In this blog, we’ll cover the following:

  • An overview of Uber and its growth so far
  • How to make an app like Uber?
  • Infrastructure and Storage
  • How much does it cost to build an app?

Is there anyone there who wants to enhance the quality of existing ride-sharing services? Can anyone come up with an improved idea in an on-demand carpooling and ride-sharing services? If so, you can be the next Goliath-like Uber! 

It is not an easy task to create apps like Uber and get into App Stores. It requires more effort than this. 

Travis Kalanick also wanted to hire a product manager for his product and after he got his big idea for Uber. The series of tweets you can see below.

This post can’t provide you a product manager, but you will walk through with an insight into Uber's growth and what technology stack is behind the development of the Uber app.

An Overview of Uber & its Growth so far

Initially, Uber was founded in March 2009 as an UberCab, and later on, it officially launched in October 2010. At first, Uber’s beta version (UberCab) started with a simplified mobile interface. It was used by only the founders and their friends. To gain access, you had to email one of the founders. Uber's beta version had come with features like live-tracking of drivers, fare splitting, automatic credit card payments, and fare estimates. 

In the below image, you can see an old interface of UberCab:

on demand car service
Image via


According to the report from Crunchbase -

  • Uber has secured a total of $24.7B in funding over 23 rounds. Their latest funding was in April from a Post-IPO Equity round.
  • In 2018, Uber’s valuation was $72 billion. The Uber serves 65 countries and 600 cities around the world, according to the report from Crunchbase. 

One of the effective strategies of Uber was to realize the pain points of their customers (i.e., riders and passengers). They also realized that people did not like the quality of traditional taxi booking services. 

The second effective strategy was investing in a small region. The Uber had chosen San Francisco because people of San Francisco are always ready to get the chance to improve their quality of life. 

All we can say, Uber has a fantastic go-to-market strategy. But it would be better not to repeat the same. This is because if you are going to target San Francisco with a focus on tech communities once again, then your app would most likely go unseen.

How to Make an App like Uber?

If you want to create an app like Uber or taxi apps like Uber, it is pivotal to understand the major components of the entire system. When it comes to taxi booking app development, it relies on two distinct apps with distinct functionality, which are interconnected with the help of an admin panel. Let’s have a look into the components of Uber-like app development and its functionality.

Components of Uber-like App Development & Its Functionality

When it comes to the process of on-demand taxi app development in Canada or how to make an app like Uber in iOS or Android, it is pivotal to understand the different types of applications that would come together to form one single taxi booking app.  An on-demand taxi booking app like Uber consists of three components -

1. Rider (Passenger) App

2. Driver App

3. Admin Panel 

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Let’s look into the different components of the Uber app:

#1 Rider (Passenger) App

An app like Uber for the rider is what the riders interact with. It includes a complete set of features like geolocation for setting up the location, booking the ride, calculating the fare, contacting drivers through call or in-app messaging, in-app payments, and ratings & reviews. 

Let’s check out technology stack for each essential feature of an app like Uber for riders ―

Geolocation

Geolocation is an essential feature when it comes to an on-demand taxi booking app development. The GPS technology is used to detect the device’s location.

Without location technology, it is hard to identify the device's location, the driver’s location in real-time on a map. In short, on-demand taxi booking services can’t happen without location technology. Here’s a round-up of the technology stack of each feature.

Features

Platform

API

Identify Device’s Location

iOS

CoreLocation Framework

 

Android

Google’s Location APIs

Driving Direction (Navigation)

iOS

MapKit

 

Android

Google Maps Android API


Indeed, Geolocation is an essential technology in Uber’s technology stack. Let’s check out other functionalities for developing an app like Uber for riders.

Push Notifications and In-App Messaging

Once the ride is booked, the taxi booking app sends a couple of notifications, including when the driver accepts the rider’s request and number of drivers nearby while connecting with them. It also notifies when a ride has been canceled for some reason. 

There’s an Uber's surge pricing that has been criticized. Through the Push Notification feature, riders can be notified when the prices are higher than usual. Here are technology stacks that are behind the features, push notifications, and in-app messaging.

Features

Platform

Technology

Push Notifications

iOS

Apple Push Notification Service

 

Android

Google Cloud Messaging (GCM)

In-App Messaging

iOS

TwilioFirebase

 

Android

Payment Gateway Integration or In-App Payments

You must be aware that Uber accepts cashless payments. The rider can pay via credit/debit card or use a promo code. It simply eliminates any human-to-human cash transfers. Thus, to handle online payments, payment gateway integration (also known as in-app payments) is an essential feature to consider while developing an app like Uber for taxi booking.

Pricing

Braintree

Stripe

USD

 

2.9% + $0.30 per transaction after

first $50k

 

2.9% + $0.30 per transaction after first

$50k

Multi-currency 

3.9% fee

2.9% + $0.30 per transaction + 2% fee conversion fee Bitcoin

 

Bitcoin

 

1% fee per Bitcoin transaction

after the first $1,000,000 

 

0.5% fee per Bitcoin transaction


One of the leaders in the mobile payment market is Braintree that accepts card payments. Stripe is another excellent payment system and it is also a preferred payment gateway in custom taxi booking app development services.

Other Advanced Features can be Considered in Uber’s Rider App

  • Ride Cancellation
  • Interactive Map
  • Schedule Ride
  • Voice Recognition
  • Favorite Destination
  • Preferred Driver
  • Trip History
  • Multiple Destinations 
  • Share trip
  • Book for others
  • Panic Button

#2 Driver App

Some of the features may be the same as the passenger's version, like push notifications, in-app messaging, reviews, and support. Here’s a list of features that would be varied from Uber’s rider app:

Trip History: This feature enables drivers to check the records of canceled and completed trips. It helps drivers to maintain the entire record of trips.

Route Selection: There can be two ways of choosing the routes either from Google Maps or Waze. Enable drivers to select the route from any of these two options. 

My Destination: This feature allows drivers to enter predefined routes while heading back to their homes. Thus, they can get requests, which come in their routes. 

SOS Contacts: This feature allows drivers to add emergency contacts to whom they want to know their current locations. The added contact list will receive a text message about the driver’s current location. 

Rider Review: It enables drivers to give feedback and rating to the riders.

#3 Admin Panel

Whenever we talk about the admin side, it is always meant to be a web application. It enables the user to do the following:

Admin Reports: It allows admin to check the total trip statistics. One can also check and track statistics for any specific period. 

User Interactive Dashboard: On the dashboard, admin can track the entire records of trips like active, completed, pending, and canceled. 

Manual Dispatch: Assigning a trip request to the driver manually can be useful in areas such as low-network. This feature is helpful in the low network area where the rider could not request for a ride and outstation customers. 

Driver Transaction: You can get an entire weekly report of the driver’s trip, total revenue earned, and total payable amount after deductions. You can also track the details of drivers and their trips.

Infrastructure and Storage

Long-term data storage

Schemaless (built on-house on top MySQL), Riak, and Cassandra

Distributed storage and analytics

Hadoop warehouse

Caching and queuing

Redis, Twenproxy, Celery workers

Searching and visualizations

ELK stack (ELK stands for Elasticsearch, Logstash, and Kibana)

App Provisioning

Docker, Mesos, Aurora

Routing and Service Discovery

Ringpop, TChannel, and Hyperbahn

Virtual Machines

Packer, Vagrant, Boto, and Unison

System configuration

Puppet

Inventory management

Clusto

Languages

Go and Java

Mapping visualizations

SVG, Canvas, and WebGL

Web and Mobile

Languages

Node.js

Web Server

Express.js

Rendering, State Handling,

and Building

React.js, standard Flux, and

Gulp.js respectively

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Mobile

For Android:

Build System

Gradle

Networking

OkHttp, Retrofit, and Gson

Dependency injection framework

Dagger

Image Loading

Picasso

Automation Coding

Expresso

Architecture

RxJava

Logging

Timber

For iOS:

Repository

Buck

Placement and sizing

Masonry and SnapKit

Crash Detection

KSCrash

Testing

OCMock

Storage

LevelDB

Backend

Schemaless and MySQL

How Much Does it Cost to Build an App like Uber?

You might be searching for an answer to a query like what is Uber-like app development cost? The process of mobile app development is complex, and the Uber-like app development cost varies based on the following factors:

  • Design Aspects
  • Number & complexity of features
  • Number of platforms and details of operating system
  • Technology Preferences
  • Development team capabilities, locations, and rates

Rider App:

Rider App

iOS (hours)

Android (hours)

Backend (hours)

Registration

40

40

40

Card details

40

16-32

80

Locations

40

40

80

Request results

56-64

80

48

Fare Calculator

16-24

16-24

80-120

Driver tracking

24-40

40

40

Payments

-

-

80

Review and rating

32-48

56

80

Booking history

16-32

40

40

Push notifications

40-80

40-80

40

Approx. Total (hours)

304-408

368-432

608-648

Driver App:

Driver App

iOS (hours)

Android

Backend

Registration

40-80

40

40

Booking

40-80

80

40-80

Status

40

40

40

Booking History

16-32

40

40

Approx. Total (hours)

136-222

200

160-200

UI/UX Design for a Rider App

An Uber-like app development, there is one crucial stage is UX/UI design. An Uber app design consists of two parts: one for Driver app and one for the Rider app.

Wireframes (UX)

40-56 hours

Mockups (UI)

48-64 hours for iOS;

32-48 hours for Android

UI/UX Design for a Driver App

Wireframes (UX)

64-80 hours

Mockups (UI)

48-64 hours for iOS;

32-48 hours for Android

Admin Panel

Admin Panel is necessary for proper system interaction and functioning. The Uber’s basic version of an app includes the following functionality for an admin panel:

  • Dashboard
  • Login
  • Admin Profile
  • Driver Management (It includes profile, booking history & payment history)
  • Rider Management (It includes profile, booking history, and profiles)
  • Fare rates management

The total development time to create this kind of admin panel takes approximately 240 hours.

Development Cost in Canada

Rider App

$11,040 - $16,080

Driver App

$30,720 - $36,720

Admin Panel

$7,200

Total Cost

$50,000 - $60,000

Thus, choosing an ideal software development can make a lot of difference. The Uber app development cost in Canada includes a rider app, a driver app, and an admin panel for a single platform (iOS or Android). 

Apart from the time and cost of developing an app like Uber, it also depends upon the app’s complexity, involvement, and cooperation among all third-parties working on the taxi-booking application. The standard development hours to build an Uber-like app takes approximately 5 to 7 months. The Uber-like app development cost also depends on the service provider’s hourly rates that vary significantly from $20 per hour to $150 per hour. If you still have one of the queries like ―

  • How long does it cost to develop an app like Uber in Canada?
  • Should it be beneficial to create an MVP of an Uber-like taxi app?
  • I have an idea to create apps like Uber and Lyft. What’s the right way to approach the taxi booking app development company?
  • How much money does a car-sharing app make?

Then, feel free to chat with us, and we’d love to help you with an optimal solution for all your queries. 

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