How to create a food delivery application in Algeria: the complete guide

Ordering a meal from a phone looks simple. Behind it, three parties who do not know each other must be coordinated: a hungry customer, a restaurant that cooks and a courier who crosses the city.

A food delivery application organises that coordination: it passes the order to the restaurant, finds a courier, informs the customer at each step and keeps a record of the money that changes hands. This guide details what to plan to build it in Algeria, where addresses and payment call for precise choices.

01Who a food delivery application is for

The product serves four profiles, each with its own screens and rights. Forget one and the service fails.

• The customer: they browse restaurants, build their order and want to know where it stands at any moment, in French or in Arabic.
• The restaurant: it accepts or refuses orders, announces a preparation time and signals when the dish is ready, often from a tablet placed near the kitchen.
• The courier: they accept a delivery, pick up the order, find the customer and collect the cash when payment happens on delivery. Their app must stay simple and usable with one hand.
• The operator: they manage restaurants, zones and couriers, follow orders in progress and step in when a problem occurs.

02The essential features

1. 01
   Restaurants and menus. The customer sees the open restaurants that deliver to their address, with their dishes and photos. The restaurant hides a dish that has run out in one tap.
2. 02
   Cart with options. Size, extras, sauce, a note for the kitchen: options are configured dish by dish, and the total is recalculated with each choice.
3. 03
   Address with pin and landmark. The customer drops a pin on the map and adds a landmark, such as “next to the pharmacy”. The address is saved for the next order.
4. 04
   Phone confirmation. The number is verified with an SMS code at sign-up, and the courier can call the customer in one tap during the delivery.
5. 05
   Order tracking. Received, being prepared, on the way, delivered: each status appears on the customer side, with the courier’s position on the map.
6. 06
   Courier assignment. The delivery is offered to the available couriers closest to the restaurant. If nobody accepts, the operator assigns it manually.
7. 07
   Payment. Cash on delivery remains the most common; online payment by CIB or Edahabia card goes through an approved payment provider.
8. 08
   Notifications and ratings. The customer is alerted at each step, then rates the restaurant and the courier, which helps the operator spot recurring problems.

03The back office, the control room of the service

The apps are only the visible part. The back office lets the operator run the service day to day, without calling a developer:

• partner restaurants, their opening hours, menus and terms;
• delivery zones, drawn on the map;
• delivery fees, configurable by zone or by distance according to the rules you set;
• the cash collected by each courier and its reconciliation with the orders delivered;
• incidents: delay, missing dish, unreachable customer, refund;
• dashboards by restaurant, by zone and by courier.

Codex already builds this order management side. AZ fulfillment is an e-commerce management platform that brings together orders, stock and statistics in one dashboard.

04What is specific to Algeria

A few local realities change how the product is designed:

• addresses are often imprecise: the pin, the landmark and the call button matter more than a neatly filled “street” field;
• cash on delivery often dominates: each courier’s cash handover is confirmed in the back office, and a ceiling you set blocks their new deliveries until the cash is handed over;
• connectivity varies from one neighbourhood to another: the courier app keeps the current order on screen when the network weakens;
• interfaces are planned in French and Arabic, with a right-to-left layout for Arabic;
• activity often concentrates on a few time slots, such as the evening or Ramadan nights: the system must absorb these peaks.

05Mobile app, web or both?

The customer needs an Android and iOS app; couriers most often use Android. Restaurants work well with a web interface on a tablet, and the back office is used on a computer.

Flutter or React Native share most of the code between Android and iOS. The article native or cross-platform app details the criteria, and the mobile app development page presents the Codex approach.

06A useful first version, then improvements

Open in a single city first, with a few restaurants, and get the service running smoothly. A reasonable first version contains:

• menus, the cart with options and order taking;
• the address with pin, landmark and number confirmation;
• the courier app with assignment and status tracking;
• cash on delivery and the back office for restaurants, zones, couriers and collected cash.

Then, based on feedback from the field: online CIB and Edahabia payment, promo codes, scheduled orders or a loyalty scheme.

07Mistakes to avoid

• opening too many restaurants with too few couriers: a customer who waits too long does not come back;
• settling for a free-text address field, with no pin and no landmark;
• leaving cash untracked until the end of the month;
• neglecting the restaurant interface: an order the kitchen does not see is a lost order;
• publishing the apps on store accounts that are not in your name.

08What changes the budget

The cost depends on the scope, not on a standard rate. The main factors:

• the number of apps: customer, restaurant, courier and back office;
• real-time tracking and the logic for assigning deliveries;
• integrating online payment with an approved provider;
• the target platforms and the number of languages;
• the level of reporting expected by the operator and the restaurants.

Codex sends a detailed quote after the scoping workshop. To prepare that meeting, read how to write a project brief.

09The steps with Codex

1. 01
   Discovery. A workshop to understand your target city, your restaurants, your couriers and your cash rules. You leave with a clear scope, a schedule and a detailed quote.
2. 02
   Design. The customer journey, the restaurant and courier screens, the back office and the technical architecture. You approve every screen before development.
3. 03
   Development. Short sprints with a demo at each step, and field tests: real orders, hard-to-find addresses, cash on delivery.
4. 04
   Launch and support. Publication of the apps on the stores in your name, training for your operators, then maintenance and new features.

Read next: how to create a logistics application, how to create a ride-hailing app in Algeria and how to launch a mobile app in Algeria.

10Building it with Codex

Codex is a software studio founded in Algiers in 2014. More than 15 engineers and designers build products in French, Arabic and English, and the team has built more than 20 products in-house. The source code, the accounts and the data stay in your name. See the published projects and the certificates of completion.

The work starts from the studio in Algiers: Cité 440 Logements, Ain Malha, Djasr Kasentina. Doha and Marseille stay the offices already published.