At-home health regime is the primary health pattern of 2022, in keeping with GoodFirms. The group performed a survey to find that 56% of the respondents work out at dwelling and 40% of health golf equipment are tapping into hybrid exercise fashions.
The health app market dimension is rising quick as an rising variety of sports activities trade leaders flip to health app improvement firms to enter the competitors with their product. The worldwide health market was valued at roughly $5,500 million in 2021 and it’s anticipated to catapult to over $25,450 million by 2027, rising at a CAGR of 29.46%.
Statista
We will attribute this fast development to 2 elements:
-
COVID-19. Because the pandemic, folks have began to take their well being significantly. They’re extra eager on exercising and constructing immunity.
-
The elevated reputation of wearables. These days, there’s a massive number of wearable units available on the market. They’re straightforward to make use of and supply reasonably correct readings on important indicators and different parameters.
Now you’re in all probability satisfied that there’s a demand. However how worthwhile are such health options? If the app has all the required performance organized in a handy method, and it appears to be like interesting, it is going to be very worthwhile. Look how a few of the extra in style health apps are performing.

Main health apps worldwide in 2022, by income (in US {dollars})
Statista
If you’re fascinated with becoming a member of the health tech leaders above, you will have a cell software. This text will show you how to estimate how a lot it prices to make a health app.
How a lot does it price to create a health app? This will depend on the next elements
There are seven most important elements that affect health app improvement prices:
- Utility sort
- Characteristic
- Integration with exterior parts
- Design complexity
- Platform and tech stack
- Growth staff composition
- Technical assist and updates
Utility sort
Exercise apps
Such a health purposes permits customers to pick out their very own train routine. Usually, exercise regimens introduced on the app will not be personalized however they provide helpful info on every train, like which muscle group is activated and what number of energy are burned.This helps customers make knowledgeable choices and choose appropriate workout routines to incorporate of their routine.
Some exercise apps act like a health coach and current customized exercises primarily based on person parameters and desired outcomes. One such instance is MyCoach app that has one million downloads throughout 25 international locations.
Such health apps price $60,000 – $90,000.
Diet and eating regimen apps
Balanced eating regimen is a vital a part of staying match. Diet software program permits customers to maintain observe of meals they eat all through the day, depend energy, and log microelements. One instance is MyPlate Calorie Counter.
Such purposes may also suggest a meal plan primarily based on the person’s parameters and targets (e.g., losing a few pounds, constructing muscle, and many others.).
They’ll adapt to the particular person’s present preferences—vegan, vegetarian, keto, intermittent fasting, and many others.
One other sort of eating regimen apps focuses on social networking, enabling customers to attach with skilled dietitians and share their recipes and success tales. One instance is the Mealshare app developed by Estonia-based Perpetio.
Health eating regimen app prices $20,000 – $80,000
Exercise monitoring apps
These health options observe your bodily actions, such because the variety of steps per day or working and biking distance and velocity. One instance is Adidas Working by Runtastic.
Exercise monitoring purposes typically connect with wearable units that may measure coronary heart fee, blood strain, and different well being parameters.
Prices required to develop such health app: $40,000 – $125,000.
Meditation and yoga apps
This set of apps comprises yoga exercises, tutorials on how one can get into totally different poses appropriately, and affords guided meditation practices, and many others.
One instance is the widely-used Each day Yoga app that comprises over 50 exercise plans and permits customers to hook up with a yoga group, share their expertise, and acquire inspiration.
For meditation and mindfulness, customers can attempt Headspace, which helps you calm down and clear your head earlier than going to sleep. This app has over 70 million downloads.
Prices of creating such health app: $10,000 – $70,000
Companion app
Some apps are developed particularly for one health machine vendor. They join with the tools and improve its performance. As an illustration, Perpetio constructed a health app that connects to treadmills of a particular model.
This resolution not solely tracks customers’ actions on the treadmill but additionally permits them to speak, share their efficiency metrics, and take part in numerous challenges.
The prices of this app sort varies from $40,000 to $150,000.
Set of options
How a lot your health app prices largely will depend on its performance. The extra options you wish to incorporate, the extra money and time you will have to speculate, but additionally the extra beneficial your app will change into. Some fundamental options will take a number of hours to implement, equivalent to sharing on social media, whereas others can take days, like person registration. If a function takes specialised abilities to implement, it can have an effect on the value much more.
Here’s a listing of core functionalities which might be a should in nearly each health software program resolution:
-
Registration and login. You would possibly wish to give customers the choice to signup utilizing Google or another account. Along with common person info, equivalent to title and age, you will have to incorporate fitness-specific fields, like weight and top. Additionally, ask for an electronic mail and a cellphone quantity to present a number of verification choices. If customers shield their account with a password, make the password restoration possibility available. Registration and login options will price you round $4,000.
-
Notifications and reminders. This may embrace a notification on when to begin exercising or when to change to a different train. In case your app is linked to a sensible watch, you would possibly redirect the notifications there. Customers will discover it extra handy to begin a brand new set of reps after they really feel a vibration on their wrist as an alternative of wanting on the cellphone display. Establishing notifications and reminders will price you round $1,200.
-
Settings. This function permits customers to customise their app’s look and performance. So, the app must have default settings in addition to giving a possibility for customers to tweak them so as to add a private contact. Constructing the settings function to your health app will price you round $350.
-
Exercise catalog with train movies that may be streamed dwell or out there on demand. For this function, you’ll pay round $2,000.
In the event you research your direct rivals, you’ll uncover different helpful options which you can incorporate into your resolution. You could possibly additionally determine some performance that your rivals’ apps are lacking and implement it to achieve a aggressive benefit.
You may think about the next superior options for inspiration:
-
Integrating with wearable units. You would possibly join your app to a smartwatch or different sensors that may learn and stream person information. This function will price you from $3,000 to $6,000.
-
Incorporating modern applied sciences, equivalent to synthetic intelligence and augmented actuality. This can considerably enhance your health app improvement prices. As an illustration, if you wish to add a suggestions system educated on person conduct, this alone will price you round $20,000 and it’ll take many hours to label the coaching dataset and practice the mannequin.
-
Gamifying the app. Gamification means your app can assign scores, measure progress ranges, assign rewards, and many others., something that makes exercising really feel like a sport or a contest. Gamifying your resolution can price you as much as $12,000.
-
Integrating with social media. In case your shoppers are avid social media customers, they are going to love this function as it can allow them to share their achievements, private information, motivational quotes, and different related elements of their exercise with their community. You may spend $500 – $6,000 on social media integration, relying on the combination path and the variety of channels.
-
Calendars to let customers schedule their exercises and perhaps even share their exercise calendar with mates, in order that others can take part. This can price you round $3,000.
-
On-line chatting and video streaming performance to let customers train collectively. For this feature, you’ll be able to anticipate to pay $15,000.
-
Instructional materials, equivalent to suggestions from skilled trainers, weblog with related posts, and many others. Content material integration will price you from $1,000 to $3,000, relying on content material sort.
-
Maps and geolocation, which is a vital function for exercise monitoring apps. It could possibly current the person’s route on a map and even current climate forecast and air high quality particulars. This performance prices round $5,000.
-
Cost choices. Possibly combine an present safe and dependable fee gateway, equivalent to PayPal. Giving a number of choices will likely be helpful in order that customers don’t abandon your app as a result of they will’t use your fee technique. For fee choices, anticipate to pay $2,000 – $3,000.
Integration with exterior parts
While you’re constructing your product, you would possibly go for integrating third-party libraries, and work together with fee gateways and net companies. As an illustration, if you wish to accumulate buyer suggestions, there’s an present code that may do the trick.This can lower your health app’s improvement prices and cut back time to market.
However this apply would possibly open safety vulnerabilities and you’ll incur subscription charges alongside the best way.
You may also must combine your product with exterior units, equivalent to wearable sensors, or a digital camera and with present platforms, like social media. For considered one of these integrations, you’ll be able to pay from $1,000 to $10,000 relying on whether or not the machine/protocol are customary or customized.
Design complexity
Your resolution’s person interface complexity and uniqueness immediately have an effect on how a lot it prices to construct this health app.
In the event you merely wish to make minor changes to an present template, then your designer can get the work finished in roughly 30 hours.
However if you’re seeking to construct one thing artistic, intuitive, and user-friendly that may set your model aside from the competitors, then person interface design will likely be a big section of the event course of, and may eat effectively over 300 hours.
Your design complexity will increase with the next:
-
Advanced animation
-
Interactivity
-
Has to work on tablets, smartwatches, and many others.
-
Including voice assistant
-
Incorporating augmented actuality
The desk beneath reveals how modifications in parameters enhance design bills.
Primary design $15,000 or much less* | Intermediate complexity $40,000 | Advanced design Over $60,000 | |
---|---|---|---|
Consumer Roles | |||
Distinctive screens | |||
Android or iOS |
Smartphones, TV, tablets, and different devices |
*Costs are approximate
Observe that you just want each enticing design and cheap velocity. Animation that takes too lengthy to load will likely be extra despised than appreciated.
Platform and tech stack
If you’re making a cell health app, there are two in style platforms — Android and iOS. In the event you select to make use of native code to construct two separate apps, this can enhance your common health app prices, since there will likely be two code bases. However there are some steps that you’ll do solely as soon as. As an illustration, there will likely be one unified design and look-and-feel to your software on each platforms.
As an illustration, there will likely be one unified design and look-and-feel to your software on each platforms.
Until your app is restricted to one of many platforms, it’s a good suggestion to go for cross-platform app improvement companies that use applied sciences equivalent to Flutter and Xamarin. With such know-how, builders will create one supply code which will likely be compiled right into a native code of various platforms. This can reduce effort and time wanted to create each apps by round 40%. However this know-how may not swimsuit advanced tasks. Additionally, some argue that native options present a greater person expertise.
For cross-platform improvement with gamification and complicated graphics, you should use sport engines, equivalent to Unity or Unreal Engine.
Listed here are common hourly charges from Upwork for cross-platform, Android, and iOS app improvement companies for comparability:
Android developer | iOS developer | Xamarin developer (cross platform) | |
---|---|---|---|
Common hourly fee |
Health app improvement staff
To construct your health app, you both assemble an in-house staff of pros or outsource the event to a devoted staff of pros.
-
In-house improvement staff means that you can preserve dependable communication with the members, nevertheless it’s a costlier possibility as you’re answerable for hiring, renting places of work, buying tools, and many others. It could possibly price you $30,000 and eat 42 days to rent one app developer. And there’s all the time the chance that folks you find yourself hiring lack the important abilities to finish the challenge.
-
Outsourcing the event course of is another the place you solely pay for the work achieved. No must hassle with leases, interviews, last-minute replacements, and different administrative stuff. This mannequin decreases the funding prices wanted to construct a health app.
You may also mix each approaches through the use of an in-house staff and outsourcing explicit experience which you can’t fill internally. As an illustration, you should use CTO as a service mannequin.
An app improvement staff should embrace at the very least one UI/UX designer, QA engineer, challenge supervisor, and naturally, programmers who can code in a local or a cross-platform language. You may be taught extra about software program improvement staff constructions and the function of each member on our weblog.
Common hourly fee (Upwork) | The diploma of dedication to the challenge | |
---|---|---|
UI/UX designer |
Full time at early phases, then in a supporting function for a number of hours per week |
|
QA engineer | ||
Android/iOS developer | ||
Backend developer | ||
Product proprietor | ||
Undertaking supervisor |
Expertise prices range vastly primarily based on their geographical location. Some international locations have greater wage expectations than others. It could possibly price you nearly 3 times as a lot to rent a US-based developer in comparison with an expert situated in India. However for those who recruit somebody from a distinct nation, communication points would possibly come up. You’ll need to ensure you are on the identical web page in relation to work requirements and ethics. Beneath is an instance of how builders’ hourly charges range from one nation to a different.
US | Western Europe | Central Europe | India | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Developer’s hourly charges |
Technical assist and updates
The expenditure doesn’t cease the second you launch the health app. Take into consideration how you’ll monitor efficiency, implement updates, and ship buyer assist. Because the app’s viewers grows, you will have to make sure the efficiency doesn’t degrade. You may also wish to embrace new options to maintain shocking and interesting your shoppers.
However these new performance can create bugs and open safety vulnerabilities, so you must consistently take a look at your resolution.
In the event you relied on an in-house improvement staff, then technical assist is not going to be a difficulty. In the event you employed an exterior tech associate, then ideally, they need to take over assist and updates. If this isn’t attainable, ask for detailed technical documentation that may assist one other social gathering in taking up this responsibility. It’s advisable to dedicate roughly 15-20% of your health app’s improvement prices to upkeep.
How a lot does a health app price? Numbers from real-life tasks
Exercise monitoring health app
A longtime health cell app vendor turned to ITRex for Android software improvement companies. The corporate needed to construct an Android different to its iOS exercise monitoring resolution. Our staff was solely concerned within the improvement part. We constructed an app that permits customers to trace their exercise, set targets, monitor progress, and share their achievements with group members.
Beneath are essentially the most distinguished options of the app:
-
GPS monitoring to watch person location
-
Search perform to seek out and be a part of related communities
-
Analytical part that may course of person location and exercise information
-
Strava API for fetching person actions
Undertaking period: 2.5 – 3 months
Growth prices: $20,000 – $25,000
Staff composition: one developer
App improvement phases: improvement
Android tech stack:
Programming language | |
Android libraries/frameworks |
Android SDK, Retrofit, RxKotlin, Google Play Companies, Customized View, Cloth, Firebase, Appflyer, Glide, Koin, Department, SDK generated by API Gateway |
AWS |
Amazon S3, Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon Safe Endpoints |
Testing instruments | |
Instruments |
Android Studio, Zeplin, Jira, Bitbucket |
Coach-in-a-pocket health software for sensible coaching
A US-based startup employed ITRex to develop a complete health app for Android and iOS platforms that may act like a real-life coach. The shopper anticipated this resolution to compose customized coaching plans, suggest nutritious diet choices, observe achievements, give entry to instructional content material, and extra.
-
Recommending coaching packages primarily based on person parameters, equivalent to age and health degree
-
Permitting customers to handle and modify health and vitamin packages, change dates, add and delete exercise plans
-
Providing coaching suggestions and movies primarily based on the chosen coaching program
-
Monitoring progress and providing achievement overview
-
Suggesting meal plans
-
Quizzes
-
Integration with social media to share progress
-
Composing a library of webinars and train movies
Undertaking period: 10 – 12 months
Growth prices: $300,000 – $450,000
Staff composition: iOS developer, Android developer, front-end developer, back-end developer, QA engineer, DevOps, enterprise analyst, challenge supervisor.
App improvement phases: improvement
Entrance-end programming |
Typescript, React, redux, redux-toolkit, styled-components, material-ui, CRA, react-admin |
Again-end programming | |
iOS app |
Swift 5.0, UIKit + AutoLayout, Lottie, Alamofire, Stripe SDK |
Android app |
Kotlin 1.4, RxJava, Dagger, Retrofit, Stripe SDK |
Databases | |
Cloud storage choices | |
Funds Gateways |
Native In-app buy from Apple and Google |
A companion app for an AI-powered health mirror with a private coach
That is an instance of how a health app could be part of a complete advanced challenge that features machine studying (ML), voice management, laptop imaginative and prescient, sensors, and a bodily mirror. Right here, a health app permits customers to regulate the mirror and to work together with different group members.
A North American startup needed to construct a mirror that folks can use to train at dwelling beneath the supervision of a digital coach that may monitor their type, provide customized exercise plans, and encourage them to carry out to the perfect of their talents. Listed here are the primary parts of this challenge:
-
A full-length bodily mirror with a customized working system, outfitted with sensors to watch the person’s type
-
IoT sensors that customers can stick with their tools and make it part of the entire coaching system
-
Digital camera and laptop imaginative and prescient know-how for movement monitoring and rep counting
-
ML mannequin, which might be taught the bodily talents of each person, provide encouragement and coaching suggestions, and suggest exercises
-
Voice management system that understands a set of spoken instructions
-
A customized health Android/iOS app to work together with group members
-
Admin panel to allow health trainers to add their content material and provides train suggestions
The companion app’s key options embrace:
-
A full-length bodily mirror with a customized working system, outfitted with sensors to watch the person’s type
-
Interplay with the mirror. By way of the app, customers can open and shut exercises, placed on music, retrieve statistics on their coaching progress
-
The app permits a smartphone to behave as a distant keyboard
-
Sharing coaching outcomes on social media
-
Exchanging messages with a human coach
Undertaking period: 4.5 months
Growth prices: $130,000 – $160,000
Staff composition: three builders
App improvement phases: improvement
Expertise used: Native iOS improvement, SWIFT, communication protocols: Bluetooth and Wi-Fi
Getting began with health app improvement
Listed here are six steps which you can observe to conceptualize and construct a profitable health resolution. Allocating sufficient time to every part will show you how to cut back the general health app improvement prices.
Market analysis
This part will show you how to perceive the wants of your viewers and the options that they anticipate such an app to supply. When eager about your potential clients, be as particular as attainable. Attempt to decide all related parameters, equivalent to their age, targets, way of life, what motivates and evokes them, and many others. You would possibly uncover some surprising calls for. As an illustration, market analysis can reveal that folks would use your app on their telephones throughout the day however change to a TV within the night. Additionally, you will see what your rivals provide and the place they’re missing.
Market analysis ought to show you how to reply the next questions:
-
Who’s your viewers?
-
What are their ache factors?
-
How are you going to assist?
-
What your rivals are doing on this regard?
One tip is to check person critiques on App Retailer and Google Play, evaluate rivals’ costs and have units. One other method is to speak to as many individuals as attainable about your imaginative and prescient. People who present essentially the most curiosity are your potential early adopters. Take heed to them rigorously and take notes of their expectations.
Part period: 20 – 40 hours
Discovery
Through the product discovery stage, focus on your health app internally with designers and builders. Describe your basic concept for the applying and the data you acquired throughout the earlier part. Now could be the time to formalize and construction your challenge. Collectively together with your staff, you’ll be able to undergo the next steps:
-
Write down and elaborate on the necessities and the options that you just wish to embrace. Discover out extra on this matter in our complete necessities specification information
-
Select the tech stack that fits the aim at hand
-
Let QA engineers evaluation your specs to make sure they’re freed from logical errors
-
Estimate time and funds wanted to construct equivalent to app
Though this part may appear tedious and time-consuming, it can reduce down your health app constructing prices as you progress to design and improvement phases.
Part period: 40 – 80 hours
Design
You may full this part in three steps:
-
Consumer interface designing. This step ends in a carcass of the app, which appears to be like like tough sketches, referred to as wireframes.
-
Prototyping. It brings wireframes to life by implementing the app’s look-and-feel and making the frames clickable to resemble the interplay with the precise app. In a prototype, screens are linked collectively, there are buttons and menus permitting customers to check the app’s performance and logic.
-
Consumer testing. On this step, a gaggle of precise customers, consultant of your target market, work together with the prototype to confirm whether or not it’s intuitive and user-friendly. You should use the suggestions to additional enhance your resolution.
Part period: 80 – 160 hours
Growth
Throughout this part, builders will construct the precise app. They’ll join the app to the again finish and combine it with all the opposite parts, like fee gateways and social media platforms. Whereas constructing the answer, your staff can reply the next questions:
-
Which parts can we reuse to chop down health app improvement prices?
-
Which parts do we have to combine? Google Match, Apple Well being, and many others.
-
How you can make this software safe?
-
What are the rules on information privateness? Are we compliant?
To reduce health app improvement prices and time to market, you can begin by making a minimal viable product (MVP), which is restricted to the core performance. You may launch the MVP and monitor how customers work together with it, what they dislike, and what’s lacking, so you’ll be able to enhance the product regularly. If the MVP performs effectively available on the market, you should use its success to barter further funds with traders.
Part period: 200 hours – so long as it takes
Quliry assurance and testing
Throughout this part, high quality assurance engineers take a look at the cell software for bugs and ensure it’s compliant with requirement specs and with the nation’s rules. You may also deal with reviewing and refactoring the code to extend velocity and stability.
Part period: 50 hours – so long as it takes
Roll out
When the health resolution is prepared, you’re prone to publish it on the App Retailer and/or Google Play and let customers obtain it from there. Within the meantime, don’t sit idle. Work on spreading the phrase about your software. Customers can’t obtain it in the event that they don’t comprehend it exists. Listed here are a number of techniques that may show you how to promote your product:
-
Make a social media announcement
-
Promote the app on related web sites. You may creator a promotional weblog put up or a paragraph on a information aggregator web site.
-
Profit from paid commercial on YouTube, Google, and many others.
-
Attain out to health influencers and ask them to evaluation or simply point out your app on their platform
And your work doesn’t cease right here. You may nonetheless monitor person suggestions and app utilization stats and make enhancements in order that your app stays related and thrilling.
This part is a steady course of.
How you can velocity up the health app improvement course of: suggestions from ITRex
-
Don’t skip the invention part. Throughout this stage, you’ll be able to uncover some elements that would hinder improvement sooner or later. For instance, you’ll be able to understand that you just want further analysis or that price range estimates are insufficient. It additionally helps you put together for potential dangers.
-
Use an incremental method to improvement. Begin with MVP and add options regularly.
-
Dedicate time to construct resolution structure. Take non-functional necessities into consideration. A strong structure will make your app extra dependable and resilient. For instance, a effectively thought-through structure will enable your resolution to scale as your person base grows.
-
Lower your time to market. This manner you’ll begin receiving significant suggestions as quickly as attainable and will enhance your product quicker.
-
Automate. This may not be possible for small-scale options, however for challenge with 500+ hours of improvement and QA, automate testing as a lot as attainable.
Takeaways
So, how a lot does it price to make a health app? Wherever from $10,000 for fundamental performance and modest design, to $150,000 for a complete function set. And that is only a worth for a mean app. If you wish to incorporate customized animation and modern applied sciences, equivalent to AI, the prices will develop exponentially.
You will get a extra exact estimate after reviewing all of the elements introduced on this article and tailoring them to your case. Don’t overlook to incorporate a buffer for prices you’ll incur alongside the best way. For instance, to publish your health app on the app retailer, you will have to pay charges. Google Play prices a one-time $25 payment whereas Apple Retailer will accumulate $99 yearly. These platforms additionally take commissions for every app buy.
And remember that app improvement is a steady expenditure. After releasing your product, you’ll nonetheless have to repair bugs, incorporate updates and new options, and supply buyer assist.