How Much Does It Cost To Build A Food-Ordering App Like GrubHub? The SunTec India Blog

How Much Does It Cost To Build A Food-Ordering App Like GrubHub?

food ordering app development like GrubHub

Technological innovations have enhanced almost every business sector today; right from taxi booking, grocery shopping to on-demand food ordering, it can be done quickly with an application. At present, food delivery apps have become a bonanza. You will easily see that every 3 out of 5 applications are food ordering applications over the app stores. They are trendier now, and why not? In today’s hectic life schedule, these apps work as a time and energy saviour. With just a few clicks, you can get your favourite food at your comfort place. GrubHub, Zomato, UberEATS, Swiggy are a few best food delivery apps that have made people’s life hassle-free.

Online food delivery app development have gained more momentum globally. If we look at the Online Food Ordering Statistics, it is completely jaw-dropping. According to Statsita:

Revenue in the Online Food Delivery segment is projected to reach USD151,526 million in 2021.
Revenue is expected to show an annual growth rate (CAGR 2021-2024) of 6.36%, resulting in a projected market volume of USD182,327 million by 2024.
The market’s largest segment is Platform-to-Consumer Delivery, with a projected market volume of US$79,608m in 2021.

Apart from these stats, here we have mentioned a few stats based on users activity using food delivery apps-

60% of the users from the U.S. order online food once a week.
35% of the users spend around $50 on a single order.
70% of users find online food delivery apps more convenient than dining out.
As compared to 2014, the online food ordering and delivery numbers are raised by 300%.
60% of the restaurant owners said online food delivery had increased their incremental sales.
In 2020, the food delivery mobile app witnessed a growth of USD38billion.

The rising demand for these On-demand food delivery apps has encouraged several food delivery companies to invest in them. But there are a few crucial questions which are usually in every business person’s mind, including-

What will be the key features of the online food delivery app?
What technologies will be used?
How much does it cost to build a food delivery app like GrubHub or Zomato?

If you are looking to develop a food delivery app like GrubHub, you need first to study its origin and business model. In this blog, we have covered the essential aspects of the prominent application GrubHub that helps you build an app similar to it.

What is GrubHub?

GrubHub is an American-based online food delivery app that delivers meals to customers at their doorsteps. The company was founded in 2004 in Chicago, US, by Michael Evans & Matt Maloney. GrubHub is one of the top food delivery apps in the United States that has expanded its roots in over 4,000 U.S. cities.

If we take a look at the company’s stats, then it has done wonders in terms of revenue-

In 2019, GrubHub generated revenue of USD 131 crores.
In 2020, it provided around USD 9bn in gross food sales to local takeout restaurants.
It raises more than 658,000 daily orders
It serves 31 million active diners with the help of 300,000 restaurants.

GrubHub Business Model:

GrubHub works on a standard business model covering all the essential aspects playing a vital role in its growth. Below we have mentioned a quick overview of GrubHub’s business model-

Key Partners:

Restaurant
Delivery Personnel

Customer segment:

Users- who want to get their favourite food right at their doorsteps.
Restaurants- who do not have their separate delivery partners and looking to expand their business reach.

Key Activities:

Online food order
Hiring delivery personnel
Logistics management
Payment management

Business Channels:

Website
Food delivery app for Android
Food delivery app for iOS

Revenue Generation:

Branding & Advertisements
Commissions with partnered restaurants

How does the GrubHub Application work?

The GrubHub applications work with a simple 4 step approach-

GrubHub Application work

Browse the restaurants- The application comes with several restaurants providing several food items. It lets users browse their favourite restaurants and choose their preferred food items. The app also provides features like categories, search, nearby dining that makes users search easy.
Choose the food item and Place the Order- After browsing the restaurant, users can select their items and add them to the cart. They can order their food online by completing the transaction.
Restaurant Get the Notification- After the order is placed, the restaurants will receive the notification and start preparing the food. When food is being prepared, the delivery person is assigned to the restaurants for the delivery.
Assigned Delivery Personnel- GrubHub assigned the delivery personnel to the restaurants; the person reaches the restaurant, picks the packed order, and delivers it to the end customer.

Critical Features for a food delivery app like GrubHub

After reviewing the business model, let’s discuss the most critical application factor that can make or break your online food delivery app, i.e., the application features.

Choosing the right set of features is an essential part of a food delivery app development. If you want to make your application a great success, you must consider the right features. Below, we have mentioned a list of critical features that would help you build a successful food delivery app like GrubHub.

An app like GrubHub is further divided into the following panels-

User Panel
Restaurant Panel
Delivery Panel
Admin Panel

User Panel Features:

Signup or Register: The foremost step to access the application is the registration process. Under this section, users must register an account with a few details, including name, number, address, email id, etc. After successful signup, users can later login into the app with their mail ids, or direct with their social media accounts.
Homepage: This feature will provide a list of the partnered restaurants, food items, beverages, etc.
Search: It allows users to browse their favorite restaurants and dishes from the lists.
Refined Search: It lets users make their search more compact such as budget, food category, selected restaurants, distance, etc.
Add to Cart: Under this feature, users can select their items and add them to their cart.
Address: With this feature, users can add their preferred address where they want to receive their order.
Payment: To avoid hassle-free payments, you can provide various payment options, including debit card, credit card, net banking, cash on delivery, etc.
Order History: This feature allows users to review their past orders, so if a user makes the same order as he/she did before, they can directly re-order it easily.
Offers and Discounts: This feature helps enhance users’ ordering experience and brings engagement to the platform.
Push notification: This feature provides the latest updates about the user’s ordered item or the newly arrived items in the food section.
Delivery Tracking: Users can track their delivery status and the person via this feature once the order is picked.

Restaurant Panel Features:

Dashboard: After registering an official account, the owners can keep an eye on the business activities like orders received, pending, payment status, etc.
Order Acceptance and Declination: Restaurant owners can accept or reject the order requests as per the availability of the food items.
Restaurant Account Management: The owner manages its restaurant account via this feature; they can add updates about any new item arrival, remove if not present, manage minimum order quantity, hours of operation, etc.
Payment Management: The owner can transfer the money into bank accounts and review the pending payment status.

Rider Panel features:

Login: The delivery personnel requires to register their account within the application.
Order Request: The delivery person will receive the notification about the order request with the complete details, including order id, customer name, and address; they can accept or reject it as per their availability in the particular area.
Order Delivery: Once the order is accepted, they will deliver the order to the customer location and complete the order.
Call/Chat: It allows delivery people to chat or call the customers to communicate better.
Payment Updates: The delivery person will get the updates about the payment that it has already paid or received in cash.
GPS Tracking: It lets the delivery person track the customer’s location precisely.
Transaction History: The delivery boy can check the past transactions and see their total income based on week, month, or yearly in just a click.
Google Map Navigation: It helps delivery people view the customer’s address on the map and quickly navigate the designation.

Some of the advanced features to be included:

Coupon and Vouchers for more discount
Referral rewards
Real-time Analytics
A.I. Chatbot
Social media sharing
Advanced table bookings in restaurants
Check out what nearby friends are ordering.

Moving on, the last but another most critical part before building a food delivery app like GrubHub is the cost required.

How Much Does GrubHub App Cost?

The cost to develop a food delivery app like GrubHub varies for many reasons. This section has mentioned a few factors that have affected the food delivery app development cost.

1. App Platform

The app platform is a crucial factor to consider before starting the app development process. The development platform can be Android, iOS, Windows depending upon your requirements. It is essential to choose it before, as it affects the app budget to a great extent. If we compare the platform costing among Android or iOS, Android is more economical than iOS.

2. App Design

Turning visitors into potential buyers is the ultimate goal of every business, and the designing of an application plays a vital role in it. A user-friendly and interactive app design will lead to customer engagement and loyalty. If you plan to create engaging designs like GrubHub or other food delivery apps, it will require the latest tools, tech stacks, logos, icons, user interface, and more, leading to a rise in the app’s building cost.

3. Technology Stack

A highly functional food ordering app requires advanced technologies and tool stacks. The selection of programming languages, payment gateways, and other elements affects the app development cost. The more tech stacks you add to your application, the more it will raise your app costs.

4. App Features

App features are the key elements to be considered, as they can make or break your app market within seconds. Applications can be created in two modes, one with essential features and the other with advanced ones. Adding extra features to the mobile application will significantly increase the cost.

5. Tools and Frameworks

The tools and frameworks of a mobile app are a potential factor to be considered. The selection of business tools, frameworks like React Native, Laravel, Programming languages, database, etc., are essential to creating a functional application. Depending on the choice, these elements may add or less the cost of development.

6. Mobile App development Team

To create an engaging application, you require to hire dedicated mobile app developers. The team includes the Project Manager, UI/UX designers, backend developers, Quality Analysts, Android developers, iOS developers, testers, and delivery manager. The cost of an application varies according to the size and geographical region of the companies. E.g. in the US, the price to create a food ordering app is $50 – $250 per hour, and in India, it lies between $10-$80 per hour.

The development cost varies according to the regions and payment patterns. In some of the countries, developers charge per hour prices while some work on a proper budget. For example: In the U.S., to build a food delivery app like GrubHub, the developers charge USD 50-USD 250 per hour, whereas, in India, the prices are less.

To get an exact budget estimate for creating an online food ordering app, we would advise you to hire a professional food delivery app development company. The company’s experts will help you with the best pricing solutions and provide you with the best food ordering app development solutions.

Closing thoughts:

Indeed, this is a long read, but we are confident that it helps you with your idea of building an online food ordering application. It takes your business to new heights and puts extra stars in your revenue graphs. To turn your idea into a winning reality, hire dedicated developers from Suntec, we are a leading mobile app development service provider who can create robust on-demand mobile applications with their innovation and creativity.

We are providing a wide range of mobile app development services including iPhone application development services, Android app development, cross-platform development, and more. Hire indian software developers from SuntecIndia and turn your application dream into a beautiful functional reality.

Also Check Our Related Articles:

The SunTec India Blog

Brought to you by the Marketing & Communications Team at SunTec India. We love sharing interesting stories and informed opinions about data, eCommerce, digital marketing and analytics, app development and other technological advancements.