Talabat, Deliveroo, Keeta, Noon Food or Careem: which delivery apps should a UAE restaurant be on?

"Should I be on every app?"

It is the first question most restaurant owners in Dubai ask us. The short answer: not on day one. Start with two apps you can run well, then add the others one by one, when your kitchen and your menu are ready.

Here is how the five main apps in the UAE compare, from the restaurant side, and the order we usually follow.

Which delivery apps should a UAE restaurant open first?

For most restaurants in Dubai, we open Talabat and Deliveroo first, then add Keeta or Noon Food, then Careem. Each new app only makes sense if three things are true: your kitchen can take more orders without becoming late, your menu is ready, and you know what you keep per AED 100 of orders on that app.

That order changes with your cuisine, your area and your contracts. The rest of this guide explains why.

How do the five delivery apps compare?

What does each app cost a restaurant?

Contracts differ by restaurant, size, exclusivity and period. Public figures vary from one article to the next, so we start from invoices.

On the invoices of one restaurant group we work with (three sites in Dubai, October 2026, VAT included), the commission per order was about 27% on Keeta, 28% on Noon Food, 31% on Talabat, 32% on Careem and 35% on Deliveroo. Your numbers will be different. What these numbers show is the gap: a few points between apps, not half.

Commission is only half of the cost. Before you compare apps, check three lines on each invoice:

• What the commission is calculated on: the menu price before your discount, or the amount after it. The difference is large when you run offers. We show the maths in The real cost of a 50% discount on delivery apps.
• Who pays for the offers: the app, you, or both.
• The other lines: payment fees, packaging, marketing fees, ads.

Then compare one number per app: what you keep on AED 100 of orders.

Why open on Talabat and Deliveroo first?

Talabat is the app owners and customers think of first. Being absent there means missing the customers who only use Talabat. It is also the most crowded app, so a weak storefront sinks fast. Start with the basics: every dish with a real photo, clear names, categories in the order people order. See How to optimize your menu visibility on Talabat.

Deliveroo brings a different crowd and a clear rulebook. It publishes the factors it uses to rank restaurants, which makes it easier to know what to fix. See How Deliveroo ranks restaurants in Dubai.

Running two apps well teaches you your real numbers: prep time at peak, the dishes that sell, the offers that pay. You need those before adding a third.

When should you add Keeta or Noon Food?

Keeta is young and growing fast. On a young app, a complete storefront stands out faster than on a crowded one. The risk: traffic in your area may still be small, and launch offers do not last forever.

Noon Food brings customers who already trust the noon app. Your storefront has to convince someone who did not plan to order food. Clear photos and simple dish names matter even more there.

If you are an eligible Emirati business, check the noon Food and Dubai SME programme announced in April 2026: a reduced commission in the first years, with onboarding fees waived. It changes the maths completely.

We compare the two in detail in Keeta vs Noon Food: commissions and growth.

When should you add Careem?

Careem Food sits inside an app people open for rides and payments, so food is one choice among many. Ask your account manager how many customers order your cuisine in your area on Careem, then open it when the first apps run smoothly, with the same menu and the same images. It is a small extra effort once your menu is built, and a waste of effort if it is not.

Which mistake costs the most?

Opening on five apps at once, with five different menus.

The kitchen gets late on all of them, and lateness hurts your ranking everywhere. The menus drift apart: a dish renamed on one app, a price changed on another, a photo missing on the third. Customers see a different restaurant on every app.

One menu, one set of real dish photos, one offer logic, adapted to each app's rules. That is what makes a second, third or fourth app worth it.

Questions owners ask us

Do I need to be on all five apps? No. Most restaurants do well on two or three apps they run properly. Add an app when your kitchen, your menu and your numbers are ready for it.

Which app is the cheapest for a restaurant? On the invoices we read, the gap between apps is a few points of commission. What you keep depends more on how your discounts are calculated and who funds them than on the headline rate.

Can I use the same menu on every app? Yes, and you should. Keep the same dishes, names and photos, then adapt to each app's limits: character counts, photo formats, option groups.

If I use a POS like Foodics, Deliverect or GrubTech, where do I edit the menu? In the POS or the middleware, not on the apps, or your changes can disappear at the next sync. See Using Foodics, Deliverect or GrubTech? Edit your menu in the right place.

Where we come in

We rebuild and run restaurant storefronts on Talabat, Deliveroo, Keeta, Noon Food and Careem in Dubai, with one menu and one set of real dish images across every app. When a client asks which app to open next, we answer with their own numbers.

Not sure where to start? Send us your current storefront link. Your score out of 100 lands in your inbox in minutes, with no upfront investment.

Sources: Deliveroo UAE FAQ (launch in November 2015); Keeta launch announcement, September 2025, and Khaleej Times, Keeta first anniversary in the UAE, September 2026; Gulf News, noon Food and Dubai SME programme, 21 April 2026; DelivUp client invoices, October 2026.