Affordability Index: Talabat, Deliveroo, Grab & More

Hi, it’s Wassim from Burger Index,

What’s the real cost of ordering food or groceries online? 

This week, we’re looking at affordability, the metric that reflects what customers actually pay, not just what’s on the menu. That means: product price + discounts + delivery fees + service fees.

We benchmarked restaurant and grocery baskets across major platforms in UAE and Singapore, revealing which players are winning on price and where customers are quietly paying more.

🍽️ Restaurant Affordability: UAE

In the UAE, we compared a Grilled Chicken Quesadilla from Kcal across Talabat, Noon Food, Careem and Deliveroo.

• Talabat was the most affordable for subscription users while Noon was the most affordable for regular users.

• Delivery fees and discounts were the main differentiators.

  
  

  

🍽️ Restaurant Affordability: Singapore

We ran a similar analysis in Singapore using a Drumstick Rice Box Combo from 4Fingers Crispy Chicken, across Deliveroo, FoodPanda and Grab.

• Deliveroo was the most affordable at SGD 17.3, with Foodpanda less affordable at SGD 18.09 but offering a faster delivery time.

• Delivery and service fees were the main differentiators as product price and discounts remained constant.

  
  

  

🛒 Grocery Affordability: UAE

We built a 17 item grocery basket using common staples like rice, chicken, eggs, coffee, and oil, across e-groceries like T-Mart, Noon Minutes, Careem Quik, Carrefour and Choithrams. 

• The total basket cost ranged from AED 353.2 to AED 315.58, a 11.85% price difference for the same set of everyday items and Carrefour beat out the aggregators on price.

• Promotions don’t always translate to lower baskets: Noon and Careem featured the most discounts, but their higher original prices and fees kept total costs high.

  
  

  

🛒 Grocery Affordability: Singapore

We repeated the same exercise in Singapore across Grab Mart and Panda Mart. 

• Despite higher base pricing, a mixture of promotions and lower delivery fees lead to Panda Mart being slightly more affordable.

🧠 Final Thought

Menu prices are just the starting point. Affordability, what the customer actually pays is the more useful benchmark for restaurants, grocers, and aggregators.

At Burger Index, we help businesses monitor affordability across any web or app in any region.

Want to track this data daily or weekly in your market? Book a demo here.

Automate affordability tracking with Burger Index.