It is Friday night, the day has been long, and the delivery app shows a cheeseburger priced a few dollars above the number on the restaurant’s own menu. That small gap is the complaint a new ordering app has built its pitch around.
Olo launched its Olo App on Oct. 20 with a promise of menu prices without markups. The app charges one flat 5% network fee, which goes to Olo, and delivery orders carry a separate delivery fee, according to the NY Post and Nation’s Restaurant News.
What the Flat 5% Covers
The NY Post reported that Olo is an ordering platform for pickup and delivery that promises no sneaky fees. What shows on the menu at the restaurant, the Post wrote, is what shows when ordering through the app. Fast Casual’s Oct. 20 report on the launch said the app gives its 40 million users one place to browse menus and reorder without the markups associated with third-party delivery marketplaces.
Nation’s Restaurant News described the same model. It said the free mobile app launched on a Tuesday with more than 250 restaurant brands, including Waffle House, Five Guys, Noodles & Company, First Watch, Dave’s Hot Chicken, Del Taco and Krystal. Customers pay the delivery fee on delivery orders and the 5% network fee on top.
Olo CEO Noah Glass told Restaurant Dive that the fee is easy to find. He said the company does not lump it in with taxes and service fees, and that it is stated at the top of the menu and again at checkout.
The app, according to Restaurant Dive, already includes about 20,000 restaurant locations across 250 brands. Olo plans to bring in more of its roughly 90,000 locations before opening the app to the wider restaurant industry.
Why Menu Prices Can Differ From App to App
The pitch rests on commissions. The Post reported that apps such as DoorDash and Uber Eats charge restaurants anywhere from 15% to 30% on delivery orders, and that restaurants often raise menu prices to cover that cost. The Olo App is commission-free.
Glass made the same point to Restaurant Dive, saying delivery marketplaces charge restaurants a commission and restaurants offset it with higher prices on those marketplaces. He said commissions can run as high as 30% on an order.
Fees and surprise add-ons are a familiar worry for diners. A list of products Americans overpay for without knowing it shows how often small charges go unnoticed, and a diner’s account of an 18% gratuity added to a $300 dinner for five shows how a line item can change a final bill. Diners who want to spot trouble before ordering can scan a list of red flags when dining at a restaurant. Tipping is a related flashpoint, as in a creator’s TikTok story about a restaurant review and a zero tip.
The Post’s Five Guys Test
The Post did not just report the pitch. A reporter downloaded the app and ordered a cheeseburger, fries and a drink from Five Guys on both Olo and DoorDash.
The Olo total came to $24.81, which included a $1.09 network fee and $1.93 in tax. The Post noted that delivery was not available for that order. The same meal on DoorDash cost $40.87, which the Post described as nearly double.
The comparison has limits. It is a single order at a single restaurant, and the Olo total did not include delivery. Finmile CEO Rich Pleeth told the Post that the comparison has to happen at checkout, using the same basket and the same address, with fees, offers and membership benefits counted.
Comparing totals is a basic money habit, the kind collected in a set of easy ways to save money fast. Five Guys is a fitting test case. According to Wikipedia’s entry on the chain, the first Five Guys opened in 1986 in Arlington County, Virginia, and a 2024 survey of large chains ranked it the second-most expensive fast food hamburger restaurant in the country behind Shake Shack.
Where the No-Ads Pledge Gets Complicated
The Post also looked at the app’s data practices. According to the company’s press release, as the Post quoted it, the Olo App is “free of sponsored ads and content.”
The Post said the privacy policy tells a longer story. It reported that the policy says Olo gives certain data to advertisers so that partners can “market or sell their services” and “deliver targeted advertisements through the services and on third-party platforms.” In the Post’s reading, that means no ads inside the app, but possibly ads elsewhere based on data the app collects.
Nation’s Restaurant News reported a different data angle. Restaurants get access to customer data on orders placed through the app, and customers can control how restaurants use it for communication and marketing.
Anyone who wants the lowest total may still need to weigh price against privacy.
Fewer Restaurants Than the Big Apps
The Post found that the app has far fewer options than DoorDash. It said typing in most major fast food names turned up nothing, and not every restaurant that appears will deliver. The app also lacks a dedicated restaurants page, which the Post described as a small factor that is still felt.
The Post said DoorDash has more than 600,000 restaurant partnerships and more than seven million independent contractors, known as Dashers, compared with Olo’s 250 brands. Delivery on Olo is handled by third-party providers, according to Nation’s Restaurant News.
That gap leaves Olo competing for specific moments rather than whole habits. Pleeth said Olo may have a better chance of winning someone’s regular Friday takeaway than of persuading people to abandon every other delivery app. He told the Post that when a favorite restaurant is on the app and the same order costs less, that is a concrete reason to try it.
For diners, the practical test is the one Pleeth described. Open the app, build the same cart on both services, and compare the final number, including the delivery fee, the 5% network fee and tax. A cart from a favorite restaurant that Olo carries could come out ahead, while a craving at a chain it does not list will send the order elsewhere.
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
