New App ParkWise Compares Israeli Parking Prices Amid Wide Gaps
Software developer Hadar Nir launched ParkWise, a free app comparing parking prices across 343 lots in 24 Israeli cities, revealing massive cost gaps for drivers.
Finding a parking spot on the streets of Tel Aviv is a rare event, and many drivers skip the search altogether, heading straight to commercial parking lots. However, this task can be surprisingly complex: beyond availability, prices vary dramatically from one lot to another.
To address this, software developer and cyber expert Hadar Nir created ParkWise, a free application that displays parking lots and pricing data for your destination before you even leave home. Currently, the app includes 343 parking lots across 24 cities.
To understand how dramatic the price differences can be, one only needs to look at Tel Aviv. In the Florentin neighborhood, for instance, the app lists four parking lots within a 10-minute walk. The cheapest charges 36 NIS for a full workday (09:00 to 17:00), while the most expensive costs 192 NIS—a gap of 156 NIS just for choosing the right lot. While hourly rates may be similar, the massive gap stems from daily maximum caps.
Significant Price Gaps Across Tel Aviv
Similarly, in the Yarkon area, the app features 13 parking lots within a 10-minute walk, with daily rates ranging from 70 NIS to 210 NIS. In Habima, the gap between cheapest and most expensive stands at 120 NIS, Dizengoff sees a 117 NIS difference, and Atarim Square reaches 112 NIS. In Yad Eliyahu, by contrast, the gap is a negligible 12 NIS across three listed lots. Prices exclude resident discounts (and other discount clubs), which typically range between 50% and 75% in municipal lots.
Significant discrepancies also appear for a three-hour park on Thursday evenings. In Florentin, prices range from 15 to 150 NIS, Yarkon ranges from 36 to 45 NIS, and Dizengoff spans 25 to 135 NIS.
Two notable regulatory factors have influenced pricing in Tel Aviv recently. First, last August, the municipality raised rates at Ahuzat HaHof parking lots to 24 NIS per hour for non-residents (with evening entry fees rising from 30 to 36 NIS). Second, the "Parking Lots Law," which took effect in December 2025, mandated that parking rates for the first hour be calculated by the minute. Three months ago, after discovering that many lots responded by raising prices, the Knesset Economic Committee voted to repeal the law and advanced it to a plenary vote, which has yet to take place.
National Parking Price Comparison
Beyond Tel Aviv, ParkWise data allows users to compare parking prices nationwide, though coverage is still growing. For a full workday stay, Jerusalem—where 30 parking lots were surveyed—ranks first with a median price of 105 NIS. It is followed by Tel Aviv (median price of 89 NIS), Bnei Brak (80 NIS), Herzliya (72 NIS), and Ramat Gan (71 NIS).
When evaluated on an hourly basis, the most expensive parking lots are found in Eilat, with a median price of 32.5 NIS, followed by Bnei Brak and Ramat Gan (30 NIS), Tel Aviv (26.4 NIS), and Rishon LeZion (25 NIS). Across all parking lots currently in the app, the median hourly rate stands at 25 NIS, and a full workday averages 72 NIS.
"Last year, I got 'burned' several times at parking lots across the country, paying 120 to 130 NIS for just a few hours. That’s when the idea came up to build an app where you can enter your address and it tells you exactly where to go and how much it will cost," said founder Hadar Nir.
Behind the Scenes of ParkWise
ParkWise tracks parking data through four distinct sources: official price lists, synchronization with parking operators, municipal open data, and a user community that photographs price signs. The app also indicates which lots feature electric vehicle charging stations and their average occupancy rates. According to municipal data, peak occupancy across city lots occurs on Fridays around 13:00, while weekday peaks happen around 11:00.
Nir explains that the app now serves thousands of users, with most joining in recent months. The concept is straightforward: users input a restaurant name, beach, or destination, select their day and entry-exit times, and receive exact pricing.
Looking ahead, Nir hopes the platform will naturally encourage fair pricing as parking operators monitor their competition. He emphasizes that the venture was not built for personal enrichment, noting that his cybersecurity work remains his primary focus, but rather to solve a frustrating everyday problem for drivers.
