In today’s time, when most people are leading a hurried life trying to create a balance between home and work life, finding time to cook after all the laborious office work is indeed hard. Although there are countless online food delivery apps to the rescue, ordering out every day is not a feasible option. It is not just unhealthy but also way costlier. Here is when the on-demand cook apps come into the picture.

On-demand cook apps are the most efficient way to help users find and hire trained cooks for meeting their culinary needs. Using these apps, the users can get reliable cooks at their location who can serve them sumptuous meals, be it Thai, Chinese, Italian, or any other cuisine. It is a great solution for people who tend to miss out on their motherly local flavors because of their jobs, studies, or other reasons. Leveraging on-demand cook apps, they can easily enjoy healthy and delicious home-cooked food as per their liking.

As a business owner, embarking on the on-demand cook app development is a highly lucrative option since there are food lovers all around us. In this article, we will talk about the most valuable developmental features, strategies for engineering a superior on-demand cook app as well as the cost of app development involved.

How On-Demand Cook Booking App Works?

hire a chef app

Like any other on-demand app, the working of the cook booking app is also pretty straightforward. After the users have downloaded the app, they can log in to complete the essential app setup. Once the profile is set, the users can avail a cook or a chef at any time and any requested place.

Whenever a user requires a cook, he can log on to the application and provide accurate details about their location and the kind of food they want. The app will notify the cook who is within the user’s location with a text message. He will arrive at the user’s doorstep at the stated time and deliver his services.

Chef and Cook Duties & Responsibilities

A good chef not only makes delectable cuisine but also ensures aromatic flavors and impeccable presentation that gratifies the taste palate. Typically, the duties and responsibilities of a chef or cook entail the following:

  • Managing all kitchen staff
  • Creating different recipes
  • Creating menus for different events
  • Complying with all the kitchen and food regulations
  • Preparing meals
  • Maintaining the budget

Apart from these, chefs and cooks must also be aware of the food safety regulations. They need to ensure that the kitchen remains compliant with how the food is made and stored.

Some Interesting Stats Of Food & Cooking Industry

According to all statistical reports, the on-demand or access economy has transformed the way businesses serve people. In the USA, as much as 42% of the total population has used at least one on-demand startup. On-demand cook apps are no exception.

Earlier shipping boxes of produce along with the corresponding recipe cards had gained immense appeal, bagging a wide base of users across the world. But the on-demand cook apps represent what is perhaps the next stage in the food startup scene. Thus, this is the best time to invest in such apps. The revenue in the food market accounts for $8,049,240m in 2021. This market is anticipated to grow annually by 3.14% (CAGR 2021-2025).

Monetization Opportunities Provided by Cook Finding App

The choice of business monetization technique is one of the prime factors determining the future success of every startup. If the monetization model is not lucrative, sustainable, and scalable, the business is bound to falter. Here are some of the most noteworthy monetization techniques that you can use for your on-demand cook app.

Advertisement
Advertisements present the most popular way to monetize your mobile apps, especially those that want to remain free in the app store. Also, as per stats, 78% of the consumers happily accept mobile advertising that is relevant to their needs.
In the case of cook-finding apps, business owners can generate income by running ads of relevant products and other services. For instance, by showing advertisements of food products, kitchen equipment, new recipes, etc., your on-demand cook app can keep the customers engaged, and in return, charge a pre-decided amount from the advertising businesses.

Featured listing
This is a common app monetization strategy that helps app owners to generate huge sums of money. Here, the aggregator apps can feature select chefs on the top section of the app, and in return, charge a particular amount of money. A lot of chefs or cooks are willing to pay for featured listing as the service provider names appearing on the top of the home page receive maximum bookings.

Commissions
Major on-demand businesses like Uber, eBay, Etsy, etc. are examples of B2C and C2C marketplaces that allow users to transact directly on their platforms. These businesses generate income by charging a specific amount of commission, or a percentage, of each sale. This is arguably one of the easiest monetization techniques for many marketplace apps.

Popular Apps To Hire A Private Chef

popular apps and services to hire a chef at home

Rockoly, Cookinat, Coox, HireAChef, ChefFair, EatWith are some of the popular services and mobile apps for finding a freelance chef at home.

General Features of A Freelance Chef Finder App

User PanelCook PanelAdmin Panel
RegisterRegisterManage users and cooks
Select the cookManage their profileManage services
Send requests to cookView user requestPayment management
View servicesAccept/decline user requestManage ratings and reviews
Track the cooksSet booking calendarReports
Get details about the chef’s location, expertise, experience & per hour chargesEnlist specialtiesApp marketing
Specify the time durationReceive payments
Make paymentsManage price
Ratings and reviews
Hire mobile app developers

Advance Features of a Cook On-Demand App

freelance chef app

Social Signup/Login

This feature enables the users to quickly sign up for the app using their email id or any existing social media account. Having a simple and straightforward sign-up page is an effective way to persuade new users into joining the app.

In-app Calling
In-app calling allows the users and their chosen chef to interact with each other via calls made from within the app. They can use this feature to discuss the per hour / per day charge or about the meals that need to be cooked.

In-app Chatting
Similar to in-app calling, the in-app chatting feature also allows the users and their desired chefs to communicate through messages.

Cook Near Me
This feature enables the users to figure out the real-time locations of the cooks. Using this information, they can find out the nearest cooks and book them to avail timely service.

In-app Navigation
In-app navigation is a great feature that lets the users use a dedicated map that displays the exact location of the chef along with the estimated time of arrival. Alternatively, it also allows the chefs to find out the exact location of the customer.

Efficient CMS
A CMS enables the app owners to easily manage all the content available on the app. For instance, the admin can list the different categories of chefs and their specialty dishes. Also, they list new and innovative food recipes to keep the app users engaged.

Loyalty Program
The cook on-demand app can run new loyalty programs from time to time, in the form of fresh discounts, coupons, and vouchers for loyal app users. This helps to retain them while motivating them to use the app in the future as well.

Marketing Tools
Integrating marketing tools, such as promotional text and emails, calls, vouchers, etc. is important to attract new users as well as keep the existing ones engaged.

Required Team Structure For Chef Booking App Development

For developing a powerful and feature-rich on-demand chef booking app, you need a robust team that is aware of the industry’s best practices and techniques. To get your hands on a fully-functional app, you need to work with the following professionals:

  • Project Manager
  • UI/UX Designers
  • Android and iOS App Developers
  • Backend Developers
  • Testers
  • QA Analyst

What Technology Stack One Should Choose For Private Chef App

FunctionTechnology
Push NotificationsTwilio, Push.io, Amazon SNS, Urban Airship, Firebase Cloud Messaging
MS, Voice and Phone VerificationNexmo, Twilio
PaymentsBraintree & PayPal, Stripe, EWallets
DatabaseMongoDB, Hbase, Cassandra, Postgress, Mail Chimp Integration, MySQL, and Redis
Cloud EnvironmentAWS, Google, Azure, AWS, and VULTR
Real-time AnalyticsHadoop, Spark, BigData, Apache Flink, Cisco, IBM
Find user LocationCore Location Framework, Google Places API, Google Maps
Server:NGINX
FrameworkLaravel

How Much Does it Cost to Develop Chef/Cook Booking Mobile App?

The cost of developing an on-demand cook app is directly proportional to a number of factors. This includes the size of the app, number of features and functionalities integrated, complexity level, scalability of the design, and more.
Another important factor that controls the cost of development is the location of the app development company. Depending on the different time zones and the physical architecture of the chosen company, there is a huge variation in the hourly charges.

  • U.S. based developers: $50 to $250 per hour
  • Eastern Europe based developers: $40 to $150 per hour
  • India based developers: $20 to $75 per hour

Moving on, here is a quick breakup of the timeline associated with building an on-demand cook development app.

TaskTime
Technical documentation35 to 40 hours
UI/UX design60 hours
Front-end and back-end development400 hours
MVP testing85 to 90 hours
Polishing and bug fixing45 to 50 hours

Overall, developing a cook on-demand app with limited features and functionalities can cost up to $10,000 to $12,000 for a single platform. These charges may extend up to $25,000 if the developed app is fully feature-rich and driven by superior quality standards.

So, now you must have gotten a pretty good idea of developing an Uber app for chefs and cooks. If you such an app idea then get in touch with a reputed app development company for your next project.

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Author

CTO at Emizentech and a member of the Forbes technology council, Amit Samsukha, is acknowledged by the Indian tech world as an innovator and community builder. He has a well-established vocation with 12+ years of progressive experience in the technology industry. He directs all product initiatives, worldwide sales and marketing, and business enablement. He has spearheaded the journey in the e-commerce landscape for various businesses in India and the U.S.

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