Taximeter

Review by eFreeware

If you drive for a living and want a meter that lives on your phone, Taximeter is the sort of app worth a serious look. It comes from Planet Coops and is built for private hire work, medical transport, limousine and courier runs, airport transfers, carpooling and even the family arrangement where everyone chips in for gas. The pitch is straightforward: a phone becomes a proper taximeter, with the fare rules, receipts and payment handling that kind of work demands.

It is a paid app at $17.99, with no ads and no in-app purchases, which tells you something about the audience. This is not a free meter you tolerate between ad breaks; it is a tool priced like one. The numbers support that: more than 10,000 installs and a 4.4 average from 705 ratings, which for a paid utility in a niche category is a respectable showing.

What appeals to me most is the breadth of the fare logic. If your work involves charging people accurately and being able to prove it afterward, that combination is the whole point.

A meter that behaves like the real thing

The core of the app is a meter with what the developer calls a realistic LED-style look and operation, so the screen reads like the unit on a dashboard rather than a generic counter. Behind that display sits a full fare engine: minimum fare, tax, discounts and tips are all part of the calculation, and extras can be itemized and programmed through XML.

Presets are where the app earns its keep. There are more than 200 predefined ones covering over 40 countries, which means many drivers can start from an existing rate card instead of building one from nothing. If your jurisdiction is not among them, the custom preset supports up to 10 tariffs, and there is a wizard for setting it up.

For anyone who has ever tried to configure a meter by hand, the wizard matters. Fares are fiddly things, full of conditions and exceptions, and a guided setup is the difference between a usable meter and an afternoon of frustration. The app also handles yards or meters as units, which will matter to drivers working in places where distance is not measured in miles.

Tariffs that change with the clock and the map

A fare is rarely one number all day. Taximeter handles that with calendar-controlled tariffs that switch automatically, or manual switching if you prefer to control it yourself. You can also program future tariffs ahead of time, so a rate change that takes effect next month can be set up now rather than remembered on the day.

Location-controlled tariffs use geofencing, which is the feature that stands out to me most. If your rates differ by zone, whether that is an airport boundary, a city limit or a regulated area, the meter can switch based on where the vehicle is. That is a level of automation that removes a real source of error and argument from the job.

The two approaches can coexist, which is useful for drivers whose work crosses both time and place. A late-night rate inside one zone and a different one outside it is exactly the kind of scenario this design seems built for. Settings and presets can also be locked, which matters if the phone is handed to a passenger or shared between drivers.

Receipts, payments and records

The paperwork side is well covered. The app integrates with PayPal POS, Square POS and SumUp for payment processing, and can generate a PDF receipt to email or print through the Android print service on KitKat or later. Once cloud storage is on, a receipt link can be texted to the passenger or displayed as a scannable code.

For receipts in the car, you need a Bluetooth mobile printer and Planet Coops' POS Print app. That is a real piece of hardware to buy and carry, so it is worth weighing if paper receipts are part of your service. The hire log, meanwhile, keeps a record in text or CSV format and can send it automatically by email, which is the sort of thing that makes bookkeeping at the end of a week far less tedious.

There is also an event log with alerts and resettable totals, so the app keeps track of what happened over a shift rather than just what the last fare was. For drivers who need to reconcile earnings or answer a query from a dispatch office, that record is the difference between a confident answer and a guess.

The hardware and services it can tie into

Beyond the meter itself, the app reaches into the vehicle and the back office. Roof light control is supported when paired with a compatible Bluetooth switch, and distance can be calculated from On-Board Diagnostics speed data instead of GPS if you have an OBD-II compliant vehicle and an ELM327 compatible adapter in Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or USB form. There is an OBD calibration function to go with it.

Wireless GPS receivers are supported too, which helps in vehicles where the phone's own receiver struggles. An API allows integration with third-party dispatch systems, and remote API access across devices on the same network is possible through the Taximeter Proxy Service app. A Preset Update Service can keep rates current automatically, and the developer offers to add your rates free of charge so other drivers can download them.

There is a talking taximeter for the sight impaired, which is a thoughtful inclusion in a category that rarely considers accessibility. The app also supports Samsung Multi Window, LG Dual Window and Android Multi-Window, along with a screen saver and a floating widget, so it can share a screen with other tools rather than demanding the whole display.

What it asks of you before it earns its keep

The clearest trade-off is the price. For a driver, that is a modest cost against a single shift's takings; for someone curious about what their commute would cost as a taxi ride, it is a lot to spend on a novelty.

Several of the more interesting features lean on equipment you supply. A receipt needs a Bluetooth printer and the separate POS Print app. Controlling the roof light calls for a Bluetooth switch that works with the app. OBD-based distance needs an ELM327 adapter and a compatible vehicle, and a USB adapter brings its own requirements around Android version and USB host mode. None of this is unusual for a professional setup, but it does mean the app is a hub for a small ecosystem rather than a self-contained gadget.

Cloud data logging, which records GPS position, meter state and fares, costs a modest monthly fee toward server running costs, and includes a basic online tracking facility if you opt in. That is the only recurring cost mentioned, and it is tied to a feature rather than to the app itself. Between a paid download, optional accessories and an optional service, the total outlay scales with how seriously you use it.

The number of features also suggests a learning curve. Calendar tariffs, geofencing, XML extras, OBD calibration and preset locking are not things you absorb in five minutes. A user guide is provided, and the preset wizard softens the entry, but this is software with depth, and depth takes time to use well.

Suited to a working vehicle, not a curious passenger

Judging by what the app is built for, the natural user is someone whose vehicle generates income. Private hire drivers, medical transport operators, limousine services, courier firms and airport transfer businesses all fit the stated applications, and each of them needs fares calculated consistently and documented afterward. The geofenced tariffs and hire log speak directly to that kind of work.

The family taxi and carpooling entries are interesting because they suggest a lighter use, where the point is splitting costs fairly rather than running a business. Even there, the app is doing the same job: applying a rule to a journey and producing a number everyone can accept. It is simply a more casual version of the same need.

One application worth noting is using the meter overseas to avoid being overcharged. A traveler can check what a fare should come to against local rates, which is a clever use of a preset library covering more than 40 countries. That said, the app is priced and equipped like a professional instrument, so it will make most sense to people who meter journeys regularly rather than once a holiday.

A specialist tool that knows its job

Taximeter has been on Android since October 2010 and was updated in February 2026, and the longevity shows in how complete the feature set is. The combination of a large preset library, flexible tariff control, payment integration and a proper paper trail covers the practical needs of metered driving in a way that a simple fare calculator never could. The 4.4 average from 705 ratings suggests that the drivers using it are broadly satisfied with what they paid for.

My recommendation is for drivers and operators who charge by distance and time and need to justify the number afterward. If your work involves regulated rates, zone-based pricing or receipts that hold up to scrutiny, the $17.99 is easy to justify against the alternative of a hardware meter. If you are simply curious what a trip would cost, the price and the accessory ecosystem make this a poor fit for that curiosity.

The app rewards investment, both financial and in time spent configuring it properly. Set up your tariffs carefully, decide which accessories you actually need, and it should serve as a dependable part of the working day rather than a gadget you try once and forget.

What's new in version 1.1.147

Minor bug fixes