Driven by technological advances and consumer demand for seamless transportation solutions, urban mobility has undergone a remarkable transformation. At the forefront of this innovation stands popular ride-hailing platforms like Lyft, Uber, or Bolt. These ride-hailing apps have redefined on-demand transportation with their efficient business model, innovative features, and commitment to user experience.
Likewise, Lyft has grown to become a household name, capturing a significant share of the market. The app’s estimated revenue in 2024 (TTM) reached approximately $5.49 billion, with a 24.28% increase from the previous year. Now, for businesses exploring opportunities in this space, Lyft serves as both a benchmark and a blueprint for success.
This guide is tailored for entrepreneurs and enterprises seeking to understand what it takes to build a ride-hailing app that not only competes but thrives in this competitive industry.
Thus, if your business is ready to capitalize on the growing demand for on-demand transportation, this guide offers actionable insights to get you started.
Lyft is a leading ride-hailing app that connects drivers with passengers looking for rides through a mobile application. Founded in 2012 by Logan Green and John Zimmer, Lyft is headquartered in San Francisco, California, and has emerged as one of the primary competitors to Uber in the North American market. The company initially began as Zimride, a long-distance carpooling service, before evolving into Lyft.
Lyft’s mission is to improve transportation accessibility and convenience while reducing the environmental impact of traditional commuting methods. By leveraging advanced technology, the app offers users a seamless experience for booking rides, making payments, and tracking them in real time.
The company has expanded its offerings beyond ride-hailing, introducing shared rides, luxury ride options, and even bike and scooter rentals.
As of the recent market data, Lyft holds a significant market share in the U.S. ride-hailing market, grasping approximately 24% of the market.
Ride-hailing apps like Lyft connect riders with potential drivers through a mobile application. Such platforms include three interfaces, namely Rider App, Driver App, and Admin Panel, that work collaboratively to provide a unified experience. The primary goal is to provide a seamless experience for each stakeholder, facilitating ride requests, payments, and navigation.
Here’s how the app works:
Ride-hailing apps like Lyft offer multiple revenue channels to ensure a steady flow of income. Here are some common revenue channels to name a few:
In order to build a ride-hailing app like Lyft, one must integrate essential features into the app to enhance user experience, operational efficiency, and scalability. Below are the must-have features for each interface:
1. User Login: Offer passengers multiple login options such as OTP, email, phone number, or social media accounts to login to the app.
2. Ride Booking: Provide an intuitive user interface for passengers to seamlessly book rides via the app.
3. Fare Estimation: Include an in-app fare estimator to provide passengers with an estimated fare amount for the ride.
4. Real-Time Tracking: Leverage advanced GPS tracking to let passengers track their approaching driver’s real-time location and get an estimation of their time of arrival.
5. SOS Alerts: Integrate an SOS toggle to enhance passenger safety by allowing passengers to share their ride details with their pre-designated emergency contacts.
1. Driver Registration and Verification: Simplify driver registration & verification by providing straightforward guidelines to upload documents and verify to meet safety concerns.
2. Ride Requests: Allow drivers to view ride requests and accept/decline them based on their operational availability.
3. Availability Toggle: Drivers receive ride requests only when they mark their availability to operate with this simple button.
4. Navigation & Route Optimization: Integrate built-in maps and GPS navigation tools to ensure efficient routes and timely pickups/drop-offs.
5. Initiate Payout: Provide drivers with the option to manage their earnings and initiate payout anytime they need.
1. User Management: Admins can overlook user profiles, including passengers and drivers, track their activities on their app, verify documents, and more.
2. Geofencing: Define operational areas of service within the app.
3. Vehicle Management: Add and manage vehicle categories in your ride-hailing app to ensure a diverse fleet size.
4. Commission Management: Manage commissions for various vehicle types and services to provide transparency.
5. Reports & Analytics: Utilize diverse reports on user activities, user behavior, earnings, payments, and more to refine marketing strategies and grow.
Building a ride-hailing app like Lyft primarily involves two key approaches, namely, Custom development and Readymade Software. Both approaches offer unique advantages to build your ride-hailing app. However, the final decision depends on your business goals and requirements. Below is a detailed overview:
Custom development includes building a ride-hailing app from scratch offering you complete control over features, functionalities, design, and overall development process. While custom development offers flexibility over the development process, here are a few considerations you must keep in mind before investing:
If you are looking to build and launch your ride-hailing app quickly without any delay then utilizing readymade software is an optimal choice. A readymade software is a pre-built solution that equips all the essential features and functionalities to build a ride-hailing app efficiently in no time. Below are a few pointers that make this approach a perfect fit for your app:
Although both approaches extend several key benefits tailored to your requirements, we would recommend you opt for readymade software to build your ride-hailing app like Lyft. This approach is the most practical in case you want to capture the market faster and capitalize on the demand. Among the several options available, one such premier choice is VivoCabs.
VivoCabs is a robust ride-hailing software designed to help businesses and entrepreneurs capitalize on their vision of launching a ride-hailing app. It is a pre-built solution that facilitates the creation of a fully functional ride-hailing app like Lyft in merely a few weeks, quickly and conveniently. Designed with precision, the software integrates all the essential features, functionalities, and APIs—providing access to all right from the beginning.
Plus, due to its self-hosted nature and one-time payment offer, the software proves to be a cost-effective solution, offering businesses with endless possibilities to scale and grow. Its intuitive interface backed by industry-specific designs, multi-lingual & multi-currency functionality, 100% white-labeling options, a lifetime license for a one-time payment, scalability, and customizability, make it a preferred choice among businesses.
The on-demand transportation industry’s tremendous growth potential, coupled with the demand for tech-driven, seamless, and reliable transportation solutions, makes the ride-hailing industry highly lucrative. Thus, building a ride-hailing app like Lyft is a rewarding endeavor. However, success in this competitive space demands a clear vision, scalable infrastructure, robust feature set, and a user-centric approach.
By partnering with solutions like VivoCabs, you gain access to proven ride-hailing software that eliminates unnecessary hurdles and accelerates your journey to success in this space.
With VivoCabs, you’re not just launching an app; you’re creating an ecosystem that redefines customer convenience and loyalty in the ride-hailing services.
Q 1. How much does it cost to build a ride-hailing app like Lyft?
Ans. The cost of building a ride-hailing app depends on several key factors such as app complexity, features, platform (Android, iOS, or both), and development approach. Typically, building a custom ride-hailing app from scratch costs anywhere between $40,00 to $500,000. Whereas, building a ride-hailing app utilizing readymade software costs significantly three times less than compared to custom development.
However, building a ride-hailing app like Lyft with VivoCabs comes with 3 pricing packages, and they are:
Kindly check our pricing plans for more information.
Q 2. How long does it take to build a ride-hailing app like Lyft?
Ans. The development time to build a ride-hailing app like Lyft depends on the development approach, features, and customizations. While custom development may take up to a year or so, readymade software can build your ride-hailing app in a few weeks.
Q 3. What makes VivoCabs different from other readymade software solutions?
Ans. VivoCabs stands out because of its robust feature set, intuitive interface, affordable & transparent pricing plans, customization options, scalability, and end-to-end support. Unlike other solutions, VivoCabs ensures a tailored experience, enabling businesses to reflect their brand identity and meet specific operational needs.
Q 4. Does VivoCabs support small businesses?
Ans. Yes, VivoCabs is a highly adaptable and scalable solution and supports businesses of all sizes—whether small, medium, or large—without any minimum fleet requirements. The software offers affordable prices and a scalable solution to grow and scale in the future.
Q 5. Does VivoCabs provide source code ownership of mobile apps?
Ans. Yes, VivoCabs offers source code ownership of mobile apps for both platforms apart from the web admin panel. However, this source code comes at an additional price.
For more information regarding this, kindly refer to our source code page.
Q 6. Is VivoCabs capable to launch a Lyft-like app in international markets?
Ans. VivoCabs is a highly adaptable and advanced ride-hailing software that equips several advanced functionalities to scale the ride-hailing app and grow. The multi-lingual & multi-currency functionality, geofencing capabilities, a large pool of third-party integrations as well as payment gateways, and compliance with local security standards make it a highly capable software to launch a Lyft-like app in international markets as well.