We may earn a commission when you make a purchase with our links.

Best Food Delivery Apps 2022 Guide

This is a complete guide to the best food delivery apps.

We’ll compare and contrast the top apps on the market, including:

  • Fastest delivery
  • Best for smaller cities
  • Most variety of food choices
  • Best membership program
  • Most well-rounded
  • Best high-end food options
  • Best Snacks & Convenience Items

If you want to get the most out of your food delivery this guide is for you.

Let’s jump right in.

The Contenders

uber-eats-cirlce-logo
Uber Eats: Fastest Delivery
grubhub-app
GrubHub: Best Membership Program
postmates-app
Postmates: Most Food Varitey
waitr-app
Waitr: Best for Smaller Cities
caviar-app
Caviar: Best High-End Food
doordash-app
DoorDash: Most Well-Rounded
This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is GoPuff_logo_2021.png
goPuff: Best Snacks & Convenience Items
💰 Get $20 goPuff Discount Now​
goPuff free e1619788157606

1. Tap Button Below to Get Started
2. Use goPuff Discount Code: GEM20
3. Enter Code into “My Bag” screen

DETAILS $10 off your first 2 orders. $20 Total Discount. New customers only.
image 100216390 14028520

UBER EATS: Fastest Food Delivery Service

What  makes Uber Eats shine? Among other accolades, what sets Uber Eats apart is their speedy delivery service. They strive to complete deliveries within 30 minutes.  Although that can’t always happen due to a lot of reasons, they set out to make sure deliveries are within the estimates given. Let’s dig into why Uber Eats is one of the best food delivery apps out there today.

Uber Eats Delivery

The Uber Eats app has a current rating of 4.8/5 out of 1.6 million ratings on the app store.

It’s the most prolific of the top food delivery apps, often it’s the cheapest option, and they have a fantastic membership program to save even more for those who order often.

What Makes Uber Eats Shine?

Their biggest and most often revered quality?

Uber Eats Food

Their delivery times.

Uber Eats, more than any other top food delivery app, places high importance on having your delivery reach you within the estimated time window, which is typically within 30 minutes or less.

This varies based on a lot of factors, of course, but reviews show that they hit this mark more often than not, and certainly better so than any of the other alternatives in the food delivery space.

This leads to a lot of repeat business and positive reviews because delivery times are placed in high regard when people are already hungry!

For a direct comparison with some of the other top delivery apps out there, check out our DoorDash vs Uber Eats guide and our Uber Eats vs GrubHub guide.

Availability

The availability of Uber Eats is much different than that of its competitors in their reach.

They’re available in over 6,000 cities across 45 different countries!

Their reach is most definitely higher than any of the other top food delivery services.

Prices & Fees

How much will an Uber Eats order end up setting you back?

uber eats pricing

The final price will always depend on a variety of factors, but Uber Eats very often comes out as the best food delivery service app when it comes to cost.

Their Eats Pass subscription also comes with unique savings (discussed in the next section), allowing you to double-dip with free delivery and an additional discount, which is also unique.

Here is a deep dive into their fee structure:

  • Cost of your food – set by the restaurant itself; typically slightly higher than their usual menu to offset their own costs of delivery
  • Sales tax – determined by your address & local tax laws
  • Delivery fee – set by Uber Eats to cover the cost of delivery & varies by restaurant and the delivery distance; includes the service fee (to cover operating expenses); typically around $2-$3 for the delivery & 15% for the service fee portion
  • Tipping – optional, but recommended (15% is typical)

With the service fee combined with the delivery fee, you usually end up paying less for your delivery than with other food deliveries.

And if you’re an Eats Pass member, you circumvent those fees altogether!

If you’d like to dive deeper into that option, this program is discussed below.

Promotions & Membership Savings

Uber Eats doesn’t currently offer a promo code, even for new users.

Uber Eats does stand out, though, in the vast sea of food delivery services with its unique savings options.

Your best bet for saving money is to get an Eats Pass, which will net free delivery fees, discounts on every single order, and exclusive perks/deals.

Here is a breakdown of all of the benefits an Eats Pass will provide:

  • Free delivery on all orders over $15 (all restaurants, not just partners)
  • 5% off all orders (delivery or pickup)
  • No surge pricing

This subscription costs just $9.99 monthly, and you can try it for free for 30 days before you commit.

Uber Eats is simple to use, available in most large and medium cities and carries a small price tag.

GRUBHUB: Best Membership Program

What makes GrubHub unique?

It was one of the original food delivery apps on the scene, and they’ve learned a lot since then about what we, the consumers, want most.

Their membership program is the best out there.

Benefits with this program are the same price as others out there, but with deeper and a further variety of benefits.

Let’s take a closer look at why people love GrubHub.

grubhub delivery

GrubHub is one of the original food apps that coordinated delivery between customers and restaurants.

With a current rating of 4.7/5 out of 2.2 million ratings on the app store, it’s most definitely in the running for the most popular food delivery app.

Between their large variety of options across the board and their stellar membership program, read below for the 4-1-1 on what makes GrubHub tick.

Why GrubHub Stands Out

What makes GrubHub unique?

what mnakes grubhub unique

Among food apps, having a good membership program is key for many customers.

That’s where GrubHub shines!

When you order often, you want the option to save some money for being a regular customer.

Their membership program, GrubHub+, provides benefits such as free delivery, cash back, extra support access, etc.

We’ll cover more of the specifics of this epic program in a later section.

Availability

GrubHub is currently available in over 4,000 cities within the U.S.

Their restaurant options top over 350,000 choices and constantly growing.

While GrubHub hasn’t boasted the same type of exponential growth as some of their competitors, they’ve been around a lot longer and operate with more of a loyal customer base.

Prices & Fees

How much does it cost to order delivery through GrubHub?

Here is a peek at their typical fee breakdown:

  • Cost of your food – set by the restaurant itself; typically slightly higher than their usual menu to offset their own costs of delivery
  • Sales tax – determined by your address & local tax laws
  • Delivery fee – set by the restaurants themselves; can range anywhere from $1-$10
  • Tipping – optional, but recommended (15% is typical)

Their fee breakdown is unique compared to other food ordering apps.

Many of these food delivery apps charge both service and delivery fees to make up the cost of the delivery and operating expenses.

GrubHub does not charge a service fee and allows the restaurants to choose their own delivery fee.

Promotions & Membership Savings

If you’re trying out GrubHub as a new user, you have 2 different promotions to choose from:

  • 25% off your first order of $15 or more
  • $7 off your first order of $12 or more
GrubHub+ Membership

Current customers have the option of joining GrubHub+ for regular discounts.

Membership costs $9.99 per month and comes with the following benefits:

  • Free delivery on all orders over $12 from restaurant partners
  • 10% cash back on all orders from restaurant partners
  • Access to the Elite Care customer support team
  • Matching donations to No Kid Hungry community program through Donate the Change
  • Exclusive access to new perks, local events, and experiences

You can try a GrubHub+ free trial for14 days to see if the benefits would work for you.

POSTMATES: Most Food Delivery Choices

Why is Postmates different?

When it comes to variety, no one can touch the vast array of options that Postmates offers.

With over 600,000 available establishments to choose from and the ability to create a manual order from anywhere, it’s reach in this area is unrivaled.

They also offer more group options for delivery.

Let’s take a deep dive into why Postmates continues to reign as the king of food delivery options.

Postmates Delivery

The Postmates app currently has a 4.8/5 rating on the app store out of 1.2 million ratings.

People absolutely rave about their large variety of options, quick delivery times, and 24/7 customer service.

It’s absolutely one of the best food delivery apps out there.

Let’s continue along to learn more about why that is.

Why is Postmates Different?

postmates the difference

The biggest thing that differentiates Postmates from other food delivery companies is their wealth of options.

Customers have the ability to order anything from any establishment, even if it’s not listed in their app.

Simply place a manual order and write detailed notes, and voila!

Also, they feature a delivery option called Postmates Party, which is quite popular.

This allows you to skip the delivery charge by ordering at the same time as others near you who are ordering from the same restaurant.

It’s similar to a carpool feature with a rideshare service.

Availability

Postmates proudly serves over 4,200 cities within the United States.

They offer delivery from any establishment, even grocery stores, liquor stores, and other retailers.

In fact…

Their options weigh in at over 600,000 choices!

You can order Postmates any time, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Postmates is most definitely one of the best food delivery service apps when it comes to availability.

Prices & Fees

What will a typical Postmates order cost you?

This is a breakdown of usual order fees, although they can vary:

  • Cost of your food – set by the restaurant itself; typically slightly higher than their usual menu to offset their own costs of delivery
  • Sales tax – determined by your address & local tax laws
  • Service fee – a percentage of your total; varies by location; used to cover operating expenses
  • Delivery fee – between $0.99-$3.99 for restaurant merchant partners & between $5.99-$9.99 for any other merchants; can increase during peak hours (typically lunch & dinner)
  • Small cart fee – $1.99 additional for orders under $12
  • Tipping – optional, but recommended (15% is typical)

Promotions & Membership Savings

If you’re new to the service, you can snag $100 in delivery credit (used within 7 days; order minimum $15) by using a promo code.

postmates-unlimited-membership

Existing customers have the option of joining Postmates Unlimited.

This reward program costs either $9.99 per month or $99 per year.

Benefits include the following:

  • Free delivery on all orders over $12 from restaurant partners
  • No small cart fees
  • No blitz pricing
  • Delivery within 30 minutes

If you’re on the fence about this, you can try it for free first with a 7-day trial.

WAITR: Best For Smaller Cities

What does Waitr do best?

If you’re not in a large metropolitan area, the odds are good that your food delivery options are much more limited.

That’s where Waitr comes in, and where they shine.

They’re an amazing service for small to medium-sized cities where the options aren’t as plentiful.

It’s a win-win for consumers & restaurants alike.

Read on for the low down on why Waitr is one of the top food delivery apps on the market right now.

waitr delivery

Waitr is somewhat the new kid in the food delivery arena.

They actually launched back in 2013 but just recently began expanding.

Their focus relies on small to medium-sized cities within the Southern U.S.

They pride themselves on a few key features missing from the bigger guys.

For example, they don’t enforce minimums, they charge a flat delivery fee, and they provide professionally photographed images of the food they offer in the app.

What does Waitr do best?

Waitr is unique in the sense that they focus more on small to medium-sized cities instead of the metropolitan areas that their competitors have saturated.

waitr-app

They’re also the only food delivery app out there charging a flat fee for delivery and without any order minimums.

Availability

Waitr is firmly in the expansion mindset as of late, especially with the pandemic causing a surge across the board for food delivery app services.

They now operate in over 250 cities witin 15 states in the U.S.

Their footprint is firmly in the South, but continues to expand further out as their popularity grows.

Prices & Fees

The fee structure for Waitr is different than we see in similar apps, and for good reasons.

These are the fees you can expect with a Waitr order:

  • Delivery fee – this is a flat fee, usually $5, but varies depending on the city you’re in
  • Service fee – set by Waitr to cover administrative costs
  • Tip – 100% goes to your driver; appreciated but not required

When placing a group order, only the group leader pays the delivery & service fees.

Also noteworthy is that Waitr doesn’t impose an order minimum!

You can order as little or as much as you’d like.

CAVIAR: Best High-End Food

What’s so special about Caviar?

Caviar is a high-end delivery service perfect for independently-owned, premium & specialty establishments.

While many other food delivery apps focus on large restaurant groups, chains, and fast food, Caviar stays focused on higher caliber dining.

Let’s look at the full picture to see why Caviar is a leader in the race for the top food delivery apps in today’s on-demand economy.

caviar delivery

Caviar is a lesser-known niche service that provides food delivery from high-end restaurants.

They also offer pickup and catering options.

Especially with people mostly staying at home these days, having an option to order a nice, high-quality meal has caught on, and their popularity has been growing.

What’s so special about Caviar?

Caviar stands out because they’re very focused on quality versus quantity, and that vision seeps through into every facet of their business model.

They offer choices from independent, local restaurants instead of large chains, which is something most other food delivery services do not do.

caviar app

Also noteworthy is the organization of their ‘collections,’ which are groups of restaurant options within their app.

They’ve got collections for women-run restaurants, black-owned establishments, and more to choose from.

What a great way to support minorities in the community!

Availability

Since Caviar is more of a specialty brand, they focus on a smaller operating area.

They currently operate in 28 cities, with plans in the works for expansion throughout 2020 and beyond.

So if you don’t see them available in your area quite yet, keep your ear to the ground because once you’re able to, you’ve gotta try this premium service to see what the hype is about.

Prices & Fees

Caviar’s fees look similar to those charged by other top delivery apps.

Here is a breakdown of what to expect:

  • Order minimum amount – this will increase during periods of high demand (peak hours); typically around $80
  • Restaurant fee – charged by the restaurant itself to cover costs
  • Delivery fee – based on the distance & delivery time; charged by Caviar to cover their delivery costs; typically between $1.99-$8.99 but sometimes free for certain restaurants
  • Service fee – charged by Caviar to cover operating costs; flat 18% of your order total
  • Tip – goes only to the driver; not required but appreciated; can tip up to $5 in the app

Overall, their fees are slightly more than their competitors, but their specialty is to provide premium, high-end food, so that should be expected.

DOORDASH: Most Well-Rounded

What makes DoorDash unique?

DoorDash is one of the most well-rounded food delivery apps available anywhere right now.

Their price points, variety of options, high quality membership program, solid new user deals, options within the app, and reasonable fee structure combine to create a very well-liked service.

Let’s take a look at why DoorDash is considered the most well-rounded of the food delivery apps.

DoorDash Delivery

DoorDash boasts a 4.8/5 rating on the app store out of 7.7 million ratings!

One could definitely say that their status as one of the top food delivery services is not in question.

What makes them great?

With a wealth of different options to choose from when going through the ordering process, a simple and low-cost fee structure, and wide availability, their service is surging in popularity and growing every day.

Best Food Delivery Apps - DoorDash

What Makes DoorDash Unique?

DoorDash is an incredibly well-rounded delivery service app, which is what draws so many people to their app.

Among their high notes are the following features:

  • Ability to ‘favorite’ certain restaurants so you can order very quickly
  • No-contact delivery (or choice of ‘hand it to me’ if preferred)
  • Schedule deliveries in advance
  • Tracking your order in real-time
  • No order minimums (they do have a ‘small cart fee’ in some cases)

Other top food delivery companies offer some of these features as well, however, it’s rare to see so many of them within one single service.

For a deeper comparison next to other top food delivery contenders, take a look at our DoorDash vs Postmates guide and our DoorDash vs GrubHub guide.

Availability

DoorDash is currently available in over 4,000 cities within the U.S., Canada, Australia, and Puerto Rico.

They offer delivery from over 310,000 restaurants within those locations.

Their expansion has been astounding recently.

To put their astronomical growth into perspective, in 2018, their app only serviced 850 cities in North America.

That’s approximately a 470% growth in a mere 2 years!

DoorDash is definitely here to stay, and if it’s not currently available where you live, the odds are in your favor that it will be soon.

Prices & Fees

DoorDash isn’t necessarily the cheapest food delivery service, but they do have a very reasonable fee structure that does put them in the running.

Here is an idea of what their fees look like for a typical order:

  • Cost of your food – set by the restaurant itself; typically slightly higher than their usual menu to offset their own costs of delivery
  • Sales tax – determined by your address & local tax laws
  • Service fee – set by DoorDash; typically around 10-11% of your total; used to cover operating expenses
  • Delivery fee – set by DoorDash to cover the cost of delivery & varies by restaurant and the delivery distance; can increase during peak hours (typically lunch & dinner)
  • Small cart fee – $2 additional for orders under $10
  • Tipping – optional, but recommended (15% is typical)

Promotions & Membership Savings

New users can earn free delivery on all orders over $10 within their first 30 days.

For existing users, they have the DashPass subscription option.

dashpass membership

This allows for free delivery on all orders of $12 or more for as long as you’re a member.

And it’s unlimited!

You could order every meal, every day and they would all be delivered for free.

There are other benefits as well.

A DashPass subscription costs $9.99/month and comes with the following benefits:

  1. Free delivery on all orders over $12 from restaurant partners
  2. Reduced service fees (varies by location, restaurant, and order total)
  3. Exclusive perks for Chase credit cardholders

Anyone curious about this program can try it free for 30 days first.

Frequently Asked Questions

When it comes to food delivery services, there are always questions.

Between delivery fees, service fees, questions about local restaurants, which food delivery app to use, or what the best food delivery actually costs, there are a lot of common questions.

Food Delivery Apps FAQ

Here’s a small collection of ones we see often.

If you need further assistance in regards to any of the food delivery companies we’ve mentioned, check out any of their official social media pages or help sections of their websites.

Can I order my groceries through these delivery apps?

It really depends on the app specifically. Postmates does offer delivery from grocery stores in addition to local restaurants, but other companies such as DoorDash, Uber Eats and GrubHub do not. There are similar on-demand services that specialize in grocery delivery, such as Instacart.

Which of these ‘best food delivery apps’ has the fastest delivery?

Uber Eats tends to be known more for being the best with quick deliveries than its competitors. Many reviews mention that the delivery arrives within the estimated window much more often (and closer to the estimated time) than other apps.

How can I get rid of that pesky delivery fee?

With all 4 of the delivery options that we discussed here, the best way to get food delivered without paying a delivery fee is to join one of their membership programs. They’re all priced similarly and will pay for themselves within 2-3 orders per month. All of them cancel out the delivery fee in addition to other perks as well.

Jimmy has been interested in technology and smartphone apps for some time now.  These interests have helped OnDemandly.com come to life.  Through personal experience working for DoorDash and Uber for over a decade, this blog's helpful guides have become popular pieces for many of our long-time visitors to understand the on-demand landscape.