11 Best Carpool & Rideshare Apps

Do you often find yourself needing to take multiple trips during the day, but don’t have the time or the money to get a taxi or rideshare? If so, you’re in luck! In this post, we’ll be taking a look at some of the best carpool and rideshare apps available today in India. From the most preferred BlaBla cabs to UberPool, these carpool apps allow you to connect with other potential passengers in order to get where you’re going as quickly and inexpensively as possible. With so many options available, it’s hard to go wrong! To help you avoid driving in traffic and reach your destination in time, we have curated the best carpool apps and rideshare apps in the below list.

Popular Carpool & Rideshare Apps – Comparision

The Benefits Of Carpool & Rideshare Apps

• Carpool & rideshare apps help reduce the amount of traffic on roads and make traveling in cities a lot more comfortable.
• These apps work together to connect people who need to commute to work or school with those who are willing to share their rides.
• It cuts down on emissions by reducing the number of cars on the road.
• It also helps reduce traffic congestion and delays.

Save More On Carpool and Rideshares Today

There are many ways to save on carpool and rideshares today, and the best way to find the best deals is to use a platform like GrabOn. Not only can you find great deals on carpools and rideshares, but you can also use GrabOn coupons and discount codes to save more on each ride you take.

Moreover, there are infinite coupon codes at MakeMyTrip that offer discounts on domestic as well as international travel. You can save a fortune with easy-to-use coupons. And while traveling intercity, Carpool apps like Uber, Ola, or more will surely give you a good deal. So keep on reading to know which other carpool apps you can use to travel intercity.

Have a look at Top 11 Carpool Apps in India for 2023

1. BlaBlaCar

BlaBlaCar is one of the popular carpool apps in India that was started in 2013. It was developed taking the festival season into consideration when trains and buses are already packed and rates of cab services soaring high due to an increase in demand.

Benefits Of BlaBlaCar

• BlaBlaCar carpooling service is developed to share fuel costs with other aspiring travelers and lessen the congestion on the whole.
• This carpooling app is both economically and ecologically friendly and makes it easier for commuters to find a ride with an experienced and trusted driver.
• Users can link their social media profile with their BlaBlaCar profile and are also allowed to anonymously rate their experience with the driver with a special focus on driving skills and safety. The only glitch is its cash-only payment option. You must have the exact change with you in case the driver doesn’t have any.
• The app is available on both Android and iOS and is active in cities including Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, etc.

Carpooling With BlaBlaCar

• If you are driving somewhere, you can now share your ride and save more on your travel costs.
• You can publish your ride with ease and decide which passenger you want to go with.
• If you are planning to go somewhere, you can now book your ride at low prices.
• Search for your destination, find the closest carpool near you, and book a seat instantly. That’s how simple it is.

How Can You Save On BlaBlaCar Carpooling Services?

• Sign up using your email address to get the latest deals and exclusive offers on your rides. Read on to know the other best-carpooling apps like BlaBlaCar.

2. SRide

sRide is another growing carpooling app in India which that claims safety for its riders. This carpooling service has bagged over 1 Million users and is considered to be the top carpool app in India. This apart, it also offers the best bike pooling services at affordable prices. It is currently available in more than 10 cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Pune, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Coimbatore, Bhubaneswar, and others.

Benefits of sRide

• A background check of each sRide driver is done to ensure you get the best service possible, and driver ratings are tracked closely.
• Every rider must submit a review of their driver to create a conversation in the sRide community to provide feedback for others.
• sRide was also developed in 2014 and is aimed at providing commuters with a cost-saving means of transport while helping reduce pollution.
• sRide claims that over 11 billion gallons of fuel could be saved per year if commuters opted for carpool apps in India on a regular basis.
• The sRide app is available for both Android and iOS and features online payment options through Paytm, unlike BlaBla Car. Interestingly, users can get cash back on every ride they take when they pay via Paytm.

Carpooling With sRide

• Find a ride and carpool on the go using sRide.
• You can get up-to-date recommendations and notifications with sRide’s advanced recommendation engine and know about the rides near you.
• Enjoy the cashless payment option for all your carpool rides.

How Can You Save On sRide Carpooling Services?

You may refer friends and relatives to sRide and earn free ride points that may be redeemed for future carpool journeys. Using the in-app referral system, you may participate in the promotion and referral program.

And, so the founder of sRide, Lakshna Jha rightly said,

SOME OF THE COMPANIES SPEND UP TO $3-4 MILLION PER YEAR ON EMPLOYEE TRANSPORTATION. BY INTRODUCING CARPOOLING, THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE MODE OF TRANSPORTATION WHICH HELPS TO REDUCE COSTS. IT ALSO HELPS TO FORM A STRONGER COMMUNITY AMONG EMPLOYEES.

3. UberPool

After a successful launch in Delhi and Bangalore, UberPOOL has extended its services to other cities including Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, and Bhubaneswar. Launched in the year 2009, this American company is the largest ride-hailing and car-pooling company today. Recently, the company has renamed UberPOOL to Uber ShareX in the US.

Benefits of UberPOOL

• UberPOOL enables you to share your ride with passengers with similar pickup and destination points.
• The service is available in almost all Indian cities like Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Patna, Coimbatore, Tirupati, Bhubaneswar, Vijayawada, Vadodara, Bhubaneswar, etc.
• The services are usually cheaper than taking an individual Uber ride.
• While booking a cab, you’ll now get three options – UberGo, UberPool, and UberMotor. The one ride that charges you around Rs. 122 if you book it independently, the same distance will cost you only Rs. 49 if you select UberPool.
• You might get matched with other passengers heading in the same direction. Even if no other passengers take the ride, this will be your cost.
• Discover exclusive discounts and deals on your Uber rides by clicking here, where you can access exciting offers for a more cost-effective experience.

How Can You Save On UberPOOL Carpooling Services?

Try using the coupon codes that they offer from time to time. Also, opt-in for Uber Black to enjoy premium features and enjoy your Uber rideshare like never before. If you are looking for the best ride apps like Uber, then do check out our next list, further.

4. Ola Share

Ola Share enables its users to book and share a cab ride with fellow commuters who can be trusted. Connect with other travelers on the go – without having to plan it on a prior basis, de-tour, or wait for other passengers to join.

Benefits of Ola Share

• You share your ride with the people you choose.
• You can join a group based on one or more common aspects – your location and gender.
• Enjoy popular travel options on the Ola app such as Ola Auto, Ola Mini, Ola Prime, Ola Bike, Ola Rentals, and much more.
• All the cab services by Ola are equipped with onboard GPS for route navigation.
• OlaShare is now available in major cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, etc. It is the first major home-grown cab aggregator founded in 2010 by Bhavish Aggarwal.
• The company has also expanded its wings to international markets like Australia and New Zealand. So, wherever you are, just say ‘Ola’.

How Can You Save On OlaShare Carpooling Services?

Now, save up to 50% on every ride you take on Ola using the Ola Share Pass.

5. Ridely

While there is a typical Hindi proverb “Teen Tigada Kaam Bigada“, the trio has certainly discarded this myth. When three young and enthusiastic talents come together, a fresh and innovative product is expected to be launched. This is what happened in the case of Ridley, one of the top 10 carpool apps in India. The owners, Varun, Rachit, and Ankur quit their jobs from Jabong to start this Indian-based carpooling app.

Ridely is over five years old now. It was during the first phase of Odd-Even in Delhi when the trio came up with this concept and was bootstrapping in the first quarter. Ridely is a part of the Microsoft BizSpark Program and Facebook’s FBStart and has a presence in Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Pune, Bangalore, and Mumbai. The app is free and available for download all across India.

Benefits of Ridely Carpooling

• Offers the best rides to people in major Indian cities such as Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, etc at affordable prices.
• With Ridely, carpooling is made easy. Users can select a wide range of pooling services such as cars, bikes, auto-rickshaws, and much more.
• It is a peer-to-peer ride-sharing network that allows people to find co-travelers traveling in the same direction.
• Users can look for rides, connect, plan, and chat with other travelers with ease.
• The carpooling and ride-sharing platform verifies users with government IDs, and official email addresses and rewards them with a badge. Completely secure carpooling service.

How Can You Save On Ridely Carpooling Services?

Sign up for Ridely’s newsletters, get exclusive promo codes, and save on every ride you take.

6. ToGo (Together We Go)

Here is another fast-emerging social carpooling mobile app – Together We Go (ToGo) which is aimed at grouping people commuting on the same routes.

Benefits of TogetherWeGo Carpooling

• This app offers a chat option, where people can chat with each other or in a group to find suitable carpooling partners.
• While carpooling is yet to become mainstream, ToGo is undeterred and is busy offering trusted carpooling services in a few parts of the nation.
• Whether one is willing to travel to the office, airport, or a nearby city, this carpooling app introduces them to like-minded people, thus making the journey a tight affair.
• TogetherWeGo also offers a variety of services such as pre-arranged rides, last-minute rides, and rides that are pocket-friendly.
• This Mumbai-based startup is started by Parth Patel (Mechanical Engineer from IIT Delhi), Chintan Pandya (Electrical Engineer from IIT Kanpur) & Vipin Raghavan (MBA graduate from Symbiosis Pune and has an overall 7.5 years of work experience with EY and SKS Microfinance).

How Can You Save On ToGo Carpooling Services?

The best way to save on ToGo carpooling services is to use a discount code. Many companies offer discounts and exclusive offers for those who sign up for a subscription or who use a discount code.

Here’s what the founder had to say to Economic Times,

“Six of us from the office shared a flat. At times, when one had to stay late, it was tough to find transportation to our place at an affordable rate. Especially in metropolitan cities, traveling alone in a car hurts the pockets. We have derived a mathematical formula. Based on this, transportation charges will be less in comparison to traveling by a public mode. Considering the safety of co-travelers, the application gives the option of commuting with male and female passengers.”

7. Quickride

As per a survey conducted a few years ago, Bengaluru was ranked as the sixth worst city in the world for commuting. Years later, the condition in the city still hasn’t improved. While many startups had tried coming up with car share services in Bengaluru, the idea eventually died. However, undeterred by the failures of other carpool service providers, Quickride founder KNM Rao came up with his app for real-time ridesharing with end-to-end automation in 2015.

Benefits of Quickride Carpooling

• It also offers commuters a safe and comfortable ride, and the app is easy to use.
• You can track the progress of your ride and see where you are in relation to your destination.
• This app helps commuters to start sharing the ride instead of traveling alone, and in turn, saves both time and money.
• The rides are automated end-to-end for all its carpooling and bike pooling processes, making it safe and affordable for urban commuters.
• Is also known for offering the best taxi and taxi pool services. Head to the airport, drive local or outstation at the best fares on the market.

How Can You Save On Quickride Carpooling Services?

This company offers a variety of flexible carpooling options that can fit your needs. Whether you’re looking for carpooling services or taxis, then this should be your top choice. Plus, with discounts and exclusive deals available only to Quickride members, you’re sure to save money.

The founder of Quickride had this to say,

Our ultimate dictum was maximum usage of available resources and filling those empty seats on the road. We always considered cars with single occupants a sheer wastage of resources that gives rise to many unpardonable issues like traffic jams, cluttered parking spaces, pollution, and long hours on the road which impacts one’s health.

8. ZIFY

ZIFY is a Hyderabad-based company listed in our carpool apps in India. ZIFY aims at resolving the raging issue of traffic in India which affects almost every working professional in metropolitan cities.

Benefits of ZIFY Carpooling

• It provides a social platform to vehicle owners who can only save a lot on their fuel but also contribute towards helping fight pollution and congestion.
• With their “Smart Route-Matching” algorithm, ZIFY can provide intermediate pickup and drop off enabling instant booking on their platform.
• The startup also has its wallet for cashless transactions. ZIFY competes with other major carpool apps in India such as BlaBlaCar, Tripda, Ryde by Ibibo, and Carpool by Meru.
• Zify allows car owners to share their planned route and offer available seats online, where passengers can book seats and pay for the ride.
• The app also allows passengers to rate the driver and share feedback.

How Can You Save On ZIFY Carpooling Services?

ZIFY offers a referral program that allows you to earn rewards for referring your friends to the service. The platform is currently available in Indian cities such as Hyderabad, Bengaluru, etc.

The owner of ZIFY had this to say,

I believe the competition is helping us in a lot of ways. Carpool as a concept is still very much new in India, and the marketing efforts are helping in educating the users about the alternate mode of transportation that is affordable & more social. Even though we have a sizable chunk of users sharing city to city rides, but our focus is more on within the city travel. Once we create a large enough user network for intra-city travel, the inter-city segment would be elementary for us to tap into.

9. Ryde by Ibibo

Online travel group Ibibo has launched a carpooling app named Ryde that lets users share their rides and travel costs. Ryde operates in a similar space as BlaBlaCar and Tripda, but stands out, as it offers the service for both intra and intercity rides.

Benefits of Ryde Carpooling

• Passengers can search for registered members on the app offering rides, book their ride and preferred seat, make the payment, chat with the driver, and decide the pick-up location.
• On the other hand, the app allows drivers to choose their source, destination, and fee.
• They can search for requests by passengers who are looking to share rides with them in the same direction of travel and pick up their passengers.
• Both passengers and riders can review each other as the ride ends. It also gives a history of the past rides of both the driver and passenger.
• The app also enables the users to check verified member profiles, chat with them, and do real-time tracking of the driver and vehicle.
• Drivers can create custom preferences on waiting time, detour, luggage size, music, smoking, etc.

How Can You Save On Ryde Carpooling Services?

Ryde offers a variety of benefits, such as priority boarding and discounted rates for members who use the service regularly.

10. Carpool by Meru

Last but not least, Carpool by Meru is ranked 10th position in our list of carpool apps in India. Taxi service provider Meru launched a first-of-its-kind ‘CarPool’ service in 2016 for its customers across the country.

Benefits of Carpool by Meru

• Unlike other carpooling services which are confined to particular cities, Carpool by Meru is available in all the cities where Meru is already operating.
• The company is targeting the top 20 cities, which have over 12 million cars and they aim to bring them on a popular and trusted platform like Meru.
• Integrated into the Meru Cabs mobile app, CarPool offers the ‘personal car’ ridesharing option for people traveling in the same direction or area.
• Easy to hire local rides within the city and rental services for long trips with as many stops as you like.
• Offers affordable packages such as flexible hourly packages, half-day, full-day, and many others.

How Can You Save On Meru Carpooling Services?

Check for the latest coupon codes and get flat 20% off on every ride you take from here on.

As per Siddhartha Pahwa, chief executive of Meru Cabs,

This is a pure customer to customer service, and we are making it available across the country. We are currently not monetizing it, but we will work towards charging a margin fee in the future once the service is well established.

The company also claims at make thorough credential checks of all the drivers, who offer to give rides to people, including taking their details of driver’s license, Aadhar, and PAN.

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11. twogo

twogo is a handy carpooling app designed for employees of businesses or organizations. Launched in 2011, it operates in the cloud and makes commuting easier by matching users with similar routes and travel times. The app analyzes general traffic data and real-time daily information to calculate your personalized route, ensuring an efficient and timely journey. Here’s how it works, users input their commuting details, and the app smartly compares this information with other users to identify potential carpool matches. By using up-to-date traffic data, twogo optimizes routes, which enhances the overall commuting experience.

Benefits of twogo

• Its chat function lets you talk directly with your carpool through the app. This way, everyone in the group can get to know each other and stay updated on the plans.
• After the ride, you can anonymously rate the driver or passengers. 
• You can easily find and connect with rides that fit your travel plans directly.
• It provides automatic suggestions for sharing costs fairly among carpool participants.
• Allows you to create communities with your favorite passengers, and with those who frequently share rides.
• You can track the distance traveled and the amount of CO2 saved during your carpooling adventures.
• You can see the exact location of your passenger using GPS, making coordination easy.
• Export your twogo route to your preferred navigation app for smooth and straightforward directions.

How can you save on twogo

Subscribe to the newsletter for fresh offers, while daily users can enjoy exclusive and exciting deals regularly.

Expectation vs Reality – Carpool APPs in India

When carpooling was introduced in Indian cities, it was expected that many commuters would register for carpool apps that help connect car drivers with those looking for rides. And when in Delhi the odd and even scheme was implemented, it seemed to be a good option. Strong tie-ups would not only help lessen the traffic, but it’s also a great way of saving fuel, in short going more environment-friendly. With growing awareness campaigns about the need to reduce traffic and pollution, on the whole, the popularity of the apps was expected to rise steadily.

Well, Uber and Ola are not the only ones who are offering carpooling services. ‘sRide,’ one of the carpool apps in India was developed in 2014 by a team of software professionals based in Pune, Delhi, and California in the US. This app is currently available on Android and iOS, and any working professional can register with it by furnishing name, address, personal and official e-mail address. The app team verifies the member’s credentials through his/her employer records. Once successfully registered, the user can look up other registered members traveling on his/her route and time and connect with them to avail or offer a ride. On completion of the journey, the rider needs to pay the car owner at the rate of Rs 3/km. The app has more than 5,000 members and receives more than 300 posts every day.

Nitin Chaddha, Business Development Officer of sRide, had this to say,

We encourage members to travel only with verified members. The payment aspect is a one-to-one deal between the driver and the person availing of the ride. However, at Rs 3/km, it is as cheap as using public transport, yet offering the convenience of a car. Our app is already integrated with Google Maps, and we are now trying to connect it with Paytm to provide the comfort of payments too.

A similar app is CarEgiri, which was developed in 2014 by a team of city-based IT professionals and is currently accessed by around 2,500 people, enabling users to exchange kilometers for rides. Someone offering carpool service earns in km, and the one availing of the trip spends them. Siddharth Jagtiani, founder and chief technical officer of the app, had this to say,

If you accumulate enough km by driving more often, you earn enough for fuel and maintenance. If you spend in km, you pay only what you usually would spend if you drive an economy car. It’s a simple system that requires no login and an elaborate registration process. I, as a commuter, have faced the traffic problem and felt the drain on my energy and time, and thus thought of developing this app.

For all those companies who are offering carpool apps in India, they see congestion as a problem waiting for a solution. They then try building up a platform that users can access and avail of carpooling services. Many young companies have built carpooling apps and services, that help you hook you up with fellow commuters who are traveling the same route.

There was a bunch of enthusiastic people who swore by carpool apps in India. There were radio jockeys who would explain to us the benefits of carpooling but considering the Indian mindset; the interest has already started fading. It seems carpool apps in India will never go mainstream. You can build the best technological solutions, but the concept will still not work — the reason being the Indian laid-back attitude and consumer behavior.

End Notes

Now with several such top carpool apps in India, most of the commuters are not aware, and those aware are skeptical about availing this service, especially the female passengers. Earlier, carpooling means your dad used to share a ride with his colleague. Now let’s be honest; we hardly even know our neighbors and traveling with a stranger is still a social stigma. It’s worse when it comes to strangers. Carpooling firms may have done all the background verification about people I need to pick up along the way, but all I need is one bad experience to put me off.

Coming to the peak traveling hours, mornings are the busiest hours when we are in a rush to make it to the office on time, and on the other hand, evenings are even worse. Unexpected meetings popped up just when we were planning to head back home. In such scenarios, we cannot afford to either wait for a carpool service that is busy picking up other passengers or even won’t like to keep fellow passengers waiting in the evening.

With all those speculations in mind, we still want to see carpool apps in India as mainstream, so that the real-time issues of congestion and pollution be reduced if not resolved entirely.

Happy reading!