Foodhub Alternative: The Best Foodhub Alternatives for Takeaways
What is Foodhub?
Foodhub is an online ordering marketplace for UK takeaways. It works differently from Just Eat and Uber Eats. Those two take a cut of every order, while Foodhub charges restaurants a flat monthly fee.
For a busy takeaway that's a real selling point. If you're doing hundreds of orders a week, a fixed fee beats a percentage that grows every time you get busier. So why do so many owners go looking for something else?
Mostly it comes down to four things:
- Foodhub gets far less app traffic than Just Eat or Uber Eats in most UK towns. A flat fee is only a good deal if the platform sends you enough customers.
- Foodhub keeps the customer. Once someone has ordered, they belong to Foodhub's database, not yours. You can't text them, and you can't offer them anything.
- The tools for restaurants are basic. You get an order screen and a menu editor, and not much else for marketing or repeat business.
- If your own ordering channel stays small, you're stuck. Your sales depend on traffic that someone else controls and can steer towards your competitors.
The rest of this page goes through the alternatives, starting with the one we think is the strongest fit for most UK takeaways.
The best Foodhub alternatives
1. Flipdish - Direct Online Ordering
Flipdish isn't another marketplace. That's the point. Instead of swapping Foodhub for a different middleman, you get your own branded website and app where customers order from you directly. There's no per-order commission, and every customer who orders ends up in your database.
Think about what that means in practice. Someone orders from you through Foodhub on Friday. On Saturday they open the same app, see six other takeaways, and order from one of them. You can't do anything about it. You don't have their number, you can't send them an offer, and they've earned nothing with your brand.
Now the same customer orders through your Flipdish website or app. You have their email and phone number. They collect loyalty points. If they haven't ordered in three weeks, an automated SMS or email can nudge them back, to you, not to a list of your neighbours.
What you get with Flipdish:
- A branded restaurant website with ordering built in, and no marketplace commission
- A branded mobile app under your restaurant's own name
- Loyalty and customer retention, including points, rewards and automated campaigns
- AI phone ordering, which takes and processes phone orders so nobody has to leave the pass to pick up the phone
- SMS and automated marketing to win back customers who have stopped ordering
- Marketplace aggregation, so Just Eat, Uber Eats and Deliveroo orders land in the same order management system as your direct orders
- Restaurant POS integration, so every order type shows up on one kitchen screen
Here's the maths on a typical takeaway. Say you do £12,000 a month in delivery orders through a marketplace at 20% commission. That's £2,400 a month in fees. If you move 60% of that volume to your own channel, £7,200 of orders no longer carry commission. That's £1,440 a month back in your pocket, before you subtract the flat platform cost. Most operators who run this calculation on their own numbers find it works out within a few months.
Flipdish suits UK takeaways, pizza restaurants, independent fast-food shops and any delivery-heavy business that wants to depend less on marketplaces and build up a customer list it actually owns.
2. Just Eat
Just Eat is the biggest food delivery marketplace in the UK by customer reach. If your main complaint about Foodhub is that the orders don't come in, Just Eat is the obvious place to look. People already have the app on their phones.
You pay for that reach. Commission is typically around 14%, plus card processing fees. For a high-volume takeaway, the monthly total can pass what a flat-fee direct ordering platform would cost, and it climbs with every extra order.
Use Just Eat to find new customers. Then get them ordering directly.
3. Uber Eats
Uber Eats is well known, especially in cities, and more people across the UK are using it each year. In larger towns and cities it can bring in solid order volumes.
Commission runs from 15% to 30% depending on where you are and what you've agreed. Like the other marketplaces, Uber Eats keeps the customer data.
It works best next to a direct channel. Uber Eats helps people find you, and your own website and app bring them back. Flipdish's order management system pulls Uber Eats orders in alongside your direct ones, so you can stop juggling a separate tablet by the counter.
4. Deliveroo
Deliveroo leans towards premium quick-service and casual dining, mostly in urban areas. If your menu and prices suit the people who use it, the orders can be good ones.
Commission sits at the higher end of what marketplaces charge, and Deliveroo owns the customer relationship, same as Just Eat and Uber Eats.
5. OrderYOYO
OrderYOYO is a direct ordering platform for independent takeaways and pizza restaurants. It charges a flat monthly fee, which is similar to how Foodhub bills.
It handles the basics of taking orders directly. Next to Flipdish, it has less in the way of loyalty and marketing automation, fewer AI features and a narrower set of integrations. If you want the full set in one place, Flipdish does more.
Picking between them
Start with what's actually wrong with Foodhub for you. If it's traffic, a bigger marketplace like Just Eat or Uber Eats will send you more orders, and you'll pay commission for them. If it's that you never see your customers again, another marketplace won't fix that. Only a direct channel will.
It helps to put your own numbers next to each other. Take Just Eat at around 14%. On £10,000 of monthly orders that's £1,400 before processing fees. On £20,000 it's £2,800. A flat monthly fee doesn't move when your sales do, which is why the Foodhub model suits busy shops, as long as the orders show up. A direct channel works the same way on cost, with the difference that you keep the customer details too.
Before you switch, ask each platform a few plain questions. What do you pay in a quiet month? Who owns the customer's email and phone number? Can you export your customer list if you leave? Does it connect to your till, or will someone have to retype orders? The answers will rule out a couple of options quickly.
You also don't have to pick one. Plenty of takeaways keep a marketplace listing running and add a direct channel next to it. Flipdish pulls the marketplace orders into one screen, so the kitchen sees a single queue.
Marketplace vs direct ordering
| Channel | Commission | Customer data | Loyalty | Retargeting |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Foodhub | Flat monthly fee | Platform owns it | No | No |
| Just Eat | ~14% + processing | Platform owns it | No | No |
| Uber Eats | 15-30% | Platform owns it | No | No |
| Deliveroo | 25-30% | Platform owns it | No | No |
| Flipdish direct | Zero commission | You own it | Built-in | SMS and email |
What changes when orders come direct
Every order that goes through a marketplace has the same problems:
- You pay a fee you wouldn't pay on a direct order
- The customer's contact details stay with the platform
- You can't send a follow-up message or a loyalty offer
- Your restaurant sits on a screen next to your competitors
Take a customer who orders from you directly. You collect their email and phone number. They earn points in your loyalty programme. The confirmation for their order includes a discount on the next one, and when they use it, they come to you, not to the marketplace.
None of this means you should walk away from marketplaces. For most UK takeaways they're still the best way to get in front of new people. Someone who has never heard of your shop will find it on Just Eat long before they find your own website. So keep the marketplace listing for discovery, and put effort into moving repeat customers over to your own channel.
That's the job Flipdish is built for. Loyalty, promotions and a branded app help turn a first-time marketplace customer into a direct one, and automated SMS, email and AI-driven marketing keep them coming back after that.
A practical way to start is to put a leaflet or a small card in every marketplace delivery bag with a code for your own website. Offer something modest, like a free side or 10% off the first direct order. The marketplace already did the expensive part of finding the customer. The card gives them a reason to skip it next time.
Do this for a few months and track two numbers: how many orders come in direct each week, and how many direct customers order a second time. If the first number climbs and the second stays healthy, you'll see commission fees drop on your monthly statement.
Getting started
For independent comparisons of online ordering platforms and marketplaces, visit restauranttech.co.uk.
If you want to pay less commission, own your customer list and grow your direct orders, take a look at Flipdish. The team can walk you through the numbers for your own takeaway.