Every online order your restaurant takes goes through one of two doors. Door one is a marketplace app — SkipTheDishes, DoorDash or Uber Eats — that hands you demand and takes 20% to 30% of the ticket for it. Door two is your own ordering page, where the same guest pays the same price, but you keep almost all of it. Most independent operators in Canada run everything through door one and never build door two.
This guide is about building door two — without walking away from the apps that still bring you new customers. It covers what the aggregators actually charge in 2026, where the law already caps those fees, and how a commission-free channel you own changes the math on every repeat order.
Key takeaways
- Marketplace commissions run 20% to 30% of the order in Canada. DoorDash charges 20% / 25% / 29% by plan tier and Uber Eats charges 20% / 25% / 30%, per their own 2026 merchant pricing pages.
- A first-party ordering channel is close to commission-free. Uber's Webshop charges a 2.9% order-processing fee; DoorDash's own online ordering charges "no commission rates on orders," only payment processing.
- British Columbia permanently caps core-service delivery fees at 20% of the order value (excluding tax and tip) for platforms serving 500 or more restaurants. Every other province's pandemic cap has lapsed.
- Online ordering is a growth lever, not just a cost. TouchBistro's 2026 survey of 600 Canadian full-service operators found sales rose 18% on average after implementing online ordering.
- Own the channel for your repeat guests. 45% of Canadians reorder from delivery apps at least every two weeks — those are the orders worth moving off a 25% commission.
What does online ordering actually mean for a Canadian restaurant?
"Online ordering" covers two very different things, and conflating them is what costs operators money.
The first is the third-party marketplace: SkipTheDishes, DoorDash and Uber Eats. A customer opens the app, browses restaurants near them, and orders. The platform owns the customer relationship, sets the interface, and charges you a commission on every order — plus, usually, the delivery.
The second is your first-party channel: an ordering page on your own website (or a link in your Google listing and social profiles) where guests order directly from you. You set the menu, you keep the customer data, and there is no per-order commission — just the card-processing fee any business pays.
Both have a place. The marketplace is a paid acquisition channel: expensive, but it puts you in front of people who have never heard of you. Your own page is a retention channel: it costs you almost nothing per order and is where your regulars belong. The mistake is running your regulars through the expensive door out of habit.
How much do delivery apps really charge in Canada in 2026?
More than most owners realize, because the headline commission is only part of it. Here are the current published rates.
DoorDash Canada charges commission by plan tier: Basic 20%, Plus 25% and Premier 29% per delivery order. Pickup orders (where the customer collects) are cheaper — 10% on Basic, 8% on Plus and Premier. There is a tablet fee of C$3 per week after any trial, and new partners get 0% commission for a trial period (7 days on Basic, 30 days on Plus and Premier), per DoorDash's Canadian merchant pricing page.
Uber Eats Canada charges 20% (Lite), 25% (Plus) or 30% (Premium) as a delivery fee. If you use your own drivers, the self-delivery fee is 15%. Pickup is a 10% fee "with validated in-store pricing" (otherwise 15%), per Uber Eats' Canadian pricing page.
SkipTheDishes is the outlier: it publishes no public merchant-pricing page. Rates are negotiated individually by order volume, location and cuisine, and the figures that circulate on comparison blogs are not confirmed by Skip. That opacity is itself worth knowing — if you cannot see the rate on a page, you cannot benchmark it, and you should ask your rep to put your commission in writing.
For the full net-payout breakdown — commission plus payment plus marketing fees on a real C$100 order — see our teardown of how much delivery apps really cost Canadian restaurants, and if you are choosing between platforms, our head-to-head on SkipTheDishes vs DoorDash vs Uber Eats.
Is there a legal limit on what delivery apps can charge?
In one province, yes — and it is worth knowing which.
British Columbia has a permanent cap. Under the province's Food Delivery Service Fee Act, "there is a permanent cap on fees charged by food delivery companies in B.C." The Act "limits fees for core services to no more than 20% of the dollar amount of an order, excluding tax and tip," and "applies to food delivery platforms that serve 500 or more restaurants," per the Province of British Columbia (page last updated 21 January 2026).
The practical effect: DoorDash's Premier tier (29%) and Uber Eats' Premium tier (30%) cannot legally be charged in their full form in B.C. If you operate there and see a core-services fee above 20%, question it.
Everywhere else in Canada, the caps that existed during the pandemic have expired. Ontario, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia and Quebec all introduced temporary limits between 2020 and 2022; none were made permanent. As of 2026, B.C. is the only province with a statutory delivery-fee cap in force. If you operate outside B.C., your only lever on commission is negotiation — and building a channel the commission does not touch.
What does a commission-free ordering channel actually cost?
Far less than a marketplace, because there is no commission at all — only card processing.
The aggregators themselves offer first-party tools, and their pricing shows the gap plainly. Uber Eats' Webshop — an ordering page for your own site — charges "a 2.9% order-processing fee," not a marketplace commission. DoorDash's own online ordering advertises "no monthly software fees" and "no commission rates on orders," with "payment processing fees only," per the pricing pages above.
Compare that with the marketplace. Here is what you keep on a C$100 order through each channel:
| Channel | Fee | You keep on C$100 |
|---|---|---|
| DoorDash Premier | 29% commission | ~C$71 |
| Uber Eats Premium | 30% commission | ~C$70 |
| Your own ordering page | ~3% processing only | ~C$97 |
That is a swing of roughly C$26 to C$27 on every C$100 you move from the marketplace to a channel you own. Put in the terms that matter: one week of moving even ten C$40 repeat orders off a Premier plan and onto your own page is worth more than a hundred dollars back in your account — money that was going to the app for a customer who already knew your name.
Will running online ordering actually grow my sales?
The evidence says yes — and by a meaningful margin.
TouchBistro's 2026 Canadian State of Restaurants Report surveyed 600 full-service restaurant owners, presidents and general managers across Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary (fielded 2 to 25 October 2025; results "accurate 19 times out of 20"). Its headline finding on the channel: "Operators saw an 18% increase on average in overall sales after implementing online ordering" (TouchBistro).
The demand is real and habitual, too. In DoorDash's 2025 Canadian consumer survey of 2,189 people, 56% said they prefer ordering out via third-party apps and websites, Canadians order delivery about four times a month (five for Gen Z), and 45% place repeat orders at least every two weeks (DoorDash).
Read those two facts together and the strategy writes itself. Demand for ordering online is not going away, so you want to capture it. But nearly half of your delivery customers are repeat orderers — and a repeat customer is exactly the person who should be ordering from your page at 3% rather than the app's at 25%.
How should I split marketplace and first-party ordering?
Not either-or. Use each for what it is good at.
Keep the apps for discovery. If someone in your neighbourhood is scrolling SkipTheDishes at 8 p.m. deciding what to eat, you want to be on it. The commission on that order is effectively a marketing cost to reach a customer you did not have. That is a defensible spend.
Move the relationship to your own channel. Once a guest has ordered from you, every touchpoint should nudge them to your own page for next time: a flyer or QR code in the bag, a note on the receipt, your ordering link pinned to your Google Business Profile and Instagram. The order costs them the same and costs you a fraction.
Do the arithmetic on your own numbers. Pull last month's marketplace payout statements, find your repeat customers, and multiply their orders by the commission you paid. That figure is your annual prize for building a first-party channel. For most independents it is thousands of dollars.
A note on tax while you are looking at those statements: how GST/HST is handled differs between platform sales and direct sales, and getting the categorization wrong is a common source of CRA assessments. Our GST/HST compliance checklist for Canadian restaurants walks through it.
What do I need to set up my own online ordering?
Less than you would think, and you may already have most of it.
- A place for the order button. This is your website or, at minimum, a dedicated ordering page. If your "website" is still a PDF menu or a page the nephew built and abandoned, this is the piece to fix first — the ordering link has to live somewhere a customer can reach.
- A menu that matches your kitchen. Prices, modifiers, and availability that you can update yourself in seconds, not by emailing a developer.
- Payment processing. A card processor to take payment — this is the only per-order cost on a first-party channel, typically around 3%.
- A way to fulfill. Pickup is the simplest start (no delivery cost at all). For delivery, you can use your own staff or an on-demand courier, keeping the customer relationship even when someone else drives.
- Somewhere to send people. Your ordering link on your Google listing, social bios, receipts, and takeout bags — the free channels that turn a one-time app customer into a direct regular.
This is the one place a modern website builder earns its keep: a tool like DineHere turns a menu photo into a working site with an ordering page in an afternoon, for less than a single week's delivery commission, and lets you edit it yourself afterward. The point is not the software — it is that the barrier to owning your channel is now low enough that there is no reason to hand 25% to an app for your own regulars.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between third-party and first-party online ordering?
Third-party ordering happens on a marketplace app (SkipTheDishes, DoorDash, Uber Eats) that owns the customer and charges 20% to 30% commission. First-party ordering happens on your own page, where you keep the customer relationship and pay only card processing (about 3%).
How much does DoorDash charge Canadian restaurants in 2026?
DoorDash Canada charges 20% (Basic), 25% (Plus) or 29% (Premier) commission on delivery orders, and 10% (Basic) or 8% (Plus and Premier) on pickup, plus a C$3-per-week tablet fee, per its merchant pricing page.
How much does Uber Eats charge in Canada?
Uber Eats Canada charges a delivery fee of 20% (Lite), 25% (Plus) or 30% (Premium), a 15% self-delivery fee if you use your own drivers, and 10% on validated pickup orders. Its first-party Webshop charges a 2.9% order-processing fee.
How much does SkipTheDishes charge?
Skip does not publish a public merchant-pricing page. Rates are negotiated individually by volume, location and cuisine, so ask your rep for your commission in writing rather than relying on figures quoted online.
Is there a legal cap on delivery commissions in Canada?
Yes, in British Columbia: the Food Delivery Service Fee Act permanently caps core-service fees at no more than 20% of the order value (excluding tax and tip) for platforms serving 500 or more restaurants. Other provinces' pandemic-era caps have expired.
Is a commission-free ordering page really commission-free?
There is no marketplace commission, but you still pay card-processing fees on each transaction — typically around 3%. That is far below the 20% to 30% commission a marketplace app charges.
Does online ordering actually increase sales?
TouchBistro's 2026 survey of 600 Canadian full-service operators found sales rose 18% on average after implementing online ordering.
Should I leave the delivery apps entirely?
Usually not. The apps are a paid discovery channel that reaches new customers. The better strategy is to keep them for acquisition and move your repeat guests to your own commission-free page.
Do I need delivery drivers to offer online ordering?
No. Pickup ordering needs no drivers and carries no delivery cost. For delivery you can use your own staff or an on-demand courier while still owning the customer relationship.
How do I get customers to use my own page instead of the app?
Promote the link everywhere the customer already sees you — your Google Business Profile, social bios, receipts, and a card or QR code in every takeout bag — so the next order comes to you directly.
The bottom line
Online ordering is not one decision; it is two channels. Keep the marketplace apps for what they do well — putting you in front of people who have never eaten your food — and treat their 20% to 30% as the price of new-customer discovery. But every guest who has already ordered from you belongs on a channel you own, where you keep 97 cents on the dollar instead of 71. On a C$100 order that is roughly C$26 back in your pocket, and with 45% of Canadians reordering at least every two weeks, those dollars add up fast. Build door two.
