Olo Launches Commission-Free Ordering App Taking On DoorDash

Olo launched a consumer ordering app on Tuesday that charges restaurants zero commission, positioning it directly against DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub, which take 15% to 30% on delivery orders.

The Olo App lists more than 250 restaurant brands at launch, including Waffle House, Five Guys, Noodles & Company, Charley's Cheesesteaks, First Watch, Dave's Hot Chicken, Del Taco, Nekter Juice Bar, Shipley Do-Nuts and Krystal. The company wants all 800-plus Olo customers on the app eventually, and says it will also accept restaurants that do not use Olo's platform.

For operators, the economics are the pitch. Third-party marketplaces charge delivery commissions of 15% to 30%, and restaurants routinely mark up menu prices on those apps to cover the fee. Olo's app is commission-free, so the listed price can match the in-store price. The trade-off for consumers: delivery orders still carry a delivery fee plus a 5% network fee, which goes to Olo.

Who pays, and who gets the data

The app replaces the aggregator middleman on the ordering side. Deliveries are still handled by third-party providers, so Olo is competing for the order flow, not the courier fleet. Customers pay Olo's 5% network fee; restaurants pay nothing.

There is a second, arguably larger concession to operators: restaurants get access to customer data on orders placed through the app. DoorDash and its peers keep that data. Customers can control how restaurants use it for communication and marketing.

That data access matters for menu engineering and retention marketing, not just optics. A chain that knows its repeat customers can target them without paying an aggregator for the privilege a second time.

Can a B2B company sell itself to diners?

Olo processes orders for more than 100 million unique customers each year, yet most consumers have never heard of it. The company works in the background, powering online ordering for chains. About 40 million people have created an Olo account, which gives them a single login across any Olo-affiliated restaurant.

Its launch campaign leans on that obscurity: "Never heard of Olo? You've already used it." The marketing also taps consumer frustration with high delivery prices. Customers can browse nearby restaurants, "follow" brands so they appear first on opening, and place pickup or delivery orders. They can also round up to the nearest dollar for No Kid Hungry, a charity focused on ending childhood hunger.

A $2 billion bet on direct ordering

Noah Glass founded Olo in 2005 as a text-to-order service, back when ordering a coffee by phone was a novel idea. The company expanded into online ordering, third-party order integration, marketing and payments, went public in 2021, and was taken private last year by tech investor Thoma Bravo for $2 billion.

"More than 20 years ago, Olo was born out of a simple idea. What if you could order and pay for a coffee from your phone and have it ready when you arrived?" Glass said in a statement. "The Olo App is the next chapter of that vision, giving consumers a simpler way to discover and order from their favorite restaurant brands in one place while preserving the direct relationships those brands have worked hard to build."

The stakes are straightforward. If Olo can shift even a slice of order volume away from commission-charging aggregators, participating restaurants protect their contribution margins on delivery, and Olo builds a consumer-facing asset it has never had. The open question is whether a company that has spent two decades invisible to diners can win the app-download war against platforms with vastly larger marketing budgets.