Mobile appFood, grocery & deliveryOriginal by Wolt
Wolt is a delivery platform that stands out through design quality and customer support. Photo-rich restaurant and product pages, smooth animations, accurate delivery time estimates and fast-responding live support give users confidence. Offering grocery stores, pharmacies and retail shops alongside restaurants in the same app increases order frequency and uses the courier network efficiently.
To build something similar you need a customer app, a merchant tablet app, a courier partner app, a live support console and an admin panel. The back end runs matching, a time estimation model, a multi-category catalogue and a merchant payout system. The support console should show order history and courier location on one screen so issues can be resolved within minutes.
How Wolt works: the core user flow
How many apps and dashboards do you need?
Customer app
Users discover restaurants and shops, order, track live and chat with support.
Merchant app
Restaurants or shops accept orders and manage preparation times and product availability.
Courier partner app
Couriers go online, take jobs, complete deliveries and see their earnings.
Support and admin panel
The team resolves live support requests and manages cities, merchants and the courier network.
Critical features of a product like Wolt
Live support console
A support tool showing order details, courier location and customer history on one screen, with authority to issue quick refunds and coupons.
Visual-first discovery
High-quality food photos, collections and personalised recommendation lists.
Dynamic delivery time estimates
An estimated arrival time updated throughout the order using preparation, courier distance and traffic data.
Multi-category delivery
Restaurants, grocery stores, pharmacies and retail shops offered on the same basket infrastructure with different rules.
Courier partner management
Applications, document checks, training content, earnings reports and equipment tracking.
Group and scheduled orders
Shared baskets with friends and orders scheduled for a later time.
What goes into the first version, what comes later
First version (MVP)
- Restaurant-focused customer app with live tracking
- Merchant tablet app
- Courier partner app and automatic assignment
- In-app live support chat
- Admin panel for merchants, payouts and cities
Later releases
- Grocery and retail store categories
- Group orders and scheduled orders
- Free delivery with subscription
- Advertising and analytics panel for merchants
Modules and how the budget is calculated
The budget is calculated with 360 SOFT’s pricing model from the modules below, about 38 screens and the project’s complexity: roughly 238 person-days for the full scope and 148 person-days for the first version. Every module you drop lowers the budget directly.
| Module | Phase |
|---|---|
| Sign-up, login, social login | First version |
| User profile and settings | First version |
| Roles and permissions | First version |
| Admin dashboard | First version |
| Product / content catalogue | First version |
| Cart and checkout | First version |
| Advanced search and filters | First version |
| Online payments (Stripe / PSP) | First version |
| Maps, location, routing | First version |
| Push notifications | First version |
| Real-time messaging | First version |
| File, photo, video upload | First version |
| Marketplace integration (Amazon, etc.) | Later release |
| Reporting and analytics | Later release |
| Multi-language | First version |
Hosting, SMS, map APIs, app store accounts and payment-provider fees are separate items. Maintenance and improvements (optional): €800 / month. We send a fixed written price within 24 hours after a free discovery call.
The hard parts
Balancing design and performance
A visual-first interface and animations must not slow down on low-end phones; image optimisation and caching are essential.
Support costs
Fast, high-quality live support is expensive; it must scale with automated resolution flows and authorised canned responses.
Estimate accuracy
Trust suffers when time estimates are wrong; the model must be retrained continuously on real delivery data.
Business model
Order commission from merchants and delivery fees from customers are the core revenue lines. A subscription programme offering free delivery to frequent customers provides recurring revenue. Selling sponsored placements and analytics packages to merchants, and delivery services via the courier network to retail stores, expands the revenue model and uses courier capacity throughout the day.
Get a free quote for your project
Let us scope it together and send a fixed written quote within 24 hours. NDA on request; you own the source code.
Choosing a company to build an app like Wolt
Most people searching “build an app like wolt” are really looking for a reliable app development company. When comparing quotes, check four things:
- Can you try similar products they have shipped, in the stores or live?
- Are the source code, design files, servers and store accounts transferred to you by contract?
- Do they show a working demo every two weeks, with written scope and acceptance criteria?
- Are maintenance, scaling and GDPR/security costs written into the quote?
Copyright and trademarks
A business model and features are generally not protected on their own, but the Wolt name, logo, interface design, content and source code are. That is why we build a product with similar functionality but your own brand, design and code. This is not legal advice; we recommend a trademark search before launch.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to build an app like Wolt?
A restaurant-focused first version takes a few months of development. If design quality is a goal, extra time should be set aside for UX and animation work.
Can an off-the-shelf tool be used for live support?
Yes, tools such as Zendesk or Intercom are enough to start with. A custom console integrated with order and courier data, however, significantly shortens resolution times as you scale.
How many separate apps are needed?
You need a customer app, a merchant app, a courier partner app and a support and admin panel.
Are there copyright or trademark issues?
The delivery platform model and its features are generally free to use; names, logos, design, content and code cannot be copied. This is not legal advice.
