What does it cost to build an app like Yelp?
Sample range · freelance
$32k–$71k
An agency would be $57k–$157k for the same scope. This is a pre-computed sample, not your estimate. Your version is probably smaller.
Where the money goes
Why this kind of app is expensive
Search that actually finds the best tacos nearby right now needs real geospatial ranking, not a keyword match against a business name.
Fake and incentivized reviews are an adversarial problem from day one — detection has to run continuously, not as a launch-week feature.
Letting business owners claim and manage their own listing turns the app into a two-sided product, and reservation integrations mean talking to dozens of different point-of-sale systems each restaurant already uses.
The cheapest honest version of this idea is manual business listings, no owner dashboard, no reservation integrations. That lands nearer $23k–$52k.
Your app is not Yelp. Get the range for what you are actually building.
Not open yet
Launching this weekend.
The free range, the $79 spec and the $199 execution pack all open then. Nothing to sign up for — come back and paste your idea.
Same maths, other archetypes