What are delivery apps really costing you? Work out your true commission in 5 minutes
Ask any restaurant owner what their delivery app commission is and most will give you one number: 18%, 20%, maybe 25%. Then ask how much they actually paid last month. That is where the answers start to get fuzzy.
The reason is simple: the rate in your contract is part of the cost, not all of it. In this article we will walk through it step by step so you end up with a real number for your restaurant, not one you heard from someone else.
First: why can't you find an official rate anywhere?
Because the major delivery apps in Saudi Arabia do not publish a fixed commission rate for restaurants. Each restaurant negotiates its own rate, and it varies with your size, city, delivery type (the app's riders or your own), and whether the order is pickup.
The only officially published figure anyone can point to comes from Jahez Group's 2025 annual report: the group's average take rate was 15.4%, with an average order value of SAR 64.9.
Keep two things in mind before using that number:
- It is an average across all merchants and all of the group's platforms inside and outside the Kingdom, not your contract rate.
- The report itself attributes the improved take rate to commissions and advertising together. Part of what merchants pay does not show up as commission at all.
Any site giving you one "confirmed" rate per app is estimating. The only correct number is the one on your contract and settlement statement.
What delivery-app commissions really cost: four line items
Open your latest settlement statement and pull out these items:
- Base commission: the contracted percentage on each order.
- Promotions you fund: a 20% discount or free delivery you co-fund is deducted from your sales even if nobody calls it commission.
- Paid visibility: in-app ads to appear at the top of the list.
- Fixed or payment fees: some contracts include per-order fees or payment processing fees.
Add all four and divide by your total sales from the app. That is your effective rate, and it is usually higher than the number in your head.
A worked example (hypothetical, swap in your own numbers)
Say a restaurant takes 400 orders a month from one app at an average of SAR 70 per order. That is SAR 28,000 in app sales.
- 20% base commission: SAR 5,600
- A self-funded SAR 10 discount on a quarter of orders: SAR 1,000
- In-app ads: SAR 800
Total: SAR 7,400 a month, an effective rate of about 26% instead of the 20% in the contract. Over a year that is roughly SAR 88,800 from one restaurant and one app.
These figures are for illustration only. The point is to run the same calculation with your own numbers.
So should I leave the apps?
Usually not, and we want to be straight with you here.
Delivery apps give you something hard to build on your own: new customers who did not know you existed. The guest scrolling the app at 10pm who finds you by chance cost you nothing in marketing. Honestly, the commission on that order can be a fair price.
The real problem is not the first order. It is the tenth order from the same guest. Why pay commission every time on a regular who already knows and loves you, as if they were brand new? Worse, their data sits with the app, not with you, so you cannot reach them again.
The strategy that works: apps for discovery, direct for repeat
Let the app bring you the guest, then give that guest a reason to order directly next time:
- An insert in the delivery bag with a QR code to your direct ordering channel and a simple first-order offer.
- A loyalty program that only runs on your direct channel: points, or a free coffee after a set number of orders.
- QR codes on tables and at the counter so dine-in guests order from you directly when they are at home.
- Your ordering link everywhere: Instagram, Snapchat, and Google Maps.
Over time, every guest who moves from the app to your channel saves you commission on all their future orders, and their number and preferences stay with you.
A direct channel is not free, but the cost works differently
We are not going to sell you a fantasy. A direct channel has costs:
- Payment gateway fees on orders paid online.
- Delivery, if you deliver yourself or through a courier company.
- Marketing, so people know your direct channel exists.
The difference is that these costs do not grow as a percentage of every order. A fixed subscription plus payment fees, instead of a rate that rises every time your sales do.
How to start this week
- Pull your last three statements from each app and calculate your effective rate using the four line items.
- Find out how many orders come from repeat guests (if the app gives you that data).
- Calculate: if you moved just 20% of those orders to a direct channel, how much would you save in a year?
- Set up a direct ordering channel, a bag insert, and a simple loyalty program, and start.
To see how a direct channel works in practice, read about commission-free ordering and loyalty, or book a Qoodz demo and we will run the numbers for your restaurant.
Source: Jahez Group 2025 Annual Report and CFO's Review. All other figures in this article are hypothetical examples for illustration.