Cost To Build An App Like Hala Taxi In Dubai [2025]

With urbanization around the world and the need for modern transportation services, the global taxi app industry is booming. Currently valued at $244 billion, the market is expected to grow to $368.4 billion by 2033, a figure with an annual growth rate of 4.66%. The industry is led by the Asia-Pacific region, which is projected to hold over 54.5% of the market share in 2024 due to urban center migrations and the adoption of ride-hailing services.

One of the industry’s leaders, Hala Taxi, demonstrates how technology is used in transportation services. At the same time, they showcase how technology shapes modern transportation in the Middle East. In context to its mobile app, developing a Hala taxi application requires significant research of the market, prospective users, and application technologies. 

In this blog, we will provide a breakdown of the expenses incurred during the Hala Taxi Abu Dhabi development with a focus on its key features, growth phases, and overall budget.

What is a hala taxi? 

​On August 29, 2019, Hala was launched as a joint venture of Careem and the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) and now serves as an official e-hailing taxi service in Dubai. The Careem application features Hala and allows users to book taxis in real-time with clear pricing, route visibility, and various payment options. By 2022, Hala had facilitated over 9 million trips, marking a 40% growth from the previous year. Currently, the service boasts a fleet of 13,000 taxis and 24,000 captains, which could grow even more by 2024. Innovations like WhatsApp booking and the introduction of electric vehicles are altering urban mobility in Dubai. Taxi booking app Hala plays an important role in this transformation.​

Why is it Popular in Dubai?

Hala Taxi has become extremely popular in Dubai due to several factors that align with the city’s fast-paced, tech-savvy lifestyle. Here are five key reasons for the taxi booking app Hala's popularity:

Government-backed Partnership: As a collaboration between careem hala taxi and the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), Hala Taxi Abu Dhabi is seen as a trusted and reliable service. The association with the government guarantees hassle-free implementation along with compliance of all applicable laws and policies, as well as the quality of service that is offered.

User-Friendly Integration with Careem: Hala Taxi Dubai for its services, because it has an extensive user network in the UAE. The integration is very smooth, as it allows users to toggle between taxi services and ride-hailing seamlessly. This provides heightened convenience.

Affordable and Transparent Pricing: Unlike many other ride-hailing services, Hala Taxi Dubai does not surcharge during surge periods and allows competitive fares. Transparent pricing fosters trust, ensuring users know what they will pay before booking a ride. From this, reliability is built.

Fleet Size and Availability: Sustained at peak times, Hala makes sure rides are readily available due to its fleet of 24,000 drivers and 13,000 taxis. This allows convenience at all times.

Focus on Innovation: In order to remain relevant in an always-changing tech landscape, an app similar to Hala Taxi integrates new electric vehicles into its fleet alongside WhatsApp bookings. This shows how they are committed to staying ahead of the curve.

Features Of The Hala Taxi Booking App

Here is the list of Hala taxi app features that will help you build an amazing and successful taxi booking app. 

Seamless Booking Integration: Access and ease through taxi services alongside other ride-hailing options get booked through Careem, enabling it to be accessed all on one platform. Hala Taxi Booking wants this holistic experience for its users.

Real-time Tracking: The transparent and secure travel experience from the start and finish is available through tracking taxis in real time, providing users with accurate arrival times. These allow accuracy and safety to the users.

Transparent Pricing: Users are allowed to know the exact cost of confirming the booking with no surge charges from Hala. This helps customers avoid the surprise of additional fees mid-ride. Booking the ride remains hassle free.

Multiple Payment Methods: Payment options which include credit and debit cards and cash, Apple Pay, etc. are all also accepted in the app similar to hala taxi which increases its flexibility and convenience for the users located in Dubai.

Rating System: Passengers rate their drivers, thus providing the feedback necessary to maintain service quality, make transparency regarding the driver’s performance, and learn where improvement is needed.

24/7 Availability: Taxi booking apps like hala taxi offer taxi rides around the clock meaning their services can be used at any time. This allows users to rely on the service for their transportation needs during the day or even at night.

Ride History: For users who need to keep track of their expenses, it becomes easy to view their previous bookings and ride history, which includes date, time, and even cost, thus assisting with record keeping or budgeting.

Real-Time Traffic Updates: With the inclusion of traffic updates, the Taxi booking app like hala taxi ensures drivers select the quickest route to avoid delays and guarantees timely arrivals.

Taxi Type Selection: Clients can select from a range of options, including electric cars, SUVs, and traditional sedans, based on individual needs, preferences, comfort level, and size.

Safety Features: The hala app development contains safety and assistance functions such as monitoring contacts with the addition of ride accessible emergency buttons.

Easy Cancellation: Users can face little to no cancellation fees, especially in the case of having to travel for work and needing to make last minute changes to their plans.

Driver Information: Key details of drivers, such as their names and photographs, together with the vehicles used, are provided on the application to hold the riders accountable and secure them while ensuring their safety.

ETA Notifications: Users are warned about the ETA (estimated time of arrival). This enables better scheduling and management of the time spent waiting and prevents unreasonable waiting times.

Referral Program: Passengers who bring in new users to the service are granted ‘Hala’ ride credits or discount incentives which gives users the ability to earn simply by bringing their friends.

Environmentally Friendly Options: Hala app development makes it easier for commuters who are conscious about the environment by inviting consideration from passengers who want to reduce their carbon fingerprints by using electric cars in their fleet when traveling around Dubai.

Cost To Build a Taxi App Like Hala

The cost to develop a taxi app like Hala falls between the range of $30,000 and $150,000, depending on the required features such as payment processing, booking rides, and ride tracking. Along with these features, the inclusion of advanced AI routing, multi-language support, and additional payment options can raise the total cost to $200,000. For further Taxi booking app development costs in Dubai, ongoing costs would be required to sustain maintenance, updates, and server hosting services.

From an economic perspective, a cross-platform application is more affordable to develop than a native application due to lower costs across different operating systems. With that said, the developers still hold high expectations of meeting quality standards in code, bug testing, and experience design. Aside from the application itself, the location of the development team significantly impacts the overall expenses allotted to the hala-like taxi app.

Factors Affecting Hala Taxi App Development Cost

Now that you know the cost to develop a taxi app like Hala, you need to know about the factors that you need to consider. Here is the list of features that you need to know about 

App Platform (iOS, Android, or Both)

Due to budget-friendly reasons, the cost of developing a taxi app like Hala on Android surpasses the price of creating native versions for iOS and Android. Unlike cross-platform applications, cross-platform application development encourages optimization of costs. With the addition of tailoring and integrating advanced features into native versions, expenses and time needed for development are sure to outstrip.

UI/UX Design Complexity

In opposition to aiding customer self-serve capabilities, thoughtful UI increases cost to develop taxi apps like hala. Animations and branding along with non-linear menus customized for different devices, elevate the expense baseline, but negatively impact budget by increasing design hours. Testing, design, and associated efforts, often resulting from an uptick in complex design structures, incur additional costs.

Feature Set and Functionality

Simple applications with booking and payment processes are less costly to develop compared to applications that include advanced features such as real-time driver tracking, automatic AI routing, multi-language support, driver rating, and integration into the backend system. The cost to build a taxi app like Hala is significantly lengthened, and expenses increase when extensive capabilities are added.

Backend Infrastructure

APIs from third parties such as maps, payments, and an SMS cloud can have their own databases. These can be managed along with hosted services. The system is designed with a cloud backend to be scalable and secure with responsive data logic that can handle a high volume of data traffic contention while also estimating cost enhanced the importance of server, custom logic needed to be designed, and volume managing contention.

Third-Party API Integrations

Google maps and other payment gateways increase the cost to build taxi apps like hala, but these services require licensing which increases the overall hala taxi app development cost. Development of proprietary API integrations requires extensive performance testing and adds to aggregate cost in design, underscoring the value of thorough testing.

Admin Panel and Dashboard

An advanced driver and user analytics combined with payment integration admin panel simplifies the function of the admin, but upscaling requires more resources. Increased logic requires advanced detailed reporting, filter management, and automation features accompanied by backend work, resulting in higher cost to build taxi apps like hala.

Security and Compliance

Integrating GDPR policies, secure payment processing, and encrypting sensitive information increases the hala taxi app development cost. Adherence to secure logging, SSL, and user data protection adds more work and is more demanding when it comes to verification, especially for high-trust systems for public transport applications like Hala.

Development Team Location and Expertise

Hala taxi app development costs are lower when hiring in South Asia and Eastern Europe than in North America and Western Europe. Eastern Europe and South Asia also have lower costs for mid-level positions, while senior developers and specialized roles (AI, cybersecurity) tend to charge higher rates.

Final Words 

Creating an application similar to Hala Taxi requires a thoughtful combination of technology, design, and scalability. We at IMG Global Infotech specialize in developing fully functional, feature-rich taxi booking applications that align with your business goals. As experts in mobile development, real-time GPS tracking, secure payment gateways, and user-friendly UX/UI, we make sure that users enjoy seamless navigation alongside robust backend responsiveness. Whether you're launching an MVP or an extensive ride-hailing platform, our team provides comprehensive solutions tailored to your objectives and financial parameters. Let us at IMG Global Infotech transform your vision of a taxi app into a scalable success that is ready for the market. Call us now!