How To Develop A Ride-Sharing App?

When we talk about a ride-sharing app, the first thought that strikes our mind is some of the famous applications available in the market of ride-sharing apps such as Uber, Lyft, BlaBlaCar, and more.

Being a mobile app developer, you might want to develop your own ride-sharing app after analyzing the increasing demands of these apps. In fact, according to a report by Statista, the market valuation of the global ride-sharing app has reached $117 billion this year.

The concept of ride-sharing applications is now very popular amongst the masses. But, before diving into this industry, it is necessary to understand or have basic information about it. Therefore, we have researched the below-given facts.

• As mentioned in Statista and Wikipedia, the revenue of Lyft company is around USD 2.3 billion (2020).
• As per Statista, the revenue generated by the Uber app is around USD 11.1 billion in the year 2020.
• As per the report of MarketsAndMarkets, the global rideshare market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 16.6% percent. The market value of ride-sharing is projected to reach $185.1 billion by 2026.

From the above statistics, you must have noticed the outstanding growth of ride-sharing apps. This brings an opportunity for all the entrepreneurs who want to build a ride-sharing app. Now, let us go ahead and understand the step-by-step development process of a ride-sharing application along with its developing costs.

Introduction

How to build a ride-sharing app? What is the total cost of developing a ride-sharing app? These are common questions we hear from business owners who approach us. Here’s the reason why: large cosmopolitan cities often suffer from lots of traffic and a lack of available parking space. That’s why so many of their inhabitants choose rideshare services like Uber, Didi, BlaBla Cars instead of owning cars.

According to the research conducted by Statista at the end of the year 2019, Uber is a leading ride-sharing operator which has the maximum growth rate and market shares globally followed by DiDi Chuxing and Lyft. The below-given pie chart will help you further in understanding the global market share positioning of some various ride-sharing applications.

How Does a Ride-sharing App work?

Before we move ahead and mention the process of developing a ride-sharing app, let us first grab some knowledge about the step-by-step working of these applications:

• First, you need to request a ride with the help of a ride-sharing app.
• Now before boarding, you will be required to enter the source (from where you want to board the cab) and destination (to the place where you want to deboard).
• After this, there will be a need to choose the type of car and mode of payment.
• Now, the customer is required to cross-check the pickup location and confirm the same.
• Now that you have correctly entered all your required informational details, the app would start its working process by searching for the drivers nearby your location.
• Next, the role of the driver comes into play in order to accept or decline the request created by the customer. Moreover, If a driver is unable to accept your request, it will be transferred automatically to another nearby driver of your pickup location.
• After the end of your ride, the ride charges get deducted from your added payment method automatically such as credit/debit cards, PayPal account, or any other previously added wallet accounts. You can pay your ride fees in cash as well.
• Now that you have reached your destination, providing a healthy rating to the driver according to your experience would be a great initiative before closing the app. These ratings play an important role for other riders to choose a better driver for their trip.

In order to develop a robust app that is easy to use for both drivers and riders, we need to include features and functionalities that benefit the users.

What is the Technical stack Needed for a Ride-sharing App?

Here is the tech stack required for some of the essential features of a ride-sharing app:

1. Geo-Location

Here are the navigation and mapping technologies that the ride-sharing applications use:

• CoreLocation framework in the case of iOS and the location APIs of Google in Android for detecting the location of the device.
• MapKit for iOS users and Google Maps Android API for Android users are used for giving directions to the driver while navigating.

2. Push Notification and SMS

Once you have booked the ride successfully, the ride-sharing operator will notify the rider at different instances such as:

• When the driver accepts the request.
• When the driver arrives at the pickup or source location
• When the trip is canceled

SMS and Push Notifications play a vital role by helping the driver and the rider in order to track the status of your trip.

For example, one of the leading ride-sharing operators; Uber, uses Twilio telecommunications provider for sending SMS. On the other hand, for iOS, Apple Push Notification Service, and for Android , Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) is in use.

Important! Delivery of the push notification is not guaranteed. At times when the user is unavailable or offline, the push notifications do not get delivered, and hence, integrating the messages into the system becomes crucial as it has a higher chance of being successfully delivered.

3. Payment Integration

To avoid any human errors, apps like Uber implement payment through cards and wallets. There are specific requirements that the company needs to fulfill while accepting card/wallet payments. It is known as PCI requirements.

What Are The Key Features of a Ride-Sharing App?

The ride-sharing applications are developed with the combination of 3 different interfaces/apps – the Driver app, the Rider app, and the Admin panel, which is responsible for managing and monitoring the functioning of apps.

Well! Let us understand these essential features in detail for more clarity.

Key Features of Rider Interface

• Registration – Riders can register or sign in via email and social media. They can also register for different payment methods.
• Taxi Booking – The riders can book a taxi, enter their address, select the type of car, and adjust the pickup location.
• Fare Calculator – The fare for traveling from point A to point B is automatically calculated based on the number of kilometers, the type of car chosen, current fuel rates, estimated traffic, etc.
• Ride Tracking – The driver’s location is tracked in Real-time based on which timely updates on traffic, travel routes, and the estimated time of arrival are provided to the rider.
• Payment – Cashless and in-app payment features are at the rider’s disposal. They can choose from various options, including credit cards, debit cards, net banking, PayPal, etc.
• Messaging & Calling – Messages and calls to the rider providing the status of their ride.
• Driver Rating & Analysis – Provide driver rating based on the journey, taken route, car comfort, driver’s behavior, etc.
• Travel History – The track record of the previous rides and transactions.
• Ride Cancellation – The rider has the option of canceling the ride, but needs to be done within a specified time limit to avoid paying the cancellation fee.
• Split Payment – Riders also can opt to share a ride with other passengers.
• Schedule for Later – This feature allows the riders to book a ride in advance.
• Book for Others – Using this feature, one can also book a taxi for their friends, relatives, colleagues, etc.

Key Features of Driver Interface

• Driver Profile & Status – This feature gives the complete information of the driver, for example: if he/she is verified or not, their license, car insurance, etc. The driver’s availability status is also displayed through this feature.
• Trip Alert – The driver would be notified of incoming ride requests, information on the destination, pickup location, travel route, and rider’s necessary details.
• Push Notifications – Notifications are received when the ride commences, any change in the travel route, heavy traffic ahead, and on the completion of the ride
• Navigation & Route Optimization – The driver uses this feature to navigate the traffic, opt for the shortest way to the destination using the Google Maps
• Reports – Provide insights regarding trips and earnings on a daily/weekly/monthly basis
• Waiting time – The rider would be charged extra if the waiting period exceeds 5minutes.
• Next Ride – The ride is notified of an upcoming ride while he/she is still completing the previous one.

Key Features of Admin Interface

• Customer and Driver Details Management (CRM)
• Booking Management
• Vehicle Detail Management (if self-owned)
• Location and Fares Management
• Call System Management
• Communication
• Ratings and Reviews
• Promotions and Discounts
• Payroll Management
• Content Management
• Customer Support and Help

How to Develop a Ride-Sharing App?

Here are the main phases of a mobile app development process:

STEP 1: Product Discovery – What to create and why

This step includes clarifying the vision of your app, defining the goals of your product, and its final users. Deciding which features are the most crucial in creating your MVP, on which platforms your app will work, and defining your monetization models. Read more about the Product Discovery phase.

STEP 2: UX/UI App Design – Determining the look and work of your ride-sharing app

Creating a User Journey Map, clickable wireframes, visual user interfaces, and motion design (animations & screen transitions). Read more about the UX/UI app design process.

STEP 3: Kicking-off And Setting Up The Project

Ensuring the Product Owner knows the development team and vice versa. Defining every role in the team, agreement on rules, and next steps, as well as configuring tools. Setting up the project environment, using best practices from areas like project management to DevOps, helps to make the ride-sharing app development process faster and smoother.

STEP 4: Quality Assurance While Developing The App

App production with Continuous Integration: plan, code, build test (and repeat). Ensuring Quality Assurance at every stage of carpooling app development with manual and automated tests. Development teams usually follow the Scrum framework and divide the work into short iterations, each followed by a demo.

STEP 5: Publishing the app on Apple Store and Google Play Store

Releasing includes uploading assets required by laws & promotional materials, beta testing, optimizing the product page/store presence, and everything else needed for your app approval to go as smoothly as possible. Preparing for launch is essential if you want your Uber-like app to stand out from the crowd and succeed.

STEP 6: Maintenance And Support After Developing the App

Detecting crashes, monitoring app’s statistics, product enhancement, and further development. Your Uber-like app stays attractive, adapts to changing market conditions and users’ feedback.

How Much Does It Cost to Develop a Ridesharing App?

In order to get an exact idea of the ride-sharing application cost, we have created a table of features with its cost and hours:

Now that you have an estimated idea of the total time required for developing a ride-sharing app, you can calculate the total app development cost by multiplying the hourly rates of the mobile app developer to the time required for the app development. And finally, you will get the answer to the app development cost of a ride-sharing app.

Let us consider an example to understand this for more clarity:

Supposedly if an app developer charges $20 per hour, then multiply it by the hours of each app.

• Driver App: $20 X 210 = $4200
• User App: $20 X $250 = $5000
• Admin Panel: $20 X 150 = $3000
• APIs: $20 X 210 = $4200

In this case, the total app development cost of a ride-sharing app would be $92000.

Cost to Hire App Developers

Usually, the cost of rideshare app development or any mobile app development depends on the mobile app developers you hire. The charges of mobile app developers can be different according to their locations. The following table will give you a brief idea about mobile app developers’ per hour cost of four different locations.

Conclusion

We hope that you will find this article helpful if you are planning to develop your own ride-sharing app. After going through this article, we have learned that ride-sharing apps have made transportation easier for people and also become beneficial for the environment. Moreover, it brings benefits to the users and car owners by reducing the tip cost and saving fuel. In addition, it is widely used amongst users.

This blog does not only educates you on the development process of a ride-sharing app but also makes you aware of the approximate development cost required for building a popular ride-sharing app. Therefore, Pull up your socks and start developing your own ride-sharing application.