For individual orders, as much as we’d like to give you one simple answer on which delivery app is the cheapest, our homework taught us that it’s a bit more complicated than that.
BUT, you can get a better deal from any food delivery service if you know the pros and cons of each pricing model — so you can order more intelligently.
How 5 popular food delivery services set their prices
| Special Offers | Standard Delivery Fee | Surge Pricing? | Minimum Order? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
UberEats | New Customers: $5 off first order with code "eats-kyley1015ue" | Usually $2 - $8 (depending on your distance from the restaurant) | No | |
Caviar | New Customers: $5 off $30 and Free Delivery with code: "GRAVY18" | $1.99 - $8.99, (depending on your distance from the restaurant) +18% service fee. | No, but does increase minimum orders during busy hours. | $15 - $25 |
Postmates | $3.99 for Partner Merchants. All other merchants range between $5.99-$9.99. | Yes | Not for standard orders. $20 minimum to qualify for free delivery with Postmates Unlimited. | |
GrubHub | Lets each restaurant decide. | Lets each restaurant decide. | ||
DoorDash | Yes | No |
How to get a better deal with each delivery service
Caviar pricing
Caviar charges $1.99 to $8.99 for delivery, depending on your distance from the restaurant you selected. It also charges a flat 18% service fee, which, for high ticket orders, means it often won't be the cheapest food delivery service.
The typical minimum order requirement is $15; however, according to their customer service team, during periods of unusually high demand, they may temporarily increase the minimum subtotal up to $25. They say that, “Typically, the minimum will return to normal in 10 to 30 minutes.”
Other than the added minimum, they do not have surge pricing, which is a nice perk. And Caviar will occasionally “offer $0 Delivery Fees to highlight select restaurant partners.”
How to get a better deal on Caviar:
- Consider keeping orders low to limit the effects of the 18% service fee
- Order from nearby restaurants
UberEats pricing
UberEats recently updated the way they set their prices.
Although they've described their fee as "variable" for awhile, it usually came in at around $4.99 — a good deal for longer deliveries, but not so much if you were ordering from a restaurant just down the block.
Under the new sliding scale system, delivery fees typically range from $2 - $8, depending on how far you live from the restaurant. And thanks to a cool new feature, you can now filter restaurants based on how much it would cost to have them delivered. So, for example, you can choose to only see restaurants with a delivery fee of $5 or less.
UberEats does have surge pricing during busy hours, which can increase your rate (with the goal of incentivizing more drivers to come online to speed up delivery times). One writer says, thanks to surge pricing, she was quoted $23 to get an $8 order of fried rice delivered.
UberEats does not have minimum order amounts, which makes them a great option for small orders.
How to get a better deal on UberEats:
- Schedule orders in advance to avoid surge pricing
- Use UberEats for small orders, taking advantage of their no-minimum policy.
- Look for restaurants close to your address, which should come with smaller delivery fees.
Doordash pricing
According to Quartz, Doordash charges 99 cents to $7.99 for each order it delivers along with a service fee of 7% to 15%.
Their customer service team says that, like Caviar, they also run free-delivery promotions with certain restaurants or in certain areas from time to time:
“At times, you may notice the delivery fee is waived if we're running a promotion with the restaurant or in a particular area.”
Quartz also reports that Doordash is currently using surge pricing in select markets during busy times.
They do not set minimum order amounts.
How to get a better deal on Doordash:
- Schedule orders in advance to avoid surge pricing
- Consider keeping orders low to take advantage of the no-minimums policy and to limit the effects of the % based service fee
Grubhub pricing
Grubhub’s pricing model is unique because in many cases, they simply process the online orders, leaving delivery to the actual restaurant.
I’ve asked the customer service team for a typical rate, or even a range, on multiple occasions — and they haven’t offered one.
According to their FAQ, minimum order amounts are also set by the restaurants — some have minimums, some don’t.
Grubhub for Work, a separate branch of the service that allows businesses to order food, has a standard $9.99 delivery fee and a $50 minimum.
A great thing about Grubhub is they don’t do surge pricing, which their customer service team recently confirmed for me.
How to get a better deal on GrubHub:
- Consider not using Grubhub for smaller orders to avoid the minimum order amounts set by some restaurants on the platform.
- Since Grubhub doesn't use surge pricing, doesn't have a % based fee, and the prices vary by restaurant, I don’t have a great tip for how to save money on Grubhub.
Postmates pricing
Postmates has a flat rate delivery fee that is currently $3.99 for Partner Merchants and somewhere between $5.99 - $9.99 for all other merchants.
They use blitz pricing during busy hours which can drive up your rate.
Postmates also has a subscription, Postmates Unlimited, that offers “free delivery on orders from all merchants on the Postmates platform when the cart size is over $20.” It’s $9.99/month, which means you can save money after just 3 orders. Postmates Unlimited customers also never have to deal with surge pricing, which can lead to further savings.
How to get a better deal on Postmates:
- Sign up for Postmates Unlimited
- Schedule orders in advance to avoid surge pricing
The Experiment: Who has the cheapest food delivery?
To test out these pricing models on an actual order, we focused on Griddler’s Burgers and Dogs in Boston, Massachusetts.
Griddler’s partners with 5 delivery apps, UberEats, Grubhub, Caviar, and Postmates, making it the perfect test subject for our little experiment.
To keep things simple (and delicious), we added 10 orders of waffle fries to our cart for each of the services mentioned.
We set a delivery address that was 1.1 miles away from the restaurant. (And we conducted this experiment in the late afternoon on a weekday.)
The price of the food was always the same ($39.50), but the delivery costs changed depending on the app.
In this particular case...
Caviar was offering free delivery from Griddler’s, so their only charge was the 18% service fee they build into orders — $7.11 for this order.
Doordash was also offering free delivery for this order. So the only special charge was their 10% service fee of $3.95.
Postmates started with $4.99 for delivery, but thanks to surge pricing, the cost was increased to $6.24, bringing the total to $48.51.
Grubhub wanted $4.99 to deliver our waffle fries, for a total of $47.26.
And UberEats wanted the exact same thing — a $4.99 booking fee for a total of $46.27.
So who won?
In this case, the cheapest food delivery service was...
Doordash at $46.22
Followed narrowly by...
UberEats and Grubhub both at $46.27
And trailing behind in this experiment were...
Postmates $48.51
Caviar $49.38
Since DoorDash was waiving its delivery fee, it’s likely that UberEats or Grubhub would normally beat the DoorDash price. And without surge pricing, Postmates would have been right there with them at $47.26.
Conclusion: What did we learn?
Although there’s no perfect answer to the question “what’s the cheapest food delivery service,” we hope you’ll use the strategies in this post to score cheaper delivery food from the 5 apps we covered.
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