GoLocal
Find businesses, explore events and unlock local deals — all powered by GPS and tailored to your neighborhood.
We built GoLocal to bridge the gap between consumers and local businesses. GPS surfaces what is nearby. Advanced search narrows it down. Deals and events keep the community coming back. One platform for users, business owners and municipalities.
One business. Three screens.
Native iOS and Android apps paired with a WordPress website. Same data, same deals, same experience across every device.
Everything a local explorer needs.
GPS-driven discovery
Accurate, fast searches for businesses and services near the user's location. Results update as they move.
Comprehensive directory
A wide range of categories from daily essentials to luxury experiences. Every business in one place.
Local deals & events
Exclusive promotions, discounts and community happenings. Users find what is on right now.
Personalized recommendations
Tailored suggestions based on user interests, browsing history and location patterns.
Advanced search
Filter by keyword, category, radius and open status. Find anything from handymen to gourmet restaurants.
Web + mobile
Native iOS and Android apps paired with a WordPress website. Same data, three platforms, one API.
Find anything nearby in seconds.
Filter by keyword, category, radius and open status. From handymen to gourmet restaurants, results update as users move.
Search. Discover. Connect.
GPS finds your area
The app detects your location and surfaces businesses, services and events within your chosen radius.
Search and filter
Browse by category, search by keyword or filter by distance. Advanced search covers businesses, offers and events.
Connect locally
View business details, grab a deal, RSVP to an event or contact the owner directly. Everything happens in-app.
Native apps. WordPress website. One API.
Swift on iOS and Kotlin on Android deliver the native GPS search and browsing experience. A WordPress website extends reach to desktop. CodeIgniter powers the RESTful API that serves all three platforms from one MySQL database.
Mobile
Web & Backend
Three platforms, zero friction.
The WordPress frontend and CodeIgniter backend had to work together seamlessly. Two different PHP frameworks serving the same data needed a clean API boundary so changes to the website did not break the mobile apps and vice versa.
We built a RESTful API in CodeIgniter that serves as the single source of truth for both the WordPress website and the native apps. The API handles search, listings, deals and events. WordPress consumes it on the server side. The mobile apps consume it directly. Changes to one frontend never affect the other.
GPS-based searches had to return accurate, relevant results within seconds. A user standing on a busy street expects to see the nearest businesses ranked by distance, filtered by category and updated as they move — all without noticeable lag.
We implemented spatial indexing in MySQL with geographic bounding box queries and Haversine distance calculations. Results return in under 200 milliseconds for any location. The app re-queries as the user moves, updating results in the background without interrupting the browsing experience.
The app had to serve users across different regions, each with a different density of listed businesses. A search in a dense city returns hundreds of results. A search in a rural area might return ten. The interface had to feel useful and populated in both cases.
We designed adaptive layouts that respond to result density. In dense areas, results display as a scrolling grid with compact cards. In sparse areas, a map view with pins gives context. The app detects density automatically and switches layout to keep the experience feeling full regardless of location.
Questions before going local.
Building a local business finder app typically costs between $70,000 and $200,000 in 2026. A lean MVP with GPS search and basic listings starts near $70,000. A production build with native iOS and Android apps, a WordPress website, deals and events, business dashboards and an admin panel usually lands between $140,000 and $200,000.
GPS-based search uses the device location to query a database with spatial indexing. The backend calculates distances using geographic coordinates and returns results ranked by proximity. Bounding box queries and Haversine formulas keep response times under 200 milliseconds even with thousands of listings.
Yes. A shared RESTful API serves both the native mobile apps and the website. The API handles all business logic — search, listings, deals, events — while each frontend consumes it independently. This means the WordPress site and the iOS and Android apps always show the same data without duplication.
Adaptive layouts respond to result density automatically. In dense areas, results display as a compact scrolling grid. In sparse areas, a map view with pins gives geographic context. The app detects how many results are available and switches the layout to keep the experience feeling useful regardless of location.
A local discovery app needs at minimum: GPS-based search, a business directory with categories, a search filter (distance, category, keyword), business detail pages with contact info, a deals or events section and a basic admin panel for managing listings. User accounts, reviews and business dashboards can follow in v2.
A business finder app with native iOS and Android apps plus a WordPress website typically takes 5 to 7 months. Expect 3 weeks of discovery, 16 to 20 weeks of parallel development covering mobile apps, website and API, 2 to 3 weeks of beta testing and 1 to 2 weeks for store submissions and launch.
WordPress works well for local discovery websites because it handles content management, SEO and user-facing pages out of the box. The business logic stays in the CodeIgniter API. WordPress consumes the API for dynamic data like listings and deals while managing static pages, blog content and SEO independently.
Business owners get a dedicated dashboard where they can update their profile, post deals, create events and view analytics. The dashboard is accessible through the app and the website. Changes sync to all platforms in real time through the shared API.
Building a local discovery or directory app?
GPS search, business listings, deals and events — across mobile and web.