What’s the Cost to Create an App like Dubizzle?

Key Takeaways

• The cost to create an app like Dubizzle typically ranges from AED 55,000 to AED 295,000+, driven by feature scope, platform choice, scalability, and long-term maintenance needs.

• A well-planned marketplace app solves fragmented buying and selling by offering location-based discovery, real-time communication, and category-driven listings in one platform.

• Starting with an MVP helps you validate demand early, reduce upfront risk, and invest only in features users actually need.

• Scalable backend architecture and strong security directly impact performance, trust, and the ability to grow without technical bottlenecks.

• Monetization models like featured listings, subscriptions, and value-added services turn user traffic into sustainable revenue.

• Working with JPLoft ensures strategic cost control, clean execution, and a marketplace built for long-term growth, not just launch success.

The global online classifieds and marketplace app market is expected to generate over $80 billion annually by 2033, with millions of users relying on mobile platforms to buy, sell, and discover local services every day.

So the big question is simple: how much does it cost to create an app like Dubizzle?
The development cost typically ranges from $15,000 to $80,000+ (AED 55,000 to AED 295,000+), depending on features, platforms, and technical complexity.

It is built for entrepreneurs planning a marketplace launch and investors assessing platform viability before funding decisions. It offers clarity on real-world development budgets and technical tradeoffs.

This guide walks you through the complete cost structure, key factors driving development expenses, monetization models, and proven strategies to reduce overall app development costs.

A Brief About the Dubizzle App

Dubizzle is a leading online classifieds platform that originated in Dubai, UAE, and was launched to simplify local buying and selling. 

The app connects users across key categories like cars, real estate, jobs, electronics, and services. Designed for speed and ease, Dubizzle allows users to post listings quickly, discover nearby deals through location-based search, and communicate via in-app chat. 

Over the years, it has grown beyond a simple classifieds app into a trusted regional marketplace used by individuals and businesses alike. Its success comes from combining local relevance, scale, and a clean user experience.Currently Dubizzle has 10Million+ downloads when it comes to the Play Store. 

Now, let’s discover the current stats related to the buy and sell app market. 

• The global mobile app market size was estimated at USD 252.89 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach USD 626.39 billion by 2030. This is growing at a CAGR of 14.3% from the year 2024 to the year 2030.

• Additionally, the eCommerce app market is segmented by type, which comprises In-app purchases, advertisements, and even by the platform, such as Android and iPhone. Along with this, the market is even separated by the regions such as North America, Asia, Europe, 

What is the Cost to Build an App like Dubizzle?

The cost to build an app like Dubizzle typically ranges from AED 55,000 to AED 295,000+ ($15,000 to $80,000+).

Mobile app development cost range depends on how advanced your marketplace needs to be at launch.

A basic version with core features like user registration, listings, search filters, in-app chat, and admin management sits on the lower end. Costs rise as you add location-based discovery, paid promotions, moderation tools, advanced analytics, and scalable cloud infrastructure.

Design also plays a big role. A clean UI with smooth navigation and strong performance across devices requires extra frontend and UX effort. On the backend, costs increase when you build for high traffic, real-time messaging, fraud prevention, and multi-category expansion.

Platform choice matters too. Building for iOS alone costs less than launching on both iOS and Android. Long-term expenses like maintenance, updates, and security should also be planned from day one.

What this really means is simple. The final cost reflects your feature depth, scale goals, and product quality expectations.

Now, as you learned about the costs, let's get ahead with the complete list of the factors impacting the overall cost to make an app like Dubizzle, below. 

Factors Affecting the Overall Cost to Make an App like Dubizzle

Different factors impacting the complete Dubizzle-like app development cost are the complexity of features, diversified platform choice, UI/UX design depth, security, and many others. You should hire app developers, for evaluating what are the right features for your app. 

Let’s learn all the factors affecting the overall cost to create an app like Dubizzle, below. 

1. Feature Scope and Marketplace Complexity

The overall feature scope defines how simple or advanced your marketplace will be. A basic buy-and-sell app only handles listings and messaging, while a complex marketplace manages multiple categories, pricing rules, promotions, and user roles. 

Each added feature introduces new workflows, validations, and edge cases that developers must handle. Well, if the complexity of the cost increases, then the complete cost multiplies for building a buy and sell app like Dubizzle. 

As complexity increases, development time rises not just for building features but also for testing interactions between them. Even small features can ripple across the system, increasing total cost significantly.

2. Platform Choice (iOS, Android, or Both)

Choosing to build for iOS, Android, or both platforms directly affects the budget. A single-platform launch lowers initial development, testing, and deployment costs. 

A dual-platform build requires parallel development efforts and more extensive QA. When you launch your app on the App Store or submit your app to the Play Store, or on cross platforms, based on the target audience and the goal of the app. 

Each platform has different design guidelines, performance expectations, and update cycles. Maintaining consistency while respecting platform-specific behavior increases long-term development and support costs.

3. UI/UX Design Depth

UI and UX app design go far beyond visual appeal. For a marketplace app, user flows like posting a listing, searching, filtering, and chatting must feel intuitive and fast. 

Achieving this requires mobile app wireframes,App prototypes, usability testing, and multiple design iterations. The complexity of UI has a large impact on the total cost to develop an app like Dubizzle. 

As design depth increases, designers and frontend developers spend more time refining interactions and performance. These refinements improve trust and engagement but add noticeable cost to the build.

4. Location-Based Search and Maps

Location is central to apps like Dubizzle. Implementing accurate geo-search, map views, radius filters, and location-based sorting requires advanced backend logic and reliable third-party map services.

Integrating the features of location-based search and maps, helpful to the users to find the buyers and sellers' places, which improves the authenticity of the app. However, implementing this API requires a high cost. Hence, it can be considered as an important derivative impacting the complete Classified marketplace app like Dubizzle

Handling location data at scale demands optimization to avoid slow searches and high API usage costs. As user activity grows, map-related expenses and performance tuning become a recurring investment.

5. In-App Chat and Notifications

Real-time messaging is one of the most technically demanding features. It involves live connections, message storage, delivery confirmation, and moderation controls. Push notifications must work reliably across devices and network conditions.

The in-app chat and notifications are important features that play an important role when it comes to improving the user experience. This further increases the cost to make an app like Dubizzle.

As user volume increases, chat infrastructure must scale smoothly. Poor planning here leads to delays, crashes, and higher operational costs later, making this a major cost driver.

6. Admin Panel and Moderation Tool

The admin panel acts as the control center of the marketplace. It manages users, listings, reports, approvals, analytics, and platform health. Custom dashboards require backend logic, role-based access, and reporting tools.

Regular moderation is important for continuous growth and scaling in this diversified industry. This further results in increasing the complete Dubizzle Buy and Sell App development cost. 

Advanced moderation systems reduce spam and fraud but require automation, monitoring, and manual review flows. These tools protect platform quality but significantly increase backend development effort.

7. Scalability and Backend Architecture

Scalability determines how well the app performs as users and listings grow. A basic backend may work initially but fail under heavy traffic. Building scalable architecture requires load balancing, optimized databases, caching, and cloud services.

The mobile app tech stack has a large significance on the app. A complicated feature-affiliated app requires a supportive technology stack. Hence, the election of the right tech stack can increase the Dubizzle app development cost. 

This planning increases upfront cost but prevents expensive rebuilds later. Scalability decisions often separate short-term apps from long-term platforms.

8. Security and Fraud Prevention

Mobile app security is critical in marketplaces handling user data and communications. Measures include secure authentication, encrypted data storage, abuse reporting, and fraud detection systems.

Fraud patterns evolve over time, requiring ongoing updates and monitoring. Strong security increases development and maintenance costs but is essential for trust, compliance, and platform survival.

If you want to build user trust, investing in strong security measures is essential, and it directly impacts the Cost of buying and selling a Dubizzle like App development.

9. Third-Party Integrations

Marketplace apps rely on multiple external services such as payment gateways, SMS providers, analytics tools, and map APIs. Each integration requires setup, testing, and error handling.

These services often charge based on usage, meaning costs grow alongside traffic. Vendor updates or pricing changes can also force unplanned development work.

The apps' integration, such as payments, maps, or even the social media sharing option, increases the cost to develop a buy and sell app like Dubizzle. 

10. Maintenance, Updates, and Compliance

Launching the app is only the beginning. Regular updates are needed to fix bugs, improve performance, add features, and stay compliant with App Store policies. OS updates frequently require code changes.

Investing in the mobile app maintenance services is one of the critical aspects that you should not overlook. 

Ignoring maintenance leads to poor user reviews, ranking drops, and higher recovery costs. Long-term success depends on consistent investment after launch.

Now, let's look forward to the table below, related to how the factors affect the complete cost to develop an app like Dubizzle. 

Summary of the factors impacting the cost to create an app like Dubizzle:

Well, when you state the cost to make an app like Dubizzle, you might be thinking of how to minimize the overall cost. 

Let’s evaluate the minimization factors below. 

Practices to Minimize the Dubizzle-like App Development Cost

The different practices that lead to minimizing the overall cost of buy-and-sell app development, like Dubizzle, begin with the MVP, using pre-built templates, selecting the cross-platform development, outsourcing the app development process, and more. 

Let's evaluate the complete list of practices below. 

1] Start with an MVP (Minimum Viable Product)

Launch with only the core essential features like listing creation, search functionality, user profiles, and basic messaging to validate your concept quickly. 

This approach significantly reduces initial development time and cost to build a classified app like Dubizzle,while allowing you to gather real user feedback before investing in advanced features. 

You can then add premium features incrementally based on actual user demand and market response, avoiding unnecessary expenses on untested functionalities.

2] Use Pre-Built Templates and UI Kits

Leverage existing design templates, UI component libraries, and frameworks instead of creating everything from scratch to save both time and money. 

Many high-quality, customizable templates are available that align with marketplace app standards and user expectations. It will become easy for you to build a classified app like Dubizzle. 

This allows your development team to focus resources on unique features and business logic rather than reinventing common interface elements, cutting design costs by 30-40%.

3] Choose Cross-Platform Development

Opt for cross-platform frameworks like React Native or Flutter that allow you to build for both iOS and Android simultaneously with a single codebase. 

This approach can reduce development costs by 40-60% compared to building separate native apps for each platform while maintaining good performance and user experience. 

You'll also save on ongoing maintenance costs since updates and bug fixes only need to be implemented once. Selecting the cross-platform development can increase the How to Monetize an App like Dubizzle; however, it will be a one-time investment. 

4] Integrate Third-Party APIs and Services

Use established third-party services for payment processing, messaging, geolocation, push notifications, and authentication instead of building these systems in-house. 

Services like Stripe for payments, Twilio for messaging, Google Maps for location, and Firebase for backend infrastructure are cost-effective and battle-tested. 

This approach reduces development complexity, accelerates time-to-market, and ensures reliable functionality without the expense of custom development and maintenance.

5] Outsource to Cost-Effective Development Teams

You can outsource your app to an effective company, after evaluating the skills of the developers, and understanding the target audiences. 

Quality offshore teams can deliver the same results at 50-70% lower costs compared to local UK or US-based developers while maintaining professional standards. You can hire dedicated developers and outsource your project to them, effectively. 

Ensure clear communication channels, detailed project documentation, and regular milestone reviews to maintain quality and alignment throughout the development process.

6] Implement Agile Development with Phased Rollout

Adopt an agile methodology that breaks development into manageable sprints with clear deliverables, allowing for continuous testing and adjustments. 

This iterative approach helps identify and fix issues early when they're cheaper to resolve, preventing costly rework later in the project. You can develop an app like Dubizzle by including the agile development procedure, helpful in emphasizing flexibility, collaboration, and continuous development. 

Launch in phases, starting with a limited geographic area or user base, to test scalability and refine features before full-scale deployment, spreading costs over time and reducing financial risk. Claude is an AI and can make mistakes. Please double-check responses.

How to Monetize an App like Dubizzle?

You can monetize an app like Dubizzle by including strategies such as featured and promoted listings, subscription plans for the businesses, listing fees, and more. 

Here is the given list of the top mobile app monetization models to adopt. 

1. Featured and Promoted Listings

Sellers pay to boost their listings to the top of search results or category pages. This increases visibility and speeds up conversions. It works especially well in high-demand categories like cars, real estate, and jobs.

When you create a mobile app, it is important to invest in the featured and promoted listings will provide you with a permanent source of income that you should consider. 

2. Subscription Plans for Businesses

Businesses and professional sellers can be offered monthly or yearly plans. These plans unlock benefits like unlimited listings, advanced analytics, and priority support. 

Subscriptions create predictable, recurring revenue when it comes to Dubizzle like app development costs. 

3. Listing Fees for Premium Categories

Charging a small fee to post listings in competitive or high-value categories helps control spam. It also ensures higher-quality listings. This model balances user trust with steady income.

It will provide an authentic revenue source to make an app like Dubizzle. 

4. In-App Advertising

Brands can run targeted ads based on location, category, or user behavior. Native ads blend into the browsing experience without disrupting usability. As traffic grows, ad revenue scales naturally.

When you post your app on the different advertising portals and even on the social media networking platforms, it will help you to cover the complete cost to build an app like Dubizzle. 

5. Value-Added Services

Extra services like listing verification, professional photography, or priority moderation can be offered for a fee. These features improve trust and convenience. 

Here, the users pay for faster results and better visibility. With the value-added services, you can earn high revenue that will help you to cover the complete Dubizzle-like App Development cost.

Build a Marketplace App Like Dubizzle with JPLoft

Building a marketplace app like Dubizzle takes more than copying features. It demands strong architecture, smooth user flows, and a platform designed to scale as users and listings grow. That’s where JPLoft comes in.

JPLoft helps businesses turn marketplace ideas into reliable, high-performance platforms built for real-world usage. From multi-category listings and location-based search to in-app chat, moderation tools, and admin dashboards, every component is planned with growth and stability in mind. The focus stays on speed, security, and usability, so users can list, search, and connect without friction.

As the top mobile app development company in Dubai, JPLoft understands regional market behavior, compliance requirements, and user expectations. The team works closely with you to define features, control costs, and build a product that performs well from launch to scale.

If your goal is a marketplace app that users trust and businesses rely on, partnering with JPLoft gives you the technical depth and strategic clarity to build it right.

Conclusion

Building an app like Dubizzle is a strategic investment that goes far beyond writing code. Your budget decisions reflect feature depth, platform selection, scalability planning, security readiness, and long-term maintenance priorities. 

With smart planning, you can balance speed, quality, and performance without unnecessary spending. Entrepreneurs gain clarity on which features to launch first, while investors see where capital truly drives platform value. 

A well-structured approach, combined with the right development partner, reduces risk and supports steady growth. When cost control, monetization strategy, and scalability work together, a Dubizzle-like marketplace evolves into a sustainable, revenue-focused digital asset.