How much does it cost to build an app like DoorDash?

There is a way for customers to enjoy their favorite food and beverage without actually leaving their home and that is by ordering food online with mobile apps like DoorDash and UberEats.

Even amidst the pandemic and market slowdown, the food delivery app market managed to cross $30 billion in the US.

The current online food delivery segment is projected to reach $323.30 billion by the end of 2022 along with the average revenue per user amounting to $178.90. This clearly exhibits that the audience likes the concept of ordering food from the comfort of their homes, which is why the food delivery applications never run out of business.

Speaking of successful food delivery apps, DoorDash has shelved the top rank in the on-demand food delivery application development market. The revenue source and business growth of DoorDash has made businesses wonder “how much does it cost to build an app like DoorDash?”

Well, certain factors could lead your food delivery app development cost anywhere from $25,000 to $100,000 or even more. However, to get an estimation of food delivery app development cost, you would need a thorough understanding of various criteria.

Also read: How much does restaurant app development cost? and

How much does On-demand food delivery app development cost?

Now, If you are ready to discover the development cost of an app like DoorDash, this article gives you a complete understanding of all such criteria including must-have features in your food delivery app, factors that impact your app development budget and cost to develop a food delivery app like DoorDash.

How about we begin with a quick overview of the current DoorDash food delivery app market standing?

Current Statistics on DoorDash Food Delivery App

• DoorDash is among the top on-demand food delivery apps in the US.
• Making an exclusive skip from $850 million to $2.9 billion, DoorDash app witnessed a hike of 241% in the past two years.
• DoorDash currently stands at the market share of $5 billion with more than 25 million users worldwide.
• As per the survey of Edison Trends, the DoorDash app has the holding of 45% of the entire US food delivery market.

Another interesting fact is that 2021 has been the third consecutive year where online food sales have outdone offline sales. Moreover, by the end of 2023, the food delivery app market is predicted to generate the revenue of $154.34 billion, a figure that outpaces all numbers.

These numbers suggest that DoorDash is the perfect food delivery app to follow if you need an online food delivery app business model to start from scratch.

Now, let’s see the working model of the DoorDash app.

How Does DoorDash Food Delivery App Work?

Here’s what all you need to know about DoorDash:

The DoorDash app lets its users order their desired food from a variety of nearby available restaurants and plays a vital role in connecting consumers with food vendors. This online food delivery app can be used by three ends;

1. Consumer end
2. Restaurant end
3. Delivery end

DoorDash calls its delivery people “The Dashers”. The popularity of this app resonates with its superior features and functionalities. A food delivery app like DoorDash benefits the restaurant owners by cutting their cost down for delivery, generating employment opportunities for dashers and providing food at consumer’s convenience.

Why else do people prefer food delivery app services like DoorDash?

• It takes significantly less time to order something than by going out or calling in
• People can pay for the food order however they want – cash, card, net banking, in-app wallet, etc
• Gets order delivered right to the doorstep
• People get to use online coupons and discounts

While this business model works great with consumers, how does this impact the restaurant and delivery end?

• DoorDash procures its own delivery drivers that charge $5-$8 per arrangement.
• If you create an app like DoorDash, you (restaurant business) would be able to secure nearly 20% of the commission per order.
• Typically, food delivery apps like DoorDash function in more than 20 advertisements crosswise over the US, estimating great revenue sustainability for your business.
• Not to mention that the Dashers make more than $600 annually with the food delivery arrangements.

DoorDash is successful and popular not just through a secure business model, but with the engaging features that hold the customers back. Moreover, the features contribute to the final app development cost of your food delivery app. So overview the essential features of a food delivery app like DoorDash.

Must Have Features in Your DoorDash Like Food Delivery App

Here, the features are aggregated into three categories: Dasher Panel, Restaurant Panel and the Customer Panel. Since each panel’s requirement for features is different, we will discover every panel separately.

Restaurant Panel

The restaurant panel feature typically centers around usability of customers, tracking the delivery partner and receiving payments.

You might also want to look at , “Features to consider when building a restaurant search app”.

Here’s a list of the top features to be included in the restaurant panel of your food delivery app:

• Payment Integration
• Live tracking system 
• Consumer’s profile
• Managing order
• Reviews and ratings of restaurant
• Menu and food catalog
• Dasher status
• Record of previous orders
• Daily analytics
• Push notifications

For reference, Discover how Appinventiv refined the restaurant panel interface for Dominos and increased its conversion rate to 23%.

Cost for Restaurant Panel- The cost induced for developing a panel for restaurants is usually more than $10,000 for each platform and $13,000 for cross platform.

Dasher Panel

The features of the Dasher panel must center around the delivery man’s usability. Therefore, ensure that your food delivery app development team includes features that make tracking deliveries and receiving payments easier. The dasher panel in your food delivery app must consist of following features:

• Location of restaurant and customer
• Payment method opted by customer
• Review and rating section for delivery partner
• Order delivery real time status

For reference, Discover how Appinventiv designed a comprehensive and customized order management system for KFC, making it the no.1 ranking app on the Play Store.

Cost of Dasher/admin panel : The cost of developing an app like DoorDash for an admin panel starts from $12,000 for a single platform and reaches up to $16,000 for cross platform app development.

Customer Panel

Every food delivery service customer is going to use your app with a different objective and might expect different features in return. The first and foremost priority while designing the customer panel must be the engaged and personalized, easy-to-use interface.

For reference, check out how Appinventiv transformed Pizza Hut’s UX/UI, increasing its mobile app conversion rate to 30%.

Here are a few must have features to include in the consumer panel of your food delivery app:

• Search bar
• Order history
• Restaurant suggestions
• Transaction methods
• Real time order tracking
• Customer support

You can also add modern features such as restaurant video suggestions, food catalog with its calorie intake and integration with wearable devices etc. to make your food delivery app trending and engaging.

Cost for customer panel : The cost for designing a customer app panel for a single platform starts from $10,000 while the cost of developing a cross-platform customer app panel starts from $12,000.

Want to know the average doordash like app development cost based on above features?

Here it is:

You might also want to look at other factors that impact the development cost of an app like DoorDash.

Factors That Impact The DoorDash Like App Development Cost

Food delivery app development like DoorDash has critical stages along with business requirements of either a simple, complex or medium complex food delivery app. Again, the choice of the development platform, functionalities, technology stack and design highly impact your food delivery app development cost.

The cost of developing a food delivery app like DoorDash is based on the below factors:

• Location of your app development agency
• App design
• Level of app features
• App platform you choose (Android/iOS/Hybrid)
• Type of app development: Clone or custom app development

All these factors could lead your food delivery app development cost anywhere from $25,000 to $100,000 or even more.

For a detailed discussion, the top three factors that create a high influence in developing food delivery app like DoorDash  are:

Development Team

First things first, outsourcing your app development team is always going to cost you less with timely and successful delivery. While each food delivery development company has a different pricing strategy, choose the one with a reliable and experienced portfolio. Here, the experts suggest choosing quality over quantity.

UI/UX Design

Choosing the right design is the most important aspect of your food delivery app development. For this, you might need to contemplate your customer’s point of view and offer an intuitive and convenient design interface to your users. The more advanced and simpler interface offers high prices.

Also Read: Proven tips to enhance your mobile app design and improving your UI 

App Platform

Android vs iOS is a question you cannot avoid while choosing the appropriate app development platform for your food delivery app. You may also opt to develop your food delivery app on both the platforms making it a cross platform application, however, keeping in mind that this may result in higher development cost.

Also Read: Unveiling the taste of success in food delivery app development – 3 business case studies

How Much Does It Cost To Develop a Food Delivery App Like DoorDash?

App development time and cost based on app complexity and development team factor:

A reliable food delivery app development company can help you with business analysis, understanding the app requirements, setting up the target audience, app development, app design with complete user interface, app launch, and extending the services to maintenance.

[Also Read: How to start your own food delivery business in 2023?]

DoorDash Business Model Canvas

The business model canvas is a strategic management tool that outlines the key components of a business. For DoorDash, this canvas highlights the essential elements that drive its operations, revenue generation, and customer satisfaction.

By effectively following these components into its business practices, DoorDash not only addresses the needs of its customers and partners but also positions itself as a leading player in the competitive food delivery market.

Below is a visual representation of the key components of DoorDash’s business model:

Now that you have an in-depth idea of DoorDash’s business model, let’s explore its revenue models and how the platform makes money.

DoorDash Revenue Model

The revenue model for a business like DoorDash, whether a startup or an established company, requires strategic planning. This is essential to cover operational costs and generate profit. If you are wondering how DoorDash makes money, here’s a quick look at the various revenue streams within its model.

How Does DoorDash Make Money?

Commission—DoorDash charges a commission from restaurants on each order placed through its platform. Typically, this fee is around 20%, allowing DoorDash to earn a steady income as users choose from various restaurant options.

Advertisement—Any restaurant that wishes to advertise itself on the DoorDash app has to pay to be ranked in one of the top places. This is done to increase the restaurants’ visibility and earn more customers. DoorDash charges for this placement.

Delivery Fee – The delivery fee is another source of income for DoorDash. The amount is decided during the payment process, depending on the distance from the pickup to the delivery point. Usually, the delivery fee ranges from $5 to $8.

DashPass Subscription—In addition to earning money from delivery fees, DoorDash offers a subscription service called DashPass. For a monthly fee of $9.99, DoorDash subscribers get reduced service fees on all orders above $12. This is an important revenue stream for DoorDash, as it helps increase customer loyalty.

Corporate Catering—DoorDash also makes money through its corporate catering service. It is designed for businesses that want to place group orders for their employees. The prices for corporate catering are typically lower than the prices for individual orders, which helps Doordah attract more customers.

Channels—DoorDash pickup operates through an online website, www.doordash.com, and most of its networking is done via this website. This website can also be used to order food and track delivery packages.

How Can Appinventiv Help You With Food Delivery App Development?

Appinventiv is a leading food delivery app development company known for hand-crafted restaurant and food delivery mobile app development solutions that make dining easy and food delivery efficient. No matter how you are looking to innovate the food and restaurant industry, the expert team at Appinventiv plates up a variety of restaurant solutions to help you serve your diners better.

We specialize in serving your customers with online food ordering, digital food menu, online payments and much more through our responsive restaurant mobile app solutions. Our variety of mobile application development services include:

• Restaurant finder app development
• Food delivery app development
• Food ordering app development
• Inventory management solutions development
• Restaurant PoS software development and so much more

Consult our top experts to get started with your app today.

FAQs

Q. What is DoorDash, and how does it work?
A. Doordash is a food delivery app. It contains a list of restaurants and their menus, which users can choose from. Once the user has made their choice and has selected a payment mode, the door dashers—the delivery team of Doordash—make it available to them.
Q. What is the cost of food delivery app development like DoorDash?
A. The cost of developing a food delivery app like DoorDash ranges from $30,000 to $300,000 or more, depending on various factors, including the app’s complexity, feature list, tech stack used, UI/UX design, and the development team’s location.
Discuss your project idea with us to get a detailed quotation tailored to your needs.
Q. How much time does it take to build a food delivery app like DoorDash?
A. The timeline for developing a food delivery app like DoorDash varies based on several factors, such as the app’s complexity, the expertise of the development team, the tech stack used, and so on.
On average, building a food delivery app like DoorDash takes between 4 months to 1 year or more.
Contact us to get a more accurate timeline for food delivery app development like DoorDash.

THE AUTHOR

Prateek Saxena

DIRECTOR & CO-FOUNDER