While the food delivery industry is booming with dozens of local and national food delivery services like Seamless, Uber Eats, and Postmates, two of the most popular delivery services in the United States are Grubhub and DoorDash.
But if you’re hungry for food from a delivery app and can’t pick between these two industry giants, how do the two compare?
In this article we’ll break it all down for you and walk you through what Grubhub and DoorDash are, and compare who has better availability, better restaurant options, and better deals, as well as which food delivery service is easier to use and who has better customer support, should you need them.
And at the end, we’ll let you know whether DoorDash or Grubhub won.
So let’s get started.
What Is Grubhub?
Founded in 2014, Grubhub is one of the largest food delivery services in the United States.
Grubhub Inc. owns several local food delivery companies including Seamless, AllMenus, MenuPages, OrderUp, Delivered Dish, LAbite, Restaurants on the Run, Eat24, and DiningIn.
Grubhub has 17.7 million active users who are placing 467,600 daily food delivery orders.
What Is DoorDash?
DoorDash is an on-demand food delivery service founded in 2013 by four Stanford students: Andy Fang, Stanley Tang, Tony Xu, and Evan Moore.
DoorDash is primarily a food delivery service operating in the United States and Canada, although, in 2018, DoorDash partnered with Walmart to provide grocery delivery services in Atlanta, Georgia.
Who Has Better Availability?
No matter how great an app or delivery service may be, if it isn’t available where you live and work, it’s pretty irrelevant to your life.
While DoorDash operates in a respectable 600 Canadian and U.S. cities, Grubhub has one of the largest market shares of any food delivery app, operating in 2,000 cities in the United States and in London.
Winner for Availability: Grubhub
Who Has Better Restaurant Choices?
Even if a food delivery app is in your city, if it doesn’t deliver from your favorite restaurants, it doesn’t do you much good.
As of the beginning of 2019, Grubhub officially had 105,000 partner restaurants.
DoorDash does not tell the public how many restaurant partners it has.
Given that DoorDash is available in fewer cities than Grubhub is, DoorDash’s overall number of restaurant partners is bound to be smaller.
However, on a city-to-city basis, it’s possible that DoorDash could have more local partner restaurants.
You can check if DoorDash operates in your city and if so, what the available restaurant partners nearby by opening the app and entering your address.
Winner for Restaurant Choices: Grubhub
Who Has Better Deals?
There are lots of variables when it comes to what you pay for food delivery, including service fees and available promo codes.
Let’s explore these further.
Delivery Fees
While Grubhub doesn’t charge users a delivery service fee, partner restaurants on both platforms can choose to do so.
The typical delivery fee on Grubhub is less than $7, although delivery fees on the platform can range from $0 to $10.
DoorDash delivery fees tend to be between $5 and $8, but frequent DoorDash customers can save big by subscribing to DashPass, a $9.99 per month flat fee that eliminates individual delivery fees on orders of $15 or more.
DashPass subscribers who frequently order delivery can see the delivery fee savings add up quickly.
Winner: DoorDash
New User and Existing User Promo Codes
Grubhub is known for always having a special offer running for new users.
If you’re new to this service, you can take advantage of the promo codes Grubub offers new users.
A Grubhub new user promo code will always give you a discount on your first order but there are also ongoing coupon codes for existing users.
These savings can really add up.
DoordDash promo codes that the company offers unlock the ability to save money on your first order.
These referral codes can come from a friend, family member, or helpful user site.
DoorDash doesn’t tend to have as many ongoing coupon codes for existing users, although restaurants can choose to offer their own codes on the DoorDash platform.
Discounts are also common around holidays.
Winner: Tie
Free Delivery Offers
As part of its ongoing offers to new and existing Grubhub users, Grubhub always has free delivery offers for a specific restaurant or chain.
Grubhub also allows partner restaurants to discount their delivery fees and to offer free delivery.
The best way to get something close to free delivery with DoorDash is to sign up for DashPass (a flat-rate monthly delivery fee) and order from restaurants that don’t charge additional fees.
Winner: Grubhub
Referral Credits
One of the best ways to save money on your Grubhub orders is to earn money by referring friends, family, and social media followers to Grubhub for their first orders of $15 or more.
While the amount you earn will vary, it is usually between $10 and $15 per referral.
You will earn the credit after the first order is placed, not after the account is created.
Your referral credits will never expire but are only applicable to the food portion of your restaurant order.
DoorDash also offers a new user referral program with varying referral earnings.
You’ll have to check your account to see what you can earn from referring a new user to DoorDash for their first order.
DoorDash referral credits do not expire.
Winner: Tie
Student Discounts
If you can prove that you’re a current student at an American, degree-granting, Title IV school, you can take advantage of the student discounts Grubhub now offers at restaurants around college campuses.
While not all restaurants nor all college campuses have student discounts, these discounts can be very helpful and are not very well known.
DoorDash does not offer student discounts.
Winner: Grubhub
While both Grubhub and DoorDash offer deals to their users, the deal offers aren’t always equal and sometimes there is a clear winner.
If you’re a college student, the ability to access student discounts on Grubhub might outweigh everything else on DoorDash, making it the best platform for you.
Or if you order several times a week, you may find DashPass saves you more money than Grubhub deals at comparable restaurants.
Every user’s needs are different but when you compare the offers without any biases, there is an overall winner for best deals offered.
Overall Winner for Deals: Grubhub
Who Is Easier to Use?
Both DoorDash and Grubhub offer the ability to order on their websites or through their mobile apps, which are available on both the iOS and Google Play stores.
The ordering process for both DoorDash and Grubhub is approximately the same number of steps from browsing the confirmation.
For both food delivery services, you’ll be able to see delivery time estimates prior to placing the food order and you’ll have the choice between multiple payment options, including debit cards, credit cards, Venmo, PayPal, and Android/Apple Pay.
Winner for Ease of Use: Tie
Who Has Better Customer Service?
While both Grubhub drivers and DoorDash drivers are known for being friendly and helpful, the ability to reach an actual customer support team member varies greatly between the two food delivery services.
Grubhub has a robust support FAQ section of their website in case you have a simple query.
They also offer the ability to call support at 1 (877) 585-1085 or to chat with customer service online by visiting their website and scrolling down to select the blue “Chat with us” button.
Grubhub chat support is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
DoorDash also has a fairly comprehensive support FAQ section on their website.
If you’d like to speak to a real human being, you can call 1 (855) 973-1040.
That number is for customers, dashers, and restaurants, so you will need to navigate an automated menu.
During busy periods, you may need hold for several minutes before a support team member will be available to help you.
You can also contact DoorDash customer support by emailing [email protected].
A support team member will usually respond with 24 hours.
Winner for Customer Service: Grubhub
DoorDash vs Grubhub: The Winner Is…
The clear winner in this comparison of food delivery services is Grubhub.
While DoorDash does have a great flat-rate delivery fee offer with DashPass, Grubhub offers so many discounts to new and existing users that delivery fees tend to be irrelevant.
Grubhub also has a more easily accessible customer support team and a greater market share in terms of cities and partner restaurants.
That said, your specific city might be a DoorDash city, where all the best restaurants are on the DoorDash platform.
Both Grubhub and DoorDash are excellent restaurant delivery services and if both exist in your city, you should give both a try.
If nothing else, you’ll get to take both services up on their “new user” promo codes and save some money while enjoying your favorite foods.
[gw_subscribe style=”circles”]
