Who doesn’t love discounts and saving money while shopping?
It feels even better when you make an online payment and get a scratch card. When you scratch it and see that you’ve earned cashback, it’s such a great feeling!
The growing trend of offering rewards and cashback in today’s shopping world has led to a rise in the popularity of cashback app like Upside.
The Upside app is one of the most popular cashback reward apps that gives users cashback on purchases like groceries, gas, and other items. You simply get some money back for buying everyday items.
According to a report by Precedence Research, the global cashback and rewards app market is expected to grow from $4.14 billion in 2025 to $7.73 billion by 2034. These numbers clearly show the dominance of loyalty and cashback apps like Upside, which offer benefits to both shoppers and businesses.
Are you interested in creating an app like Upside? Curious about how cashback apps work and what they can do for your business? If so, you’re in the right place. As a trusted cashback app development company, we’re here to help answer all your questions in this blog. Keep reading to learn more!
What Is Upside App?
The Upside app is a free and widely used cashback mobile app that allows users to earn cashback when they buy gas, groceries, or eat at restaurants. All you have to do is open the app, pick an offer, pay with your regular card, and you’ll earn cashback. The money is sent directly to your bank account or turned into gift cards. The best part? It works with other rewards too, so you save even more. There are over 100,000 businesses that use Upside, so you can find deals almost anywhere.
Upside app was launched in 2016 and is now used all across the USA. Moreover, the application made $44.2 million in revenue, has a 4.6-star rating and has more than 100M+ downloads on the Play Store. If you’re thinking about building a cashback app like Upside, now is a great time, as it’s a profitable investment.
How Does The Upside App Work?
- Before you invest in cashback app development like Upside, you should first clearly understand how it actually works. To help you easily grasp the process of how does the app Upside work, let’s take a look at the steps mentioned below:
- First, download the Upside application from the Play Store or Apple App Store and create your account on the app using your email ID, phone number, or social media account. It only takes a few minutes to get started.
- Next, go to the “My Wallet” section in the app and add your debit or credit card. Just enter the first 6 and last 4 digits. This helps the Upside cashback app know which card you’re using.
- Before shopping, open the Upside mobile app and look for deals nearby. You might find discounts at gas stations, restaurants, or grocery stores. The app even shows offers based on what you like to buy most.
- When you find a deal you like, tap “Claim” to activate it before buying. Then, shop like normal. The app works in the background and tracks your purchases to make sure you get exciting cashback.
- You can easily pay using the same card you added to the app. Once your purchase is confirmed, your cashback will appear in your Upside account. Users can take their cashback and transfer it to their bank account if they want or choose a gift card.
Benefits Of Developing An App Like Upside
Creating a cashback reward app like Upside can bring a plethora of benefits to the table for both businesses and users. Yes, you read that right. If you have any doubt about whether you should invest in cashback app development like Upside or not, then this section will clear all your doubts.
For Businesses
1. Increased Sales
When the sales skyrocket, that is one of the happiest moments of any business, and coupons cashback app like Upside is that powerful tool that can greatly help in boosting sales. When people know they’ll get a discount or cashback on the purchase, they’re more likely to shop. Apps like Upside give people reasons to buy again and again without needing extra advertising.
2. Boost Customer Loyalty
Cashback and loyalty apps like Upside make your customers loyal to your brand. How? When they know they’ll earn rewards, they’re more likely to shop with you again. Over time, they trust your business more and keep choosing you over others. It’s like turning first-time buyers into regular customers who enjoy coming back.
3. Bring In New Customers
Every business wants to associate with more and more customers over time. While it is a difficult task, investing in developing an app like Upside can simplify this. New customers are attracted to bonuses, deals, and cashback. Mobile apps like Upside for gas & groceries often reward users for joining or referring friends, which helps spread the word about your business quickly and brings new faces through your door.
For Users
1. Money Saving
Everybody loves saving money when buying daily essential items or dining out. Actually, it brings a smile to our faces when we get cashback on our purchases. Gas apps like Upside assist customers in saving money on things they buy, like gas, food, or groceries. Instead of asking for discounts, users get money back after they pay. It’s a simple way to spend smart and save money.
2. Offers Convenience
Using app like Upside is really simple. You just open the app, find a deal, and pay. There’s no need to safely keep paper coupons in your wallet or search for codes. Everything is in one place. These apps are designed to be user-friendly, so anyone, even without tech knowledge, can use them. Moreover, the cashback you earn isn’t stuck in the application, you can send it to your bank. It’s your money to spend how you want.
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Features Of Upside Cashback App
If you are thinking of building an Upside alternative, then it is very important to understand what features it offers, as its features play a great role in its immense popularity.
|
Features |
Description |
| Personalized Offers | Upside gives users personalized cashback offers based on where they shop and what they buy. |
| Stackable With Other Rewards | The app also works well with other store rewards and credit cards to save even more money. |
| Instant Cash Rewards | Get cashback right away when you pay using the Upside app at partner places. |
| Cash Out Anytime | With Upside app, you can take your cashback whenever you want and transfer it straight to your bank. |
| Smart Tracking | The Upside gas app shows everything you earned and spent, so it’s easy to keep track. |
Must-Have Features Of Gas And Grocery Cashback App Like Upside
Now that we have discussed the features of Upside app, it’s time to explore some more functionalities and features that you can add to app like Upside that users are absolutely going to love. Let’s have a look at the below table:
User Panel
| Features | Description |
| Account Setup | Users should be able to quickly sign up or log into the app, making it simple to access and personalize profile creation. |
| Easy Search & Filter | App like Upside should allow searches for cashback deals and filter them based on different needs. |
| Cashback Tracking | Help in seeing earnings in real-time and check past transactions to track all cashback amounts. |
| Multiple Redemption Choices | Enable users to redeem cashback via gift cards or direct bank transfers, offering flexibility in how they receive rewards. |
| Push Notifications | Get notified right away about nearby offers and cashback deals, so users never miss a chance to save. |
| 24/7 Customer Support | By integrating this feature, allow customers to contact support anytime for help with any issues or questions they might have. |
Merchant Panel
| Features | Description |
| Profile Creation | Merchants can easily sign up and get access to all the tools they need to manage their offers on the app. |
| Personalized Dashboard | Cashback app developers should add this feature, as it enables merchants to see live updates on sales & new customers. |
| Offers & Rewards Management | Enable merchants to create and manage offers, adjusting cashback percentages or amounts. |
| Verify Redemptions | Allow merchants to confirm cashback redemptions to ensure all transactions are accurate. |
| Payment Management | Easily view detailed payment histories to track received and pending payments right in the app. |
| Location Control | Through this functionality, businesses with multiple locations can easily manage cashback offers at each store. |
Admin Panel
| Features | Description |
| Merchant & User Management | Admin should be able to manage user and merchant accounts to ensure everything stays up-to-date. |
| Transaction Tracking | Allow admin to monitor all transactions within the app, keeping an eye on all sales and cashback activity. |
| Commission Management | This feature helps admins to manage commission rates, ensuring fairness and proper revenue distribution. |
| Support Management Tools | Provide admins access to tools that help resolve issues raised by users and merchants. |
| Content Management | Admin can update app content, keeping it fresh and relevant for both users and merchants. |
Cashback App Development Like Upside: Step By Step
Want to build a cashback app like Upside? Wondering where to start? Don’t worry; in this section will answer your question as we are going to explore the key steps involved in cashback app development. We highly suggest you partner with an experienced cashback mobile app development company in USA, as they will make the entire process easy for you and deliver a secure and feature-rich app like Upside, ready to launch.
Identify App Concept
Have a cashback app idea? Wonderful. Immediately validate your app idea with the help of cashback app developers. Conduct thorough market research, identify your target audience, and check out competitors. Research what people want, and look at what similar apps offer. This step helps you figure out the app’s main purpose and how it is going to help your business and customers.
Cashback Model Selection
This is one of the most important step of Upside like app development that is how you app will
earn money while giving users cashback. Will it be from ads, partnerships, or transaction fees? There are so many different options to pick from. Decide how users can get cashback, whether by gift cards or bank transfers. This stage is key to ensuring your Upside alternative is profitable, and users still get good deals and rewards.
Define Key Features
The features you add to your app like Upside will truly decide whether your app will be a hit or miss. Think about what the application needs to do and plan features for users, merchants, and admin panels accordingly. Make sure the features of shopping cashback apps like Upside fulfill the purpose for which the user is using it, to get cashback on shopping and for merchants to manage offers and track sales.
UI/UX Designing
When users first download and open your app, they should feel like, “Wow!” They should really enjoy using the app and find it attractive. All of this is possible by investing in high-quality UI/UX design services. UX focuses on how people use the app, ensuring it’s simple and efficient. UI is about the visual part, how the buttons, text, and screens look. Make sure that together, they create a smooth experience for users.
Choose Tech Stack
Selecting the right technology stack is very important to develop a top-notch app like Upside. There are so many tools and technologies available, so hire dedicated developers, as they can help you choose the right one for your project needs. For frontend, you can use programming languages like React Native, Java, and Swift; for backend utilize Python and Node,js. Make sure the tech stack you pick works well with your app and allows for scalability.
Upside Like App Development
In this stage, the cashback app development firm in the USA will start coding your app like Upside. Mobile app developers will begin working on creating the frontend and backend of your app. The front-end is what users see and interact with, such as screens and buttons. The back-end handles everything happening behind the scenes. If required, cashback app developers will also integrate external APIs to boost the app’s functionality.
Testing & Launch
Once the app like Upside is developed, cashback app developers will pass it to QA engineers for testing. They will conduct extensive testing, look for bugs and glitches, and if they find any, they will immediately fix them. After testing is completed, you can launch your Upside alternative in the market. Additionally, keep a close watch on the app’s performance, and if any issues arise, rectify them immediately before they hamper the user experience.
Cost To Develop a Shopping Cashback App Like Upside
There is no doubt that cost is one of the first things that come to mind when businesses plan to invest in cashback app development like Upside. It’s quite natural, right? Understanding the cost will not only help you, but it will also provide clarity to your cashback and loyalty app development company about what your budget is.
The cost to build the best shopping cash back apps like Upside depends on a wide range of factors such as app type, platform choice, features added, UI/UX design, tech stack selected, third-party integration, and the location of cashback app developers. So, sometimes it becomes difficult to immediately tell the price with no knowledge of your project details. However, you can expect the cost to build simple cashback coupon apps like Upside to start from $5,000.
To get a custom quote, you can also try using our cost calculator. Just enter your project details and receive a personalized quote.
How Does Upside App Make Money?
Now you know the cost of cashback app development like Upside, but the main question arises that how does Upside make money? Well, there are so many ways through which app like Upside can earn handsome amount of money. You can choose the one that you feel best suited according to your business needs. Let’s have a look at the monetization model that Upside app follows:
1. Premium Subscriptions
The Upside app offers a premium version where users pay for extra benefits, like bigger cashback or exclusive deals. Premium users receive more perks, such as better cashback offers, early access to promotions, and special discounts. This helps Upside earn money while still providing a free version.
2. Affiliate Commissions
Another popular way through which the Upside gas app generates income is by receiving a small percentage of every sale made through its app. When users claim an offer and purchase something, Upside gets paid by the business, such as a gas station or grocery store.
3. Advertising
This is one of the most common revenue models that gas & grocery cashback apps like Upside use. It makes money by showing ads to users inside the app. Businesses pay Upside to show their offers to users. These ads help businesses attract customers, while Upside earns from the advertisements.
4. White-Label Solutions
Upside loyalty programs app lets other companies utilize its cashback technology in their own apps, like Uber. These companies pay Upside a licensing fee to use the platform. The app also earns money through referral fees when users make purchases within these partner apps.
5. Data Monetization
Upside collects data on what users buy and how they shop, which is valuable for businesses. They sell this data (anonymously) to market researchers or use it to improve their own services. This helps businesses understand consumer trends while Upside generates revenue.
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Partner With Helpful Insight To Build Cashback Mobile App Like Upside
Developing cashback apps like Upside for gas and groceries is a brilliant business investment, as these apps are in great demand and entice customers to engage with your business. Since there are already some prominent cashback apps available in the market, the key to stand out is to create an innovative, high-quality, and value-driven mobile app. Not to worry, Helpful Insight is here to make this possible.
We are a top-rated cashback app development company in USA that excels in building out-of-the-box and fully featured cashback apps like Upside, even better than that. Our team comprises experienced cashback and loyalty app developers that possess years of industry experience in creating different types of cashback apps. We will customize the app to meet your particular business needs and craft such a unique app that will give fierce competition to the top apps in the market.
Get in touch with our team today to bring your cashback app idea to life.
FAQs
We get it that you want your application to be developed and launched quickly. It is vital to understand that the timeline for cashback app development, like Upside is affected by a number of factors.
These include customization and complexity level, number of features, app design, third-party integration, app testing, and many more. Therefore, there is no fixed answer to this question.
To know the exact duration, share your app requirements with us, and we will provide you with timeline details. At Helpful Insight, we are committed to delivering the app on time.
Some of the challenges that cashback app developers face while building a cashback app like Upside are creating a smooth user experience, ensuring data security and integrating a huge number of retailers.
Well, there is no single answer to this question, as it depends on the users’ spending habits. To maximize your rewards, you can try using different cashback apps like Upside and can check the ongoing deals.
Ibotta, Rakuten, GasBuddy, and Dosh are some of the best Upside alternatives you can use to get exciting cashback offers and rewards.
