Deliveroo, Uber Eats, Just Eat and Stuart: how they really differ
The four food apps pay per order, but they differ on almost everything else: whether you can log on when you like, whether waiting is paid, what declining costs you, when the money arrives and what they insure. Here is the comparison on the things that change your week.
Last checked 29/09/2026.
Every comparison of the food apps starts with pay, and pay is the one thing nobody can compare from outside: it changes by city, by hour and by month. What can be compared is how each app is built. That decides how much control you have over your week, which is what makes one app suit you and another not.
The comparison
| Deliveroo | Uber Eats | Just Eat | Stuart | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Working hours | Online any time | Online any time | Scheduled runs, plus open runs | Online any time |
| How an order is paid | Fee from estimated time and distance | Fare shown before accepting | Transit Pay from distance and time | Base fee by distance, times multipliers |
| Minimum | GMB pay floor per hour of estimated order time | None published | None published | None published |
| Waiting at restaurant | Built into the estimate | Not described | Delay reimbursement over average wait | 17p a minute from 20 to 30 minutes |
| Declining an order | No effect | No effect described | Lowers acceptance rate and offer speed | Feedback asked; self-cancel unpaid |
| Pay day | Tuesday | Weekly, statement Tuesday | Tuesday, arrives by Friday | Tuesday |
| Cash out early | Yes, 50p | Yes, 50p instant | No | Through Onsi, first free each month |
| Free accident cover | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Illness payments | Yes, if eligible | Yes, if eligible | No | Earnings protection through Onsi |
| Substitutes | Yes | Not for couriers | Referred to | Yes, registered in advance |
Flexibility: the real difference
Three of the four let you open the app and work. Just Eat plans. You tell it by Wednesday night when you are free, it gives you runs on Thursday, and missing one drops your other runs for the next 24 hours. For a courier who wants a steady weekly pattern, that is a feature. For someone fitting deliveries round a job or childcare, it is a constraint, and it is the reason many couriers keep Just Eat as a second app.
Declining costs something on one app
Deliveroo says rejecting an order has no effect on future offers or fees. Just Eat is the opposite: its Fast Track matching sends offers faster to couriers with higher acceptance rates, and top-ups need a minimum rate. Run Deliveroo and Just Eat together and the two pull in different directions. Being choosy pays on Deliveroo and costs on Just Eat.
Waiting
Long waits at restaurants are the hidden cost of food delivery. Stuart pays a published rate for them after 20 minutes. Just Eat reimburses holds longer than average, if you swipe the right buttons at the right time. Deliveroo builds an average wait into the estimated time each fee is based on, so a long wait at a slow kitchen is not paid extra. It helps to know which kitchens run late.
Protection
Deliveroo, Uber and Stuart all give free accident cover and some help if you are ill, each with its own eligibility rules. Just Eat publishes none. None of them insures the car or scooter. What each platform insures has the details.
Tax is the same on all four
Couriers on all four are self-employed. One return covers every app, the 10,000-mile threshold counts miles from all of them together, and your turnover is the total they all paid you. How to handle tax across several apps explains.
Sources
Common questions
- Which food delivery app pays best in the UK?
- No app pays best everywhere. Fees depend on the city, the hour and demand, and all four change them without notice. The only reliable answer is your own hourly rate after costs, logged per app over a few weeks in your area.
- Which food app lets me work whenever I like?
- Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Stuart let you go online when you choose. Just Eat mostly schedules couriers into runs based on the availability you give it each week, with open runs to pick up on top.
About the author
Issac Davies, Founder of JoltMile
Issac Davies drives for gig apps in the UK and built JoltMile to show drivers what a shift actually pays once fuel, insurance and tax come off. Every guide here is checked against HMRC and gov.uk guidance, and is information rather than tax advice.
Track this automatically
True hourly rate · Platform filter: the JoltMile app works this out from your own shifts. Your first 10 shifts are free.
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