If a quote from a national catering marketplace looks a little higher than what a local caterer quoted you directly for the same menu, you’re probably not imagining it. Online catering marketplaces charge the caterers on their platform a commission on every order, and that commission has to come from somewhere. In practice, it usually comes from the price you see at checkout.
How Marketplace Commissions Turn Into Higher Menu Prices
Marketplaces like ezCater and CaterCow don’t charge the buyer a separate line-item fee the way a delivery app sometimes does. Instead, they take a cut from the caterer’s payout after the order is placed. Public reporting on ezCater’s standard model puts the marketplace commission at roughly 15% per order, on top of a separate 2.75%–2.99% credit card processing fee – with some sources citing a broader 15%–25% range once marketing placement or delivery support is added in. CaterCow uses a similar structure: it’s free for a caterer to list, but a percentage is deducted from every payout to cover commission, customer service, referral traffic, marketing, and invoicing. Other general catering marketplaces are commonly cited in the 5%–20% range per transaction.
A caterer running on thin margins can’t just absorb 15–25% off the top and keep pricing identical across every channel. Most build the marketplace’s cut into the menu price shown on that platform, so the order still pencils out the same way a direct order would. That’s not a hidden scam – it’s the ordinary economics of a lead-generation marketplace – but it does mean the "menu price" you’re comparing across platforms may not be an apples-to-apples number.
Why the Commission Rate Isn’t Always the Same
Not every order through the same marketplace carries the identical fee. ezCater, for example, has reportedly offered a lower-commission path called ezOrdering, around 7% plus processing fees, for orders placed through a caterer’s own branded ordering page rather than the open marketplace listing. That gap between the marketplace rate and the direct/white-label rate is exactly why prices can shift depending on how you reach the same caterer. A caterer paying a lower cut on one channel has less reason to mark up pricing there.
| Booking path | Typical commission caterer pays | Likely effect on your price |
|---|---|---|
| Open marketplace listing (standard) | Roughly 15%–25%, often plus card processing | Menu price frequently built up to offset the cut |
| Marketplace white-label / direct-order page | Lower, cited around 7% plus processing on at least one major platform | Smaller markup pressure, closer to the caterer’s base price |
| Booking the caterer directly (phone, email, their own site) | None to the marketplace | Base price, though the caterer may still price to their standard margin |
When Paying the Marketplace Price Is Still the Right Call
None of this means marketplaces are a bad option. A national catering marketplace exists to solve a real problem: finding a vetted caterer in an unfamiliar city, comparing several menus in one place, and having a single point of contact for invoicing, delivery windows, and customer support if something goes wrong on event day. For a one-off order, or an office that needs the transaction handled by a system rather than a person chasing a caterer’s individual invoice, that convenience and support layer is worth paying for. The question isn’t whether the markup exists – it’s whether the convenience is worth it for the specific order in front of you.
Three Questions That Reveal Whether You’re Paying a Markup
Before assuming a marketplace quote is the caterer’s true price, it’s worth asking a few direct questions:
- Does this caterer take orders directly, and would the price differ? Many caterers listed on a marketplace also accept direct bookings by phone or their own site. Asking plainly whether the price is the same either way is a fair question, and most caterers will answer honestly.
- Is delivery priced separately, or folded into the per-person total? A caterer offsetting a commission sometimes rolls delivery into the food price rather than listing it as its own fee, which makes side-by-side comparisons harder unless you ask for an itemized breakdown.
- Are you ordering repeatedly from the same caterer? For a recurring weekly or monthly order, even a modest per-order markup compounds fast. That’s usually the point where it’s worth asking the caterer whether a direct, recurring arrangement is available outside the marketplace.
None of this is a reason to avoid marketplaces – it’s a reason to read a catering quote the way you’d read any vendor quote: know what’s built into the number before you compare it to another one.
The Bottom Line
Catering marketplace fees are not charged to you directly, but they rarely disappear – they typically show up as a modest markup on the menu price you’re already paying. Understanding roughly where that markup comes from, and knowing that lower-commission and direct-booking paths often exist for the same caterer, puts you in a better position to judge whether a marketplace quote is fair value or simply the most convenient number in front of you.