How Much Does it Cost to Create a Navigation App Like Waze?

Published: May 2, 2022

9 min read

Impressive, right? And this is no accident. Such apps can suggest the best way to get to our destination point in the shortest time or help us to find the nearest coffee house with fresh pastries while we’re waiting for our friends. But is there a place for something innovative?

It may erroneously seem that we don’t need such a diversity of car navigation apps because they all are quite similar. “What can you add to a navigation app except for the navigation?” you may ask. A bunch of cool things, as it turned out! And the Waze navigation app is one of the brightest examples. In this article we will find out what kind of an app Waze is and how much it costs to build something similar.

🚗 What is Waze and why is it notable?

Waze is a GPS navigation app with a broad variety of useful and amusing features. All together they provide users with an exciting and funny experience. A custom catchy design is also one more reason to fall in love with this app.

Yet, we at Stormotion care about UX of our clients’ apps and always want to be sure that they comprehensively solve problems of users. We deeply believe that a perfect car navigation app like Waze at some point of its’ lifecycle should include the following features.

Are you interested in creating an app like Waze? Then you should plan carefully. First of all, think about the essentials of your future app.

# 1: Geolocation 📡

GPS/Geolocation is the core function of any navigation app. Your helper here is Google Maps Directions API, which provides you with a list of turn-by-turn instructions and readable notifications. As an alternative, you can use Skobbler or HERE Maps SDKs to make your idea a reality and create an effective tracking system for your users.

Anyway, we advise you to come up with an interesting and unique concept of UI instead of the standard “Google Maps-like” design. Why? Because your app won’t look catchy and it will easily be forgotten. On the other hand, a too original design may not be accepted by many users, so think your UI concept through and out.

💸 What’s about the price?

It seems that we have mentioned all the “must-haves” for a Waze app clone. Are you full of bright ideas now? Do you feel so enthusiastic like never before? That’s good because there is just one question left to discuss - development costs.

Despite the cost of Waze app was established at more than $1 billion (at the moment of the deal with Google), you will require significantly less money to create a navigation app like this. Take a look at a rough estimation:

💡 Conclusion

Waze navigation app has shaken the GPS apps market. So it’s not a surprise that it has attracted millions of users all over the world. In this article, we have told you how you can get a piece of this popularity too by building an app like Waze.

First of all, don’t forget about features that are necessary for designing a Waze app clone. These are:

  • a GPS navigation function;
  • a voice recognition feature;
  • social networking elements (as profiles and chats);
  • a fresh and memorable UI.

And if at that point you may ask yourself "Do those guys have experience with navigation app development"?

The answer is "Yes, we have". Just check our portfolio and try to challenge us. You'll get to know how we combine the best tech tools with our expertise to deliver a top-notch app!

Get an Estimation for your Navigation App!

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