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How Much Does it Cost to Develop an App Like Uber?

Posted on February 1, 2019 by Super Admin Testreveal

Uber is not just an inspiration for startups and aspiring entrepreneurs, its miraculous success is so infectious it provoked many market learners to think of going Uber way. The billion-dollar taxi booking startup Uber was founded by Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp eight years ago in 2009 thought they might have felt shocked upon experiencing such a gargantuan success from their joint digital venture.

No wonder young talents are impelled to recreate the same magic by developing Uber-like app for taxi booking. Ola and Grab has already made their mark on the map. Splendid! This is the reason why young startups are fanatically seeking affordable mobile app development companies who can calculate estimate cost to develop Uber clone to join the revolution of unique traveling. Let’s explore how you can approach cost calculation for developing the app.

The main factors that determine app development cost are:

Platform choice
Basic features
UI/UX design elements
Target demographics
Product maintenance and QA
Frequency of security updates

You need to build two separate apps to develop an Uber clone for any given platform. One for drivers and one for users (passengers). Both versions will house slightly different set of features. Check out these common features for both the apps that you can customize later to your requirements:

Passenger’s App:

Register & login: Login and registration via Email or social media accounts, credit cards
Booking user interface: An interface on a screen to enter details needed to call a taxi such as pickup address, cab type or a specific driver, etc.
Tracker: A feature to track driver’s location and progress as they are en route to rider.
Price calculator: To estimate the cost of a ride from point A to point B before finalizing it
Payments: Debit and credit card, in-app and cashless, automatic debit, email invoice or directly on phone
Push notifications: To update users on order status, taxi arrival time, cab details, offers and more.
Preferred driver: To pick specific driver based on personal experience or ratings
Booking history: To view previous taxi booking instances
Ratings & reviews: To view and leave personal opinion and experience

Driver’s App:

Register/profile/login authentication: Registration and log in feature with detailed verification (tax number), profile authentication and approval by an administrator and status
Booking: Options to accept or deny the incoming booking requests from users, customer location details, and destination of a ride along with plus booking history
Push notifications: To receive alerts on taxi booking which includes data’s like pickup location, payment mode, destination, order updates, etc.
Navigation: Use of Google Maps or Location services or iOS Map services to get clear directions to a customer and the ultimate destination, added voice-enabled services
Reviews, messaging, route selection

Admin Panel

You need a central control panel to administer and manage all the ongoing activities, requests and processes from a single point. This is called an Admin panel, a web app that facilitates crucial engagement between riders and drivers, and later on processes data regarding ride routes.

This mainly consists

Interactive dashboard
Customizable capabilities
Driver details
Manual Allocation of drivers
Manual driver alerts

Now, the next process of calculating the entire app development cost involves gathering knowledge about approximate time and development charges for each phase.

We have divided the complex process in an understandable break-up to comprehend the budget estimate easily.

1) Leading Cost Components

Considering the general major aspects of Uber-like app development, we can narrate the most common cost drivers as:

Backend development
Web development
UI/UX Design
Third-party service APIs integrations
Native experience qualities (Android/iOS)
Post-deployment maintenance & Quality assurance

2) Technologies and tools required to build the app

Uber has unveiled its unique API for developers. Hence, if you are planning to clone Uber you must tailor your own version to introduce original elements of server, maps payments. Having a viable server is key to efficiently processing thousands of user requests, driver routes and data everyday.

As for programming languages, we recommend the following:

Backend: Java, Node.js, Python, PHP.

GPS: OpenStreetMap API or iOS and Android

3) Platform-specific APIs for Native use

For Android: Google Maps and Google Location Services API

For iOS: MapKit or CoreLocation framework

4) In-app Payment solutions

Uber has robust In-app Payment solutions for credit cards and Wallet.

For third-party gateway integrations, you can choose Stripe, Paytm, PayPal Mobile SDK, BrainTree

Push notifications: Google Firebase (Android), Apple Push (iOS devices)

SMS notification services: cloud communication platforms like Twilio, Tropo, Plivo, Nexmo and more.

5) Programming the Backend Infrastructure

Writing a perfect architecture of the taxi booking mobile app backend is the foremost goal for the effective functioning of the app. Developers invest extra care and efforts while programming the backbone that creates immaculate poise and connections among its critical backend elements. This is where the story of success if essentially written and managed by enabling all the stunning features described earlier.

The skilled knowers of JavaScript, Python or CSS languages will work their way through building the app’s core and connecting it to UI of both rider’s and driver’s versions of the app. Database system like MySQL, PostgreSQL may come handy for storing crucial app data with emphasis on future scalability.

Domain	Similar App	How To	How Much	Our Price
Food Delivery	Uber	Create an app like uber	Uber app cost	View price

The total amount of time and resources required to shape the entire backend is a little challenging question itself as the job is fairly prone to a lot of brainstorming and successive changes, which makes it an arduous task.

However, on an average estimate, it may consume 100-200 hours feature-wise though the process can be accelerated by putting highly experienced agile developers on the job.

6) Platform-specific estimation: Native iOS/Android

It is a general belief that developing a native app experience for any single platform leads to double the benefits and also helps curb overall cost. An app expressing simplicity with uninterrupted performance like Uber is what you target customer would wish.

Therefore, for your goal to align with end users, you should be clear about opting for iOS and android apps separately as this preference boosts usability of your mobile app.

Software development companies are capable of building native apps with native experience and feel for both platforms. With same backend and functionality in place, your iOS and Android will perform equally well.

Of course, tools and framework technologies used will depend on the target platform. Time taken to address each platform may vary from 200 to 250 hours.

Finally, the total cost

In this section, the entire discussion on how and what factors influence the cost of Uber-like app development gets summarized. Hourly rates are sensitive to country’s respective economy and commerce practices.

For example, in USA, the rate is nearly $100-$200 and $50-$100 in European continents. In Asia, things appear affordable and the development fee may come down to $50 or $40 per hour.

The major cost belongs to the most time-eating phases of app development and QA where driver’s version and admin panel play a dominant role. Finally, to sum up in one sentence, the approximate cost range to develop the most fundamental Uber-like app in India falls to $25000 to $30000 for a single platform, considering $50 of medium hourly rate.

The total cost for developing Uber clone for both apps may boil down to $50000 or a little more depending on the demand and specifications from the client.

Exclusive Bonus: Download as PDF

How Much Does it Cost to Create an App like Instagram?

Posted on December 18, 2018 by Super Admin Testreveal

It goes without a mention that an app like Instagram has millions of users. With incredibly intuitive interface, relevant icons and stunning features and powerful photo editing tools, Instagram is now an everyday part of our lifestyle that lets share anything we capture in a matter of seconds.

Such scintillating success often spurs an idea of developing an app like Instagram among startup owners.

Developing an app that mirrors Instagram does not really mean building an exact clone. The app like Instagram should reflect most captivating features and image sharing capabilities along with effective marketing activities.

A few apps that have dared create as much buzz are Flickr, Vine Camera, Snapchat, Swipe and more. So how much would it cost you to deliver an app that compete with Instagram?

Let’s see all the areas of development that are major cost drivers in the process:

Must-have essential features

Depending on the scope of your project, you should include these basic features in the app.

User account & Registration
Login and Authentication
Profile Editing
Integration with Camera (Photo/Video)
Social Integration
Photo/Video Editor
Tagging
Geolocation
Messaging
Push Notifications
Custom Settings

You can also consider having a photo sharing website that reflects all features of an app just like what Instagram has done. Desktop application helps reach more users.

Most important aspect: Technology stack

Your primary research work that starts long before developing the app should necessarily involve critical findings on tools and stack of technologies to go into building the mature and robust architecture of mobile app like Instagram.

Instagram stands on the pillar of an extensive set of frameworks, languages, DevOps tools and server load systems. While determining tools, it is important to focus on load balancing capacity, iteration speed, code implementation and sharing, testing quality and operational system.

Read also : 24 Best Social Media Apps 2021

Based on the functional category the following set of tools can be used:

Frameworks: React Native, Django, Xamarin

Languages: JavaScript, Java, Objective-C, Python

Developer Tools

HAProxy (Load balancing and as a proxy server)
Sentry (Cross-platform application monitoring)
Babel (JavaScript compiler)
Webpack (Module bundler)
Nuclide (IDE – Integrated Development Environment)

For Computing and load balancing, Instagram uses Amazon web services (AWS) such as:

Amazon Route 53,
Amazon EC2
EBS

To enable speedy operational system, Instagram mainly relies on Ubuntu Linux 11.04.

Django framework of Python language builds Instagram’s web server with impressive processing units.

For creating data storage, Instagram capitalizes on PostgreSQL that facilitates user data, tags, meta data and more.

Not all the technologies and tools mentioned above are open-source; some of them come with fixed or dynamic charges which are included in developer’s bill.

Backend development cost

To create the backend of Instagram-like photo sharing app, we consider four major components that shape the skeleton of the app:

User interface
Content
posts
messaging

These four elements build the backend structure of Android or iOS app. Like Instagram, you can build the architecture with Django framework (based on Python language) and HTML5.

Domain	Similar App	How To	How Much	Our Price
Food Delivery	Instagram	Create an app like instagram	Instagram app cost	View price

Alternatively, you can opt for Java or Kotlin for Android platform, and Swift and Objective-C for iOS aps.

To give a shape to entire backend, it may take 300-400 hours.

For Android

If you have chosen Android platform for developing a native Instagram-like app, it is crucial to set mind on time and resources to go in the development. the cost will be subject to the specific technical challenges and complexities involved in Android ecosystem. The elements like design, screen sizes, app opening time may affect the overall cost.

Functionalities for Android that might be strenuous to develop are:

App infrastructure
Backend structure
Profile editing
Optimization for Screens
Capturing photos/videos
Photo Editor
Search
Geolocation
Push notification

For Android, the app is likely to take 1300-1500 hours.

For iOS

For developing iOS app, challenges do not perturb developers much since iOS developers can easily build a photo sharing app with social media integration. This is because Instagram offers ready document interactive API, and other iPhone-friendly tools to work their way.

iPhones also give the benefit of having pre-loaded images with a regular square size (640px X 640 px) for Instagram. Since iOS devices are mostly configured to meet basic requirements of Instagram app, developers can build all the great features using its Swift or Parse languages in Xcode environment for iOS, WatchOS and MacOS. This facility from iPhone saves a lot of time for iOS developers.

For iOS, Instagram clone can be built in nearly 1300 hours if everything goes as planned.

Other critical costs to shapethe app infrastructure

Though these are additional expenses, they are still essential in order to make a full-fledged, high-performance and unblemished app of excellent quality.

The costs explained above are meant for developing an app for a single platform. This means they don’t necessarily include preparation efforts spent in set up process, database architecture and cloud computing. These may close to 150-200 hours.

Read also : How Much Does an MVP Mobile App Cost in India

Moreover, for your app to look and feel like Instagram, you need an intuitive and interactive UI/UX structure which is covered by design and admin panel experts.

In the end comes software testing services. There are some software development companies that additionally charge for testing services. You will need to discuss the commitment terms and price breakup with your development partner before starting the project to avoid serious predicament later.

Calculating the cost of MVP development

After having a thorough knowledge of what to include in your app to make it rich and usable, it is time to conclude the cost for developing an MVP. It is to be noticed that the MVP of an Instagram-like photo sharing app will focus on basic features, to see if it creates a massive appeal to the crowd.

For each platform, you will need to invest at least 1000-1300 hours until the development is perfectly completed. To calculate the cost estimated by software development companies, the usual approach is to consider per hour rate and multiply it to the total number of hours.

For instance, if the average rate of developers is $50 per hour, the cost of development may hit $60000 taking into account 1200 hours.

The price excludes design services and backend or admin panel development. In India, the prices proposed by app development companies are justifiably fair. However, the cost per hour for projects of this caliber in North America usually ranges between $100-$250.

Summary on final cost

In this final section, after discussing all vital elements that shape an app like Instagram, we can easily deduce how much the app will cost. The two main factors that play bold role in determining the cost will always be the timeline and rate of resources consumed which includes developer fees and paid APIs and technology platforms,

Read also : How To Create Video Chat Apps

To count the average rate of fees, we can see $40-$50 per hour as an ideal estimate. Based on this, the total estimate for various app architectures may come down to:

350-400 hours for backend
Total 1300 hours approximately for development (each platform)
Nearly 100 hours to design
Additional 100 hours for creating a web application (optional)
80-100 hours for detailed app performance testing

If we consider above factors to be the case for your project, we can summarize that the whole process would generally cost around $100000 to make a photo sharing app like Instagram.

If you aim to make it available and functioning for both iOS and Android, you may spend additional $50000 or more to enable cross-platform coding structure.

Conclusion

The success story of Instagram did not happen overnight. Its initial version was built in 2 months by only 3 software engineers though the app was sold to Facebook for $1 billion in one year.

The epic characteristics of Instagram app that thrilled millions of global users were its exceptional performance, engaging features and unparalleled photo-creative capabilities.

You may need to adopt an experimental approach to build an app like Instagram. But as you learned, it is worth the time and efforts spent.

Exclusive Bonus: Download as PDF

How Much Does an MVP Mobile App Cost in India

Posted on September 6, 2018 by Super Admin Testreveal

With a world full of Android apps and iOS apps, it would be pivotal to make your app stand out from your competitors. And for that to happen, it is important to choose the right strategy for developing an app and not to spend your entire funds just on a single aspect. Well, there’s a way and that is MVP — Minimum Viable Product.

Of course, now you might be thinking that you all are familiar with Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and how it is helpful for start-ups and SMBs in reducing the unwanted costs and gives a chance to market test your product-related risks. But nobody knows how much it costs for mobile app development in India.

Let’s dig a little into the details.

But do we need an MVP at all?

Well, the app stores are heavily loaded with numerous apps and typically, 8 out of 10 apps fail to impress their users. Whenever you are planning to implement your concept or idea into an app, you need to be a more little careful than usual when it comes to mobile app design, the whole development process, costs, customers, etc. as these elements consume a lot of time.

This is where an MVP comes into the picture. A MVP mobile app helps your business to take a look at the future reflection of your concept and to learn the customer market significance of the app with minimum development costs and time.

How to build an MVP?

Usually, when you are developing a mobile app, you would start the process with selecting the right and flawless design and then work all your way up to the usability, reliability, features, and then functionalities. But, this way, there would be no end to the development costs.

Instead what you need to do is start with choosing the essential functionalities and features that you think would make difference and help your customers in solving their problems and then finally, choose a design that fits with the present app.

Now, coming to the main question. How much does it cost to build an MVP mobile app in India?

Honestly, an MVP costs nothing provided you do it yourself. But then again, it might not be as efficient as it could be if got it done by a professional and when it is not efficient, it would miserably fail to impress your target audiences.

When you try to find the cost of an MVP mobile app on Google or other search engines, you would mostly find vague answers and numbers. That is why we thought of providing a lengthy, actually a bit lengthy answer to your question.

It is no surprise that the cost of an app development is the primary factor in deciding whether you would continue building the app or not. However, when compared to the cost of actual, complete mobile application, an MVP app costs much lesser.

But what is the exact cost of an MVP?

Coming to the options of building an MVP mobile app, there are typically 2 ways (Excluding DIY).

Hire a freelance developer
Outsource it an IT company

Just like any other usual mobile app, an MVP cost also depends on the type of method you pick. The cost of hiring a freelance developer varies from country to country.

But India is certainly one of the most cost-affordable countries for IT solutions. However, freelancers would charge you anywhere between from $10/hr to $200/hr and mid-sized IT companies charges range somewhere around $2500 – $11,000.

For a better understanding, let’s dig a little deeper. Even if you consider the shortest possible timeline for your MVP development which is 30 days —

40 hours*$30 = $1,200/week

$1,200*4 = $4,800 — The total cost of your MVP mobile app

So this total cost could be ok or fine for some people and it may not for others. Also, this would be the cost of your MVP considering it only takes 30 days to build. But there are cases where it would take months, maybe 2 or 3 depending on the features and functionalities just like a mobile app.

Nevertheless, there are some common issues that could prolong your MVP development process a little more than you anticipated.

Keep the MVP design costs to minimal

Even before checking out what kind of features and functionalities your app has, first your customers will judge your MVP mobile app based on the design and how it looks. The design of your MVP is just as important as any other aspect because this is what the final output of the mobile app is going to look like. Anything other than the outline cannot be considered in this process. Additional changes are only done, once the app is launched.

The UI of your MVP should be simple and easy to navigate so that your users won’t find it difficult to search for anything. Depending on the number of screens of your MVP app, you can get a fair idea of how much it is going to cost you.

Also, what you need to understand is that the initial design is altogether a different and separate expense.

The Total Cost of MVP App:

As I already said, to figure out the final value of your MVP app cost, you just need to multiply the number of hours required to build it by the price of the hour freelance developer charges you.

The below table will give an outline of how much your MVP is going to cost.

There are certain elements beyond the development process of MVP such as:

Elements Beyond MVP Development

Initial release
Taking reviews and feedback
Data analysis

Once you launch your MVP, continue for a brief time as MVP is. If your customers love your app, then they will ask you to release a full-featured and functional app. By making the required changes and tweaks, you can release the final version of your app.

But, if your customers have mixed feelings about your MVP, then ask them which features they like and which they don’t so that you can improve their user experience.

In any case, you get totally negative feedback, and then stop the project for a while. Learn what your customers are expecting from your app. Otherwise, you would just be wasting a lot of money that would give you absolutely zero ROI.

Wrapping up

Now that you have understood how to proceed with your MVP mobile app development, this will surely give you an edge in negotiating with developers and IT companies. In addition to that, you know what to expect from your MVP, you can plan it in a better way on how to improve it and present it to your investors to raise more funds.