Food Delivery App Development for Restaurants, Dark Kitchens and Delivery Startups
Customer app, driver app and dispatch panel. Your brand, your customer data, no per-order commission.
Open your last Talabat statement and look at the commission line. For an operator doing real volume, that line can be bigger than rent. An own-brand ordering stack (customer app, driver app, dispatch panel) will not replace the aggregators overnight, but it gives your regulars a channel you pay no cut on, and it hands you the customer data the aggregator keeps for itself. We build these stacks from Cairo for restaurant groups, dark kitchens and delivery startups in the Gulf. You get a test build on your own phone every week from the first sprint. And we will be straight with you: if you are one shop doing a handful of orders a day, start with the smaller tier, not the platform.
Commission math, not hype
Orders through your own app carry no aggregator cut. Before we quote, we walk your actual order volume through the numbers with you, and if the payback period looks bad we say so.
Three apps, one system
Customer app, driver app and dispatch panel run on one shared backend, so an order placed, assigned and delivered stays in sync. You review each side on its own staging link.
Arabic-first, English too
Bilingual builds with proper RTL are simply how we work, menus and driver screens included. Both languages ship in the same build, not as a bolt-on phase two.
The whole stack ends up yours
Everything moves to you at final payment: the code, the designs, both store accounts and the signing keys. It is in the contract, not a favour. An NDA covers your menus, supplier pricing and sales figures from the first call.
What an own-brand delivery stack actually includes
Customer ordering app
Menu browsing, delivery or pickup, saved addresses, order status and reorder. Weekly TestFlight and APK builds go to your phone so you approve what customers will see.
Driver app
Order assignment, navigation handoff, live location while on a job, and proof of delivery. Simple on purpose; a driver mid-shift has no patience for clever UI.
Dispatch and admin panel
A live order board for assigning drivers, managing zones and watching prep times, plus daily reports. You test it on a staging link before any real order touches it.
Gulf payment options
Cash on delivery plus card gateways we integrate regularly: Tap, HyperPay, PayTabs, with mada and Apple Pay where the gateway supports them. Gateway choice is agreed in the written scope.
Menu and branch management
Per-branch menus, pricing and availability toggles, so the kitchen can 86 an item without calling anyone. Multi-branch setups are typically the mid tier, not the MVP.
Notifications and tracking
Push notifications for order states in both languages. Live map tracking of the driver is real-time engineering and belongs to the advanced tier; we will not pretend otherwise.
Published USD pricing (the platform tier is honest, not padded)
| Scope | Price range | Typical timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Single-restaurant ordering app (MVP) | $3,000 - 4,500 | typically 8-12 weeks |
| Multi-branch ordering + delivery management | $4,500 - 8,000 | typically 12-16 weeks |
| Full three-sided platform (customer + driver + dispatch) | from $8,000 | 16+ weeks |
The three-sided platform sits in the advanced tier for a reason: live driver location and dispatch logic are real-time systems, not templates, and quoting them cheap is how projects die at 80%. Payments are split into milestones tied to written deliverables, and our numbers usually come in 30-50% under what a local agency would charge for the same platform.
How a delivery project runs with us
- Scoping call: we go through your branches, delivery zones, current order volume and aggregator costs on your timezone (your morning is our morning; Cairo sits an hour behind the Gulf), with an NDA signed before you share financials.
- Written scope: you get a fixed document with acceptance criteria per feature and payment points that come due only when a feature passes its test, so 'done' is defined before we write code.
- Design and build: weekly builds land on your phone via TestFlight and APK, and the dispatch panel runs on a staging link your operations manager can click through.
- Pilot: we launch one branch or one zone live first, watch real orders flow through dispatch, then handle store submissions and rollout to the rest.
- Handover: the code, both store listings and the signing keys become yours at the final invoice, with an agreed support window after launch.
Frequently asked questions
Should we leave Talabat once our app is live?
No, and we would talk you out of trying. Aggregators are a discovery channel; your own app is where you move regulars so repeat orders stop paying a commission. Most operators run both and shift the mix over time.
Why does the full platform start at $8,000 when the MVP starts at $3,000?
The MVP is one restaurant taking orders. The platform adds a driver app, live location, dispatch logic and three user types on one backend, which is genuinely harder engineering. We would rather publish the real number than surprise you at the proposal stage.
We are a dark kitchen with no dine-in. Does this still fit?
Dark kitchens are arguably the best fit, since every order already arrives through a screen and the commission line is your whole storefront cost. The same stack applies; we just skip table-side features and put the effort into dispatch and zones.
Can you deliver this remotely to Saudi or the UAE?
Yes, that has been our model since 2014. Meetings run on your timezone, each week's build goes to your phone, and staging opens from anywhere. Company details and registration (206687) are public at /company/facts, with delivery terms at /trust.
What happens to the app if we stop working with you later?
Nothing that traps you. On full payment the code, store accounts and signing keys are contractually yours, so any competent team can take over maintenance. We would rather earn the ongoing work than lock you in.
Bring us your commission numbers
Send us a rough monthly order count and we will tell you honestly which tier pays for itself, or whether it is too early. Scoping call and written estimate cost nothing; the NDA comes first if you want it.
