Just Eat vs. Deliveroo: Save 20% with Just Eat (but Save 20 minutes with Deliveroo)
by - November 29, 2018Most Brits love a good takeaway—and a good deal. But depending on how you've placed your delivery order, you might pay 10%, 20% or even 40% more for identical food from the same restaurant. For households ordering a takeaway once a week, choice of delivery service can impact their spending by hundreds of pounds per year.
In order to determine how prices compare at Deliveroo and Just Eat—two of the most popular food delivery services in the UK—we took a random sample of two dozen restaurants in London, Bristol, Bath, Manchester and Leeds that work with both companies. We then gathered prices for 2-3 main dishes, some sides and a drink from each restaurant, choosing their most popular dishes where they were identified—British favourites like Chicken Katsu Curry, Bolognese, Burgers, Margherita pizza and Coca Cola, depending on the cuisine.
The results reveal that while customers using Deliveroo will almost certainly get their meals faster, they'll pay more for their delivery than Just Eat customers. But there's a lot of variation in both food prices and delivery fees, and an interesting division among restaurants.
Just Eat vs. Deliveroo: How Food Prices Compare
On average, we found that customers pay 8% more for food from Deliveroo than Just Eat, when a restaurant is co-listed on both services, but there is a high degree of price variation from restaurant to restaurant.
In fact, restaurants that are co-listed on both services fall into one of two buckets: either the food prices are identical on Just Eat and Deliveroo or Deliveroo charges a premium for the same food. Of the two dozen co-listed restaurants in our study we found that 14 (58%) fell into the first bucket, with customers paying the same food prices regardless of delivery service. For the other 10 co-listed restaurants (42%) that fell into the other bucket (i.e., those with higher Deliveroo food prices), the data show food costs a whopping 19% more at Deliveroo than Just Eat.
| Comparing Food Prices: When do they Differ, and by How Much? | |
|---|---|
| Diners Pay the Same at Deliveroo and Just Eat | 58% of co-listed restaurants |
| Diners Pay 7% to 42% More (average 19%) at Deliveroo than Just East | 42% of co-listed restaurants |
When Deliveroo Charges More for the Same Restaurant Food
For co-listed restaurants with higher prices on Deliveroo, you'll pay on average 19% more for your food plus £1.70 extra in delivery charges using Deliveroo instead of Just Eat.
For an order size around £30, a diner could save around £6 on average by using Just Eat instead of Deliveroo, with a range of savings anywhere from a few quid up to £10 or more depending on the restaurant.
Note: Chart shows average costs of identical sample baskets of food serving 2 - 3 people from those co-listed restaurants where Deliveroo prices are higher.
Cost Comparison
When Deliveroo charges more than Just Eat, Deliveroo customers pay an estimated 24% more for these baskets than Just Eat customers (19% more for the food plus a larger fixed delivery fee).
We found the largest price difference at an Italian restaurant in Leeds, where a meal would cost around 40% more when ordered through Deliveroo. For example, their Linguine Alla Carbonara costs £7.50 at Just Eat but £10.95 at Deliveroo. Not only that, but customers pay an extra £1.50 in delivery charges when using Deliveroo at that restaurant. In cases like this, choosing Just Eat is clearly the money-saving choice.
Just Eat vs. Deliveroo: How Delivery Charges Compare
Delivery charges are on average £1.56 higher with Deliveroo than Just Eat for co-listed restaurants. Deliveroo delivery fees are a standard £2.50 across the board, unless you find a free delivery code promotion. For the restaurants in our study, Just Eat charges between £0 and £2.50 for delivery, with an average cost of £0.94 to bring food to your door. That means Deliveroo customers will pay around £1.50 more in delivery charges than Just Eat customers for a delivery from the same restaurant.
Comparing Delivery Fees
| Average Delivery Charge | |
|---|---|
| Deliveroo | £2.50 |
| Just Eat | £0.94 |
| Delivery Fee Savings with Just Eat | £1.56 |
In cases where food costs the same at Deliveroo and Just Eat, diners will still usually save money by ordering from Just Eat due to the difference in delivery charges. Of the dual-listed restaurants with identical food prices in our study, the average Just Eat delivery charge was £1.11 vs. the standard £2.50 Deliveroo charge—customers would save anywhere from £0 to £2.50 in delivery charges with Just Eat (£1.11 on average), depending on the restaurant.
Just Eat vs. Deliveroo: Delivery Times
Deliveroo customers can expect to receive their orders 19 minutes faster than Just East customers. We collected estimated delivery windows for the two dozen restaurants in our study at 7 pm on a weekday to see how quickly diners can get their food. According to the data, estimated delivery times are significantly shorter with Deliveroo—34 minutes on average for Deliveroo vs. 53 minutes for Just Eat.
Comparing Estimated Delivery Times
| Minimum | Maximum | Average | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Just Eat | 46 minutes | 61 minutes | 53 minutes |
| Deliveroo | 29 minutes | 40 minutes | 34 minutes |
| Delivery Time Savings with Deliveroo | 19 minutes |
Deliveroo is Quicker
For our study of two dozen co-listed restaurants, we found average estimated delivery times to be 19 minutes quicker with Deliveroo.
Just Eat vs. Deliveroo: Average Estimated Delivery Times
When Deliveroo is Better Than Just Eat
Besides shorter estimated delivery times, there are a few additional circumstances when Deliveroo may be the better option for you. For instance, if you want to order from one of the many restaurants with an exclusive Deliveroo relationship, Deliveroo is your only food delivery option.
Deliveroo may also shine when it comes to some smaller orders, depending on the restaurant. We found orders placed via Deliveroo were less likely to be subject to restrictive minimum order amounts, perhaps due to their £2.50 standard delivery charge. If you want to place a small order (e.g., dinner for one) then you may have more success submitting an order through Deliveroo.
Conclusion
Households placing a takeaway order once a week for around £30 (from a co-listed restaurant) could save anywhere from £60 to £350 each year by choosing Just Eat. Before placing an order on Deliveroo, check to see if your restaurant of choice works with Just Eat as well. Generally speaking, if you spot check prices of a few of the main dishes on each service, you'll gain a quick understanding of any price differences that exist (e.g., you don't need to mock up your entire order in the basket on each service).
If satisfying your hunger is the number one priority, however, Deliveroo is likely to arrive on your doorstep sooner.
Methodology
We analysed the most recent market data (from April 2018) on the cost of meal deliveries from competing food delivery services Deliveroo and Just Eat, in order to determine how their prices compare. We first took a random selection of restaurants that are listed on both Deliveroo and Just Eat. For these restaurants, we gathered data on both delivery fees and food costs in order to get an accurate representation of all-in delivery costs to customers. For each restaurant we priced a number of the exact same dishes with each delivery service, using a restaurant's most popular dishes where listed. We also gathered each service's estimated delivery window at 7 pm on a weekday to calculate average delivery time estimates. To get an accurate representation across England, our sample set included restaurants in London, Leeds, Manchester, Bath and Bristol.
Just Eat vs. Deliveroo: Restaurant Pricing and Delivery Fee Data
| Restaurant | Deliveroo Food Prices Higher Than Just Eat by… | Delivery Fees | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Just Eat | Deliveroo | ||
| 1 | 42% | £1 | £2.50 |
| 2 | 24% | £2 | £2.50 |
| 3 | 24% | £2 | £2.50 |
| 4 | 23% | £0 | £2.50 |
| 5 | 19% | £1 | £2.50 |
| 6 | 17% | £1 | £2.50 |
| 7 | 15% | £0 | £2.50 |
| 8 | 12% | £0 | £2.50 |
| 9 | 9% | £1 | £2.50 |
| 10 | 7% | £0 | £2.50 |
| 11 | 0% | £2.50 | £2.50 |
| 12 | 0% | £2.50 | £2.50 |
| 13 | 0% | £2.50 | £2.50 |
| 14 | 0% | £2.50 | £2.50 |
| 15 | 0% | £0 | £2.50 |
| 16 | 0% | £1.50 | £2.50 |
| 17 | 0% | £2 | £2.50 |
| 18 | 0% | £1 | £2.50 |
| 19 | 0% | £0 | £2.50 |
| 20 | 0% | £0 | £2.50 |
| 21 | 0% | £1 | £2.50 |
| 22 | 0% | £2.50 | £2.50 |
| 23 | 0% | £0 | £2.50 |
| 24 | 0% | £0 | £2.50 |
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