How to Replace Foodhub With Direct Online Ordering
Can You Replace Foodhub With Your Own Ordering System?
Yes. Plenty of UK takeaways have done it. You set up your own ordering website (and ideally an app), point your regulars at it, and stop handing a slice of every order to a marketplace. The customer data ends up with you instead of the platform, which turns out to matter more than most people expect when they start.
It isn't instant and it isn't free. You'll still pay for software, and you'll have to put some work into getting customers to change their habits. But the numbers usually favour going direct, and the steps aren't complicated.
Why Restaurants Leave Foodhub
Foodhub's pitch has always been that it's cheaper than Just Eat and Deliveroo, and for a lot of takeaways that was reason enough to sign up. Cheaper commission is still commission, though. A takeaway doing 500 orders a week pays it 500 times a week, every week, for as long as it stays on the platform. The bill grows with the business. Busy Friday? Bigger bill.
Then there's the data. When someone orders through Foodhub, Foodhub has their details. You can't email them, can't put them on a loyalty scheme and can't send them a discount code on a quiet Tuesday unless the platform lets you. You might have cooked for that person forty times and still have no way of contacting them.
Branding is the other complaint. On a marketplace you're one listing on a scrolling page of listings, laid out the way the platform wants. A customer who looks at your menu and hesitates may get shown someone else's. The marketplace also has its own rules on promotions and how menus are presented, so you don't get the final say on pricing or presentation either.
Your own ordering channel deals with all of that. Your terms, your data, your brand on the page.
What Direct Online Ordering Actually Means
The customer orders from your website or your app, not from a marketplace. The order goes straight to your kitchen. You keep the whole order value, minus whatever your own platform and payment costs are.
You don't have to build any of this yourself. Flipdish and platforms like it give you a branded ordering site, a branded app, payment processing and a connection into the kitchen. You bring the menu.
The Steps to Replace Foodhub
1. Choose a direct ordering platform
What you need depends on how you run things, but for most UK and Irish restaurants and takeaways the checklist is short.
The site and app should carry your logo, your colours and your menu, not the platform's brand. Orders should land in the kitchen automatically - if someone has to retype online orders into the till, you'll get mistakes on a busy night. You should keep the customer contact details so you can market to them later. A mobile app matters for regulars, because people who order every week don't want to open a browser and log in each time. And the pricing should be a flat monthly fee or a low transaction fee, not a percentage that's really marketplace commission with a different name.
Flipdish is built for restaurants and takeaways in the UK and Ireland. It gives you a branded website, branded mobile apps and its own restaurant POS system, so online orders and walk-in orders go into the same kitchen queue. One screen, one list of tickets.
2. Set up your menu and ordering experience
Most restaurants can go live within days. You upload the menu, set your delivery zones and collection times, and sort out your payment settings.
The platform should take care of the technical side - SSL, making the site work properly on phones, payment security. If you're being asked to think about any of that, it's a bad sign. Your time is better spent on the menu itself: decent photos, clear descriptions, and options that make sense (extra cheese, no onions, spice level) so customers don't have to ring you to ask.
3. Drive customers to your own channel
This is the step people underestimate, and it's the one that decides whether the switch works.
Customers who order through Foodhub now will carry on ordering through Foodhub. They're not being disloyal. It's just where the button is on their phone. You have to give them a reason to move and tell them where to go.
Put a tent card on the counter or a line on the receipt saying it's cheaper to order direct. You can afford a discount here, because the discount can cost you less than the commission you're saving. Drop a flyer with your web address or a QR code into every delivery bag - including the Foodhub ones, since those are exactly the customers you're after. Pin a post on your social accounts with a link and a first-order discount. Change the Order Online button on your Google Business Profile so it goes to your own site instead of a marketplace. If you run a loyalty scheme, only give points on direct orders.
Expect it to take three to six months to move a decent share of your marketplace orders over. It won't happen in a week. The numbers get better month by month as your own customer base grows.
4. Build your customer list
Every direct order gives you something Foodhub never will: the customer's email address and what they ordered. Use it.
On Flipdish, the AI-driven marketing tools can automatically message customers who haven't ordered in a while, or send offers to people who've ordered a particular dish before. Someone who gets the same curry every fortnight and then goes quiet for six weeks gets a nudge. You don't have to remember to send it.
This is where going direct starts paying off properly. A customer you can contact is worth more to you over a year than one you can't.
5. Handle the transition
You don't need to cancel Foodhub on day one. Most restaurants run both side by side for a while, taking orders from each and moving volume across gradually.
Once direct orders reach a level you're happy with, decide what to do with Foodhub. Some operators keep it as a way for new customers to find them and simply stop promoting it. Others leave altogether. The point is that it's your decision, made on your own numbers.
What About Delivery?
Depending on your setup, Foodhub may be handling delivery as well as ordering. If it is, going direct means you need to sort delivery out separately.
There are three realistic options. You can run your own drivers, which gives you full control and no third-party fee per drop, but someone has to manage rotas, cover and the occasional driver who doesn't turn up. You can use a third-party delivery logistics service that supplies drivers without the marketplace attached. Or you can lean into collection. A lot of takeaways push collection hard, sometimes with a small discount, because there's no delivery cost and the food reaches the customer the way it left the kitchen.
Flipdish delivery connects to several delivery logistics providers, so you can keep offering delivery without being tied to a marketplace.
The Financial Case
Take a takeaway doing 400 orders a week at an average of £22. That's £8,800 a week through the till.
| Channel | What you pay | Weekly cost | Annual cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Foodhub (example) | 3-7% commission | £264-£616 | £13,728-£32,032 |
| Direct ordering (Flipdish) | Platform fee, ~£150-£300/month | ~£35-£70 | ~£1,800-£3,600 |
Compare the cheapest Foodhub scenario with the most expensive direct one and you're still about £10,000 a year better off going direct. Compare the other ends and it's closer to £30,000.
Some of that saving goes on the discounts and flyers it takes to move customers over. It's still cheaper. And the gap gets wider as direct volume grows, because the platform fee stays more or less flat while commission goes up with every order.
These are example figures. Foodhub rates vary from one agreement to the next, so check your own contract before you do the sums.
Common Questions
Will I lose orders by leaving Foodhub?
In the short term, maybe. Customers who only ever use Foodhub won't find your site on their own. That's why step 3 matters, and why most places keep both channels running during the switch. Once people are ordering direct, you can do things you couldn't before - email them, reward them, remind them - and that's what gets them ordering more often.
Is it complicated to set up?
No. Flipdish is made for people who run restaurants, not developers. Most setups take days, not months.
Do I need a different payment system?
No. Flipdish includes payment processing, so you don't need to set up anything separate to take payments online.
What if my kitchen can't handle more orders?
Going direct doesn't have to mean more orders. It means more of the money from each order stays with you. Swap 100 Foodhub orders for 100 direct orders and the kitchen does exactly the same work - you just stop paying commission on them. Moving existing volume from a marketplace to direct is often revenue-neutral or better in the first year, and the economics improve from there.
Making the Switch With Flipdish
Flipdish builds direct ordering for restaurants and takeaways in the UK and Ireland. You get:
- A branded ordering website that works properly on mobile
- iOS and Android apps under your own name
- The Flipdish POS, so online orders reach the kitchen without anyone retyping them
- Your customer data, plus AI marketing tools to use it
- A support team that knows how UK and Irish restaurants work
If you're on Foodhub now and want to see what direct ordering would look like for your business, visit Flipdish to book a demo or talk to the team.