How Much Does It Cost to Build a Mobile Banking App? Our Use Case

Online banking is one of the fastest-growing areas in fintech, especially in the mobile field. Smartphone transactions are expected to reach 88 percent of total banking money transfers by 2022.If you want to be on top of the trend, read about features, the building process, and the cost of developing a banking app in this article.

Why You Need to Develop a Banking App

Companies and startups are actively investing in banking apps. But the market is enormous, and there is still plenty of room for new players. Statista’s forecast says that in 2023, the volume of mobile financial transactions and other contactless technologies will exceed US$220 billion.

The number of customers using mobile banking products in 2019 was 1.75 billion and grew by more than 30 percent annually. Clients appreciate the convenience and easy 24/7 access to their bank account wherever they are. Other benefits for users include:

• Versatility, convenience, and profitability of mobile transactions;
• Saving time and round-the-clock access to funds; and
• Complete control over funds and the ability to automate payments.

For owners, having a mobile application means, first of all, financial savings. You can reduce operating costs and the number of staff working in the branches while maintaining customer service level or even increasing it. Other benefits are organizing paperless accounting, simplifying the workflow, and reaching a greater level of data security and customer analytics.

What Is Worth Paying Attention To?

Before you start a banking app, you have to define its essential functions. Among them are:

• A user account with a page for registration,
• Key financial transactions,
• Transaction management,
• Notifications,
• Offline access to the account, and
• Support.

To stand out from the competitors, you need more advanced features. It could be support for multiple bank accounts and cards, wearable integration, or something else.

Creating a mobile banking app is full of challenges.Among the notable ones are data, transactions, and client money security, and the need to comply with national and international legislation in finance, crime prevention, and personal data protection.

How to Build a Banking App Step-by-Step

We at CHI Software have developed many fintech solutions for mobile and online banking, and we invite you to look at the example case with the following roadmap steps:

• Research and technology stack planning;
• Creating a prototype and the user interface and user experience (UI/UX) design;
• Development and testing the minimum viable product (MVP) and full-fledged app; and
• Deployment and marketing of the app.

First, you have to define your target market, core issues, and appropriate and alternative solutions; then, you must identify competitors, evaluate the best procedures, and make a detailed development plan. As a result, you’ll get a functional specification that can be a foundation for your budget and app toolkit.Planning the required techstack will help you better define the time and workforce for developing an app.

Next, you have to build a prototype showing the structure of design elements. Typically, low-fidelity UI wireframes, UX design, and layouts are created first. Designers sketch a home screen, users’ profiles, and dashboards, and then turn them into a high-fidelity prototype. While making the UI/UX design, you have to consider the product’s specifics, customers’ cultural differences (for instance, right-to-left localization for Arabic texts), and iOS and Android guidelines.

The next challenge is to bring the finished design to life with frontend and backend development. In most cases, an MVP is created first to test the “liveness” of your application. It is fast in delivery and requires less investment to build. Based on the MVP, you can develop a fully working application with a more detailed list of functions.

Once a product has been created, it must be thoroughly tested using manual, automated, or a combination of techniques. QA engineers check:

• Functionality and performance,
• Peak performance,
• Integrations, and
• System components.

If everything is OK, the app is prepared for release.

To estimate development costs, you need to know the time spent and the average hourly rate of all project specialists. A few years ago, Clutch calculated that when choosing a simple, basic solution, you would have to spend at least US$20,000, while complex systems cost at least US$200,000. By updating the data, we get an average price in the range of US$60,000 to US$120,000.

Conclusion

The fintech area is challenging and full of subtle nuances. But do not be afraid of difficulties on the way to success. With accurate planning, a roadmap, a realistic budget, and a strong development team, you will be able to offer users a product that improves their financial experience and brings you profit in just a few months.

Need to know more about how to build a banking app? Read the full article about it on CHI Software’s blog!