Foodhub Alternative: The Best Foodhub Alternatives for Takeaways
Why takeaways look for Foodhub alternatives
Foodhub charges less commission than Just Eat or Uber Eats. That's why a lot of takeaways signed up with it. But a lower rate doesn't change who the customer belongs to. On Foodhub, as on every marketplace, they belong to the platform.
Say a customer orders your chicken kebab on Foodhub every Friday. You can't email them. You can't send them a text when you launch a new menu, or give them a free side on their tenth order. If you leave Foodhub tomorrow, that customer stays behind, and Foodhub will happily show them your competitor down the road. You also depend on Foodhub's own marketing to put your listing in front of people. When they change how listings are ranked, you find out by watching your orders drop.
So the takeaways that go looking for an alternative usually want some mix of these:
- Their own customer database
- No commission on orders they win themselves
- A loyalty scheme that brings people back
- Control over how the brand looks
- Less reliance on a marketplace they don't run
This list covers five options. Flipdish is first because it does the most of what's above. The other four each fit a narrower kind of business, and we've said where.
The best Foodhub alternatives for takeaways
1. Flipdish
Flipdish is the best Foodhub alternative for takeaways that want a proper direct ordering channel and plan to be around for years.
Flipdish builds a branded online ordering website and mobile app for your takeaway. Customers order from you. There's no marketplace in between, no commission on those orders, and no shared customer list.
What you get:
- A branded website and app, so customers order from your own pages instead of a listing next to twenty other takeaways
- Zero commission on direct orders. You pay a monthly platform fee and keep the rest of each order
- Every direct order adds to a customer database that you own outright
- Restaurant marketing tools: SMS campaigns, loyalty rewards and automated win-back messages for customers who've gone quiet
- AI phone ordering. An AI agent answers the phone and takes the order, so your staff keep cooking
- POS integration. Online orders go straight to the kitchen through the Flipdish POS and nobody retypes them
- Marketplace order management. You can leave Just Eat, Uber Eats and Deliveroo switched on while direct orders build, and every order from every channel lands on one kitchen screen
That last point matters for most takeaways, because almost nobody wants to drop their marketplace listings on day one. You don't have to.
The money side is simple. Take a takeaway doing £20,000 a month through marketplaces at 15-25% commission. That's £3,000 to £5,000 a month handed over. Move 30% of that volume to direct orders, so £6,000 a month, and you stop paying £900 to £1,500 a month in commission on it. Over a year that's £10,800 to £18,000, less whatever the monthly platform fee is. Even at the low end that's a part-time wage.
Best for takeaways, QSRs and fast-food restaurants in the UK and Ireland that want to depend less on marketplaces and build up direct orders.
2. Just Eat Direct Orders
Just Eat lets UK takeaways take direct orders through a website widget or a custom website, at a lower commission than a normal marketplace listing. It's a small step toward direct ordering and some owners will find that's all they need.
The catch is that your brand and your customers stay inside the Just Eat system. The ordering experience looks less like your takeaway and more like Just Eat. You still don't really own the customer relationship, and you're still tied to Just Eat itself, which was the thing you were trying to move away from.
Best for takeaways that want a small commission cut and are happy staying with Just Eat.
3. Hungrrr
Hungrrr is a UK online ordering platform for restaurants and takeaways. It offers branded websites and apps for direct ordering, plus some basic loyalty features, and independent takeaways and small restaurant groups have used it.
It's a smaller platform than Flipdish with a narrower product. Marketing automation, AI phone ordering, multi-channel order management and an integrated POS aren't what it's known for. If all you want is a simple branded ordering website, it'll do the job. If your takeaway grows or adds a second site, you'll probably outgrow it and have to move again.
Best for small takeaways that want a basic direct ordering site and nothing else.
4. Slerp
Slerp is a UK direct ordering platform aimed at restaurants and food brands. It gives you branded online ordering with delivery and collection options.
It's built mostly for premium and branded food businesses, not the classic high-volume takeaway. The operational side is thinner. POS integration, kitchen display connection and phone order handling aren't native features. A busy takeaway on a Saturday night needs those, and Slerp's depth is limited there.
Best for artisan food brands and London-focused independents that want a polished ordering experience.
5. OrderYOYO
OrderYOYO is a direct ordering platform used by takeaways and restaurants in the UK and a few other markets. It gives you a branded website and app with commission-free direct ordering. It's particularly established with UK takeaways, including independent chip shops, curry houses and Chinese takeaways.
It's mainly an online ordering tool. There's no POS, and the marketing and loyalty tools are weaker than Flipdish's. Customer data stays inside the OrderYOYO platform, so you can't freely pull it into your own marketing systems. If you already have a POS you're happy with and just want a direct ordering front end on top of it, that's a reasonable setup. Overall it does less than Flipdish.
Best for takeaways that already have a POS and want to add direct ordering without changing the rest of their tech.
Commission comparison: what are you actually paying?
| Channel | Typical commission | Who owns the customer? |
|---|---|---|
| Foodhub | 3-5% | Foodhub |
| Just Eat | 14-25% | Just Eat |
| Uber Eats | 15-30% | Uber Eats |
| Deliveroo | 15-30% | Deliveroo |
| Flipdish direct ordering | 0% per order (monthly platform fee) | You |
Foodhub looks cheap in that table, and it is. On £20,000 a month it costs you £600 to £1,000. The problem is the last column. Cheap commission on customers you can't contact, can't reward and can't keep is still a rental.
On the big marketplaces the cost grows with you. Sell more, pay more. On Flipdish a busier month costs the same platform fee as a quiet one.
What to ask before you switch
Whichever platform you look at, get answers to these before signing anything.
Can you export your customer list, with contact details, whenever you want? If the answer is "sort of", then you don't own it.
Does it connect to your POS, or will someone be typing orders into a till? Retyping is where mistakes and delays come from, and it gets worse when you're busy.
What's the monthly fee, how long is the contract, and what happens if you cancel? A commission-free platform with a long lock-in isn't automatically a good deal.
Can you keep your marketplace listings running while you build up direct orders? If the platform wants you to switch everything off, be wary.
Who answers the phone when the kitchen is flat out? Phone orders are still a big part of takeaway trade, and they're usually the ones that never get captured in any customer database.
Building a direct ordering channel: the practical approach
Don't walk away from the marketplaces overnight. Those orders pay your rent now. The better move is to build the direct channel next to them and let it take a bigger share over time.
Here's how that tends to go:
- Set up your Flipdish website and app. You'll have a direct ordering channel running from the first day.
- Leave your marketplace listings active. Those orders keep coming while direct volume builds.
- Tell every marketplace customer you have your own app. Put a card in the bag, a sticker on the box, a line on the receipt. Anywhere they'll see it.
- Give people a reason to switch. A discount or some loyalty points on the first direct order works well, because it costs you far less than the marketplace commission you'd have paid on that same order.
- Turn on the AI phone agent. Phone orders get taken without tying up staff, go straight to the kitchen, and add the caller to your customer database.
Give it six to twelve months and the order mix can look quite different. Every percentage point that moves from marketplace to direct saves you commission, and the saving repeats every month after that.
Why Flipdish is the best Foodhub alternative
Foodhub fixed part of the commission problem. It didn't fix the ownership problem, and that one's bigger.
A Flipdish direct ordering platform isn't just a marketplace with a lower rate. It gives you the customer list, the loyalty scheme and the repeat orders that marketplaces keep for themselves. It also runs alongside your existing listings, so you don't have to gamble your current sales to try it.
For more independent comparisons of takeaway and restaurant ordering technology, visit restauranttech.co.uk.