---
title: "Deliveroo and Talabat, or Your Own Ordering Site?"
description: "Aggregators bring discovery and take commission. Your own site keeps the margin and the customer data. Why most Dubai restaurants should run both."
---

800website builds ordering sites and apps for F&B in Dubai. This comes up in every restaurant conversation, and the answer is rarely one or the other.

## Should restaurants use Deliveroo and Talabat or their own site?

**Both — aggregators for discovery, your own site for repeat orders.** They do different jobs and treating them as alternatives costs you either volume or margin.

Aggregators are genuinely good at one thing: putting you in front of people who do not know you exist and want food now. That reach is real and hard to replicate. What you pay for it is a commission on every order and, more importantly, the customer relationship — you do not learn who your regulars are, you cannot contact them, and you cannot bring them back without paying again.

Your own ordering site costs a fixed amount once and keeps both the margin and the data. What it does not do is find new customers on its own.

## What does the economics look like?

An ordering site with payments is around **AED 6,000** one-time — AED 3,500 for the build plus AED 2,500 for payment integration — with hosting at AED 2,400 a year after.

Against a commission per order on an aggregator, the site pays for itself once a modest share of your repeat customers order direct. The maths depends on your volume and commission rate, but the direction is consistent: discovery is worth paying commission for, repeat business is not.

The practical strategy most successful restaurants use: stay on the aggregators, and give every delivered order a reason to come direct next time — a card in the bag, a discount code that only works on your own site, a QR code on the packaging.

## How do I move customers to my own site?

- **Put something physical in every aggregator order** — a card with a direct-order discount.
- **Make direct cheaper**, explicitly. Customers understand commission and will act on the saving.
- **Use WhatsApp.** In this market it is often the highest-converting ordering channel, and it costs nothing.
- **Collect phone numbers** on direct orders and use them properly for genuine offers.
- **QR codes in-store** on tables, packaging and receipts.

None of this requires an app. A mobile ordering site plus WhatsApp covers most of it.

## When is aggregator-only the right call?

If you are a new cloud kitchen with no brand recognition and no marketing budget, aggregator-only is a reasonable start — you are buying discovery you cannot generate. The mistake is staying there indefinitely, because you never build an asset and your margin never improves.

Set a threshold: once you have consistent repeat volume, build the direct channel. That is usually sooner than restaurant owners expect.

See [restaurant website design in Dubai](https://800website.ae/restaurant-website-design-dubai/), [online ordering and e-commerce](https://800website.ae/ecommerce-website-development-dubai/), or [talk to us](https://800website.ae/contact/).

## Talk to us

800website is a Dubai web design and development agency with published fixed prices. Send the details and you get a fixed scope and a fixed price back — no hourly billing. [Contact us](https://800website.ae/contact/), [message us on WhatsApp](https://wa.link/800website), or call [+971 58 578 5380](tel:+971585785380).

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