Like taxi and ride hailing apps in Singapore, a lot has happened in the last 5 years with how you can get Food delivered to your door so you don’t have to slide off your Cheeto-incrusted sofa and just lie there. Just lie there. Waiting.

Back in 2012, you were happy to get a Pizza Hut or Dominos pizza delivered. That was a good thing. FoodPanda was the only 3rd party Food Delivery app that was available and with really not a lot of variety and long hunger pain Waiting Times.

Fast forward to 2017 and the competition is fierce and most welcome to the paying customer. Foodpanda has had to up its game and actually try to become reliable and more accessible due to the entry of Deliveroo and UberEats into the fray. Let’s see how they stack up against each other in my experiences.

FoodPanda
Launched 2012. 5 million downloads on Google Play Store..
The oldest but the most disappointing. With more years behind them than UberEats or Deliveroo they still somehow get it wrong with customer experience. I remember ordering from them in the early days and getting cold and soggy food. There is no little map to show where your delivery is. If, for some reason, you open their app and stop browsing they pop up a little reminder on your phone as if you had lost your mind and just realised you’re not hungry. Silly. Stop badgering me. I know I’m hungry. At the time of writing they also have this splash ad before I can start even browsing the restaurants that is impossible to click the “x” on!!

They also seem to have less options than the other two main competitors (when they really don’t!), maybe that’s just where I am located in Singapore but this along with the aggravating user experience makes me choose this app last. They do have a deal with Burger King to deliver and they recently tried to start innovating with a couple of 24 hour food delivery options so I suppose there’s that.
It’s just that they remind me of Kodak; they had years to innovate and improve and did nothing. Then they got competition…

UberEats
Launched May 2016. 5 million downloads on Google Play Store.
I’ve had a couple of long waiting times with UberEats that were, after a few days, automatically acknowledged and I was given a $5 voucher. UberEats is my second go-to app due to those long waiting times, it feels to me like they just don’t have enough drivers around my location. It’s confusing too as I can’t rate the drivers like on regular Uber but the drivers seem to have ratings…odd… Even after just under a year on the market they seem to have more variety than FoodPanda and with a more smooth user experience on their app.

Deliveroo
Launched November 2015. 1 million downloads on Google Play Store.
Deliveroo rampaged onto the scene with an advertising assault that left no stone un-turned. Everywhere you looked you saw the logo and branding (they’ve since changed their logo). Restaurants and drivers were quick with hopping (ahem) on board and that made for a more pleasant first few orders with them as there were a variety of food options and quick delivery times. They show a map the moment you order and give you a notification each step of the way. They are my go-to app due to the slickness of their app and my history of getting my food quickly and hot. They also give you an option to tip the driver in your final payment which I can feel better about.

Like the ride hailing apps it will be interesting to watch this space. All companies are having money thrown into them by investments so it will be interesting how they will use those $$$$ that will determine who comes out on top. With the addition recently of a couple of alcohol delivery services in Singapore (bottlesXO and vinomofo); the room for natural expansion and evolution into that area has gotten a little but more competitive. One thing for sure is they will need to come up with something innovative to stand out from the competition.