How to Build an App Like Lime?

In the era of traffic, and increasing air pollution, you can help the users to switch over safe, quick and eco-friendly rides.

If you are an entrepreneur searching to enter the industry of e-scooters. Well, it’s the perfect time for you. Many e-scooter apps are leading the industry such as Bird, Dott, and Lime.

You might be wondering about the competitors, right? Well, if your idea is effective to bring an evolution and bridge the gap, you can beat this competition, easily.

Although its important to look for a competitor which might be similar or leading the industry right now. Hence, you will find Lime as among the most preferred eScooter apps.

Thus, here we discuss the steps to build an app like Lime along with the features, costs, factors, and much more.

Shall we begin the journey?

Lime App- Ride Green

Lime has revolutionized the way people are accommodated from one place to another. With Lime e-scooters, they can beat the traffic in a simple and eco-friendly manner. The mission of the app is to offer a sustainable solution to the first as well as last-mile transportation problem by assisting people to move around the cities.

The platform is rolling out different features that are comprised of the ability to rent the electric scooter for their purpose without downloading the app.

Lime assists people in searching for nearby vehicles and seeing local riding and parking guidelines, which thoroughly depend on their location. The users can install the Lime app on a device, where they can select and mention the location. This assists them to find the nearest Lime scooter easily.

The platform has raised a total of 1.5 billion U.S. dollars through funding over 11 rounds. Their latest funding round was on Nov 4, 2021, which amounted to 523 million U.S. dollars. Additionally, it’s a U.S. American micro-mobility organization that has its focus on e-bikes and e-scooters.

In the year 2021, the riders had surpassed 250 million rides via Lime services. This makes it the largest shared micromobility operator when it comes to total trips. Along with this, in the year 2022, Lime controlled 14% of the total e-scooter-shing markets worldwide. The closest competitors of Lime are Lyft and Bird.

With this growing market of Lime e-Scooters, you can step into it, successfully.

Well, if you are still confused about reasons to make an app like Lime, the following section can help.

Why Develop an App Like Lime?

Here the e-scooter sharing market is expected to witness a boost in revenue in the coming years.

Well, here’s a detail on why you should invest in creating an app like Lime.

♦ Growing Market Demand

One of the prime reasons to invest here is its growing market demand. The e-scooter sharing market is projected to reach US $2,039 million by the year 2025.

This growth is anticipated to continue at an annual rate of 5.12% with a market volume of US $2,400 million by the year 2029.

♦ Source of Earning Revenue

Developing an app like Lime can help earn revenue through implementing different monetization methods. You can make money from the app via various strategies such as in-app purchases, in-app advertising, data monetization, and fees of transportation that include charging users per minute.

♦ An Eco-Friendly Measure

Building an app like Lime provides you with an eco-friendly measure to help people with convenient rides. The affordability, convenience, and eco-friendly nature of the e-scooters have developed and attracted a large user base.

Through Lime, users can easily locate and unlock nearby places conveniently to zip around town.

♦ Engaging Users

By creating an app like Lime, it is significant to engage users, who expect a ride that helps them beat the traffic and to reach their destination in time that too in an eco-friendly manner.

An app can be helpful in offering a moral boost, helps to leverage live notifications, and optimizing the design as per their preferences.

♦ Solves Parking Problems

An app like Lime can help resolve parking issues for the target users who need not carry their own vehicle or to stuck in traffic. Here the businesses collect, charge, and then redistribute the scooters to assist the users to enjoy the services.

Additionally, creating an app will solve users’ parking issues as they don’t need to pay high charges to park their vehicles.

These were all the main reasons to consider for building an app like Lime.

Now, let’s consider certain significant features to include here in the following section.

Top Features to Include in an App Like Lime

What are the key features to include in an app like Lime?

Here’s a list to consider for e-Scooter app features.

1. Profile Creation and Signing-Up

It is the prime feature while you build an app like Lime. With this feature, the users can make a profile over the app and assist them to include all the details related to their location, along with a complete setting of profile management.

2. App Tracking and Navigating

You can include navigation and tracking options within an app, where users can track the nearby e-scooters. This will help navigate and reach the destination by simply tracking the nearby e-scooters and then unlocking them.

3. QR Code Scanning

The users can unlock the e-scooters via QR code scanning, allowing the users to drive through assisting them via a code. The code can be found over the app after the ride has been booked. In such a manner, no physical key will be required by the users to unlock the e-scooters.

4. Social Media Sharing Option

Social media integration is one of the important parameters here. The smart apps serve as virtual meeting points for the riders who offer group ride coordination along with meet-up functionalities. In such a manner, the riders can share their ride details with their friends and family.

5. Payment Management

API integration is one of the important features that can be helpful to the users to pay for the ride according to miles of kilometers traveled. With such a feature, the users can simply and securely pay for the ride in an application. This will assist them to pay, even without changing the app.

6. Push Notifications

You can keep the users updated by including the feature of Push Notifications. Keeping the users updated while riding the vehicle or even being off-road is important. You can reach out to the users and inform them related to new discounts or plans for the ride.

7. GPS Location

An e-scooter app cannot work without a GPS, hence it can be stated that you can reduce tracking costs by simplifying fleet tracking. Real-time GPS tracking is an important feature that assists users to track their routes and to get directions to their destinations.

8. Battery Management and Charging

Efficient battery management is a crucial activity for electric scooters because it will impact the rider experience. Through battery management, the users can identify, how many miles the e-scooter can ride and whether they can reach the destination with that battery or if the vehicle requires a charge.

These were all the important features to include within an app like Lime. Well, now let’s proceed with the following section that defines how the app works.

How Does an App Like Lime Work?

Without identifying how an app like Lime works, you cannot jump into its development process, right?

Well, here are the steps of how an app like Lime works.

Step 1: Installation, Profile Creation and Authorization

Here the users can install the app and may authorize it through entering OTP over email or via phone number. This assists the users in keeping their data safe and creating a profile that engages them to prevent any login to invalid apps.

Step 2: Select Location and Enter Details

The users can even select the location where they have to provide access to the app for tracking their location via the GPS feature. You need to enter important details such as name, address, etc so that the app can help the users to find the exact location of the e-scooters around them.

Step 3: Book and Schedule

Now users can schedule or book the e-scooter service via an app like Lime. This will be helpful to identify where the nearby e-scooters are and then to book them according to their preferences. The users can add dates and times to ride with e-scooters.

Step 4: Unlock and Start Ride

Users can unlock the e-scooters through a QR code visible over the app and on the bikes. Then they can enter the destination, and check all the requirements including battery, and other details. Now, they can unlock the ride and may start over.

Step 5: Enjoy the Ride and Pay

Now, it’s time to enjoy the ride, users can end it when they reach their destination. Along with this, users can further pay for the ride and rate it according to their experience. With the in-built payment system in the app, users don’t need to shift to any other app.

These reviews and feedback will help the e-scooter businesses to optimize the app and enhance its overall functions.

Now, let’s move further to “How to build an app like Lime?” in the section beneath.

How to Build an App Like Lime?

If you enter in e-scooter app industry and dream to build an app, then it’s important to have effective direction.

To build an e-scooter app, you can follow the steps below.

Step 1: Value Proposition and Market Analysis

It’s important to conduct market research to evaluate how much your app is important in this diversified market.

What’s the value of your app? You should evaluate the value of your mobile app idea and state its importance for the users. Many questions should be answered before you proceed with the development of an app like Lime. Are you ready to answer them all?

• What unique you can provide to the users in your e-scooter app?
• How much value does your app possess in this market?
• Does your app will serve target users’ needs?
• What kind of issues your app can mitigate in this competitive e-scooter market?

Step 2: Selecting Features and Building MVP

You should select the features based on the e-scooter app’s objective. Additionally, you can build an MVP (Minimum Valuable Product), that will include all the necessary features which will attract the early adopters.

MVP is a version of your app, that can be useful in avoiding the wastage of resources in long-term. It too helps in identifying how your app is seen in the competitive market. Building an MVP will address the following questions.

• How much does your app attract users?
• What kind of bugs the version contains?
• Are the added features enough to address users’ issues or they should be molded?
• What are the positive and negative sides of your e-scooter app?

Step 3: Design Your App

It’s important to design an e-scooter app with simple and attractive features that will retain users in the long term. In this step, you should know the target users and can assist them in building the user persona and a journey map.

Here you can design an app (UI/UX) by including the latest technologies, and tools that will enable your business to address growing user demands. Let’s check out what questions designing an app will resolve.

• Is the design simple to be understood by the target users?
• How your app can retain users by creating simple designs?
• Are designing the features sufficient to address user’s issues?
• Have you implemented a trendy design in the app to sustain a competitive environment?

Step 4: Build Tech Stack

You should create a tech stack that will support the selected features to develop an app like Lime. When you are in the service industry, the selected technologies must be efficient to address growing user demand.

The eScooter app tech stack can comprise technologies such as React Native, Swift, or Kotlin (based on the platforms), which are important for building user-friendly mobile interfaces. Under this step, you can go for back-end development, for handling data and selected operations. Let’s check out the questions below.

• Is the selected tech stack enable to resolve diversified issues for your target audience?
• How much time it will take to implement the selected tech stack?
• Does your selected developer’s team have the skills to implement an updated technology stack within your app?

Step 5: Select Platforms and Build the App

Now, it is time to build a complete app like Lime, by combining all the selected steps. Here you need to select the platforms among Android, iOS, and Hybrid.

Here you can check out the cost of these platforms before selecting one. The platform selection will depend on the type of audience you want to reach via creating an app like Lime. Let’s check out all the questions related to the same, here.

• What are the top platforms to select for launching your app?
• Is the selected platform enough for your app to attain success?

Step 6: App Testing

You should test your app under different circumstances under this step. It will be useful for your app to identify any errors or bugs that will hamper the overall performance. Mobile app testing is all about adopting the latest tools and techniques for addressing bugs.

It’s essential to test the app rigorously so that any errors or bugs can be mitigated quickly. This will enhance user experience with your business and you will be able to engage the users for the long run. The testing should address the following questions.

• Is the app testing capable of addressing identified bugs and errors within your dream project?
• Will your testing tool be enough to address technical faults and glitches?

Step 7: Deployment, Launch, and Maintenance

Under this step, you can deploy your app over the selected platform after fulfilling the license requirement of your target project. Later, you can launch the app over the selected date.

It’s important to launch the app on the decided date to avoid giving chances to competitors to take over the market. Then, you should go for mobile app maintenance services, where you can include effective measures to sustain your e-scooter app in the competitive market. Let’s address the following questions on the same.

• Is your app ready to launch after reducing all bugs and errors?
• Additionally, what methods you can adopt for maintaining the app?

Now, as we covered “how to make an app like Lime?” let’s proceed with the cost in the next section..

What’s the Cost to Build an App Like Lime?

Discovering the mobile app development cost can vary depending on different factors including app complexity, app design, technologies, team of developers, and many others.

However, the average cost to build an app like Lime can vary from $20,000 to $150,000. Let’s discover the factors impacting the cost to create an e-scooter app in the following section.

Factors Impacting The Cost To Create An App Like Lime

To evaluate the right and average cost, you should identify different factors impacting the same.

Let’s discover them all here.

• Complexity and Size

One of the important factors that impact the complete cost to build an app like Lime can be the complexity of the features. A series of complex features will lead to high costs and vice-versa.

Other than this, size is an important determinant that you should consider here. Large apps will require a high cost to develop compared to small-sized apps. Here the cost can vary from $2,000 to $20,000.

• App Design

Here the app design can vary from $5,000 to $15,000. This design will be impacted by different factors such as color, theme, typography, and various other parameters.

The cost to design an app can vary for e-scooter apps based on the location or region you want to cover and the skills of the designers.

• Tech Stack

Another crucial component is the technology stack. Where the tech stack will depend on different elements such as type of app, size of app, skills of developers, and features included within it.

Here the cost can vary from $5,000 to $20,000. You should select the technologies, after evaluating the current trends and environment of the e-Scooter apps industry.

• Team of Developers

A team of developers is one of the crucial parameters to consider when deciding the cost to make an app like Lime. Under this phenomenon, you must look for the skills and location of the developers.

The cost to hire developers can vary from $15,000 to $150,000 when it comes to Asia. However, if you hire developers from middle Europe or the United States, it can vary from $30,000 to $400,000.

• Choice of Platform

The selection of platforms impacts the overall cost to build an app like Lime. Here you need to opt for the license based on the selected platform that can increase the total costs. Under this step, the cost can vary from $5,000 to $20,000, depending on the platform.

If it’s just one platform, then the cost can be lower than the multiple platforms. However, developing an app for another platform post-launch on one can even cost you much higher.

• Maintenance and Security Cost

Another significant factor that impacts the cost is maintenance and security. Here the cost to maintain an app can be 15% to 20% of the overall costs.

Thus, the cost can vary from $3,000 to $15,000. The cost can vary according to security tools and maintenance techniques carried out for the project.

Till now, we have discussed the concept of the Lime App, its statistics, features, reasons, working process of the app, steps to build it, costs, and its factors.

Now, one significant resource that cannot be overlooked is the time factor. You should know how much time your project might take to reflect in the market, right?

Then let’s check out the next section.

How Long Does it Take to Create an App Like Lime?

How much time does it take to build a mobile app?

Here’s a table you can proceed with.

Here the time to develop an app like Lime can vary depending on different factors as the objective of the app, features, and skills of developers.

Now, as we learn about the resources, let’s evaluate the strategies to earn money.

Monetization Strategies For an App Like Lime

What are the top mobile app monetization strategies to earn money for an app like Lime?

Here’s the detail of the top e-scooter app’s monetization framework.

➤ Charging User’s Per Minute

You can charge the users per minute for every single trip in a simple way to earn money. Here you can set a base cost to unlock the scooter and an additional charge depending on the duration of distance covered. This model will let you make money directly without involving any third party.

➤ In-App Advertisements

The e-scooter applications can display banner ads for the users during their interactions. They can charge the targeted advertisements depending on the space provided over the app to promote third-party products and services.

➤ In-App Purchases

In-app purchases are all about adding multiple features to the users and then fixing prices for every feature. It is any fee in addition to the cost to download an app over a smartphone or tablet. This strategy can become a permanent source of revenue for your eScooter app.

➤ Data Monetization

Data monetization is one of the important procedures where company-generated data is utilized for developing measurable economic benefits. You should obtain the consent of the users before using their data for monetary purposes.

➤ Partnerships and Sponsorships

You can create partnerships with local businesses, restaurant chains, businesses, and others to offer discounts to the users. This will help you to build connections and here you may agree to revenue-sharing agreements or any kind of sponsorships from companies.

➤ Subscription Plans

The subscription plans are available for the riders who will avail themselves of a certain amount of benefits and offers. You can offer different subscription plans based on user demands. This is a permanent source of revenue-earning model for your app.

You can select these models to earn money while creating an app like Lime. Now, if you want to know details related to your app, connecting with an experienced company might help.

Why Select Nimble AppGenie for Building An App Like Lime?

Are you the one searching for creating your dream app?

Nimble AppGenie is here for you. Our team is here to help you with planning an app, creating an app, and then maintaining it.

We are the leading eScooter App Development Company, focused on delivering integrity, honesty, and commitment within the project. You can connect with our company to let your dream app convert into reality.

Conclusion

To build an app like Lime, you need to access certain important steps that will begin with market analysis and end with launching the project. Along with this, you can add features within the app such as app tracking, navigations, QR code scanning, navigations, and notifications.

If you are still confused about the reasons to build an app like Lime, then there are many to look for such as growing market demand, source of earning revenue, and engaging users. You can earn money from building an app like Lime through subscription plans, in-app purchases, in-app advertising, data monetization, partnerships, and sponsorships. Connecting with an experienced company can help.

FAQs

Niketan Sharma

Niketan Sharma is the CTO of Nimble AppGenie, a prominent website and mobile app development company in the USA that is delivering excellence with a commitment to boosting business growth & maximizing customer satisfaction. He is a highly motivated individual who helps SMEs and startups grow in this dynamic market with the latest technology and innovation.