food delivery app development cost

How Much Does it Cost to Develop a Food Delivery App Like Zomato?

Food ordering and delivery have disrupted the food industry in recent times. So you must want to know how much it cost of developing a food delivery app like Uber Eats or Zomato.

Food Delivery Apps have completely revolutionized the traditional approach of dining in or taking in food from your favorite retro around the city.

Among many on-demand apps like Banking, Grocery apps, Pharmacy apps, etc, food delivery apps have become essential apps to get space in most smartphone users around the world.

top countries for food delivery revenue
Source: Bloomberg

The app conveniently allows your customers to get their ordered foods delivered quickly anywhere anytime. So in this article, we will talk about estimated prices to develop similar food delivery apps as Ubereats.

As per a survey, the average American spends $232 per month eating meals ordered on a food delivery app.

The Food delivery business has given a new meaning to the on-demand industry. The business is successfully established in suburbs where so many restaurants are getting set up.

Some of the well-known food delivery apps of 2019 are Zomato, Swiggy, Uber Eats, Seamless, Food panda, Grubhub, etc. These food delivery apps allow you to get your favorite food delivered to your doorstep in no time. All you need to do is- download one, sign up, make a selection, place an order, and make payment either online or pay on delivery options.

Looking at the vast possibilities in this, most businesses are looking to invest in food ordering app development to reap higher profits. 

projected food delivery market size 1

In this blog post, I have created a guide including various aspects of building an online food delivery app development as well as the total cost estimation of the same.

Things to Consider Before Estimating the Cost to Build a Food Delivery App

things to consider before estimating the cost to build a food delivery app

Before you start building an app, there are a set of procedures that you have to follow after you have successfully built a prototype and/or launched your app.  Below we have listed stepwise processes that you must follow while developing your first food delivery app.

Find Your Target Audience via Market Research

Finding your target audience is the crucial step for any potential product development. As an initial step, you must first ensure the range of people whom you’re targeting and researching the market for. A Food delivery app best suits people with a busy lifestyle such as working-class professionals, and students who spend most of their time at work.  They should be the primary target of your app.

Consider the Technical Aspects of Your Project

The next step is to choose the right technology for your food mobile  application development. This step depends on your budget, the platform you want your app on, and the features you are seeking to include in your food delivery app. 

The technology to choose from varies from PHP to Ruby to other latest ones like Flutter. Other aspects to consider are- platforms like iOS or Android, native apps or hybrid ones, creating an app from scratch, or using third-party tools such as APIs, app clones, and SDKs.

how to build a successful restaurant app

The next thing to take note of is- selecting the UI and UX of the food delivery app that decides your app is flawless, smooth, and lightning-fast inclusive of payment systems, menu processing, and food order selection. Here are some technology stacks used by UberEats –that are worth considering for your Food delivery app development:

  • For Restaurant Listing – Grubhub API or FourSquare API
  • GPS Tracking – Core Location Framework for iOS, Google Places API for Android
  • For Payment integration – Square API, Braintree, Stripe, PayPal, e-wallets
  • To Find Directions (Navigation) – Google Maps, MapKit
  • For Cloud Storage– AWS, Azure, Google
  • Framework to use — Both Android and iOS come with their own framework.
  • For Registration – Facebook SDK Login or any other social media login
  • For Storage – Amazon Cloud Storage
  • For Analytics – Google Analytics or Mixpanel

Functions & Features to be Added

features to be added in food delivery app

How is your app different from others already in the market? This is where the functions and features play a role. Include features and functions that make your app unique from others. 

Include a sleek design with features like amazing user experience, simple & easy navigation functions, and an easy customization option as per the user needs. Some of the main features (used by Zomato) you should not miss are: 

  • Detailed info on the restaurants including menus, Prices, Pictures & Reviews.
  • Real-Time GPS Tracking of Food Delivery
  • Easy Payment Options- Debit/Credit Card, Net Banking, E-Wallets, UPIs, Pay on delivery, etc.
  • Social Media Integration for easy Login
  • Status Update
  • Delivery History
  • Registration & Profile Management
  • Discount/Rewards, Offers, Promos, Deals & Cashback
  • Push Notifications for things such as order confirmed, order dispatched, etc 

Pricing & Budget for Your Food Delivery App

Deciding the overall price of your food delivery app is the major thing before you start building your food delivery app. Let’s consider a few things before finalizing the budget for your app development-

The extent of Features & Functions added:

The cost depends on the extent of features that you want in the app and the functions you want to provide to users. A basic app with standard features will be cheaper. Similarly, the app with advanced features will automatically increase the overall budget.

Mobile Platform or Approach Used:

Are you going with iOS or Android platforms? Well, this also decides the cost of your app. Android usually costs less than iOS. If you are seeking to build a cross-platform app (both iOS & Android) your cost will be lower as compared to that of developing a native app.

Technology Used:

Do you prefer backend development or third-party integration? For short budgets, you can choose third-party integration. For the long term, server backbends are preferred that cost more. Also, the more complex your app design is going to be, the higher will be the cost.

Well, that is why the cost of the app is different in different cases.

project discuss

Total Categorized Estimated Cost of Developing Food Delivery App

After examining the factors that decide the overall food delivery app development cost, it’s time to categorize the price roughly based on the overall aspects it takes to build an app.

1. Basic food delivery apps with simple features of UX/UI, item lists, and basic functionality can cost up to $10,000 for development only. 

2. Food ordering apps with advanced features like custom UX/UI, tables support added, payment gateway integration, social media integration, navigator, push notifications, etc can range anything between $10,000 to $25,000.

3. Complex food delivery apps that include the complexity of advanced level, audio/video processing, real-time tracker enabled, custom graphics, third-party APIs integrations, server backed with multiple databases, and more can cost anything above $25,000.

Depending on your budget and functionality, you will have to hire team members integral to the development process. You can go further with the team like-

Basic team Needed to Build Your Food Delivery App

basic team for developing food delivery app

  • UI/UX designer
  • 3-4 Developers
  • Quality Assurance Engineer
  • Backend Developer
  • Team Manager/Project Manager
  • Admin panel developer

The cost also depends upon whether you are outsourcing and hiring your mobile app development team from other countries.

Conclusion

On average, the total cost can be approximated at anywhere between $10,000 -$40,000 at the rate of $25- $40 per hour, the total time frame being 3-5 months. 

Now that you got everything that is required to create your own on-demand food delivery mobile app like Zomato & UberEats, it’s time to fuel up your dream project by hiring the best on-demand app development company consisting of world-class certified developers.

Book your free consultation with one of our tech consultants. 1

QSS Technosoft is an award-winning company having expertise in delivering on demand apps on multiple domains while integrating versatile features into your on-demand business app like- Notifications, GPS Tracking, Activity List, Wishlist, multiple payment facilities, order tracking, rating & reviews, etc.

We are proud to mention that our work has been recognized by leading B2B reviews and research platforms like GoodFirms, Clutch, MirrorView, and many more.

About Author:
Author Rashmi Kanti is a passionate content writer & a blogger having written numerous blogs for IT domain. Being into the Blogging world for the past 4 years, she is presently contributing technology loaded articles & blogs regularly to QSS Technosoft. Rashmi has a proficient knowledge of the latest market trends in the mobile & web applications and expresses herself a big technology geek.

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