Foodhub Fees and Commission: What Does Foodhub Cost Restaurants?
What does Foodhub charge restaurants?
Foodhub charges restaurants a monthly membership fee rather than a per-order commission on most of its plans. It has positioned this as a more restaurant-friendly model than Just Eat or Deliveroo, which take a percentage of every order.
The exact fee depends on your region, plan tier, and any additional services you use. Foodhub does not publish a comprehensive pricing table on its public website, so the most accurate figures come from a direct conversation with their sales team. Rates have changed over time and differ between the UK and Ireland.
This guide explains how the cost structure works, where the real costs lie, and how Foodhub's fees compare to a direct ordering platform.
The monthly membership model: what it actually means
Foodhub's headline proposition is a flat monthly fee rather than a percentage per order. At high volumes, this is meaningfully cheaper than a commission model. At low volumes, a monthly fee can be more expensive than the equivalent commission would have been.
The way to evaluate your actual cost is to calculate your total monthly Foodhub spend — including any supplementary fees — divided by your monthly order count. That gives you the effective per-order cost, which can then be compared to a commission-based platform or a direct ordering alternative.
| Monthly orders | Avg order £30 | 15% commission (Just Eat) | Foodhub flat fee (estimate) | Saving vs Just Eat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 | £3,000 | £450 | £150–£250 | £200–£300 |
| 300 | £9,000 | £1,350 | £200–£350 | £1,000–£1,150 |
| 700 | £21,000 | £3,150 | £250–£450 | £2,700–£2,900 |
| 1,500 | £45,000 | £6,750 | £300–£600 | £6,150–£6,450 |
Foodhub estimates are indicative. Confirm current pricing with Foodhub directly.
At meaningful volume, Foodhub is significantly cheaper than a commission-based marketplace. This is a genuine advantage and the reason many independent takeaways have moved to Foodhub from Just Eat.
Hidden and indirect costs
Premium placement
Better visibility on the Foodhub app — appearing higher in local search results or being featured on the homepage — typically requires payment beyond the base membership. The cost and availability of these placements vary by market.
In competitive local markets, not paying for placement means being listed below restaurants that are. This is a structural feature of all marketplace models.
Courier integration costs
If Foodhub provides courier fulfilment in your area, there may be per-delivery charges or a supplementary tier fee. For restaurants without their own drivers, this is an additional cost on top of the membership.
The customer data cost
The most significant cost of Foodhub is not any specific fee — it is what the platform keeps in exchange for those fees.
Every order through Foodhub generates customer data that belongs to Foodhub, not your restaurant. Your most loyal customers — the ones ordering twice a week, spending above average, and ordering from you for years — are Foodhub customers first. You cannot email them directly, run a loyalty programme for them, or send a special offer during a quiet week in January.
This is the true cost of the marketplace model, and it does not appear on any invoice.
How the costs accumulate over time
Year one: You pay the monthly fee, generate orders, build revenue. Foodhub builds its customer database of your buyers.
Year three: You are still paying a monthly fee. You have no direct contact with your most loyal customers. If Foodhub changes its pricing, reduces your visibility, or is acquired by a competitor, your revenue is exposed.
Year five: Restaurants that built direct channels in year one now have marketing databases of thousands of customers they can reach for free. They run loyalty campaigns. They know which customers have lapsed. They can send a push notification to 3,000 past customers on a quiet Tuesday without spending anything.
The value of owning your customer relationships compounds over time. The cost of not owning them compounds in the same direction.
Comparing Foodhub costs to direct ordering
A direct ordering platform charges a monthly fee to give your restaurant its own branded website, app, payments, and loyalty programme. There is no per-order commission and no marketplace taking ownership of the customer.
| Monthly orders | Foodhub (estimated) | Flipdish direct platform (estimated) | Flipdish advantage per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 200 | £200–£350 | £150–£250 | Broadly neutral |
| 500 | £250–£450 | £175–£300 | Up to £1,800 |
| 1,000 | £300–£550 | £200–£350 | Up to £2,400 |
| 2,000 | £400–£700 | £250–£400 | Up to £3,600 |
Estimates only. Request current pricing from both providers.
At volumes above 400–500 orders per month, a direct ordering platform is generally cheaper than Foodhub. Below that volume, costs are broadly comparable. In both cases, only the direct platform gives you your customer data.
What restaurants are doing instead
An increasing number of established takeaways in the UK and Ireland are building direct ordering channels alongside or instead of marketplace listings. The pattern is consistent:
- Build a direct ordering channel — branded website, branded app, loyalty programme — using a platform like Flipdish
- Migrate regular customers to the direct channel using in-packaging offers and loyalty incentives
- Keep the Foodhub listing active at a lower tier for new customer discovery
- Grow the direct channel's share of total orders over 12–18 months
This model reduces Foodhub dependency without risking a sudden drop in order volume. As the direct channel grows, the Foodhub membership becomes less important and the decision whether to maintain it becomes easier.
How to evaluate whether Foodhub is giving you value
Ask yourself these questions:
- What is my effective cost per Foodhub order (total monthly fee ÷ monthly order count)?
- How many of my Foodhub customers are regulars who already know my restaurant and would order from me directly?
- If Foodhub raised its prices by 30% tomorrow, what would I do?
- Am I able to market to my regular customers directly, or am I dependent on Foodhub to communicate with them?
- What would I do with a list of my 2,000 most frequent customers if I had it?
If the answers are uncomfortable, they point toward building a direct channel.
What Flipdish offers as an alternative
Flipdish gives takeaways and restaurants a complete direct ordering infrastructure: branded website, native iOS and Android app, loyalty programme, integrated POS, and AI-powered marketing tools.
The Flipdish AI Phone Agent handles phone orders automatically, capturing customers who still prefer to call. Flipdish AI Marketing identifies lapsed customers and re-engages them automatically — a capability that used to require a dedicated marketing team.
For a takeaway currently paying Foodhub membership fees, the practical questions are: how much of your volume comes from customers who would order directly from you if you made it easy, and what would those orders be worth without any monthly fee attached?
Is Foodhub worth paying for?
Foodhub is worth using if you are a newer restaurant that needs marketplace discovery and is willing to pay for exposure to its consumer base. Its lower-fee model compared to Just Eat or Deliveroo makes it a reasonable acquisition channel.
For an established takeaway with regular customers, Foodhub becomes less valuable as a primary channel — because you are paying ongoing fees for customers who would order from you anyway.
Foodhub belongs in a diversified channel strategy as a discovery mechanism, not at the centre of one.
See how Flipdish can replace or supplement your Foodhub channel.