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Fitness app development is more than integrating a step counter. It takes an in-depth understanding of the end users’ needs.
Ask yourself what problem you want to help solve through your application, and you have a chance of making a real difference with your application. This guide will help you with the rest.
This blog covers all fitness app development essentials, from its most popular types to how much building one will cost you.
Let’s begin with the types of fitness apps that will compel you to create a mobile app centered on one or more health and fitness aspects.
Types of Fitness Apps In The Market Today
Here’s a glimpse at the variety of fitness apps available for download these days:
Diet & Nutrition Apps
A good percentage of people use apps to track their diet and nutrition regularly. After all, you are what you eat, and many of us have realized that the best way to gain good health is by making sure we know what we eat.
A diet and nutrition app lets users track the calories they consume along with their water intake. Many apps also offer consultations with nutritionists to help them gain, lose, or maintain their weight through special diet charts.
A diet tracking app includes food logging and progress reporting features, through which users know how many calories they consume and burn.
Popular nutrition apps like MyPlate Calorie Counter successfully keep users active and motivated to achieve their weight-related goals. They offer helpful tips and reminders through push notifications. In-app competitions are also among the popular ways to encourage users.
Yoga Apps
This well-known niche lets users benefit from yoga lessons under professional guidance. Users can pick their goals and begin training with an instructor under an appropriate program.
Fitness apps that involve instructor guidance include messaging and video calling features to facilitate effective user-trainer interactions. They also offer fitness tracker compatibility and features that allow users to form communities and offer recommendations.
Some of the most popular yoga apps include Asana Rebel and Alo Moves, which help users practice yoga at home.
Home Workout Apps
Home workouts have been a popular option off-late, especially since COVID-19 and the consequent lockdowns forced people indoors. They are an excellent option for people lacking the time, means, or motivation to go to a gym or fitness classes daily.
This app is typically designed to provide different sets of routine exercises that help users follow their training plans at home. It may allow syncing with fitness trackers to monitor progress, customize their regime and recommend exercises that will bring better results.
The key to building a successful workout app is making it simple by providing different categories and filters, such as strength, endurance, mobility, duration, level, etc. The more options users have while searching for workouts, the more inclined they will be to use the app and follow a workout regime. FitOn and Nike Training Club are some brilliant examples of workout and exercise apps.
Activity Tracking Apps
These apps track body movements caused by various physical activities, such as running and cycling. They make it easy for users to keep track of several metrics, from the number of steps to the calories consumed during sports or exercise. Users can set daily or monthly goals and track progress through in-built charts and calendars.
An activity-tracking app requires synchronization with wearable devices to keep users informed on the go. Wearable devices have become extremely popular lately, with four in ten people using wearable devices to track their health, activities, or sports performance. Notable names include MyFitnessPal and Glo, which provide all the necessary features to track every possible physical activity.
Essential Features In A Fitness App
These are the vital features every fitness app MVP must contain:
Registration And On-boarding
Creating an account is crucial as it allows users to personalize and save data for use on multiple devices. The sign-up and registration process should be simple and convenient, allowing first-time users to use the app through their email or social media accounts.
Once signed in, users can customize their profiles by adding personal details, such as name, age, height, weight, profile picture, etc., to receive personalized recommendations.
External Device Compatibility
Fitness apps must be able to synchronize with external wearable and non-wearable devices, such as smartwatches and gym equipment. Other technologies that require integration into most fitness apps include measuring vitals like pulse, blood pressure, and sleep cycles.
Stress level tracking is another important feature that helps users take a break and relax if the app detects extreme levels.
Social Media Integration
People love to share their progress with fellow users on their social media accounts, which is why your app must offer them ways to do so in a few taps. Easy sharing requires social media integration into various app features to let users post photos, videos, screenshots, etc.
Activity Logs
Tracking activities is pointless if you can’t access them later. That’s why a fitness app must provide users with an activity log feature to help them change things up when workout activities get monotonous.
These logs can be added as a calendar to note training days and remind users of upcoming sessions. A workout log will lead to a progress report and analytics generation that shows changes in weight, workouts, etc.
Geolocation
Geolocation is crucial to let users track their routes for walking, running, and other similar activities. It helps them know their progress and exact location at any point during their sessions. Google and Apple Maps are the most popular sources to integrate maps to track fitness routes and share screenshots on social media.
Goal-Setting
Setting goals is vital from both exercise and dietary perspectives. Users will feel motivated to achieve their goals as they track their progress and see regular improvements.
Without a purpose, they will likely lose interest and abandon the app quickly. On the other hand, a plan will constantly remind them to make an effort and achieve it.
Steps Involved In The Fitness App Development Process
Market Research & Requirement Gathering
If you have a fitness mobile app idea, you need to ensure there isn’t an app already based on it. If you don’t, you need to scour the market for a niche that has yet to be catered to. At any rate, you must decide who the app will target and analyze your competition in that segment, for which market research is essential.
As part of the Discovery phase, gathering requirements involves a discussion with your app development team to determine the following:
- The goal behind creating a fitness app
- Competition in the niche
- Target audience
- Time and budget required for project completion and launch
Make sure to document each of these for quick reference and to stay on track throughout development. Creating a copy of the design wireframes and business objectives will also help you in case you change service providers.
Finalize Features
Extensive market research and requirement gathering will help you define a set of features for your app and explain your requirements to your chosen mobile app development company.
Design and Development
Creating wireframes of the app’s design and structure will help build a prototype or a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to understand the app’s flow and structure.
The prototype contains clickable elements and will give you a proper idea of how the app will work and the kind of user experience it will deliver. Prototyping requires minimal time and effort, so changes are cheaper and easier to make during this step.
Project development takes place in iterations, allowing developers and stakeholders to ensure steady progress and make changes wherever necessary.
Testing And Quality Assurance
Testing and Quality Assurance teams review the developed product to ensure it works the way it should. They are also tasked with code reviews to speed up and stabilize the code.
Maintenance
The app requires maintenance once it is completed and launched. Developers ensure the app runs smoothly on all operating systems and devices as intended, providing patches and updates accordingly.
Factors That Help Determine Fitness Mobile App Development Costs
Given below are the essential cost-driving factors during fitness app development:
UI/UX Design
The overall design of your fitness app will be quite complex, since it will require the integration of multiple features. However, the UX design must make it simple for users to navigate and input data, especially compared to your competitor’s apps.
The design team must ensure the wireframes are complete and there are no issues when running the app on different devices. To that effect, UI/UX design and development will cost approximately $15,000-$40,000.
Architecture And Integrations
Setting up the project and database structure requires around $6,000 of the budget. Integrating payment gateways, maps, and wearable device compatibility costs up to $10,000.
Development
The more features you want in your app, the greater the final mobile app development cost. Additionally, some features take more time and expertise than others, such as progress dashboard, geolocation, leaderboard, security and authorization features.
The development phase is the most time and resource-consuming one, costing around $40,000-$100,000 of the entire budget.
Testing And Quality Assurance
Quality assurance, testing, and code review will take up 12-15% of the overall project costs. Considering the figures above, that would be approx. $5,000-$20,000.
Miscellaneous
Here’s what other project-related aspects will cost you:
- Project Management and Business Analysis: anywhere around $8,000-$50,000 altogether
- Platform: A hybrid app will cost you more than a native app, but it is the more cost-effective option if you want to target multiple platforms.
- Development Rates: If you have opted for hourly rates, they will change according to the duration of the project and the location of the developers. For instance, a mobile app development company in North America or Europe has different hourly rates compared to a service provider in Asia or Gulf countries.
How Much Will Fitness App Development Cost?
Building a fitness app typically costs between $50,000-$250,000 based on the above factors.
Keep in mind, however, that this is only an estimate and the actual mobile app development cost may vary based on your specific requirements.
To Summarize
With this, we have covered all the essential aspects you need to consider regarding fitness app development.
Growing concern around health issues, fueled by the need to track fitness at home, has compelled a significant percentage of people to take their health into their own hands.
Fitness apps help them do that in a convenient manner, which is why the fitness app market is growing increasingly popular. If you want to build a successful fitness app that helps people, make sure to consult a fitness app development company.
The greater their experience, the better equipped they will be to guide you and ensure app idea validation.
FAQ’s
- What should one consider before initiating fitness app development?
Before developing a fitness app, one should understand the end users’ needs and identify the specific problem the app aims to solve.
- What are the primary types of fitness apps available in the market?
The primary types of fitness apps include Diet and Nutrition Apps, Yoga Apps, Home Workout Apps, and Activity Tracking Apps.
- What essential features should a fitness app MVP contain?
Essential features for a fitness app MVP include Registration and On-boarding, External Device Compatibility, Social Media Integration, Activity Logs, Geolocation, and Goal-Setting.
- How do fitness apps help users manage stress levels?
Some fitness apps integrate tracking stress levels, detecting extreme stress levels, and prompting users to take breaks, relax, or engage in relaxation exercises, aiding overall well-being.
- How much does it typically cost to develop a fitness app?
The cost of developing a fitness app typically ranges between $50,000 to $250,000, depending on various factors like design, integrations, feature complexity, testing, and regional development rates.
- What is the importance of geolocation in fitness apps?
Geolocation enables users to track their routes for activities like walking or running, providing insights into progress and their exact location during sessions. It is especially useful for those who wish to share their routes or track the distance they’ve covered.
