foodtech

Food Delivery App Development

Food delivery app development by EltexSoft. Marketplaces, meal planning, restaurant platforms. Ripe (acquired by Hungry), Meal4U. $50-99/hr.

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EltexSoft is a food delivery app development company based in Lisbon with senior engineers in Ukraine. 11 years in business. We build food delivery platforms, meal planning apps, restaurant marketplaces, and FoodTech products. Clients include SoRipe/Ripe (meal kit delivery, acquired by Hungry), Meal4U.dk (Danish meal planning), and Tableride.com (restaurant platform). $50-99/hr.

What we ship

The Work

Food Delivery Software Is a Logistics Problem Wrapped in a Consumer App

Everyone sees the ordering screen. Behind it: real-time inventory synchronization with restaurant kitchens, driver dispatch algorithms, route optimization, payment splitting across platform, restaurant, and driver, subscription billing with skip/pause/cancel flows, and operations dashboards that need to surface a late order before the customer calls.

EltexSoft is a food delivery app development company. 35-50 senior engineers. Headquartered in Lisbon, Portugal. Engineering team in Ukraine. Founded in 2015. We build food delivery platforms, meal planning apps, restaurant marketplaces, and FoodTech products.

Our FoodTech clients include SoRipe (meal kit delivery, acquired by Hungry), Meal4U.dk (Danish meal planning), Tableride.com (restaurant marketplace), and Timealy (food waste reduction, now closed).

What We Built

SoRipe/Ripe: Meal Kit Delivery, Acquired by Hungry

SoRipe was a meal kit delivery platform: curated recipes, pre-portioned ingredients, subscription-based home delivery. We built the platform and maintained it through the company’s growth and eventual acquisition by Hungry.

The engineering scope: recipe management with nutritional data, ingredient sourcing and inventory, subscription billing with flexible scheduling (weekly, biweekly, skip, pause, cancel), dietary preference matching (vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, allergen filtering), delivery zone management, and customer dashboards.

The acquisition by Hungry is the outcome that matters for other FoodTech founders reading this page. Acquirers perform technical due diligence. A clean, well-documented, well-tested codebase with clear architecture increases enterprise value. A codebase held together with workarounds and tribal knowledge reduces it. We build for the former.

Meal4U.dk: Danish Meal Planning

Meal4U is a Danish meal planning platform. Recipe discovery, weekly meal plan generation, automated shopping lists, nutritional tracking, and integration with local grocery delivery.

The challenge specific to meal planning (versus meal delivery) is that the platform must understand ingredient overlap across recipes, generate consolidated shopping lists, and adapt to local grocery availability. A meal plan that calls for ingredients you cannot buy at the nearest supermarket is not useful.

Tableride.com: Restaurant Marketplace

Tableride is a restaurant discovery and booking platform. Restaurant profiles, menu management, table reservations, review and rating systems, and diner-facing search with filtering by cuisine, price range, location, and availability.

What We Build for FoodTech

Food delivery platforms. The full stack: consumer ordering app (web and mobile), restaurant dashboard (order acceptance, preparation status, menu management), driver/courier app (dispatch, navigation, delivery confirmation), admin panel (analytics, restaurant management, commission tracking), and payment processing with multi-party splits via Stripe Connect.

Meal kit and subscription services. Recipe management, ingredient logistics, subscription billing, preference learning, churn prediction, delivery scheduling, and packaging optimization. SoRipe is the proof point.

Restaurant marketplaces. Two-sided platforms connecting diners with restaurants. Listing management, search and discovery, reservation systems, review management, loyalty programs, and commission-based payment models.

Kitchen and operations software. Kitchen display systems that replace paper tickets, inventory management with automated reorder points, prep scheduling, waste tracking, supplier ordering, and cost-per-dish analytics. The back-of-house software that determines whether a food operation is profitable.

Ghost kitchen and virtual brand platforms. Multi-brand menu management from a single kitchen, order routing across delivery platforms (DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub integration), shared inventory, and consolidated analytics.

What It Costs

Senior FoodTech engineer (dedicated): $50-99/hr.

By project type:

Single-restaurant ordering app (web + mobile): $30K-$60K, 2-4 months.

Multi-restaurant marketplace: $80K-$180K, 5-8 months.

Meal kit subscription platform: $60K-$140K, 4-7 months.

Full delivery platform with driver app and real-time tracking: $120K-$280K, 6-10 months.

Kitchen operations system: $40K-$90K, 3-5 months.

Annual maintenance: 15-20% of build cost.

Who We Are

EltexSoft is a boutique food delivery app development company. 35-50 senior engineers. Headquartered in Lisbon, Portugal. Engineering team in Ukraine. Founded in 2015.

Our FoodTech clients include SoRipe (acquired by Hungry), Meal4U.dk, and Tableride.com. We also build with Laravel, React, Vue, Django, iOS, and Android.

5.0 Clutch rating across 30+ verified reviews. 200+ five-star Upwork reviews. Top Rated Plus and Expert-Vetted agency status (top 1%). Average client engagement: 3+ years.

30-minute technical call. Bring your delivery logistics challenge, your subscription billing problem, or your FoodTech product idea. We’ll tell you what we’d build and what we wouldn’t.

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FAQ

Common questions

What does a food delivery app development company build?
Consumer ordering apps, restaurant dashboards, driver/courier apps, meal kit platforms, subscription meal services, kitchen management systems, and food marketplaces. We handle the full stack: ordering, payment, logistics, and operations.
What FoodTech clients have you worked with?
SoRipe (now Ripe), a meal kit delivery platform that was acquired by Hungry. Meal4U.dk, a Danish meal planning platform. Tableride.com, a restaurant marketplace. We also built a platform for Timealy, a food waste reduction service (now closed). Our FoodTech experience spans meal delivery, restaurant tech, and food marketplace models.
What happened with the SoRipe/Ripe acquisition?
Ripe was a meal kit delivery platform we built and maintained. The company was acquired by Hungry, a catering and meal delivery company. Acquisitions are a signal that the engineering is solid: acquirers perform technical due diligence, and a clean, well-documented codebase increases enterprise value.
What tech stack do you use for food delivery apps?
Laravel for backend platforms, React or Vue for web frontends, React Native or native Swift/Kotlin for mobile apps, PostgreSQL for transactional data, Redis for real-time features (order tracking, driver location), Elasticsearch for restaurant search, Stripe Connect for marketplace payments, and AWS or GCP for infrastructure.
How much does food delivery app development cost?
A food ordering MVP (single restaurant, web + mobile) costs $30K-$60K. A multi-restaurant marketplace runs $80K-$180K. A meal kit subscription platform costs $60K-$140K. A full delivery platform with driver app and real-time tracking costs $120K-$280K. EltexSoft charges $50-99/hr.
Can you build a subscription meal service?
Yes. SoRipe was exactly this: meal kit subscriptions with flexible scheduling, dietary preferences, and recurring billing. Subscription food platforms have specific engineering challenges around payment retry logic, skip/pause/cancel flows, preference learning, and churn prediction.
Do you handle payment processing for food marketplaces?
Yes. Stripe Connect for marketplace payment splitting (platform takes commission, restaurant receives payout). We handle PCI compliance, multi-party payouts, refund logic, and tip processing. For EU platforms, PSD2 Strong Customer Authentication is built in.
How long does a food delivery app project take?
A single-restaurant ordering app takes 2-4 months. A multi-restaurant marketplace takes 5-8 months. A meal subscription platform takes 4-7 months. A full delivery platform with driver logistics takes 6-10 months.
Can you build for multiple countries?
Yes. Meal4U.dk serves the Danish market. SoRipe operated in the US. Our Lisbon headquarters and EU engineering mean we handle GDPR, PSD2, and multi-language/multi-currency requirements natively.
Who owns the code?
You do. Full work-for-hire assignment. Source code, infrastructure, documentation, and deployment configurations belong to you from day one.

Tell us what you're building.

One business day reply. From an engineer, not a sales rep.

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