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

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A comprehensive guide to building a clone or an app more efficient than Yelp. Learn useful insights and proceed towards victory path.

There has been a flurry of mobile apps in the recent past. New entrants have rolled the dice with the hope to perform better than others prevailing in the domain. Everyday tasks have been simplified with modern technologies making the journey called life easier and pleasant than ever.

One such application that has won million hearts since its inception is ‘Yelp’. Assisting users on various grounds, this app has traveled a long way. Users trust its services and the app makes sure that it offers a useful takeaway to the users every time they hit the app icon. But what does it store within? Let’s find out.

What does Yelp offer?

Yelp is an online application, web and mobile, catering users with the much-needed information of local business goods and services including reviews, photos, directions, contact and information alike. Plus, it allows you to post comments, review a place, upload self-clicked pictures and more but all of it once you get yourself registered on the app.

The application is a boon to travelers. It assists them in finding a perfect hotel to stay, a nearby spa or saloon for rejuvenation, a medical center in their neighborhood and more with real and authentic reviews.

According to a study, Yelp adds more than 142 million users in a month who are entitled to post a review, share their experience and photos about a product or service they availed in the past. It has been observed that these reviews impacted sales with a spike of 5-9%. So, if a business is listed on Yelp and has some good genuine reviews then the increase in revenues is guaranteed.

What does it take to build an app like Yelp?

Sighting the growth and popularity that Yelp is gaining, numerous competitors have emerged while others are looking ways to implement the similar model. If you are one of those who is wondering how to get started, then your worries are about to end, provided you go through the article thoroughly.

Here are the existing features that you’ll find on Yelp and some additional ones which can be included in your version of Yelp app.

Admin section for both (users and businesses)

User profiles need to be created for the end users (reviewers) and the businesses separately. While the former will comment, review, post photos and do likewise stuff, the latter will verify their profiles, reply to the reviews, manage reputation and conversations along with the advertising campaigns.

For the end users, everything including the activities done in the past be it reviewing places, posting photos for the same or connecting to their peers, can be stored in a sorted fashion. While the same is applicable for businesses as well. Managing stuff for their brand on a review platform like this can be easy and quick with a profile that grants them control over activities they perform.

Location-based functionality

It is one of the fundamental features for review platforms. It allows users to save both, time as well as effort. The feature can identify user’s present location, which helps in quickly drafting a roadmap to the desired location/place/lounge/café/hospital/saloon or any other destination- all possible via Google Maps API. Map information gets displayed in the desired fashion on the user’s screen and users need not enter their location every time they opt for your app for assistance.

Review and rating mechanism

One of the main features that help in drawing out the major chunks of revenue. The reviews have a direct effect on the sales of the business. The real reviews can either help business owners to march forward on a success path like a boss or can make the entire business fall into pieces.

A study reveals that 72% of consumers trust online reviews while 90% of Yelp users admitted that a positive review on the app about a good or service impacted their buying decision. And FYI, text reviews play a vital role when consumers take a final call.

Push notification

Push notification is one of the modern and effectual features of the lot because it manages to hit the bull’s eye every single time. The app needs to offer relevant content, goods and services to its users to keep them interested and engaged, giving them every reason to come back. With push notifications, you can send gentle reminders to users to post a review about their last outing or share their valuable experience with a specific professional service provider. Make clever use of this feature and it can work wonders for your business.

Social sign-in

An app is meant for easy working and with the social sign-in option, you make the authentication process easier and quicker. Users can quickly get inside the app via social networks and can perform the intended tasks. The elimination of filling up forms for registration and adding a profile photo to the profile can certainly play in your favor.

Media sharing

Adding a media sharing functionality to your app not only enhances users’ experience but also adds a personal touch. Leverage your users with photo and short video uploading options and see the spike in the user engagement rate.

Filter, sort and search options

Often, users don’t find the piece of content they are looking for in the first place, which might make them agitated and eventually abandon your app. A perfect solution to this is that you add filtering and sorting options to your app along with the basic search bar. This would help them go deep and research for the desired content in an ideal manner.

How to build an app like Yelp with a twist?

Developing an app like Yelp is easy, provided the basics are covered well and the ploy is thoughtful. Here are some useful tricks to get you going.

Asking for location sharing can be tricky

For your review app to perform the way you want, you’d require the location of your users and gaining the same can be a little tricky. You need to figure out the right time to ask for the geolocation and be smart enough to use it in the appropriate way. It’s better that you avoid asking for location access at the time of install and delay it till the time user taps on the feature that requires it. Also, it is advisable to give a short explanation about why you need to access this data. This not only adds value but also makes useraware of the proceedings taking place with respect to his personal data.

Use notifications smartly

Sending irrelevant and regular push messages to your users can irritate them. Make sure you use this feature smartly as it possesses the power to shoot up engagement and interest among the users. You can add a bit of humor to your notifications at times. This softens the mood of the users and leave them to wait for the next interesting and humorous push from your creative bank. Although, the user is entitled to opt out and enable back push notifications from the settings panel, but once they opt in, ensure that you make it count.

Adding a support service

Add a support to your offerings list. Users like to get connected for clearing their queries and doubts about a feature, a specific content or a service on offer. So, try building a support team that can solve users’ queries quickly and efficiently.

Email marketing can help

Ignoring emails to market your app won’t produce the intended results. Email is a powerful medium to retain your customers, provided if done smartly. Based on users’ past behavior and interests, you can shoot emails with useful tips, life hacks, latest trends and content likewise. Plus, you can also provide them with a weekly or a monthly statistical report that’s informative and enriched with real-life content, which is any day more expansive and insightful than push notifications.

How can you make money?

Being an app owner, you’d like that users love to interact with your app and fire up the same consistently, establishing a name in this competition-ridden market. You’d love it when it starts minting money too. Isn’t it?

Here we present you with the ideas that can help you achieve this feat once everything starts to roll in the manner you’ve intended.

  • Advertising model

Once you have enough monthly traffic and your app is opened not only quite a few times but on a consistent basis, it’s time to implement the advertising model. Local business advertising can generate enormous revenue.

As per Forbes’ report, 73% of Yelp`s evaluation value is due to local business advertising.

  • Sponsored listings

Similar to that of Google search, it’ll help local businesses to rank higher in the search results whenever a user fires search query inside the app via search bar. Local businesses can pay you good in return of a higher rank.

  • Affiliate marketing

It is another profitable move that can help you make good money. You can list products to buy in your app, which earn you a commission on per purchase basis from merchants. Just an add-on money making scheme that can boost your annual revenue up to 5%.

  • Deals and coupons

It’s a part of affiliate marketing where you present users with lucrative schemes and discount coupons and merchants pay you commission on every deal availed by the end users.

This is how Yelp is making money and you can make it too. You can entice the local vendors even further by enhancing these existing schemes. For example, you can offer an entire page to local businesses instead of just a section. This is where they can include more photos, add a description about their services in a comprehensive manner and connect to the viewers in a more efficient and delightful way.

How much money do you need to spare to build an app like Yelp?

Commenting on the app development cost to be incurred at an early stage is difficult especially without clear requirements. The picture can be cleared once the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) gets ready and basic functionalities are included. The experts recommend building an MVP ahead of the project like Yelp because it’s broad, extensive and requires ample of resources. The things would be easy thereafter with a defined success path and a thoughtful plan. Also, you’ll be aware of how feasible your idea is.

The average time to build a project like Yelp is three to six months. A skilled team of four to five persons is required to work on its strategy, design, development, deployment, database and more.

Closure

The services like Yelp have impacted the market big time. Consumers are leveraged with all the possible benefits and offers that are too lucrative to miss. However, the point of discussion here for entrepreneurs is that a vast section of the market is currently governed by big industry players like Yelp and Uber. And entering the same market and competing against the likes of well-established names won’t be a cakewalk, surely. But, we believe opportunities are immense and it’s worth giving a shot.

Our team of tech maestros can help you with a comprehensive approach, detailed plan and help you follow the footprints of the market leaders with a tinge of innovation. Shoot us an email and our representative will get back to you with further details.

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About Author
Manish Jain

Manish Jain

Manish Jain is the co-founder and Managing Director at Konstant Infosolutions. He is responsible for the overall operations of the company and has played a major role in bringing Konstant up from its humble beginnings and, with his immense energy and drive, transforming it into a globally trusted name in IT solutions.

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