Food delivery apps are any college student’s best food friend and worst financial enemy. We all have those days where we’ve come home from class or work, we’re tired and hungry, we need to have dinner but don’t want to cook. Just open up your phone, and there’s a whole world of restaurants whose food can be delivered in under an hour — it’s so easy, too easy. It’s a dangerous game for those of us who are on a tight budget, as many college students, like myself, are.
I’m here to help with that, at least a little bit.
This past month I did a little experiment to find out if there’s a cheaper way to get all my favorite foods delivered right to me. Namely, I got free one-month trials for Grubhub+, DashPass, and UberOne, to see which food delivery app subscription service has the most bang for your buck.
I got the free trials for all three services so you don’t have to and put on my sleuthing cap to figure out whether these services will save you any money as a student on a budget, and if so, which one is the best. Let’s dive in.
DashPass, $9.99/month
When you open the DoorDash website, its subscription service, DashPass, is one of the first things you see advertised. DashPass has a good number of perks for its members: $0 delivery fees, less fees on orders, members-only exclusive offers, 5% back on pickup orders, and cancellation any time. Generally, DashPass is either paid monthly at a rate of $9.99/month or yearly for $96/year, which comes out to about $8/month. Plus, with the student discount, DashPass is only $4.99/month — less than a cup of slightly overpriced coffee, which I do, in fact, buy almost every day. Just putting it into perspective. That adds up to about $48 for a full year of fee-less food!
I ordered from the same restaurant every time I tested out a new service. This restaurant is called Genki Ya, a sushi restaurant right by my school in Boston. It’s a staple. When I ordered using DashPass, the food came out to $21.23, as compared to $27.22 with regular DoorDash. It arrived relatively fast, and was still warm. Overall, thumbs up to DashPass.
Grubhub+, $9.99/month
Grubhub+ comes with a variety of perks, like $0 delivery fees on eligible orders, lower service fees, 5% back on pickup orders, and access to certain restaurants that aren’t otherwise on the Grubhub app. You’ll see some similarities between each service.
Grubhub’s student discount works a little differently, though. According to its website, Grubhub is partnered with over 360 universities, offering the subscription service for a reduced cost or completely for free in some cases. Some participating schools are Northeastern University, University of Tampa, and Howard University. The full list of partnered schools is available when you sign up using the app. There are even student-only deals at certain restaurants that you can only get through Grubhub. Grubhub has also partnered with Amazon so that anyone with an Amazon Prime account gets Grubhub+ for free — another perk, if that applies to you.
Outside of those circumstances, the paid service comes in at $9.99 per month, with a one month free trial. That’s about $110/ year. A bit more expensive than DashPass’s annual payment plan, but the same as its monthly plan.
With GrubHub+, my sushi order came out to $18.28, as compared to $24.72 with regular GrubHub. Lower than $20 for a delivery order? That’s practically unheard of.
UberOne, $5.99/month
The subscription service UberOne has very similar perks to the other two — $0 delivery fees on eligible orders, discounts on certain items, and exclusive offers for membership holders (like “Starbucks Mondays” and “Taco Bell Tuesdays”), which I thought was cute and fun all around.
The cost breakdown is a bit different. The typical fee for the subscription is $5.99/month with a free trial, or $59.99/year. With the student discount, it’s $4.99/month — not a huge difference, but it still counts for something! All things considered, it’s a pretty good deal. Plus, if you’re a frequent Uber user, UberOne might be a good option for you. UberOne members get 5% discounts on regular Uber rides, and a 10% discounts on premium reserved rides.
When I ordered sushi with UberOne, the cost came out to $21.81, as compared to $23.74 with regular UberEats. Not too big of a difference, but still cheaper than DoorDash either way.
Overall Thoughts
All in all, GrubHub+ gets the Gold, DashPass gets Silver, and UberOne gets Bronze. Without factoring in the paid subscription, however, it’s a pretty close call between all three.
Without a doubt, these subscription services will save you money if you frequently order out. The best deal in my case seems to be GrubHub+, but it all depends on where you’re located, the restaurant you’re ordering from, who’s preparing your food, what time of the day it is, and who your delivery driver is. With the student discount, UberOne or DashPass may be the right fit for you!