A delivery app like Jahez is really four products: a customer app, a driver app, a restaurant app and an admin dashboard with dispatch. A focused first version takes about twelve to twenty weeks and is quoted after scoping. It costs well above a single app, which starts at SAR 25,000, because you are building several apps at once.
What is inside an app like Jahez?
- Customer app: browse restaurants, order, pay with mada, Apple Pay or STC Pay, track the driver live.
- Driver app: accept jobs, navigation, proof of delivery, earnings and cash-on-delivery handling.
- Restaurant app or tablet: accept orders, set prep times, switch items off when they run out.
- Admin dashboard: dispatch, zones and fees, commissions, refunds, promotions and reports.
Why it costs more than a normal app
Our single cross-platform apps start at SAR 25,000. A delivery platform is three apps plus a dispatch system, and the hard parts are invisible: assigning the right driver, handling a restaurant that rejects an order after payment, and reconciling cash collected by drivers.
That is why we quote delivery platforms after scoping rather than from a price list. The number depends mostly on how clever dispatch needs to be and how many restaurants and cities you launch with.
What a sensible first version includes
Launch in one city with a small set of partner restaurants, manual or simple automatic dispatch, card and wallet payments, and basic promotions. Leave loyalty schemes, subscriptions and advanced routing for version two, once you have real order data.
A first version like that usually takes twelve to twenty weeks.
Jahez, HungerStation and The Chefz spent years getting to their current features. Do not try to match them on day one; match them on one thing your market cares about.
Costs after launch
- Servers and maps APIs, which grow with order volume.
- Payment gateway fees on every order.
- SMS or WhatsApp messages for login codes and order updates.
- Ongoing updates for three apps across iOS and Android.
