Taking food orders on your own website, not just the apps

You can take food orders on your own website with a simple order page for pickup and nearby delivery, paid by UPI. Keep the delivery apps for new customers, and move your regulars to your own page so you stop paying commission on them.

The apps are good at showing your kitchen to people who have never heard of you. This guide is about the regulars who would happily order from you directly, without chaos in the kitchen.

What the apps cost

Commission rates aren't published in one place. They vary by city, outlet size and contract. Two recent reports give the range, as of July 2026.

• YourStory reported in July 2025 that commission "can range from 18% to 26%, based on the scale of the restaurant's operations". An analyst in the same piece said smaller outlets typically pay "upwards of 20%" (YourStory).
• In July 2026, the president of the Bruhat Bengaluru Hotels Association put it at 8 to 28% (The Week).

Your own payout statement is the number that counts. Add up last month's deductions and divide by the order value. That's your real rate, before any paid promotions.

Here is a worked example with round numbers, not real data. A café in Hindustan Park gets 200 app orders a month from regulars, at ₹400 each. That's ₹80,000 of orders.

At a 22% cut, ₹17,600 goes to the app. Move a quarter of those orders to your own page, and you keep about ₹4,400 a month, less your own ordering costs.

What the apps are still good for

Be honest about what leaving entirely would cost. You'd lose people browsing for something new, riders on call, and customers who like one app for everything.

For most small places, the plan is both. Keep the apps for discovery. Give regulars, nearby offices and party orders a direct way in.

A WhatsApp number and a PDF menu may be enough if you get a few orders a week. It stops working when someone is typing totals by hand during the rush.

What you need to take food orders on your own website

• One live menu with prices and veg or non-veg marks, updated in one place.
• Sold-out switches. When the fish fry runs out, one tap hides it.
• Pickup, delivery or both. For delivery: the pincodes you cover, a minimum order and a fee if you charge one.
• Real times. Customers choose from times your kitchen can meet, not "ASAP" on a full night.
• A pause button for when the kitchen is swamped, without taking the page down.
• Totals worked out by the system, so prices, fees and GST add up the same way every time.
• An alert, a ticket and status messages. The counter hears about each order, the kitchen gets a ticket, and the customer gets "ready" or "out for delivery".

Delivery: pick one of three ways

The rider is the app's biggest service. On your own page, choose one of these.

Start with pickup. Add nearby delivery once direct orders come in. Decide on a courier later.

Whichever you choose, show the delivery area, minimum and fee before the customer orders. A surprise charge at the door is a quick way to lose a regular.

Use the same containers you use for app orders. The food then travels and looks the same, whichever way it was ordered.

Payments, GST and paperwork

UPI is the simplest way to get paid. The page shows a UPI link with the exact amount and the order number in the note. You then match the payment in your bank app.

Without a payment gateway there's no automatic confirmation. Staff check the payment and mark the order paid before it leaves. Pay at the counter works well for pickup from known customers.

GST works differently on your own orders. Since 1 January 2022, the app pays the GST on restaurant orders placed through it (GST Council circular 167/2021, as of November 2026).

Orders on your own site are your own sales, like the counter. You charge and pay GST on them, so check with your CA before you start.

Getting regulars to use it

A direct page only helps if people know it exists. These cost nothing:

• A QR code on tables, the counter and the takeaway menu card.
• An "Order online" link on your Google Business Profile and Instagram.
• A line in your WhatsApp Business status and away message.
• Staff mentioning it when a regular collects an order.

Before printing anything, or pricing your page differently, read your agreement with each app. Some contracts have rules on packaging inserts or on prices elsewhere.

A sensible first month

1. Put the menu online with prices and sold-out switches.
2. Turn on pickup only, with UPI and pay at counter.
3. Put QR codes on tables and the counter, and the link on Google.
4. After four weeks, count direct orders. How many came from regulars who used to use an app?
5. Then decide whether nearby delivery is worth adding.

If you'd like help

Pixelvile's online orders add-on runs from your menu, with pickup and delivery by pincode, a pause button, UPI links and kitchen tickets. See what we build for cafés or place a test order with our demo café, a fictional place. Ask for a free audit, or WhatsApp us on +91 62918 31815.