Cabalot
p/cabalot
Compare prices for different cab options all in one place
Jack Smith
Cabalot — Compare the price of Lyft and Uber in one app
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Replies
Jack Smith
I have zero idea why this hasn't been banned by Lyft/Uber (maybe because they seem to be flying under the radar), but this app is AWESOME and moved to the homescreen of my phone. I open it before Lyft/Uber. It lets you compare in realtime the price of a trip on lyft line, lyft, uber and uber pool and see the results all at once (see screenshot). Prices can vary massively, especially when surge pricing is in play on one of the platforms. The app is also integrated with both, so after you get a price, you can just click "book" and it will sync over your pickup and destination places to Lyft/Uber in one tap. The app also has a feature that will tell you where to walk in order to avoid surge pricing, but I don't use that; I use it for the price comparison.
Kanav Arora
@_jacksmith Thanks Jack. I created the app a few months after being annoyed that I was continuously switching between Lyft and Uber to compare prices. Likewise, its on my front home screen too :) Over the period I have made it work in cities other than SF too, and being a traveler, I have found it pretty useful everywhere for a quick summary on all the prices for these options. Also, one of the initial motivations for the app was also the fact, that uber and lyft literally had surge block zones, so if you cross some invisible line, you basically get lesser surge pricing. And these zones are pretty small. I have actually saved quite a bit of money (more than $80, and this doesn't count the one time I saved about $60 by walking a few blocks in NY) this way. Anyways, thanks for the product hunt. I haven't done much promotion, but I am glad the app is picking up on its own :)
Hayden Evans
This is awesome but I wouldn't expect it to be available much longer. Uber/Lyft will almost certainly ban this at some point. Especially now that it's on PH.
Nogah Senecky
Fun fact: The word "cabalot" in Hebrew means receipts. The name you chose is even better than you think :) Cool product.
Kanav Arora
@nogahsenecky haha. thank you :) Coincidences are cool!!
Mark Spivey
Hmm, a few points: 1) The handoff from the app to Uber doesn't appear to work at all. 2) I love the fare optimization feature, but it would be nice to have a clear warning the app is going to do it before interacting with Lyft/Uber. 3) I haven't managed to use it during Prime/Surge. Does it show this within the app? 4) There's no information about ETA, this is fairly important to most riders. 5) I think I still prefer using Cut The Surge/Zailoo
Kanav Arora
@ausonio 1. I think there is a bug that it only works in SF. But will get around to it in the next release. 2. Good point. I actually do warn the user which option they want (original location or optimized location), when you are trying to book the ride using my app. 3. I have that information, but for ease of UI and making the app less cluttersome, decided not to show the info. I only show the surge % savings, if you walk to a better place. Another goal of this app, (as you can see), is to make the UI as easy and less cluttersome, with all the relevant prices and info for all the cab rides, easily shown in one screen. I could add a detailed screen for each of the options if you wanted more info on any of them. 4. True. Great point. Just started this as a part time project a while back. But this is something that could easily be part of the detailed screen for each of the cab options too. Decided to deprioritize it, because in SF (where I am and where this product was intended to be used at start), availability of cab drivers is not really a problem. Also quite often for both Lyft and Uber, the nearest driver away feature has rarely been indicative of when you actually request a driver. 5. Both of them are great app with good UI. Cut the Surge only goes to Uber, and I am not sure how real time is Zailoo surge pricing info. Ill try to use it to see. But with cabalot, you are guaranteed to see the accurate price of a ride, as if you were requesting that ride from the (lyft/uber) app itself.
Mark Spivey
@kanavarora 1) Sounds good, when is the next one planned for? 2) Yeah it warns you, but you actually have no idea what the proposed address is or the walking distance before it's submitted to Lyft or Uber. 3 & 4) Part of the UI I don't really understand is the map, I don't see what value it adds as it doesn't provide any information over and above what the user already knows. As above, it doesn't tell you if the pickup location has been optimized, it just displays the original user submitted pickup address. I'd much rather have a summary screen that showed the key information rather than trying to include a map 5) I don't actually like the UI for inputting pickup and destinations for Zailoo. I feel it doesn't mimic how it works in either Uber or Lyft. Also they don't have UberPool options for some reason. I'm mostly using Uber at the moment due to the 20% cashback from CapitalOne but that will all change come the end of April.
Drew Shah
Cool!