Parking App Development: A Quick Guide to Success 

Finding space, especially in large cities, has become a nightmare for drivers because it takes 30 minutes and 4.5 km to find a vacant parking spot. This costs drivers a lot not only in terms of money but also increases time. 

The situation has become worse when someone runs late to reach the office and is stuck in congested traffic. Despite an increasing number of cars, parking spaces have become scarce. 

Inrix (a pioneer in the transportation industry) conducted a study, and the findings revealed that 70 billion dollars are wasted every year on parking. This results in lost time and waste of fuel. 

Such startling statistics highlight the need to develop a parking finder app. 

This ultimate guide tells you about the nuts and bolts of developing a car parking application, its features, and how much it costs you. 

The need to develop a parking application  

Steve Jobs once said that there is an app for everything. This statement holds significant importance in today’s life. From tracking sleeping patterns to social media apps to booking flights, mobile apps have become an inseparable element of everyone’s life. 

Rapid urbanization and traffic congestion have become a daunting task for car owners and manufacturers. This has given birth to car parking applications. These mobile apps use real-time data and guide the person driving the car by finding available parking spaces, booking parking slots in advance, and paying for reservations. 

A parking application reduces fuel consumption as the person need not worry about searching for parking space. Thus, it provides less harm to the environment. 

One recent study found that an average American wastes 17 hours/year for finding parking spaces. It costs $345 per driver in terms of time, fuel, and emission. 

The rising number of cars leads to a scarcity of empty parking spaces. That’s why there is a need for efficient technology that makes it easy for vehicle owners to find available parking spaces. 

Key Features to include in developing a car parking app 

Here are a few essential features for users and parking owners to add while developing a car parking app. Let’s discuss it step by step – 

Basic Features	Description
Real time parking availability	A GPS location tells the user about the real-time availability of parking spaces along with the approximate distance between the parking slot and the user’s location. It even provides the user with step-by-step directions to reach the parking area.
Reserve the parking space	Users can find the perfect spot to park the vehicle. No need to roam here and there to find the empty parking space.
Compare the prices of parking slots	The driver can compare the prices of different parking spaces and find the most affordable place.
Online payments	Various payment options should be integrated when developing a mobile parking application. Users can pre-book the space and make payments quickly.    The app development company with which you collaborate should create a car finder app integrated with a secure payment processing system.
Choose the parking slot	The user can select the time interval to park the vehicle. Later, the app sends notifications to them about the active parking session.
User’s profile and account history	Users can see the past parking history, and the cost paid for each slot, find their past parking slots, and select the duration for parking vehicles.
Ratings and reviews	Users can leave reviews and share their experiences after using the app. They can also read feedback from past users about the parking spaces.
Multi lingual support	A car parking application should support multiple languages. If you cater to a broad population, you can offer multi-lingual support allowing the user to access the parking services in their preferred language.

Advanced features for the parking app development 

To enhance the app functionality, here are few advanced features that you should add when creating a parking app- 

Advanced features	Description
Push notifications	It can be used for sending real-time parking updates and confirming the reservation, so the user won’t miss anything. These alerts enhance the user engagement.
Waiting list	This feature notifies the user as and when the parking space becomes available. A lot of times, parking lots are occupied.
Tag location	It stores the location of the place where the user parked the car. Users can share their parked location across social media platforms.
Personalized recommendations	Integration of advanced machine learning algorithms in mobile app tracks guest preferences. It then offers personalized suggestions about the frequently visited spots.
Automated pricing optimization	It calculates the pricing of parking slots by analyzing the time of day, demand, and special events.  It’s helpful for parking space owners as they can charge maximum revenue from drivers.

Features for Parking owners 

Let’s discuss some of the core features of mobile apps for parking owners – 

Features	Description
Registration/sign up	It allows parking space owners to login to the app using their e-mail or register it using social media credentials.
Add/remove parking slots	The parking space owner manages the parking slot (add or remove parking area).
Setting prices	It allows the parking space owner to charge for the available slot depending on the timeslot, type of vehicle parked and its demand.
Manage bookings	The parking space owner can manage bookings (accept or decline). They can even give priority to the vehicle owner who regularly parks his vehicle. They can check the total no of bookings received for the empty slot.
Manage payments	The parking owner can accept payments through an integrated payment gateway, and check the payments received for previous bookings.

Features of parking mobile app for admin panel 

Let’s discuss some of the features in detail for the admin panel – 

Features	Description
Manage users	The admin is responsible for managing user activities such as app users, booking history, payment history etc. The admin oversees the back-end side of things to enhance the user experience.
Manage details of parking owner	The admin can manage the details of the parking owner. Additionally, they can maintain the cost record that a parking owner charges from the user.
Manage bookings	This feature allows the admin to manage user bookings, the cost of each booking and how many empty slots are available.
Accept payments	The admin can view the payment status, check the number of cars parked, the revenue of the parking owner and if any refunds are made.
Run offers	The admin can release offers and discounts to regular customers. They can decide to run offers for all the users or specific users.

How do you create a Parking mobile application? 

Here are the few steps involved in creating a Parking mobile application – 

1. Perform overall market research  

The first step in creating a mobile app for parking starts with conducting market research. Do the competitor analysis to figure out what your competitors are offering and how they’re helping vehicle owners. 

You can review some popular car parking management solutions to get an idea of how they provide booking services to customers at the best price. Some of these include BestParking, SpotHero, ParkoPedia, etc. 

Talk to your target audience to see what problems people usually face while parking vehicles.  One problem can be, for example, people struggle to find parking spaces and waste a lot of time. This happens in busy locations such as malls, cinema halls, etc. 

Another problem can be people want real-time parking updates. That’s possible with the help of a parking management system. 

Figure out how you will make your app different (decide your USP). Will you cater to niche markets or expand your presence worldwide? 

At BigOhTech, our app developers thoroughly evaluate your business idea, find the competitor gaps, and develop a parking application. Then, we study the demand for apps in areas that always remain occupied. 

2. Choose the business model for your car finder application  

You need to choose a suitable business model that can generate a good amount of revenue for your application. There are different types of business models for your car parking finder application: 

• Navigation-based business model  

This type of model focuses on finding a parking space near the current location of the users, but they can’t make a reservation in advance. It’s a GPS-based navigation model, and users will reach the destination and reserve the spot. 

For example – Waze is a free car parking application with an intuitive user interface. It offers a “where to park” feature allowing users to find the nearby available parking slots with just a few taps. 

• Navigation plus booking application  

Here, users can find available parking spaces and reserve spots in advance. It reduces the hassle for users of waiting in queues and allows them to make payments through various options such as cash or cashless modes. 

For example – “Park.me” is a car parking mobile application allowing users to find parking spaces, book slots in advance, and make prepayments. 

• Full-fledged booking model 

It’s an all-in-one booking app for car parking. Vehicle owners can not only park their cars in advance but also extend the duration of parking if they are late. This also provides additional details about the staff and the person who will come to pick up your car. 

3. Find the parking app developers 

This step involves finding the app development team who can create a successful parking mobile application. If you don’t have an in-house app developer, you can simply outsource it to an app development agency that has relevant experience in car parking app development services. 

Make sure to have clear communication with them about your project idea, your business goals, and USP. 

At BigOhTech, we understand our client requirements and then create customized car parking app solutions. We integrate simple to complex functionalities so that your app can help you reach your desired target audience and bring in tons of revenue. 

While selecting the car parking app development company, evaluate their technical skills, head over to the portfolio section to see what clients they served in the past. Also, check what tech stack they use and whether they’re compatible with iOS, Android, or cross-platform. 

4. Create an enticing UI/UX design 

You need to create a visually appealing UI/UX design for the parking app that hooks users to spend longer time. Every dollar you invest in your app gives you $100 in return. It means focusing on UI/UX design can’t be ignored as 95% of impressions that people make depend on app design. 

The car parking app you create should have a minimal yet simple design. An app with a user-friendly and sleek interface enhances user engagement. 

Moreover, the steps involved from booking till payment stage should be fewer, otherwise too many features might overwhelm users. They’re more likely to abandon your app. 

The app should be functionally effective and solve the main purpose of the user – that’s finding the parking slot and reserving a spot. 

5. Select the technology stack 

The app development company you partner with should choose the right technology stack for your application. The choice of technology stack depends on the platform you want to serve (Android, iOS, cross-platform). 

Through mobile app market research, you can find out where potential customers spend most of their time and choose that platform. 

If you want to serve a large market (particularly Android and iOS customers), you can choose a cross-platform app development framework. You can reduce the development time and cost to create an app that works across multiple platforms. 

Here’s a technology stack that our developers use: 

• Kotlin for Android 

• Swift for iOS 

• Ruby on Rails or Django for backend architecture 

• React Native and Flutter for cross-platform app development 

6. Decide the features for a car parking app 

When building a car parking app, make sure to add basic yet essential features. Don’t bombard too many advanced functionalities in your app when starting out. Release the MVP version first and get the user’s feedback. 

Once your app gains momentum, you can add more advanced features. 

7. Launch the app as MVP 

The technology partner you choose will launch your app on respective stores such as Google Play for Android and App Store for iOS. 

A leading travel app development company collects user feedback through ratings and reviews. They will then fine-tune the app and make iterations. 

Cost of developing parking mobile apps 

The rising cost of parking mobile apps is due to a number of factors such as features, client requirements, type of platform chosen, business model you select, geographic location of app developers, and the number of hours that developers put in. 

The cost might fluctuate depending on the hourly rate of developers, and different regions have different rates. 

To give you a fair estimate, the cost of creating a basic car parking application range between $25,000 – $40,000 for a simple app. Price may go high based on how complex features you want to add. 

Let’s discuss the factors that affect the development cost of car parking apps: 

1. Type of features (Basic or advanced) 

The cost of developing a car parking application depends on the number and type of features you want. 

An application with basic functionalities such as location-based sharing, finding the nearby parking spot costs comparatively less than the application that has advanced features such as app uses AI algorithms to make predictive parking suggestions. 

The more features you add, the greater the app development cost. 

2. Type of platform (native or cross-platform) 

Creating a native app (Android or iOS) is more expensive than creating a cross-platform parking app. It requires a single codebase to create a cross-platform app resulting in less development time and cost. 

3. Geographic location of developers 

Developers living in Asian countries charge less than those living in Western and eastern America. Rates may vary because the hourly rate of developers aren’t static in different regions. 

The cost also varies depending on whether you partner with freelancers or an app development agency. At the same time, don’t compromise with the quality of work. 

4. Timeline for the project 

The time required to complete the car finder development project depends on the project timeline. The shorter the project span, the more resources you require. 

You can get an estimate of app development cost: 

Cost of developing car finder application = development time * hourly rate 

5. Third-party integrations 

If you want to turn your app into a smart parking solution, then you need to add third-party integrations.  

Integration of app with third-party services increases your app development cost. Third-party integrations are required to enhance the app functionality. 

Wrapping up 

A recent report by Market Insights states that the market size of car parking finder apps will grow at a rate of 17.6% during 2021-2031. 

The rising demand for smart vehicle systems is because of increasing traffic congestion challenges and drivers having to take multiple rounds to park their vehicles. 

It wastes their time and adds to their fuel cost. 

So, in this guide, we shared actionable steps on developing a parking app. If you lack technical expertise, then find a technology partner who can support your business vision and help you achieve your business goals. 

Crafting a perfect travel application requires profound expertise along with attention to detail. 

As a travel app development company, our app developers are proficient in travel booking software that 2x your user experience and increase your business revenue by 3x. We integrate various features in travel applications (smart reservation, multiple payment methods, push notifications) to help you remain competitive and fulfill your customer needs.