How Much it Costs to Build an App Like UBER?
Originally published at Reinvently blog.
Ideas don’t have to be unique. They have to be genuine.
“Shared economy” businesses like Uber AirBnB and others add a net benefit to society by increasing the utilization of those fixed assets in a productive way. In this article, we’ll explore the costs of building an on-demand app like Uber.
Two important points to begin with:
- Uber is two apps. To have the Uber-like app model, you need two apps, not one — the driver app, and the passenger app. This and the need for an API already increases the costs of a MVP (Minimum Viable Product);
- The Uber apps is simple and perfectly scalable — the data is very local, so you’re always requesting very limited subset of the whole database. No need for complex, Facebook-level big data algorithms and solutions;
The biggest challenge with these kinds of services is reliability. There are a lot of cases when something unexpected might happen…
What to do when the driver or customer loses network connectivity?
Their GPS starts to send wrong data?
Runs out of battery?
They get into an accident?
The list is far from exhaustive.
Another tough part are the payments. If you want to process credit card payments directly from your clients, you need to be PCI-compliant, or use a service such as Stripe or Braintree that partially does the job for you (for a significant provision and with a worse user experience).
Once you’re past that, it all goes down to the usual suspects:
- Designs and mockups — with the storyboard feature, this can very often be done at the same time, in form of a clickable mockup. Also, you need things like the iOS app icon;
- API — required to communicate between apps and pass messages to and from the “call center” — people who supervise the operation. Needs to be developed just once for all kinds of operating systems: iOS, Android, Windows Phone;
- iOS app — cost of developing the mobile app itself.
The price of building an Uber-like on-demand app will depend on the location of your mobile development provider and the functionality you want included. Remember Uber app is actually 2 apps: one for the client and one for the driver.
Here’s an approximate cost breakdown:
Designing the app and mockups:
- USA: $20,000 to $40,000. The hourly rate goes up to around $200.
- Eastern Europe (Ukraine, Russia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic): €5,000-€10,000;
- Western Europe (Switzerland/Norway/Germany): €5,000–15,000 (yeah, it’s that different across Europe);
- Asia (India, Pakistan, China, Vietnam): have no positive experience with developers from these locations, so cannot give any reliable recommendations. But it’s around $800-$1500.
Developing the iOS app:
- USA: the average rate is $100–150 (the majority of mid-sized agencies under 50 people) but can go up to as high as $200 per hour in some cities (like Chicago).
- Eastern Europe: $25–150, with an average of $35 per hour.
- Western Europe: ~$50, it depends on a number of factors like company size and specialization.
- Asia: anything between $10 and $75 per hour.
Only estimating the application is not quite right, though. There is a lot of backend magic going on behind the scenes.
In software development, you get the exact quality you paid for.
Testing
Considering you need two apps not one, and you need to be 100% sure they work before shipping them to the clients, expect the total to be in the ballpark of 150–200k USD if you don’t use a super-expensive agency.
Keep in mind, you still need to maintain the app, apply changes related to new interfaces, SDKs, handle client requests etc — so the development total after a couple years will be certainly much bigger than that.
Also, remember — it’s all about the execution, not the tech. Usually it’s the best sales people who have a working product who win — not only hardcore techies with cutting-edge fireworks.
Ready to build your Uber for X on-demand app?
Have your app built by on-demand black belts with over 6 years of experience in “shared economy” apps.
The cool mobile app screens animation is by Maura Hoven.
