How To Develop A Bus Ticket Booking Mobile App – Features & Cost

Today most things have been digitalized and are cherished more than ever in the current situation, as this not just ensures convenience but also safety, i.e., the need of the hour. Now as it comes to bus-ticket booking, in the times we’re living in, no one would be willing to stand in long queues and increase their risk of catching the virus just to get their tickets booked. And with this comes the significance of online bus-ticket booking mobile apps.

Even before the pandemic hit, there were few prominent bus-ticket booking apps, such as RedBus, BookBus, and several others. But now its significance has reached multifold, and hence many new businesses are trying their hands in this domain and they all require an online platform. In this article, we will be discussing in-depth the many aspects of developing a bus-ticket booking app.

What is Bus Ticket Booking App?

Basically, a bus ticket booking app is a mobile-based application functioning through a centralized network management system. This system facilitates everything under this single platform be it checking bus seat availability, buying tickets, making online payments via multiple secure payment modes, as well as ticket canceling, lest required. Also, there is an option that if customers face an issue, they can instantly get it resolved within the app itself.

To be clear, this bus ticket booking system is way different from the traditional database, which, on the contrary, is computerized to do the ticket booking and to track real-time bus location. It maintains user details, booking details, bus details, reservation details, and thus it is seamless, convenient, and travel easy. While booking via app, the traveler can easily choose the bus as per their convenience, looking into the departure time, bus ratings, bus type, and amenities/facilities provided during the onboard journeying.

Sneak-Peek Into Current Trends of Online Ticket Booking Apps

Ever since travel agencies realized the growing demand for mobile applications, they have been meticulously using this means to take their travel business to new heights. And today, most agencies have even ventured into various travel domains such as tour & travel booking, hotel reservations, flight booking systems, and a lot more, and this has ultimately increased the overall usage of mobile apps.

With smartphone users increasing day-by-day and expected to rise to 2.87 million, it is expected that mobile applications are also going to make a turnaround revenue of $188.9 billion by the end of this year, via advertisements, in-app purchases, and downloads. This makes it pretty clear that the future of online travel booking is quite bright and by the end of 2020, it is expected to earn revenue of $817. Also today bus booking software is turning to be an integral part of technological innovations in travel software solutions.

Talking about the core bus ticketing market, according to Straitresearch, the global online bus ticketing market has been valued at $6264.67 million in 2021. The same market is expected to touch a valuation of around $22,663.59 million by 2020. Numericals have showcased a CAGR of 14.9% between 2022-2030.

Users in the Online Travel Booking Market Worldwide 2017 – 2023

Current Digital Travel Sales Worldwide 564.87 Billion USD

Growth of Digital Travel Sales Worlwide 15.4%

Monetization Opportunities for Bus-Ticket Booking App

Commissions

Here the app can be monetized in a manner by finalizing a commission from both the parties, i.e., bus service as well as the passengers.

Featured Listing

Here the businesses dealing in hotel booking, taxi booking can come to the app owner to find a spot in the app listing and the app can charge a particular sum of money from their businesses to feature them in their listing.

Ad Selling

This is an option to earn money by selling ad spots to the advertisers, the ones who are keen on getting their business or products advertised or promoted on your app. This is an easy way to make great money without doing much on your part.

Popular Bus Ticket Booking Mobile Apps

RedBus

This is one of the most popular bus ticket booking apps that apart from booking bus tickets conveniently also offers several exciting offers. Found in many countries, this bus service offers the easiest ways to book bus tickets & hotel rooms. In RedBus service, the travelers can simply look for their destination and then pick from the wide range of bus services based on their preferred bus operator, bus type, pickup & drop-off points, departure time, prices, ratings & reviews. Here you can select the seats and make a secure payment using the options based on your country.

MakeMyTrip

The most popular bus booking app and travel portal in India, offering the best deals on hotels, flights, and rail booking. This app can be used to travel not just within India but even internationally. Here the travelers get the cheapest bus tickets, offering services across 12,000 bus routes, and have partnered with 1300 bus operators in India. It offers a wide range of buses including Deluxe, Sleeper, AC Luxury, Volvo AC, Volvo, Mercedes, and several others.

Swvl

This bus booking app is available for both Android & iOS users. Here the users can search and book bus tickets from a number of bus operators. The travelers can pick from various bus types comprising of AC Volvo, Deluxe, Sleeper, AC, seater, and many more.

Yatra

This travel app allows to easily book bus tickets from wide-ranging networks of bus operators covering more than 15,000 routes all across the nation. Here the passengers can pick from a variety of bus types including AC Volvo, Deluxe, Non-AC, Sleeper, AC, seater, and many more. Yatra app also allows to easily book hotels, flights,
IRCTC, train, and even cab booking.

Goibibo

This major travel platform also allows booking bus tickets with a wide network of bus operators all across India. Here the app also allows to track bus in real-time and travel by using the e-tickets. It offers a variety of bus types, such as Volvo, Mercedes, Volvo AC, AC luxury, Sleeper, Deluxe, and several others.

Some Other Bus Ticket Booking Apps in US & UK

Busbud, Amtrak, Rome2Rio, Greyhound Lines, Gopilli, Trainline UK, Wanderu, CheckMyBus, Citymapper, Omio are some of the most used bus and train ticket booking mobile apps in the UK & the US.

Attributes of a Successful Bus Ticket Booking Mobile App

1. Allow travelers to choose drop & pickup location

Having this option within the app to select drop & pickup location offers ease and convenience to the travelers. This also makes the travelers choose this app over the rest.

2. Felicitate co-traveler management

There are a few travelers who feel comfortable having a co-traveler of a particular gender, like often females prefer female co-traveler next to them, while some of the male passengers might prefer male co-traveler next to them. Hence, offering this feature to manage co-traveler can do wonders to the success rate of the bus-ticket booking app.

3. Provide information inside the facility

In case certain information (regarding the travel or food availability or anything related) needs to be passed to the passengers during the travel, the app can be an easy medium to pass on the information. Hence, having this feature can be beneficial to the popularity of your app.

4. Allow passenger to Review & Rate

There are a few benefits of offering this feature to review and rate your service within the app. First, it would be convenient for users to have a platform to express their views and concerns related to the app. Second, instead of going to the play store and giving their reviews directly there (which can be harmful in case of negative reviews and ratings), they will first have the option to do it within the app.

5. Ensure passenger Safety & Security

It is crucial for the app to ensure the safety and security of customer data and it must be taken immense care of.

6. Provide Travel Insurance

In the times we are living in, everyone is concerned about their health, hence it can be a great highlight to the bus ticket booking app to offer this feature of providing travel insurance.

General Features of Bus Ticket Booking App

Customer/Passenger Panel

• Registration/Login
• Online payment via various modes
• View top routes, top cities & offers
• Secure login
• Search bus availability by source, destination, date range, stops
• Manage profile
• View Available buses with different transport agencies
• Multicurrency payment support
• Sort & filter buses based on Amenities, dropping and boarding points, fare, time, seats available
• Ask for customer support
• Graphical Map of booked & available seats
• Request refund or cancel tickets
• Choose seat and book tickets
• Track bus live location
• Option to choose ticket types
• Add money to the digital wallet
• Fare calculator as per boarding & dropping points
• Print and download ticket via the app and email
• Search tourist destination packages and offers
• Automated reminder for boarding bus
• View package details (travel, stay, add-on) and select seat
• Buy vouchers to share with friends and family
• Write reviews and feedback
• Redeem loyalty points
• Ticket delivery at home
• Enquire for bus booking via call and email
• Push notifications of booking confirmation through SMS and email
• Share with friends to earn reward points

Operator/Travel Agency Panel

• Registration and secure login
• Push Notification and alerts
• Create/Manage profile
• Manage Ticket scanning
• On Dashboard view total bookings, refunds, total revenue
• View Sales summary
• Manage bus routes and booking
• View Customer reviews and ratings
• Manage ticket booking
• Create/Manage tourist packages
• Reporting and analytics
• Check real-time passenger boarding
• Live bus tracking

Admin Panel

• Register and Secure Login
• Push Notifications
• Manage profile
• Manage user permission
• View admin dashboard
• Manage email and SMS marketing
• Manage users and travel agency/operators
• CMS and CRM integration
• Manage ad promotions and affiliate partners
• Payment gateway integration
• Create/Manage vouchers and discounts
• Live bus tracking
• Manage Customer reviews and ratings
• Manage commissions and ticket types
• Manage transactions and billing (refund, payout to operators, profit and income)
• Manage ticket refund and cancellations

Advance Features To Develop Bus Ticket Booking App

Social Signup/Login

Offering a social signup/login option makes it easier for the users to use the app just whenever desired. This way there don’t have to fill in the long details to signup or login.

Push Notifications

Whenever information needs to be conveyed to the users be it regarding deals or revised departure time, it can be sent to all of them with just a click of a button. The travelers will receive the notification in real-time.

Live Bus Tracking

This feature allows the passengers to stay up-to-date on the current location of the bus in real-time.

Real-Time Seat Check

Using this feature, the users can check the seat availability in real-time while booking the tickets. This way they can pick the seats as per their preference (whether in the front row or near the window).

Ticket Validation by QR Code

In this feature, the app can be used to scan the QR code for validating the tickets.

CRM Integration

This feature offers seamless connectivity between the CRM (customer relationship management) software and third-party applications. The integration leads to automated actions which ultimately expands the functionality of the app.

Chat Support Integration

This again is a helpful feature to have as the chat functionality enables the app users to connect 24×7 whenever the need arises.

Marketing & Promotion Tools

This functionality works amazingly well to please users and enhance app engagement. The app owners can offer customer loyalty programs, coupons, special offers to the users quite regularly, thus keeping them captivated.

Real Analytics & Dashboard

This functionality in the app allows keeping a tab on the daily activities happening within the app. Everything can be tracked easily by the app owners in real-time. This allows to track the app’s performance and improvise accordingly.

Loyalty Program Integration

A captivating idea to keep the app users hooked to the app. Having these features will allow the app owners to easily track the users loyal to the app and this can they can be rewarded from time-to-time for their loyalty. This way they will feel special and encourage future app engagement.

In-App Navigation

A useful feature to have for bus-ticket booking app, as the passengers will be able to track the bus direction easily, and will also be aware of the upcoming stoppages.

In-App Calendar Integration

Another use for this kind of app. It would prove useful not simply during the ticket booking process but also to send reminders and updates regarding the pending trip.

Third-Party Hotel & Taxi Booking Integration

This can be the USP of the bus-ticket booking app, as often the travelers using the service to book tickets might need to book hotels and taxis upon reaching their destination. Hence, if these third-party integrations do take place, they can be greatly beneficial to your app’s popularity and bring in more and more users.

Tech Stack Required to Develop Bus Ticket Booking App

Here are some of the technologies that are used in building an app for bus and train ticket booking

• Hosting: Amazon EC2
• Content delivery network: Cloudflare/Amazon CloudFront
• Push Notifications – Twilio, Push.io, Firebase
  Mobile OS – IOS, Android
• SMS, Voice, and Phone Verification – Nexmo, Twilio
• Payments – Braintree & PayPal, Stripe, EWallets, Netbanking
• Database – MongoDB, HBase, Cassandra, Postgress
• Email – Mail Chimp Integration
• Cloud Environment – AWS, Google, Azure
• Real-time Analytics – Hadoop, Spark, Apache Flink, Cisco, IBM
• Map Navigation – Google Map
• UI– ReactJS, BootStrapJS
• Caching– Hazelcast
• Code Repository– Git
• Load Balancer– Nginx
• API Integration of 3rd Party Companies – Cab Companies & Hotel Brands
• Messaging queues: AWS Simple Queue System

Mobile App Architecture for Bus Ticket Booking App

Required Team Structure for Bus Ticket Booking App

The requirement of the team to create a bus ticket booking app would be very basic, just as needed in most kinds of app. However, here is the list of personnel that would be required to build a bus-ticket booking app:

Project Manager

This is the one responsible for the overall management of the app developer and ensures that the developer work is taking place smoothly. He/she is also the communication link between all the professionals working at different stages of app development.

App Developers

Here is a team of app developers looking into the front-end and back-end development work of the app.

UX/UI Designers

These are the professionals responsible for the look and feel of the app, as they not just into the design but also how user-friendly the app can be made.

Quality Analysis (UA) Experts

The QA team is responsible to look for the bugs, lest there are any and then they send the report to the team of app developers and designers to look into the matter and then once the corrections have been made, the app once again goes to the QA team for a full-proof checkup.

Delivery Manager

This is the person responsible to deliver the app to the clients and then is further responsible for any kind of promotional and marketing activity.

How Much Does It Cost To Develop a Bus Ticket Booking App?

The cost of app development depends on a number of factors, such as the region where the app is being developed (the cost of app development is higher in regions like America, Europe, whereas much lower in regions like India, number of platforms for which the app is being developed (Android/iOS or Android & iOS), and finally whether the app will have basic features or have unique advanced features as well making the app special. However, on average, the cost to develop a bus ticket booking app should fall around $30000 for a basic-featured app, whereas around $45000 for an app with advanced features and for both Android and iOS Platforms.

Wrapping Up

So, as per the statistics, there are a lot of opportunities for you to develop your own bus ticket booking mobile app and grab a fair market share. However, for you to succeed you need the assistance of professional app developers and a mobile app development company with experience in working on such projects. Emizentech has created several mobile apps for clients all over the world. If you plan to launch a bus/train ticket booking app then get in touch with our team.