An App2Food Alternative Without the Per-Order Diner Fee
App2Food offers restaurants commission-free online ordering, funded by a convenience fee (around $0.49) charged to the diner on each order, on an ordering page hosted on App2Food's platform. If you'd rather not put a per-order fee in front of your customers on a page you don't own, an owned site is the alternative.
Updated August 31, 2026
How App2Food's model works
App2Food's appeal is the same as the other diner-funded platforms: little to no commission taken from the restaurant, because the economics are covered by a small convenience fee the customer pays at checkout. You get commission-free orders without a large monthly bill; the trade is a surcharge shown to your diner, on an ordering page that lives on App2Food's platform rather than a site you own.
convenience fee charged to your diner on every order
The honest gap
$0.49 is small, and for a restaurant it is far cheaper than marketplace commission - that part is real and worth crediting. But it is still a fee your own regulars see every time they order, on a page that isn't yours. The ordering, the storefront, and the customer relationship sit inside App2Food; if you leave, they don't come with you.
A per-order fee is friction on the exact customers you most want ordering directly, and 'cheap to the restaurant' is true precisely because the cost was moved onto the diner, not removed.
The owned alternative
Starvega builds the same thing a different way: a fast website with its own online ordering and a dashboard you log into, for a one-time price. There's no convenience fee in front of your diner at checkout, and the ordering page is your own site rather than a hosted page on someone else's platform. There's no commission on orders and no monthly platform fee to keep it running - once it's live, the site, the ordering, and the customer data are yours.
That's the whole difference: you pay once for something you own, instead of renting it (or paying per order) for as long as you're in business.