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In the Q4 of 2019, Yelp generated a staggering revenue of about 268.82 million U.S. dollars, which is an increase of roughly 263 U.S. dollars in the third quarter. Yelp has emerged as an influential and huge platform for shops, clubs, restaurants, etc. The mobile app of Yelp was launched mainly considering the ever-increasing use of smartphones and the fact that about 70% of online traffic is generated via mobile. Now, most businesses strive to own a Yelp-like app to boost their profitability.

In this blog, we’ll discuss “how much does it cost to build a Yelp-like app?” But before we find an answer to the question of cost, let’s quickly understand what Yelp is all about? Basically, it is a service to guide users through the city venues, leave personal reviews, and check ratings about products, services, and places. With the Yelp mobile app, it has been even better as now it comes with the power of GPS. People can instantly locate businesses in their surroundings. The other great thing about Yelp is its recently added augmented reality feature. It fits in all categories viz. travel apps, navigation apps, food & drink apps, lifestyle apps, etc.

Features of Yelp

The cost analysis and assessment requires a quick overview of the features that make Yelp what it is today. So, here are the features that any other app you may think of similar to Yelp must have. The main functionalities of this app are:

1. Reviews: Adding and reading user reviews of services, food, venues, and overall experience about cities and places of visit. Users can rate the same using stars from 1 to 5.
2. Search nearby: With mobile GPS, users can open the app and explore the venues and services in their area. They can even browse by the category, exact name or certain keywords.
3. Directions: Its geo-location functionality allows users to navigate towards the places of interest, with information about working hours, addresses, photos, etc.
4. Menus: This allows users to check the menu of a café or a restaurant in their area.
5. Photos: Users can view images of services or places and post images along with user reviews.
6. Check-ins: Real-time mapping as well as posting to the accounts on social media about the venues they are at right at the moment.

To get an app as Yelp developed, you will need to build the elements of the communication module, user module, social integration, etc. Here’s a simple chart comprising of the features of Yelp:

There are several features for businesses in Yelp, such as the premium partnerships, the ability to directly respond to the reviews posted by the users. If you also want to build a Yelp-like mobile app, you will need to consider its development aspect as well.

Technologies Behind Yelp

To build your own Yelp-like app, you must first learn about the technologies that empower Yelp. It makes use of the stack called LAMP, which is an open-source platform to develop web apps. LAMP includes Linux Ubuntu, Apache, MySQL, the Percona fork, and Python/PHP. SQL is used for data as it’s easy to scales and configures. Yelp also works with HAProxy and LVS for load balancing. Facebook Scribe is used for social media logging. Yelp has to manage millions of updates and messages in real-time. Yelp uses Salesforce as a CRM system. Well, this is just the basic information, there is a lot more about this app that is still not divulged here.

How Much Does It Cost to Build an App Like Yelp?

Let’s quickly discuss what goes into the cost of Yelp. To build a Yelp-like app, the typical process includes the creation of the app’s skeleton, designing the user interface and preparing for great user experience (UX), coding the app’s functionality for different mobile platforms it is intended to be used at, testing, and finally the deployment. Another aspect of Yelp-like cost estimation is the method you will probably choose to develop a similar app. Are you planning to do it yourself by hiring an in-house team of app developers, or you plan to hire a freelancer or commence a project with a mobile app development company like appbiz360? The rates will vary depending on the option you choose. Since we aren’t talking about a specific app or option here, let’s assume that you hire an app development company for the job. If you check the rates, they range anywhere between $25 and $150 or more per hour. We will go over this by assuming the cost to be $50 per hour. The four key elements that are most important to build an app like Yelp include:

• User profile creation & authentication
• Ratings/reviews/recommendations
• Push notifications
• Geolocation

At appbiz360, we offer a near-exact estimation of developing an app similar to Yelp. Our team of experts will study your requirements in detail and help you learn about the total development time to build such an app. The estimated development time for user modules, with key features such as social logging, registration and authentication, main screen and more is somewhere around 1600 hours. It also includes things like search & browse screens, activity & feed screens, events, bookmarks, categories, user profiles, etc. The project would require approx. 450-500 hours should be enough to develop the communication model. This would include messaging, Yelp API service, push notification, and GPS, location service. Additional tasks in developing a Yelp-like app could be the implementation of Google Maps, Facebook API, custom animation & views, etc.

Hence, the development time of an app like Yelp is estimated at around 2500 hours. Remember, this is just an estimate for building an app for Android, iOS, Windows, etc. The cost of designing, testing, and quality assurance has not been calculated here.

Thus, we have a rough estimate of 2500 hours to develop an app like Yelp. Though, that is surely not all. That is only building an app for platforms like Android or iOS in the Yelp app cost. Don’t forget about design, quality assurance and most of all, the backend. Furthermore, you would require a strong database management system to manage the data supplied by countless users. We suggest you speak with our app development specialists to get a better idea of how much will it cost for you to build an app like Yelp? We are just a call away! Please call us or write to us!

Disclaimer: The information above is based on secondary research and our knowledge of having developed similar apps for other clients. Since each client and app’s requirements vary, the cost you would have to incur for building an app like Yelp would vary based upon your specifications. Hence, it is always better to seek help from our experts.