Foodhub Alternative: The Best Foodhub Alternatives for Restaurants
Why restaurants look for Foodhub alternatives
Foodhub charges lower commission than most UK food delivery marketplaces — around 3.5% per order — which is why many restaurants joined the platform. But lower commission is not the same as no commission. Marketplace dependency still means sharing your customers, your data and your margin with a third party.
Most restaurants start exploring alternatives when one of these happens:
- Commission costs add up despite a lower headline rate
- Customer data stays with the platform, not the restaurant
- Foodhub has lower consumer reach than competitors in their specific area
- The operator wants to build a loyalty programme using first-party data
- The business runs multiple locations and needs a unified technology stack
The question is not whether to leave marketplaces entirely — for many restaurants, marketplaces still drive useful volume — but whether marketplace orders should represent all or most of your online revenue.
The best Foodhub alternatives
1. Flipdish
Flipdish is the strongest direct ordering platform for UK and Irish restaurants. Rather than replacing one marketplace with another, Flipdish gives restaurants their own branded ordering system — including a website, mobile app and kiosk — that removes per-order commission fees entirely.
Flipdish works with independent restaurants, multi-location groups, QSRs, cafés and large franchise networks. The platform includes:
- Branded restaurant websites and mobile apps
- Self-service kiosks for dine-in upsell
- A full restaurant POS system
- AI-powered marketing and customer engagement tools
- AI phone ordering for phone-first customers
- Integrated loyalty and promotions
The economic argument is straightforward. If you pay 3.5% commission on £30,000 per month in Foodhub orders, that is £1,050 per month going to a platform that owns your customer relationships. Moving those orders direct eliminates the commission and gives you the data.
Flipdish charges a monthly platform fee rather than per-order commission, which means higher-volume restaurants benefit most. See Flipdish online ordering pricing for current rates.
2. Just Eat
Just Eat is the largest food delivery marketplace in the UK by consumer reach. If your concern with Foodhub is reach rather than commission, Just Eat has a larger customer base in most UK cities and towns.
Commission rates are significantly higher — typically around 14% plus payment processing. Just Eat is useful for reaching new customers but not for retaining them, since the platform owns the customer relationship.
3. Uber Eats
Uber Eats has strong reach in urban areas and among younger demographics. Commission rates are similar to Just Eat. The same limitations apply: you receive orders but not customer data, and every repeat customer you build on Uber Eats belongs to the platform, not to you.
4. Deliveroo
Deliveroo operates mainly in UK towns and cities and tends to attract a higher average order value. Like other marketplaces, it offers reach at the cost of margin and customer data.
5. Square Online
Square Online is an e-commerce platform with online ordering capability. It charges transaction fees rather than commission. It is not built specifically for restaurants and lacks the depth of purpose-built platforms — no native mobile app, limited loyalty and weaker POS integration than Flipdish.
6. Slerp
Slerp is a UK direct ordering platform targeting independent restaurants. It charges a lower commission than traditional marketplaces but is less fully featured than Flipdish and has less scale. Designed for simple independent operations rather than multi-location groups.
Direct ordering vs. marketplaces: the economics
Here is a simplified comparison for a restaurant doing £25,000 per month in online orders:
| Platform | Effective monthly cost | Customer data | Loyalty possible? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Foodhub (3.5%) | £875 | No | No |
| Just Eat (~14%) | £3,500 | No | No |
| Flipdish (monthly fee) | Flat rate | Yes | Yes |
The direct ordering model requires an upfront investment in setting up a platform, but the unit economics improve sharply as order volume grows. For most restaurants processing more than £10,000–15,000 per month online, the break-even point is reached quickly.
Should you leave Foodhub entirely?
Not necessarily — at least not all at once. Many restaurants run a dual strategy: keep marketplace listings to attract new customers while investing in direct ordering to retain them.
The goal is to shift repeat customers — people who already know your brand and search for it by name — onto a direct channel where you own the relationship. Marketplaces are best treated as customer acquisition tools, not as a permanent revenue channel.
How Flipdish handles the transition
Flipdish includes tools specifically designed to convert marketplace customers to direct:
- Branded packaging inserts and QR codes pointing to your app or website
- Loyalty programmes that reward direct orders over marketplace orders
- Automated marketing to bring customers back on your own channel
- A single platform handling ordering, POS, marketing and loyalty together
For restaurants evaluating a move away from Foodhub, the Flipdish online ordering platform is the most complete solution available in the UK.
Key questions when choosing a Foodhub alternative
- How much of your order volume comes from repeat customers? These are the orders most worth converting to direct.
- Do you have a customer database? If not, a direct platform will start building one from day one.
- Do you have multiple locations? You need a platform that handles centralised menus and consolidated reporting.
- How important is a branded app? Flipdish builds and maintains branded iOS and Android apps for restaurants.
- Do you want to run loyalty? Marketplace orders do not feed loyalty programmes. Direct orders do.
For independent comparisons of restaurant technology options, restauranttech.co.uk covers UK and Irish platforms in detail.