Doordash Clone is rising as a new method to reduce the food app development budget. It allows the entrepreneur to have a ready-made food app that helps them quickly enter the business. In this blog, you’ll find new ways to reduce food app development if you start from scratch.
Introduction
Because of their vast user audience, food delivery apps have been the most demanding online delivery services. By 2028, the projected revenue of the online food delivery app business will reach 535 billion dollars worldwide. However, an online food delivery service requires three interfaces, i.e., user, driver, and restaurant app, to start the on-demand services.
Food App Interfaces and Their Importance
Every online food delivery service requires a user, a driver, and a restaurant app to create a seamless delivery process. The development of these three apps forms the basis of the launch deadline and post-maintenance upgrades from time to time. Let’s understand each platform individually and learn about their development costs.
The User App
A user app helps the customer create an account, enter basic information, search for restaurants, place an order, make a payment, track the order, leave a review, and much more. Around 10–15 screens are designed along with the features that comprise the entire app’s functionality. As a result, an average user app costs around $35,000–$45,000 to build from scratch. Being one of the most important platforms, the development cost can reach up to USD 90,000.
Sometimes, too many features can cause the app to stop working. Therefore, many top food delivery companies often prefer the native app development approach, which is quite useful. Native programming languages, frameworks, and UI tools prevent the app from bloating with too many features. This method is solely used to increase functionality and scalability without affecting the app’s performance.
The Driver App
A driver app connects delivery partners with restaurants and users. With this interface’s help, drivers can accept orders and see food delivery details like the customer’s address, bill, etc. Moreover, they can see delivery history, manage their profile, and update documents accordingly.
The cost of developing a driver app is the same as that of the user app. However, it could cost a bit less since the number of features in the driver app is much smaller than in the user app. However, your driver app must have the navigation and maps API as a core feature for the driver to deliver food on time.
The Restaurant App
A restaurant app helps owners add their restaurant details, like menus and images, business hours, etc. Using this platform, they can streamline incoming food orders and see past ones. Moreover, they can also check how much commission they paid to the delivery platform.
As a result, an average restaurant app costs around $20,000–$30,000 to build from scratch. The cost is comparatively low because of the limited screens and features infused together. However, it plays a central role in the delivery process, informing the restaurant that an order has been placed.
Admin Panel: A Forth Wheel to Your Business Success
Business owners use the admin panel as a centralized control panel to oversee and manage various aspects of their food delivery business. It includes various dashboards and dedicated graphs representing many KPIs and metrics in one place. With the help of an admin panel, the food delivery business owner can manage:
- User accounts
- Restaurant listing
- Order processing
- Analytics and promotions
- Route and navigation
- Driver profiles
- Push notifications
- Payments
- Revenue streams
- Technical Assistance
- Report Generation
Although having such interfaces is paramount to the sustainability of the food delivery business, following a strict budget allows more room to market the app creatively. Therefore, look at key tips that could help you build a food app like Doordash Clone on a budget.
Launching A Food Delivery App On A Budget
From choosing the right platform to keeping the design simple, there are myriad ways to save money from the development end. However, allocating a limited cost to each interface and dividing the hours for feature integration can do wonders.
Therefore, depending on your needs, your development method must be practical and improvised. That is why you must prioritize the design of the blueprint before hiring professionals for it. Let’s understand this method to cut costs during your project’s app development and post-launch phase.
Say Yes To Native
Tackling the development of multiple apps at once will increase the time and cost, so you have to minimize such actions before they become a problem. With the help of a native approach, you can separate iOS and Android app development, each with its own codebase, to minimize the chances of rework.
Although it is the most time-consuming process, the results will live up to your expectations. In contrast, building a cross-platform food app using React Native or Flutter can be more cost-effective than the native approach. However, it could result in low app performance and a high chance of bugs and glitches.
Minimalism Is The Way To Go
Adding too many intricate design elements affects the functionality and increases the development timeline of the food delivery app. Therefore, removing anything that feels extra on the screen is important. Additionally, you can strive for the UI to become user-centric with scalability in mind that still meets the needs of your target audience.
Many entrepreneurs opt for pre-built templates, but if you hire a developer, you should design your app. Building a food delivery app that can easily scale with ever-growing users will save you money by reducing the need for major rewrites in the long run.
Hire Experienced Third-Party Developers
Research and evaluate third-party developers to ensure they meet your needs and help you save time and money on development while still providing robust functionality. Moreover, experienced developers can provide valuable insights and guidance without sacrificing quality.
Look for a place with a proven track record of building successful food delivery apps. To save time and money, they should also provide end-to-end services, from design to maintenance and updates. Today, most entrepreneurs opt for white-label firms, which are responsible for providing the entire set of apps in a pre-built solution.
Once bought, the white-labeling process starts and customizes the clone apps as per the requirements of the business by making certain changes in the source codes. Overall, the entire process is highly cost-effective and time-saving.
Plan For Updates And Maintenance
Launching an app is just the first step. Using a modular development approach, you’ll also need to plan for upcoming updates and maintenance. Here, individual features can be updated or replaced without affecting the entire app.
However, most custom app development firms offer year-round support after the launch to solve any bugs or glitches that arise. Therefore, it is up to you to choose in-house expertise to deal with updates or go with third-party developers who can provide ongoing support at a reasonable cost.
A Doordash Clone For Your Budget-Friendly Needs
If you plan to develop your food delivery app from scratch, prepare to create a budget of around $100,000 and maybe more, including the maintenance costs. But if you want to spend a fraction of the budget acquiring the same number of interfaces, you’ll need the support of a Doordash Clone. It offers features similar to those of the original Doordash app. Moreover, two user apps—driver apps, a restaurant app, and an admin panel—will be available within a package. Before buying them, you can test the demo thoroughly to ensure you get the real deal.
After that, you can provide your business details, like name, logo, color scheme, language, and currency, to start re-branding. You can even select the SMS and payment gateway as per your preferences. The entire white-labeling or re-branding process takes 1-2 weeks to complete. Your food delivery business will be able to enter the market way before your competition.
Conclusion
The food delivery app is a competitive industry, so you must have some unique features in your app that appeal to the user significantly more than others. Furthermore, developing an app is a significant decision. Every decision you make impacts the time and cost involved in the app development process. Therefore, from deciding the features to overlaying the APIs, the more transparent you make the development process, the more revenue will be generated for the business’s progress.