Neither Talabat nor Deliveroo publishes a UAE rate card, so neither is provably cheaper. Trade press put Talabat at 15% to 25% in 2025 (Communicate Online, Nov 2025). Deliverect puts Deliveroo at around 25% to 35% (Deliverect, Sep 2025). Deliveroo also added a monthly platform fee in February 2026.
Talabat vs Deliveroo at a glance
Checked October 2026.
|
Talabat |
Deliveroo |
| Commission on record |
15% to 25%, lower with exclusivity (Communicate Online) |
Around 25% to 35%, from a general guide, not UAE-specific (Deliverect) |
| How it is set |
Per contract, percentage and/or fixed amount, including VAT; varies with who delivers (prospectus) |
Per contract; varies with contract type, locations and region (Deliverect) |
| Fixed fees |
Registration, monthly subscription and annual renewal fees may apply; amounts not published (prospectus) |
Monthly platform fee for all UAE restaurants from 1 Feb 2026, plus an onboarding fee; amounts not published (help centre; Deliverect) |
| Payment handling |
May be charged separately; 2% in the one published programme (prospectus; Hospitality News) |
Not published |
| Delivery options |
Talabat riders or your own (prospectus) |
Core (Deliveroo riders), Marketplace+ (your riders), Pick-up, Editions (partner terms) |
| Payouts |
First payout 45 days after going live, then every two weeks (partner page) |
Fees calculated weekly; you are paid menu value minus fees (partner terms) |
| Exclusivity |
Discount for Talabat-only partners (prospectus); UAE rules cap exclusive deals at 12 months (Decision 32 of 2026) |
Same UAE rules apply |
If you are picking a platform hoping it will fix your margins, you are solving the wrong problem. The ranges overlap, and the gap between them is smaller than the gap between a good week and a bad one.
The commission math nobody actually reads
Here is one AED 100 order at each end of the sourced ranges. Talabat's commission includes VAT (talabat IPO prospectus). Deliveroo's VAT treatment is not published, so check your statement.
| AED 100 order |
Commission |
You keep, before food cost |
| Talabat at 15% |
AED 15 |
AED 85 |
| Talabat at 25% |
AED 25 |
AED 75 |
| Deliveroo at 25% |
AED 25 |
AED 75 |
| Deliveroo at 35% |
AED 35 |
AED 65 |
Then add the fixed costs. Deliveroo's monthly platform fee (Deliveroo help centre) and any Talabat subscription or registration fee (prospectus) work the same way: divide the monthly amount by your monthly orders on that app and add it to each order. The fewer orders you take through an app, the more that fixed fee costs you per order.
Owners spend hours arguing about which app to prioritise. On the published ranges, that argument is worth a few dirhams an order at most, and your own contract may reverse it. The bigger question is what you are actually doing on either app, week to week, to pull in orders.
Delivery fees have already been shaping your orders for years
The customer pays a delivery fee on top of your food, and it varies with distance and with whether the customer subscribes to the app's own delivery pass. That fee sits between your menu and the customer's decision to order. Every dirham of it is friction.
Restaurants that win on delivery apps are not the ones with the lowest commission tier. They are the ones giving customers a reason to order despite the fee, on a specific day, for a specific occasion, before the competitor two doors down does the same thing.
UAE delivery app fees compared: Talabat, Deliveroo, Careem Food, Noon Food and Keeta
If neither Talabat nor Deliveroo works for you, the other apps in the UAE run on different models. Here they are side by side.
Checked October 2026. None of these apps publishes a standard UAE rate card for restaurants, so this is what the public record holds. Your own contract is the only exact number.
| Platform |
Commission on record |
Other fees on record |
Source and date |
| Talabat |
15% to 25%, lower with an exclusivity deal. Set per contract, includes VAT, and varies with who delivers. |
A contract can include a one-time registration fee, a monthly subscription, payment and cash-handling charges and an annual renewal fee. Premium placements cost extra. Amounts not published. |
Communicate Online, Nov 2025; talabat IPO prospectus, Nov 2024 |
| Deliveroo |
Around 25% to 35%, from a general guide that is not UAE-specific. Varies with contract type, locations and region. |
An onboarding fee that covers menu photography. A monthly platform fee for every UAE restaurant from 1 February 2026, amount not published. |
Deliverect, Sep 2025; Deliveroo help centre, Dec 2025 |
| Careem Food |
0% percentage commission since February 2021, replaced by four fixed monthly bundles sized to order volume. Bundle prices not published. |
Restaurants also pay for digital payment processing and for the delivery cost, minus what the customer paid. Amounts not published. |
Gulf News, Feb 2021; Wamda, Feb 2021; Arab News, Feb 2021 |
| Noon Food |
Capped at 15% at its 2021 launch. From April 2026, Emirati restaurants nominated by Dubai SME pay 10% in year one, rising to 20% by year five. |
A 2% handling fee in 2021. A 2% payment gateway fee during its zero-commission offer for new restaurants, which ended on 30 April 2026. |
Wamda, Feb 2021; Gulf News, Apr 2026; noon Food release, Apr 2026 |
| Keeta |
Not published. |
No subscription or registration fees under its Founding Vendor Programme. |
Communicate Online, Nov 2025; Keeta release, 2025 |
Three things sit around that table:
- What operators report. Restaurant owners quoted in Khaleej Times in April 2020 put aggregator commissions at 25% to 30%, with some paying up to 35% (Khaleej Times, Apr 2020). It is older than the platform figures above, but it is the most quoted on-the-record range.
- The published cheap deals are group deals. talabat's programme for Dubai Restaurant Group members set a 5.3% commission, an AED 8.40 delivery fee per order, 2% card or cash handling and an AED 2,324 registration fee, for up to 500 members over two years (Hospitality News Middle East, Jan 2022). Careem Food offered UAE Restaurants Group members 50% off onboarding and AED 3,600 of advertising credit (Lucidity Insights, Feb 2024).
- Exclusivity now has legal limits. A UAE ministerial decision issued on 11 February 2026 limits exclusive deals between delivery apps and restaurants to 12 months, and to 10% of the restaurants on a platform. An app that cuts commission in return for exclusivity must be able to justify the cut to the ministry on request (UAE Ministry of Economy and Tourism, Decision 32 of 2026).
The rest of this cluster goes platform by platform: Talabat commission, Deliveroo commission and Careem Food commission.
So what actually moves your margin
Not the platform. The rhythm.
Dubai has a packed calendar of occasions that drive genuine order spikes: national days, Ramadan, school holidays, long weekends, weather drops that push people off the street and onto an app. Restaurants that plan campaigns around these dates consistently, on Deliveroo, on Talabat and on their own Instagram and WhatsApp, outperform restaurants that post when someone remembers to.
Most owners don't have a marketing team. They have a phone, a POS system, and forty other things to do before service starts. So the calendar slips. A launch or a national day passes with a generic post, if anything goes out at all.
That gap, not the commission tier, is where margin actually leaks.
Where Synthopia fits into this
Synthopia builds your occasion posts, reels and carousels for your own social channels, from your website or Instagram and your own photos, timed to the UAE calendar. Nothing posts until you approve it. It does not run your delivery-app listings or promotions; those stay with you and your account manager. Signing up is free and comes with 60 credits, no card.
The commission argument between Deliveroo and Talabat will never close a meaningful gap in your P&L. Consistent presence around the dates your customers are already primed to order does.
