Is Domino's Or McDonald's The Better Takeout Value?

According to studies, the average American eats out up to six times a week. They say that time is money, but while ordering takeout or delivery might save you some time, it definitely costs a lot of money. And that goes double — or triple, or quadruple — if you have other mouths to feed. Just how can your average family make ends meet when food costs and delivery fees seem to be constantly rising?

Budgeting can help, as there are many signs that you spend way too much money on food. And to craft a proper dining budget, the first step is to figure out just how much it costs to eat out and maybe determine which fast food hacks can save some serious money. To help with this, we've researched what a family of four (two adults and two children) might pay to eat at two of the most popular takeout and delivery options in the United States: McDonald's and Domino's.

Both of these chains are known as budget-friendly industry leaders in their respective niches, burgers for McDonald's and pizza for Domino's. But how budget-friendly are they really? When you factor in menu variety, unexpected delivery fees and price hikes, and the potential for multiple meals via leftovers, which of these restaurants actually provides you value for your meal? We're going to put our money where our mouth is to find the answer once and for all.

While many people may already have firmly entrenched ideas of what McDonald's and Domino's food is — burgers and pizza, of course — for others, variety is the spice of life. So, which of these restaurants has the broader variety of menu options? While the answer may not translate directly into monetary terms, having more options on the menu can provide a different kind of value for diners.

Though McDonald's isn't strictly a burger joint, it's at least fair to call it a sandwich shop. Though there are occasionally experiments and other limited-time deviations from the tried and true (anyone remember McDonald's pizza?), the standard Golden Arches entree menu is an array of sandwiches presented on classic burger buns. That means burgers, chicken, and the famous Filet-O-Fish; the snack wrap was the only other entree available at the McDonald's location we canvassed, if you even consider it an entree. Ditto with chicken nuggets or strips. Likewise, sides were restricted to french fries or apple slices, and dessert was a small selection of pies or chocolate chip cookies. True, if the ice cream machine is working, you can potentially order one of several ice cream desserts, but these don't travel well for delivery.

Domino's, on the other hand, has more options than the name suggests. In addition to the customizable and specialty pizzas, there's also a selection of pasta entrees as well as subs and chicken platters. Domino's also offers a wider variety of sides, such as salads or breadsticks, with a comparable dessert menu — minus the ice cream.

If you're looking for a little extra value out of your menu, McDonald's has you covered with — wait for it — the McValue menu. This offers up individual items at a discounted price, but for families who need more than just a single sandwich to tamp down that hunger, McDonald's also has its Extra Value Meals, which combine an entree, side of fries, and a beverage for one lower combo price.

Domino's takes a different tack. There's no set value menu available. Instead, Domino's offers up a rolling suite of discount deals. Exactly what discounts might be available varies by day and across locations. The chain does have a special deals subsection on its website so you can easily find exactly what discounts are available to you. Additionally, when you go to place an order through the website, the deals pop up so you can apply them to whatever you're about to order.

Still, though both chains offer meal discounts that can benefit families ordering in volume, the McDonald's model is a bit simpler to understand and anticipate. If ease of use factors into your own personal evaluation of value, then McDonald's comes out ahead when it comes to value menus.

If you've got a family, figuring out just how much food to order for your kids when dining out can be a bit of a challenge, especially if the restaurant doesn't have a dedicated kids' menu. Having multiple kids at different ages just amps up the complexity. Luckily for families on the go, McDonald's has you covered with its classic Happy Meals. In particular, the option to choose either a four-piece or six-piece McNuggets meal allows parents to easily order for younger or older children; customizing the sides by doubling up either the fries or the apple slices also helps.

It's a bit more of a mixed bag at Domino's. On the one hand, the chain usually doesn't offer any dedicated kids' menus (although Domino's has trialed kids' menu options outside the U.S.). The closest the brand gets is simply the option to order small, medium, or large pizzas. The result is a more communal system than McDonald's, where each individual family member is siloed into their own personal food order.

That makes it a bit harder to order just the right amount of food at Domino's than McDonald's. But is that entirely a bad thing? In addition to potentially promoting more of a family dining experience, it also makes it more likely you'll have leftovers you can use for the following day. For families on a budget, that's a good thing.

Just how easy is it to order takeout or delivery from McDonald's? That's actually a trick question, as the process of ordering takeout from McDonald's can be different from ordering delivery depending on how you do it.

If you're ordering through the McDonald's app, it's essentially the same process. Ordering online via a laptop or desktop browser, however, is a different story. You can order delivery via the McDonald's website, but if you try to do takeout, it directs you to download the app instead. For many people, using an app is likely more convenient anyway, but for some families, this is an annoying extra step to navigate.

More importantly, ordering delivery from McDonald's means using a third-party service. This may not be immediately apparent, as you can do everything directly through the chain's app and website. However, a closer look at the page notifies you that McDonald's delivery services are "powered by DoorDash." This means there are markups for delivery that go beyond just the obvious added delivery fee and any tip; the cost of the food itself at McDonald's is also higher when ordering delivery than takeout. Those elevated prices may not be immediately obvious, though, unless you directly compare them as we did.

One advantage Domino's has over McDonald's is that the pizza chain has its own in-house delivery unit. Domino's has been delivering pizzas for decades, so delivery is in many ways the default. This means that while there is a standard delivery fee added on to orders, the base price of the food is the same whether you're ordering for delivery or carryout — no hidden DoorDash upcharges to be wary of.

Instead, Domino's does it the other way around, with discount deals often available if you order carryout. So, instead of raising the price for delivery, the chain lowers the price for takeout. Functionally, you could argue that's the same thing. Speaking of functionality, though, unlike McDonald's, you can order either carryout or delivery on either a browser or via the app. And beyond the ordering functionality itself, Domino's delivery comes with a built-in map that allows you to track your food in real time as it journeys towards your front door. Keeping an eye on the pizza tracker will prevent your pies from sitting out in the cold.

Let's say you decide to order takeout rather than delivery from McDonald's or Domino's. What's the experience actually like when you go to retrieve your family's dinner? Is it fast, easy, convenient? Or does it make you think that maybe it's worth the extra cost to have it delivered?

When you order McDonald's takeout through the official app, it prompts you to select how you want to pick it up. Just which options you can choose from, though, may vary depending on your specific location and time of day. Assuming all the options are available when you order, you'll be able to choose from curbside, front counter, table service, or drive-thru. Each comes with its own pros and cons. You won't want to choose table service if you're actually looking for takeout, of course, while drive-thru may mean waiting in a long line of cars before picking up your food, which defeats the purpose of ordering in advance. Still, having the choice is good.

By contrast, Domino's offers two options for its carryout service: carside and in-store. Makes sense, as Domino's locations typically don't have a drive-thru window. As mentioned, the pizza chain often offers special discounts for people choosing carryout over delivery, which provides an important incentive for budget-conscious families on the go.

Though there are differences in the respective delivery options offered by McDonald's and Domino's, both chains do offer some form delivery. But how do the experiences compare? A quick look at social media to find out what real people have to say shows a significant gulf.

In fact, complaints about McDonald's delivery taking too long resulting in cold food are common not just from diners, but tellingly from the delivery drivers themselves. In one Reddit thread titled "I HATE McDonald's Deliveries," a purported Uber Eats worker wrote, "i have canceled multiple deliveries because i have sat outside the restaurant waiting on customer food for north of 30 minutes." And in another Reddit thread, a reported DoorDash driver wrote that they saw an order at McDonald's more than two hours old waiting to be delivered. "Nobody touching it, nobody asking about it ... it just existed. At that point, that's not food anymore. That's a memorial."

Conversely, Domino's is generally praised for both its delivery service and its affordability. The chain also sometimes gives out coupons for free replacement pizzas if the initial delivery took too long. Add in the fact that many people actually like cold pizza anyway and it seems that Domino's is the consensus pick for having a superior delivery experience over McDonald's.

Let's get down to brass tacks. Just how much would it cost an average family of four to get McDonald's for dinner at home? It turns out the price varies wildly depending on whether you choose to pick up or have your food delivered.

Our imaginary happy family of two adults and two children each selected a meal from a real McDonald's location in the Boston suburbs. For the adults, one medium Big Mac meal and one medium McCrispy meal. For the older kid, it's a six-piece McNugget Happy Meal, and for the younger child, a classic hamburger Happy Meal. These meal deals come with beverages included, but since apple slices aren't really dessert, our family also ordered a separate dessert for everyone: one apple pie, one seasonal pumpkin creme pie, and a pair of chocolate chip cookies.

The total cost for this McDonald's dinner after tax was $35.85 for takeout. For delivery though, after adding in fees, markup, and a 20% tip for the delivery driver, the cost jumped to an astonishing $67.26, nearly twice as much. While the tip and delivery fees were major factors, the hidden price markup on the food itself can't be understated. For example, at the location we ordered from, the cost of the medium Big Mac meal jumped from $8 for takeout to $13.39 for delivery! For the entire meal, the cost of the food alone was hiked $13.45 by hidden DoorDash markups. Yikes.

Out of all of Domino's popular menu items, for our hypothetical family we went with a large pizza for the two adults to split and a small for the two kids to split. Our adults got a half pepperoni, half sausage and mushroom (as those are some of America's most popular pizza toppings), while the kids got the classic plain cheese. We also ordered a 2-liter of Sprite as the family beverage, as well as the Domino's marbled cookie brownie for dessert. That comes with nine pieces, so like the pizza and soda, there will likely be some leftovers.

As Domino's has a rolling selection of limited-time deals, the price may vary not just by region but by the chance of timing. When we ordered from a real Domino's location in the same Boston suburb that the McDonald's is located in, there were different price discounts available depending on carryout or delivery. Either way, though, the resulting meal was cheaper than McDonald's.

The most comparable value was for carryout: After discounts were applied, the cost came to $35.32, almost exactly the same as the McDonald's takeout order. Delivery, though, was a different matter. Once the available discounts were automatically applied through the ordering system on the Domino's website, the delivery meal cost $49.13 after taxes, fees, and a 20% tip were added. Even without applying the discount, the price came to $58.33 — a lot, but still nearly $9 less than the McDonald's order and for more food.

If the contest between McDonald's and Domino's were a little league game, the ump would have invoked the mercy rule. This contest turned out to be no contest at all, as when it comes to value, Domino's is a clear and obvious victor across the board.

True, the base cost of both meals was almost identical if the meals were being picked up at the counter rather than ordered for delivery. Even in that case, though, Domino's would still come out ahead on value by dint of the fact that you almost certainly will have leftovers to eat for another meal. With McDonald's, on the other hand, everything is sized to order for each individual, so there will likely be nothing leftover. Even if there were, day old pizza has a reputation for being good that day old burgers don't.

But the real clincher is the gulf in value when you order delivery. The fact that McDonald's outsources its delivery services means hidden markups for the food and outsized delivery fees. Delivery costing nearly double takeout is a true eye-opener that every family should consider before ordering from McDonald's. If you want burgers, by all means go with McDonald's, just pick it up there. If you want delivery, though, it has to be Domino's.

To determine the costs of ordering either McDonald's or Domino's for a family, first we had to define what we meant by family. For the purposes of this exercise, we chose a standard sitcom-style family: two adults and two children, with one child being slightly older than the other and therefore requiring more food.

We then determined how much food this typical family would eat. For McDonald's, where each meal option is tailored for an individual diner, this was relatively simple: two meal deals for the adults, two Happy Meals for the kids. Calculating the amount of Domino's to order was trickier, but there are a number of formulas used by pizza restaurants to estimate how much pie to order based on the number of diners. We utilized these calculations and then rounded up, as we didn't want our imaginary children to go to bed hungry. We also balanced both of these orders by including comparable drinks and desserts in addition to entrees.

Finally, as prices vary by region, we chose to anchor this exercise in the real world by pricing out these exact meals at the same specific location. Both meals were priced and ordered in the same town in the Boston suburbs, ensuring there would be no variance due to regional price differences. These are real prices for real orders in the real world. Only the families were imaginary.