A restaurant mobile app should include ordering for collection and delivery, saved payment details, a loyalty scheme, push notifications and table booking, all under your own brand, and in the UK it usually costs a fixed monthly fee rather than commission. The features matter far more than the price tag, because an app nobody uses is expensive at any cost.
Your customers already live on their phones. Ofcom's Online Nation 2025 report found UK adults spend four and a half hours a day online, with roughly three-quarters of that time on a smartphone, and the typical smartphone user opens 41 different apps a month. Mintel's 2025 eating-out research adds that 84% of Britons order takeaway, so the real question is whether they order through your app or somebody else's.
What features does a restaurant mobile app need?
Start with what customers expect from any ordering app and get those right before adding anything clever. The restaurant app features that move the numbers for an independent are the ones that bring people back, not the ones that look good in a sales demo.
- Full menu with modifiers, allergen notes and photos, synced with your till so items go off sale automatically
- Collection and delivery ordering with time slots, order status and a clear ETA
- Saved cards and mobile wallets so a repeat order takes three taps
- A loyalty scheme (stamps or points) earned automatically on every order
- Push notifications you can send for offers, new dishes and quiet nights
Branded restaurant app or marketplace listing?
A branded restaurant app puts your name and icon on the customer's home screen, and every order carries your margin rather than a platform's. Lumina Intelligence reports that in 2024 company-owned platforms took 26.4% of UK delivery occasions, ahead of Just Eat on 25.2%.
You do not have to choose one or the other. Many independents keep a marketplace listing for new customers and move regulars onto their own app, where the second order costs nothing in commission.
Features you can add later
Once ordering and loyalty are running, the extras become worthwhile. Table booking with deposits cuts no-shows. Order-at-table via QR code lets the same app serve dine-in guests. Gift vouchers, scheduled orders and a group-order link all add revenue without adding staff.
What does a restaurant app cost in the UK?
A bespoke build starts in the tens of thousands of pounds and needs maintaining every time iOS or Android updates. A white-label restaurant app in the UK is typically a fixed monthly fee with ordering, payments and loyalty already built, live within a few weeks. We cover the full range in our post on how much a restaurant app costs, but the short version is that a fixed fee beats the 13% to 30% commission Uber Eats publishes for UK merchants as soon as you shift a few dozen orders a week.
Mistakes that kill app downloads
The most common failure is launching quietly. If staff never mention the app, the QR code is not on the bag, and there is no first-order incentive, downloads stall. The second is treating the app as a one-off project rather than a channel; a push notification on a wet Tuesday costs nothing and fills tables.
Putting it all together: the right restaurant mobile app
The best restaurant mobile app for an independent is a branded app with ordering, saved payments, loyalty and push notifications that customers actually open. OrderApps builds branded iOS and Android restaurant apps with commission-free ordering, loyalty and push notifications for a fixed monthly fee, so the extra orders stay with you.
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Commission-free ordering, branded apps, bookings, and EPOS on one platform.
