On-Demand Food Delivery Platforms - Market, Trends & Opportunities

Food delivery platforms peaked in popularity during the pandemic years. Today, we see restaurants and retailers slowly recovering and focusing on integrating offline offerings with online tools. However, the ability to get any product at a convenient time with just a few clicks on a website or mobile app has forever changed consumer behavior.

According to Statista forecasts, revenue in the Online Food Delivery market is expected to reach US$429.95 billion in 2025 and show a projected market volume of US$563.39 billion i by 2029. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for 2025-2029 is estimated at 6.99%.

In this article, we look at food delivery trends for 2025 and answer the following questions:

• What is the outlook for the food delivery industry?
• In which countries is the delivery app market growing the fastest?
• Who are the top food delivery platforms?
• What features and services are customers looking for?
• How much does it cost to develop food delivery software?

The National Restaurant Association reports that more than half (52%) of U.S. consumers believe that ordering delivery and takeout from restaurants is an "essential part of their lifestyle" – and even more Millennials (67%) and Gen Zers (63%) feel this way.In fact, the users of online food ordering and delivery platform can be divided into 3 groups:

• Food suppliers (shops, restaurants, warehouses);
• Consumers;
• Couriers.

The last ones are the most interesting. They are also called the engines of the “gig economy.” These are independent contractors (e.g., drivers, bike couriers) who work part-time and determine their own hours of work.

Many gig economy workers work for companies that provide high-demand services, such as Uber (18% of total gig economy employment), PeoplePerHour (12%), Deliveroo (12%), and Fiverr (10%).

According to 2025 data, the global value of the gig economy with an estimated annual growth rate of 17.4%. The projections for 2030 predict that the market will exceed $600 billion, turning this direction into a crucial part of the global economy. In the U.S. only about 36% of the country's workforce is involved in the gig economy.

Foodtech companies choose the delivery format because of the benefits it brings to their operations and revenue growth. With delivery, you are not limited by location, and with good delivery logistics organization, you can find customers anywhere in your city. See more benefits here:

On-demand healthcare apps connect patients with physicians. They allow users to get comprehensive advice from their smartphones anytime, anywhere, 24/7.

These are the well-known Uber Freight and Uber Delivery, which allow you to get freight and package delivery services anytime. Why are they so popular? The benefits are as follows:

• Transportation of goods/parcels of different sizes without prior orders;
• Ability to exchange messages with the service provider;
• Fast cashless payments;
• Real-time tracking;
• Transparent pricing.

We can't imagine not using the app to order a taxi. If you are in a country where such services do not exist, you feel unprotected and with limited options. The list of examples could go on and on: Uber, Yandex in CIS countries, BiTaxi in Turkey, as well as Lyft, Juno, Flywheel Taxi and many others.

Why do we love them so much?

• GPS navigation and map navigation - never get lost;
• Communication between drivers and customers in the application;
• Feedback system that allows drivers and customers to share ratings and reviews.
• Ability to find the nearest taxi and save time;
• Transparent pricing.
• The ability to share a trip, share data and order for another person.

This is an ideal solution for those who need help with cleaning or any other work. They are not so developed in the CIS countries. But all over the world they are already using cleaning services or "husband for an hour" through applications such as TaskRabbit, Handy, Merry Maids, Homejoy and Slate.

Today, not having your own car is no longer a problem. With rental services like Turo, Avis Car Rental, Zipcar and easyCar, you can:

• Choose any available car;
• Receive roadside assistance 24 hours a day, 7 days a week;
• Request delivery or pickup.
• Book a car for an hour or a day.

You don't have to worry about maintenance or paying for parking. You just open the app, find the nearest car, and use it to get from point A to point B.

Have you heard of Uber Flowers, UrbanStems, Gyft or Giftagram? This is a lifesaver for those who forgot or did not have time to buy a gift, flowers or cake. Order and the recipient will have everything delivered right to their doorstep in no time. What are the advantages?

• There are many service providers, which means a wide range of products available;
• Transparent pricing;
• Delivery at any convenient time.

Grocery or food delivery anytime, anywhere is nothing new. Some of the best food delivery apps include Uber Eats, Instacart, Grubhub and Doordash, Wolt and dozens of others.

Grocery Ecommerce: How to Run a Successful Online Store. Instacart and Freshdirect example

In this article, we decided to compare two American services that provide food delivery services.

Read the article

The benefits are not only for users who can get their favorite restaurant meals without leaving home. But also for restaurant owners who want to increase the number of takeout orders.

B2C applications help customers and suppliers complete transactions. Examples: McDelivery, Booking.com, Starbucks. For example, Starbucks Online allows you to order and pay for coffee in advance, bypassing the line. Other examples of this model: UberEats for ordering food, Amazon for shopping and delivery.

B2B applications serve to communicate between companies and enable global transactions. Examples are Cargomatic, Eventio and Catalant.

B2B applications can also be divided into:

• Vertical – serving one industry sector
• Horizontal – serving several industries

Next, we will present successful examples of such a business model. And here is our case for creating a personal account for B2B business.

New website and personal account for B2B

We created a platform for a company that imports and distributes electronic components.

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Cargomatic is a platform that makes freight transportation easier for businesses by connecting companies in need of freight transportation with cargo owners, giving them access to available trucks and drivers.

Eventio is an application that helps companies and individuals find suitable event venues. Users can choose from a list of available venues and book additional services such as security, catering, cleaning, DJs/bands. Invited guests or the general public can purchase tickets through the app.

Catalant is a platform for project management and hiring freelancers. Companies can use Catalant to find specialized professionals on a project-based basis, allowing for more efficient task completion and workflow management.

These applications allow users on the platform to exchange products or services among themselves. Here all users are equal and are not considered entrepreneurs. This type of app is gaining popularity because it helps you save money. To avoid development pitfalls and security bugs read our article about launching a trustful P2P marketplace.

Successful platforms working on this model: BlaBlaCar, eBay and Etsy. This is how BlaBlaCar helps users find travel companions. They can search for or offer trips online, specifying details of departure and arrival, type of vehicle, conditions of transportation, number of people. When you find a suitable ride, you reserve a seat and the driver receives contact information for further details.

Having troubles while choosing the business model for a delivery app?

Max B., CEO

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Here are examples of how companies are leveraging the most common food delivery industry trends for 2025:

• Unmanned delivery by drones. For example, Amazon and UPS are experimenting with using unmanned drones to deliver products.
• Delivery using robots. Experiments are carried out by different market players. Starship Technologies is developing robotic couriers to deliver food and products over short distances. They partner with various restaurants and retailers.
• KiwiBot focuses on autonomous food delivery in urban areas. Their robots can navigate sidewalks and deliver orders to customers.
• Amazon is introducing robotic couriers called Amazon Scouts to deliver packages. These six-wheeled robots autonomously navigate sidewalks.
• Postmates, an American delivery service, introduced the Serve robot for autonomous delivery in urban areas.
• Domino's Pizza is testing pizza delivery robots in some regions.
• FedEx is developing SameDay Bot, a robot for autonomous package delivery in commercial and residential areas.

Delivery in self-driving cars. This trend will not be implemented soon, as these vehicles are still in the testing phase. But most likely, product delivery will be one of the first areas where they will be introduced. Currently, the following players are in the market: Waymo, Nuro, Uber ATG, Amazon Scout, Ford, Tesla and Baidu Apollo, which is developing the Apollo platform for autonomous vehicles and testing it in various scenarios, including delivery.

Subscription-based models. Take HelloFresh, a grocery delivery service that offers meal kit subscriptions and meal prep recipes. Or the similar Blue Apron. There's also Dollar Shave Club, a subscription company for razors and body care products.

Increasing number of payment methods. Today, customers expect a variety of payment options to make delivery services feel more flexible. Read about must-have variants here.

Virtual assistants and recommendations. Deep analytics and the ability to identify patterns in user behavior based on machine learning and artificial intelligence enable companies to make personalized offers to their customers.

Haunted/cloud kitchens. This direction, which is developing in parallel with ordering applications, will receive new impetus in the future. So among the predicted trends:

• Creation of specialized brands. Ghost kitchens may focus on creating concepts to cater to specific kitchen styles or foods, such as chains specializing in burgers, pizza, vegan cuisine, etc. For example, Virtual Dining Concepts.
• Opening small, highly efficient kitchens in strategic locations with high delivery demand to save on rental and management costs.
• Using data to optimize menus, prices, lead times and more to better meet market demands.
• Implementation of automated systems, robots and other technological solutions to improve the efficiency of preparation and delivery processes.

The most popular example in this direction today is CloudKitchens, which is a food delivery platform that provides infrastructure for creating and managing ghost kitchens.

The most common practice is to create separate applications for each user: customers, couriers and business owners. Let's look at them all.

Do you want to develop your own grocery or food delivery app? Or maybe you're more interested in something like Uber, but don't know how much it will cost? Let's try to calculate.

Last year, we completed the development of a food delivery app for a fast-growing restaurant chain that served over 600 orders per day. In addition to a catalog of complex settings in the delivery parameters (combo offers, upsell, dish format selection, and filter search settings), we also provided synchronization with the user's geolocation, loyalty program, and promotional activities.

On average, the cost of developing food delivery software is $60-80k, depending on the complexity of the functionality.

Yapoki: mobile delivery app for the future of the Enterprise

Here we’d like to share our experience in developing a delivery application with big ambitions and complex architecture. It all started with the customer's dream - make it like Enterprise (the direct reference was Dodo Pizza).

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In our other case, the development of a restaurant aggregator Tik-Tak, we offer users multiple delivery options: they can receive a purchase from the couriers to pick it up themselves. The business logic of the food delivery management software also included creating an app for restaurants to accept and track orders in real time.

In total, it took us 2,150 hours to create the app:

• backend development: 800 hours;
• iOS development: 300 hours;
• Android development: 350 hours;
• UI/UX design: 300 hours;
• QA testing: 400 hours.

The cost of launching the project with such complexity will cost $100k+

Come in for a consultation to get a complete estimate on food delivery software development

Max B., CEO

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First you need to decide what role you are going to play: an aggregator like Glovo, a restaurant chain, or a group of restaurateur friends banding together to make their delivery. Will you develop according to the Saas model or in addition to your brand? This generally does not change the development requirements, but it does change the priority in features.

Let's try to look at the main problems that delivery services are currently facing.

The main task of all times is to optimize the workload of couriers. With a minimum number of couriers, deliver products to the largest number in the shortest possible time.

What can we offer here? For example, build a solution on top of Mapsplatform using Google API. You can use Open Street Map and build your own logic. We’re experienced in both. It all depends on the task.

Most often, custom solutions are built relying on some geoservices (google maps, open street maps). There may be scenarios in which delivery is not lightning fast, but, for example, the next day. Or maybe you have tasks like: there are 4 couriers who are constantly in dynamics, and you need to manage the load between them in real time and determine from which points it is best to transport orders. Each business has its own logic, its own characteristics, so it is necessary to customize solutions for each.

To control standards, analytics, forecasting, and better customer experience, it is important for us to understand at any given time where and what is happening with us.

In the case of online food delivery platforms, the chain looks like this:

• The order entered the system, then, depending on the process, (most often) the manager processed and accepted the order, and sent it to production.
• Order movement in the kitchen, here they use a solution for tablets, where each stage of production is tracked and moved, as if on a Kanban board.
• Couriers have their own apps, in which they see optimized routes, track orders pick up and set off. Tracking most often occurs by scanning a QR code on each order. So the flow looks as follows: arrived, scanned the package/box on each code and went to deliver.

Thus, we understand where each order is located at every second. Based on this data, we see and eliminate bottlenecks.

For some reason, many people miss such a moment as hiring and training employees – this is also important in the food industry.It is necessary to take care of training employees, familiarize them with updated regulations and menus, conduct periodic certification, monitor sanitary documents, and check how well employees know and comply with customer service standards.

All this can be on third-party services, or maybe inside your system. Some people still have it on papers and in notepads.

Quite a lot of wine and food producers are faced with the fact that people get used to one assortment, and it is difficult to introduce new items into the assortment. Here, in addition to marketing, mechanisms automated in IT solutions can help, where, based on past data about the client, you can make him the best offers from new products.

The topic is close to the previous one. But here we are not even talking about upsale, cross sale (you already know about them), but about regular purchases, when the client buys the same thing. Predictions of regular purchases based on purchase information, consumption rate and expiration date. And also the use of AI for recommendations, for example, in the case when a person does not know what exactly he wants.

There are several trends in how food delivery app development can help you promote a more sustainable and responsible approach to food distribution and reduce food waste.

Charity and partnership platforms. Some food delivery apps partner with hunger relief organizations or charities to donate leftover food. This allows food that might otherwise be wasted to be used to support those in need.

Donation programs. Other apps allow restaurants and food providers to participate in donation programs where they can donate leftover food to charities or community kitchens.

Discount systems for balances. Platforms can implement discount systems or promotions to sell leftovers closer to the end of the working day. This encourages shoppers to purchase products at discounted prices, reducing the likelihood of food being thrown away.

Management programs. Applications can offer functionality that helps restaurants and cafes effectively plan and manage inventory, minimizing waste and excess inventory.

Product processing platforms. Some custom food delivery applications and platforms are developing schemes to recycle leftover food, for example by offering discounts on products that can be used to create new dishes.

Support for local manufacturers. Apps can actively support local producers and farms, which promotes the marketing of their products and reduces the risk of throwing away unsold goods.

Educational initiatives. Apps can conduct educational campaigns among restaurants and delivery partners, teaching them how to effectively manage leftovers and the nutritional value of food.

It is not necessary to implement a loyalty program “head-on”, although they certainly work. We have already shared various cases from our practice. But there are also subscriptions that provide unique benefits to visitors, and you – a permanent audience, which is more convenient to control and understand its size.

The delivery platform landscape continues to evolve rapidly, driven by advancements in AI, infrastructure optimization, and shifting business models. Here's what's shaping the industry right now — not as abstract possibilities, but as deployed systems generating measurable ROI for operators.

Most delivery platforms claim "personalization," but the gap between basic filtering and real personalization is enormous. In 2024-2025, we saw a shift from rule-based systems (if user ordered pizza twice → show pizza) to predictive models that analyze order timing, weather patterns, local events, and contextual signals.

Modern AI-driven personalization engines process behavioral data in real time: a user opening the app at 11 PM on Friday gets different recommendations than the same user at 7 AM on Tuesday. This isn't just clever UI — it directly impacts conversion. Platforms using predictive personalization report 15-25% higher order frequency compared to static menus.

The technical shift here is the move from centralized recommendation engines to edge-based models that run locally on mobile devices, reducing latency and improving responsiveness. For food delivery specifically, this means showing prep-time-aware suggestions: if the kitchen is slammed, the app can steer customers toward items with faster turnaround without explicitly revealing operational constraints.

At dev.family, we implemented adaptive menu prioritization for Yapoki — a system that dynamically adjusts product visibility based on kitchen load, ingredient availability, and predicted demand. The result: 22% reduction in order cancellations and 15% improvement in average ticket size because customers were offered items the kitchen could actually execute well under current conditions.

Yapoki: mobile delivery app for the future enterprise

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Delivery route optimization isn't new — but the sophistication level changed dramatically in 2025-2026. Traditional algorithms planned routes based on distance and historical traffic data. Modern systems factor in real-time inputs: current traffic conditions, courier fatigue levels, order complexity (pickup time variability), weather impact on travel speed, and predicted demand density in different zones.

Uber reports that AI-powered dynamic routing reduced average delivery times by 18% across its network by continuously re-optimizing routes as conditions change. For independent delivery platforms, this level of optimization was previously out of reach due to data volume requirements.

The breakthrough is the availability of open-source ML frameworks like RouteOptimization (built on OR-Tools) and integration with real-time traffic APIs (Google Maps Platform, HERE Technologies). Platforms can now deploy route optimization without needing Uber's engineering scale.

For dark kitchen operators, this matters because delivery time consistency directly impacts repeat order rates. A pizza arriving 25 minutes after ordering builds trust. The same pizza arriving anywhere between 20-50 minutes creates uncertainty and reduces retention. Route optimization turns delivery into a predictable operational metric rather than a variable one.

iOS 16 introduced Live Activities in 2022, but 2025-2026 marks its maturation as a delivery-critical feature. Live Activities display real-time order status directly on the iPhone lock screen without requiring users to open the app — showing preparation progress, courier location, and estimated arrival time in a persistent, glanceable widget.

For food delivery, this isn't just a UI nicety — it directly addresses the anxiety gap between order placement and arrival. Customers check order status an average of 4-6 times per delivery, and each app open introduces friction. Live Activities eliminate this by keeping status visible continuously, reducing customer support inquiries and improving perceived delivery speed (even when actual time remains constant).

DoorDash reported that implementing Live Activities reduced "Where is my order?" support tickets by 23% and increased customer satisfaction scores by 12% for iOS users. The technical challenge is maintaining WebSocket connections for real-time updates while minimizing battery drain — Live Activities use Apple's Push Notification service to deliver updates efficiently.

For independent delivery platforms, Live Activity implementation requires:

• ActivityKit integration in the iOS app (iOS 16.1+)
• Push notification infrastructure to deliver status updates from backend to device
• Real-time event streaming from kitchen/courier systems to update preparation and transit status
• Fallback UI for Android users (who don't have native Live Activities but can use persistent notifications)

We implemented Live Activity support in the Sizl mobile app rebuild, syncing order status across preparation stages (received → preparing → ready → in transit → delivered) with 15-second update intervals. The result: 31% reduction in "order status check" sessions and measurably improved retention (users who experienced Live Activity had 18% higher 30-day retention than those who ordered before the feature launch).

The broader trend here is transparency as competitive advantage. Delivery platforms that expose real-time operational details (estimated prep time, courier name/photo, exact GPS location, kitchen congestion status) build more trust than those that treat delivery as a black box between order and arrival. Live Activities are the technical mechanism for delivering that transparency without requiring active user engagement.

Live Activities in Foodtech: How One Feature Solves Three Business Problems

Want to understand when Live Activities make business sense for your delivery app? Read our deep dive

Read the article

Quick commerce (10-15 minute delivery) went from experiment to proven channel between 2023-2026. The technical challenge isn't speed for its own sake — it's building software that can manage hyper-local inventory in real time across distributed micro-fulfillment centers.

Getir, Gorillas, and Gopuff pioneered the dark store model — small warehouses (500-1000 sq ft) stocked with high-turnover items, positioned within 2km of dense residential areas. The software problem: synchronizing inventory across 50+ locations, predicting localized demand, and routing orders to the optimal fulfillment point without creating stockouts.

In 2026, the global quick commerce market reached $72.1 billion, with the U.S. representing approximately 28% of that total. This growth is driven by both consumer demand and infrastructure maturity.

The software architecture required here is different from traditional restaurant delivery. Instead of one kitchen fulfilling orders within a 5km radius, you have a network of micro-warehouses where each order needs intelligent routing: which location has the item in stock, which has available courier capacity, which can meet the 15-minute SLA given current traffic conditions.

Our work on the Sizl rider app addressed a piece of this puzzle: real-time order bundling and dynamic courier assignment that reduced average fulfillment time from 42 minutes to 28 minutes for a Chicago-based dark kitchen network. The system processes inventory sync, courier GPS tracking, and order prioritization simultaneously to route each delivery to the optimal courier-warehouse pairing.

Sizl: How We Launched a Rider App in Just 2.5 Weeks

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Aggregator fatigue is real. Restaurants paying 25-35% commission to DoorDash or Uber Eats are actively seeking alternatives — specifically, white-label ordering platforms that let them own customer data and reduce third-party dependency.

The shift toward white-label solutions accelerated in 2025-2026 as the total cost of aggregator dependence became clearer. Beyond commission rates, restaurants identified hidden costs: lack of customer data ownership (making retention impossible), menu display limitations, inability to implement custom loyalty programs, and vulnerability to algorithm changes that reduce visibility overnight.

Toast's 2025 Restaurant Technology Report shows that 67% of restaurant operators now prioritize direct ordering channels, up from 41% in 2023. White-label platforms provide the infrastructure for this shift: branded mobile apps, web ordering interfaces, integrated payment processing, and CRM tools that aggregate customer data across all channels.

For multi-location brands and dark kitchen operators, white-label systems create unit economics that aggregators can't match. A custom ordering app might cost $60-80K to develop but becomes ROI-positive within 12-18 months if order volume supports it. Year 2+ represents pure margin recovery.

We've built white-label ordering systems for multiple foodtech clients, most notably Yapoki (which now processes 200+ daily orders through its owned channel) and FoodClick (restaurant aggregator with integrated delivery management). The key technical challenge in white-label development is POS integration — without tight synchronization between ordering system, payment processing, and kitchen operations, the platform creates more operational chaos than it solves.

The best delivery platforms in 2026 aren't built as monoliths — they're orchestrators that connect best-in-class components. Payment processing (Stripe, Square), POS systems (Toast, Square, Clover), delivery logistics (in-house fleet management or third-party API integration), customer communication (SMS via Twilio, push notifications), and analytics (custom dashboards pulling from multiple data sources).

Platform differentiation increasingly comes from integration depth rather than feature breadth. A delivery app that seamlessly syncs with a restaurant's existing Toast POS provides more value than one with 50 standalone features that require manual data entry.

The technical shift here is the move toward API-first architecture and microservices. Rather than building every feature in-house, platforms expose well-documented APIs that allow third-party tools to plug in. For example, Sizl's architecture separates order management, rider dispatch, and admin panel into independent services that communicate via REST APIs — allowing each component to scale independently and swap out individual pieces without rebuilding the entire system.

This approach also reduces vendor lock-in for restaurants. Instead of being trapped in one platform's ecosystem, they can mix and match: use Platform A for ordering, Platform B for loyalty, and Platform C for delivery logistics, with all three connected via API integrations.

Ready to move beyond aggregator dependence? Book a consultation to discuss custom delivery platform development and white-label solutions tailored to your operational model.

Max B., CEO

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At the same time, I don’t think that things like chatbots and AI can greatly revolutionize the market right now. It's more of a fight for the last 5% of the audience. What is more important is service, brand, niche, region. If everything is clear here, you can think further.

Expand your delivery business now with our on-demand food delivery app development company. Drawing on our own experience in creating food delivery platforms, we will help you create reliable food delivery that meets the needs of both restaurants and customers. We'll help you stay competitive in the ever-evolving foodtech industry.