15 Online Food Delivery App Ideas for 2023 to Build Profitable Startups

• By Nithya Iyer
• 21-03-2023
• Mobile App Development

The recent pandemic gives a facelift to online food delivery applications wherein it’s the biggest savior when people were forced to stay inside the house. COVID-19 propel the growth of existing food delivery players and brought new food delivery services to make money in the lucrative market.

The global online food delivery services market size will grow from $143.05 billion in 2023 to $159.46 billion in 2027 at a CAGR of 2.8%.

The projected growth is the result of instant gratification needs and utter conveniences, which are best, met through online food delivery applications. However, amidst stiff competition with nearly all the segments of online food delivery covered, it becomes difficult to seize an edge in the market.

As an entrepreneur, you need a unique online food delivery app idea that distinguishes your business from the crowd and helps you leapfrog the competition. Another important aspect that most food entrepreneurs are worried about is the budget to build an app. It is always an important factor that decides the path of your progression. However, if you can estimate the food delivery app development cost with the help of a guide that provides detailed insight into every aspect of the food delivery business, it will be a great help.

Before you start venturing new online food delivery business, you need a one-of-a-kind idea that lets your business grow without breaking the bank. Let’s dive in!

Top 15 profitable online food delivery app ideas to start within 2023

Mobile apps have transformed the food industry and trending app ideas are the foundation of successful food delivery application development and a bright future. Take a look at all of those ideas;

Grocery delivery app

Grocery delivery apps such as Instacart, Walmart, and others gained high popularity and earned billions of dollars in revenue during the corona outbreak. Post-pandemic, buying groceries from the comfort of the sofa has become a new norm. People increasingly prefer to browse items on Smartphones and order through grocery apps.

Plus, delivery in one hour or a couple of minutes meets the instant gratification need of the customers, which becomes another reason for grocery delivery apps to get a good cut in the market share. Thereby eliminating the need to move from one grocery shop to another, the customers will get everything in a few taps and at their doorstep anytime.

Dairy product delivery app

Dairy products are daily consumable products that have a short shelf life which disallows customers to store them for the long run and need to purchase them daily. However, moving out to a dairy store daily for milk, curd, cheese or other dairy products is difficult for busy work class people. That’s where dairy product delivery apps come to the rescue.

Dairy product delivery apps allow users to browse dairy products and order them daily. Also, users can prefer to repeat the orders daily or subscribe to the dairy services that automatically deliver the selected products to the users at the right time and location.

Organic and natural food delivery app

With increasing malnutrition and increasing use of chemical fertilizers, people prefer to have natural and organic food in their diet. As a food entrepreneur, you can launch a startup that’s delivering organic produce to people looking for natural and organic food that keeps them healthy. Also, a boon for people who are under medication, diet-conscious, or fitness freaks.

This niche is guaranteed to bring success to your food delivery business. The Farmbox, Farmdirect, and Farmfresh are popular organic food delivery applications that relished impressive sales and ROI.

Farm stand delivery apps

The app gains an edge over the organic and natural food delivery app idea in 2023 because people will get the product not from retailers but straight from farmers. The seasonal and fresh produce such as vegetables, fruits, nuts, herbs, and grains are incomparable, which users can order directly as they need for their custom recipes.

Building farm stand delivery apps just require partnering with local farmers wherein the food delivery personnel reach out to farmers to collect the food item and deliver it to the user’s doorstep. The direct connection with farmers eliminates the middlemen’s involvement which reduces food products cost as well. Also, it enables local growers to sell at scale and earn the right amount for fresh produce.

Frozen food ordering app

The minimum preparation and cooking time have taken the ready-to-eat food product demand to the next level. The changing food consumption patterns for the ready-meal segment have ramped up the demand for frozen food products worldwide. According to research, the global frozen food market size is expected to reach $278.47 billion by 2030.

Its demand is growing mainly in North America, Europe, China, and South Asia regions. Unilever, Nestle, Nomad foods, and others are popular brands that are leading the market. With a handful of players in the frozen food market, there are plenty of opportunities to try your hands with frozen food ordering app development. Frozen food items include dairy products, ready-to-eat meals, vegetables, fruits, and more.

Meal preparation app

During Covid-19, people cannot enjoy dining outside, and that’s why craving for custom food remains a craving only. The same thing was realized by a few food entrepreneurs that turned it into a custom meal preparation application. Gousto, BlueApron, and Innerchef are popular meal preparation apps that facilitate customers to get their custom meals prepared and deliver to their doorstep.

The meal preparation app facilitates users to choose the ingredients for specific meal preparation, and then the custom meal is prepared and delivered to the users. People can have the custom meal prepared according to their taste without leaving their couches. You can also try this idea which has not been experimented with at scale.

Catering app

Catering services are always looked for when there’s a small party or mega event. For event organizers, searching and identifying the best catering services is quite tricky as they need to visit catering services and ask their existing customers for feedback. However, an online catering website launch helps in finding and selecting catering services easily.

When online catering services are complemented with mobile app development, the results will be wonderful. You can get developed a mobile catering app that provides a platform for all catering services to get registered and enable customers to find and book catering services quickly.

Diet and healthy meal delivery app

Over the last decade, people have become more health conscious. Thereby the searches for diet and healthy meal apps are increasing. It makes perfect sense to start a new mobile food delivery venture based on diet and healthy meal delivery app development.

In the diet and healthy meal delivery app development, you can enable searching diet and healthy meal, scheduling food order, delivery tracking, healthy food recipes, and more that attracts maximum users. The app eliminates the need to visit dieticians and becomes a good choice for patients.

Online bakery item app

The X-generation is fond of bakery items such as cakes, pastries, and others. They always look for exquisite bakery items, but finding the best bakery shop is not an easy task. That’s where you can get built a bakery application that provides a list of bakery shops along with their menus showcasing the bakery items they offer.

The bakery app also facilitates the ordering of bakery items based on the users’ reviews. In bakery item selling, the self-order menu option, fast order in a few taps, ordering bakery food from the bakery shop, and more can be enabled.

Corporate food delivery app

Corporate food delivery businesses target officegoers in urban areas where people travel to workspaces that are too far from their homes. Also, the events or celebrations in corporate offices require food for the employees. That’s where corporate food delivery app development is a good idea to earn in galore.

In corporate food delivery app development, you can partner with different restaurants, bakery shops, food joints, or beverage sellers and create a category of items provided by your business application. The food delivery categories should meet breakfast, lunch, dinner, celebration, or event needs to make it a one-stop-shop for everything that corporate needs under the food delivery umbrella.

Round-the-clock food delivery service

With changing market dynamics, 24/7 availability has become an incessant need in the market. If your food delivery business enables all night availability option, the chances of getting more orders are higher. Also, with less traffic, you can get the food delivery orders completed in the least time and with great convenience, which is an add-on for your business.

Nightfood and Latenight are famous applications that have created a distinctive niche in the competitive market by delivering meals all night.

AR-based Restaurant finder app

Searching for restaurants is an easy endeavor because as people search online for restaurants, they will get directions to the restaurants and user reviews for dining. As a restaurateur, you can take the searches up a notch, with AR-based restaurant finder app development. The app facilitates the users to visit the restaurant virtually without physically visiting it.

The app allows the users to know the dining ambiance, check food ingredients, evaluate food quality, check services standard, and a lot more with virtual restaurant and menu cards. The multimedia-supported experience impresses the users first-hand and appeals to them to visit the restaurant at least once.

Table reservation app

The table reservations are dedicatedly built by the restaurateurs for their restaurants or restaurant chains across the city or nation. The app facilitates the users to book the table right through their mobile, which, in turn, eliminates the need to wait for their turn. During peak times, it enables restaurants to know the number of customers who come for dining, which gives insights into food preparation. Thereby wastage gets reduced.

With table reservation app development, you can allow users to select the table and book for a specific time, date, and location followed by the food they want to relish at the restaurant. It helps in keeping everything well-managed and fuels business growth.

Food wastage reduction app

Table reservation apps are certain to reduce food wastage, but waste management at the micro-level can help restaurants to reduce expenses and increase profits. Custom food wastage reduction app development help businesses know the food they need to prepare daily based on user reach to the restaurant. Also, it makes suggestions during the holiday season or for weekends when more customers visit restaurants.

Taking a step ahead, Food for all, Food rescue US, and Flash food applications provide intelligent recommendations for food preparation differently to reduce food wastage. Also, the app suggests delivering the leftover food to needy people so that nothing gets wasted at all.

Feed poor people app

Waste reduction management apps in the food delivery segment surely help restaurants to prepare food smartly so no food gets wasted. However, achieving zero wastage is still tricky in restaurants as specifying the right number of customers is implausible. In such cases, making the leftover food available to poor people is a great action.

Food Cowboy, share the meal, and PareUp is popular feed poor people applications that are connected with various restaurants and volunteers to make this leftover food delivered to poor people. The app allows restaurants to schedule the food collection time and then delivery personnel collects and distributes the food to the poor people.

Ready to launch an online food delivery business?

With a plethora of unique food delivery app ideas to launch a new start-up in 2023, businesses have great opportunities to make inroads into the lucrative food delivery market. You can also add advanced features that differentiate your app from the crowd and make your app one of the best food delivery apps in the world.

As a food entrepreneur, after the food delivery app idea selection, you should conduct market and user research to know if it works for you or not. In case, you are unsure after the research and analysis, it’s good to connect with mobile app development consultants that would help you know which is a perfect fit for your business in a frictionless manner. However, the food delivery app development cost remains an issue for food entrepreneurs not having deep pockets. In such cases, opting for an off-the-shelf on-demand food delivery app development solution is a good approach to making inroads into the market without breaking the bank and start making money.