Building a Social Media App in 2022: How Much Does It Cost You?

How Much Does It Cost To Create a Social Media App in 2022?

Building a Social Media App in 2022: How Much Does It Cost You?

In recent years, the sky-touching success of social media apps like Facebook, Instagram, Tumbler, YouTube and Twitter has greatly influenced investors to build a social media app.

In fact, creating a social media app has become one of the most potential opportunities for startups and business enthusiasts. But one certain question that troubles them to invest in social media apps is “How much does it cost you to create a social media app like Facebook or Instagram?”. If you are also chasing this question, then here is a complete guide that helps you create a social media app and how much does it cost you.

In the wake of the pandemic, where people have started spending more time on social media apps, undoubtedly these platforms have become more addicted. The changing situation of the world is strongly indicating the increasing hype of social media apps. Therefore, considering building a social platform in 2022 will be a worthy decision for the startup.

If you are still wondering why developing a social media app in 2022, then here are the key highlights that walk you through an in-depth guide.

Key Highlights Of The Blog:

• Why Do Startups Aim For Social Media Apps in 2022?
  - Understanding the Market Prospects of Social Media Apps
• What Type of Social Media App Trends Do You Need To Know?
• What Do People Expect From New Social Media Apps?
• How To Create a Social Media App for Your Startup in 2022?
  - Must-Have Features of Creating a Social Media App
  - Advanced Features of a Social Media App
• How To Build a Social Media App: Tech Stack and Team for App Development
• How Much Does It Cost To Create A Social Media App in 2022?
• Conclusion: Develop a Social Media App Without Making Any Mistake

Let’s get into the details of these points for better understanding:

Why Do Startups Aim For Social Media Apps in 2022?

There is no denying the fact that social media apps have become a burning topic for startups. In recent years, social media apps have transformed the way people communicate with each other. People spend a lot of time online scrolling the news on Instagram or on Facebook. Not to mention, other social apps are also equally interesting and motivate startups to develop something similar. The secret behind the increasing popularity of these apps is the freedom and flexibility to access the app. Moreover, these apps provide a potential platform where users can share their thoughts, dreams and achievements. In fact, social networking apps are connecting users to the whole world and exchanging ideas with like-minded people.

You don’t have to take our words for it. Here are the statistics that help you understand why the market is aiming for the social media app:

• According to the survey, 57.6% of the world’s population uses social media and on average spends 2 hours 27 minutes every day.
• According to the survey, Facebook and YouTube will be the most popular social networks across the world in Jan 2022.

• As per the reports, 93.4% of internet users are using social media apps.

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• As per the report, the global social networking platform market was evaluated for $192.950 billion in 2019 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 25.38%. Moreover, it is expected to reach a market size of USD 939.679 billion by 2026.

Surely, these statistics represent the progressive picture of the social media industry. The way these apps are grabbing user attention, undoubtedly, social media apps are taking the center stage. But before you get straight into the process of hiring a mobile app development company, it is worth conducting market research. Determine what value it brings to the user and how much does it cost to develop a social media app like Instagram or Facebook. With so many social media apps already existing in the market, it is worth taking a note on “what exactly people are expecting from your app?”

But before you get into the process of app development, make sure you know what type of app you need to develop and how you will approach the targeted audience.

What Type of Social Media App Trends Do You Need To Know?

If you have finally made a decision to create a mobile app, then one pressing concern will be how to make your presence in the competitive market. While there are various social media apps leading the domain, creating your brand presence is one of the greatest challenges for startups. But don’t worry, all you need is to understand your business needs and pick the app type.

Considering your target audience, users’ needs, appropriate functionality, and competitors choose your app type. Here are the various types of social media apps:

• Social Networking App Like Facebook or LinkedIn

The simple concept of creating this type of app is to connect people and LinkedIn is globally known for building a professional network. To create this type of social media app, you need to implement features that allow users to share thoughts, upload videos and photos.

• Media Sharing Networks Like Instagram, Snap-chat or YouTube

The media sharing network app provides great possibilities to those users who want to create and share video content or want to start a video channel. Apps like Snapchat or Instagram has become a trendsetter with these functionalities. You can hire a mobile developer to create this type of app. This type of app provides various editing features and filters to make this app work more efficiently. Therefore, understanding the likings and dislikings of these local users, you can customize the interface accordingly.

• Online Review App Like Tripadvisor, Yelp or Foursquare

Such types of social media apps work best to provide knowledge of various products and services. The review sharing sites really pushes forward the quality of services as organizations have to work hard to maintain their rating and reviews on these platforms.

• Discussion Forums Like Quora

Quora type Q&A sites allow users to submit any question and the forum will provide an expert answer to the users. Discussion forums serve a great role in finding the required information. So users have the opportunity to start a discussion, ask questions, and get answers from experts.

No matter which type of social media app you choose to create, each sector is already owned by the industry giants. So many of you are wondering how to gain popularity and is it worth building an app. Before you make any decision, you need to understand market needs. Well, the fact is, the social media industry is still holding the room for startups, all they need is to recognize the user needs.

What Do People Expect From New Social Media Apps?

When you make a decision to create a social media app, the key to success is to conduct in-depth market research. Look for the areas that have not been covered yet by other social media apps. In addition, highlight the list of users tasks that your app can solve. To make your app work well, you need to set goals and think about the app structure from the user’s perspective.

Now, the question is what users are expecting from your app?

• Since we are talking about social networking apps, the first thing people are looking for is hassle-free communication features from your app.
• Secondly, social media apps are now gaining popularity for providing ultimate opportunities for editing images.
• Thirdly, the convenience of use is a highly important consideration. Here most people make serious mistakes. To add an edge over others, businesses consider implementing a huge list of features and functionalities that make your app complex.

So what type of features and functionalities are you adding to the app? This will decide the success of your app but at the same time, it will affect the app development budget.

How To Create a Social Media App for Your Startup in 2022?

Do you want to create a social media app in 2022? If yes, then keep in mind that different social media apps are developed for different purposes. But still, there are some basic features and functionalities that you need to look for. So let’s get straight into the list of must-have features that help you begin with the basic app version.

Must-Have Features of Creating a Social Media App like Facebook or Instagram

• User Registration: To provide access to the app, allow users to sign up for an app using an email ID and password or phone number. To make a social media app more user-friendly, you can hire a mobile app developer to add the “forgot password” feature. To make it work, app developers can use Facebook or Google SDK.
• User Profile: Depending on a social app type, you should provide the flexibility to create a profile by adding profile pictures, editing name, contact details and more. This information allows other users to view your profile with the contact “connect” option. A thoughtful profile can make customers subscribe, but you need to consider the user experience and the layout of the page accordingly.
• Search: To find friends or bloggers to follow, users need a comfortable search option. Also, allow users to search profiles using tags, user names, or location.
• Newsfeed: It is one of those features that you definitely desire to incorporate in your app. With these features, users will remain updated with the new information which excites them to reopen an app and use it constantly.
• Messaging: To meet the communication needs of the users, allow them to send direct or personal messages.
• Upload Content and Share: Provide the ability to upload content such as photos or videos and allow users to share it on their page or with groups. To take this feature to the next level, you can add the feature to edit photos and videos and provide filters before uploading it to the network.
• Tagging Users: By adding tags to your content, it becomes far easier to share it with others. It also quickly reveals the information with people based on location, interests or names.
• Comments and Feedbacks: Features like adding comments on content or hitting the like button will help you make your social media app more interactive and interesting. With this feature, users can share their opinions and thoughts.
• Contact Management: To stay in contact with your friends or invite other people to your social network account, it is important to add two options: “add friend” and “invite new users”.

These are the few basic features that you need to incorporate into your social media app. However, there are a plethora of social media apps already in the market with common features. So how would you make your app stand apart in the competitive market? That’s where you need to think of adding advanced features to your app…

Advanced Features of a Social Media App

• Live Streaming: Live video streaming feature has become very popular with social media apps like Facebook or Instagram. It allows users to directly communicate with their followers in real-time and share experiences. By hiring an app development company, you can also consider adding this feature. In fact, this feature works best when you need to conduct Q&A sessions or want to share product reviews. It helps you directly connect with the audience.
• Geolocation: This feature will allow users to mark locations on pictures or be able to find others nearby. This feature works best for the business pages and allows users to find nearby or allow brands to promote services as per location-based audiences.
• Ephemeral Content: As like Facebook or Instagram, you can also consider adding the feature of Ephemeral content. It allows users to upload photos or videos that disappear after 24 hours. The simple concept of this feature is to upload short-term content to increase the time users spend on social media apps daily.
• Photo Filters: Social media apps like Snapchat or Instagram have gained global popularity because of their highly engaging photo filters. Whether it be occasion-based, location-based or beauty based, Snapchat-like social media apps provide new filters every day to keep their users engaged with an app.

Adding these features to your app will definitely cause a great impact on your budget but make your app highly competitive with existing apps. But the question is what are the major tech stacks required for creating a social media app… Let’s find an answer to this question…

How To Build a Social Media App: Tech Stack and Team for App Development

Are you influenced by the functionalities of social media apps like Facebook or Instagram? Does its interface ensure a satisfying user experience? Want to create a social media app like Facebook or Instagram? If yes then you need to hire a team of professionals that may include app iOS developer, Android app developer, Business analyst, project manager, UI/UX designer and app tester.

Apart from outsourcing the app development team, you need various tools and technologies to create a social media app. Here is a list of major technologies required to develop a social media app:

• iOS/ Android App Development: Swift/ Object C/ Kotlin/ Java
• Cross-Platform App Development: Flutter/ React Native
• Networking for iOS/Android Apps: Alamofire / OkHttp 3
• Backend Development: Node.js
• Framework: Express 4
• Database: MySQL
• Chat: Socket.io
• Signup: Amazon SES, Amazon SNS
• API: Swagger
• Push Notification: FCM
• Geolocation: Google Maps
• Storage: Amazon S3
• Emails: Elastic Email
• Search: Elastic Search

These are the few major tech stacks required to build a social media app but the complex app structure may require additional technologies. With that said, many of you are wondering how much does it cost you and how long does it take to launch your app?

How Much Does It Cost To Create A Social Media App in 2022?

The cost to develop a social media app is actually different as per the needs of your business. Different social media apps are developed with different approaches, therefore, there is no app that involves the same amount of work for backend and frontend development of the app.

Generally, the cost of the app depends upon various factors such as complexity of the app, features and functionalities, app type, UI/UX design and more. The final cost and app development time is depending upon the app development team you choose to hire for your project. However, one section that majorly influences the app development cost is the choice of features and functionalities. The more complex features will take higher app development time and lead to expensive costs. So when it comes to developing a social media app, you need to bring a unique concept and mindful features that help you trend in the market.

If it comes to estimating the app development cost, then it will be approx USD 20,000 to USD 25,000+ and may take 4 months to 9+ months in app development. The final cost and time estimation will be depending upon your business requirements and its complexity.

So before you make any decision, you can book a free consultation slot with experts and discuss your business requirements in person.

Conclusion: Develop a Social Media App Without Making Any Mistake

With the end of this blog, it is fair enough to say that social media apps are booming more than ever. Despite being dominated by such leading apps like Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat, your app can still thrive in the market if it has unique features. All you need is to adopt the best app development approach and incorporate unique features to get successful. And the simple and ideal way is to hire a mobile app development company to bring your unique app idea into the market.

Since now you know how exactly to make an app from scratch, it’s time to market your brilliant social media app idea into the market in the form of a successful digital product. That’s where the professional app development team will help you incorporate the best technologies and methodologies in app development projects. Add more specifications to the features that help you become a trendsetter in the social media app industry.

So if you are looking for experts to create an MVP solution or a full-fledged social media app for your business, then you can contact us or drop a query for the robust solution and real estimations.

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