Everything about Zomato, Swiggy cheaper alternative ONDC: a government food, groceries delivery app

Zomato and Swiggy are the most popular food online platforms in India but there’s a new one that has potential to be a new (and cheaper) competitor. This food delivery platform is called ONDC (Open Network for Digital Commerce), and is available via Paytm. ONDC is essentially a government initiative, and it’s a platform designed to drive e-commerce for sellers across the country. 

What makes ONDC stand out is that it’s cheaper than ordering from Zomato or Swiggy. There are already multiple comparisons of popular food orders from Zomato, Swiggy and ONDC, and some of the differences are pretty huge. 

ONDC vs Zomato vs Swiggy

For example, this Twitter user compared an order of a paneer burger and Pepsi from this one restaurant on ONDC and Swiggy. The total bill came to Rs 185.57 on ONDC and Rs 337 on Swiggy. Even a comparison that we did showed that there is indeed a notable difference between the food delivery platforms. A Burger King Chicken Whopper with cheese will cost you Rs 193.32 via ONDC, and Rs 272.20 via Zomato. Do note that this bill includes free delivery (Zomato Gold), and a Rs 50 discount on ONDC. 

ONDC isn’t exactly new though as it has been around since September last year with the service first running only in Bengaluru. It is currently available in multiple cities including Delhi, Noida, Faridabad, Lucknow, Bhopal, Pune and Chennai. If you want to see if ONDC is available in your city, you can follow these steps. 

How to use ONDC

• ONDC isn’t available as a standalone but it’s instead part of the Paytm app. You can simply type ONDC in the Paytm search box and you will get options to order food from this platform.
• Once you’re here, tap on food to get a collection of restaurants and food items available to order from the app. 
• You can also select ‘ONDC Food’ to get a curated menu of different types of food that’s available. 

Since there’s no presence of ONDC on the Paytm app, you will have to do a search to find the service. Also, in addition to food, ONDC also delivers groceries similar to Blinkit, Instamart, and Zepto. There aren’t as many options for restaurants on ONDC as Zomato and Swiggy but it still has the popular chains such as Burger King, Krispy Kreme, and McDonald’s.