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EzCater Commission Calculator: What You're Really Paying
July 12, 2026 · Angel Roman
Most restaurant operators know they pay a commission on every ezCater order. Few have done the annual math.
The percentage feels manageable on a single transaction. It becomes harder to ignore when you stack twelve months of orders and see the total leaving your business. Not as revenue, not as food cost, not as labor. As a fee for access to clients you will never own.
Catering Funnels is a done-for-you lead generation and automation platform built for restaurants with active catering operations. This post runs the numbers: what the marketplace commission actually costs at three monthly volume levels, what the flat-rate alternative costs at the same levels, and what the gap means for your operation over a year.
What does ezCater charge restaurants?
EzCater charges restaurant partners a commission on every order placed through the platform. The rate is commonly reported in the range of 15% to 30%, depending on your partner agreement, order volume, and account terms. Credit card processing fees are typically additional. Your specific rate is in your partner agreement. The figures below use 20% as an illustrative midpoint. If your rate is higher, the gap widens. If it is lower, the structural cost still compounds the same way.
The commission is the visible cost. The invisible cost is client ownership. Every order fulfilled through the marketplace is a client relationship that belongs to the platform. You cannot follow up directly, request a review on your own terms, or trigger a reorder sequence. That structural limitation is covered in detail in the full Catering Funnels vs. ezCater comparison.
How much does the commission cost per year?
Here is the math at three monthly marketplace volumes, using the illustrative 20% commission rate. These figures represent the commission alone, before credit card processing and any other platform fees your agreement may include.
Monthly marketplace volume: $5,000
| Marketplace (at illustrative 20%) | Catering Funnels Delivery plan | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly revenue through channel | $5,000 | $5,000 |
| Monthly cost | $1,000 commission (at illustrative 20%) | $747 flat |
| Annual cost | $12,000 (at illustrative 20%) | $8,964 |
| You own the client | No | Yes |
Monthly marketplace volume: $15,000
| Marketplace (at illustrative 20%) | Catering Funnels Delivery plan | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly revenue through channel | $15,000 | $15,000 |
| Monthly cost | $3,000 commission (at illustrative 20%) | $747 flat |
| Annual cost | $36,000 (at illustrative 20%) | $8,964 |
| You own the client | No | Yes |
Monthly marketplace volume: $30,000
| Marketplace (at illustrative 20%) | Catering Funnels Delivery plan | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly revenue through channel | $30,000 | $30,000 |
| Monthly cost | $6,000 commission (at illustrative 20%) | $747 flat |
| Annual cost | $72,000 (at illustrative 20%) | $8,964 |
| You own the client | No | Yes |
The pattern is straightforward. Commission scales with revenue. A flat subscription does not. The gap between the two widens with every dollar of growth.
At $5,000 per month in marketplace orders, the annual commission at the illustrative rate is roughly $12,000. That is already more than a year of the Delivery plan. At $15,000 per month, the commission at that rate is four times the Delivery plan cost. At $30,000 per month, it is eight times.
What does the commission prevent you from building?
The dollar cost is the obvious part. The structural cost is what compounds.
A marketplace client who orders monthly at $3,000 per order generates $36,000 in annual revenue. At the illustrative 20% commission rate, $7,200 of that goes to the platform. But the client still does not belong to you after twelve months and twelve orders. You cannot email them about a seasonal menu. You cannot ask for a review. You cannot offer them a recurring program at a better rate. The platform sits between you and every future interaction.
A direct client at the same volume generates the same $36,000 with zero commission. You own the email, the order history, the reorder trigger, and the follow-up sequence. The corporate catering flywheel describes what that ownership produces across repeat orders, review-driven referrals, dine-in traffic, and brand awareness. None of those stages activate when the client belongs to a marketplace.
Bain Barbecue landed a $5,550 corporate order from a single LinkedIn message. That direct relationship, modeled across twelve months of repeat orders and referral effects, projects to $44,200 to $61,750 in total value. The full breakdown is in the Bain Barbecue case study. Fob Grill booked a 600-person, $22,000 corporate holiday party direct, with no marketplace and no commission. The full account is in the Fob Grill case study.
Both outcomes required owning the client relationship from the first conversation.
What does the flat-rate alternative actually include?
The Delivery plan is $747 per month with a $997 one-time activation. It includes LinkedIn outreach to corporate decision-makers, cold email campaigns, AI booking agents, automated follow-up sequences, CRM, and a minimum of 10 qualified corporate leads per month. No commission on any order, ever.
On Delivery and Full-Service plans: we run the campaign until you've earned back at least what you paid.
The Takeout plan at $97 per month is the self-operated version: CRM, landing pages, AI booking agent, and follow-up automation without proactive outreach. The Full-Service plan at $2,997 per month adds paid ads management and a dedicated success manager.
The structural difference from a marketplace is not the pricing model alone. It is that every client acquired through the system belongs to you. The contact information, the order history, the reorder sequence, and the ability to build a long-term relationship without a platform standing between you and the buyer.
Is the marketplace ever the right choice?
Yes. EzCater solves a real distribution problem for restaurants with no direct pipeline. An operator who has zero outbound capacity and needs corporate catering orders immediately gets genuine value from the marketplace. The platform's logistics infrastructure, corporate buyer network, and order management tools are real strengths. That is not in dispute.
The question is not whether the marketplace works. It is whether the commission and the client-ownership tradeoff make sense as a permanent arrangement. For operators doing $15,000 or more per month in marketplace orders, the annual commission at the commonly reported rates exceeds the cost of building a direct channel multiple times over.
The practical transition from marketplace-dependent to direct-majority is covered step by step in How to Leave ezCater Without Losing Your Clients. The recommended approach is to build direct volume in parallel, not to cancel the marketplace account before a replacement pipeline is in place.
Common questions
What commission rate does ezCater actually charge? EzCater's commission is commonly reported in the range of 15% to 30% per order, depending on your partner agreement and volume. Credit card processing fees are typically separate. Your partner agreement is the authoritative source for your specific rate.
Does Catering Funnels charge commission on orders? No. All three plans (Takeout at $97/mo, Delivery at $747/mo, Full-Service at $2,997/mo) are flat monthly subscriptions. There is no commission, no per-order fee, and no revenue share on any order booked through the system.
Can I use both ezCater and Catering Funnels at the same time? Yes. Most operators who transition from marketplace to direct booking run both channels in parallel during the transition. Catering Funnels builds the direct pipeline while the marketplace account stays active. The goal is to reach a stable level of direct bookings before reducing marketplace dependence.
How long does it take for the direct channel to replace marketplace volume? Most operators running consistent outreach see meaningful direct bookings within three to six months. Timeline depends on market size, outreach volume, and offer strength. There is no guaranteed pace, but the system runs until results are established.
What if my ezCater commission rate is lower than 20%? The math in this post uses 20% as an illustrative midpoint. If your rate is 15%, the annual commission at $15,000/month in marketplace orders would be $27,000 instead of $36,000. The flat-rate alternative is still $8,964 per year. The gap narrows but the structural cost of not owning the client relationship remains the same at any commission rate.