Alternatives to Just Eat, by what they actually replace

Searches for a Just Eat alternative usually come from one of three complaints: the commission, the fact that the customer belongs to the app rather than to you, or something operational like menu control and support. Those want different answers, and most lists of alternatives mix them together as if any one swap solves all three.

Four categories exist. They are not competing options so much as different jobs.

1. Another marketplace

Replaces: the demand.

Uber Eats and Deliveroo are the obvious like-for-like swaps, and in practice most operators add rather than switch, because the customer bases overlap less than you would expect. Regional and cuisine-specific marketplaces exist too and are worth checking in your area.

What it fixes: nothing structural. You are still renting demand and the customer still belongs to the app. What it can fix is a specific bad deal, since rates are negotiated and differ per contract.

What to check before adding one: the commission and fees on your own contract, and whether the orders can land in the same queue as everything else. A second marketplace that arrives on a second tablet is a second thing to get wrong on a Friday. Deliverect is the usual route for collapsing them into one.

2. White-label delivery

Replaces: the drivers, not the demand.

Courier networks let you offer delivery on orders that came through your own site, so you are not paying a marketplace for a customer who already chose you. Orkestro and Shipday both connect this way.

What it fixes: the commission on repeat orders, which is where the money leaks. What it does not fix: finding new customers. If nobody knows your site exists, white-label delivery has nothing to deliver.

This is the option most people mean when they say they want to leave Just Eat and keep delivering. It only works alongside the next one.

3. Your own ordering

Replaces: the ordering, and the customer relationship.

A direct storefront takes orders on your own site and app, at your prices, with the customer data staying yours. No commission on an order that came from your own channel, just card fees and whatever the platform charges. Ours are on the pricing page.

What it fixes: the structural problem. Every repeat order stops being bought twice. What it demands: you have to give people a reason to use it. Inserts in the bag, a better price direct, collection that is genuinely faster. The switch is won on the small things, not on the software.

Most operators who do this well run it beside the marketplaces rather than instead of them, and let the marketplaces do what they are actually good at, which is reach. The takeaway system is our version, and ordering for takeaway and delivery covers the ordering side on its own.

4. Collection only

Replaces: the last mile, by removing it.

The category everyone forgets. If a meaningful share of your orders are already collected, click and collect drops the courier, the delivery fee and the temperature problem in one move, and the margin on a collected order is the best you will get anywhere.

What it fixes: cost and quality at once. What it does not fix: customers who will not travel. Worth sizing against your own order mix before assuming either way.

How to choose between them

Work backwards from the complaint rather than forwards from the list.

• Commission is the problem: you want direct ordering, and probably white-label delivery with it.
• Not enough orders: you want another marketplace, and you should expect to pay for that.
• The customer belongs to the app: only direct ordering changes that. Nothing else on this list does.
• Delivery quality: white-label, or collection, depending on whether you need the last mile at all.

Rates and terms move and are negotiated per contract, so this article does not quote a number for anybody, us included. Take yours off your own statement, and ask any vendor to put theirs in writing.

If you are comparing specific platforms rather than categories, we keep head-to-heads on the compare pages.