Food Delivery Price Comparison with CAPTCHA Solving

Food delivery platforms protect their pricing data with CAPTCHAs and bot detection. Price comparison services, market researchers, and restaurant analytics tools need automated access to compare menu prices, delivery fees, and promotions across DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub, and other platforms.

CAPTCHAs on Delivery Platforms

Multi-Platform Price Comparator

import requests
import time
import re
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
import json

CAPTCHAAI_KEY = "YOUR_API_KEY"
CAPTCHAAI_URL = "https://ocr.captchaai.com"


def solve_captcha(method, sitekey, pageurl, **kwargs):
    data = {
        "key": CAPTCHAAI_KEY, "method": method,
        "googlekey": sitekey, "pageurl": pageurl, "json": 1,
    }
    data.update(kwargs)
    resp = requests.post(f"{CAPTCHAAI_URL}/in.php", data=data)
    task_id = resp.json()["request"]
    for _ in range(60):
        time.sleep(5)
        result = requests.get(f"{CAPTCHAAI_URL}/res.php", params={
            "key": CAPTCHAAI_KEY, "action": "get",
            "id": task_id, "json": 1,
        })
        r = result.json()
        if r["request"] != "CAPCHA_NOT_READY":
            return r["request"]
    raise TimeoutError("Timeout")


class FoodDeliveryComparator:
    def __init__(self, proxy=None):
        self.session = requests.Session()
        if proxy:
            self.session.proxies = {"http": proxy, "https": proxy}
        self.session.headers.update({
            "User-Agent": "Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 17_5 like Mac OS X) "
            "AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/17.5 "
            "Mobile/15E148 Safari/604.1",
            "Accept-Language": "en-US,en;q=0.9",
        })

    def search_restaurants(self, platform_url, location, cuisine=None):
        """Search restaurants on a delivery platform."""
        params = {"address": location}
        if cuisine:
            params["cuisine"] = cuisine

        url = f"{platform_url}/search"
        resp = self.session.get(url, params=params, timeout=30)

        if self._has_captcha(resp.text):
            resp = self._solve_and_retry(resp.text, url)

        return self._parse_restaurants(resp.text)

    def get_menu(self, restaurant_url):
        """Get menu with prices from a specific restaurant."""
        resp = self.session.get(restaurant_url, timeout=30)

        if self._has_captcha(resp.text):
            resp = self._solve_and_retry(resp.text, restaurant_url)

        return self._parse_menu(resp.text)

    def compare_restaurant_across_platforms(self, restaurant_name, platforms, location):
        """Compare same restaurant's pricing across delivery platforms."""
        results = []

        for platform in platforms:
            try:
                restaurants = self.search_restaurants(
                    platform["url"], location,
                )

                # Find matching restaurant
                match = None
                for r in restaurants:
                    if restaurant_name.lower() in r["name"].lower():
                        match = r
                        break

                if match and match.get("url"):
                    menu = self.get_menu(match["url"])
                    results.append({
                        "platform": platform["name"],
                        "restaurant": match["name"],
                        "delivery_fee": match.get("delivery_fee", ""),
                        "delivery_time": match.get("delivery_time", ""),
                        "menu_items": len(menu),
                        "sample_prices": menu[:5],
                    })
                else:
                    results.append({
                        "platform": platform["name"],
                        "restaurant": restaurant_name,
                        "status": "not found",
                    })

            except Exception as e:
                results.append({
                    "platform": platform["name"],
                    "error": str(e),
                })
            time.sleep(5)

        return results

    def track_delivery_fees(self, platforms, location, output_file):
        """Track delivery fees across platforms for analysis."""
        all_data = []

        for platform in platforms:
            try:
                restaurants = self.search_restaurants(
                    platform["url"], location,
                )
                for r in restaurants[:20]:  # Top 20 per platform
                    all_data.append({
                        "platform": platform["name"],
                        "restaurant": r["name"],
                        "delivery_fee": r.get("delivery_fee", ""),
                        "delivery_time": r.get("delivery_time", ""),
                        "rating": r.get("rating", ""),
                    })
                time.sleep(5)
            except Exception as e:
                print(f"Error on {platform['name']}: {e}")

        with open(output_file, "w") as f:
            json.dump(all_data, f, indent=2)

        return all_data

    def _has_captcha(self, html):
        return any(tag in html.lower() for tag in [
            'data-sitekey', 'g-recaptcha', 'cf-turnstile',
            'challenge-platform',
        ])

    def _solve_and_retry(self, html, url):
        match = re.search(r'data-sitekey="([^"]+)"', html)
        if not match:
            return self.session.get(url)
        sitekey = match.group(1)
        if 'cf-turnstile' in html:
            token = solve_captcha("turnstile", sitekey, url)
            return self.session.post(url, data={"cf-turnstile-response": token})
        token = solve_captcha("userrecaptcha", sitekey, url)
        return self.session.post(url, data={"g-recaptcha-response": token})

    def _parse_restaurants(self, html):
        soup = BeautifulSoup(html, "html.parser")
        restaurants = []
        for card in soup.select(".restaurant-card, .store-card, .merchant"):
            name_el = card.select_one(".name, .store-name, h3")
            if name_el:
                restaurants.append({
                    "name": name_el.get_text(strip=True),
                    "url": self._link(card),
                    "delivery_fee": self._text(card, ".delivery-fee, .fee"),
                    "delivery_time": self._text(card, ".delivery-time, .eta"),
                    "rating": self._text(card, ".rating, .stars"),
                })
        return restaurants

    def _parse_menu(self, html):
        soup = BeautifulSoup(html, "html.parser")
        items = []
        for item in soup.select(".menu-item, .item-card"):
            items.append({
                "name": self._text(item, ".item-name, .name"),
                "price": self._text(item, ".price, .item-price"),
                "description": self._text(item, ".description, .item-desc"),
            })
        return items

    def _text(self, el, selector):
        found = el.select_one(selector)
        return found.get_text(strip=True) if found else ""

    def _link(self, card):
        a = card.select_one("a")
        return a.get("href", "") if a else ""


# Usage
comparator = FoodDeliveryComparator(
    proxy="http://user:pass@mobile.proxy.com:5000"
)

# Compare platforms
platforms = [
    {"name": "Platform A", "url": "https://delivery-a.example.com"},
    {"name": "Platform B", "url": "https://delivery-b.example.com"},
    {"name": "Platform C", "url": "https://delivery-c.example.com"},
]

comparison = comparator.compare_restaurant_across_platforms(
    restaurant_name="Pizza Palace",
    platforms=platforms,
    location="10001",
)

for result in comparison:
    print(f"{result.get('platform')}: Fee={result.get('delivery_fee')} "
          f"ETA={result.get('delivery_time')}")

Proxy Recommendations

Delivery apps are mobile-first — mobile proxies with mobile User-Agents produce the best results.

Data Points to Track

Troubleshooting

FAQ

Why are prices different across delivery platforms?

Restaurants set different prices per platform to account for varying commission rates (15-30%). Delivery fees and service charges also vary by platform.

Should I use mobile or desktop for scraping delivery apps?

Mobile — these are mobile-first platforms. A mobile proxy with iPhone/Android User-Agent produces the most authentic-looking traffic.

How often should I compare prices?

Weekly for general market analysis. Daily during promotional periods or competitive research sprints.

Related Guides

• Retail Inventory Monitoring
• Mobile Proxies for CAPTCHA
• Rotating Residential Proxies

Compare food delivery prices at scale — get your CaptchaAI key and automate cross-platform analysis.