Your own ordering website and app, or the delivery apps?

Corporate Software Solutions, 14 November 2026

How ordering through a delivery app works

On a delivery app, your menu sits beside every other takeaway in the area. A customer opens the app, browses, orders and pays the app. The app passes the order to you, and depending on the arrangement, either its own riders or your staff deliver it. The app then pays you, less its commission and any fees in your agreement.

That arrangement has real value. The apps spend heavily on bringing hungry people to one place, and a new takeaway can get orders early on without building an audience first. For many businesses they are an important source of new customers.

The trade-off is control. The customer is the app’s customer first. The app decides how your menu looks, where you appear in the list, which offers customers see beside yours, and usually how much of the customer’s details you get. Every order, including from people who already love your food, carries a commission or fee.

What your own online ordering system gives you

With your own ordering on your website or app, the order comes straight to you. The customer is on your site, looking at your brand, with no other takeaway one swipe away.

You decide how the menu is set out, which items lead, and what goes with what. You keep the relationship: the customer ordered from you, so you can thank them, tell them about a new item or a new branch, and invite them back, within the rules on marketing consent.

You also choose how orders reach the kitchen. For Dairy King, a fast food business with two branches, we built click and collect into a new app, as Dairy King wanted ordering in the app only. App orders will reach a staff dashboard that runs in a web browser, and customers find the nearest branch by postcode on the website.

What it takes to run your own ordering well

Your own ordering only works if people use it, and that takes a little effort:

• Tell your regulars. Put the website address on packaging, receipts, signs and social media, so the people who already know you order direct next time.
• Make it as quick as the apps. If ordering on your site takes longer than on an app, customers go back to the app. A clear menu by category and few steps to pay matter more than anything else.
• Keep the menu right. An item you no longer sell, or a wrong allergen detail, loses trust fast. Someone has to own the menu and update it.
• Have a plan for collection or delivery. Click and collect is the simplest place to start. Delivering yourself needs riders and areas you can cover well.
• Look after it after launch. Ordering is a system your takeaway depends on, so it needs updates, backups and monitoring, and fixes if something breaks.

Using both together

Using both is often the strongest setup. The delivery apps find new customers. Your own ordering turns those customers into regulars, by giving them a reason and a route to order direct next time.

A simple way to start:

1. Keep the delivery apps for reach while your own ordering beds in.
2. Launch your own ordering, starting with collection if delivery is harder to manage.
3. Point every regular to it, through packaging, the shop counter and your own pages.
4. Watch where your orders come from and adjust over time.

Questions to ask before you build your own ordering

• Do customers mainly want collection, delivery or both?
• How many branches will it cover, and does each have its own menu or hours?
• How should orders reach the kitchen: a dashboard, a printer, or both?
• Who will update the menu, prices and allergens, and how often do they change?
• Do you need a website only, or a website and an app? Our guide on choosing between a website and an app can help here.

The answers shape what gets built, which is why we start every project with a conversation and a written scope.

Website, app or both?

Your own ordering can live on your website, in an app, or in both. A website reaches everyone, including people who find you on Google, with nothing to download. An app suits regulars who order often and want you one tap away.

A common route is to start with ordering on the website and add an app once there is a loyal following. Built by the same team, both can feed the same staff dashboard, so the kitchen sees every order in one place however it arrived.