What the Data Says About In-House (First-Party) Delivery vs. Third-Party

Scroll through a delivery app today, and the customer relationship clearly sits with third-party giants. Uber Eats. DoorDash. Grubhub. They’ve shaped customer habits, from how long we’re willing to wait to how much we’ll pay in fees.

But another story has been playing out in the background. For the first time, our Third-Party Delivery Study tracked first-party channels by placing orders directly through a restaurant or convenience store’s own app.

We conducted 150 first-party mystery shops  and compared them with 450 mystery shops on third-party platforms, split evenly across Uber Eats, DoorDash, and Grubhub. In all, 600 orders were placed across the United States between April and June 2025, balanced between restaurants and c-stores. The study measured key factors of delivery performance including speed, accuracy, fees, overall satisfaction, and other metrics that shape the customer experience.

So, what happened when in-house delivery went head-to-head with third-party? The numbers tell an intriguing story.

In-House Delivery on Wheels

Speed is the first test of delivery, and customers expect promises to be kept. If the food arrives later than the app said it would, the experience is already compromised.

First-party apps went for this challenge head-on. Their orders averaged a delivery time of 30m and 53s, compared to 34m and 11s for third-party platforms. To put that in perspective, the sweet spot where shoppers were satisfied with delivery time was when it arrived in 32m 10s or sooner.

In restaurants, in-house delivery set the pace, while in convenience stores much of the acceleration still came from third-party platforms.

Promoted delivery times were also competitive, with first-party apps confidently promoting a delivery time that was two and a half minutes faster than the third-party average.

Curious how each platform stood the test of time? The full report breaks it down, brand by brand.

Futureproofing Trust Through Order Accuracy 

Accuracy is fundamental to customer satisfaction. Get it wrong, and you build a wall of unreliability. Get it right, and you’ve leaped over your first hurdle.

• 90% of first-party orders were accurate, compared to 85% accuracy across orders placed on third-party apps.
• For c-stores, the jump was even sharper: in-house delivery order accuracy was 9 percentage points more than the third-party average.
• Correct temperature maintenance was a slight challenge for first-party orders, with 89% delivered at the right temperature compared to 90% for third-party platforms.

Let’s focus primarily on the customer. For them, it’s about whether they trust your brand enough to come back tomorrow. And accuracy is a foundation to achieving this.

Pro tip: Our study shows that when orders were accurate, overall satisfaction of shoppers rose by 45 percentage points versus when they were inaccurate.

Cameron Watt, President and CEO of Intouch Insight, explains how inaccurate orders, cold food, and poor delivery experiences push customers to choose pickup instead as a way to feel more in control. Watch the video below of his take on this, presented at FSTEC 2025.

Do you want to find out more on what your customer feels about your services?
Explore how you can create a CX measurement ecosystem. 

Customers Want to Customize

Consumer behavior in the food service space is constantly evolving. A DigInsight study found that:

• 75% of Gen Z diners regularly customize their orders.
• 22% try new items on the menu very often.
• 84% had what they wanted in mind before even reaching the restaurant.

Yes, it’s a lot of numbers. But it points to one thing:

The customer is very clear on what they want, and curated menu items for delivery are on top of their list of requirements.

Our 2025 Third-Party Delivery Report revealed:

• First-party applications by restaurants boasted 7 percentage points more in the ability to customize orders compared to third-party apps.
• C-stores took this up a notch with a 14 percentage point difference.

According to our Convenience Store Trends Report, 72% of customers at c-stores said they wanted value through meal customization. It’s no surprise then that more c-stores are doubling down on curated meal options within their first-party apps.

See what our survey found about consumer preferences in third-party delivery.

The Extras That Make a Difference

One detail jumped out of the study: First-party orders were more likely to include extras like napkins, condiments, a personalized note or other small touches that made shoppers glad about their experience.

About one in four first-party deliveries had personalization or anything “extra” that made them glad about their experience.

It may not sound like much, but in a crowded delivery market, those touches stand out. They remind customers that someone on the other end thought about the little things.

Shopper Quote: “I was happy that I received my order nine minutes early and that extra straws and napkins were provided.”

So, Is In-House Delivery Cheaper for Customers?

Yes, and No.

Price is often the tipping point in delivery. Customers want convenience, but not if it feels overpriced.

First-party apps sometimes carried slightly higher delivery fees, but they often balanced that with lower service charges, keeping the overall cost competitive against third-party platforms.

For example, restaurant first-party apps charged an average delivery fee of just over $4, while every third-party platform averaged under $2.02. Yet the average service fee for restaurant first-party apps was $1.44, less than half of what customers paid on third-party platforms.

With 82% of customers saying affordability shapes their likelihood to order, these tactics matter.

Download the 2025 Third-Party Delivery Study for the full fee breakdown, including platform-by-platform and operator comparisons.

Here’s the Twist

Not every “in-house” order was actually delivered by in-house staff. Many were passed off to third-party drivers working for companies like Uber Eats.

Did customers always notice? Not really. In fact, 41% said they were unclear who fulfilled the order.

But they noticed the result. If the order was late, wrong, or at the incorrect temperature, they held the brand accountable. Not the courier. Not the platform. Always the brand.

That’s the tension baked into first-party delivery: you control the channel, which means you also own every outcome.

Here’s Cameron Watt, President & CEO Intouch Insight talking about this in the 2025 FSTEC.

Conclusion: In-House Delivery Under the Microscope

In-house delivery isn’t a silver bullet, but it isn’t a side note either. In 2025, it showed clear strengths in speed, customization capabilities, accuracy, and personalization, while also exposing new challenges like handoffs and cost trade-offs.

What matters most is that customers don’t separate the channel from the brand. Whether the courier wore your logo or not, the impression left behind was yours to keep.

And it’s worth remembering that customer habits don’t change overnight. A recent research by DoorDash shows 46% of diners in the U.S still prefer third-party apps for their convenience and familiarity, averaging almost 5 orders a month. Against that backdrop, the performance of first-party delivery in this year’s study shows just how much ground it has gained.

This year’s study marks the first time first-party delivery has been measured alongside the giants of third-party food delivery. The picture that emerges is complex, competitive, and essential for operators who want to understand where foodservice delivery is heading next.