How to Create a Delivery App: What AI Can and Can't Do (2026)
Create a delivery app for one shop or kitchen with Borel: ordering, a driver list and delivery status, and an honest look at tracking and payouts.
By Sigsten Gustavii· · 9 min read
To create a delivery app, start with one business and its own drivers: set your area and slots, describe the buyer, staff and driver screens to an AI builder like Borel, walk one order through all three roles, and add card payments and more vendors only once rounds run smoothly.
| Kind | Example | Can Borel build it? |
|---|---|---|
| One business, own drivers | A bakery, florist, grocer or kitchen delivering locally | Yes: ordering, slots, staff and driver screens |
| Scheduled rounds | Weekly vegetable boxes, laundry pickup, office lunches | Yes: orders by round, a route list per day |
| A multi-vendor platform | Many restaurants, many couriers, live tracking | Partly: the screens, yes; dispatch, tracking and payouts need more |
"Make me a delivery app" can mean a bakery that wants regulars to order bread for Saturday morning, with two people who drive it round. It can also mean a platform with hundreds of restaurants and a map that shows every courier moving. One is a weekend's work with an AI builder. The other is a company. This guide is honest about the difference, then shows the steps in Borel for the kind you can make this week.
What a delivery app for one business needs
- A catalogue of what you sell, with photos, prices and what's out of stock.
- A delivery address and a check that it is inside your area.
- Delivery slots, such as Saturday 8 to 10, with a limit per slot.
- A staff screen with the day's orders, to pack and assign.
- A driver's screen with their stops in order, each opening directions in Apple Maps.
- Status the buyer can see: received, packed, out for delivery, delivered.
- A delivery note, like "leave by the back door", and a photo the driver takes on delivery.
In a Borel app, all of this lives in Borel Cloud, the database, sign-in and file storage Borel runs for each app. Its database has shared spaces people join with an invite code and a role, and an access rule on every table, which is how staff and drivers see the day's work while a buyer sees only their own orders.
Set your area, slots and rules before you build
The rules a person at your counter knows by heart are your app. Write them down:
| Rule | Example | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Area | Within 8 km of the shop | The app refuses addresses you can't reach |
| Days and slots | Saturday and Sunday, 7 to 11, in two-hour slots | Buyers pick a time you can keep |
| Orders per slot | 20 | Stops a slot from overflowing |
| Minimum order | 150 SEK | Keeps short trips worth driving |
| Delivery fee | Free over 300 SEK, else 39 SEK | Shown before checkout, not after |
Maps, directions and proof of delivery
Borel apps use Apple Maps, so there is no map key or map bill. A driver can see today's stops as pins, sort them by distance from the shop, and tap one to open turn-by-turn directions in Apple Maps. Sorting by distance is a sensible start, not route optimisation; for a dozen stops, a driver who knows the town beats any simple sort anyway.
Ask for a delivery photo too. The driver takes it with the camera as they leave the parcel, it is stored with the order, and the buyer sees it in their order history. It ends most "where is my bread?" messages before they start.
How buyers pay
Deliveries are physical goods, so Apple's Guideline 3.1.3(e) keeps them out of in-app purchase. Start with pay on delivery or an invoice. When you want cards in the app, add your Stripe key under Tools, in Keys; Borel keeps it encrypted and calls Stripe from its own server, never from inside the app. A checkout page the app opens is the simple version, and it needs careful testing in Stripe's test mode before real money moves.
What a delivery platform needs that a builder won't give you
If your plan is a platform, many vendors and many couriers, here is what sits beyond the screens. Each is a project of its own, and an honest AI builder should say so.
| Part | Why it's hard | What Borel does today |
|---|---|---|
| Live courier tracking | The courier's phone reports its location every few seconds, even in the background, and the buyer's map moves | A driver's stops and directions; no live moving dot |
| Dispatch | Matching orders to the nearest free courier, all day, fairly | Staff assign orders by hand |
| Push notifications | "Your courier is outside" needs a push service | Not built yet; status shows when the app is opened |
| Payouts | Paying vendors and couriers needs Stripe Connect or similar, with identity checks | Card checkout with your own Stripe key; payouts are on you |
| Three separate apps | Platforms ship buyer, courier and vendor apps | One app with roles |
| Android | Many couriers use Android phones | iPhone and iPad only |
If you need those from day one, budget for a development team. Clutch's 2026 data puts most app projects at $10,000 to $49,999 and the average at $90,780, and a platform with Stripe Connect payouts sits well above an average app. Many successful ones started as one business delivering to its own street.
App Store rules for delivery apps
| Guideline | What Apple asks | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| 3.1.3(e) Goods outside the app | Not in-app purchase for physical goods | Pay on delivery, or card checkout through a processor |
| 5.1.5 Location services | Use location only when it's relevant to the app's features | Ask for location when the driver opens their stops, not on start |
| 5.1.1(v) Account deletion | Delete account in the app | Built into every Borel app with accounts |
| 5.1.1(i) Privacy policy | A link in the app and on the listing | Borel hosts one and links it |
| 2.1 Completeness | Demo accounts for apps with a login | A buyer, a staff and a driver account for the reviewer |
Read the full wording on Apple's App Review Guidelines page.
What a delivery app costs
| Item | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Borel Free | $0 | 5 credits a day to build and try it in your browser |
| Borel Pro | From $20 a month | Install on drivers' iPhones and publish to the App Store |
| Apple Developer Program | $99 a year | Paid to Apple |
| Running the app | Pay as you go | Database and delivery photos, from a balance you top up |
| Card payments | Stripe's fees | Only if buyers pay in the app |
So a single-business delivery app runs about $339 a year on Borel's lowest monthly tier plus Apple's fee, before cloud use. See pricing for every tier.
How to choose the right way to build a delivery app
- Borel, for one business or scheduled rounds on iPhone: ordering, slots, staff and driver screens, built from a description.
- [CatDoes](/compare/catdoes), if your drivers use Android; it builds React Native apps for both stores.
- A delivery platform's merchant program, if you want their couriers and accept their commission.
- A development team, for a multi-vendor platform with live tracking and payouts.
How to do it with Borel, step by step
Step 1: Describe the three roles
Open Borel and describe the buyer, the staff and the driver, with the rules you wrote down.
Make a delivery app for a bakery in Uppsala. Buyers sign in with email, browse breads and pastries with photos, add to a cart (minimum 150 SEK) and choose a delivery slot on Saturday or Sunday between 7 and 11, 20 orders per slot. They enter an address within 8 km of the bakery and a note for the driver. Staff join with an invite code and see the day's orders by slot, mark each packed, and assign it to a driver. Drivers see their stops for the day sorted by distance, tap one to get directions in Apple Maps, and mark it delivered with a photo. Buyers see the status and the delivery photo. Pay on delivery for now.Borel's planner, Penny, asks about anything unclear. Rivet then writes the app in Swift with SwiftUI and Xcode compiles it on Borel's Mac, so you don't need one.
Step 2: Walk one order through every role
The app opens on a live iPhone in your browser. Make a buyer, a staff and a driver test account. Place an order, pack it, assign it, open the driver's list and mark it delivered, then check what the buyer sees. If any step takes more than two taps, ask for a shorter path.
Step 3: Tune the rules
Try an address outside the area, an overfull slot and an order under the minimum. Each should be refused in plain words. Fix what isn't with a short message, like "say which slots are full instead of hiding them".
Step 4: Drive a real round
With Pro, Borel Companion installs the app on your phone and your drivers' from a Windows PC or a Mac. Do a week of real rounds with staff as buyers before inviting anyone else.
Step 5: Publish
Stamp, Borel's reviewer, checks the app for the rules Apple most often turns apps down for, and Publish builds, signs and uploads it under your own Apple Developer account, with a demo account for each role in the notes to Apple.
The Bottom Line
A delivery app for your own business is well within reach of an AI builder: Borel builds the ordering, slots, staff screen, driver stops and status from one description, natively on iPhone. A platform with live tracking, dispatch and payouts is a different scale, and pretending otherwise wastes your money. Start with your own street on Borel, and read how to create a restaurant ordering app if pickup comes before delivery.
Questions people ask
Can I build a delivery app like the big platforms with AI?
Not alone. An AI builder can make the screens, but live courier tracking, automatic dispatch, push notifications and payouts need servers and services built for them. Start with one business and grow.
How much does it cost to make a delivery app?
For one business with Borel: from $20 a month for Pro plus Apple's $99 a year and cloud use. A multi-vendor platform built by a team costs far more; Clutch's 2026 average for app projects is $90,780.
Can drivers get directions in the app?
Yes. A driver taps a stop and the app opens turn-by-turn directions in Apple Maps. Stops can be shown as pins and sorted by distance.
Can buyers track the driver live on a map?
Not in a Borel app today. Buyers see the order's status, such as out for delivery and delivered, and the delivery photo, when they open the app.
How do delivery apps take payment?
With a card processor or cash, not Apple's in-app purchase, because Guideline 3.1.3(e) keeps physical goods out of it. With Borel, start with pay on delivery and add Stripe with your own key when ready.
Do I need separate apps for drivers and buyers?
Not to start. Borel builds one app with roles: buyers see their orders, staff and drivers join the business with an invite code and see the day's work.
Can a delivery app work for a weekly subscription box?
Yes. Describe the round instead of slots: buyers sign up for a weekly box, skip a week when away, and staff see each round's list. Charging for the box itself happens outside Apple's in-app purchase, since it is a physical good.
Do drivers need to share their location all the time?
No. In a Borel app the driver's phone uses location only to show their own position on the map of stops, and asks when they open it, which is also what Apple's Guideline 5.1.5 expects.
I started Borel because I wanted to make iPhone apps without a Mac or a team behind me. If this helped you build something, I would love to see it.
– Sigsten
Make your iPhone app in Borel
Describe the app you want and see its first screens before you pay anything.
See your app free