My Plan: Ordering Food through UberEats and DoorDash

I'm going to order two burritos using UberEats at around 3 p.m and another two burritos from the same restaurant through DoorDash at around 3:30 p.m. In the meantime, I'll be waiting. It's been a hot second, but I now have my food. Let's talk about how it arrived. Now, I don't want to focus too much on circumstances that are likely to vary from driver to driver, but I will say that for both of these apps, my food arrived within the time specified. In my delivery instructions for both apps, I specified that I wanted my food left on the first floor deck of my house. While my DoorDash driver followed this instruction, UberEats' driver did not, resulting in a few minutes of searching. I'm not going to hold this against my UberEats driver because my house is admittedly a little difficult to navigate, and my final note on how my food arrived is that while burritos are pretty easy to transport, these arrived in great shape.

Now, let's talk about the cost. Earlier, I predicted that DoorDash would be the cheaper option because they typically charge a lower service fee than UberEats. I also noted how final costs could be affected by the fact that delivery fees for both apps can fluctuate based on time of day and restaurant distance. Here's what I found: I ordered two California burritos from a Mexican restaurant, about two miles away from me, and to my surprise, DoorDash was actually three dollars more expensive than UberEats. Now, I wasn't expecting this result, but I did place my order between 2 and 4 pm, which are non-peak hours and could have made my delivery fee a little lower. So, I looked at what my final cost would have been if I ordered at lunch and dinner time. At lunchtime, UberEats was a lot more expensive than DoorDash because their delivery fee went from three dollars to a whopping twelve dollars. This could be because lunch is a peak time, and there may not have been many drivers around. But at dinner time, the prices returned back to normal, and DoorDash became more expensive again.

I know that delivery fees can vary based on different factors including distance, so I wanted to do some more digging. So, I looked at what my final cost would have been if I ordered from two more restaurants, one slightly closer to me and one slightly further. When I looked at ordering two falafels from a Mediterranean restaurant, a half a mile away from me, the final cost on DoorDash was always five dollars more expensive than UberEats. This is because UberEats offers a special 99 delivery fee for this restaurant. So, it pays to check both apps when you're looking for a place to eat.

When I looked at ordering two burritos from a Mexican restaurant four miles away from me, DoorDash was only slightly cheaper during off-peak hours and dinner time, but at lunchtime, DoorDash got around four dollars cheaper than UberEats because interestingly the delivery fee went from seven dollars down to three dollars. These results were interesting, but I don't think I can definitively say that one option is cheaper than the other because it really does just depend on the circumstances.

I will say that if you're ordering for one, the fact that DoorDash often excludes the small order fee could make it a cheaper option for you, and both of these apps are also constantly offering different promotions. For instance, my mom just downloaded DoorDash, and the app is waiving her delivery fee for 30 days. On UberEats, you can receive a zero-dollar delivery fee by sharing your driver with a nearby customer.

Now that all said and done, which of these apps will I be reaching for most? Now because I'm often ordering for one and because I prefer DoorDash's menu layout and customer service options, this is the app that I tend to gravitate towards most. But if you're ordering for two or more people like I did in this case, it becomes a lot harder to tell which app will be cheaper. So, in all honesty, I'll probably always keep both DoorDash and UberEats downloaded on my phone and check both before placing an order to see which one's cheaper.

These apps can be a good place to start your search and maybe your only option if you need to stay home and your favorite restaurant doesn't deliver. But don't forget that these apps can charge 15 to 30 commission fees on restaurants, so once I find a restaurant I really like, I try to order from them directly because that ultimately is the best way to support your local restaurants.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwith so many food delivery apps to choose from how can you know which option's best i'll be comparing two of the most popular food delivery apps in the u.s to see which one takes the cake this is doordash versus ubereats i'll be ordering food from both apps walking through their interfaces and comparing pricing customer service and restaurant options so you can decide which food delivery service is the apple of your eye let's talk location because whether these services are available in your area is a crucial deciding factor doordash serves more than 4 000 cities in north america and australia while uber eats covers over 6 000 in north and south america europe asia africa and australia both services have a little over 300 000 different restaurant options but they're not all the same if a certain app doesn't have one of your go-to restaurants that could be a major deciding factor for you there are three different fees that these apps apply a delivery fee a service fee and in some cases a small order fee the delivery fee for both of these apps can change based upon factors like time of day and restaurant distance in my experience doordash typically charges a lower service fee than ubereats if your order is below a certain amount both of these apps will also apply a small order fee of about two to three dollars i've found doordash to have a lower order minimum than uber eats but this depends on where you live from these numbers it seems like doordash is the cheaper option but i'll of course be testing this when i place my order a little later on i've been using these services without a subscription but both offer one in select cities for doordash it's dashpass and for ubereats it's pass they're both 10 a month and waive the delivery fee for many restaurants the key differences are that dash pass also offers reduced service fees for orders above 12 while eats pass offers a 5 discount on orders above 15 and if you have a chase sapphire card you can also get dash pass at no cost for up to two years all right now that we've gone through some important logistics let's take a closer look at these apps now upon first open these apps look pretty similar they both have filters at the top of the home page that allow you to sort by things like price range and delivery time and they both have icons that allow you to find more specific items like for instance fast food that being said i did start to notice some differences once i began looking for restaurants as i started scrolling i liked how the restaurant thumbnails on ubereats gave a lot of information without taking up too much space they list things like price range the kind of food offered and restaurant ratings making the type and quality of the food clear before you even tap on a restaurant doordash on the other hand only displays the restaurant name and the delivery time and fee while they do start to give more information on pricing the kind of food and restaurant ratings as you scroll down i wish this level of detail was more consistent across the entire home page both apps sort restaurants into categories like national brands popular local restaurants and newly added options doordash also has a convenience and grocery category while ubereats has a brand new essentials category now uber just purchased postmates an app that's known in part for offering exactly these kinds of essential convenience and grocery items so the addition of this category on ubereats makes a lot of sense both apps may also highlight black owned restaurants you can support without a delivery fee for the rest of 2020 it's also important to note how both of these apps handle customer service on the doordash app there's a support page with phone numbers a live chat and frequently asked questions on the other hand it's a lot more difficult to find individualized support on the ubereats app while there are many pages dedicated to answering faqs there's no general chat support option so you've finally found the restaurant you want to order from let's take a look at the menu the menus on both doordash and ubereats have an infinite scroll with a navigation bar at the top but doordash also allows you to click on the list icon on the left hand side of the screen to see the menu organized into categories i appreciate this option because when i'm reading a menu i'm normally looking for specific things so i like that doordash has a view that allows me to quickly locate say appetizers or dinner items without having to scroll through anything first currently doordash and ubereats are offering a no contact delivery option that involves your food being dropped off at your door when you're checking out both apps will also prompt you to tip your driver but you can do this after your delivery too both doordash and uber eats have faced scrutiny over how they handle their drivers tips but one foolproof socially distant way to tip your driver is to leave a little cash at your doorstep to pay for your meal you'll have the option to use your credit or debit card and apple pay if you're on ios doordash takes google pay if you're on android and both services take paypal ubereats also accepts venmo and ubercash all right so now that we've walked through both of these apps let's place an order so here's my plan i'm going to order two burritos using ubereats at around 3 p.m and another two burritos from the same restaurant through doordash at around 3 30 p.m and in the meantime i will be waiting all right so it has been a hot second but i now have my food let's talk about how it arrived now i don't want to focus too much on circumstances that are likely to vary from driver to driver but i will say that for both of these apps my food arrived within the time specified now in my delivery instructions for both apps i specified that i wanted my food left on the first floor deck of my house and while my door dash driver followed this instruction my ubereats driver did not resulting in a few minutes of searching that being said i'm not going to hold this against my ubereats driver because my house is admittedly a little difficult to navigate and my final note on how my food arrived while burritos are pretty easy to transport i will say that these arrived in great shape alright while i am super excited to try this food let's first talk about how much it costs earlier i predicted that doordash would be the cheaper option because they typically charge a lower service fee than ubereats i also noted how final costs could be affected by the fact that the delivery fees for both apps can fluctuate based upon time of day and restaurant distance here is what i found i ordered two california burritos from a mexican restaurant about two miles away from me and to my surprise doordash was actually three dollars more expensive than ubereats now i wasn't expecting this result but i did place my order between 2 and 4 pm which are non-peak hours and could have made my delivery fee a little lower so i looked at what my final cost would have been if i ordered at lunch and dinner time at lunch ubereats was a lot more expensive than doordash because their delivery fee went from three dollars to a whopping twelve dollars this could be because lunch is a peak time and because there may not have been many drivers around but at dinner time the prices returned back to normal and doordash became more expensive again now i know that delivery fees can vary based upon different factors including distance so i wanted to do some more digging and looked at what my final cost would have been if i ordered from two more restaurants one slightly closer to me and one slightly further when i looked at ordering two falafels from a mediterranean restaurant a half a mile away from me the final cost on doordash was always five dollars more expensive than ubereats this is because uber eats offers a special 99 delivery fee for this restaurant so it pays to check both apps when you're looking for a place to eat when i looked at ordering two burritos from a mexican restaurant four miles away from me doordash was only slightly cheaper during off-peak hours and dinner time and at lunch time doordash got around four dollars cheaper than ubereats because interestingly the delivery fee went from seven dollars down to three dollars these results were interesting but i don't think i can definitively say that one option is cheaper than the other because it really does just depend i will say that if you're ordering for one the fact that doordash often excludes the small order fee could make it a cheaper option for you and both of these apps are also constantly offering different promotions for instance my mom just downloaded doordash and the app is waiving her delivery fee for 30 days and on ubereats you can receive a zero dollar delivery fee by sharing your driver with a nearby customer so now that all said and done which of these apps will i be reaching for most now because i'm often ordering for one and because i prefer doordash's menu layout and customer service options this is the app that i tend to gravitate towards most but if you're ordering for two or more people like i did in this case it becomes a lot harder to tell which app will be cheaper so in all honesty i'll probably always keep both doordash and ubereats downloaded on my phone and check both before placing an order to see which one's cheaper now these apps can be a good place to start your search and maybe your only option if you need to stay home and your favorite restaurant doesn't deliver but don't forget that these apps can charge 15 to 30 commission fees on restaurants so once i find a restaurant i really like i try to order from them directly because that ultimately is the best way to support your local restaurants i hope this was helpful in illuminating some of the key differences between these apps and some of the ways that they're surprisingly similar this was doordash vs ubereats and stay tuned for more comparisons in the futurewith so many food delivery apps to choose from how can you know which option's best i'll be comparing two of the most popular food delivery apps in the u.s to see which one takes the cake this is doordash versus ubereats i'll be ordering food from both apps walking through their interfaces and comparing pricing customer service and restaurant options so you can decide which food delivery service is the apple of your eye let's talk location because whether these services are available in your area is a crucial deciding factor doordash serves more than 4 000 cities in north america and australia while uber eats covers over 6 000 in north and south america europe asia africa and australia both services have a little over 300 000 different restaurant options but they're not all the same if a certain app doesn't have one of your go-to restaurants that could be a major deciding factor for you there are three different fees that these apps apply a delivery fee a service fee and in some cases a small order fee the delivery fee for both of these apps can change based upon factors like time of day and restaurant distance in my experience doordash typically charges a lower service fee than ubereats if your order is below a certain amount both of these apps will also apply a small order fee of about two to three dollars i've found doordash to have a lower order minimum than uber eats but this depends on where you live from these numbers it seems like doordash is the cheaper option but i'll of course be testing this when i place my order a little later on i've been using these services without a subscription but both offer one in select cities for doordash it's dashpass and for ubereats it's pass they're both 10 a month and waive the delivery fee for many restaurants the key differences are that dash pass also offers reduced service fees for orders above 12 while eats pass offers a 5 discount on orders above 15 and if you have a chase sapphire card you can also get dash pass at no cost for up to two years all right now that we've gone through some important logistics let's take a closer look at these apps now upon first open these apps look pretty similar they both have filters at the top of the home page that allow you to sort by things like price range and delivery time and they both have icons that allow you to find more specific items like for instance fast food that being said i did start to notice some differences once i began looking for restaurants as i started scrolling i liked how the restaurant thumbnails on ubereats gave a lot of information without taking up too much space they list things like price range the kind of food offered and restaurant ratings making the type and quality of the food clear before you even tap on a restaurant doordash on the other hand only displays the restaurant name and the delivery time and fee while they do start to give more information on pricing the kind of food and restaurant ratings as you scroll down i wish this level of detail was more consistent across the entire home page both apps sort restaurants into categories like national brands popular local restaurants and newly added options doordash also has a convenience and grocery category while ubereats has a brand new essentials category now uber just purchased postmates an app that's known in part for offering exactly these kinds of essential convenience and grocery items so the addition of this category on ubereats makes a lot of sense both apps may also highlight black owned restaurants you can support without a delivery fee for the rest of 2020 it's also important to note how both of these apps handle customer service on the doordash app there's a support page with phone numbers a live chat and frequently asked questions on the other hand it's a lot more difficult to find individualized support on the ubereats app while there are many pages dedicated to answering faqs there's no general chat support option so you've finally found the restaurant you want to order from let's take a look at the menu the menus on both doordash and ubereats have an infinite scroll with a navigation bar at the top but doordash also allows you to click on the list icon on the left hand side of the screen to see the menu organized into categories i appreciate this option because when i'm reading a menu i'm normally looking for specific things so i like that doordash has a view that allows me to quickly locate say appetizers or dinner items without having to scroll through anything first currently doordash and ubereats are offering a no contact delivery option that involves your food being dropped off at your door when you're checking out both apps will also prompt you to tip your driver but you can do this after your delivery too both doordash and uber eats have faced scrutiny over how they handle their drivers tips but one foolproof socially distant way to tip your driver is to leave a little cash at your doorstep to pay for your meal you'll have the option to use your credit or debit card and apple pay if you're on ios doordash takes google pay if you're on android and both services take paypal ubereats also accepts venmo and ubercash all right so now that we've walked through both of these apps let's place an order so here's my plan i'm going to order two burritos using ubereats at around 3 p.m and another two burritos from the same restaurant through doordash at around 3 30 p.m and in the meantime i will be waiting all right so it has been a hot second but i now have my food let's talk about how it arrived now i don't want to focus too much on circumstances that are likely to vary from driver to driver but i will say that for both of these apps my food arrived within the time specified now in my delivery instructions for both apps i specified that i wanted my food left on the first floor deck of my house and while my door dash driver followed this instruction my ubereats driver did not resulting in a few minutes of searching that being said i'm not going to hold this against my ubereats driver because my house is admittedly a little difficult to navigate and my final note on how my food arrived while burritos are pretty easy to transport i will say that these arrived in great shape alright while i am super excited to try this food let's first talk about how much it costs earlier i predicted that doordash would be the cheaper option because they typically charge a lower service fee than ubereats i also noted how final costs could be affected by the fact that the delivery fees for both apps can fluctuate based upon time of day and restaurant distance here is what i found i ordered two california burritos from a mexican restaurant about two miles away from me and to my surprise doordash was actually three dollars more expensive than ubereats now i wasn't expecting this result but i did place my order between 2 and 4 pm which are non-peak hours and could have made my delivery fee a little lower so i looked at what my final cost would have been if i ordered at lunch and dinner time at lunch ubereats was a lot more expensive than doordash because their delivery fee went from three dollars to a whopping twelve dollars this could be because lunch is a peak time and because there may not have been many drivers around but at dinner time the prices returned back to normal and doordash became more expensive again now i know that delivery fees can vary based upon different factors including distance so i wanted to do some more digging and looked at what my final cost would have been if i ordered from two more restaurants one slightly closer to me and one slightly further when i looked at ordering two falafels from a mediterranean restaurant a half a mile away from me the final cost on doordash was always five dollars more expensive than ubereats this is because uber eats offers a special 99 delivery fee for this restaurant so it pays to check both apps when you're looking for a place to eat when i looked at ordering two burritos from a mexican restaurant four miles away from me doordash was only slightly cheaper during off-peak hours and dinner time and at lunch time doordash got around four dollars cheaper than ubereats because interestingly the delivery fee went from seven dollars down to three dollars these results were interesting but i don't think i can definitively say that one option is cheaper than the other because it really does just depend i will say that if you're ordering for one the fact that doordash often excludes the small order fee could make it a cheaper option for you and both of these apps are also constantly offering different promotions for instance my mom just downloaded doordash and the app is waiving her delivery fee for 30 days and on ubereats you can receive a zero dollar delivery fee by sharing your driver with a nearby customer so now that all said and done which of these apps will i be reaching for most now because i'm often ordering for one and because i prefer doordash's menu layout and customer service options this is the app that i tend to gravitate towards most but if you're ordering for two or more people like i did in this case it becomes a lot harder to tell which app will be cheaper so in all honesty i'll probably always keep both doordash and ubereats downloaded on my phone and check both before placing an order to see which one's cheaper now these apps can be a good place to start your search and maybe your only option if you need to stay home and your favorite restaurant doesn't deliver but don't forget that these apps can charge 15 to 30 commission fees on restaurants so once i find a restaurant i really like i try to order from them directly because that ultimately is the best way to support your local restaurants i hope this was helpful in illuminating some of the key differences between these apps and some of the ways that they're surprisingly similar this was doordash vs ubereats and stay tuned for more comparisons in the future\n"