Enter your search term

Search by title or post keyword

The Best Online Food Delivery Apps in the World

Being able to summon your favorite foods to your door without needing to speak to anyone on the phone or have cash on hand is one of the most wonderful inventions of the last 50 years.

It’s convenient, can be healthy, and is used by nearly everyone who lives somewhere where food delivery is an option in the United States and around the world.

The convenience of being able to order delivery isn’t limited to just the major cities like New York City and Seattle but is available in smaller ones like Daytona Beach and Davenport.

You just need to load up your preferred food delivery app, choose your food items, enter your preferred payment method and your delivery address, and the app will take care of the rest of the process.

Food delivery usually costs a few dollars in fees and tips but it’s worth every penny for saving you the trouble of grocery shopping and cooking.

Whether you’re looking for a fancy meal or your fast food fix and are in the United States or abroad, this article will walk you through everything you need to know about the top food delivery apps of 2020.

We’ll cover Grubhub, DoorDash, Uber Eats, Caviar, Postmates, Just Eat, Deliveroo, and even Blue Apron, for when you feel like cooking without the headache of shopping and finding a recipe.

The Best Online Food Delivery Apps (Overview)

We’ve included an overview of our top picks below. For detailed information on each pick, scroll down.

  1. Grubhub
  2. DoorDash
  3. Uber Eats
  4. Caviar
  5. Postmates
  6. Just Eat
  7. Deliveroo
  8. Blue Apron

Grubhub

Online food delivery: Grubhub
Grubhub is based in Chicago and is one of the biggest and most popular food delivery services in the United States.

Grubhub was established in 2004 as an alternative to paper menus but soon pivoted to become the popular food delivery service it is today.

After this pivot, Grubhub started a vigorous expansion across the United States and into London and an equally bold acquisition strategy of other startups in the food delivery space.

Grubhub Inc. owns several other food delivery companies including Seamless, MenuPages, AllMenus, OrderUp, Delivered Dish, Restaurants on the Run, Eat24, LAbite, and DiningIn.

Grubhub’s group of companies process over 467,500 orders on a daily basis in over 2,000 cities in the United States.

Grubhub Inc. has over 105,000 partner restaurants serving nearly 18 million hungry diners.

DoorDash

Online food delivery: DoorDash
DoorDash is currently one of the smaller online food delivery companies but it is rapidly expanding.

Founded just a few years ago in 2013 in Palo Alto, California, DoorDash is already operating in over 600 American and Canadian cities and is eyeing additional international expansion.

DoorDash offers delivery from a wide range of local restaurants, including fast food restaurants like McDonald’s and Wendy’s.

If DoorDash operates in your city, you may see some of your favorite restaurants on the DoorDash platform but not anywhere else.

This is because DoorDash makes a special effort to partner with local restaurants and not just national or multi-city chain restaurants.

Uber Eats

Online food delivery: Uber Eats
Uber Eats was launched in 2014 and is based in San Francisco, California.

As a newer branch of the popular Uber rideshare brand, Uber Eats allows you to enjoy your favorite local restaurant’s cuisine from the comfort of your own home.

To use Uber Eats, you’ll need to download the Uber Eats app and to set up a new account on the Uber Eats app.

Because Uber Eats operates in the same markets as Uber, many Uber rideshare drivers also work for Uber Eats as a way to stay busy when people would rather have food delivered than hail a ride to go out to eat.

So you might have Uber Eats driver bring you home from the bar one night and deliver your hangover cure the next day.

He’s just leveraging his ability to work for both services.

Caviar

Online food delivery: Caviar
Caviar is a food delivery service created by Square, Inc. which partners with high-end local restaurants.

Because Caviar focuses on working with restaurants that wouldn’t typically offer delivery, Caviar works hard to ensure that the delivery service model makes sense for the restaurants on its platform.

This means allowing restaurants to have more control over their delivery services including setting special delivery menus, pausing delivery service, and more.

If you’d like to order from a high-end restaurant that really prioritizes in-house dining and would never want to have a large percentage of their business come from delivery orders, consider Caviar.

You may not find your favorite high-end local restaurant on the platform, but if you don’t find it on Caviar, you won’t find it anywhere online.

(And if you don’t find it on Caviar, you can always suggest the restaurant pair up with Caviar by sending them this link.)

Postmates

Online food delivery: Postmates
Postmates started out as a grocery delivery service but soon realized that prepared food delivery was an even bigger market they should be serving.

Postmates now offers food delivery from local restaurants in over 550 cities in the United States and has already expanded internationally to Mexico with additional international expansion planned in the coming years.

Postmates offers restaurant food delivery in addition to the delivery of everything from beer for your Friday night party to your weekly groceries.

If you’re looking for just one service you can use for all your delivery needs, Postmates is your best bet.

Just Eat

Online food delivery: Just Eat
Founded in Denmark in 2000, Just Eat is a popular international food delivery option that operates in 13 countries. However, none of these countries are the United States, so you’ll need to head to Mexico or Norway or New Zealand in order to be able to use Just Eat to order food to your home or office.

Like Grubhub, Inc, Just Eat has made a habit of acquiring competitors including Skip The Dishes in Canada.

Skip the Dishes operates in some cities in the United States, including St. Louis, Omaha, Buffalo, and Cincinnati.

So while you can’t use Just Eat in the United States, you can use Skip the Dishes in certain cities.

Deliveroo

Online food delivery: Deliveroo
Deliveroo was founded in 2013 by Will Shu.

After moving from New York City to London, Shu was annoyed by how difficult it was to get food delivered from local restaurants while he was at work and decided to bring the concept of restaurant delivery to the United Kingdom.

Shu’s frustration led to the founding of Deliveroo, which now operates in over 200 cities in 14 countries, including the United Kingdom and several European markets.

Deliveroo has not yet expanded to the United States, most likely due to the abundant competition here, but if you’re outside the USA and looking for a good food delivery service, Deliveroo might be just what you’re looking for.

You can check if Deliveroo operates in your country and city by clicking here.

Blue Apron

Online food delivery: Blue Apron
If you don’t mind cooking but hate the grocery shopping and prep work, you may be interested in a meal-in-a-box kit service like Blue Apron, which takes all the planning and prep out of your culinary adventures but still allows you to control the ratios of unhealthy ingredients like butter and salt in your meals.

Blue Apron is the most popular of the meal kits on the market today, although companies like HelloFresh and Plated are slowly stealing some of their market share in some cities.

Many Blue Apron subscribers love the service for taking the planning and prep out of their meals and for the ability to add Blue Apron Wines to their weekly menus.

If you’d like to keep your meals simple but healthy, and generally cheaper than food delivery from local restaurants, a meal kit service like Blue Apron may be for you.

Online Food Delivery Makes Mealtimes Easy

It’s the little things that make our hectic lives so much easier.

It’s simple to order food to your house, whether it’s McDonald’s or the fancy local restaurant that doesn’t usually do delivery.

Plus, you can have healthy prepped food and wine pairings show up on a weekly basis if your healthier diet or tighter budget means normal food delivery isn’t a great fit.

Regardless of your dietary preferences and location, you can now skip the grocery store trip and just order your meals to your house for your leisurely consumption.

Whatever you choose to eat, your mealtimes can now be much easier thanks to the online food delivery services listed above.

[gw_subscribe style=”circles”]

Leave a Comment

FRH Article Default
  • App-based-gig

How DoorDash Contract Violations Work & How To Avoid Them

March 4, 2024
8 min read
FRH Article Default
  • App-based-gig

Instacart Background Check: What You Need to Know

February 23, 2024
6 min read
FRH Article Default
  • App-based-gig

DoorDash Scams That Target Customers & Drivers

February 22, 2024
4 min read

Explore More within Gigworker

Other App-Based Gigs
Get to work faster with jobs in the gig worker industry.
post explore

Browse Our Gig Headquarters

The gig economy is booming, and thanks to COVID-19, more people than ever are getting involved. But what is this new sharing economy and how does it work?

Important Gig Economy #Fundamentals to Understand

gigworker logo icon
What is the Gig Economy?

Member’s Area

Unlock access to forums, groups, downloadable content, exclusive courses, and more – just for members.

Create an Account

Side Hustle Ideas

Get inspired with our list of 750+ side hustles. Sort by category, rating, and other custom taxonomies.

Browse Side Hustles

Gig Companies

Browse our complete list of gig economy companies, and the gigs they’re hiring for.

Helpful Content

Read thousands of informative posts, written specifically to help you excel in your favorite gigs.