Apps and sites to order food from home

Until a few years ago it was necessary to pick up the handset of the home phone to be able to order a pizza or dinner at home, paying cash on delivery. Today, while it is always possible to call local pizzerias to request home delivery, we can use some applications to order food and request virtually any type of dish.

These are highly publicized applications which you only need to sign up for, consult the menu of affiliated restaurants, order what you want to eat, pay in advance via PayPal, wait for the delivery boy and eat, as you would if you received pizzas from take away. Below we see best sites and applications to order food, which can be used in most cities in Italy, to receive food at home from various restaurants.

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1) Just Eat

The first app we recommend you try to order food from home is Just Eat, available free for Android and iPhone / iPad.

Just Eat allows you to order food in several restaurants, receive food at home and without commission. Orders can be paid directly on delivery to the courier, or you can pay online by credit card if you don’t have cash at home. With Just Eat it is also possible to order food for a certain set time.

The app requires free registration with name, surname, number, email address and, of course, delivery address. Even before creating an account, you can immediately browse the menus of the nearest restaurants, look at the prices and choose whether to order or not. For each order you will receive a tax receipt and a confirmation email. Just Eat, compared to the others, is the only one that works in many cities in Italy and is certainly the most reliable service.

The commissions for delivery are charged to the commercial activity, which may decide to apply higher prices to its products; once a minimum spending threshold is exceeded, the shipment can be offered free of charge. In other cases we will have to place an order with a minimum spend (like 10 €) to be able to receive anything and delivery costs may still be expected.

PayPal is accepted as a payment method, so that we do not necessarily have to communicate credit card data or prepaid card data (which can still be used as an additional payment method, in case we do not have PayPal at hand).

2) Deliveroo

Another very interesting app for ordering and receiving food at home is Deliveroo, available free for Android and iPhone / iPad devices.

Deliveroo allows you to order food from your mobile phone from the restaurant of your choice. The service offers transportation from many popular venues, working very well in large cities like Rome and Milan. Delivery is free or € 1.90 if the order is placed at partner restaurants, while it is € 4.90 for non-partner restaurants; there is no minimum spending level for the order and payment can be made by debit on delivery.

On Deliveroo, delivery is often made by the same business but it is also possible to benefit from the delivery of Deliveroo riders (obviously depends on the type of business). In addition to food, we can also do the shopping in a nearby shop and have it brought home, so as to avoid moving.

Deliveroo also accepts PayPal as a payment method, but we can also add a prepaid card, a credit card or an ATM card to the free account (essential to be able to use all the functions of the app). On Apple devices, you can also pay with Apple Pay.

3) Glovo

Another very interesting service for ordering food from home is Glovo, whose app is available for free for Android and iPhone.

With Glovo we can order from many restaurants, bars, pubs and many fast food outlets (including McDonald’s) and get the order to us directly at home or in an office, thanks also to the fleet of riders that the company supplies for each covered area. The delivery cost has a fixed range, from 0 to a maximum of 4.90 euros, a price that changes according to the type of order, the activity and the distance to be traveled.

On Glovo we can also order groceries from supermarkets and affiliated shops, as long as it can be transported by motorbike or bicycle and does not exceed 9 kg of total weight (limit for being able to carry it by rider). Also on Glovo we can pay by credit card, PayPal or cash on delivery.

If we use Glovo a lot and want to save money, we can also subscribe to Glovo Prime, a subscription with a fixed cost of 7.99 euros per month that allows you to take advantage of free deliveries from nearby restaurants and affiliated shops for orders over 10 euros.

4) Uber Eats

One of the fastest and most widespread services in the world is Uber Eats, part of the Uber app services galaxy and available free for Android and iPhone / iPad.

Uber Eats is an application to order food and food at home that can cover a large number of cities, in Italy and abroad. By ordering from the app we will have access to all the typical Uber functions, but oriented for food delivery: we will be able to choose the address, the estimated delivery time and the price of the order including taxes and delivery costs.

To pay, all we have to do is use the Uber account (with its payment methods) or we can immediately add a new credit card. The Uber Eats app allows you to monitor the order in real time throughout the journey, with the geolocation of the riders destined for food deliveries.

Each Uber Eats partner restaurant decides how to charge for their food. Prices and offers may vary from those offered when you go to the restaurant in person, so even though shipping is free, prices tend to be higher (to cover Uber Eats fees).

5) FoodRacers

Another lesser known but rapidly spreading service is FoodRacers, of which there are obviously the apps for Android and iPhone / iPad.

FoodRacers allows you to order food in several Italian cities including Bergamo, Brescia, Como, Cremona, Mestre, Padua, Parma, Pavia, Piacenza, Pordenone, Ravenna, Trento, Treviso, Trieste, Udine, Varese, Vicenza and others.

Also in this case the delivery is made by the racers, that is, independent people who propose to work as messengers and earn on deliveries. This means that there is no charge on the order placed at the chosen restaurant: for the customer the only cost is the delivery fee (from 3.99 to 4.99 euros, depending on the distance to be traveled) which is held directly by the bellboy.

More apps to order food

In addition to the apps seen above (undoubtedly the most complete in the category) we can also try one of the apps present below, so that we can always find a valid alternative, especially when we do not find the restaurant we are looking for or that we visit all days.

• Moovenda is an app that works well in the cities of Rome and Naples and allows you to order from many restaurants, pubs, Chinese restaurants, vegetarian restaurants, Japanese restaurants and pizzerias with a shipping cost of 3.5 euros.
• Foorban describes itself as the digital restaurant, which delivers at home, only in Milan. Delivery costs vary according to the time chosen: for single dishes free delivery if ordered before 12, otherwise it is charged to the consumer (at a cost of 2.90 euros) if carried out during peak hours, between 12 and 15.
• CosaOrdino, a home delivery service active in some areas including Bologna, Ferrara, Lecco, Modena. It also provides a discount of € 5 for every 10 orders with a cart greater than € 10. If the 5 euro discount is used, the discounted order does not contribute to the collection of Freepizza points for reaching the 5 euro discount.

If we live in one of the cities described, it is therefore advisable to have at least two apps installed on the phone and use the one we prefer also based on the type of restaurant chosen.

Conclusions

The delivering apps have revolutionized catering, also allowing to expand home deliveries in times of a COVID-19 pandemic (where delivering has been the only way to make money and earn something with inaccessible tables for many months) . After the boom of the pandemic, many still rely on the apps seen above to be able to book their favorite food and have it delivered directly to their home, so as to minimize the risks and still eat what we like.

On the same topic we can read about how shopping on Amazon to buy food and drink and the list of best Italian sites with discounts, coupons and offers.