Delivery app, DMs, or your own ordering page?
Every Philippine shop taking orders online is using one of three things, and usually two of them at once. This is what each actually costs you - in money, in who owns the customer, and in what goes wrong.
| Delivery app | Messenger / DMs | Your own ordering page | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it costs | 20-30% of every order | No fee | A fixed cost, whatever your volume |
| Cost as you grow | Rises with every order | Rises in mistakes, not in fees | Falls per order |
| Brings you new customers | Yes - this is the real value | Only people already following you | No, on its own |
| Who owns the customer | The app | You | You |
| Your branding | A logo in a list | Your page, their layout | Yours throughout |
| Order reaches the kitchen | Yes, on their tablet | Somebody retypes it | Yes, on a screen at the counter |
| Running total, exact | Yes | Worked out by hand | Yes, to the centavo |
| Sold-out items | Switch off in their app | Tell each customer | Switch off from the counter |
| When payout arrives | On their settlement cycle | Immediately | Immediately - paid straight to you |
| When the internet drops | Orders stop | Orders stop | Depends on the system - ask this specifically |
The 20-30% commission range is the figure this site has published since launch. We do not quote a named platform's exact rate, because those change and we will not put a number on somebody else's business that we have not re-checked.
The honest read
It is not a straight fight, and anyone telling you to leave the delivery apps is selling something. The apps do one thing your own page cannot: they put you in front of people who have never heard of you. That is worth paying for.
What is not worth paying for is commission on your regulars - the customer who orders the same thing every Friday and already knows your name. They did not need an app to find you, and you are paying a finder's fee for them every week.
The test that settles it. Look at last month's app orders and count how many were from names you recognise. That number, times your commission rate, is what a direct ordering page would have been worth to you - before it sold a single new thing.
What most shops end up doing
- Stay on the delivery app for discovery and for customers who only order through apps.
- Keep the DMs open, but reply with an ordering link rather than taking the order in the thread.
- Put a QR where regulars already are - the counter, the packaging, the receipt - so the repeat order goes direct.
Nothing is switched off, nobody is retrained, and the orders that were costing you commission for no reason stop doing so.
Common questions
Should I leave the delivery apps entirely?
Most shops should not. They reach people your own page cannot. Run both and let the regulars move.
Which is cheapest?
It depends on volume, which is the honest answer rather than a dodge. DMs cost nothing in fees and the most in mistakes. A delivery app costs a share of every order for ever. Your own page costs a fixed amount, so it gets cheaper per order as you get busier - and it is the worst value if you are very quiet.
Do I need delivery riders of my own?
Not to start. Pick-up moves across most easily, because there is no logistics to replace.
NOY is the third column. Your own ordering page in your own brand, orders on a screen at the counter, a till that keeps working when the connection does not, and your customers' money paid straight to you. See every screen, or book a free demo.