People have started to think about their comfort, and therefore the number of cars is constantly increasing in cities, and parking slots are limited. It consumes a lot of time in searching for a parking lot.
With the help of the advanced IT industry, a solution has come, i.e., parking space apps. The parking space detection system apps help to save time and the audacities of the users.
The primary parking app feature is to help users to discover and book free parking spots nearby. These parking apps are supported by cashless payments, have in-built GPS, and many more features.
You will get to know more about parking space detection system apps in this guide. Further various parking app features, step by step ways to develop such parking space apps are discussed below.
The structure may sound complex, but you can always ask for help from a top mobile app development company as they can solve your queries and cater for you with their tailor-made solutions.
How Does a Parking Space Apps Work?
If you are looking forward to developing the best parking app, you must develop parking app features from the user’s perspective.
According to the parking management market analysis, the parking management business is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12% between 2017 and 2023. The 6 key steps required for parking space apps are:
☛ Searching
It helps users locate the free parking slots with GPS help or add the necessary address.
☛ Comparing
There are parking app features that provide users with various parking options. To find the perfect match, users can filter the options to compare price, distance, and space provided and then book their slot.
☛ Booking
The driver gets free/paid access to the booked parking slot and gets an access code to park there.
☛ Paying
Users can pay for their parking with cashless transactions using debit/credit card, UPI, or other payment gateway options. Or else they can pay afterward by cash. Check out the comprehensive list of payment gateways for Mobile Apps.
☛ Navigation/Driving
The parking app will navigate users to the parking lot.
☛ Parking
At last, the driver can park his car in his preferred parking lot.
Steps And Process to Follow to Develop a Parking Space Apps
A question must have been raised in your mind, how to create a parking app? There are certain steps followed by iOS app development company, so let’s look at them in detail:
1. Define Your Objective
Everything initiates with a basic interest in a mobile application. Do you need to get answers to questions like what issues your parking app will solve?
Will it be a parking management app or a parking assistance app? Is it going to have parking app features like discovering a parking lot, payment options, and many more?
Or will it explode an entirely new platform and issue? While answering these questions, you will define your objective to develop your parking space apps.
2. Carry Out Market Study
The market study will help you to determine your competitors. That will let you know if your application will succeed in the market or if will you be able to capture a good amount of customers or not.
It will help you analyze your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, and you can design your app accordingly.
It will also help to know about the ways of marketing and monetizing you need to adopt.
3. Search For Your Team of Developers
Everything will move very smoothly if you have your team of parking app developers. Working with an experienced and hardworking team of developers makes work easier as you have to instruct them and check on their progress reports.
In case you do not have your team, then outsource a reliable, hardworking mobile app development company.
4. List Down Your Technical Needs
Create your list of technical requirements, and it can be determined from the purpose of the parking space app.
Determining the concept can help you know the arrangement and priorities for your parking app features. Then, make a specific report or a functional specification document with features like booking, search, payment, etc.
5. Create a Great Design
Once the technical specifications are sorted, the team should proceed with design, development, and testing. You will get a clear image of the combined features and concepts in the design phase as the concept is defined to get a roadmap.
That will guide you to know the connection between all screens and ways a driver will use to navigate through your parking space apps.
As people focus a lot on the app design, therefore, put your efforts to create a user-friendly and convenient design. A great design can help you to gain lots of loyal visitors.
6. Consider Your Technology Stack
It would be best if you considered the tech stack for your parking space detection system apps. It is a responsible step for project stability and scalability.
So apps can launch on cross-platform, hybrid, or native. All have their benefits and disadvantages that you should consider in advance.
7. Develop And Test Your Parking App
As developers have everything on their plate so now they can start with back-end and front-end development, setting up servers, APIs, storage solutions, and other things.
Once done, it will provide you with an original app idea in place. Further, you can test your app for understanding.
8. Launch The App
When the step comes to launch an app, app marketplaces have their policies. And it would be best if you initiated your preparation for this phase.
Based on your marketing efforts, you can launch your parking space app. Then reach out to early adopters and get knowable feedback for your car parking apps.
9. Maintenance For Your App
The step of maintenance engages in solving bug fixes which enhances a developed app version.
Check out the best parking apps and its features before developing parking space apps.
Parking App Business Models
The parking space apps have several functions, from navigation depending upon GPS to online payments and several others.
In case you want to build a parking space detection system apps. It would be best if you made a business strategy. The 3 basic business models one needs to follow.
1. Navigation
It is a primary option as it provides users with a major function,i.e., searching for a parking area near the vehicle’s location.
Parking space apps that follow navigation will be unable to book a free parking space. However, these are the only options for an MVP version to initiate the business.
2. Navigation and Booking
It is a more complex model than the previous model. It enables users to hunt the place and book their preferred parking space. Furthermore, it can permit the driver to navigate to the selected area.
These parking space apps offer users a flexible payment system. Therefore users can pay in cash or through other payment gateway options.
They also have integrated features like navigation to the parked vehicle or adding on additional parking time, and many more.
3. Complete Parking Solution
Building a parking space app with an entire suite of functionalities can be more expensive than the ones mentioned earlier. These kinds of apps entirely fix the parking space issues.
They help visitors to book the parking spaces. Although ordering door-to-door service is possible. In some places, some valets take and park the user’s vehicle.
Users only need to book the parking space in advance and choose the preferable place and time to provide keys to the valet.
The valet then will take over the vehicle, park it and hand it over to the owner at the scheduled time. It is a secure process, and users can also look into the photo, reviews, and everything else about the valet.
Parking App Features
Parking space apps development demands a well-defined suite of features. These parking app features are generally divided into two categories based on their complexity, advanced nature, and basics.
It is quite common to build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) with some basic functionalities, and further, they can add some unique and advanced features.
The MVP enables one to launch an app and grab necessary feedback from visitors. Then, based on your concept and budget, you can decide on the list of features you want to integrate.
Here are Some Basic Parking App Features:
1. GPS Tracking
GPS tracking is integrated into the parking space apps to make the parking app convenient and easy to use.
With the help of this technology, one can search for the car’s location and establish the distance to the closest parking lot. You can even create a GPS app to integrate with parking space apps.
2. Searching
The searching process in the parking app should be as easy as possible. For example, the app can suggest finding the nearest spot with a single click of the mouse.
3. Booking
The feature of booking helps users to reserve their parking spot. The visitors can easily find a spot in the parking area that suits their budget and requirement.
They can pre-pay for their booking on a monthly, weekly, or daily basis. Thus, it avoids the requirement for everyday reservations.
4. Price Comparison
These parking space apps provide users with an opportunity to compare prices. This makes it easy for them to hunt for the cheapest place nearby.
5. Various Payment Options
The app should provide users with various payment gateway options as it makes users feel comfortable and secure. Therefore payment gateway options like PayPal, UPI, Phone pe, credit/debit cards, etc.
The basic features are enough to launch a parking app but develop a unique app, and it is required to add complex functionalities. Here is a list of advanced features for parking app development:
- Push notifications
- Several cities
- Waiting list
- Heat map
- Tag location
- Sound assist
Tech Stack For Parking Space Apps Development
The business needs to determine its tech stack for your parking space detection system apps. It will eventually be responsible for the scalability and stability of your parking app android project.
Reputable app developers should handle payment gateway integration in Android Applications. Your application can be a hybrid, native, or other cross-platform, but each has certain individuality required to consider previously.
For example, native apps are the most stable and can provide users with the best user experience. Despite this, their development requires time.
Here are some commonly used tech stacks to develop the best parking app.
- Swift for iOS
- Kotlin for Android
- Apple push notifications service for iOS
- Google cloud messaging for Android
- Google maps
- Nginx
- MongoDB or SQL
- Amazon Cloudfront
What Would be the Pricing for Parking App Development?
It is quite challenging for an android application development company to provide one with a precise amount for developing parking space apps.
After all, the pricing depends entirely on the client’s requirements, functionalities, app’s business modes, and the tech stack used to develop an app.
The Cost estimations also vary on the productive hours invested in the development process.
This hourly price depends on the country in which you are thinking of outsourcing your parking app building process. But the rough estimation for the parking space apps development revolves around $30,000 – $40,000.
Conclusion
So all one needs to know to develop parking space apps are mentioned in this article. The most common advice given by a Mobile app development company is to prepare the development process beforehand.
There are various factors to focus on features to add, the tech stack to be used, and several other factors. Eventually, the result of the parking app depends on the idea, concept, and efforts put into by the developer’s team.
So choose your mobile app development company as their efforts and solutions can make or break your app.
