Food Delivery App Development Cost: From Planning To Deployment

The food delivery industry has witnessed exponential growth, driven by changing consumer behaviors and technological advancements. If you’re considering developing a food delivery app, understanding the costs involved at each stage is crucial.

Mohit Mittal

Jan 13, 2025

Food Delivery App Development Cost: From Planning To Deployment

Looking to create a food delivery app? Well, it’s a great idea.

This is where questions like how much does it cost to develop a food delivery app.

It is not just a number that we give and you are ok with it.

Some elements can make the overall expense very high or low including elements of design and features of the software as well as the platform choice and integration.

In this blog, we will explain the principal aspects that define the price of a food delivery application and help you make the right investment for your business.

What Is A Food Delivery App? - A Quick Overview

A food delivery app is a service that connects consumers with restaurants enabling the consumer to be supplied with food from the restaurant without having to stand in long lines.

These apps' main qualities are convenience, variety, and speed to satisfy customers’ hunger without stepping out.

Real-time tracking, multiple payment processing methods, and ease of use make it impossible to imagine the lives of people without food delivery applications.

Since more and more people turn to online food ordering, many businessmen wish to jump into the already crowded bandwagon and develop their own apps.

It can also be a small-scale application targeting a particular type of cuisine, or it can be a large-scale operation with a boundless number of choices.

Thus, if you possess a brilliant idea and the passion to make it come true, there’s no better time for you than now to develop the food delivery app that would conquer the market.

Market Overview: Why Invest in Food Delivery Apps?

Before diving into costs, it’s important to understand why food delivery apps are a smart investment:

Market Size: The global food delivery market is projected to reach $320 billion by 2029, growing at a CAGR of 10.4%.
User Growth: Over 1.5 billion users globally are expected to use food delivery services by 2025.

Revenue Potential: The average revenue per user (ARPU) in the USA exceeds $300 annually.

How Much Does it Cost to Create a Food Delivery App?

The food delivery app development cost also depends on several things such as the complexity of the application, necessary features, application design, platform used, and time required for the application to be developed.

Overall, the cost of food delivery app development can be $10,000 to $100,000 or more.

For instance, a simple food delivery app may take about $10,000-$50,000 to develop, a more complicated one, where features are customized, multiple platforms are used, and integrated into others, may cost $100,000 and above.

From this point of view, it is also necessary to take into account both certain specific expenses for the development of such an application and potential further expenses for its maintenance.

Factor	Estimated Cost Impact
Basic App Features	$10,000 - $20,000
Advanced Features	$20,000 - $50,000
Custom Design	$5,000 - $15,000
Platform Choice	$10,000 - $25,000 (per platform)
Third-Party Integration	$5,000 - $10,000

Stages of Food Delivery App Development

Developing a successful app involves multiple stages, each with its own cost implications. Let’s break it down:

1. Planning and Research

Key Activities: Competitor analysis, defining target audience, feature list creation, and market study.
Cost Range: $3,000–$5,000
Tips to Save Costs: Use existing market data and analytics tools to minimize research expenses.

2. UI/UX Design

Key Activities: Wireframing, prototyping, and creating an intuitive user interface.
Cost Range: $5,000–$10,000
Best Practices: Focus on user-friendly navigation and visually appealing designs to ensure higher retention rates.

3. Development

Key Components:
- Customer App: Browsing menu, placing orders, and tracking delivery.
- Delivery Agent App: Delivery assignment, navigation, and status updates.
- Admin Panel: Managing orders, users, and analytics.
Cost Range: $30,000–$70,000
Factors Influencing Costs: Tech stack, platform (iOS, Android, or both), and third-party integrations (e.g., payment gateways, maps).

4. Testing and QA

Key Activities: Identifying bugs, ensuring app security, and optimizing performance.
Cost Range: $5,000–$10,000
Importance: A thoroughly tested app reduces the risk of post-launch failures.

5. Deployment

Key Activities: Publishing the app on app stores, server setup, and final optimizations.
Cost Range: $1,000–$3,000

Tips: Follow app store guidelines carefully to avoid delays during approval.

Factors Affecting Development Costs

The cost to create a food delivery app depends on specific factors that include; the features required; the design of the application; the platform on which it will be developed; and many more.

Custom features, support of multiple platforms, and third-party integrations can increase prices.

Having proper planning of these parts guarantees an all-round and affordable app.

App Complexity:
- Simple apps with basic features cost $30,000–$50,000.
- Advanced apps with AI, real-time tracking, and custom features can go up to $100,000+.
Team Location:
- Food Delivery App Developers in regions like India charge $20–$50/hour, whereas Food Delivery App Developers in the USA, rates can range from $100–$200/hour.
Features and Integrations:
- Essential features like order tracking, payment gateways, and user profiles are baseline costs.
- Advanced features like AI-based recommendations or voice search add significant expenses.
Technology Stack:
- Using frameworks like Flutter for cross-platform development can reduce costs.
- Native app development for iOS and Android is more expensive but offers better performance.

Factors Affecting the Cost to Make a Food Delivery App

1. App Features

The cost to create a food delivery app depends on the features you wish to incorporate into the app.

Some of the simple functions like order placement, payment, gateway options, and a restaurant menu are more affordable.

However, features like real-time tracking, ratings, push notifications, etc, will add to the food delivery mobile app development cost.

Custom elements take longer to design and integrate and therefore increase the total costs for production.

2. Design Complexity

The complexity of the design of your app has a huge say in the Cost to build a food delivery app.

Design is cheaper when it comes to creating a standard design, but if you desire a spectacular layout that stands out from the rest of the market in terms of UI/UX, this will be more expensive.

Customized, sophisticated, and logical structure is friendly and easy to handle, and in most cases, they need professional and talented designers, so the price is relatively high but for the efficient operation of the users is important.

3. Platform Choice

Deciding which stations to go for, directly affects the overall cost to develop a food delivery mobile app.

Targeting the development for one specific platform, iOS or Android, will be cheaper.

If however, you want to create a food delivery application for both interfaces the cost will be considerably higher since you have to design and maintain two apps.

Currently, the support of multi-platform needs more coding, testing, and update costs makes it costly.

Read More: - How To Create A Food Delivery App?

4. Integration Requirements

The added features from third-party API services have a considerable influence on the cost to build a food delivery apps.

Such linkages are time-consuming to integrate and the complexity increases the development cost.

And every integration results in additional testing and debugging, which drives up the cost even more.

5. Development Team Location

The location of your development team also plays a role in the cost that is necessary to build a food delivery app; in essence, development costs can be quite different depending on the location of employees.

For instance, if you hire teams in North America or Western Europe, they will cost you more than those in Eastern Europe or India.

Offshore outsourcing of your project can easily reduce your overall food ordering app development cost of the project while at the same time helping you employ competent developers.

6. Geographic Market

The cost to create a food delivery app depends on the market you are interested in.

For instance, developing an app that is going to be used in a single market with few functions will cost less than an app that is designed for many regions or countries with different languages, currencies, etc. as well as different regulations.

Such as Zomato like app development cost can be cheaper than DoorDash like app development cost. Simply, DoorDash covers a huge target audience of different countries than Zomato.

7. Technology Stack

The cost also depends on the choice of the technology stack applied to the creation of the apps.

If you want to integrate the latest technologies such as AI for recommendation or end-to-end encryption for food delivery app security, then the cost to create a food delivery app increases.

A more classic app tech stack will be cheaper in many cases but will not allow many applications.

8. Payment Gateway Integration

The inclusion of multiple payment gateways for secure transactions in multiple currencies also increases the cost to build a food delivery app due to the level of integration involved.

Features such as including a wallet, application for payment through mobile, or banking services always demand more development time as well as security issues which automatically add up to the cost.

With this out of the way, remember you will need an expert by your side to keep the cost under control without compromising quality.

Develop a Cost-Friendly Food Delivery App With IMG Global Infotech

IMG Global Infotech has a reputation in the market as a top food delivery app development company.

Our team of ideation, design, development, and deployment specialists assists you in constructing a business app that addresses your vision.

In creating your app, we employ modern systems to make your app easily scalable, more responsive, and secure.

This means that depending on the complexity of the application you require, we have quality and pocket-friendly solutions for your development needs.

How to Optimize Costs

Start with an MVP: Launch a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) with essential features to test the market.
Outsource Development: Partner with experienced app development companies in cost-effective regions like India.
Use Off-the-Shelf Solutions: Leverage pre-built modules for features like payment gateways and analytics.

Conclusion

Some people may think that developing a mobile application that will deliver food is quite an interesting idea that can hold good business value.

As much as it is true. The expenses that go into the process of creating a food delivery application are relative to several factors, however, with proper strategy and the proper choice of a development team,

IMG Global Infotech will turn your idea into reality within the budget.

By correctly defining features and making the right choice of platform, you can strengthen the defense of your app and meet the needs of customers in this competitive environment.