How Much Does It Cost to Develop a Fitness App in 2023?

The covid-19 pandemic has made people aware of their health more than ever, and we have begun to make health a priority in whatever ways possible. The fitness apps boomed when the pandemic kicked in, bagging many users worldwide. 

The global fitness app market will reach $120.37 billion by 2030. So it will be a great idea to invest in fitness apps now, considering the fanbase they enjoy across the globe. 

Estimating the cost of building your fitness app from scratch is tricky. If you don’t know about your app’s cost, you are likely to overspend and exhaust your budget, 

But we have you covered! 

In this blog, we’ll share the cost of building your fitness app, the essential features of a good fitness app and some factors that influence the cost of your fitness app development- all of which will help you determine the average fitness app development costs for startup fitness businesses.

Let’s get started. 

Essential Features of a Good Fitness App

1. Easy Registration and Onboarding 

Onboarding is where you tend to lose the interest of your users if you make your information collection long and complicated. 

One cardinal rule of developing a user-friendly app is: to keep it simple. 

2. Differentiated User Profiles

Your fitness app will have different types of users, such as fitness practitioners and fitness trainers. 

Differentiated user profiles will also make your app more appealing to a wider demographic, thus ensuring you reach a bigger target audience.

3. Specialised Service Offerings

What do you want to give your end users regarding services and solutions?

Make sure that your fitness app has suitable offerings for the audience you have in mind so that your end users are not left wanting. 

4. Personalisation Features 

A personal touch goes a long way to creating exceptional digital fitness experiences for your end users.  

Make sure your app is customisable according to your user’s current fitness level, age, height, weight, and fitness goals, for example. 

5. Goal Setting Trackers 

Fitness goals must be trackable and measurable, or your users might lose interest in the fitness regime they’re following.

6. Third-Party Device Integrations

Your end users will be grateful if you can give them the capabilities to integrate devices like their smartwatches with your fitness app. 

This will help them stay connected to their smart devices while using your fitness app and help sync data across different devices. 

7. Vitals Monitoring Capabilities 

Features and capabilities that help your users monitor their vitals while they work out are also important to have as part of your health and fitness app. 

8. Stopwatch Features 

If you include a stopwatch in your app, your users won’t have to go through the hassle of switching apps to use a stopwatch while they’re working out using your app. 

9. Community Forums 

Fitness enthusiasts will want to share their progress with a community of family, friends, or other fitness geeks from around the world. 

It gives them a sense of purpose and increases their accountability and commitment to keeping fit.  

10. Feedback Mechanisms: 

The only way to improve your health and fitness app and keep evolving to meet your end user’s needs is to hear your end users’ needs. 

Factors that Influence the Cost of Your Fitness App Development 

1. The Type and Scale of the App You Wish to Build 

Your cost will depend on the fitness app you want to build – for example, a simple meditation app will be comparatively much cheaper to develop than a complex gamified fitness app with fitness routines. 

Another factor you will need to consider while budgeting is the size of your target audience. For example, if your market is niche and your end user count is low, you can focus more on your front end than your back end. 

However, if you expect high traffic, you will need to invest more money into a sophisticated back-end so that you won’t experience technical difficulties or prolonged downtimes every time there is a surge of user traffic.  

Suggested read: How to Find the Right Technical Support for Your Product Development [Practical Steps]

2. The Target Audience You Have in Mind

The type of audience you wish to cater to will play a crucial role in the budget you will have to spend. 

For example, suppose your target audience is mostly yoga practitioners. In that case, you will have to pay on a simple medication app with some in-app purchase features for guided meditation, say. 

Meanwhile, suppose your target audience is primarily fitness-oriented individuals. In that case, you’ll have to include more features like workout regimens, calorie counters, professional personal trainers and more into your app – all of which will cost a pretty penny more! 

3. The Platforms and Devices You Finalised for Your App

How big do you want your app’s reach to be? 

Do you plan on building a cross-platform app that can be accessed globally on Android and iOS devices? If so, you will need a higher budget than for a simple app that is limited to any one platform. 

4. The App Features and Capabilities You Want for Your Users

You’ll have to make sure that your app is user-friendly and easy to navigate and create seamless user flows for your audience, depending on their expectations from your app. 

The more features and capabilities you include in your final app, the higher your development costs will be. 

5. The Type of Team You Entrust Your Project To

Your team can make or break your app – and your budget too! When the number of specialists in your team increases, so do the numbers on the salary cheques you hand out. 

You can cut down on your resource costs by outsourcing your development project, as you will not have to deal with the costs associated with hiring and training your resources for a one-time project. 

6. The Hosting and Security Required for Your App

Based on the traffic you expect and the capabilities of your app, your hosting requirements will vary. The more you scale up, the more you’ll have to increase your budget. 

You should also consider the security measures you need to implement to ensure that your private end-user data is protected from malignant attacks, which will also play a part in deciding the overall cost of your fitness app. 

7. The Marketing Strategies You Have in Place

How do you want to reach your target audience and let them know that you have something to offer to them?

Your marketing strategies will also affect the costs of launching your app to the marketplace. For example, if you want to target users with billboards and advertisements in gyms, your marketing costs will be high. 

On the other hand, if you want to reach your audience digitally, you can indulge in digital marketing services for a fraction of the cost. 

8. The App Maintenance and Support You Need

Depending on your expected user traffic and the innovative evolution you’ve mapped out for your fitness app, you will need to set up an AMC with your development team to ensure that your app gets the necessary maintenance and support over time. 

And, of course, your AMC charges will depend on the complexity and scale of your app.  

So, How Much Does It Cost to Develop a Fitness App?

This is a tricky question because there is no cut-and-dried answer regarding money, but we can tell you that creating a good health and fitness app can start at $30,000 and go anywhere upwards, depending on how feature-rich your app is.

Outsourcing your app development is also an important option to consider. While outsourcing the app development, the cost will differ according to the country you choose to outsource. We have done some extinct research and tabled an average hourly cost for developers. 

Country	Web developers	Android developers	iOS developers
US	$75-$120	$130-$150	$100-$220
UK	$65-$130	$120-$200	$110-$200
India	$15-$50	$15-$40	$15-$45
Canada	$45-$80	$65-$85	$75-$95

Final thoughts

We did share some knowledge in this blog which will hopefully help you arrive at your answer about fitness app development costs based on your businesses unique needs. 

Remember to keep your app simple in usability and sophisticated in features and capabilities, and also ensure that your budget will be able to accommodate the vision you have mapped out for your health and fitness app. 

How Can NeoITO Help? 

We’ve been in the industry long before fitness apps became a staple in our everyday life, so we can tell you exactly how to build your own from scratch! 

We know that developing a fitness app that can hold an audience is not as easy as it looks on paper. Our team of experts has years of industry experience and can provide you with the solutions required to create a top-notch fitness application. Moreover, we can guide you from the initial planning stages to the final app release with our consulting services. 

NeoITO can also offer you the best quotes for your business requirements and ensure you get the most value for your money and effort. So, if you want to create a health and fitness app that has the potential to revolutionise the health industry, we’ve got your back!

Contact us and get your free consultation now!