How to Create a Rideshare App and How Much It Costs [Full Estimate]

The global ridesharing market is growing incredibly fast. In the USA, the key players — Uber, Lyft, and DiDi — get billions in revenue. While BlaBlaCar, the most popular platform in Europe, already covers 400 cities and 1.5 million users.

And this is not the limit. The ridesharing market is expected to grow by more than 50% between 2020 and 2021 and increase its value to around $117B in 2021.

As the market grows, so does the number of ridesharing apps. Researches show that approximately 70% of all trips made by car passengers are the result of rideshares.

In this guide, we’re explaining how to create your own rideshare app—what features to include, what people to hire, and how much it will cost you. In case you would like to under how to start a rideshare business and build a solution for this, here's the list below; you may find essential steps to take to complete this process successfully:

• Requirements assembling
• Project planning
• UI/UX designing process
• Software development and functionality implementation
• Quality Assurance testing
• Launching on the market
• Further maintenance and support

We'll also disclose the steps mentioned above later in this article.

We can describe ridesharing (also called carpooling) as a shared utilization of a private vehicle found via the services to find companions for the route. Traditionally, the cost of travel is split depending on the required destination. Besides, it's optimal for all the travel fellows as well as the driver (who possesses the car) and is built without substantial deflections from the primary road.

According to the way of scheduling a united road, there are the subsequent types of ridesharing:

• Traditional. Commonly, it implies a three-day (100 km and more) travel, built willfully (taking approximately from a single day to several months).
• Dynamic. This type refers to traveling within the municipal area at small distances (up to 100 km) while having alternatives, such as using the private car, public transport, ordering a taxi, any other types of vehicles, or afoot.
• Regular. Such an option stands for the same and remaining ride participants, the route, and the alignment of the orderly travel.

The main point of ridesharing is essentially to cut down the travel outgoings. Taking into the consideration the number of companions as sell as the route distance, there is the opportunity to save up to 70% of the cost of using public vehicles.

An excellent opportunity for drivers is to get the payment from each travel fellow. Apart from this, the expenses cover not only fuel but also comprise parking, toll roads, and other aspects of the trip that require considerable expenses.

To perform longer routes, a great benefit for the car owner is to share the steering wheel with the passengers so that each one drives alternately. Some drivers are also willing to find a company for the trip to make it more engaging. Friendly conversations, music, and new acquaintances are also appreciated by many users.

Furthermore, it would be highly demanded to start a rideshare business in a crowded city. This is due to the fact that it's a great way to minimize the formation of traffic jams. A maximum number of passengers in one vehicle is an efficient way to free up city highways.

The ridesharing app development delivers a handy solution allowing to connect the drivers and passengers and have a deal. Now, let's dive deeper into the operation process of such products.

The united route without substantial deviations is the distinguishing point of carpooling and common taxi ordering. In the second case, the route, as well as the final point, doesn't depend on the driver, and the request is fulfilled for the price set by the taxi company. Hitchhiking is also different from ridesharing due to the eliminated need to pay for the travel. In fact, the driver only pays for the fuel and doesn't charge companions for the trip.

Some of those who prefer such a type of service claim that they apply carpooling not only due to the cost-efficiency advantage but for the social mission of protecting the environment and enhancing mobility. Let's define how to start building a transportation app with a rideshare program, make it profitable, and outline the valuable pros of carpooling applications.

The primary advantage is essentially cost-efficiency. For drivers, passengers are charged proportionally for fuel, repairs, parking, etc. The higher the number of companions, the lower the cost of the trip, as it is split among them.

A great challenge faced in big cities which interferes with the capability to travel through space fast is huge traffic. Carpooling applications allow simply and rapidly planning the routes for several passengers traveling in one vehicle. Thus, it reduces traffic congestion.

Long-distance roads can be fatiguing and stressful for drivers. Carpooling ensures the opportunity for trip participants to drive in turn, which is more convenient and less tiring.

Emissions of harmful gases are not completely eliminated but are significantly cut down. This is due to the fewer vehicles required for trips since travel fellows utilize a decreased number of vehicles. Besides, the significant issue of global warming is also partially overcome.

United trips are great for finding new friends and acquaintances. In today's individualistic and independence-oriented society, such an opportunity can be very valuable.

Some municipalities (e.g., in the U.S.) allow vehicles with passengers in the route lanes. Some enterprises even ensure special parking spaces. Moreover, from a collective perspective, it's simpler and faster to find a space for one vehicle than for several cars for all travelers.

You can call your trip a rideshare only if it meets the following criteria:

• Car owner doesn't provide taxi services—they'll start the trip whether they have companions or not.
• Car owner saves on fuel costs, they don't make money on the trip
• All passengers share a total ride cost

Sometimes drivers look for companions not to share costs but have a rest during long trips. Or just a person to chat with. In the first case, riders should have a driving license and be ready to replace the driver.

The main idea of ridesharing apps is to organize a group of people going to the same place. And the most convenient way is to connect drivers and riders via a mobile app like UberPool, Lyft’s Shared Rides, or BlaBlaCar.

Here’s how ridesharing apps work:

1. Request. Car owners specify where they’re going, where they'd like to pick up and drop off passengers, and when.
2. Booking. Passengers look through the list of trips, cars, and drivers' ratings, and book a ride.
3. Payment. Passengers pay in the app or in cash when they get in the car.
4. Rating. Riders rate the trip and leave their reviews.

If riders choose to pay via the app, the money goes to the drivers' bank or PayPal account.

Some great illustrations of already existing projects can inspire ride sharing app development. Let's consider the most popular solutions in this sector:

Released by Uber, uberPOOL is a great platform to share rides. Its prices are pretty competitive with other offerings, and given the number of drivers on the app, the users won't have a problem riding the standard fare most days.

UberPOOL, in contrast with taxis, makes costs a little more reasonable. In case you are traveling with a large company, the platform may serve as an easy-to-use method to split the payment among passengers. Undoubtedly, Uber is a huge market player in the carpooling market, yet, let's observe some more competitive solutions.

Lyft, the second-largest ride sharing app, provides trips in over 600 U.S. cities. The list comprises such huge metropolises as New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Striving to internationalize, Lyft currently supports 12 Canadian cities. The platform offers a wide diversity of vehicles, such as mid-sized cars and larger Lyft Plus cars. The scooters' adoption is also available in this app.

Apart from this, Lyft also offers a car-sharing service— Lyft Line, which enables you to split fares among participants.

BlaBlaCar is the world's largest international online ride-share search service. An international marketplace for searching vehicle companions with a user base of over 35 million. It was founded in 2006 in Paris, and nowadays, the marketplace is present in 22 countries, but every year the number is growing. The service was valued at $1.6 billion in January 2016. BlaBlaCar service is a platform for joint rides (carpooling) where drivers (private car owners) and passengers connect, communicate and schedule the trip in advance on a trip. The driver offers free seats in the vehicle, and passengers who need to reach the same destination book them. The passenger indicates the desired point of departure and destination, and then the service displays suitable offers from drivers. After the trip, users are able to leave public feedback about each other.

This Israeli ride-sharing app, formerly named as GetTaxi, is also full of advantageous opportunities. The service covers over 100 cities globally. In particular, we're talking about the United Kingdom and Israel. However, Gett has just finished its bounded operation within the United States. The main reason for it is compliance with regulation and a desire to reinvest in the corporate transportation sector. However, Gett users in the USA can still request travel via a partnership solution— Lyft, enabling clients to book Lyft cars through the Gett app. With this platform, clients can benefit from a diversity of transportation variants, covering both ordinary cabs and limousines.

The most potent stimulus is the pricing model. The company eliminated excess fares during peak hours of bustle.

This application belongs to the startup company Via. Its developers' main objective is to change the definition of urban transportation with an advanced digital passenger sharing platform. The company's mobile app allows uniting several travel fellows that need to get in the same direction, allowing them to use the same single vehicle.

Via algorithms match in real time multiple passengers going in the same final point and gather them in the same large SUV or van. The vehicle picks up passengers at a prearranged pickup point - a so-called virtual bus stop set up according to traffic conditions and demand.

This company is also aware of how to start a ride sharing business and make it on-demand. In essence, this app's operational principle is similar to Uber's and Lyft's— creating requests and connecting drivers and passengers to reach the final united destination. Nonetheless, the unique aspect of Curb lies in the fact that the service enables users to pre-schedule a route in some cities for $2. In case you know that it'll be necessary to order a car, you are able to set a time and place for the Curb driver to wait for your arrival. Besides, the price is fixed, so nobody will charge you for a larger amount of finances.

Curb also offers a Pair and Pay feature in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Miami, and Las Vegas, allowing you to pay through the app after entering the appropriate code for the cab you choose.

Now, if you’re going to create your own rideshare app and make money with it, you should choose a monetization model.

The most common are:

• Paid advertising (users see third-party ads in the app)
• Reservation/cancellation fees for riders (passengers pay a small booking fee to confirm their intentions)
• Transaction fees for drivers

BlaBlaCar makes money by collecting service fees per passenger (including VAT). For example, if the cost contribution is between £32–£35, passengers pay £5 to the platform.

We’re taking BlaBlaCar app as an example of a ridesharing app and reviewing its main features.

Unlike Uber, BlaBlaCar doesn’t have an app for riders and another one for drivers. Everything is done via the same platform by switching between rider-driver modes.

Most apps ask users to enter their email, phone number, and generate a password. And it’s a good idea to offer sign-ups or ins via Facebook, Twitter, or Google as it saves your users’ time.

As for the profiles, you don’t need to include tons of features. Especially if you're creating an MVP. Let users upload a photo, enter the name, phone, and car license numbers, add a payment method, and check their payment history.

Or you may opt for more complex functionality. BlaBlaCar lets users set preferences in their profiles (chattiness, smoking, music), and add car details—number plate, car make, model, type, color, the vehicle’s model year.

As well as view ratings left, booking history, edit money transfer methods (for drivers), and postal address.

While it’s not a must, ridesharing apps are more user-friendly with a chatting system to let riders and drivers communicate. For example, to agree on a pickup point or notify about delays.

Another thing is keeping users informed. SMS, push notifications, or emails should notify about ride confirmations, change of a ride status, or a payment sent to PayPal.

To book a seat, passengers need to enter their destination, pickup and drop off points, then choose a driver among those who offer a ride.

Riders always see the cost of the ride before they book it.

At the same time, drivers should be able to look through booking requests and manually accept or decline them. Or set the app to accept all requests automatically.

There’s also an option to book a ride for a few people, for example, if you’re travelling with family.

Another important feature is viewing users’ ratings, reviews, and preferences. That’s how passengers find out whether it’s a good idea to travel with this person, while drivers can look through rider’s preferences.

In case there are no suitable rides found, you may let passengers place alerts so that they will be notified as soon as a matching route is posted.

Passengers see the number of rides they’ve completed and their details—date, destination, car, payment details—in the ‘archived’ tab.

Create ride sharing app that allows users to see their ride history

BlaBlaCar has an option to look through the full ride plan with the date, destination, planned stops, the amount paid, etc.

If a driver creates a new ride, they need to choose the destination, pickup and drop off points, stopovers. Set the date and time they're ready to pick up passengers and available seats.

As we’ve said, drivers either let users book rides instantly or look through each request and manually approve it.

The app calculates the cost for each passenger based on their number and travel distance. Drivers either agree with it or edit the prices.

Here drivers choose how they prefer to be paid:

• Online. The app transfers money to PayPal or bank account.
• In cash. Riders pay in the car before or after the ride.

In ride sharing app development, GPS is used to detect someone's location. That's how drivers can set an exact pickup and drop off points, while riders can see their whole route.

While picking a trip, riders review trip information together with the route. They can zoom in for geographical details on a roadmap and move about with directional controls.

Most ridesharing services use Google Maps. The service offers mapping of routes entered by drivers and passengers, and allows to display maps of drivers’ routes.

The ridesharing platform should come with an admin panel capable of managing and monitoring the platform's work. It allows admins to manage users (search, block, check up an ID card), payments, reviews, reports, view statistics, etc.

Admin panels are typically web-based, so you’ll need to make sure your tech vendor provides web development services.

These were the most common features of ridesharing apps. Of course, they may differ from app to app, depending on your business and tech requirements.

The time and cost to create a rideshare app always depend on the functionality you want to include. For example, developers need 9 hours to create a simple login option combining email, phone, and password. But if you want to add sign-ins via Facebook, it's another 8 development hours.

In this part, we’re explaining how much car sharing app development costs. We’ll review the cost feature by feature, then calculate the total sum which includes planning, design, and testing. The rates here and below are $50/hour, which is the average software development rate in Central and Northern Europe.

Let’s start with registration and login features for iOS and Android. There’s a back end part that focuses on the functionality and logic of the app.

Next, the passenger mode for iOS and Android apps together with the back end part.

The driver’s mode (iOS, Android, and back end functionality).

And, finally, an admin panel to manage users, drivers, check users’ reviews and generate reports. Usually, it includes only the web version (front end and back end development).

So, we found out how much it costs to develop the features. But rideshare app developers aren’t the only people you require if you’re making the app from scratch.

You may need someone to estimate your requirements and turn them into a specification. Or maybe you want the app to stand out and have custom UI/UX design.

As well as there’s no way to skip quality assurance services to make sure the app is free of bugs and performance issues. Not talking about DevOps services.

And, finally, you need a Project Manager who oversees the whole processes, answers your questions, and reports to you.

The time of all these people costs some, so a more accurate estimate includes not only ‘feature by feature’ development time but a general calculation with design, PM, QA, and DevOps time.

Here’s how much rideshare app development may cost in total:

Please remember that the ride-sharing app development cost should be estimated individually, taking into account your project case and idea. The final amount of expenses depends on the functionality complexity, hiring option, developers' hourly rates, and the OS (operating system) you would like to design a solution for. Thus, please remember that the calculations provided in this article are approximate.

How to start a rideshare company and develop a brilliant solution for this? The following steps below indicate the successful solution architecture.

The first phase of every application architecture implies defining basic requirements concerning the app: the type of the application you want to make, its main purposes, your target audience, functionality and features to implement, whether you have a website, whether there will be integration with software products, etc. After collecting the information, the project roadmap is created.

You should employ a team of tech experts with proven competence to get the project done. To build a rideshare app from scratch, you need the following team:

• Business Analyst
• Project Manager
• UI/UX designer
• Android / iOS engineer
• Back-end developer
• QA engineer
• DevOps

When selecting hiring options, you basically have the three main ones within the mobile app development team partnership:

Freelancer

The most cost-efficient option, yet, the most unreliable one at the same time. You should verify the competence of such specialists yourself or hire an assistant to conduct an interview. Besides, you will have to deal with cultural gaps, time differences, and the obligatory prepayment, after which the hired freelancer may simply quit your project. This option is great for small tasks to fix some issues in the software product but not to build it from scratch.

In-house team

This implies gathering a team of experts, checking their hard and soft skills yourself, and assembling them in one office. The main advantage is excellent accessibility and partnership efficiency. However, the cost of this option is the highest, since you have to cover office rent, regular salaries (despite the scope of work done), hardware and software purchases, etc.

This variant is commonly adopted among large-scale, well-established enterprises. Support and maintenance are also easier since the team knows the app from within, so it'll be easier to deliver high-quality support, maintenance, and updating services.

Outsourcing company

Outsourcing stands for the project completion by an already gathered team of experts with proven in-depth competence in mobile app development. Within this option, you pay only for the work done and are free of regular payroll sending. The remote team assembles your requirements and schedules meetings to show you the progress at a convenient time for you. You aren't limited in your choice since it's an opportunity to hire any tech team all around the world. The most reasonable and adequate cost on the market is Northern and Central Europe, so we highly recommend starting your partner searching there.

To avoid idea and concept leakage and the safety and exclusivity of the entire project, we strongly suggest signing a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) prior to negotiating the app's details.

During this rideshare app development phase, tech experts plan the project fulfillment more precisely, outline appropriate tasks and tech instruments according to the desired functionality, etc.

To have the opportunity to observe how your application will perform and make edits (if necessary), you will receive a prototype from a team of designers. It stands for the layout of the interface elements of the application. The prototype can be static or interactive - with action buttons and transitions.

As it was mentioned before, you should make a design revision and accept it or ask for certain modifications.

During this stage, the functionality of the mobile app is implemented. Depending on the platform you've decided to build a software solution for, your development team should apply the appropriate set of tech tools. The approximate technology stack of a ridesharing app is the following:

• Kotlin for Android app
• Swift for iOS app
• Node.js for back-end
• Amazon EC2, cloud service
• Amazon S3, storage
• PayPal / Stripe, a payment system
• Twilio, notifications
• Elastic email, email notifications
• Socket.io, for real-time synchronization
• Google Maps
• Google Places
• Google Directions
• Card.io
• APNS
• Firebase
• Facebook SDK, for Facebook login

The above-mentioned list of technologies may differ depending on your business objectives, app features, and platforms.

QA experts perform manual as well as automated solution verification to detect bugs, operation failures and eliminate the issues in the launched app. If there are errors, the testing team hands over the product back to fix it and passes the final app to you.

Deployment refers to placing the application in the Google Play Market and App Store. The final product must comply with the platform's terms and regulations so that it is accepted and launched successfully.

The main tasks of the technical support of the mobile application:

• Receiving feedback from users, solving their difficulties
• Checking the performance of the application
• Updating for new devices and operating system versions.

Custom app development stands for the mobile application architecture, which is individually tailored to your specific requirements, demands, and business goals. Architected from scratch, this type of app is designed to satisfy the demands of a specific target audience which is beneficial for the business. The functionality is only limited by your team's competence, so you are able to implement any feature which isn't supported by more plain off-the-shelf solutions.

The prevalent number of successful products widely used on the market are designed from scratch. Yet, to expand the functionality, developers integrate APIs (application programming interfaces). Such third-party services are the mediators for the software solutions' connection and communication.

Potent security

Your app's protection from data leakage is the primary point for future product success. Architecting custom software enables developers to design a tailored security system to liquidate safety-related issues. In case the protection is weak and inefficient, it may result in substantial financial losses, lack of credibility, and the audience outflow.

Expanded designing opportunities

When choosing an off-the-shelf solution, you're likely to have a lot of trouble with the uniqueness of the design. As with functionality, the problem lies in the limitations of the particular template. In case you are wondering how to start a ride share company and make it successful, it's vital to understand that custom development helps you develop an original and stylish design concept, which is crucial for user experience.

High scalability

The bigger the scale of your business, the higher the workload becomes. Due to this fact, it's vital to provide for the rides sharing app's scalability. In contrast with off-the-shelf solutions, such an issue is effectively overcome by the custom software architecture. Therefore, the product will smoothly and productively perform all the user requests and will operate successfully even if the workload is extremely high.

Enhanced support

When applying an off-the-shelf app, you are bounded by third-party solution capabilities. Architecting the product from scratch implies extended management over the maintenance, updating, and support activities, which are done more rapidly and efficiently in case the app is "independent" and custom. Easier updating is also an efficient way to meet the dynamic user and market requirements and increase the delivered satisfaction rate.

Strong competitiveness

To become a well-established market player, it's significant for startups to develop custom apps since their functionality will become more unique, original, and outstanding for the audience. The broad spectrum of the application's capabilities is more engaging for the users. It enhances competitiveness not only of the startup but of the business of any scale on the market.

Any successful business owner strives to cut down financial investments yet receive a high-quality product and make it maximally profitable. Creating custom software requires higher expenses rather than off-the-shelf one. Nonetheless, the quality of an application will considerably decrease, as well as its security. To answer the question of how to start a rideshare company and recoup costs quickly, you should keep in mind that the custom approach will deliver a top-class app that will rapidly become profitable and demanded on the contrary to the ready-made solutions.

Cleveroad is a software development company with headquarters in Estonia delivering tech services to businesses of all scales. Our main focus is a custom solution architecture tailored to the demands of our clients. It provides competitive benefits to our partners and substantially streamlines the entire companies' workflow.

To prove our competence in the rideshare app developmet, let us introduce one of our successful projects. It’s MoveUp, a P2P ridesharing solution for people with special needs.

The target audience is as follows:

• People with disabilities
• People with special medical needs
• Riders with bulky items
• Regular clients

While the core functionality is similar to Uber or Lyft, we created a unique filtering system that’s more suitable for MoveUp users.

The system suggests drivers according to the user’s in-app preferences. This helps exclude cases when a matching driver has a car that doesn't suit specific user needs.