Uber vs DiDi vs Bolt — The cheapest ride-hailing service in South Africa

South Africa’s newest e-hailing service, DiDi, is cheaper than its rivals Uber and Bolt, in the three cities where it is available.

MyBroadband decided to compare the fares for trips on DiDi with Uber and Bolt.

For our comparison, we used the three areas in which all three services are available — Gauteng, Cape Town, and Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth).

We then gathered fare estimates for a short, medium, and long-distance trip in each location.

In choosing our routes, we opted for popular places which visitors often travel to in the cities in these locations.

As we aimed to determine which of the services were the cheapest, we used the rates for their budget “Go” services.

These services use compact hatchbacks, like the Toyota Etios or VW Polo hatch, and may not be suited to instances where you need to transport a lot of luggage.

For 6 out of the 9 rides, DiDi was the most affordable choice, and for 2 of the remaining trips, it was the second cheapest option.

Bolt was the second most affordable on average, at R234 per trip, followed by Uber, which cost R243 per trip.

While Uber’s prices were similar to DiDi and Bolt in Gauteng and Cape Town, it was far more expensive in Gqeberha.

The tables below show the prices of each of the trips we requested, the distances they covered, the total distances and prices of the rides, and the average fare estimate and distances. The prices do not include tips.