- 12 min read

How much does it cost to build an app like Uber?

Updated: Aug 10, 2022

That’s a question we hear all the time. In this article, we break down the cost of developing an app like Uber – including the features that drive up the price tag. So, whether you’re looking to develop an app for your startup or you’re curious about how much an Uber clone would cost, read on for a detailed breakdown.

How much does it cost to develop an app like Uber? That's the question we frequently hear.

Between $100,000 and $170,000 is the cost of developing an app like Uber for one platform (iPad or Android). If you want it developed on both platforms, contact us and we can provide you with a better price.

The more platforms and features you add, the more expensive it is to develop. What was the method we used to compute the cost? This article exposes the truth about Uber-style app development pricing. Here's a sneak peek of what you'll find in the post:

How does an app like Uber work, and how does it impact the cost of starting an Uber?
The following are some of the most significant variables that influence the expense of establishing an app like Uber.
Key Uber components and their cost breakdown
How do the cost of developing a taxi app and its design compare to that of developing any other android and ios app?
Uber application development cost calculation formula
How can Ankuv aid in the development of an app like Uber?

If you're wondering what it costs to develop a comparable app like Uber, go through the post and learn more.

What is the purpose of the Uber app? How does Uber work?

The major element that determines Uber-like app development cost is functionality. A single application to end users appears to be a collection of services.

Let's take a look at its capabilities, for example. Users of app like Uber can select from a variety of transportation options depending on their pickup location:

UberX – Uber's most basic service, which allows for up to four passengers.
UberXL - allows up to 6 people to travel together at once
Uber Black - high-end taxi service.
Uber Black SUV - premium service that can transport up to five people at once.

Uber goes on to describe how it's changing the lives of those who use its services. Uber has now become a word in the realm of on-demand transportation. The platform comprises numerous services and sub-companies, including Uber Eats and Uber Rent.

So, how much does it cost to develop a taxi app like Uber? It is debatable, and we'll go through all significant elements in detail.

THE NUMBER OF MOBILE APPS NEEDED

When you decide to build a taxi app similar to Uber, you might not anticipate that you'll need to create three distinct applications. Amazed? Here's what we're talking about:

The driver app is for drivers, as the name implies. They should be able to accept trips, verify trip details, get compensated for their services, and monitor all of their payments.
The passenger app is for passengers that allows them to book drivers, do trip requests, find matching drivers, pay for services, and rate drivers.
The admin panel is where you'll spend the most time in your Uber app. The admin panel allows you to manage your taxi app, moderate passengers and drivers, view reports and analytics, as well as access other basic features.

The backend is also required for the above uber like apps to operate, which will add up to Uber-like app development costs.

KEY ASPECTS THAT IMPACT UBER APP DEVELOPMENT COST

There are a few more elements that impact Uber app pricing if we haven't captured you in the previous part. While some are linked to the taxi app and its basic features, others are connected to the company side of things and development alternatives. Let's look at factors that influence the answer to the question, "How much does it cost to construct an app like Uber."

1. VENDOR TYPE

Working with a freelancer, employing an in-house team, or outsourcing app development to an app development firm are all viable options. You'll need the help of expert developers if you don't conceive it as a pet project but rather as a uber business model.

If you want to work with freelancers, be prepared for obstacles that may arise during the app development process. You typically don't have complete control over the app development process and there is no assurance of quality. While the choice appears to be cost-effective at first, the reality might bring you to your knees and force you to start all over again.
In-house developers are paid. Whether you need them or not, you must pay a wage. We haven't mentioned the difficulties of the hiring process, office costs, and all administrative issues yet. For a large firm, it may not be an issue. Hiring in-house developers for a startup with a limited budget and deadlines might not be the best option for some small businesses.
If you don't want to waste time and want a high-quality assurance, or if you don't want to deal with hassles and administrative difficulties, outsourcing app development to a third-party firm may be the best option for you. All you have to do now is locate a knowledgeable firm; the burden will be taken off your shoulders.

2. NUMBER OF SUPPORTED PLATFORMS

What is your favorite mobile operating system? What about your target audience? The biggest mistake you can make is to believe that the majority of your users use Android or iOS. Examine your target audience and what platform they prefer before making platform-related commitments. Your findings might astonish you.

It's critical to understand the fundamentals of gambling in order to make profitable decisions. You may be betting on the wrong horse if you skip this step and get a false impression. Alternatively, you may be investing your money in platform development for a business model that won't deliver the number of consumers required.

Why not produce an uber like app that works on both platforms? That's another alternative if your target users are equally split between both platforms and ready to invest considerably in development without first testing an MVP.

3. FEATURES

When it comes to uber like app development, the most significant cost drivers are complexity, basic and advanced features. The more advanced features you include, the higher your expenses will be. We'll look at all of the essential aspects and their pricing in the following chapter. Continue reading or go straight to that area if you want more information.

4. TECHNOLOGY

There are several technologies available for your application. You might want to use Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to improve the suggestions in your uber like app, in addition to a conventional tech stack. All of these tools raise or treble the cost of developing an Uber mobile app.

5. UX/UI DESIGN

You can't judge a book by its cover, but in the world of taxi booking apps, aesthetics are everything. With beautiful displays aside, user-friendliness extends beyond gorgeous screens. It's made up of many factors, including the proper information structure, interface layout, page hierarchy, and even user flow.

You can't build a strong UX and UI design without first understanding your target audience. The development of logos, as well as other corporate advanced features, is time-consuming when performed manually.

6. QUALITY ASSURANCE & TESTING

QA engineers are a crucial element of the software development process. During this stage, QA professionals thoroughly test the app and all of its features in a variety of conditions. The objective is to find and fix any bugs before releasing an application that will keep customers from turning away due to problems with user interface, functionality, performance, or cross-platform compatibility.

COST OF BUILDING AN UBER-LIKE APP: FEATURES FOR PASSENGERS

Without evaluating the app's features and uber like app development expenditures, it is impossible to answer the question "How much does it cost to build an app like Uber?"Let's take a look at some of the necessary features you'll need to offer for your app's riders-facing component, as well as how much they'll cost you.

REGISTRATION & LOGIN

The most essential function is customer registration. Make sure the registration process is simple and does not consume a lot of time. The greatest choice is to enable social login by linking your software with popular social media sites like Facebook and Instagram. It's always a good idea to include Google in the mix.

Development time: 65-155 hours

USER PROFILE

Users should be able to modify their personal data, such as phone numbers, credit card numbers, profile photos, and so on, depending on the final set of features.

Development time: 55-65 hours

GEOLOCATION, ROUTING & DIRECTION

GPS technology is essential for applications like Uber. Geolocation is used for a variety of tasks, such as automatic driver tracking, determining the distance between a user and a uber driver, detecting vehicle movement, and identifying pickup location. By integrating your app with Google Maps SDK for Android and MapKit for iOS, you may improve uber like app development speed.

Development time: 125-550 hours (depending on the final features set)

PAYMENTS

You'll need to get your hands dirty and figure out how you're going to collect money for your app. Uber app, for example, uses complex algorithms to calculate the cost, including the base fare, type of car, per minute charge, per mile charge, safe ride costs, and so on. You can link your software with a variety of services such as Stripe, Braintree, Apple Pay, and Google Pay.

Development time: 120 hours

NOTIFICATIONS

Any uber clone app needs to have Push Notifications. You may use notifications to inform customers about updates to your application, special offers, and other company changes.

You'll need to use Apple Push Notification Service (APNS) for iOS app development and Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) for Android app development to build the functions.

Development time: 85-125 hours

RIDER-DRIVER COMMUNICATION

Users can call or text the driver straight from the app in order to locate the booked car or to find out where they should meet up. That's a useful feature that may help uber drivers save time when emergencies arise.

Development time: 65-125 hours

SCHEDULING RIDES IN ADVANCE

This is one of the more sophisticated features added by Uber later on in the process. Users may schedule rides ahead of time for a duration ranging from 30 minutes to 30 days using this function.

You can eliminate this functionality if you make an MVP. However, during later stages of development, you'll almost certainly want to include it.

Development time: 125-165 hours

TAXI BOOKING RIDES FOR OTHERS

This is another sophisticated function that allows you to book for other people. The app sends a notification or SMS to both the passenger and driver after the journey has been booked successfully.

Development time: 320+ hours

SPLITTING A FARE

When you share a ride with someone else, some users may want to separate the cost. You'll need to consider the mechanics of these payments and develop capabilities to support them.

Development time: 125-155 hours

PENALTY-FREE RIDE CANCELLATION

Users may cancel a trip request within two minutes of taxi booking without incurring any penalties or costs. This is a handy bonus that will come in useful in instances when customers need to cancel a passenger or postpone it.

Development time: 30-60 hours

UBER APP FEATURES FOR DRIVERS

Another element of Uber-style ridesharing app development that you'll want to think about is such an app for drivers. Developing such a program may significantly raise the price of the app. Let's take a look at some of the fundamental and complex features you'll need to write for drivers.

REGISTRATION

For taxi booking software, two of the most important features are signup and login. With social media and Google maps, you may speed up the development process by integrating the drivers' app.

Development time: 95-155 hours

PERSONAL PROFILE

All driver data will be kept in a personal profile, where drivers may add new information, change their profile photo, and so on.

Development time: 55-75 hours

PUSH NOTIFICATIONS

Notifications are sent to drivers via push for any changes in a taxi booking app, such as new taxi requests, modifications in the order's status, payment processing, and so on.

Development time: 85-125 hours

RIDE COST ESTIMATION

The taxi booking app should also give drivers automatic ride cost estimation, just as passengers do. This is one of the most important features because it allows drivers to decide whether or not to accept a booking request.

Development time: 25-45 hours

DRIVER REPORTING

This function is beneficial since it allows passengers to leave comments about their drivers. This data may be used in a variety of ways. For example, if a driver consistently receives low ratings, there might be something wrong with him or her. The admin can even ban a driver depending on the number of such evaluations. Drivers with the greatest reputations would receive more bookings as well.

Development hours: 25-45 hours

ROUTE OPTIMIZATION

Both the passenger and the driver are concerned with getting from one point to another as rapidly as possible. An uber like application might assist with this by providing route optimization suggestions based on real-time traffic information. That is why an uber like app should be linked to mapping services.

Development time: 35-75 hours

ACTIVE/INACTIVE OPTION

If drivers are not available for rides, they should be able to opt for the inactive option and change to active once they are ready to accept new orders. This way, your software will know what drivers are accessible and guarantee faster service for passengers.

Development time: 35-65 hours

DRIVER REPORTS

With your ride sharing app, drivers can view past data and check how much money they've made in real-time. A dashboard with all of the rides and earnings may be extremely useful to drivers, allowing them to see historical data as well as how much they've earned with your solution. Filters such as by period, highest or lowest earnings will make this function even more useful for drivers.

Development time: 75-125 hours

DRIVER-PASSENGERS COMMUNICATION

A direct connection between drivers and passengers is what will set your app apart from the competition. Drivers will be able to contact passengers for directions or in the event of an emergency thanks to the function.

Development time: 55-110 hours

HEAT MAPS

This is a nice-to-have option that allows taxi drivers to reach areas with the greatest demand for taxi services.

Development time: estimated based on several factors

UBER APP FEATURES FOR ADMIN

You'll also need admin panel development for your uber app work, which is the control center for your entire software. This is where you can manage the app as a whole and its users. You may add certain capabilities based on your company's requirements, but each new function on the admin panel will cost you more.

Here are some of the most essential features to consider:

Admin profile
Admins can be added and deleted.
Managing administrative access
Verification of drivers
List of drivers and updates
Updating driver data
Setting fare rules for rides
Passenger management (profiles, payment history, booking history)
Driver management (payment history, profiles, booking history)

Advanced tools may include sophisticated analytics, the ability to filter data, a revenue dashboard, and anything else your company may want.

Development time: 320-650 hours

BACK-END DEVELOPMENT TO CREATE AN APP LIKE UBER

Back-end development may be several times more expensive than the sum of all features. Applications like Uber use a complex back-end that connects the driver app, passenger app, and admin panel.

The back-end application is responsible for information exchange between all parts of the platform. To prevent situations where you must alter the whole app architecture because scalability wasn't considered during development, it should be built to scale.

Usually, a backend is responsible for such tasks as:

Users’ authentication and authorization
Algorithms controlling ride cost, driver recommendation system, etc.
Data and file storage
Management of payments, subscriptions, premium status, etc.

Development time: 2,500-3,500 hours

COSTS TO DESIGN AN APP LIKE UBER

The process of creating an app does not begin with the development of code. The UX and UI uber app design processes start a lot earlier. You'll also have to create designs for uber like apps for passengers and drivers.