ezCater vs direct catering orders

Marketplaces like ezCater put your restaurant in front of office buyers who are already looking for catering. Direct orders come to you without a commission. Most restaurants should not treat this as either-or. The useful question is which orders belong where.

What ezCater charges restaurants in 2026

From ezCater's 2026 Getting Started Guide for restaurant partners (PDF, read November 2, 2026):

ezCater's Dispatch delivery service has its own charges on top. Check your own agreement, because it overrides any published rate.

What that means on a $500 order

Say $500 of food, a $30 delivery fee you deliver yourself, $40 tax: - Commission: 15% of $530 = $79.50 - Processing: 2.99% of $570 = $17.04 - Total: $96.54, before your food, packaging, labor and driver costs

Through ezCater's Online Ordering on your own site, the commission on the same order would be 7% of $530 = $37.10.

What ezCater gives you for it

• Buyers you would not otherwise reach. ezCater describes itself as working with more than 125,000 restaurant partners and serving workplaces across the US (ezCater, May 2026).
• Order sizes that make the commission bearable. Restaurant Dive reported ezCater orders are typically above $400 and the average order serves 23 people (Restaurant Dive, January 2025).
• Infrastructure: ordering, payment, tracking and support.
• New customer exposure. In ezCater's 2026 survey, 62% of employees later ordered from a restaurant they first tried at work.

What you give up

• Margin on every order, forever. The tenth order from the same office pays the same 15% as the first.
• The relationship. Marketplace buyers are the platform's customers. Contact rules apply, and the next time they search, you compete with everyone else on the page again.
• Control over presentation and ranking inside the marketplace.

DoorDash and other options

DoorDash for Business launched tray-style catering for workplaces in April 2026, available at launch in San Francisco and New York, with orders scheduled up to 14 days ahead, plus Meal Manager for recurring office meals (DoorDash, April 2026). Grubhub, Uber Eats, ZeroCater, CaterCow and others also sell into offices with their own terms. Read each contract for commission, delivery terms and who owns the customer data.

When marketplace orders make sense

• You have kitchen capacity at lunch that is going unused.
• You are new to catering and want to learn what sells before building your own program.
• The order would not have come to you otherwise.
• The order still contributes after commission, processing and fulfillment.

When direct orders make sense

• Repeat accounts. Once an office orders regularly, the commission adds up.
• Larger events where the relationship and the details matter.
• Customers who already know you: regulars, past event hosts, nearby offices.

The real cost of direct orders

Direct does not mean free. You still pay card processing, possibly ordering software, delivery, and whatever it cost to find that customer (outreach time, ads, samples). The honest comparison is:

Marketplace: commission on every order Direct: acquisition cost once, then lower cost on repeat orders

If you spend money to win an office account and it orders every two weeks, the direct path usually wins over a year. If a customer orders once and never again, the marketplace commission may have been the cheaper way to get that one order.

A sensible split for most independents

1. Stay on a marketplace for discovery if the orders are profitable.
2. Build a direct catering page with packages, prices and a simple inquiry form.
3. Put your catering link on your Google Business Profile, receipts and bags.
4. Run outreach or ads to bring in direct inquiries from offices and event planners near you.
5. Treat every repeat account as something to serve directly where the platform's terms allow it.

Common questions

How much does ezCater charge restaurants?

Per ezCater's 2026 partner guide: 15% commission on marketplace orders, 7% on Online Ordering orders placed through your own site, both on food plus delivery fee, and 2.99% payment processing on food, delivery and tax.

Is ezCater worth it for a small restaurant?

It can be, if you have lunch capacity and the orders contribute after fees. It works best as one channel next to a direct catering program, not as the whole program.

Can I move ezCater customers to direct ordering?

Marketplace buyers are the platform's customers and its rules apply. Focus direct efforts on customers who come to you through your own channels.

What is the difference between ezCater and DoorDash catering?

ezCater is built around workplace catering. DoorDash launched tray-style workplace catering in April 2026 in select markets alongside its regular delivery app. Terms and reach differ by market.

Build the direct side

ModernClicks helps independent restaurants build direct catering demand: Meta ads that bring inquiries from people planning office lunches, private events and larger events, delivered straight to your own pipeline with no commission on the order. Book a call to see whether it fits.