How to Develop a Food Delivery App Like Deliveroo? – Cost & Features

Food delivery services are one of the concepts that just appeared in the market to change the landscape forever. Whether it is the busy lifestyle of the people or their hygiene preferences, home delivery of food from apps like Deliveroo, DoorDash, or Zomato has been immensely accepted by users. So, partnering with a food delivery app development company to develop an app like Deliveroo can be a great business idea.

According to IMARC Group, the global online food market was valued at $134.9 billion in 2023. It is expected to grow at a CAGR of 9.7% to reach $317.7 billion by 2032. So, building a food delivery mobile app with all the necessary features and connecting restaurants to users can bring a great fortune to your doorstep if managed well.

If you are also planning to build a food delivery app like Deliveroo but have many questions about custom mobile app development services, you have landed in the right place. In this blog, we will explain everything about food delivery mobile app development, the process of development, estimated costs, and much more.

What is Deliveroo?

Deliveroo is a digital platform that connects hungry pals to nearby and famous restaurants, provides access to their menu, selects the dishes, makes payment, and gets the food delivered to their doorsteps within minutes. It requires a range of features to develop a food delivery app like Deliveroo. It includes the right APIs, registration of the restaurants, admin panel, user panel, restaurant panel, delivery partner panel, navigation system, payment gateways, carts, and much more.

While Deliveroo doesn’t own any of the restaurants, it serves as a medium where customers and restaurants can find each other, provide relevant services, and help save time for customers and generate revenue for restaurants and delivery partners. Deliveroo has been downloaded by more than 100M users from the Play Store with a similar numeral on the iOS app store.

Market Analysis of Food Delivery Apps like Deliveroo

Factors talk louder than words. So, let’s have a glance over the food delivery market and the relevant statistics that will help you understand the giantness of the industry –

• The revenue growth rate in the grocery delivery market (a part of food delivery services) is expected to increase to 20% in 2025.
• China alone is generating a revenue of $450.5 billion in the online food delivery sector in 2024.
• The meal delivery market around the world is expected to be serving over 2.5 billion users by 2029.
• The meal delivery market is anticipated to maintain a user penetration rate of 26.6% in 2024.

So, there is a big room for creative and innovative minds to enter the market, provide quality services, and earn a fortune before the competition rises to insane.

Top 5 Food Delivery Apps Like Deliveroo

Market research also includes knowing the names of dominating players who are leading the market. The food delivery giants like Deliveroo carry some of the features that make them different from most of the unknown platforms. This kind of market research helps significantly when planning to build an app like Deliveroo.

1. DoorDash

When talking about the food delivery apps like Deliveroo, DoorDash is the only deserving name to be called in the first place. This is a USA-based online food delivery company with a market share of 56% in the food delivery landscape. The company reigns 60% of the total market share of the delivery service category in the USA. The services of the company are available in over 300 cities while covering 32 different markets.

When ordering the food from DoorDash, the customers can access the live tracking of their order along with the estimated time of delivery. There are a range of innovative and unique features in DoorDash that can inspire one looking to create an app like Deliveroo. You might be interested to read an ultimate guide on how to make an app like DoorDash.

Key Features of DoorDash

• Real-time Tracking
• Dual Rating
• AI-powered Recommendations
• Audience Segmentation
• Machine Learning
• Data Analytics
• Filter Navigation

2. Glovo

Glovo is another dominating food delivery platform that enables users to order a variety of things like groceries, food, and alcohol. The platform was founded in 2015 with services like purchasing, delivering, and picking up the products. While the company doesn’t own any of the physical stores, restaurants, or warehouses, it connects the product providers to the seekers while securing the intermediator commission from the process.

With over 3.5 million users, the company is providing food delivery services in 20+ countries around the world.

Key Features of Glovo

• On-demand Delivery
• Real-time Tracking
• Secure and Multiple Payment Options
• 24/7 Ordering
• Rate and Reviews
• Store Registration
• Independent Couriers
• Flexible Working Hours

3. Zomato

Zomato is one of the most used food delivery apps in Asia which was originally founded by Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah in 2008. The headquarters of Zomato is situated in Gurugram, India, while the footprints of the firm can be found in 24 different countries. Along with the food delivery services, there are a range of other features in Zomato that you might find useful to create an app like Deliveroo.

The app has 100M+ downloads on the Google Play Store alone while a similar number of downloads are observed in iOS App Store. The easy-to-use interface of Zomato makes it one of the most preferred food delivery apps in India.

Key Features of Zomato

• Delivery Tracking
• Order Placement
• Consumer Information
• Push Notification
• Digital Payment Options
• Table Booking
• Social Media Integration
• Menu Display

4. Seamless

Seamless is a food delivery app powered by GrubHub that works to satisfy the cravings of hungry pals by delivering delicious food in no time. The app has enabled restaurants around the world to keep their operations open even during the pandemic. At the same time, the users can also find big discounts and offers on online food delivery at Seamless to make the food even more affordable to them.

The app is majorly focused on connecting the local restaurants to local users only. There are 1M+ downloads of Seamless on Google Play Store. Here is an ultimate guide on How to build an app like Talabat.

Key Features of Seamless

• Thousands of Restaurants
• Grocery Delivery
• Low Upfront Fee
• Skip Delivery Fee
• Real-Time Tracking
• Orders from National Restaurants

5. Swiggy

Similar to Zomato, Swiggy is also an India-based food delivery company that works on connecting customers to restaurants. The core competency of the company is that there is no minimum order size bar as the customers can order from smallest to giant meals. Also, Swiggy comes with Instamart which is a separate store for grocery delivery within 10 minutes. Swiggy Genie is another service that enables users to send their package within the city at the lowest charges.

The membership programs offered by the company provide further benefits and discounts to the customers. There are 16M+ monthly transacting users of Swiggy around the world.

Key Features of Swiggy

• Voice Search
• Generative AI
• Live Activity
• International Logins
• Easy User Registration
• Search and Filter Options
• Track Order

Key Steps to Develop a Food Delivery App Like Deliveroo

The leading food delivery app development companies have a standardized process for creating an app like Deliveroo. While the minor factors and tasks might vary from company to company, the overall phases and deliverables of the projects remain the same. Here is a glance into the ideal process and key steps to build an app like Deliveroo:

1. Market Research

Before putting both feet in the water, it is important to know the depth. So, market research is our foremost approach toward understanding the market size, opportunities for newcomers, current challenges, competitors, market trends, and much more. This research helps us significantly to make the right decisions and shape the new digital product accordingly.

2. Project Assessment

This is the collaborative stage between the stakeholders where our development team holds direct communication with the clients. In this stage, the important decisions to develop an app like Deliveroo are taken. It includes feature identification, resource allocation, a timeline of the project, the cost of making an app like Deliveroo, and much more.

3. Prototype

As soon as all the decisions have been taken mutually and resources have been allocated, our team of app designers starts building a prototype of the application to deliver it to the client. The prototype gives a complete idea about the colors, themes, interface, features, and navigation of the application. It helps the client to provide feedback and ask for changes.

4. Core Development

The very next phase is core development where the development team starts using the finalized technology stack to create an app like Deliveroo. It includes building the front end, back end, APIs, integrations, and much more. The development phase brings features and navigation to life by connecting the backend to the frontend architecture.

5. Quality Analysis

As the name goes, this phase is entirely dedicated to assessing the quality of the project and surfacing the best version of the software. For the same, we conduct a series of tests like performance testing, manual testing, automated testing, unit testing, feature testing, and much more.

6. Deployment

This is officially the last stage of Deliveroo-like app development. Once all the tests have been conducted and the expected quality of the digital product has been achieved, the development team deploys it to the respective app platform. It includes the Google Play Store, Apple App Store, Amazon App Store, and much more.

7. Maintenance and Support

This is an ongoing phase of custom mobile app development services where the development team ensures the seamless functionalities of the app. The bugs are removed as identified, new updates are provided, new features are added, and assistance to the users is provided in this stage.

Top 10 Features to Build an App Like Deliveroo

Among the plethora of online food delivery apps roaming around the market, you need to develop a food delivery app like Deliveroo that carries some exceptional features. The only differentiating factors that you can take advantage of and attract the audience to your platform are the features and functionalities of the app. Here is the list of the top 10 features that you should never miss while developing a food delivery app:

1. Seamless UI and UX

To develop an app like Deliveroo, you must make sure that the user interface of the application is smooth and easy to use by different types of target audiences. It enables users from non-technical backgrounds to leverage the services of the platform and thus adds to your user base.

2. Real-Time Tracking

This feature is provided by most leading food delivery platforms. With these functionalities, users and delivery partners can check the real-time status of the order. It informs about the time of delivery pickup, food preparation, location of the delivery partner, payment details, and everything that the user needs to know before the product is delivered.

3. Easy Restaurant Listing

This is the feature that enables the restaurants to easily register and list their name on the platform. The process also includes providing all the relevant information like menu, indoor sitting infrastructure, location, cuisine, photos of the restaurant, and much more. The in-depth information about the restaurant helps to bring in more customers and generate revenue.

4. Secure Payment Options

Users can pay for their food using Internet banking or cards to avoid cash payments. This also assures the restaurants and delivery partners about the confirmation of the order. So, it is important to impart a secure payment gateway when you create an app like Deliveroo. It will bring the reliability of all the stakeholders on the app to make the monetary transactions.

5. Rating and Review System

Rating and review system is one of the best features that helps to rate the restaurant, delivery partner, and the user according to their behavior. So, the customers can easily assess the review and rating section to get an idea about the taste, hygiene, and delivery time. Similarly, if the delivery partner is conducting any misconduct, users and restaurants can give reviews.

6. Personalized Recommendations

This is a smart feature that you can impart to develop a food delivery app like Deliveroo. This feature assesses the customer behavior over the days and thus provides the smart recommendation during meal time that they might prefer to order. By doing so, the chances that customers will order something increases. At the same time, it also helps the customer to decide what they want to eat.

7. Premium Membership

This is one of the must-have features to ensure during Deliveroo-like app development. First of all, it helps to facilitate a monetization model that enables the app owner to get a return on investment. Moving ahead, the premium membership option provides additional benefits to the customers which ultimately leads to user retention. The benefits include discounts, free delivery, fast delivery, etc.

8. Offers & Discounts

Offers and discounts are the features that interest users most. For example, you can offer discounts on food delivery to new customers or to users who frequently order food. Moreover, the premium membership orders can unlock new vouchers and discount offers to claim during food ordering.

9. Multi-platform Compatibility

Food delivery services are very general and thus there is a pool of audience that you can target. So, it is important that your online food delivery app is available on different operating systems like Apple App Store, Google Play Store, Amazon App Store, and other app marketplaces. It will make your mobile app accessible to a larger audience base.

10. Add Favorites

This is the feature that helps the users to make a list of their favorite restaurants. It enables the users to find the restaurants easily and order the food without scrolling through the number of names.

The Cost to Develop an App Like Deliveroo

The cost to make an app like Deliveroo depends on a range of factors and thus giving a certain figure might not help anyone. There are different types of food delivery apps with their particular features and core competencies. So, the cost of developing a food delivery app also varies highly. Generally, a basic food delivery app can be developed between the price range of $10,000-$30,000. However, if you want to see the advanced features of Deliveroo-like app development, the cost will range between $30,000-$50,000.

So, instead of sticking to a random number, it is a better idea to discuss factors that will help you determine the cost of making an app like Deliveroo:

1. Features in Food Delivery App

The foremost and the biggest factor determining the cost of app development is the features of the food delivery app. Among the plenty of food delivery apps like Deliveroo, only features can help you to differentiate your product in the food delivery industry. However, it is important to remember that more advanced features will lead to significant cost increases during app development. While it is not advisable to compromise with the features and functionalities of the app for some dollar, you must be very conscious about the types of features you choose for your food delivery app solution.

2. App Design

Every digital product has a user interface and design of its own, designed according to the theme of industry and branding of the client. However, if the client prefers a custom user interface and app design, it certainly leads to additional development costs. The app wireframe and prototype play an important part in determining the cost of developing an app like Deliveroo.

3. Development Platform

You can build an app like Deliveroo for several platforms like Android, iOS, Windows, etc. However, you must choose the platform only after a thorough analysis of the target audience. For example, if you are targeting only the USA, it will be a good idea to build an iPhone app. In the case of Asia, Android will be a better option. Talking about the cost, it is generally expensive to develop an app like Deliveroo for iOS as compared to Android. The NineHertz Provides iOS app development services as well as custom android app development.

4. Third-Party Integration

To bring some of the functionalities into your food delivery app, you might need to integrate some of the third-party supports and APIs. While some of the integrations can be carried out free of cost, there are many paid APIs that you might have to integrate. So, the number and types of third-party integrations that you carry out during Deliveroo-like app development will also influence your app development cost.

5. Timeline of the Project

You can hire the app development team on an hourly basis so that you only pay for the hours they work on your project. In such hiring models, the development cost is highly influenced by the project’s timeline. The longer it takes to develop an app like Deliveroo, the higher will be the overall development cost.

6. Maintenance and Support

The mobile apps require continuous maintenance and support to ensure a smoother user experience and solve the bugs as identified by the users. However, you have to pay the periodic fee to food delivery app development companies to opt for their maintenance services.

7. Location of Developers

This is the biggest yet underestimated factor that influences the cost of building a food delivery app like Deliveroo. Hiring a food delivery app development team from Western or European countries like the USA, UK, Australia, etc., will cost you twice as much as hiring a team from mobile app development company India.

5 Best Tech Stack to Develop a Food Delivery App Like Deliveroo

The technology stack is the food delivery app architecture that makes the software functional and connects the back end to the front end. So, if you want to create an app like Deliveroo that consists of advanced features and can support a mass audience on its platform, you will have to impart a strong technology stack. Here is the list of the 5 best technology stack choices that will help your software to give strong back support:

• Application & Data – Python, Ruby, Aurora, Redis, etc.
• Payment Gateway – PayPal, Stripe, Braintree
• Push Notification – Amazon SNS, Urban Airship
• Cloud Technology – Amazon Web Services, Azure
• Business Tools – Jira, G Suite, Slack

Monetization Techniques for a Food Delivery App Like Deliveroo

Monetization techniques also known as monetization models or monetization strategies, are the ways that help the owners to earn money and generate revenue from the software. Here are some of the best monetization techniques to create an app like Deliveroo and get a good return on your investment:

1. Subscription Plans

This is a popular monetization technique that allows users and restaurants to pay a periodic fee to continue enjoying the services. The subscription amount is generally paid in the form of weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annually. As soon as the subscription expires, the user will not be able to enjoy the features.

2. Advertising

This is one of the best and highest revenue-generating models for a food delivery app. With this monetization model, you can provide space for third-party businesses to display their advertisements on your platform. However, your platform must have a broad audience base so that you can ask for a good fee for advertising.

3. Freemium Model

As the name suggests, this is a free+premium model that allows the users to use the services for free as well as get paid features. While you can leverage all the basic features for free, there is a paid version that you can use to access the advanced features. For example, having the premium model will allow you to get free delivery.

4. Delivery Fees

This is another monetization model that you can use to earn money from your app. With this model, you can charge a certain delivery fee for each order. While a certain portion will be paid by the user, another part can be paid by the restaurant end. By sharing the part with the delivery partner, you can keep the rest with you.

5. Collaboration and Partnership

This monetization model motivates the food delivery app to partner with certain restaurants and food outlets in particular food categories. So, as soon as someone searches for a particular dish on the mobile app, the partner restaurant will be listed at the first position, which ultimately increases their chances of getting the order. For this collaboration, you can charge a good amount from the restaurant owner.

How Will The NineHertz Help You in Food Delivery App Development?

The NineHertz is one of the best mobile app development companies in USA that enable users to create an app like Deliveroo from scratch. Our team of on demand app development services assesses the market conditions and client requirements to create custom food delivery apps. We provide ample maintenance and support to the clients that help them keep the app smoothly functional.

At the same time, we conduct a series of quality tests like speed testing, feature testing, functional testing, performance testing, unit testing, manual testing, automated testing, and much more that help to bring the best version of the software to the forefront. The NineHertz works with particular industrial experts that help to understand the requirements of clients coming from a specific industry and thus help them fill the gap and perform better. We provide free consultation to anyone looking to develop a digital product, help them select the best and most important features, and thus lead to a cost-efficient app development process.

Also Read:

How to Build an App Like TaskRabbit

How To Make an App Like Airbnb

How to Create an App Like Amazon

Conclusion on Developing an App Like Deliveroo

The food delivery industry is burgeoning significantly at the present time with more and more users shifting to the concept of online food for better convenience and saving time. In such a scenario, it can be a great business idea to invest in the industry by building a cutting-edge food delivery app like Deliveroo. By integrating the right features and functionalities into the application, one can easily retain a broad audience base and earn a good return on investment.

So, if you are also planning to create a food delivery app like Deliveroo, connect with The NineHertz and get a free consultation call. Get the right guidance for your project, take the right decisions, and step up into the growing market.

FAQs on Creating an App Like Deliveroo

Q1. How Much Does it Cost to Develop an App Like Deliveroo?

The cost to develop an app like Deliveroo depends on a range of factors like the complexity of the app, number and type of features, location of app development, technology stack, third-party integrations, and much more. However, the general cost to build an app like Deliveroo falls anywhere between $10,000-$50,000.

Q2. How Long Does it Take to Develop a Food Delivery App Like Deliveroo?

Similar to the cost of making an app like Deliveroo, the timeline of the project also depends on different factors. For example, if you are building an app with a lot of features and complexities, it will comparatively take longer. Similarly, if there are fewer team members for development, the project will take longer to complete. The general timeline of the project ranges around 4-6 months.

Q3. How Can I Monetize a Food Delivery App?

There are several monetization models that you can use and monetize a food delivery app. Here are the best monetization models that you can impart in your food delivery app:

• Subscription Plans
• Advertising
• Freemium Model
• Delivery Fees
• Collaboration and Partnership

Q4. What Kind of Maintenance Will be Required Post-Launch?

Post-launch maintenance requires different kinds of support. For example, many bugs are identified after the deployment. So, post-deployment maintenance solves this kind of bug. At the same time, new features have to be integrated into the mobile app while the old features have to be removed to retain the target audience. This task is also ensured in the post-launch support.

Q5. Why do Businesses Invest in Food Delivery App Development?

Food delivery app development is an excellent investment idea at present. Billions of users are using such platforms daily as a money-generating product. Different monetization models can bring you good revenue and multiply your investment.