How Much Does It Cost to Build an App Like Zomato?

The food delivery market is experiencing rapid growth, driven by digital adoption and consumer demand. The industry is projected to grow by 10.3% CAGR from 2023 to 2027. Companies like Zomato have reported significant revenue increases, reflecting changing consumer preferences and the expansion of online food delivery services.

Highlights

• The global food delivery market is expected to grow at 10.3% CAGR from 2023 to 2027. (Source: Statista)
• Zomato reported a 70% year-on-year revenue increase in the first quarter of 2023. (Source: Zomato Financial Report)
• Over 60% of consumers prefer online food delivery over dining out in 2023. (Source: Business Insider)
• India’s online food delivery market is projected to grow by 12% CAGR until 2025. (Source: IMARC Group)

Co-Founder

Vandana Abrol

5 min read

An enthusiastic developer and skilled business management expert with over a decade of experience in the field

In today’s fast-paced world, food delivery applications act as indispensable resources for millions of clients around the world. Companies that initially thought they were only engaged in the business of delivering food to the customers’ doorstep have now been able to create an entirely new market through apps like Zomato. However, creating such an app is not merely an easy accomplishment. This is a process that needs capital investment, effort, and qualified personnel especially involving large amounts of data. In this article, we’ll detail some of the most significant costs associated with developing a food delivery app like Zomato so that you can uncover what is essential for your own project.

Key Features of an App Like Zomato

However, it will help to know the main aspects that determine the success of the application, before disclosing the cost criterion in detail. A Zomato-like app typically includes:

User Panel: To enable customers to explore restaurants, peruse meal options, order meals, and monitor delivery of orders.

Restaurant Panel: A system that allows restaurants to oversee their listings, and orders, as well as analyze the key performance indicators.

Delivery Partner Panel: A web-based application for delivery personnel who can view orders, and get routing and delivery status among others.

Admin Panel: Evaluating and managing the users, restaurants, delivery people, and their payments under a single authority.

Besides, other additional features of the apps include real-time GPS tracking, push notifications, [Make use of In-app payments], reviews, and ratings. However, the extent of development or elaboration of a single application determines the total amount of money required to put it through.

Factors That Affect the Cost of Developing a Food Delivery App

Leaving the fun part for a while, let’s discuss the price of creating an app like Zomato. The answer to this question may seem obvious, not because it is easy to answer, but because there are many variables that make the degree of the cost very unpredictable. The following ones are considered to be the most essential components that determine your project’s budget: 

App Complexity and Features

Among the costs that define the cost of building the app and its complexity the cost of development stands out. An MVP food delivery app with minimum functionality, including a list of restaurants, customers’ profiles, and order management will cost less than the app that has functions like real-time order tracking, AI-based recommendations, and dynamic prices.

Basic App: doing: USD 1500 – USD 2500 (INR 1,30,000 - INR 2,16,000)

Medium Complexity App: USD 2500 - USD 5,000 (INR 2,16,000 - INR 4,34,000)

High Complexity App: USD 5000 - USD 10,000 + (INR 4,34,000 - INR 8,66,000 +)

Platform (iOS, Android, or Both)

One is the iOS or Android platform that you adopt in the development of the application; this influences the cost. We already know that a single platform will certainly be cheaper than developing the application for each platform individually.

iOS App Only: USD 1000 - USD 2000 (INR 86,000 - INR 1,73,000)

Android App Only: USD 1000 - USD 2000 (INR 86,000 - INR 1,73,000)

Cross-Platform App: USD 3000 - USD 5000 (INR 2,60,000 - INR 4,34,000)

These are developed for both, iOS and Android, to build cross-platform frameworks like react native can be used to reduce costs during the development phase.

UI/UX Design

In this way, it becomes easy to identify which of the food delivery apps is the best by making sure that it provides the best experience to the users of the apps. Some of the tips that may be useful in designing the user interfaces are: You will find that most interfaces created are those that users go back to look for more. The cost of creating the user interface and user experience of an APP depends on the level of complexity that an individual wants to integrate into the APP.

Basic UI/UX Design: USD 300 - USD 500 (INR 26,000 - INR 43,000)

Advanced UI/UX Design: USD 800 - USD 1500 (INR 70,000 - INR 1,30,000)

Backend Development

The development of the app involving backend configuration includes server and database APIs and other relevant processes of the app. Indeed, a strong development must be maintained in the background, as well as the ability to work with real-time data, multiple orders, and payments.

Backend Development Cost: USD 1500 - USD 3000 (INR 1,30,000 - INR 2,60,000)

Third-Party Integrations

To make your app more functional, users will include third-party services like tracking – Google Maps, payment – payment gateways, and notification – SMS/Email Services. Together, any of these integrations can increase the cost.

Payment Gateway Integration: USD 100 - USD 300 (INR 8,600 - INR 26,000)

GPS/Location Services: USD 200 - USD 500 (INR 17,000 - INR 43,000)

Push Notifications: USD 500 - USD 2,000 (INR 43,000 - INR 1,73,000)

App Maintenance and Updates

Of course, when your app is released, you will need to dedicate some amount of funds for its further support, and updates. This includes rectification of defects such as issues like bugs, improvement of the products such as making the speed of the devices faster, and infusing new products into the market whenever consumers demand them. They establish that the cost of application maintenance stands at approximately 20% of the total cost that is made in the development of an application in the first year.

Annual Maintenance Cost: USD 500 - USD 1000 (INR 43,000 - INR 86,000)

Additional Costs to Consider

Marketing and Launch Costs

Creating a wonderful app is something but what use is it if people are not able to find it? The users will then need to download and use your product in large numbers and this requires proper marketing. The key to app advertising includes digital marketing, search engine optimization, application store optimization, and social media marketing. The cost of marketing as mentioned earlier can be as low as USD 500  (INR 43,000) and as high as USD 5000 (INR 4,34,000) depending on the plan you choose to undertake.

Legal and Licensing Fees

There is more to an app that you want to launch into the food delivery industry's legal obligations. This also entails having permits and compliance with laws that exist at the regional level. Disbursement of legal fees for contracts with restaurants, terms of service, and privacy policies among other legal requirements are likely to cost between USD 300 and USD 1000 (INR 26,000 - INR 86,000).

Hosting and Server Costs

Therefore the cost of hosting will depend on which server you use to host the app. AWS or Microsoft Azure can provide reliable hosting but they are paid on a per-usage model thus involving recurring expenses.

Hosting Costs: USD 100 - USD 500 (INR 8,600 - INR 43,000) per year.

Total Development Cost Estimation

Taking into account all the factors mentioned above, the total cost of building a food delivery app like Zomato can range from USD 300 (INR 26,000) for a basic version to upwards of USD 1500 (INR 1,30,000) for a full-featured, complex app with all the bells and whistles.

Basic App Development - USD 1500 to USD 2500 (INR 1,30,000 - INR 2,16,000)

iOS/Android Platform - USD 1000 to USD 3000 (INR 86,000 - INR 2,60,000)

UI/UX Design - USD 300 to USD 1500 (INR 26,000 - INR 1,30,000)

Backend Development - USD 1500 to USD 3000 (INR 1,30,000 - INR 2,60,000)

Third-Party Integrations: Cost: USD 300 to USD 1000 (INR 26,000 - INR 86,000)

App Maintenance: Cost: USD 500 to USD 1000 (INR 43,000 - INR 86,000)

Why You Should Hire Professionals

Therefore, to get the successful outcome of an app like Zomato, it is essential to involve experts in the sphere. Coming up with a competent team of developers, designers, and project managers would be vital to guarantee the delivery of your desired app and usability. When deciding on the strategy to follow when developing a custom mobile application, the option to go fully customized for it is the best approach since it enables developers to design, develop, and deploy mobile applications that closely meet a firm’s business model and customer requirements.

While searching for the top partner Digittrix turns out to be the best solution. Being experts in creating food delivery apps, Digittrix shows only the highest levels of creativity and technical skills in developing the desired application. This portfolio shows that these developers have the potential to create complex, reliable business applications with a set of features needed for their functioning.

Build an On-Demand Food Delivery App Like Zomato with Digittrix

A food delivery app like Zomato is essential for providing seamless service, organized orders, and real-time tracking. It should feature an intuitive interface, efficient search functionality, order tracking, and a restaurant dashboard. For a user-friendly experience, choose an app with simple menus, interactive tools, and positive user reviews. If you want to develop a custom food delivery app like Zomato, contact Digittrix.

Build your food delivery app with us! We are a leading mobile app development company with 14 years of experience and expert developers at Digittrix.

If you're interested in building an app but are unsure how to start the process, schedule your consultation today with our expert technical managers by calling +91 8727000867

You can also write to us with your queries at digittrix@gmail.com

Final Words

It may be pertinent to understand that building an application like Zomato, will take a lot of time, effort, and capital. This means that the development cost will depend on the features, platform, design, and third-party interfaces in use. Although the initial investment might be steep, the benefits that come with its use such as increased traffic to the site, market penetration, and therefore increased revenues are major attractions to adopting this strategy.