This comparison used to be straightforward. Wonder was a ghost-kitchen company that cooked its own food. Grubhub was a marketplace that connected you to local restaurants. They didn’t really compete.

Then Wonder bought Grubhub for $650 million in January 2025, and now the two are intertwined in ways that make the comparison more complicated — and more interesting.

Here’s the current state of Wonder vs Grubhub, eighteen months after the acquisition.

The short version

Wonder and Grubhub are now part of the same company, but they still operate as separate apps with separate pricing. The key difference: Wonder cooks its own food. Grubhub connects you to restaurants that cook their own food. The acquisition means some Grubhub restaurants now appear inside the Wonder app, but the two services are not merged.

Delivery fees

Wonder: $0 on every order. Always. No minimum.

Grubhub: $1.99 to $9.99 depending on distance, restaurant, and demand. Grubhub+ members ($9.99/month) get free delivery on orders over $12. Without the membership, you’re paying a delivery fee on most orders.

Winner: Wonder. Same story as vs UberEats and DoorDash. Wonder’s $0 delivery fee is structurally built into the model because the food is made in-house.

Speed

Wonder: 20-30 minutes. The kitchen is close to you, the food is made on-site, and the delivery radius is capped at 35 minutes.

Grubhub: 40-60 minutes is typical. The driver has to travel to the restaurant, wait for the food, and then drive to you. Grubhub doesn’t control the cooking.

Winner: Wonder. The speed difference is the most noticeable thing when you switch between the two. Wonder orders consistently arrive in under 30 minutes. Grubhub orders consistently take 45+.

Wonder: No markup. Wonder sets its own prices.

Grubhub: 15-30% markup on most restaurant menus. Restaurants raise their Grubhub prices to cover Grubhub’s commission. This is standard marketplace behavior — DoorDash and UberEats do the same thing — but it means the menu price you see on Grubhub is higher than what you’d pay at the restaurant.

Winner: Wonder. A typical Grubhub order has a $5 delivery fee + $4-8 in menu markups. Wonder has $0 in both.

Restaurant selection

Wonder: ~20-30 chef-partner brands per kitchen, plus Grubhub-sourced restaurants in major metros. The Grubhub integration is the big change here — Wonder now shows 30-50 additional local restaurants in the app in NYC, Boston, DC, and other markets. These are Grubhub merchants that appear in the Wonder app with a small Grubhub icon.

Grubhub: 375,000+ restaurants nationwide. The selection is massive. If you want a specific restaurant, Grubhub probably has it.

Winner: Grubhub for raw selection, but the gap is narrowing. The Grubhub-inside-Wonder integration means many of the same restaurants are now accessible through either app. The difference is that Grubhub-direct gives you the full national inventory, while Wonder only shows the Grubhub merchants in your immediate delivery zone.

The Grubhub-inside-Wonder experience

This is the part that’s genuinely new and worth understanding.

When you open the Wonder app in a major metro, you now see two types of restaurants:

  1. Wonder-cooked food (Bobby Flay, José Andrés, Di Fara, etc.) — made in Wonder’s kitchen, 20-30 minute delivery, $0 delivery fee.
  2. Grubhub-sourced food (local restaurants) — made by the restaurant, 40-60 minute delivery, $0 delivery fee (Wonder doesn’t charge delivery on these either, which is a real benefit vs ordering through Grubhub directly).

The second category is where the acquisition creates something new. You get Grubhub’s restaurant variety inside Wonder’s no-delivery-fee structure. The tradeoff is that Grubhub-sourced orders take longer (40-60 minutes vs 20-30 for Wonder-cooked food) because they’re coming from a restaurant, not a Wonder kitchen.

Geographic coverage

Wonder: Northeast only (~120 kitchens). Check the locations directory to see if you’re covered.

Grubhub: Nationwide and in several international markets.

Winner: Grubhub for coverage. If you’re outside the Northeast, Grubhub works and Wonder doesn’t.

New customer discounts

Wonder: $30 off your first two orders ($15 each) with referral code ALMA465. Apply it here.

Grubhub: $10-25 off your first order, varying by market and promotion. Grubhub also runs periodic “free delivery” promos for new customers. The offers are real but less predictable than Wonder’s flat $30.

Winner: Wonder for predictability. Both offer new-customer savings, but Wonder’s $30 is guaranteed and applies across two orders.

Which should you use?

If you’re in Wonder’s coverage area: Use Wonder. The $0 delivery fee, faster delivery, and no menu markup make it cheaper on almost every order. The Grubhub integration means you’re not giving up much variety — you can still get local restaurants through the Wonder app, without Grubhub’s delivery fee.

If you’re outside Wonder’s coverage area: Use Grubhub. It works everywhere and has the largest restaurant selection of any delivery app. Pair it with Grubhub+ if you order more than twice a month.

If you’re already a Grubhub user in a Wonder market: Try Wonder with the ALMA465 referral code for the $30 new-customer discount. You’ll likely find it cheaper and faster for most orders, while still having access to many of the same local restaurants through the Grubhub integration.

For comparisons against other delivery apps, see our Wonder vs DoorDash and Wonder vs UberEats breakdowns. If you’re already a Wonder customer, here’s how to save as an existing user.