Marketplace platforms give restaurants fast visibility, but that visibility comes at a price: a commission on every single order. As your order volume grows, so does that cost — and past a certain point, it eats into a significant share of your margin. Switching to your own ordering system can look complicated, but done in the right order, it's a process you can complete in a matter of days.

Why Marketplace Commissions Quietly Drain You

Commission rates typically fall between 20% and 30%. On a single order that might look small, but calculated across your monthly revenue it turns into a serious amount. And that amount grows right along with your order volume — meaning the more your business grows, the more commission you pay, without your profit growing at the same rate. With a system that runs on a fixed subscription, what you pay is independent of how many orders you take.

What to Check Before You Switch

Getting three things sorted before you start makes the whole process easier: a digital copy of your current menu, a payment provider account opened in your own name (such as Stripe, PayPal or Nets), and clarity on who will prepare and deliver orders. Once those three are ready, the technical setup only takes a few hours.

The Step-by-Step Switching Process

  • 1. Move your menu into the panel. Categories, prices and options are entered once; every update after that takes seconds.
  • 2. Connect your payment account. You link your own business account — payouts come straight to you, with no intermediary account in between.
  • 3. Place your QR code on tables and signage. Customers reach your menu without downloading an app.
  • 4. Get your team comfortable with the Kitchen Screen and checkout flow. Half a day of training is usually enough.
  • 5. Run both systems in parallel for a while. Instead of closing your marketplace account right away, you can run both channels together until your own system beds in.

Common Mistakes During the Switch

The most common mistake is rolling the change out to the whole team at once, without any warning — which causes confusion during a rush. The second is not accounting for the fact that payment account approval can take a few days; starting that step at least a week before the switch speeds things up. The third is not telling customers how to use the new ordering channel — a small QR card on the table is usually all it takes.

The Bottom Line

Switching to a commission-free system is a one-time setup job that turns into a lasting cost advantage. From the moment your menu is ready and your payment account is connected, what you pay stays fixed no matter how much your order volume grows.