How to Make an App Like Uber

Already have a kickass idea in mind and want to build an app like Uber? But how to go about it is bothering you? Let us help you to take you a step closer to your business idea. 

Uber, this brand speaks a lot about itself. Uber operates in more than 80 countries in 900+ cities with a very handsome ROI. The smaller companies are following the pathway of uber for uber like app development and to generate a loyal customer base. Uber with its simple and easy-to-use features has earned great popularity across the globe. Uber uses a very simple approach. It has worked on the pain point of a ride-sharing application and flawlessly executed the solutions.

But before you think that replicating the structure and technologies is a pathway to create a taxi app like uber then please get out of this misconception. It is always a great idea to talk to industry experts because they know the pulse of each marketing domain and can explain the challenges and solutions more precisely. An in-house team will be an expensive call for your business, hence we suggest you reach out to mobile app development company for uber like app development. 

How does Uber work?

Let’s just move forward to, how does the Uber app works, as most of you know this already:

• A customer requests a ride
• For requesting the ride they have to enter the destination
• After filling in destination, they have to choose the car they want to ride in and the mode of payment
• The app then search for a driver nearby the location
• Now many drivers near the vicinity get the request. Either a driver accepts it or declines it. If the driver declines the request, it by default gets transferred to the next possible driver. 
• A driver then accepts the rides and drops the customer to the desired location with the selected mode of payment. (Credit card, QR Code scan, Cash)
• Once the trip is completed, a customer then further rates the ride based on their experience. The rating system is at the place to further enrich the trip.

How to Make an Uber Like App

Let’s dig deeper into the technical specification to get more clarity on how to develop uber like app:

1. Geo-location:

Uber uses the CoreLocation framework for both iOS and android for detecting the user’s device location. For locating the destination on the driver’s screen. MapKit is used for iOS users and Google Maps is used for Android. 

2. Payment gateway:

It is the most important feature any app can have. To simplify this uber has implemented payment through cards and wallets. An authentic company like uber has to make sure that the payment method is safe. It uses the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards to ensure the secure handling of the payments and data. Not only that, Uber has partnered up with Braintree for the same.

3. Push notification:

Push notifications are the best way to keep the customers informed about the latest discount, offers, new updates or the budget ride package. Uber built this feature differently for the users. Android- Firebase Cloud Messaging(FCM) is used for the android user and for iPhone users iOS- Apple Push Notification Service(APN) is used.

4. UI/UX:

Isn’t Uber’s simplicity and clarity at its best? To build an app like Uber, clarity and simplicity is the best wicket to take. This is a game that one needs to ace in mobile app development. There are many functions under the Uber app and yet it seems so simple and easy to use. Ridesharing services are client-oriented and so they have to come with beautiful and easy-to-use UI/UX. Correspondingly, the Uber-like app development cost should involve design expenses.

5. Registration:

We really don’t want to fill a long-form to get started with an app. Uber knows this well and hence they have kept a really quick way to get yourself registered via Facebook, Google or email and ask for a phone number in addition.

In terms of safety, Uber has kept the mandatory details of the driver in place (photo, name and car license number) so that as far as safety is concerned, the customers should feel secure about it. or be sufficiently complete and feature-rich.

6. Estimation of the ride fare:

Uber has very intelligently worked on this feature which shows you the basic fare while you are booking a ride and that too for the different cars. If you want to build an app like Uber then the software engineers need to build an algorithm of estimation about the cost based on the user’s pick up and drop locations. 

7. Scheduling a ride for your trips and booking a ride for other people:

Many times when you have something really important to cover up and you need to avoid the last-minute Hustle, Uber has a feature where you can schedule a ride in advance. You can book a ride 30-day advance to plan your trip properly. 

Additionally, if sometimes you need to book a ride for your family or friend, uber got it sorted for you. You can book a ride from your account for others where you can share the ride details with the one for whom you are booking the ride for. 

8. Heat Map:

When we say heat map, we mean a feature that simplifies the work of a driver. The heat map helps a driver to see which part of a city has the highest demand for the can services so that they can grab the bookings from there. This feature greatly contributes to generating more profit for the drivers and Uber. It takes a lot of algorithms to build app like uber. 

It’s pretty hard to estimate this feature without any project details since its development time is dependent on multiple factors. 

9. Messaging:

Once your ride is booked, it shows you an estimated time of arrival with booking and driver details. You can use the message feature to communicate with the driver via messaging. You can tell the driver that you have reached the pick-up spot and so they can. 

10. Customer Support:

You can reach out to the customer support system in case you had any issues with the rides, driver or payment. Expressing down the issues and seeking a solution for rides and other aspects related to it are possible on uber with customer support. You don’t have to chase back to the emails for sorting out your issues. 

How Much Does the Uber App Cost?

Let’s dive deep into the costing to build an app like uber:

Building an app like Uber and that too with lots of functionality takes a substantial amount of time, dedication and money. The above features have explained exactly what it takes to integrate these features and of course, there is a good amount of money associated with all the above-explained features. Below are some of the features that play a vital role in costing:

1. The User experience

2. What all are the technologies involved

3. Incorporated platform and operating System 

4. Type of features

5. The development team rates

6. Marketing and promotional aspect

Alternatively, you can use our app development cost calculator to get an idea, how much your app development will cost. Now let’s get inside the further segregations:

As we all know that Uber is both, Passenger and driver-centric app, from a design perspective we need the mock-up and the wireframe for both. 

Also, the admin panel for uber like app development needs a very strong admin panel that includes:

1. The login details

2. Driver management includes the profile of the driver(rating and bookings handled previous booking history and the payment history

3. Passenger management includes profile, booking history and payment history as well. 

4. Fare rate management 

5. The dashboard

So the development of the admin panel also requires a good amount of time. 

Tech stack and team:  As an admin panel is an important aspect of the app but apart from those you need to know what all technologies have been used to build apps like Uber. Briefing the technologies below: 

Kotlin for Android app: A programming language used by most of the android developers which helps in boosting productivity, has satisfactory code safety and great interoperability with Java

Swift for iOS app: It is another powerful programming language used for iPhone, iPad, Mac. It is safe by design and it also produces software that runs lightning-fast.

Node.js for back-end: This backend has a great fan base amongst the developers that provides exceptional scalability and product performance. It is an open-source application runtime environment that enables you to write server-side applications using Javascript. 

Amazon EC2: Here the EC2 stands for Elastic Compute Cloud. It is a web service that offers the broadest and deepest compute platform with a choice of processor, storage, networking, operating system, and purchase model.

Amazon S3 PayPal or Stripe: Stripe is an online payment processing platform that allows businesses to send and receive payments over the internet and Amazon Simple Storage Service is a simple web services interface that you can use to store and retrieve any amount of data, at any time, from anywhere on the web.

Twilio Elastic email: It is an SMTP server designed to improve your delivery rates and seamlessly scale 100 million emails per month through this ultra-fast global infrastructure.

Google Maps & Google Directions: It is used to navigate the best possible easiest way from the pick-up to drop location.

Firebase Facebook SDK: You see some of the ride-sharing apps provide you with an option of logging in from the Facebook application, yes, this is done through Facebook SDK. You can let your users authenticate with Firebase using their Facebook accounts by integrating Facebook Login into your app.

Also if you are planning to get an in-house team, you will be needing the below professionals: 

1. UI/UX designer 

2. Android / iOS engineer 

3. Business Analyst 

4. Project Manager

5. Back-end developer 

6. QA engineer

So as the market experts, we strongly recommend you to reach out to the taxi app development agency for the best results. 

The revenue cascade of Uber

Whenever we think of a brand bringing amazing revenue to their tables we want to know about their revenue model. Most of us know that Uber does not provide vehicles to drivers. Uber asks the drivers to bring their vehicle. And how do they make a profit from them? Uber has the BBCC revenue principle or you can say it the B square and C square based on surge pricing:

1. Base fare
2. Booking fees
3. Cost per minute
4. Cost per mile

How Can You Beat the Uber App?

For uber like app development, the business owner can choose and customize how they want their app to look and function based on their need and budget. Reach out to us because the expert tech team of developers at Agicent are well-versed with the latest technologies and also have a good hand on experience in functionalities and features to build app like uber. Hiring Agicent will help you out immensely if you don’t possess the knowledge about the development processes. The developers with Agicent will help understand the basics, keep you updated with the development, and provide suggestions on improvements to the design. You can check out the work catered across the globe here

Hiring Agicent App Development Company is easy, all you need to do is to send us an email at [email protected] with your project query, or fill up a simple form by clicking on Get in Touch, or call us at +1-347-467-1089 and our team will get in touch with you within 12 Hours!