Comparison
Catering Funnels vs ezCater
ezCater charges restaurants commission on every order, typically 10-20% depending on your account. Here's what that costs at real volumes, and what the alternative looks like.
The 30-second verdict
You have zero marketing capacity, you want corporate orders flowing tomorrow without lifting a finger, and you're comfortable paying commission on every order forever in exchange for that distribution.
You want to own your corporate client relationships, stop paying rent on every order, and build a direct-booking business that compounds over years instead of starting from zero every month.
How much does ezCater charge restaurants?
ezCater charges restaurants a commission on every order placed through the marketplace. The standard marketplace commission is commonly reported at approximately 15% of the order total, plus approximately 2.75% in credit card processing fees, though rates vary by partner arrangement, order volume, and featured placement. ezCater also offers ezOrdering, a lower-commission option reported at approximately 7% plus processing, for orders placed through a restaurant's own website rather than the marketplace. Your current partner agreement has the exact figure that applies to your account.
At the commonly reported 15% marketplace commission rate: a restaurant doing $20,000 a month in marketplace catering volume pays approximately $3,000 a month in commission, or $36,000 a year, before processing fees. The same restaurant on the Catering Funnels Delivery plan pays $747 a month ($8,964 a year), regardless of whether they book $20K or $200K in corporate orders. Past a few thousand dollars a month in corporate catering volume, the direct-booking model is dramatically more profitable. Below that threshold, the marketplace's zero-effort distribution may be worth the commission.
How does ezCater work for restaurants?
ezCater is a corporate catering marketplace. Restaurants create a profile, upload menus and pricing, and the platform surfaces those listings to corporate buyers searching for catering in their area. When a buyer places an order, ezCater processes the payment, deducts its commission (commonly reported at approximately 15% plus credit card processing fees, though rates vary by account), and pays the restaurant the remainder. The restaurant fulfills the order and handles delivery.
The model works well for restaurants that want corporate catering volume without running their own sales outreach. The tradeoff is structural: the buyer's contact information, order history, and reorder behavior stay on the platform. The restaurant fulfills the order but does not gain a direct client relationship. Every marketplace booking restarts the same cycle rather than building a compounding relationship with the buyer.
Side-by-side
| Feature | ezCater | Catering Funnels |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Commission per order | Flat monthly subscription |
| Cost on a $5,000 order | ~$500–$1,500 in commission and fees (varies by account terms) | $0 above your subscription |
| Customer ownership | Marketplace owns the relationship | You own every contact |
| Setup required | Restaurant profile and menu upload | Funnels, AI agents, follow-up automation. 2-day done-for-you setup. |
| Time to first order | Days (when buyers match) | 2-day setup, then your outreach starts |
| Marketing required from you | None | Some, or fully done-for-you on Delivery and Full-Service |
| Best for | Restaurants without sales infrastructure | Restaurants ready to own their corporate sales engine |
| Long-term economics | Cost scales with revenue, forever | Cost is fixed regardless of order volume |
Commission per order
Flat monthly subscription
~$500–$1,500 in commission and fees (varies by account terms)
$0 above your subscription
Marketplace owns the relationship
You own every contact
Restaurant profile and menu upload
Funnels, AI agents, follow-up automation. 2-day done-for-you setup.
Days (when buyers match)
2-day setup, then your outreach starts
None
Some, or fully done-for-you on Delivery and Full-Service
Restaurants without sales infrastructure
Restaurants ready to own their corporate sales engine
Cost scales with revenue, forever
Cost is fixed regardless of order volume
Where ezCater shines
ezCater earned its position. Three things they genuinely do well, and where they're hard to beat:
Immediate distribution
You list, they have buyers, orders show up. There's real value in being on the largest corporate catering marketplace in the US. Millions of orderers are already searching there.
Zero sales work
If you don't have a salesperson, don't want to learn outbound, and just want catering volume from new customers who find you, ezCater handles the demand side completely.
Trusted infrastructure for corporate buyers
Companies have approved ezCater as a vendor for procurement, expense reporting, and consolidated billing. Replicating that as a single restaurant is hard.
Where Catering Funnels wins
The build-versus-rent decision. Three things Catering Funnels does that a marketplace structurally cannot:
You own the client
Every corporate contact, every past order, every menu preference. Yours forever. When a marketplace decides to feature competitors or raise commissions, your business doesn't change. You can call your top 50 corporate accounts directly any time.
Repeat revenue compounds for you, not the platform
When a corporate account that found you on ezCater orders 30 times in a year, ezCater takes commission 30 times. When the same account orders directly through Catering Funnels, you pay your flat monthly fee whether they order zero times or 300.
It's a sales engine, not a listing
ezCater is demand capture. You're discoverable when buyers search. Catering Funnels is demand creation: outbound outreach, AI follow-up, lifecycle nurture, missed-call recovery. Different game.
Who should pick which
- Have no time or capacity for outbound or follow-up
- Are just getting started with catering and want to test corporate demand
- Operate in a market where ezCater has dense corporate adoption
- Are fine paying commission indefinitely in exchange for zero sales work
- Already get catering inquiries but lose revenue to slow follow-up
- Have a salesperson, or want to act like one
- Have any past corporate clients sitting dormant in your inbox
- Want to build a corporate catering business as a long-term asset, not a referral channel
Many restaurants use both. ezCater for visibility, Catering Funnels for direct outreach and follow-up on inbound leads. That's a fully defensible hybrid strategy.
Common questions
Catering Funnels vs ezCater: questions we get
Want help figuring out which fits your operation?
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