Best Delivery App for My Business: Pick Before You Pay

The best delivery app for my business is the one that matches what you sell and who you want to own the customer relationship. A big delivery marketplace brings strangers to your door. Your own app brings back the people who already like you. Many owners use both, and the trick is knowing which orders go where. This post gives you a way to decide, a checklist to copy, and an honest note on what we do and do not build.

Key takeaways

• A marketplace gives you reach. Your own app gives you the customer list.
• Kin App Pro covers pickup orders paid in the app. It does not include drivers.
• Do the math with your own order count, and include the setup fee.

What is the best delivery app for my business?

There is no single best one. There are three different jobs, and each job has a different tool.

1. Finding new customers. A delivery marketplace puts your menu in front of people who never heard of you.
2. Bringing regulars back. Your own app, with your brand, your photos and a loyalty card, does this.
3. Getting food or goods to a door. Someone has to drive. That is either your own staff or a marketplace driver.

Before you compare apps, decide which of the three jobs you need most this year.

Should I use a delivery marketplace or build my own app?

Use a marketplace when you need reach. Build your own when you already have customers and want them to order without a middleman.

The deciding question is who owns the customer. On a marketplace, the customer belongs to the marketplace. They see your listing next to every competitor, and the marketplace controls how you reach them. In your own app, the customer belongs to you. You can send a notification about Friday's special, and nobody else's listing sits beside yours.

We build the second kind. We do not run a delivery network, and our apps do not include drivers or dispatch. We will not tell you our app replaces a marketplace for delivery. For many shops it does not.

What does a business-owned ordering app include?

Our Kin App Pro is $399 a month plus $3,500 setup, with a 12 month minimum. It includes order ahead and pickup paid in the app, events with tickets or booking, and live stock from your register where it shares counts. It covers one location and includes a Core website. The base Kin App is $199 a month plus $1,500 setup and does not include paid order ahead.

Pickup is the part that fits most local businesses. A customer orders from your menu, pays in the app and walks in to collect it. You do not pay a driver, and you do not hand over your customer list.

If you need several locations, staff tools or something fully custom, that is a Custom App. Those start at $25,000, and our custom quotes so far run from $25,000 to $45,000.

How do I compare delivery apps side by side?

Here is a table you can copy. Fill in the right-hand columns from each company's own pricing page and contract.

Question	Marketplace app	Your own app
Who owns the customer list	Usually the marketplace	You
Can you message customers directly	Read the terms and ask	Yes, with push notifications you send
Who provides drivers	The marketplace	You, or nobody if it is pickup only
What do you pay	Ask for the fee schedule in writing	A flat monthly fee, setup and a contract term
Who updates it when iOS changes	The marketplace	Your studio, if the plan says so

We are not quoting marketplace fees here. They change, and they differ by company and by city. Read the current fee schedule before you sign.

Is it worth running my own pickup orders? A worked example

This is an illustrative example. Every number is an assumption, and the marketplace percentage is a placeholder, not a quote from any company. Replace each one with your own.

Assume your shop takes 20 pickup orders a week through your own app that would otherwise go through a marketplace. Assume the average order is $30. Assume the marketplace would keep 25 percent of each order.

• Weekly sales through your app: 20 x $30 = $600
• Fee you would have paid: $600 x 25 percent = $150 a week
• Fee over 52 weeks: $150 x 52 = $7,800
• Kin App Pro over 12 months: 12 x $399 = $4,788 in monthly fees, plus the $3,500 setup

In this example the year-one cost of the app is $8,288 and the fee you avoid is $7,800. The app does not pay for itself in the first year. It would from year two, because the setup fee does not repeat. Raise the orders to 30 a week and the first year is covered. Drop them to 10 a week and it never is.

That is the honest shape of it. Pickup through your own app pays off when you have enough regulars ordering often. With few orders, a marketplace costs less. This is a teaching example, not a result, and we have no client numbers to show you.

Checklist: what to ask before you pick a delivery or ordering app

• Do I own the customer list, and can I export it?
• Can I message customers directly, and how often?
• Who handles drivers, and what happens when a delivery goes wrong?
• What is the monthly price, the setup price and the minimum term?
• Who fixes the app when Apple releases a new version of iOS?
• What does the customer see when an item runs out?

Apple reviews every iPhone app before it goes live. Apple publishes its rules in the App Store Review Guidelines, and any studio you hire should know them well.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use a marketplace and my own app together?

Yes. Many owners keep a marketplace listing for new customers and push regulars to their own app. The pickup orders in your app are the ones you keep in full.

Do you build delivery driver tools?

No, not in Kin App or Kin App Pro. Driver and dispatch tools would be custom work, and we would scope it with you on a call.

Can I see an ordering app before I commit?

We have demo apps for a coffee shop, a multi-store retail brand, a collectibles shop and a gym. Payments, orders and stock in the demos are simulated. They are spec builds, not live client apps.

What should you do next?

Write down your last 20 orders and mark which ones came from strangers and which came from regulars. If most came from regulars, look at our app pricing. If you do not have a good website yet, start with our website plans. We also covered the setup cost in shop app cost. If you want to talk through your own numbers, get in touch.