Best food delivery

DoorDash▲ Rising

Founded in a Palo Alto apartment as 'Palo Alto Delivery,' DoorDash out-hustled bigger rivals by chasing suburban markets and mom-and-pop restaurants that Uber Eats and Grubhub ignored, then rode DashPass and pandemic demand to become America's undisputed delivery king. It now commands roughly two-thirds of US market share, a dominance that makes it the default answer whenever someone opens their phone hungry.

Avg fees: $8Overall: 8/10

added by IJRin 4 rankings

Instacart▲ Rising

While everyone else fought over burritos and pad thai, Instacart quietly cornered grocery delivery, turning a 2012 idea of same-day milk-and-eggs runs into the app that kept America fed through pandemic lockdowns and IPO'd in 2023. It proved delivery didn't need a kitchen to be essential, carving out a category rivals still can't crack.

Avg fees: $10Overall: 8/10

added by IJRin 3 rankings

Uber Eats▲ Rising

Born as an experiment inside Uber's ride-hailing app before splitting into its own icon, Uber Eats leveraged an army of drivers already crisscrossing cities to become the only real global counterweight to DoorDash. Its merger absorbing Postmates in 2020 consolidated the delivery wars, cementing Uber Eats as the number two power with a footprint DoorDash still can't match overseas.

Avg fees: $8Overall: 8/10

added by IJRin 4 rankings

Gopuff▲ Rising

Two Drexel students started Gopuff in 2013 delivering phone chargers and snacks to broke college kids, then built an entire dark-store warehouse network that made 15-minute delivery of chips, condoms, and ibuprofen a real business rather than a VC fantasy. It forced the whole industry to reckon with instant convenience as the next battlefield.

Avg fees: $5Overall: 7/10

added by IJRin 4 rankings

Grubhub▲ Rising

The original American food-delivery app, launched in Chicago back in 2004, spent over a decade as the category's undisputed leader before newer, better-funded rivals ate its lunch. Its 2021 merger drama and eventual fire-sale acquisition by Wonder marked a humbling fall for the company that basically invented the industry it now trails.

Avg fees: $7Overall: 7/10

added by IJRin 4 rankings

Seamless▼ Falling

Seamless started in 1999 as a corporate expense-account tool for New York office workers ordering lunch, predating the whole delivery-app boom and becoming so synonymous with takeout that New Yorkers still say 'order Seamless' the way others say 'Google it.' Merged with Grubhub in 2013 yet kept alive as a beloved local brand, it's proof that nostalgia and habit can outlast a thousand slicker competitors.

Avg fees: $7Overall: 6/10

added by IJRin 4 rankings

Postmates▼ Falling

Postmates pioneered the 'we'll deliver literally anything' promise back in 2011, sending couriers on bikes to fetch Taco Bell or a forgotten phone charger before anyone else dared try. Uber swallowed it whole in 2020 for $2.65 billion and folded it into Uber Eats by 2021, leaving Postmates as the scrappy trailblazer that won the idea war but lost the company.

Avg fees: $8Overall: 6/10

added by IJRin 3 rankings

Caviar▼ Falling

Caviar launched in 2012 chasing white-tablecloth restaurants that refused to work with mainstream delivery apps, building a reputation as the premium, curated option for foodies willing to pay extra for a proper Michelin-adjacent meal at home. Square bought it, then DoorDash bought it from Square in 2019, and it finally got folded away in 2021 — a tasteful niche player that never needed to win the scale war to matter.

Avg fees: $9Overall: 6/10

added by IJRin 2 rankings