Need to get from Point A-B? Chances are pretty high that you might’ve recently booked your ride from one of the ride-hailing apps available. These ride-hailing apps and services are growing in multiples and the outreach of these services is growing at an ever-increasing pace. A number of new apps and services are popping up at different parts of the world to make hailing a cab or a ride easier than ever before. These new services have challenged the traditional methods and services of how people used to travel before. There’s a disruption in the travel industry and people are taking on these services at a more rapid pace than ever before! But what is this all about?
Ride-hailing services like Uber, Ola Cabs, Lyft, etc. are some of the services that you might’ve used or come across in the past couple of years. These services allow users to use these apps and book a ride from Point A to B and get instantly served. Similar in operation to a taxi-service, ride-hailing gives flexibility and power in the hands of the customers. Although some of the services have recently made the news for all the wrong reasons, these services are on a rise and expect them to grow even further.
What’s wrong with Uber?
While Uber is one of the ride-hailing services with the biggest fleet and covering the highest number of cities and countries in the world, it has made the news for all the wrong reasons. Complaints of price-gauging customers, safety issues, spying rumors, and the likes, people have been shutting down their Uber accounts off lately in the wake of incidents. A bad PR has made Uber evil in the eyes of the customers all over the world.
Also, drivers on Uber are responsible for their own gas, mechanical maintenance, and the likes. This doesn’t help the drivers on Uber any better. Cases of rapes, verbal abuses, and attacks have questioned the safety issues associated with Uber. All of this mess has caused Uber to be banned or partially banned across numerous cities across different countries in the world.
12 Best Apps like Uber
While Uber is still figuring out how to fix the mess it has created, there are numerous other ride-hailing services that you must definitely take a look at. Here are 12 of the best Apps like Uber for ride-hailing across the globe.
1. Lyft
Lyft is one of the biggest competitors of Uber in the United States. With coverage in more than 60 cities across all of the United States, Lyft is one of the best Apps like Uber to make ride-hailing easier, better and safer. Lyft requires all of their drivers to have a valid driver’s license, DMV checks, Background, and criminal checks. As far as safety is concerned Lyft has proven to be far better than Uber. Considering the interface of the apps, both Lyft and Uber feature a strikingly similar interface, which lets customers track their ride and the driver details.
A study published by the Zebra Magazine found out that the average waiting time on Lyft is a minuscule 6 seconds less than its competitor Uber. With three variants – Lyft, Lyft Plus and Lyft Line, this service allows users to ride alone or in a group of six friends with the Lyft Plus.
Notable Features: Coverage in 65 cities within the United States, provision for six people to share a ride with Lyft Plus, Android and iOS mobile applications, Good response time and better overall safety.
Countries Available: United States (65 Cities)
2. Hailo
Hailo is a UK-based ride-hailing service that is one of the numbers of apps like Uber. Although Hailo previously had a provision for hiring privately owned cars, the backfire from taxi unions has seen Hailo recommit to Black cabs. With support in 8 cities across 5 different countries, Hailo is one of the fastest growing ride-hailing services in the UK. Hailo has made booking a cab easy through their service. With CRB checked drivers, Hailo is one of the most reliable ride-hailing app in the UK and some other countries across the globe.
Hailo Hub is another new feature introduced that allows users to book a cab on behalf of others. Book a cab for your guest easily using Hailo. Hailo has also recently introduced electronic pay, that allows users to pay the cab fare directly from the app. Hailo for Business allows the premium users to ride business class.
Notable Features: CRB checked drivers, Hailo Hub, Hailo electronic pay, Haido for Business, Android, Apple Watch, and iOS mobile applications to easily a book a cab.
Countries Available: United Kingdom (4 cities), Ireland, Spain (2 cities), Singapore, Japan.
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3. Ola Cabs
Ola Cabs is one of the biggest ride-hailing app and closest competitor of Uber in India. Having bought TaxiForSure, one of the other bigger ride-haling services in India, Ola Cabs has easily one of the biggest fleet of vehicles and a covers over 80 cities across all of India. Ola Cabs offer one of the lowest fare prices among the different ride-hailing services currently active in India.
With verified drivers and cleanliness, safety and comfort audits, Ola Cabs’ riders are more than happy with the services they get. Instant confirmation of your booked ride and the app interface indicating the location of your ride, Ola Cabs is one of the most widely used ride-hailing app in India.
Notable Features: Over 80 cities supported in India, verified drivers, Android, iOS and Windows mobile applications.
Countries Available: India (85 cities)
4. GrabTaxi
Based in the Southeast Asia, GrabTaxi is one of the best apps like Uber to book your ride down Southeast. GrabTaxi has been positively reviewed by people across the Southeast with over 3.8 million mobile application downloads. Reviewed positively for the comfort and safety it offers, this is the to-go taxi-hailing services if you are in one of the locations mentioned below and looking to book a ride to your destination.
With over 75,000 drivers registered on the network, GrabTaxi has one among the biggest fleets of ride-hailing vehicles. GrabTaxi is available in 21 different cities across 6 different countries in the Southeast Asia. Being named the Frost & Sullivan Best Travel App of 2013, GrabTaxi offers one of the best taxi-hailing experience.
Notable Features: Pre-screening of drivers, Track your ride, Android, iOS and Blackberry mobile applications.
Countries Available: Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Philippines.
5. Easy Taxi
With support for over 30 countries and 420 Cities worldwide, Easy Taxi is another great taxi-hailing alternative to Uber. Grabbing over 17 million users worldwide and a taxi fleet of 400,000 taxi drivers, Easy Taxi is the best and easiest way to book your next taxi ride. Finding and booking your next Taxi ride is made simple with Easy Taxi. Easy Taxi features a destination fare calculator and also the estimated arrival time of your driver.
Easy Taxi screens and trains their drivers to provide users with the best service possible. Syncing your Easy Taxi app with the Facebook applications makes it easy to redeem coupons and vouchers that you have for your rides. Having won multiple awards for being one of the safest and reliable taxi-hailing application, Easy Taxi makes a great case for an amazing Uber alternative.
Notable Features: Fleet of 400,000 taxi drivers, Over 420 cities covered worldwide, screened and tested taxi drivers, track your ride, pay from the Easy Taxi app and much more.
Countries Available: 30 Countries and 420 Cities.
6. Didi Dache
Again, one of the best apps like Uber to make giant waves in the technology industry of China is the Didi Dache ride-hailing service. With over 100 million registered users, Didi Dache covers more than 300 cities across China. Their merger with one of their biggest competitor, Kuaidi Dache, made Didi Dache expand even further across China. Didi Dache records as high as 3 million rides on any given day.
Although Didi Dache is priced a bit higher as compared to Uber, it is one of the most efficient and reliable cab-hailing service offered in China. With over 1.5 million registered Taxi drivers, Didi Dache is the to-go service for taxi-hailing in China.
Notable Features: Taxi hailing, Hitch, Express, Personal car service, ride tracking, driver rating, Android and iOS applications, and much more.
Countries Available: China (300 Cities)
7. Gett
Gett, formerly known as Get Taxi is one of the fastest growing cab-hailing services in the United States. With Uber devising price surges, Gett is going the other way to chime in new customers to their service. Gett has recently reduced their pricing by 25 percent on rides booked in NYC. Gett also offered promotional offers like $10 rides anywhere below the 110th street in Manhattan and a flat fare of $10 in Midtown made Gett one of the most-liked cab-hailing services offered in NYC.
Operating internationally in cities like London, Moscow, Tel Aviv, NYC was the first place of operations of Gett in the United States. With an estimated arrival time and driver information made available once booked, TLC licensed and tested drivers, and cashless payment, Gett is everything right about ride-hailing.
Notable Features: Book up to 2 weeks in advance, no price surges, $10 rides anywhere below 110th St in Manhattan, Android and iOS applications and much more.
Countries Available: United States, United Kingdom, Isreal and Russia (More than 60 Cities).
8. LeCab
Paris is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and it is hard to argue otherwise! As Uber is banned in France, LeCab wants to make the most of the situation and take over the ride-hailing market in France’s capital city. With over 70,000 active users and an increasing number of the vehicle fleet, LeCab is fast rising as the best ride-hailing app like Uber in France. To go a little bit further than Uber-like applications, LeCab also allows users to rent private jets to tour Paris! Partnering with PrivateFly, LeCab allows users to fly to their destination.
LeCab makes use of the standard Peugeot 508, Made In France vehicles as their fleet of cabs to transport customers across the city. Re-booking your ride in one click, shake your smartphone to reset the details and a ton of other cool mobile application features make LeCab a viable taxi riding alternative to Uber in France.
Notable Features: LeCab Fly, Fixed price rides, ride guaranteed in 7 minutes, Android, Windows and iOS mobile applications.
Countries Available: France (Paris).
9. Cabify
In two clicks, Cabify allows users to book a ride instantly through their Android or iOS applications. Cabify features a fixed and transparent rate system, which makes sure that users are not price gauged. Cabify for Business and Events has also been devised to make it easier for people to book their business and formal trips well advance in time. Corporate traveling provides with the invoices, an account manager, lower rates, multiple account support and many other such cool features.
Cabify also allows users to book a cab for someone else. Booking in advance, safety and real-time tracking of your ride, estimated pricing, ride fare calculator, and a wide choice of payment methods are some of the key feature of Cabify, making it one of the best Uber alternatives in many cities across the world.
Notable Features: Cabify for Business, Fixed rates, No hidden charges, invoices, account manager, multiple account support, book for someone else, and more.
Countries Available: Spain, Chile, Peru, Mexico, Columbia.
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10. Bitaksi
Bitaksi is one of the most famous taxi-hailing application in Istanbul. With over 200,000 registered users and over 34,000 taxi drivers, Bitaksi offers the best taxi-hailing service in Istanbul. This is one of the few taxi-hailing services to have introduced in-app credit card payment system. Bitaksi brings cashless payment to Istanbul. It also provides other key information in-app like the current traffic en route, to improve efficiency and service reliability.
Bitaksi also provides real-time information and tracking feature to track the location of your ride. All of its drivers are licence-checked and driver ratings are provided to the customers to make the service even more reliable and accountable.
Notable Features: Fastest growing taxi-hailing service in Istanbul, cashless payment, traffic information, licensed drivers, driver ratings and much more.
Countries Available: Istanbul
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11. goCatch
goCatch is Australia’s premium taxi-hailing service. goCatch features the largest fleet of registered taxi drivers with metered taxis in Australia. The biggest advantage of this service is, it charges the same fare as provided by the meter reading on the cab. Apart from that, It charges 5% surcharge if paid by a credit card in comparison to the standard 10% surcharge for payment via credit card across Australia. It also allows users to provide a pre-ride upfront tip and bookings in advance.
goCatch lets users track their ride and also get the contact information of the driver assigned for your ride. A photo-ID and ABN check across all of their licensed drivers make goCatch one of the most reliable and safe taxi-hailing services offered in Australia. It also has a feature for Business users and provides them with business accounts providing centralized accounts and business credit card system. With over 30,000 taxis and over 300,000 registered users, goCatch features 40% of the taxi-tech industry of Australia!
Notable Features: Only 5% surcharge on credit card payments, goCatch Business, cashless payments, upfront tip, fixed meter reading fares, photoID and ABN checked drivers and much more.
Countries Available: All major Australian cities.
12. Ingogo
Ingogo is another one of the popular taxi-hailing app in Australia. Ingogo allows users to pre-book a ride up to 48 hours in advance and users can live-track their ride using the mobile applications. A fixed rate system and cashless payment methods make Ingogo another one of the most popular taxi-hailing services in Australia. A $10 credit guarantee is provided if the driver does not show up for whatever reason.
Ingogo for Business allows corporates to manage their transportation needs efficiently and save costs. A centralised reporting dashboard allows corporates to keep track of all the billing and reporting related to the transportation of their executives. Expense management tools for business users make paper receipts obsolete.
Notable Features: Cashless payments, Ingogo for businesses, live-track your ride, book in advance up to 48 hours, Android and iOS mobile applications, and much more.
Countries Available: Australia (Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane).
SEE ALSO: Top 15 Travel Apps to Take on Your Next Trip
So, coming to the end of this article about apps like Uber for your ride-hailing purpose across the world, which of the service is your favorite taxi-hailing app? Feel free to share your thoughts and experiences with ride-hailing services below.
Sagnik Das Gupta
