How much does it cost to develop an app like Careem?
It’s the year 2022, and the economic growth is taking a turn towards a certain set of on-demand business models with a high success rate and hence, have become a favorite among investors. And so, amidst a global pandemic, a whole new set of business ecosystems have become on-demand in a variety of classifications like- Rideshare, food, and grocery home delivery, work from home service opportunities, and even at-home services.
Now, since these growth opportunities have an online angle to them, it only makes sense to offer these services to our target consumers, the ease of access at their fingertips. Namely, mobile app development for these targeted services.
Considering all that, have you ever thought of creating an app like Careem? An app that offers a lot of those on-demand services that we spoke of, like- rides, ordering food, or payments can be a dream come true for a lot of the people out there.
So, how to develop an app like Careem? And how much does the development of an app like Careem cost? We shall discuss that in a bit, but first, let’s see the statistics of revenue generated by the rideshare industry for the current year and the future predictions. According to a report by Statista, it is said that the user penetration of the ride-hailing segment is 20.0% in 2022 and is expected to hit 21.1% by 2026.
Additionally, in the Ride-hailing & Taxi segment, 50% of total revenue will be generated through online sales by 2026. So, the market for a taxi-booking mobile app is expected to reach 1,665.3 million users by 2026. And so, the majority of this industry is dominated by mobile apps like Uber, and Careem rising as a market leader.
Now, circling back to the question of costs involved in the process of developing an app like Careem, several factors come into play. These factors include the designing, development, maintenance, and security of the app development process.
Overall, the development of apps like this costs somewhere between $25,000 to $150,000, which varies on a variety of factors. However, this article will help you understand the important factors to be considered before deciding on what kind of app you need for your business idea, how to set your budget, and how to plan and convey the whole idea to your developers to help them understand better and in turn produce a more satisfying result.
Benefits of Developing an App like Careem for Business
Management made easy
Automation of daily mundane tasks along with creating a one-stop portal for your application management ensures a seamless user experience for both users, managers, and admins. In today’s fast-paced business world, technology has to be integrated perfectly with the daily functionality of a business otherwise it becomes impossible to function daily with error-free management. So, developing an on-demand app like Careem would be highly beneficial to your business and will hence make it’s functioning efficient. This is why integrating on-demand services into your business model will highly modify it in terms of ease and speed.
Tracking assistance
To make your services more profitable, tracking technology is integrated into your business mobile application to make a successful app like Careem. Tracking the drivers, vehicles, customers and the ride ensures safety with a GPS functionality integrated into the app which enhances the experience and everyone using the app feels in-loop with each process and its progress.
Higher ROI
Developing an app like Careem with a simple user experience and a minimalist user interface will highly inflate the possibilities for business expansion and maximal functionality among your users. With a high-performance app like Careem, it becomes easier to expand your business network without having to invest a lot. So, build an app like Careem and let the app take care of the management of joiners and their prerequisites. The drivers would require to have their vehicles be registered with the app as their property and you receive the revenue in the form of commissions in return for providing a platform.
Now, about the development costs for a Careem-like app
Components of Careem-like App Development
Like all on-demand taxi-booking apps, there are three components to developing it- Passenger, Driver, and Admin.
In conversation about how to develop an app like Careem on Android or iOS, it is crucial to understand the different aspects of an on-demand taxi-booking app. Let’s take a look at the three elements of a Taxi-booking app-
Passenger App
This is a passenger UI meant to focus on the needs of service required to satisfy the purpose of a passenger. All its elements are integrated to match the rider’s perspective, including setting up a user profile, location settings, ride booking, calculating the fare.
Registration
This is the very first step in the process of using the mobile application, as it allows the passenger app user to log in/sign up to use the app with ease using their social accounts.
Taxi type selection
This section of the app allows the passenger app user to choose the type of taxi according to their needs and their level of luxury. Having a choice between hatchbacks, sedans, SUV’s and Luxury cars will drastically increase the demand of your app.
Booking
This section allows the booking of taxi car rides from within the app on their mobiles anywhere, anytime.
Push Notification
Push notifications have become a necessary addition to all the upcoming mobile applications nowadays. This is because an app has many ongoing updates and even just to remind the user of that app, a push notification does the job of bringing the user to the app and helping them remember the app without being used every day.
Feedback
This section is more for us as a business than for the users. This enables the users to comment on their likes or dislikes about using the app and we as the owners of the app understand their needs better and improve on where we lack. There is always room for improvement and every feedback we receive brings us close to being the perfect app.
Ride history
This function of the mobile app enables the users to check their previous ride history with our riders with utmost detail. This comes in handy in a lot of ways, say one wants the same driver for another ride, or a passenger forgot something in the cab, they mind finding it very helpful if they were able to track down the details.
Price calculator
This feature allows the passengers to calculate their trip fare beforehand based on certain factors like the type of car they choose, the distance to their destination as well as if they choose to make the taxi wait and return to their original location. This allows them to plan and choose according to their budget plus they feel comfortable knowing that they aren’t being charged extra or unnecessarily.
Secure Payments
Providing multiple secure payment gateway alternatives to the users will enhance their confidence in the business and they would prefer it more due to the safety they feel when they use their sensitive data to make payments to you.
Calling
Integrating the calling feature enables the riders and passengers to communicate and coordinate with each other for a smooth and hassle-free ride to their destination.
In-app messaging
Also, integrating in-app messaging features in your app for the same reasons and to increase the overall experience of the passenger as well as the driver is a smooth and hassle-free one.
Driver App
This is a Driver side app UI meant to enhance the Driver’s user experience and serve the purpose of the driver’s functions for the business. So, this element of the app focuses on the driver’s tasks and uses. Even though both Driver and Passenger elements of the app share some common features, it still varies in most features along with a few extra ones. Some of those extra elements that are added for a better experience for the Drivers are as follows- Navigation, Active/Inactive status option, reports on trip stats and payroll, etc.
Let’s take a look at how these features are beneficial for the drivers-
Active/Inactive Status
This is the feature that allows the drivers to choose to display their availability or unavailability for the upcoming or requested rides.
Profile Editing
This enables the drivers to update their profile with information regarding themselves, their vehicles, experience, documentation, etc.
Calling
Similar to the Passenger element of the mobile app, the calling feature from the driver’s side serves the same purpose, which is to enable smooth communication and enhance coordination between the passenger and the driver.
In-app messaging
Also similar to the in-app messaging feature in the Passenger element of the mobile app, integrating the in-app messaging feature in your app for the same reasons, to increase the overall experience of the passenger as well as the driver is a smooth and hassle-free one.
Activity alert
This sends an activity alert to all the drivers in the vicinity, regarding a booking ride request made by a passenger, enabling the drivers to accept or reject the ride offer.
Navigation
This feature is essential to the driver element of the mobile app as it would prove useful in enabling the driver to better understand the passenger’s current location and the exact location of the passenger’s location.
Estimation
Estimation of the cost of each ride is shown to the driver in this feature, as this lets the driver decide if the ride is worth it or not.
Reports
This feature enables the drivers to have access to data that helps them understand their daily performance as well as their earnings.
Admin Panel
This is the admin side of the on-demand taxi booking app UI meant for the comfort of the admin manager tasked with managing the various functions of the app. It is usually and more preferably on a web application rather than a mobile app. The admin element of the app is more data and statistics-driven as it is meant to keep track of and manage the smooth sailing of both the Passenger and the Driver sides of the app.
Some of the most in-demand Admin panel features in apps like Careem are-
Vehicle Management
This feature allows the admin to have access to all the vehicles registered with the application for your business including details like vehicle number, registered owner, owner’s driver’s license, etc. for data keeping and security.
Billing and invoice
This is a feature that enables the admin to see the billings and invoices of every ride that is taken or canceled on a day-to-day basis. This data is collected and analyzed to help understand how the business is doing daily.
Compliant control
This section is only accessible through the admin panel and it holds all the feedback that comes from the Passengers App and is all thoroughly read and taken into consideration to make this app a better one every day.
Role Management
The management of daily tasks of ride assignment to the drivers in the vicinity through the app location trackers and other tasks related to the drivers are managed in this section of the Admin Panel app.
Vehicle tracking system
Every single vehicle that is registered with the app can be tracked by authorized personnel only. So, this system enables to admin to keep a track of the following to ensure the safety and morality of every user are in check.
Promotion and discount management
This is the feature from which the admin keeps a track of and manages all the promotional coupons handed out within the app.
Taxi Booking App Development: App Features, Pricing, and Development Hours
The features that you choose to add to the in-demand mobile app that you are creating will decide Careem-like app development cost. That is because each feature is more complicated than the one before, so each one that you add will only add variability in the cost of the app development.
Step 1 : Registration
Development Timeline: It takes somewhere around 120-150 hours of development time to develop the registration functionality for an app like Careem.
Pricing: The approximate pricing would go up to $3000 for developing the registration feature.
Step 2 : GPS
Development Timeline: It takes somewhere around 120-150 hours of development time to develop the GPS functionality to develop an app like Careem.
Pricing: The approximate pricing for integrating the GPS features into an app like Careem would cost you up to $6000 plus.
Step 3 : Messaging/ Push Notification
Development Timeline: Developing features like integrated push notifications take about 36-40 hours of development time, and to develop the SMS integration, it takes 20-30 hours to build it into an app like Careem.
Pricing: $2000 to $3000.
Step 4 : In-App Payment
Development Timeline: 100-120 hours
Pricing: $6000
Step 5 : Driver Report
Development Timeline: 80-100 hours
Pricing: $2000+
The Final Cost of Developing Careem-like App
After discussing the app features, pricing, and development times, it’s time to discuss the final costs of developing an app like Careem. The following are the few services that you’d want to invest in, according to us-
– Mobile app design
-Native app development
-Backend development
-Web app development
-Quality assurance
-Product management
-Functionality count
-Number of User stories
Considering all that, the cost of development of an app like Careem will be based, firstly, on the development hours that go into the development processes, which will be decided upon various geographical locations among other factors.
As we all are aware, the western countries are going to cost more for the development of an app like Careem. So, the development hours would fall somewhere between 100-200 in the Western countries, whereas the Eastern countries would take less time to develop an app like Careem in nations like Dubai/India.
So, if you choose to develop an app like Careem, the development cost from a leading on-demand app development company would cost around $25,000 to $40,000 for a basic functionality on-demand taxi app whereas a feature-rich app would cost anywhere between $100,000 to $150,000.
In conclusion, I think it is important to understand that the app development cost for an app like Careem would vary from place to place and feature to feature. So, it would be advisable to focus and decide on what features you want and don’t want in your app and then find the country with the highest quality but the best pricing schemes for the development of your dream app.