How to Make A Social Media App and How Much Does it Cost?

Social media apps have redefined how we connect and build networks, becoming a prominent part of our daily lives. As of 2021, 4.48 billion people worldwide are active social media users, accounting for more than half the world’s population. The increasing demand has led to an emerging, prosperous market for social networking apps.

Phase 1: Conduct comprehensive research to ensure success

Bringing your social media app idea to life requires comprehensive market and competition research, which makes up the business analysis phase.

Market research

The number of social media users globally has almost doubled since 2016 and the significant rise can be seen in the graph below. Such increasing demand makes the social media app market one of the most favorable ones to enter.

Competition research

Furthermore, competition research will help identify the strengths of competitors’ apps and what they lack, so you can identify the potential and opportunities for your product.

Phase 2: Plan out the features of your app

All the above research and analysis will help you plan the features, functionalities, and other technical aspects of your app. In this phase, you will also define a profitable monetization model for your social media app.

Monetization models for social media apps

You can either opt for a freemium model like LinkedIn or an advertising model used by apps like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Moreover, you can also offer in-app purchases to your users for more revenue. For example, you can charge for specific podcasts, ebooks, courses, avatars, etc.

Must-have features of a social media app

• Sign up & login
• User profile
• Chat
• Push notifications

Advanced features of a social media app

• Geolocation
• Live streaming
• Artificial Intelligence chatbots

Phase 3: Design & development

After having a mind map and functional specifications of your social media app, it is time to start the development process. It entails UI/UX design, front-end, and back-end development. Below we will discuss all these aspects in detail.

Design best practices

Here are a few best practices our designers keep in mind while designing the UI/UX of a social media app:

• A clean, simple design that users can quickly familiarize themselves with is preferable. For instance, have a minimal number of steps to find and use a feature.
• A good choice of color palette is also crucial to a successful design. Include colors that appeal to users as well as emphasize your brand to increase its recognition.
• Lastly, using design tools like sketches, wireframes and mockups will help the entire team visualize how the app works, making the design process seamless.

Technology stack for a social media app

A social media app architecture has a three-tier structure consisting of a mobile client, backend, and database. Below is what an approximate tech stack of a social media app would look like:

Frontend development

Frontend development is equally essential to a social media app as users spend most of the time interacting with the user interface. Angular and React are excellent options for building a mobile frontend of social media apps.

Backend development

As for backend development or server-side programming, the choice of technology needs to be more robust. Backend determines the performance, scalability, and efficiency of your social media app.

The key backend features of a social media app include an admin panel and database. Let’s discuss them in detail.

• Database
• Admin panel

Development best practices for a social media app

1. Security:

Users’ data security and privacy are of utmost importance in social media apps. Security vulnerabilities and inefficient permission-based mechanisms in Android have paved the way for different security hazards.

2. Horizontal scalability:

To handle user growth and expanding data, your architecture must be horizontally scalable.

3. Device communication protocol:

The choice of technology also affects the communication and the immediate response of the mobile app to the server-side. Therefore, REST API is a must for social media apps as it obtains all the necessary data from the server.

4. Choice of architecture:

The efficiency of your social media application directly depends on the back-end architecture. So you need to choose the model of development during initial planning carefully.

Phase 4: Testing and quality assurance

Testing and Quality Assurance are essential elements of a successful app development process. And these steps need not be carried out only after the development.

Phase 5: Growth analysis after app launch

Now your social network app is ready to be launched on the app stores. And once it is deployed to the market, your app will require regular updates and bug fixing, if any.

Quantitative metrics for social media apps

• Acquisition: CPI & CAC
  Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the overall cost incurred to acquire a new user, including the cost of marketing ads, campaigns, and other promotional activities.
• User activation rate
  User activation rate shows the number of active users in comparison to app downloads.
• Burn rate
  Burn rate shows the amount of money you spend on your app monthly, including server costs, app maintenance, staff, marketing and sales cost, etc.

Social media app development cost

A myriad of factors affects the cost of a social media app, such as the number of features you want to include, their complexity, the development team, their location, etc. Below we will discuss the key factors that will help determine a rough estimate for social networking app development.

Development cost

The number of features, functionalities and their complexity directly influence the development hours and, thus, the app cost. Moreover, the integrated APIs or the complexity of the backend will also require more financial resources.

Cost Breakdown Based on Stages of Social Media App Development

A complete app development process starts with business research and ends with launching, maintenance, and upgrading the app. Each stage requires a chunk of the total app development budget. To estimate the overall cost of your social media app, let’s look at the time and cost required stage-wise.

Target platforms and devices

Social media app development cost is also directly affected by the number of platforms and devices you want to target. Based on essential aspects such as your target audience, market fragmentation, localization, etc., you can choose between iOS and Android for a mobile app.

Development partner and engagement model

The cost to develop a social media app also largely depends on the hourly rates of the developers involved. But building social media apps requires experience and the right skill sets. And the development process also requires designers, testers, and project managers. While hiring a team to build your social media app, you can take three major routes, which are as follows:

• Hire freelancers
• Hire app development agency aka Outsourcing
• Hire dedicated remote developers/extended team

To Sum Up

A social media app can cost anywhere between $45,000- $80,000. More complex apps with advanced features and design can even cost above $200,000. Additionally, apps require regular maintenance and updates that add to the cost. You will also need to include other costs such as app store charges, database, server costs, app patenting, and marketing costs.

Originally published at Simform: How to Make A Social Media App and How Much Does it Cost?