A decade ago, getting food delivered to your doorstep was a daunting task where you always had to keep calling the restaurants to get food. But with technology, food delivery has become easier, faster, and healthier. It has been vastly supplemented by the internet boom throughout the world which has made restaurant delivery servicing possible at even remote localities.
In the US alone, around 60% of people order delivery or takeout at least once every week while around 31% of consumers use delivery services at least twice a week. Also, 87% of Americans who order food through delivery apps agree that this has made their life easier. All these statistics point out that food delivery services have made our lives simpler and are going nowhere.
We would agree that while these food services have become popular in recent years, but they became even more popular during the pandemic when the dine-in option was either restricted or disallowed by national authorities. Despite the pandemic effects have lessened, people are preferring to order online then visit the restaurant. Most of the governments considered food delivery services as an essential which helped restaurant owners minimize their losses while serving their customers.
In this article, we have picked out some of the best restaurant delivery services throughout the globe which have already dominated over larger geographies. But before we get into the list, let us first understand what restaurant delivery services are and how they function before knowing which are the best in the market.
What are restaurant delivery services?
Food delivery services are technologically enabled applications that let a user order food from any specified restaurant in their vicinity.
These services help you get meals from your favorite restaurant to your doorstep with just a few taps on your phone. Most of these apps allow you to choose any meal from big or small diners, or even fast food joints without having you worry about a minimum size order. Overall, it has made life easier for people who want to have a greater food experience without having to go out by paying a small delivery charge. Often these delivery charges are smaller compared to what services you get.
What has made Food delivery so accessible?
The food delivery market is seeing unprecedented growth in the last few years led by some great platform-to-consumer services apps such as DoorDash, Uber Eats, GrubHub, Seamless, and many others.
These applications have helped expand the market from simple takeaways to platform ordering and delivery as well. With such a platform for consumer services, the revenue has also jumped to around $26.5 Billion in 2020 which is a 204% jump compared to the past five years. Also, this has led to more employability, availability of delivery riders, additions of more routes and restaurants leading to faster and cheaper delivery service.
What are the best restaurant delivery services?
When it comes to comparing the best delivery services, it can easily come down to Grubhub Vs DoorDash. Even though these two food delivery giants have massive reach and must have allowed you to order from different restaurants with much ease. But apart from them, there are other amazing delivery services that are delivering countless packets of happiness every day throughout major parts of the world. So, let us get to see which are the best food delivery apps, the type of food delivery services they provide, and which among these is the best.
When it comes down to the best food delivery services, there are many contenders. They can be clubbed according to which food delivery app delivers to most people, or allows customers access to hundreds of restaurants or the number of cities that they cover. In all these technicalities, different winners would emerge. Let us check out the best restaurant delivery services –
1) Grubhub
Grubhub comes to everyone’s mind when the question of the best delivery service comes up. Apart from the United States, its services are also available in London and other parts of the UK. This platform has minimal delivery charges and it depends entirely on the restaurant you are ordering from. If you want to save up on delivery charges, you can buy a GrubHub+ subscription for $9.99 a month and get all deals for free.
There are several reasons why people often opt for GrubHub as compared to other delivery services. Its reach is extensive so you can always order from a variety of chains and local restaurants. Also due to the variety of payment options are supported by Grubhub makes it stand out in the list of food delivery apps. By using Grubhub, you can search for a variety of cuisines from 4000 US cities and get them delivered to your doorstep in the fastest means possible. There are special deals available most of the time on the application which can be availed by users.
You can track your order right from the time you ordered till the time it gets delivered to your doorstep. You can even use the app’s delivery instruction box to let your delivery person know where to leave the order in case of a no-contact delivery. Both Android and iOS users can take the benefits of Grubhub for getting their favorite meals delivered.
2) DoorDash
DoorDash is another food delivery service giant which operates mainly in the United States. Based out of San Francisco, DoorDash covers a whopping 56% market share in US food delivery services which makes it the largest food delivery company in the United States. The platform also rules the convenience delivery category where it has more than 60% market share. As of December 2020, the DoorDash platform had served around 450,000 merchants, 20,000,000 consumers and made more than 1 million deliveries in more than 4000 cities across North America.
DoorDash is currently delivering its services in the US, Canada, and Australia. It has partnered with thousands of small and large-scale restaurants and joints that provide the best of cuisines. From sushi to pasta to pizza, one can order any dish available through DoorDash and then remain worry-free as it gets packed and delivered in the safest manner possible. Besides, you get the option to schedule your delivery, track them, and instruct the delivery person of where to leave the package for contactless delivery.
The DoorDash app comes with a unique feature called ‘Yum Score’ which rates food quality. The Yum Score is calculated based on the quality of the food as well as how quickly it was dispatched by the restaurant. This scoring system has been a revelation in the food delivery industry where faster and hotter deliveries are now preferred. Besides food, one can even order alcohol and mixers if the local laws allow it.
Using the application’s instructional box, the consumers can instruct the delivery person and the restaurant about how their food should be prepared. It also enables the user to talk to the delivery person and know their whereabouts in case of late deliveries. Users can also buy a DashPass for $9.99 for free deliveries of their food orders.
3) Lalamove
Lalamove is a pure logistics and delivery service created for businesses of all sizes. They have expanded and explored their business throughout most of Asia and America.
Usually, not many articles on the internet talk about this service, but through NinjaOS, our clients have made tons of successful food deliveries using Lalamove as their food partner. This was made possible through our customized restaurant online ordering software, and the best part is that we charge a 0% commission for any such service integrations.
With Lalamove, the whole process of choosing a delivery option, delivery type, type of vehicle, and making digital payments is well-sorted within its app to make your delivery successful.
Thousands of restaurants use Lalamove daily to find a rider near them, book the service, and deliver their food to the customers. Likewise, consumers find the service helpful. Hence it’s simple to say Lalamove has become a go-to option for most of our clients and F&B consumers.
5) Seamless
Another amazing app to order food online is Seamless which now functions under the banner of Grubhub. Similar to its name, Seamless provides extensive experience when it comes to ordering food from thousands of restaurants and joints throughout the 4000 cities as it has operations in the US and UK.
The app has some of the best built-in specifications that make it different from other food delivery services in the world. You can choose any restaurant and order any food without having to worry about any minimum delivery charges and surcharges. You can even avail their free deliveries if you take up the premium membership that costs $9.99 per month. This service helps you get free deliveries along with several other benefits.
With it, you can order the food at the restaurant and then take it out yourself as well. The best of Seamless’s services can be availed in New York City where it covers more restaurants than any other food delivery app. From bigger chains to neighborhood food joints, Seamless has its footprint everywhere.
6) Uber Eats
Uber entered the online food delivery space in 2014 with the launch of its platform UberEats. For Uber, it was a natural extension of their ride-hailing services into food delivery as well. The existing uber users could easily order their favorite food from these restaurants and get it delivered to their homes. UberEats is currently operational in around 32 countries where Uber cabs also function.
With UberEats, the users can place an order from their application by reaching out to the available restaurants and get amazing deals while ordering their food. The application has also provided a host of payment options such as credit card, debit card, net banking, and mobile banking and payment interfaces. One can take the benefit of food delivery for free for only $9.99 a month. With it’s premium, the users can get an additional 5% discount on items above $15 per order.
7) Instacart
Instacart is a big name when it comes to grocery delivery and in some cases alcohol delivery too. But if the local store provides ready-to-eat meals, one can order them on Instacart as well. Instacart has partnerships in place with more than 20,000 retailers across North America which also includes some stores with pre-prepared meals. Ordering anything via Instacart is also easy as one needs to visit the application, search for the store that they want to buy from and then tap on the order menu to order it. The app also has an in-built specification to help deliver the products without having any sort of contact.
If you are ordering regularly, you might want to save up on the delivery charges with an Instacart Express membership worth $9.99 a month. This membership will help you get your food and groceries delivered faster and cheaper.
8) Postmates
The Postmates food delivery app is one of the fastest-growing food delivery services in the United States covering more than 4200 cities. Acquired by Uber recently, the app is available 24×7 for consumers who want to grab fast foods and other forms of meals. You can order any meal from this app and get delivered from the local stores directly to the comforts of your home. Right from pizza, burgers, and groceries to ala carte foods, and neighborhood joints. You can even order clothing, cell phone chargers, or anything else from local retail partners as well.
The application charges a small delivery fee and extra surge charges during peak hours. But if you want to avoid delivery charges and get extra benefits, you can take the Postmates Unlimited services at $9.99 per month.
9) Delivery.com
This application is considered an allrounder when it comes to making deliveries. Apart from food deliveries from the restaurant partners, you can also order a broader range of products from its long list of services. You can schedule pick-ups and drop-offs for laundry and dry cleaning services as well and Delivery.com would be more than happy to comply. But when it comes to food delivery, it shows its expertise.
Ordering groceries and food products are quite simple from delivery.com as it has a simple interface from where one can choose all ranges of products. Apart from it, you can even order beer, wine, and spirits while sitting in the comfort of your home. You also get to have a group ordering feature that lets you split orders with neighbors and roommates to minimize the delivery numbers coming to that area.
10) Just Eat
Just Eat food delivery services were launched in 2001 and operate especially in the UK. Since then it has helped customers get their favorite food on their plates.
The company has more than 82000 restaurant partners from whom the users can order food directly without having to visit the restaurant in person. If we take data from 2017, Just Eat had served around 21.5 million orders out of which 11 million came from recurring customers. This means that Just Eat has a fair amount of loyal customers who believe in it and till now have ordered more than 170 million takeaways.
11) Deliveroo
If you move to the United Kingdom, you would find Deliveroo everywhere as it is the giant in food delivery service. Based out of London, Deliveroo delivers its services in more than 200 cities and is the most popular company in Europe. It allows customers to order food from different restaurants and charges a minimal fee from the users to allow the services.
It provides its customers with a coupon delivery system that engages customers who want to avail the best possible services. It also provides direct access to menu cards of some of the topmost restaurant chains as well as some neighborhood joints. Recently Amazon entered into the food delivery market by investing around $575 million into Deliveroo which will help it enter into some more markets in Europe and the US.
12) Zomato
Zomato is the leading food and restaurant delivery service in India and other Asian markets. With over 55 million users in more than 24 countries, Zomato is active in more than 1000 cities providing hot meals into their customers’ plates. Zomato’s business model is an example of a well-thought-out consumer market and internet penetration in the Indian subcontinent. Zomato has a team of more than 5000 strong employees representing 32 nationalities and helping millions of users in deciding what to order and from where.
Zomato provides access to more than 1.4 million listed restaurants and delivers more than 28 million orders per month. By volume, Zomato can be considered as one of the largest food delivery apps across the world. It provides food delivery, takeaways along with its pilot grocery delivery services as well.
13) Swiggy
Swiggy is India’s largest food delivery app. Founded in 2014, Swiggy offers its services in more than 100 Indian cities and caters to millions of customers daily. It has also expanded its services into grocery and general products categories and delivers directly from the stores as well in the name of Swiggy Stores.
Apart from this, the food delivery giant is also into a pick and drop services including laundry and documents or parcels from one place to another.
Conclusion
Cutting-edge technologies in the food serving industry have helped consumers with their choice of food on the table.
People are mostly busy with work and other chores, usually these restaurant delivery services have provided an alternative to households to relax on the food preparation front and can easily order through these delivery services. The delivery procedures are all hassle-free while payments can also be made easily using a variety of payment methods. All in all, the restaurant delivery services have a bright future as we speak and the top 5 apps on this list are our main contenders.
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