- Delivery apps bring orders. They also take a share of every plate and keep the customer who ordered it. Both things are true - the question is the balance.
Work out what the apps actually cost you
The arithmetic on one order
Take a KES 3,000 order at a 25 percent commission.
| Through a delivery app | Through your own Orderly site | |
|---|---|---|
| Order value | KES 3,000 | KES 3,000 |
| Commission | - KES 750 | KES 0 |
| You receive | KES 2,250 | KES 3,000 |
| Who owns the customer | The app | You |
At ten such orders a day, that gap is roughly KES 225,000 a year - considerably more than any Orderly plan costs. And most of those orders are repeat customers who already knew your name.
What else you hand over
[01]
The customer
Their name, number and order history sit with the platform. You cannot call them, text an offer, or even thank them.
[02]
The pricing
Many restaurants inflate app prices to cover commission, which makes their own menu look expensive to their own regulars.
[03]
The relationship
Refunds and service decisions get made about your food, by someone else, without asking you.
We are not telling you to leave them
That would be bad advice. Marketplaces are good at one thing: putting you in front of people who have never heard of you. The sensible approach is the one most successful restaurants land on - use the apps for discovery, and move your regulars to your own channel where you keep the margin and the relationship.
Worth knowing: in July 2026 Uber acquired Glovo's Kenya operations, and Jumia Food had already exited in 2023. Food delivery here is consolidating into fewer, larger, foreign platforms. The restaurants that will do well are the ones who also own a channel of their own.
What owning your channel looks like
- Your own website and ordering page on your own domain
- Your own branded app on Pro and above
- Our shared riders deliver for you, and the delivery fee goes to the rider - we take none of it
- Every customer name and number stays in your account
- A flat monthly fee instead of a share of every plate
Ordering and delivery questions
Yes. A professional, mobile-friendly site on your own domain, with your menu, photos, story and ordering built in.
Marketplaces typically take 15 to 30 percent of every order and keep the customer details. On a KES 3,000 order that can be up to KES 900 gone, on demand you already owned, from repeat customers who would have come to you anyway.
Not necessarily. The smart model is hybrid: use marketplaces for discovery, then move known customers to your own channel where you keep the margin and the relationship.
You do. Names, phone numbers and order history sit in your account, so you can build real loyalty instead of renting access to your own customers.
Yes. Take and confirm orders, and send updates, on the channel Kenyans actually use.
Yes, on Orderly Pro and Enterprise - your own branded customer app for iOS and Android.
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