Ask any dark kitchen operator in London what keeps them up at night and there’s a reasonable chance the answer involves commission rates. Platform fees are one of the most significant – and least talked about – cost pressures facing delivery-only food businesses today. Yet for many operators, the numbers don’t get properly interrogated until margins are already under strain.
Platform margins for dark kitchens are genuinely complex. It’s not just about headline commission percentages. It’s about how different platforms structure their fees, how visible they make your brand, and whether the volume they generate actually translates into profitable orders after costs are factored in. The platforms are not all created equal, and the right choice depends heavily on your brand, your cuisine type, your location within London, and how you’ve priced your menu.
This blog breaks it down clearly, without the sales pitch.
Why Platform Commission Is Such a Big Deal for Dark Kitchens
A traditional restaurant can absorb delivery platform costs more easily because it generates revenue across multiple channels: dine-in covers, takeaway, events, private hire. Dark kitchens don’t have that luxury. For a delivery-only food business, the platform is the channel. Every commission percentage point comes directly off your top-line revenue before you’ve paid a single operational cost.
That’s the core tension. And it’s why understanding dark kitchens platform margins isn’t just a finance exercise; it’s a fundamental part of whether your business model works.
The good news is that with the right menu pricing strategy and a clear-eyed view of the numbers, it absolutely can work. But you need to go in with your eyes open.
The Three Main Platforms: A Quick Overview
Deliveroo is London’s dominant premium delivery platform. Strong in inner London, popular with higher-spending consumers, and broadly associated with quality food. Its restaurant and dark kitchen partners tend to skew slightly more upmarket.
Uber Eats has grown its UK market share significantly and now competes closely with Deliveroo in most London postcodes. It benefits from the broader Uber ecosystem and has been active in courting virtual and dark kitchen brands.
Just Eat is the volume platform. It has the largest overall user base in the UK, a strong presence outside central London, and a business model that differs meaningfully from the other two, particularly around delivery logistics.
Each platform has a different fee structure, a different customer demographic, and a different model for how delivery is handled. All of that affects your margins.
Platform Margin Comparison Table
The figures below reflect typical commission structures in the UK market. Exact rates vary by contract, order volume, and negotiated terms. Always verify directly with each platform.
Note: Commission rates are estimates based on publicly available information and operator reporting as of 2025. Individual contracts may differ. VAT applies to platform fees.
Deliveroo: Premium Positioning, Premium Cost
Deliveroo’s commission structure sits at the higher end, typically between 25% and 35% depending on your contract terms and order volumes. For a dark kitchen producing meals at lower price points, that’s a significant chunk. At 30% commission on a £12 dish, you’re handing over £3.60 before you’ve bought a single ingredient.
Where Deliveroo earns its keep is in customer behaviour and spending habits. London Deliveroo users tend to spend more per order and lean towards quality-led brands rather than purely on price. So if your kitchen concept sits in the mid-to-premium end of the market, the maths can work, especially if your average order value stays around £25 or above.
Deliveroo’s reach across inner London is also hard to argue with. In zones 1 and 2, and much of zones 3 and 4, it remains the go-to platform for a significant portion of delivery customers. If your kitchen location gives you strong delivery coverage across these postcodes, that reach carries real commercial weight.
The pressure point comes when volume fluctuates. Deliveroo’s ranking algorithm, like all platforms, rewards consistent order numbers. New dark kitchen brands often find they need to invest in promoted placements or marketing spend on top of base commission to build visibility, which further compresses margins while you’re getting established.
Uber Eats: Strong Competition, Worth the Comparison
Uber Eats’ commission rates are broadly comparable to Deliveroo, typically 25–35%, but its model has some differences worth understanding. The platform has invested heavily in its tech infrastructure and tends to offer more detailed analytics and order data, which some operators find genuinely useful for making menu and pricing decisions.
Its customer base in London has grown substantially, and in many postcodes it now rivals or exceeds Deliveroo’s delivery density. For dark kitchens looking to list on a second platform, Uber Eats is the natural choice, and running both simultaneously is common practice.
One area where Uber Eats has made moves is around virtual brand and dark kitchen partnerships. It has actively recruited delivery-only brands in London and has been willing to negotiate terms with higher-volume operators. If you’re scaling quickly and can demonstrate order volume, there’s often more room to negotiate on Uber Eats than the headline rates suggest.
The honest caveat: at 30%+ commission, you still need a menu that’s been priced to absorb the fee without ending up uncompetitive. That means working backwards from your target margin, not forwards from your costs.
Just Eat: Lower Commission, Different Tradeoffs
Just Eat operates a different model from the other two in one key respect: it allows restaurants and dark kitchens to use their own delivery drivers rather than relying on platform logistics. For operators who run their own delivery function, or who can absorb that overhead, this opens up access to substantially lower commission rates, typically in the 14–20% range.
That’s a meaningful difference. At 15% commission versus 30%, you’re retaining twice as much revenue per order before operational costs are applied. For a dark kitchen producing at volume, that gap compounds quickly.
The tradeoffs are real, though. Just Eat’s inner London presence is not as strong as Deliveroo or Uber Eats among younger, higher-spending consumers. Its strength lies in outer London boroughs, suburban areas, and regions outside the capital, which may or may not align with your target market. Average order values also tend to be slightly lower, which can partially offset the commission advantage.
For dark kitchens running their own drivers, Just Eat at lower commission rates can be a genuinely strong channel, particularly if your production unit is based in west, north, or east outer London where Just Eat has a meaningful user base.
The Hidden Costs That Affect Your Real Margin
Commission rates are the headline, but they’re not the whole story. There are several additional costs that affect what your platform margins for dark kitchens actually look like in practice.
Packaging costs increase significantly in a delivery-only model compared to dine-in. Insulated bags, branded containers, tamper-evident seals, these costs add up and are often underestimated at the outset.
Menu pricing on platforms vs. in-house pricing is something most operators adjust for, adding 10–20% to platform menu prices to offset commission. This is standard practice and generally accepted by consumers, but it needs to be calibrated carefully, too high and your conversion rates drop; too low and your margins disappear.
Refunds and adjustments imposed by platforms for customer complaints are a cost category many operators don’t track closely enough. Platforms typically deduct refund amounts from payouts, and in a high-volume operation even a small percentage of disputed orders has a measurable impact.
Promoted placement spend, essentially paid advertising within the platform, is increasingly necessary to maintain visibility, particularly on Deliveroo and Uber Eats. Some operators treat this as a fixed marketing budget; others add it to their cost-per-order calculation. Either way, it’s a real cost.
Multi-Platform Strategy: Does Running All Three Make Sense?
Most established dark kitchen operators in London run on at least two platforms, and many run all three. The logic is straightforward: more platforms means more potential order volume, and a single production unit can typically service multiple channels simultaneously without significant additional cost.
The complexity is in management. Each platform has its own tablet, its own order flow, its own menu management system, and its own customer interface. Third-party aggregation tools (like Deliverect or Tabsquare) can help consolidate these into a single system, but they add another layer of cost.
The practical advice: start with one platform, establish your operations and optimise your menu, then add a second platform once your kitchen workflow is stable. The same staged logic applies if you’re running multiple brands from one site, how do you sequence that growth without overloading the kitchen? Adding too many channels before your production process is solid is a reliable way to compromise quality, attract poor reviews, and undermine your rating on every platform simultaneously.
What This Means for Your Kitchen Setup
None of these margin calculations exist in isolation. Your ability to run profitably on any delivery platform is directly connected to your kitchen overhead, most importantly, your rent. For the fuller picture on how overhead, equipment and utilisation combine to shape your bottom line, see our CFO’s guide to commercial kitchen ROI. A dark kitchen paying London-competitive rates for a well-located, purpose-built unit has a fundamentally different margin profile than one improvising in an oversized space with high operating costs.
This is where production efficiency and the right commercial kitchen setup genuinely matter. A tight, well-organised kitchen producing consistent output with minimal waste can absorb platform commission rates in a way that a sprawling, poorly optimised space simply can’t.
Explore Dephna’s Dark Kitchen and Cold Storage Space in London
Dephna offers commercial kitchens for rent and cold storage space across London, built for serious delivery operations. Whether you’re an established dark kitchen brand looking to add production capacity, or a new delivery concept that needs a compliant, professional kitchen from day one, Dephna’s locations across London give you the operational foundation to make the platform maths work.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What commission does Deliveroo charge dark kitchens in the UK?
Deliveroo typically charges dark kitchen operators between 25% and 35% commission, depending on contract terms and order volume. Higher-volume operators can sometimes negotiate lower rates.
2. Is Uber Eats or Deliveroo better for a dark kitchen in London?
It depends on your location and average order value. Deliveroo tends to perform better in inner London, while Uber Eats has broader coverage across more postcodes. Most operators run both simultaneously to maximise order volume.
3. Why does Just Eat have lower commission rates than Deliveroo and Uber Eats?
Just Eat’s lower rates (14–20%) reflect a different model: operators handle their own delivery rather than relying on platform logistics, shifting that cost and responsibility away from the platform.
4. Can I negotiate platform commission rates as a dark kitchen operator?
Negotiation is possible, but your leverage depends on order volume. Platforms are more open to discussing rates once you can demonstrate consistent throughput.
5. How do platform fees affect menu pricing for dark kitchens?
Most dark kitchen operators price platform menus 10–20% higher than in-house to offset commission, which is standard practice and rarely affects consumer behaviour significantly.
6. What are the hidden costs of running a dark kitchen on a delivery platform?
Beyond commission, key costs include packaging, platform-imposed refunds, promoted placement spend, and any third-party aggregation tools used to manage multiple platforms.
7. Should I run my dark kitchen on all three platforms?
Many established operators do, but it’s better to start with one platform, stabilise your operations, and expand from there, rushing to multi-platform too early risks quality issues that damage ratings across all channels at once.
8. How does location affect which delivery platform performs best?
Deliveroo and Uber Eats dominate inner London, while Just Eat has stronger relative presence in outer boroughs and suburban areas, worth factoring in depending on where your kitchen is based.
9. What average order value do I need to make delivery platform margins work?
Most dark kitchen operators find it difficult to run profitably at 30% commission with an average order value below £20. Targeting £25–£35+ creates enough margin headroom to make the numbers work.
10. How does kitchen overhead affect dark kitchen platform margin profitability?
Your kitchen rent comes directly out of whatever margin remains after platform commission, so right-sizing your space and keeping overhead competitive is one of the most effective ways to protect your net margin.
