What drives the cost
A fleet or delivery operation needs dispatch, route optimisation, a driver app that works with no signal, proof of delivery, and a control room view that is right often enough to run a business on. The driver app is deceptively hard: it must queue work offline, resolve conflicts on reconnect, and never lose a scan or a signature.
Integration is the second half. Warehouse, ERP, telematics and customer notification systems all have to line up, and each one is a dependency with its own timeline.
The three logistics app scopes
Almost every project in this category lands in one of three scopes. Find yours here, then price it in the calculator.
MVP
2 – 3 months
The smallest version worth putting in front of real users.
Standard
4 – 6 months
A complete product with a custom back end and an admin console.
Advanced
12 – 16 months
Multi-role, real-time and built for national scale.
Where the money goes
The split below is the standard scope above, by share of the build. The calculator turns these shares into itemised dollar figures once it has your answers.
- UI/UX design7%
- Frontend development16%
- Backend development31%
- Features25%
- Infrastructure & DevOps5%
- QA & testing9%
- Project management7%
Cost factors specific to this category
- Route optimisation
- Manual sequencing is cheap. Multi-stop optimisation with time windows, capacity and traffic is a specialist engine — usually licensed rather than built.
- Offline-first driver app
- Local storage, conflict resolution and reliable sync. The single largest engineering risk in this category.
- Proof of delivery
- Scanning, photos, signatures and exceptions, captured reliably and stored as an audit trail.
- Telematics and ERP
- Vehicle hardware, ELD data and back-office systems. Each integration is its own schedule dependency.
Recommended approach at standard scope
Cross-platform is the right default here
React Native or Flutter will carry most of this, but budget for native modules around media, maps or AI — those screens usually get written twice.
A custom backend with a documented API
Your own API keeps business logic off the device, makes an admin console possible, and means a web app or partner integration later is an addition rather than a rewrite.
Cloud architecture proportional to your users
At 10,000–50,000 users a month, managed hosting with monitoring and backups is enough. Keep the infrastructure boring and spend the budget on the product.
Apps in this category
Used only as recognisable reference points for scope and complexity — no affiliation with, or endorsement by, these companies is implied. Products at this scale reflect years of iteration and operating spend that no initial build budget reproduces.
- FedEx
- Onfleet
- Flexport
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to build a logistics app?
It depends on scope, and the honest answer is a range you have to derive from your own requirements. In the US in 2026 an MVP of a logistics app takes 2 – 3 months. A standard build with a custom back end and an admin console takes 4 – 6 months. A scaled platform built for national volume takes 12 – 16 months. The calculator prices whichever of those shapes matches your project, itemised by discipline, in US dollars — answer seven questions and the full estimate is shown on screen and emailed to you.
Should I build or license route optimisation?
License it. Commercial routing engines encode years of work on time windows, capacity and traffic modelling, and they cost far less than a credible in-house version. Build only if routing is your actual product.
Why does the driver app cost more than it looks?
Because it has to work in a basement, a rural dead zone and a parking garage. Offline capture with correct sync on reconnect is significantly harder than the same screens with a live connection, and it is where most of the engineering goes.
Do I need customer-facing tracking?
It is now expected, and it is cheap relative to its effect — a tracking link plus notifications reduces support calls and missed deliveries more than almost any other feature in this category.
Price your own scope
These are typical scopes, not yours. The calculator prices the exact features, platforms and traffic you have in mind, and shows the itemised breakdown behind the number.