DoorDash

Founded by four Stanford students in 2013, DoorDash delivers food to its customers by its “Dashers.” DoorDash is available in cities all over the United States, making it easy for customers to have their favorite foods with a few clicks and taps on their phone screen. Tony Xu, CEO of DoorDash, and his other Stanford friends saw a disconnect between restaurants and delivery services. DoorDash acts as the middleman, providing restaurants a delivery service they previously didn’t have and customers their favorite foods with no hassle. Brady Ruth, a junior exercise science major at Kent State, occasionally works as a Dasher from time to time. “It’s a quick and easy way to make some money on the side,” said Ruth. “I’m able to pick and choose when I want to work, making it convenient for myself.” 

Uber Eats

Launched in the middle of 2014, Uber Eats offers customers another option to have their favorite foods delivered. Uber Eats charges restaurants 30% per order compared to DoorDash’s 20% per order, according to Gigworker. Backed by Uber, Uber Eats provides services in parts of Europe and Africa, as well as throughout the United States. Uber Eats driver Quentin Griffin, a junior communication studies major at Kent State, prefers Uber Eats to DoorDash. “Uber Eats only requires me to go in and get the order, where DoorDash sometimes makes you call the customer’s order in and pay for it with a preloaded card,” Griffin said.

Grubhub

The Chicago-based delivery service was founded in 2004. Grubhub tends to offer users more discounts, which eradicates delivery fees in the end. According to the Grubhub Wikipedia page, the company generated $1.01 billion in revenue in 2018, putting the company second to Uber Eats $1.46 billion in revenue. Shawn Caven, a sophomore criminology and justice studies who works for Grubhub, finds it as the most attractive of the three services. “It’s not as busy as DoorDash or Uber Eats, but I’ve made more money using Grubhub over the other two,” Caven said.

Dylan Bowers covers tech. He can be reached at [email protected].