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Grubhub is an app that lets people order food from restaurants and get it delivered to their door.
Grubhub is a food delivery marketplace. It connects hungry people with local restaurants and drivers, and it makes money by taking a cut of every order — a commission from the restaurant, a delivery fee from the customer, and sometimes advertising money from restaurants that want to show up higher in the app. It serves two groups at once: diners who want dinner without cooking, and restaurants that want more orders without hiring their own drivers. Think of it as a matchmaker that takes a small slice every time the match turns into a meal.
Grubhub started in 2004 as a simple online menu and ordering site, long before food delivery apps were a thing. For years it was the big fish, especially in cities like New York and Chicago. Then the delivery wars arrived. DoorDash and Uber Eats spent heavily on discounts and couriers, and Grubhub lost ground. Its market share fell from the top spot to a distant third. In 2021, the Dutch delivery giant Just Eat Takeaway bought Grubhub, then sold it to Wonder in 2025 for far less than it paid — a rough ride for a one-time leader. So the headline is: a pioneer that got outspent, now fighting for a smaller slice of a huge pie.
The business is simple in theory but brutal in practice. It needs lots of diners to attract restaurants, and lots of restaurants to attract diners — a chicken-and-egg problem that rewards whoever has the deepest pockets. Grubhub's advantage is its long history and brand recognition, plus a base of loyal urban customers. Its problem is that rivals can out-discount it, drivers can switch apps instantly, and thin profit margins mean every dollar counts. Recently the company has focused on advertising revenue and partnerships — like campus dining and corporate meal programs — to squeeze more money from each order without winning a price war. It is a classic case of a good idea that turned into a hard business.
Saved answer · last researched 11 Oct 2026