The revenue-generating opportunities that mobile fitness apps offer make them probably the most popular business trend.
Fitness entrepreneurs need to offer more than top-notch sports services to stay competitive in the marketplace. Having health and fitness mobile applications, they can get another avenue to build and scale their businesses.
This article will explain how to create a fitness app and will navigate you through daunting fitness app development tasks. This will help you meet and exceed consumer expectations.
Analyze the Fitness App Market and your competitors
People want to keep fit, and technology can help to reach this goal, replacing or assisting the personal fitness trainer.
As more people find the benefits and comforts of working out at home, they still want the accountability that comes with having a trainer or a program to follow.
Fitness apps give this accountability, helping people improve their fitness performance. So the statistics by reputable resources show the growth of the market:
- By the end of 2022, there will be $86.3 million fitness and health app users in the United States, and their number is predicted to increase steadily.
- The fitness app market will reach an expected revenue of $10.74 billion by 2030 at a CAGR of 20.5%.
- The fitness and wellness market value has surpassed $1.5 trillion, and it will continue to grow annually by 5-10%.
- The global wearable technology market size is going to reach $138.61 billion in 2022.
Impressive, isn’t it?
To start the development of a fitness application, you will need more insight into your niche. Analyze the competitors, decide on the relevant app type, analyze your target audience and review appropriate technologies. After exploring those key factors, you will see how much it costs to create a fitness app.
If that sounds overly complicated, consider finding assistance from a professional app development services provider.
Decide on your Fitness App type
Before start building a workout application, decide what kind of fitness services interest your target audience. Users install fitness apps to track their daily activities, monitor their heart rate, receive personal workout coaching or get assistance with diet and nutrition.
You need to figure out how to create a fitness app that users will adore, responding to the existing demand and requirements of the market. Take a look at some popular types of fitness apps.
Diet and nutrition apps
Diet and nutrition apps usually serve for tracking and monitoring users’ unique eating habits. These apps became popular because they allow for personalization, set a clear and achievable goal, and encourage people to live healthier lifestyles. The relevant app can make healthy eating a comfortable way of life. That is something that people are ready for and are willing to purchase.
Activity tracking apps
Activity tracking apps help users to keep track of different activities or exercises that they choose to do. These activities include running, walking, cycling and similar. These apps track the user's walk distances, the number of steps taken in a day and the number of calories burned during activities.
Workout apps
As the name suggests, workout apps are another fitness app type that focuses on users' workout routines. For example, if a user misses a day of doing exercises, a notification is sent to remind the user to resume a workout at the set time. This type of app essentially replicates a personal physical fitness trainer.
Choose a monetization model for your Fitness App
You most likely want to profit from your fitness app. Wondering how to create fitness apps and make money with them? Here're some top suggestions you may wish to consider.
Paid applications
This model means that users will have to pay to use your app on a continued basis. The price of an app will be determined by the content, features, and type of the application. The paid apps often have free trials, after which the users need to pay a monthly or annual subscription plan to continue enjoying its benefits.
Free apps with premium versions
You may offer your app for free with a set of basic features. When it comes to enjoying the advanced features of the applications, customers will have to pay either a one-time purchase fee or subscribe to a monthly payment plan. Not everyone will be willing to pay, but those who want to take advantage of the best features will tap into it.
In-app purchases
Incorporating in-app purchases allows you to offer your fitness app free of charge and encourage people to buy specific items featured within your application. It can be an advanced feature setting or premium subscription content, which is only accessible to users who pay for the feature.
Sponsored ads
Other businesses can purchase ad spaces within your fitness application. Companies in the same niche as you can advertise their content within your app to drive more traffic to their website while generating revenue for you.
Guest content
Your fitness app can serve as a platform where fitness coaches and experts share valuable tips, guides, recommendations and other relevant information with your audience. The more famous your fitness influencers are and the better content they provide, the more successful your fitness app will be.
Define key features of your app
Marketers and app developers work together to add unique features to fitness apps. Before you start building your fitness app, consider the following key features. However, keep in mind that the choice of the features will define how much does it cost to create a fitness app.
Personal account/user profile
Providing great content for nutrition, workout, activity tracking and sports mostly depends on available user data. The application will save and update users' physical data, allowing them to monitor their progress while they’re on their path to becoming stronger and healthier.
Activity tracker
A fitness app should allow connectivity to smartphones and wearables so that users can track their physical activity and access data collected by devices via APIs. Our development team has experience in this domain. Solvd has built QA processes for FitBod, the app with 5M+ downloads and 350,000 reviews.
Geolocation
If your app tracks or involves activities like walking, running, swimming, or cycling, it should let users know the distance they've completed and inform them about their current location. Such an approach helps to track and monitor users' performance and sports progress.
Push notifications
A push notification is a message that pops up on a user's mobile device. It can be a reminder about an upgrade, workout schedule, completed milestones, in-app purchases and more. Push notifications help motivate users to achieve their activity goals.
Social sharing option
Many users love to share their achievements across social networks. If your app provides this opportunity, users can tell the world about what they have completed with the app's help. It’s another way to reach your target audience on social media.
AI and ML features
Modern consumers are spoiled. It’s often not enough for them to have a simple fitness app. They prefer having advanced and exclusive features incorporated into an app. Think about employing artificial intelligence and machine learning. They provide opportunities ranging from data analytics and data-driven personal trainers to pose estimation and smart clothes. Your app will gain an edge over competitors if you integrate some trending features.
Solvd tested and calibrated smart training apparel by Athos designed to collect user data for visualization on a fitness app for iPhone or iOS devices and provide insights into muscle performance. The team has also created a fitness app for Apple Watch that improves battery efficiency by 60% due to its well-balanced performance and feature range.
Hire a professional development team
Your next step is to start a collaboration with an experienced app development team. To get the finest customized fitness software for your business, make sure you hire professionals able to resolve your challenges. You still may have some other questions in mind:
How much does it cost to create a fitness app?
How long does it take to develop a customized app?
What is the ideal team needed to help you achieve the development goals?
To get accurate answers, settle on the type of fitness app you need and specific features to include and draw up a budget. After that, negotiate with a service provider who will dispel your doubts and help you launch the project.
Stages of collaboration
Your fitness app development project will go through four main stages: conceptualization, technical documentation and design, application development, and quality assurance.
Conceptualization
First, you need to define the scope and goals of the project. You can do it yourself or hire tech-savvy specialists to develop a valuable business idea for you. It’s important not to underestimate the conceptualization phase: accurate planning will define the success of your entire project.
Technical documentation and design
Technical documentation significantly simplifies the communication process between team members, stakeholders and developers, bringing clarity and certainty, which is so vital to the entire team. The specialists involved in the development process need comprehensive materials, like text, figures or videos, and instructions to complete the project.
Application development
This is where the actual development of the application begins. Make sure your team develops both iOS and Android versions of the app, even though it will require more mobile app developers, time and investment. Developing your app on both platforms will pay off and make your app more popular and successful.
Quality assurance
You also need professional quality assurance testing on multiple devices and bug fixing before launching your app for public download. For a reliable quality assurance analysis, you may need to hire QA Consulting Specialists to finally get excellent and thorough testing.
In closing
The fitness and wellness app market is thriving and will continue to grow, making the present the ideal time for the development of your fitness app.
Now that you know how to create your own fitness app, to really enjoy the full range of benefits, you need the services of a professional and experienced mobile and web app development team.
Start your fitness app development journey with a comprehensive analysis of business needs, goals and capabilities. Make sure you don't go alone – find a professional software engineering company competent to support and navigate you in your business endeavor.
Remember the importance of quality assurance and allocate enough budget for software testing. You certainly wish the target audience to appreciate the highest quality of the app and give positive feedback, which will help you call the attention of more sports and fitness enthusiasts to your app.
