Cost & Pricing
Restaurant App Cost UK (2026 Pricing Guide)
Pricing for restaurant ordering apps in the UK ranges from "free with 30% commission" to "£80,000 plus a year of waiting". This guide cuts through the marketing copy with real 2026 numbers for every legitimate route. By the end you will know what each option actually costs over year one, year three, and where the hidden fees hide.
The four buckets of restaurant app pricing in the UK
There are exactly four pricing models in this market. Anyone telling you otherwise is layering one of these four behind a marketing label.
| Model | Year 1 total cost | Year 3 total cost | Commission per order |
|---|---|---|---|
| Listing platforms (Uber Eats, Deliveroo) | Variable: 25% to 35% per order | Variable: 25% to 35% per order | 25% to 35% |
| Custom-built app (agency) | £35,000 to £110,000 | £50,000 to £140,000 | 0% (you keep all order revenue) |
| No-code site builders (Wix, Shopify) | £500 to £4,000 | £1,500 to £12,000 | 0% on your site; commission still applies on listing apps |
| White-label builder (Aexir et al.) | From £360 (Aexir, ex VAT) to £2,000 | From £1,080 (Aexir, ex VAT) to £5,000 | Flat monthly fee instead (Aexir: published prices) |
Figures assume an independent UK restaurant. Year-3 figures include subscription, support, and reasonable feature growth.
Custom-built apps: when £30,000+ is actually justified
A bespoke restaurant ordering app from a UK agency costs £30,000 to £100,000 upfront. That number reflects roughly three to five months of designer and developer time at typical London or Manchester agency rates (£800 to £1,200 per day). On top of that, you will pay £500 to £2,000 per month for ongoing maintenance, App Store updates, security patches, and OS-compatibility fixes.
This route makes sense for national chains (think 50+ locations), brands with proprietary kitchen workflows, or operations with hard integration requirements (legacy ERP, custom hardware, exotic payment methods). For independents and small groups, it is overkill.
Watch out: custom-build agencies almost always quote the "build" without the "run". Maintenance, hosting, and ongoing developer time often double the year-one cost by year three.
No-code site builders: cheap, but only half the product
Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify all offer restaurant-templated ordering. The pricing is genuinely cheap: £30 to £300 per month plus a one-time setup of £500 to £4,000 if you hire help. The problem is the gaps.
- No branded mobile app on the App Store or Google Play. You get a website only.
- Loyalty almost always requires a paid third-party plugin (£20 to £100 per month extra).
- Delivery driver dispatch is usually not included.
- POS integration is rare or expensive.
- Customer support is generic, not restaurant-trained.
For a small cafe with no delivery and a simple menu, no-code can work. For anyone running real ordering volume, the missing app and missing loyalty cost you more in lost orders than you save in subscription.
White-label restaurant app builders: the sweet spot
White-label platforms like Aexir give independents the same product national chains pay £100k for. The monthly subscription is typically £20 to £100, plus standard payment processing, and Aexir handles setup for you.
Aexir specifically: Web is £30 per month for a branded ordering website with POS on the Go, Starter is £30 per month for fully branded iOS and Android apps, Plus is £40 per month adding the ordering website to the apps, and Pro is £50 per month for everything plus POS on the Go, all ex VAT. Setup is handled for you, and anything beyond the plan prices is at published prices, see aexir.com/pricing. Stripe takes its standard UK rate (1.5% + 20p) directly from the customer payment.
Transparent, flat pricing, no contract lock-in (cancel monthly). You can find the full pricing on our pricing page.
Listing platforms: "free" until you do the maths
Uber Eats, Deliveroo, and Just Eat charge nothing upfront and nothing monthly. You join in an afternoon and start receiving orders the next day. The catch is the 25% to 35% commission on every single order.
For a restaurant doing 30 orders per day at £15 average ticket, that is £49,275 per year on a 30% rate. Year one and year three look identical: a quarter to a third of your gross revenue goes to the platform.
See the full breakdown in our Uber Eats commission guide.
Where the hidden costs hide
- App Store / Google Play developer accounts: Apple charges $99/year, Google charges a one-time $25. A good builder either covers these or tells you upfront.
- Stripe (or equivalent) processing fees: 1.5% + 20p in the UK. Some platforms quietly mark this up to 2.5% or higher.
- Hardware: tablets, receipt printers, card readers. Aexir will advise on hardware at published prices (see aexir.com/pricing); other builders sometimes mark these up by 50% to 100%.
- Update fees: some builders charge for menu changes or new feature releases. A flat-subscription builder should include all updates.
- Support: ask whether email and phone support are included or charged separately.
- Branded ordering website: should be a small add-on (Aexir includes it on the Plus and Pro plans, or as a £10 per month add-on on Starter). Some builders price this at £100 to £300 per month.
Real ROI for a typical UK independent
Take a single-location pizzeria, 40 orders per day on average, £18 average ticket, currently 70% on Uber Eats at 30% commission and 30% direct (phone, walk-in). Annual revenue from delivery and collection: about £262,800.
Current Uber Eats commission cost: £55,188 per year. Cost of switching 50% of those orders to Aexir: a flat subscription from £30 per month ex VAT (£360 a year) plus standard Stripe processing on the moved orders. Net first-year saving: roughly £25,000. Year-three saving with the same trajectory: well over £100,000 cumulative.
These are not promotional numbers. They are arithmetic.
See exact Aexir pricing for your restaurant.
A flat monthly fee from £30 ex VAT at published prices, with setup handled for you. No contract lock-in.
View full pricingCommon questions answered.
A white-label builder like Aexir is the cheapest credible option. With Aexir, year one on a £30 per month plan is £360 ex VAT, compared to £30,000+ for a custom agency build. Listing platforms (Uber Eats, Deliveroo) appear cheaper but cost 25% to 35% of every order in perpetuity, which adds up to far more for any restaurant doing real volume.
Aexir charges a flat monthly fee at published prices rather than a percentage of orders. Stripe's standard UK card processing rate (1.5% + 20p) goes directly to Stripe. Every plan is published at aexir.com/pricing.
On a white-label platform like Aexir, maintenance is included in the flat subscription: a £30 per month plan is £360 per year ex VAT. Anything beyond the plan prices is at published prices, see aexir.com/pricing. A custom-built app from an agency typically costs £6,000 to £24,000 per year just for maintenance.
Very few. Setup is handled for you and hardware is optional, at published prices (see aexir.com/pricing). App store developer accounts are the one extra: use Aexir's for £30 per year, or set up your own and pay Apple and Google directly. Everything else is included in the flat subscription.
For a typical UK restaurant doing 30 orders per day or more, Aexir pays for itself within the first month. The saving on commission you would have paid to Uber Eats or Deliveroo on a typical month's order volume covers the first-year subscription multiple times over.
Build your own restaurant app.
Aexir launches branded ordering apps for UK restaurants in under 30 days. A flat monthly fee at published prices. From £1/day.