If your restaurant does £10,000/month through Deliveroo, you're paying around £3,000 in commission. Every month. That's £36,000 a year — enough to hire a full-time member of staff, or fund a complete kitchen renovation. The deeper problem is that the platform owns the relationship with your guest. Here's why a flat-fee QR menu is a smarter foundation for the long term.
The commission model, explained
Delivery apps charge 25–35% on every order. They justify it with reach and marketing — "we bring you customers you wouldn't otherwise get." That's partially true, for the first order. But here's the thing: once a customer finds your restaurant on Deliveroo, they're your customer. They know your name, they like your food. The platform, though, keeps that guest relationship for itself — you don't get their contact details, and every repeat order still pays the same commission.
The delivery app has no interest in changing that. Every order routed through them earns them 30%. Anything that helps you reach those guests directly earns them nothing.
The flat-fee alternative
A flat-fee tool like Octopus Menu charges a fixed monthly price regardless of how busy you are. Octopus Menu Growth is £49/month — whether you serve 200 covers a month or 2,000, the price doesn't move. There's no per-order cut and no commission, so the more your venue grows, the more of that growth stays with you instead of a platform.
Octopus Menu is a QR menu platform — guests scan, browse your menu, see photos and allergens, and order with your own staff at the table or counter. It isn't a delivery marketplace, and it doesn't take payments or a slice of the bill. That's exactly the point: the sale, the payment, and the guest relationship all stay yours.
The cost comparison
To see the gap, compare what a delivery platform takes in commission against a flat monthly fee for the same level of trade:
| Monthly food sales | Deliveroo commission (30%) | Octopus Menu (£49 flat) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| £2,000 | £600 | £49 | £551/mo |
| £5,000 | £1,500 | £49 | £1,451/mo |
| £10,000 | £3,000 | £49 | £2,951/mo |
The two aren't doing the same job — Deliveroo delivers food, Octopus Menu runs your in-venue menu — but the comparison shows how heavily commission scales with your turnover while a flat fee doesn't. Every guest you serve directly, rather than through a 30% platform, is one whose full spend stays with you.
"But Deliveroo brings me customers"
True, for the first order. After that, the customer knows you. They've eaten your food. The opportunity is to turn those first-time platform orders into direct, in-venue regulars — guests who come back, scan your QR menu, and order with your team. Even shifting a portion of that repeat business in-house saves hundreds of pounds a month in commission you'd otherwise hand over.
The goal isn't to kill your Deliveroo presence overnight — it's a useful shop window for discovery. It's to make sure that once a guest discovers you, you have your own channel to keep them, rather than paying a platform 30% on every future visit.
The bottom line
Delivery apps are a customer acquisition tool, not a sustainable long-term revenue model. For the first order, they're valuable. For the 10th order from the same customer, you're paying £3 out of every £10 they spend with you — and the platform, not you, still owns that relationship.
A flat-fee QR menu lets you build a direct relationship with your guests and keep more of every sale you make in your own venue. The maths are not complicated.
