How to Make an On-Demand Food Delivery App like UberEats


The freedom of choice, the ability to fit into the busy schedule of a modern person, the level of simplicity and thoughtfulness. Those are the things that define a great service, and on-demand food delivery app like Uber has the potential to live up to that standard. This makes them a very promising investment for a businessman, a challenging task for a developer and a premium class service for the customers.

In this article, we will give you an idea of how to make a food delivery app by looking into the features which define the best apps in this category. Also, we will try to figure out what makes UberEats so special and dear to our hearts. So without any further do, let’s dive right in.

Features of the best on-demand food delivery apps

Data access

The key thing that interests clients when they check food delivery applications is data. Menus, ingredients, calories, pricing, hours, location: all of those things are essential for the users to be able to make up their minds and make an order. Thanks to the technical revolution, nowadays we are able to get all of those details via API used in our mobile applications.

Let’s take a look at Grubhub API. This API is capable of helping to obtain the information from thousands of different restaurants. The cloud feature which can be used with the help of API allows restaurants to perform multiple operations with the data, including storing, exporting and updating. Grubhub API gives the food delivery applications a possibility to exchange the order details and payment information with the partner restaurants. As you may see it can be a great solution for food delivery business.

Another API which is being used for the similar purpose is the Foursquare’s API. With its help, the applications like Postmates are able to provide their clients with the all the information about the restaurants nearby, their prices and menu. Once the client places the order, the application sends it to the restaurant, they do the cooking and a person who works for Postmates delivers it. What is really amazing about this solution is that the people were able to creatively integrate the Foursquare API’s capabilities into a scenario it was not meant for.

Online payment integration

If the technical progress enables us to get the access to the food of all the restaurants around you and place an order sitting at home, it should be possible to be able to pay for the food at the same place. Nowadays all the major players in this segment of the market provide this feature. If you are considering to create meal ordering app, make sure to add this feature too.

Paypal, Visa Checkout, Stripe and others allow users to make the payment using credit and debit cards. Yet another useful option is Square. Using its API, the user will be sent to the Square application where he will be able to make the payment. In order to make your application handy and customer friendly, providing as much payment options as possible is a must.

Read also: How to Integrate Payment Gateway in a Mobile App?

Delivery time

Since we live in a fast-paced world, we need to be able to make use of every little moment of the time we have to succeed. So a feature like estimated delivery time is a very useful bonus for an on-demand delivery platform like UberEats. It allows customers to manage their expectations effectively and reduce the anxiety of the wait. Postmates, the app that we have mentioned earlier is able to tell when the order will be delivered pretty accurately. How is this possible considering that there are so many factors involved? Well, the answer will be machine learning. All the possible factors are studied and then calculated automatically each time you make an order with your mobile app. So basically by ordering food, you are able to test the work of the latest machine learning algorithms and that sounds pretty exciting.

GPS tracking

GPS tracking feature was popularized by Uber and when it comes to food delivery apps, it may be really handy. Postmates along with Pizza Hut and Caviar are all using GPS in order to bring the best experiences to their clients.

Let’s take a closer look at the process of integration of the GPS into a mobile application. The first step would be to identify the location of the user. That can be achieved with the help of CoreLocation framework or Google’s Location API. With their help, you will be able to trace the region and the device as well as monitor user’s movement.

As soon as the location is verified, the user is able to track the delivery from his side and the driver will be able to see the path to the user’s home on his screen. This can be enabled with the use of MapKit or Google Maps API for iOS and Android accordingly. Uber, for example, uses Google Maps API on all the platforms. However, these are not the only options on the market. Another great solution, especially if you are planning to develop both web and mobile versions of a food ordering app, is to utilize the Waze’s navigation API.

Reviews and ratings

UberEats, Postmates and many more food delivery companies were able to integrate the work of freelance drivers to provide timely services. Although they work on their own, it is necessary to track their work to ensure that they work well and do not compromise the reputation of the company. This can be achieved with the help of the ratings and user reviews.

Apps like Postmates, Doordash, UberEats give their clients the opportunity to define the service quality of the drivers by rating them. Which helps the companies to define which drivers they are going to continue working with. Certain apps even have the possibility to give the feedback on the dishes and submit a feedback for the chef with the idea of being able to adjust the food quality to the clients’ needs.

UberEats food ordering app

UberEats is the food delivery application provided by the Uber company which allows to order the food from your local restaurants and get it delivered by the freelance drivers which work for Uber. It does include the functions we have mentioned earlier. Due to the popularity of the app and the innovation that stands behind it, many developers and business minded people are considering UberEats clone development. As for the question “how much does it cost to make an app like ubereats?”, there is no exact answer as it will depend on the exact features that will need to be integrated, on the UI/UX impact on the product and other features with wide price range. So when it comes to UberEats development pricing, the great solution will be to contact the company which will do the work for you and to ask them to estimate the budget.

In case you are planning to make an app like UberEats, it is important to be sure that the service will be appreciated by the users. Here we have gathered the advantages on-demand food delivery Uber-like apps can suggest:

– shorter delivery timeframe thanks to the freelance drivers working in this service;

– the variety of foods you get the access to instantly is incredible. You can get what you want without compromising;

– the ordering process is as easy as it could possibly be making the overall experience less stressful and fast;

– the features like lunch, brunch, and dinner allow the users to simplify the choice in case they need a fast solution;

– notifications can be set for those people who tend to get carried away with their day to day routine and skip their meal throughout the day. It is really a customer caring feature as it helps to maintain the healthy diet with minimum stress.

Read also: How to Make a Taxi App Like Uber

Just as every other service that reaches out to our basic needs, such applications have a lot of potential to become popular and profitable. As we all know the technology industry is constantly evolving bringing new and new solutions to improve our day to day experiences. On-demand food-delivery apps being one of them provide us the opportunity to get the best options at our disposal and it is really liberating and innovational.


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