As a summary and face-off of the big three, I summarise the good, the bad and the ugly between the three major players in the restaurant delivery partner space: Deliveroo, uberEATS and Just Eat. You can read in-depth about each of the three competitors by clicking the links. These ratings are based on my experience in Weybridge, Surrey.
| Area | Deliveroo | uberEATS | Just Eat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Onboarding | ⭑⭑⭑⭑ | ⭑⭑⭑⭑ | ⭑⭑ |
| Driver Efficiency | ⭑⭑⭑⭑ | ⭑⭑⭑ | ⭑ |
| Order Workflow | ⭑⭑⭑⭑ | ⭑⭑⭑ | ⭑⭑⭑ |
| Commission | ⭑⭑ | ⭑⭑⭑ | ⭑⭑⭑ |
| Financial Reporting | ⭑⭑⭑⭑ | ⭑⭑⭑⭑ | ⭑⭑ |
| Online Management Panel | ⭑⭑⭑⭑ | ⭑⭑⭑⭑ | ⭑⭑⭑ |
| Supplied Hardware | ⭑⭑⭑⭑ | ⭑⭑⭑ | ⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑ |
| Telephone Support | ⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑ | ⭑⭑ | ⭑⭑ |
| Email Support | ⭑⭑⭑⭑ | ⭑⭑ | ⭑⭑ |
| Overall Satisfaction | ⭑⭑⭑⭑ | ⭑⭑ | ⭑⭑⭑ |
Notes
We use all three services in our restaurant. Having switched Just Eat to using our own driver we are happier with their platform now (despite the pains of support, but once you do get it right you don’t have to worry). Customers are more dissatisfied with uberEATS also as they levy a 10% service charge to the customer on all orders (total value).
Onboarding
The process of signing you onto the platform and getting you the hardware is easy for all three. Just Eat let you down with menu set-up and being able to resolve errors they create. Deliveroo and uberEATS allow you to manage your menu online, with uberEATS providing a full menu management tool.
Driver Efficiency
Generally excellent with Deliveroo, including the ability to bump orders that may be delayed to the next driver (so preserving the driver’s commission). uberEATS is hit-and-miss, some arriving just as the order arrives, some not arriving until much later. On one occasion, the customer’s food never arrived after being picked up. In Weybridge, Just Eat use a third-party courier who is very poor. We switched to doing our own delivery for Just Eat which preserves our reputation.
Order Workflow
Deliveroo is the simplest, making it easy for the team to manage. The order arrives, is auto-accepted (you can change this) and you get a time by which to prepare the order. A driver then appears.
uberEATS and Just Eat have a workflow which you manage. It’s quite simple (accept order, prepare food, food ready) which is supposed to help manage the arrival of a driver. Deliveroo used to do this, but switched to model in their control so they can better plan drivers. It puts more pressure on the restaurant, but it does deliver better results. Also, the team can forget to move the order through the workflow.
Commission
All platforms are high, with Deliveroo being the highest as they have exclusive and non-exclusive fees. Just Eat have a reduced rate if you do your own deliveries, so they get the advantage here.
Financial Reporting
Deliveroo is possibly the easiest, but you have to account for your own VAT which loses them one star. uberEATS is a little more involved but at least they manage the VAT elements. Just Eat are stuck in the past with the best option being cut-and-paste HTML multi-page tables.
Online Management Panel
Both Deliveroo and uberEATS are pretty comprehensive with marketing tools, holiday settings, menu management facilities and more. Both work slightly differently, though uberEATS has the richest feature set for menu management. Just Eat’s control panel has lots of options and you can control your delivery areas, but often you end up sending a support email as the ‘EDIT’ button that’s supposed to be there isn’t.
Supplied Hardware
Deliveroo is a standard tablet and printer combination. They supply both, so you’re good to go. uberEATS provide the tablet but you need to buy your own printer (or re-key orders). Just Eat have an all-in-one custom tablet/computer which is the most bulky of the three, but the most impressive.
Support
Deliveroo have this category. It’s not perfect, but you generally get a resolution on the phone or email first time around. uberEATS are hard to reach and take longer to reply to emails. Even short emails seem to fail their comprehension test and you can take a few days trying to resolve things. Just Eat seem to be the worst here. Phone calls are met with a request to email them and you HAVE to use the online system to initiate a request. Emails don’t always get followed up and are often misunderstood. I have felt like I was banging my head against the table on more than one occasion.
Individual Analysis
One Response
I agree with this review. I would like to add about the menu team at just eat, they are very bad at understanding simple requests. If you tell them to fix ine thing, they WILL mess up 2 more.