Six apps. All of them promise flexible income. All of them classify you as an independent contractor. None of them agree on how to pay you.
I've spent time on most of these. Enough to have opinions that aren't recycled from some 2023 listicle. Short answer: it depends on where you live, when you work, and what kind of work you're willing to do. Long answer is the rest of this post.
How each one pays you
Shipt uses an algorithm nobody understands. They call it "effort-based." Used to be $5 plus 7.5% of the order total, which was transparent and fine. Now it's a black box that spits out a number. IEEE Spectrum published a whole investigation showing 40% of shoppers took pay cuts when Shipt switched. They guarantee no offer will work out to less than $16/hour, but that's based on their time estimate for the order, not how long it actually takes you. If Shipt thinks a 48-item shop takes 35 minutes and it takes you 55, tough luck. Plus you still have to drive back to the store for your next order. That's not factored in.
Instacart pays per batch. Minimum batch pay got bumped to $7-10 for shop-and-deliver orders, $5 for delivery-only. They factor in item count, item type, distance, and time of day. Heavy items like cases of water add $2 or so. The base pay is low but you see the full payout including tip before you accept. That's a big deal.
DoorDash base pay ranges from $2 to $10 per delivery. The less popular the order, the higher the base climbs as drivers decline it. They add Peak Pay during meal rushes and bad weather, usually $1-3 extra per delivery. The math is simple but the base is often terrible. A $2.50 offer for a 6-mile drive shows up constantly.
UberEats starts with a $2-4 base fare, then adds per-mile and per-minute fees on top. They also throw in a "trip supplement" when the base doesn't match the actual effort. As of 2025, Uber shows the full expected payout upfront and guarantees you'll receive at least that amount even if the customer changes their tip. That's new and it matters.
Spark (Walmart's delivery platform) pays $7-20 per delivery depending on distance, order size, and complexity. Curbside pickups used to be the quick ones, $7-12 for 5-20 minutes of work, but it's now rare to find a single curbside pickup. They're now usually batched as 3 stops per pickup, taking 45m to 1hr+. Dotcom orders (walmart.com packages) are pre-packed and picked up from a designated area, no shopping involved, but customers often can't tip on those at checkout so the payout is usually worse and they're typically high mileage routes with a lot of stops. The FTC just hit Walmart with a $100 million settlement for manipulating driver pay and tips. That tells you something about how the platform operated.
Grubhub calculates base pay from mileage (about $0.22/mile) plus time (about $0.13/minute). If you schedule blocks and maintain an 80%+ offer acceptance rate, they guarantee a minimum hourly rate for your market on slow days. Grubhub got acquired by Wonder in early 2025 for $650 million, down from the $7+ billion Just Eat paid for it. They laid off 23% of their corporate staff right after. The platform still works but the trajectory isn't great.
What drivers actually make
Nobody agrees on exact numbers because it varies by market, hours, and strategy. But here's what the data shows across multiple sources.
Shipt shoppers report $12-20/hour. Top performers in busy metros hit $25+. Tips account for around 30% of your total, less if you're consistently accepting orders from addresses that don't tip.
Instacart shoppers average $18-19/hour gross. In high-income suburbs during peak times, some shoppers report clearing $30-40/hour. That's not a daily average though.
DoorDash drivers report $15-25/hour gross. One study pegged the actual average including downtime at $12.23/hour. Tips make up 40-60% of total income. You really only earn well during lunch and dinner rushes, so it's hard to stay busy if you're trying to work anything close to full-time hours.
UberEats drivers average $18-22/hour gross. Net after expenses is $8-15/hour. Because it's mainly a hot-food delivery platform, you run into the same issue as DoorDash with the only busy times being lunch and dinner rushes.
Spark drivers report $15-25/hour gross. Oversaturated markets have driven earnings down significantly in some areas.
Grubhub pays around $14.50-18/hour. Lowest of the six in most markets. Fewer total orders because they're a distant third in market share behind DoorDash and UberEats.
All of those numbers are before vehicle costs. Subtract gas, maintenance, insurance, and depreciation, and the real number is $3-5/hour less across the board. None of these platforms reimburse mileage outright, though drivers in some states get per-mile compensation on Instacart, DoorDash, and UberEats.
Tips make or break every platform
Shipt sometimes shows you an estimated tip on the offer screen based on the customer's history and order size. Sometimes it's accurate. Sometimes it's fiction. Customers can adjust their early tip. Building a list of preferred shoppers who tip consistently is how pro-shoppers make real money on Shipt.
Instacart shows the tip upfront before you accept. You know exactly what you're getting into. The downside: customers can change their tip for 24 hours after delivery. Tip-baiting is a real thing. Instacart says it's under 0.5% of orders and they'll cover up to $10 if a tip gets zeroed out. Small comfort if it happens to you, but not great if you just spent a couple of hours shopping one huge offer because it had a good tip on it, only for it to be reduced to $10.
DoorDash customers tip before they order. You see a guaranteed amount but DoorDash has historically hidden the full tip on higher-tipped orders. They show you $6.50 when the actual payout is $12, to prevent you from being able to cherry-pick orders. This has gotten better but it still happens.
UberEats now shows the full expected payout upfront, including the tip. As of 2025 they guarantee you'll receive at least the shown amount, in most circumstances. This is the strongest tip protection of any platform right now, but recent reports from users have shown that covering it in "most circumstances" is less often than expected. Customers have about an hour to adjust tips, and in some cities they can only increase, not decrease.
Spark is the worst for tips. Customers have around 3 hours to reduce or remove tips entirely (used to be 24 hours). Dotcom orders from walmart.com don't even have a tip option at checkout. And the FTC alleged that Walmart was splitting tips across drivers on batched deliveries without telling anyone. Tips show as "Unconfirmed" until the window closes, so you're guessing until then, and tip-baiting is absolutely a thing here.
Grubhub shows the full tip upfront and customers cannot reduce it after ordering. No tip-baiting, period. This is Grubhub's single strongest feature. The catch: no-tip orders bounce around from driver to driver while Grubhub slowly raises the base pay. Food sits for 45 minutes sometimes. So by the time it's actually worth taking, you already have an angry customer to deal with in your inbox (or in person). But at least you know what you're getting.
Best tip transparency, ranked: Grubhub (full tip, locked), UberEats (full tip, mostly locked), Instacart (full tip, adjustable), DoorDash (partially hidden), Shipt (estimated), Spark (adjustable).
The work itself
Shipt and Instacart are grocery shopping. Walk the aisles, pick items, text customers about substitutions, check out, load your car, deliver. A 40-item order takes 50-60 minutes in the store plus delivery time. It's physical and slow compared to restaurant pickup. But the orders are bigger, so the tips are bigger. A 15% tip on a $200 grocery order is $30. Both platforms sometimes batch multiple customers into one trip, which is more efficient but it often isn't communicated properly with the customers so you have to make sure the second one knows you aren't just driving around aimlessly with their groceries.
DoorDash and UberEats are mostly restaurant pickup. Pull up, grab the bag, drive, drop off. Ten to twenty minutes per delivery if traffic cooperates. No shopping, no substitution texts. Orders are small, tips are small, and you need volume. A good dinner rush might be 4-5 deliveries in two hours. DoorDash also does grocery through their Kroger partnership, but it's not their core business. UberEats does some grocery and convenience delivery too.
Spark is a mix. Curbside orders are the easiest gig on this list. Pull into the reserved spot at Walmart, someone loads your car, you drive and deliver. Dotcom orders are pre-packed walmart.com packages, also picked up without going inside, but with many stops. Shopping orders are the only ones where you actually go into the store and pick items yourself.
Grubhub is restaurant delivery, same as DoorDash and UberEats. No grocery component worth mentioning. Wonder (their new owner) might change that eventually with meal kit integration, but right now it's food pickup and delivery.
Scheduling and flexibility
DoorDash and UberEats are the most flexible. Open the app, start getting offers. No advance scheduling required. Work for 30 minutes or 8 hours. DoorDash has a scheduling system for busy areas, but Dash Now works whenever your zone isn't oversaturated. UberEats doesn't even have that restriction. Just go online.
Instacart and Spark are similar. No shifts to schedule. Open the app, see what's available. Instacart's catch is that batches go fast and high-rated shoppers (4.7+) see them first. Sitting in a grocery store parking lot refreshing the app is a real part of the experience. Spark distributes orders by proximity and performance, either directly to you or broadcast to all drivers in the area.
Shipt requires you to schedule yourself into zones and time windows. Orders go to the highest-rated shopper first. Unclaimed orders go to open metro. More structured than the others, and realistically you can schedule yourself right when you're ready to start working.
Grubhub uses scheduled blocks. You sign up for time slots, and higher-tier drivers (Premier, Pro) get first pick. You can go online without a block but you'll get fewer and worse orders. If you're on a block, you need to accept 80%+ of offers to keep your guaranteed minimum. That punishes cherry-picking.
Where each one works best
Shipt is strongest in the suburbs. Target integration gives consistent volume. Grocery delivery thrives where people have houses and disposable income.
Instacart covers more stores than Shipt. Costco, Kroger, Publix, Safeway, Aldi, Wegmans, and more. Strong in suburbs, decent in urban areas.
DoorDash dominates everywhere but especially urban. Highest order volume, shortest distances, bike delivery available. About 55% of the US food delivery market.
UberEats is second in food delivery with about 30% market share. Strongest in dense urban areas. Weaker in suburbs, or at least expect longer delivery distances.
Spark is the suburban and rural king. Walmart is everywhere, including small towns where DoorDash and UberEats barely operate. 17,000+ pickup points covering 84% of US households. If you live somewhere rural, Spark might be your only option.
Grubhub is focused on major cities, especially the Northeast. Historically strong in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia. Under Wonder, they seem to be doubling down on NYC. If you're not in a major metro, Grubhub probably isn't worth your time.
Can you do more than one
Yes. All six classify you as independent contractors. None of them prohibit working for competitors. A lot of drivers run two or three apps at once.
Popular combos: Shipt or Instacart for groceries plus DoorDash or UberEats for meal rushes. Spark for quick Walmart curbside pickups in slow times. Grubhub as a backup.
The risk isn't getting caught. It's juggling orders and delivering late, which tanks your rating on whichever platform got neglected. Keep it clean. One active delivery at a time. Pause the apps you're not using.
Most drivers who multi-app say it bumps their hourly rate noticeably just by reducing dead time between orders.
Deactivation: how easy is it to get fired
This matters more than people think. You're building income on a platform that can cut you off.
Shipt: Rating below 4.7 or on-time rate below 90% in the last 50 orders. That's just 5 orders late and you're out. Their appeals process is also very unlikely to get you your account back. They've historically deactivated without explanation, though the Minnesota AG settlement now requires written reasons and an appeal process in that state.
Instacart: Below 4.5 stars (below 4.7 loses batch priority). Cancellation rate above 15%. Co-shopping and alcohol violations are instant.
DoorDash: Below 4.2 stars or completion rate below 90% (raised from 80% in 2024). Low rating deactivations can't be appealed.
UberEats: Satisfaction rate below about 85%. They recently added protections so cancellations outside your control (restaurant closures) don't affect your rating. Users report that issues in one category (such as alcohol delivery) don't remove access to other order types.
Spark: Completion rate below roughly 80%. Frequent deactivations, but a higher chance to appeal it than you have with Shipt.
Grubhub: Three violations within 90 days. Violations include unassigning orders, falsely marking restaurants as closed, and delaying pickups. After the Wonder acquisition, drivers reported a wave of deactivations in mid-2025. Grubhub said it was about duplicate accounts, but the timing was suspicious to some.
Recent news that affects your paycheck
A lot changed in 2024-2025 across these platforms.
Shipt got hit with an $800K settlement from the Minnesota AG over worker misclassification. The settlement forced them to explain deactivations and maintain an appeal process. A separate class action is still ongoing.
DoorDash paid $16.75 million to the New York AG in early 2025 for using tips to subsidize base pay. They'd already paid $100 million in a previous class action over the same thing.
Walmart's Spark program got the biggest hit. The FTC announced a $100 million settlement yesterday for inflating tip amounts, splitting tips without disclosure, and reducing pay when removing orders from batches. Up to $79 million is going to affected drivers, with $63 million already paid out and another $16 million in a settlement fund. The remaining $21 million goes to state penalties and consumer refunds through the FTC.
Grubhub got acquired by Wonder for $650 million (a $6+ billion loss from what Just Eat paid). 500 corporate employees were laid off. Delivery drivers protested mass deactivations. The platform's future is uncertain.
UberEats introduced tip-baiting protections and fare guarantees. Instacart raised batch minimums and reduced the tip adjustment window from 3 days to 24 hours. Those are positive moves.
So which one pays the best
For grocery shoppers in the suburbs who want to build repeat customer relationships: Shipt. The preferred shopper system gives you consistent orders from people who tip well. Takes time to build but it's the most sustainable model.
For grocery shoppers who want to know exactly what they're making before they accept: Instacart. Upfront tips, no guessing. Higher gross pay than Shipt in most markets.
For maximum flexibility and order volume, especially in cities: DoorDash or UberEats. DoorDash has more market share. UberEats has better tip protections and higher pay during peak demand. Both work great for filling gaps between grocery orders.
For suburban and rural areas where other apps are scarce: Spark. It's got problems, but if Walmart is the only game in town, it's your option.
For transparent tips with zero tip-baiting risk: Grubhub. But only if you're in a major city where they have volume. Everywhere else, it's too slow.
For the best overall hourly rate: multi-app. Grocery platform for big orders, food delivery app for meal rushes, Spark for quick curbside pickups in between. That combination beats any single platform by a wide margin.
None of them pay enough to ignore vehicle costs, mileage tracking, or quarterly taxes. That part is the same everywhere.
Auto Tip Map is an Android app for Shipt shoppers that tracks your orders, tips, mileage, earnings stats, and estimated fuel costs.