A lot of suburban areas are designed to be car-dependent, and almost every suburban household has a parking space to be able to accommodate such a design. However, in cities and large cosmopolitan areas, the same level of affordability of parking areas and spaces is not possible. There are also some people who outright refuse to own cars, and generally favor more ridesharing services, such as Uber being among the most popular ones.

This is in addition to the busy traffic, the lack of space in general, and the cost to benefit ratio where owning a car in a busy city does not bring as much benefit as owning a car in a suburb. However, there is still a high demand for personal vehicles, that is, vehicles outside of public transportation. Entrepreneurs and service companies solve this issue through making personal taxi services like Uber, and to facilitate such services through a mobile application for convenience.

However, developing such an app might initially seem like the easy part, but there is a lot more to it than just being able to hail a ‘taxi’ through an app. This blog will present how to build an app like Uber, as well as the development and cost associated with it.

Build Your Own Uber App – Thinks You Need to Know

The companies and services that successfully kick start a new business model like Uber are always going to be the role models for future businesses, and they can be great ways to jumpstart them towards success. For this, we suggest that you know a few critical things in app development for something as complicated as an Uber app before you begin with this enormous project.

About Uber – How They Got Here

Before getting on with it, first we need to look at what Uber is, and how it has been successful.

As of July 2021, Uber shares 69% of the ridesharing market share in the US, with Lyft having the other 31%. With close to a 100 million users per month, the company has consistently kept 90-94 million active users within its portfolio, and continues to dominate a market where more and more ridesharing companies are popping up everywhere. Even Lyft, a company considered to be a huge competitor to Uber, only shares around a 30% market share.

Uber also has a more worldwide reach, with coverage in more than 80 countries worldwide, whereas a huge competitor like Lyft only operates in the United States. However, people don’t usually ask how hard is it to make an app like uber, but rather, how can they make one, and we are surely getting to it!

The Uber service is provided through its Android and iOS mobile application, and uses a multitude of technologies together to facilitate this app, powered through its android and iOS devices.

Developing an Uber like App – Taking a Look Inside

Within the application, both parties (ride and driver) are aware of each other’s location. The service is mostly available round the clock, meaning it is active 24-hours per day. The service is also on-demand, meaning customers will launch the app, and only then can Uber show the customers location as well as of the driver. This means that there are geolocation tracking features in the app.

The reach of Uber has also ensured that arrival times are minimal, and there is little to no room for error. This is done through complex algorithms working to constantly improve on travel times, arrival times, improve efficiency in connecting driver and passenger, etc.

Uber also has four tiers of service available, with varying pricing levels as well.

• UberX is cost-efficient and affordable, the option that most passengers will be selecting.
• UberBLACK is focused on class and fancifulness with ‘elegant’ vehicles.
• UberSUV, as the name suggests, has larger vehicles in its garage.
• UberLUX is the luxury service with the most ‘premium’ offers.

This not only means that the app will need to facilitate these varying options and packages (if needed by the developer), but that each higher tier service will need more assurance that everything works as smoothly as possible. Providing a premium service where the app doesn’t function is hardly indicative of luxury.

Making an App like Uber – How Does it Work?

Apps like Uber also have two separate versions. One version is what the customers see, and one version is what the driver sees. That means that these two version have to be developed simultaneously as well. In general, there are six stages in this app to consider for both rider and passenger.

• Stage 1 – Requesting a Ride. The first stage begins when the customer requests a car ride (or schedules it, which is a separate app feature). These ride requests are then sent to the drivers in the vicinity with proximity to the rider.
• Stage 2 – Matching with a Rider. After that, it is up to the driver(s) to either accept or reject the ride. If one driver rejects a ride, the other accepts, and if accepted, that rider is taken to the next stage.
• Stage 3 – Arrival. Here, the customer has to wait for the driver to arrive. The customer and the driver’s location known for both parties.
• Stage 4 – On the Way. Once the driver arrives, the customer is then taken to their destination. The (Uber) app shows real-time tracking of the ride as well as the destination route.
• Stage 5 – Making the Payment. Once the ride is complete, the customer has to pay the rider either via cashless payment methods (via VISA or MasterCard) or through cash.
• Stage 6 – Rating the Driver. This is also a core feature of the business logic that Uber and other ridesharing apps inhabit, in which the driver and the customer are both rated to ensure that service is reliable on both ends.

How to Create an App Similar to Uber – What Do You Really Need?

As mentioned, there are two apps that have to be developed simultaneously. Here are the features of the customer’s side of the app.

Basic Features of Customer App

• Route tracking and geolocation capabilities.
• Payment integration to allow for cashless payments.
• Personal profile registration and verification.
• In-app call and text features to communicate with the driver.
• Push notifications and background process functionality.
• Ride cost estimates based on location, traffic, etc.
• Ride cancellation features (with timed limits).
• UI/UX design to facilitate all of the above.

Advanced Features of Customer App

• Advanced ride scheduling.
• Being able to book ride for other customers.
• Split-fare functionality.

Basic Features of Rider App

• Personal profile management (for driver).
• Route optimization and real-time route tracking (changing routes when necessary).
• In-app call and text features to communicate with passengers.
• Driver report to display statistics and progress (bonus incentives for number of rides)
• Daily, weekly, monthly reports for bookings, ratings, and earning statistics.
• Driver active/inactive option toggle to allow drives to be visible/invisible respectively.

Advanced Features of Rider App

• Driver destination map and details.
• Cancellation features for driver (within timed limits).
• Heat maps to display busy areas so drivers can get more rides.

The last part of this is the admin panel, which is the application panel displayed to the service vendor host, or the web development team. This panel can be used to make changes within the app, and acts as an overview of the business side of things, containing sections for user data, riders, etc.

Create an App like Uber in 2022 – What Does it Cost?

Want to learn how much does it cost to create an app like uber? Here are a few helpful charts and tables to make such an app.

Payment Integration

Feature	Timeline	Cost
Adding payment method, card scanning, etc.	2-5 weeks	$4.000+
Multiple payment selection options	1-2 weeks	$2,000+
Info screen, checkout screen, etc.	1-2 weeks	$2,000+
Total Cost	4-8 weeks	$8,000+

 

Geolocation and Routing

Feature	Timeline	Cost
Map integration	1-2 weeks	$2.000+
Pickup location	1-2 weeks	$2,000+
User location tracking/detection	1-2 weeks	$2,000+
Total Cost	3-6 weeks	$6,000+

 

UI/UX

Feature	Timeline	Cost
Android UI/UX	3-5 weeks	$6.000+
iOS UI/UX	3-5 weeks	$6,000+
Total Cost	6-10 weeks	$12,000+

 

If you ask an app developer the question of how long to build an app like uber, you will probably get a time estimate of a few months, or three quarters of a year.

Other Features

Feature	Timeline	Cost
Ride scheduling	3-6 weeks	$6.000+
Book a ride for others	4-8 weeks	$8,000+
Split-fare feature	4-6 weeks	$6,000+
Total Cost	12-20 weeks	$20,000+

 

As it shows, the cost can reach upwards of $40,000 USD, which is far more than anyone would have assumed it would take. That is also noting that it is only the app development that has this cost, and that this does not include having the actual Uber cars and taxis for this service to be viable, as well as drivers, maintenance for the cars, etc. Of course, the focus here is only on the app, so the final costs of all features will be provided here.

Total Costs

Feature	Timeline	Cost
Payment integration	3-6 weeks	$6.000+
Geolocation and Routing	3-6 weeks	$6,000+
Ride scheduling	3-6 weeks	$6,000+
Book a ride for others	4-8 weeks	$8.000+
Split-fare feature	4-6 weeks	$6,000+
Profile, registration, and verification	2-3 weeks	$3,000+
Notification	2-4 weeks	$4.000+
Ride costing estimate	1-2 weeks	$2,000+
Back-end development, framework integration	4-8 weeks	$8,000+
Front-end UI/UX (Android/iOS)	6-10 weeks	$12,000+
Front-end framework (Android/iOS)	4-6 weeks	$6,000+
Total Cost	4-8 months	~$70,000+

 

As it can be seen, developing an app is expensive, but making one such as Uber is quite an ambitious project, one that requires a significant investment as well as time to develop. Moreover, if you really wanted to know how long does it take to create an app like uber, it is probable that more than a few weeks was your answer, wasn’t it?

This comes before even considering how much does it cost to maintain an app like uber, which only leads to added costs over time.

Conclusion

Uber is seen as the one that started it all for the ridesharing market, and new businesses look at it as the role model. Such a large service done through an app might seem simple, but it is anything but. Developing an app that is like Uber alone can cost close to an approximated 70k USD, which is by no means cheap.

App development is already an expensive and time-consuming business, and the costs of hiring and training developers, maintenance, testing, back-end and front-end frameworks, libraries, feature-integration, and more are considerations that need to be made for this venture to succeed.