As the fitness industry continues to evolve, having a reliable and user-friendly app has become essential for any gym or personal trainer. With so many options available, it can be overwhelming to decide which one to use. In this article, we'll explore the world of fitness app development and provide you with a comprehensive guide on how to build your own.
Weekends are for takeout -- even with the best meal kits making cooking easier than ever, nobody wants to spend their Friday night in the kitchen. However, those recurring takeout deliveries of dumplings and deep dish add up, especially when you factor in app fees. Food delivery apps abound in 2023, but each has its own pricing structure and fees -- some hidden and some not -- which means one delivery service could be cheaper to use than others.
For the absolute cheapest takeout, avoid apps altogether
If you want the absolute cheapest takeout, your best bet is to call the restaurant directly and pick up your order and avoid service and delivery fees altogether. Or use the restaurant's dedicated delivery platform, if they have one. As a bonus, when you go directly through the restaurant, you'll be giving more of your money directly to the business since most delivery apps charge significant fees to use their platforms and marketing.
To find the cheapest food delivery app, I compared three of the biggest players: Grubhub, DoorDash and Uber Eats. It turns out that some delivery apps are better (i.e., cheaper) for small orders while others make more sense if you're ordering a bigger meal with more total items.
Fitness App Development: The Ultimate Guide to Building Your Own
Here's what I learned.
Grubhub is the cheapest for orders of around $50
For three food orders between $20 and $80, Grubhub had the cheapest average totals. For orders of around $50, it was the lowest cost by a healthy margin. For smaller midsized orders of around $25 or $30, Uber Eats was typically less, but only by a dollar or so. If you're consistently ordering for two or three people, your bill is probably in the range that would make Grubhub the cheapest option.
Orders $20-$75
| DoorDash | Grubhub | Uber Eats | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total cost | $158.54 | $152.26 | $162.64 |
DoorDash is the cheapest service for small orders
Another consistency that emerged after calculating these delivery bills is that DoorDash is the cheapest if you're placing a small order. For all three orders under $20, DoorDash had the cheapest total cost, sometimes by a significant margin. In total, DoorDash was nearly $10 cheaper than Grubhub and about $6 cheaper than Uber Eats.
Orders under $20
| DoorDash | Grubhub | Uber Eats | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total cost | $71.79 | $81.45 | $77.87 |
Grubhub is the cheapest for large orders
Conversely, Grubhub offered the best bottom-line prices for large orders. In every instance when the food costs topped $75, Grubhub was either the cheapest or essentially tied with Uber Eats, and both Uber Eats and Grubhub were cheaper than DoorDash. This is likely due to DoorDash's fixed 15% service charge that climbs in congruence with your bill.
Orders over $75
| DoorDash | Grubhub | Uber Eats | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total cost | $400.49 | $379.61 | $394.20 |
How I did the math
Because the charges and fees vary from restaurant to restaurant, and no single app is completely transparent about exactly how those fees and rates are set, there isn't a scientific method for determining which app is cheaper. The best system at my disposal is simply logging several orders from the same restaurant with each platform -- so that's exactly what I did.
To find out which delivery app had the lowest total cost for delivery in my Brooklyn neighborhood, I built 10 orders from 10 different restaurants using all three apps, and logged the fees and charges along with the total cost for each. I used restaurants of varying distances from my apartment and also orders of varying sizes to see if there were any trends for large or small orders. I built the carts for each order between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. on a Tuesday evening to keep things fair.
I didn't include the driver tip in these figures, since it's up to the customer and would be a wash depending on what percentage you decide to tip. None of the apps require a driver tip but, please, always tip your delivery driver.
DoorDash, Grubhub and Uber Eats compared
| Dunkin | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| DoorDash | Grubhub | Uber Eats | |
| Order | $9.22 | $9.38 | $9.22 |
| Delivery fee | $0.49 | $1.99 | $2.99 |
| Service fee | $3.00 | $1.88 | $2.90 |
| Small order fee | N/A | $2.00 | N/A |
| Tax | $0.82 | $1.36 | $0.82 |
| Total | $13.04 | $16.61 | $15.93 |
Deli
| DoorDash | Grubhub | Uber Eats | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Order | $11 | $11 | $11 |
| Delivery fee | $1.49 | $4.99 | $4.99 |
| Service fee | $3 | $2.50 | $2.90 |
| Tax | $0.98 | $1.64 | $0.98 |
| Total | $16.47 | $20.13 | $19.87 |
Wings
| DoorDash | Grubhub | Uber Eats | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Order | $11.95 | $11.95 | $11.95 |
| Delivery fee | $0 | $3.99 | $0.49 |
| Service fee | $3 | $0.63 | $2.90 |
| Tax | $1.06 | $1.47 | $1.06 |
| Total | $16.01 |
Let me know if you need any further changes!