Seamless vs Grubhub: The Difference Between the Two Food Delivery Platforms

When your stomach begins to growl and the mounting hunger builds up, many of us turn to our favorite on-demand food delivery app to alleviate the pain.

But which service should you turn to? Some go with the cheapest delivery option as their obvious choice. Others are limited to only one or two delivery services in their city.

If you’re not dying of hunger and have a minute to spare, it’d be nice to compare two of the most popular food delivery services out there — Grubhub and Seamless.

But wait a minute, aren’t these two food delivery companies one and the same? In short, yes they are, but there are a few differences we’d like to point out.

In this article, we’re going to discuss all the ways Grubhub and Seamless are the same as well as what makes them different. Let’s get started.

What Are Grubhub and Seamless?

Grubhub and Seamless are two on-demand food delivery services that deliver food orders from local restaurants to customers. Both of these companies provide customers with a convenient way to order and receive food, as well as employment for independent contractors looking to make some extra cash delivering orders.

To further explain, Grubhub and Seamless customers will log on to their mobile app and search for available restaurants in their city. Once they find the perfect choice that will satisfy their hunger, they’ll place their order and patiently wait.

In the meantime, a Grubhub or Seamless delivery driver will pick up their order from the restaurant and deliver it directly to the customer. Grubhub or Seamless will then pay the delivery driver a small fee for their service.

What some of you might not know is that regardless of which service you use — Grubhub or Seamless — you’ll be receiving your food order from the same drivers. That’s because Grubhub and Seamless are now the same company and mimic each other in more ways than one.

So, let’s see how we got here in the first place.

History of Grubhub and Seamless

The stories of Grubhub and Seamless started separately, yet both food delivery businesses were on the same path of simplifying the takeout order experience.

Seamless was founded in 1999 by two lawyers who wanted to upgrade the outdated paper menu experience and find a better way to order food out of the office. What first began as a web-based solution for businesses to conveniently order food from restaurants and caterers transformed into a direct-to-consumer food ordering app.

On a separate course, Grubhub was founded in 2004 by two web developers who found a similar frustration in the use of outdated paper takeout menus. As time went on, Grubhub continued to gain momentum receiving several rounds of funding and blossomed into a delivery service behemoth.

In 2013, Grubhub and Seamless combined forces and merged under the Grubhub portfolio of companies. The companies now dominate the industry and provide half a million daily orders to customers every single day.

But in terms of the ordering and delivery experience, how are these two any different from one another. Well, on the surface you may find a few cosmetic differences, but overall, these two services are virtually the same exact thing.

Difference Between Grubhub and Seamless

Grubhub and Seamless have the same business model and are closely aligned in every aspect of the delivery experience. Outside of some design and branding elements, the two services have the same functionalities, restaurants and city availability, and even the very same delivery drivers.

App Experience

To start off, we’ll point out the most obvious. There are still separate food delivery apps for both Grubhub and Seamless, however, the structure of the app and websites are merely identical. If you subtract the branding elements and logos of each company, you’d have a difficult time telling the two apart.

To give you an idea, below are screenshots from the Grubhub app and Seamless app side by side. As you can tell, the two are almost identical. The mobile app is no different. The functionalities are exactly the same.

If you think the Grubhub (L) and Seamless apps look remarkably similar, it’s because they’re owned by the same company.

Even more telling is the exact layout of each platforms website which is shown in the screenshot below — nearly identical in every way.

City Availability

Beyond the app experience, Grubhub and Seamless offer their services in the same exact cities. Where you have one, you have the other. It doesn’t matter if you’re in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, or San Francisco, you’ll always receive the same service.

The catch is that in some cases you’ll order from Seamless and receive your delivery from a Grubhub delivery person. No need to worry here, since your food will still be hot and at your door in a hurry.

Selection of Restaurants

Since these two delivery services have the same app interface and are offered in the same cities, you’d think they would include the same selection of restaurants. If that’s what you guessed, then you guessed right. You’ll be able to find all of the same restaurants on both delivery apps.

Price

Along with restaurant availability, the price of using each service is also the same. Once again, there’s no difference here. You’ll be able to order from whatever restaurant you’d like and find the same exact prices on both platforms.

Driver Experience

As we mentioned above, in some cases you’ll receive a Seamless delivery order from a Grubhub driver. This is because both platforms use the same exact drivers. But in all honesty, as long as your food is delivered quickly and still warm, does it matter which logo is on the delivery bag? Not from our point of view.

This also means that those who are thinking about driving for Seamless or Grubhub can sign up and deliver for both companies. If you’d like more information on how to sign up and drive for a Grubhub company, then you can check out our complete Grubhub driver guide.

Grubhub Portfolio of Brands

In addition to Grubhub and Seamless being virtually the same, there are several other companies that have been acquired over the years that contribute to the success and global footprint of the Grubhub family of companies. Let’s take a look at each one to see just how expansive Grubhub’s portfolio is.

LevelUp

LevelUp is a mobile food ordering and customer loyalty tool that Grubhub acquired in 2018 for $390 million. LevelUp connects consumers with restaurants and strengthened Grubhub’s delivery capabilities, online ordering, and in house point of sales systems for its restaurant partners.

Tapingo

Tapingo is like the Grubhub for college campuses. Tapingo was available in over 150 college campuses around the world when Grubhub purchased it in 2018 for around $150 million. This instantly boosted Grubhub’s network of restaurants and global reach, primarily with the younger college demographic.

Eat24

In 2017, Grubhub purchased Eat24 from Yelp for nearly $290 million. Eat24 was Yelp’s online food ordering platform and provided another delivery option for hungry consumers in a majority of major U.S. cities. After purchasing Eat24, Grubhub migrated all Eat24 users over to the Grubhub platform and no longer offers the Eat24 service. Sure, you can take a look at Eat24.com, but it will look exactly like Grubhub and you’ll be redirected to the Grubhub site upon signing up.

Allmenus

Allmenus was one of Grubhub’s earlier acquisitions and helped strengthen its mobile capabilities and expanded Grubhub’s footprint in the United States. Allmenus offers users the ability to see menus in their city and distinguishes between those that deliver and those that do not. If the restaurants offer delivery, there’s a link to order via Grubhub.

MenuPages

The MenuPages story is almost identical to Allmenus except for the fact that Seamless acquired this company in 2011. Offering almost the same service as Allmenus, MenuPages provides customers with menus in their city with the ability to order online or pickup. Now that Grubhub owns both companies, all deliveries are funneled to Grubhub drivers to complete the orders.

One and the Same

Now that you know Grubhub is the parent company to Seamless and that they both provide the same exact service, your decision as to which delivery platform you should use should be an easy one.

Between the two, it really doesn’t matter since you’re receiving the same exact service from the same exact drivers. If you’d like to further explore other food delivery platforms to find a better solution, then the options are aplenty.

Depending on which city you’re in, you may have access to delivery competitors like Uber Eats, DoorDash, Postmates, and Caviar. Shop around, sign up, and try out a few of these other delivery options to see which one you like best. Good luck!

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