The cost of starting a food delivery marketplace includes both the platform and the business operating it. A monthly software price is one line in that budget. Restaurant onboarding, couriers, payment processing, support and customer acquisition also affect how much funding your launch needs.
Separate setup, fixed costs and per-order costs
Setup costs cover work needed before launch: software configuration, branding, menu preparation, training and any separately scoped integrations. Confirm what your implementation quote includes and what your team must supply.
Fixed operating costs continue even in a quiet month. These may include the platform license, staff, tools and your baseline marketing budget. Variable costs change with order activity: payment processing, courier compensation, order-specific promotions and some support or refund costs.
Keep each category separate in your forecast. A pilot may have a higher cost per order because its fixed costs are spread across fewer orders. That is a planning issue to measure, not a reason to assume every future order will have the same economics.
Which DelivCore plan covers a marketplace?
The published white-label tiers distinguish one-brand ordering from a restaurant network:
- Starter: €199/month and €500 setup. An ordering website, admin and one location with POS and inventory.
- Growth: €399/month and €3,500 setup. Adds native customer and courier apps, GPS and auto-dispatch, with up to 10 couriers.
- Enterprise: €799/month, setup from €8,000. Adds the multi-restaurant marketplace, an operator commission engine, more locations and couriers beyond the Growth cap.
These are standard published prices, separate from temporary promotions. Check the current pricing and offer terms and confirm your implementation scope before budgeting. Payment processing, delivery operations and your marketing spend are separate from the software license.
What does 0% DelivCore commission mean?
DelivCore charges a flat license fee rather than taking a percentage of marketplace orders. This does not mean that running an order is free. Your payment provider has its own terms, and your delivery and support arrangements still have costs.
On Enterprise, you define the restaurant commission used by your marketplace. Keep that income separate from the restaurant’s sales value when forecasting your revenue. A €25 food order is not automatically €25 of revenue for the marketplace operator.
An illustrative contribution calculation
Suppose an operator retains €5 in combined commission and service revenue from one completed order. If payment processing, delivery compensation and other variable costs total €4, that order contributes €1 toward fixed costs. At €2,000 in monthly fixed costs, the simplified break-even point is 2,000 completed orders per month.
These are invented planning figures, not DelivCore rates or an earnings forecast. Replace every input with your own agreements and measured pilot results. Include cancellations, discounts funded by your business and other relevant costs before using the calculation for decisions.
Budget for restaurant onboarding and demand
Menus need prices, modifiers, photographs and availability. Restaurant staff need training and a clear process for accepting orders. Allocate time for this work even if restaurants provide their own content.
A branded app also needs customers. Plan your launch channels, support hours and how you will measure repeat ordering. Separate one-time launch activity from recurring acquisition spending so your forecast shows what it costs to sustain demand.
What to confirm before signing
- The number of restaurants, locations and couriers in scope.
- Which apps and publishing work are included.
- Hosting, updates, support and integration responsibilities.
- Payment-provider availability for the launch country.
- Tax treatment, promotion terms and the billing schedule in the quote.
Explore the multi-restaurant marketplace platform and compare white-label software with a Glovo-style custom app. Then use the launch guide to define a pilot whose costs you can measure.