7 Best Food Delivery Software for Restaurants in 2023

Shipday’s baseline delivery tools are available to small restaurants for absolutely no monthly fee. You can use 10 drivers, sync with the free attached driver app, track drivers in real time, and log proof of delivery images. At the free tier, the only tools you are missing are integrations with third-party services and live customer support. If you have questions or need assistance, you’ll only have access to email support.

Like the others in this guide, Shipday includes a free, affiliated driver app. Your drivers download the app from the App Store and Google Play and start receiving orders and delivery instructions in moments.

Even Starter subscribers can prompt drivers to collect signatures or capture images to prove an order was delivered or received. This feature helps prevent “friendly fraud,” or refund requests from customers who claim they never received their orders.

Shipday provides a comprehensive online support website that includes detailed video tutorials for granular tasks. Various help sections contain training videos for dispatchers, drivers, and owners.

Tookan supports a ton of built-in integrations for everything from payments to POS to messaging. Top restaurant POS systems like Square and Revel Systems are present, as are popular ecommerce platforms like GloriaFood, Shopify, and WooCommerce. If you can’t find a prebuilt integration that works for you, Tookan has an open application programming interface (API), which allows you to build custom integrations, and you can connect Tookan to any other app that integrates with Zapier.

Tookan Agent is a free app that connects your driver team to your dispatch dashboard. Your drivers can download it from the App Store and Google Play and start receiving orders and driving directions on their phones.

Tookan tracks cash transactions for individual drivers; it calls this the “Agent Wallet.” This feature enables restaurants to sidestep card-not-present transaction fees from its credit card processor by accepting customers’ cash payments upon delivery.

24/7 Customer Support: Restaurants tend to be busiest after traditional business hours. Tookan provides 24/7 customer support, so even small, tech-phobic restaurant owners can connect with a live person when they run into trouble.

Learn more about cash on delivery and how it works for small businesses.

If you’re unsure if Tookan will work for your food delivery operation, you can try the system free for 14 days. This is shorter than trials for Shipday and GetSwift (30 days), but at least Tookan offers a free trial—OnTime 360, DoorDash Drive, and Revel Systems do not.

OnTime 360 has what it calls “Smart Client Technology.” Restaurants using cloud POS systems will more readily recognize this as offline functionality. Essentially, your OnTime 360 data is backed up on the cloud, and the system regularly syncs all connected devices, so you and your drivers never lose necessary information in the middle of a delivery. Once your devices regain internet or cellular service, all outstanding data automatically updates.

High-volume restaurants process a lot of data. When you add delivery to the mix, that data can double. OnTime 360 allows you to easily search delivery logs to find a specific customer or delivery ticket. You start typing in the search box, and OnTime will automatically search across all of your records for matching information.

This searchability extends to drivers and customer information. Your drivers can look up a specific customer to find delivery instructions or contact information in the field.

At higher tiers, OnTime 360 really shines with HIPPA- and GDPR-compliant software features. This, with a built-out customer web portal, makes the pricier tiers really stand out for business operators willing to spend the money.

Card-not-present processing fees can be a drag on delivery restaurants’ bottom lines. Especially if your restaurant is high volume, you lose a lot of money to card-not-present fees. OnTime 360 allows you to direct your drivers to accept cash upon delivery. You can include an optional customer signature on drivers’ mobile device screens to confirm delivery too.

In the GetSwift app, you can track delivery couriers who deliver on bicycles, on foot, or via public transportation. Of course, you can also track cars. But in compact city centers, bikes, scooters, and on-foot couriers can be more nimble and deliver faster.

GetSwift hosts a comprehensive online database of training videos for managers, dispatchers, and drivers. The user interface is straightforward to navigate, and the tutorials are friendly and easy to follow.

If you’re uncertain about committing 29 cents per delivery sight unseen, GetSwift will waive your delivery fees for the first 30 days.

To get started with GetSwift, you add credit to your account. As you use the GetSwift tools, your credits are depleted. The credit never expires, so if you have a slow month of deliveries, you aren’t out of pocket. There are no contracts; you can use GetSwift as much or little as you like.

Like Tookan, GetSwift allows you to track cash payments made to each of your couriers. At the end of their shifts, you can cash out your delivery team in much the same way as you cash out servers in your dining room.

Revel Systems is the most comprehensive iPad restaurant POS on the market. This massive solution has all the functionality of the classic legacy POS systems with the accessibility of modern cloud-based tools. You get ingredient-level inventory with vendor management, inventory-counting smartphone apps, integrated online ordering, employee management, and complex combo-building—all alongside the delivery tools.

Like Tookan, Revel integrates with Twilio to support two-way SMS between your drivers and customers. This integration gives your delivery operation the polish of a much larger delivery platform, all while keeping your deliveries centralized in your POS.

An integrated driver app is not uncommon for delivery software. All of the systems on this list have one, but Revel is the only cloud POS system that includes a built-in driver smartphone app. If you want the convenience of a POS-built delivery system with the functionality of a standalone delivery solution, Revel is a great fit.

Since Revel is a full-blown POS, it comes with strong customer training and support features. In fact, Revel’s customer support options are the strongest on this list. Users can access a comprehensive online knowledge base any time, reach a live support rep 24/7, request one-on-one training sessions for their staff, and even get onsite, in-person training. There may be fees for onsite training; you’ll need to contact Revel for a quote.

Revel touts its dashboard as a key feature—and for good reason. A crisp and well-built dashboard that highlights all essential information during operations is what Revel offers with its software. This is highly useful during high-traffic periods when getting orders right for customer satisfaction is key.

DoorDash Drive takes care of all the driver management functions. You won’t need to track driver tips, assign routes, or reimburse for gas and mileage. DoorDash Drive is the only system on this list that handles your driver team for you.

With flat-rate per delivery fees, you can pay as you go; you’ll be charged only for the deliveries that you need.

The DoorDash Drive portal shows driver locations on a live map. So, you can track your food en route and know exactly where drivers are located if there are delays.

Using DoorDash Drive, your customers will experience Uber-like delivery efficiency, with your restaurant branding. This is called white-labeling.

Your Toast system will alert customers—and your staff—when an order is marked as complete on your kitchen display system (KDS) screen. This stops short of comprehensive delivery status updates, but it is automated and incredibly user-friendly.

Toast gives you the option to hail third-party delivery drivers on-demand via an integration with DoorDash Drive. So you can sidestep the high commission fees of using third-party online ordering platforms, but get the convenience of third-party drivers for a flat, per-delivery fee.

If you prefer to manage third-party online ordering and delivery via your POS, Toast integrates directly with DoorDash, Grubhub, and UberEats. Most other restaurant POS systems require a middleman plug-in app like Deliverect—and its attendant fees—to route third-party orders to your POS orderstream. You can use any of these integrations alongside a team of in-house drivers for a combination delivery strategy.