Reuters
- As the online food delivery market booms, delivery services are in an all-out war for users.
- I've been a customer of Seamless (owned by Grubhub) for years, but I tried Uber Eats for a week to put my loyalty to the test.
- The services are nearly identical, but Uber Eats' is more transparent about delivery fees and, in my experience, was much faster.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
The meal delivery market is booming, with US customers spending almost $400 million monthly on delivery orders.
For customers, the platforms for food delivery can seem nearly identical - but those platforms are in heated competition to win over users. Grubhub has controlled roughly 30 percent of the market over the past three years, according to Second Measure, while Uber Eats and DoorDash are both on the rise.
As someone who's bad at cooking and time management, I order delivery pretty often. For years, my go-to delivery app has been Seamless, which is owned by Grubhub and is the most-used app in New York City, where I live.
I decided to put Seamless/Grubhub to the test by downloading Uber Eats, the second-most-used delivery app in my city, and using it for a week (I didn't download DoorDash because it's disproportionately small in New York, and also because the company was pocketing delivery workers' tips until recently).
For the most part, the two apps in my comparison offered delivery from the same set of restaurants in my neighborhood, so the difference between the two seemed negligible - but I soon started to notice contrasts between the apps' user interface and the speed of my deliveries.
I was struck by the lengths both apps would go to in order to grab my attention. Seamless took to sending me a near-nightly email, and Uber Eats sends notifications alerting me to specific deals - while I like being fought over as much as the next person, it started to feel overwhelming.
It was a close call, but Uber Eats comes out on top as my pick for best meal delivery app. That decision ultimately came down to two factors: cost transparency and delivery speed. Here's my reasoning.
