How Much Does a Dating App Development Cost?

Summary: The mere thought to replace Tinder and Bumble is not enough. One needs to work for it! With the best blend of tech stacks, features, and functionality, you can easily achieve a successful dating app development. The online dating service market is all set to reach USD 10.8 billion in 10 years. So, of course, there is a great scope to make profits and loyal users online. 

With the digital world opportunities we do tend to think about app development costs. An idea can succeed when there is a good setup and team to back it up. So, if you are someone who wants to create a dating app, then here is the cost to build a dating app. Our experts have given an insight into the factors, features and more into the blog. Dive into it now! 

If you are in this blog, it obviously means you have made up your mind to develop a dating app.

Here is a short breakdown of dating app costs, before we get into some further details. 

How Much a Dating App Costs: A Gist of Estimated Cost!

There are three main types of dating apps. Geolocation, questionnaire, and selective niche.All of these types have their own set of features and functionalities. A basic MVP app development with profiles, matches, and chats may cost dating app development between $10,000 to $30,000. And as you go above with advance features and tech stacks the  software development will cost you around $80,000 to $1,00,000. Also, to build an efficient dating app it needs approx. 1,100 hours.

Other than the app upgrades, maintenance, infrastructure, etc., the cost rises up by 15-30% based on your third party integrations, payment gateways, APIs, licenses, etc. 

In today’s time just to build an online venture is not enough, one has to grow it with time. Every shift in the tech world will affect your presence. You have to be smart about your cost distribution and growth of your idea for dating app with it.

Here is an approximate breakdown of the estimated cost to develop a dating app.

Development Phase	Cost to Build the Phase	Estimated Hours
Research & Planning	$1300-$1600	80-100
UI/UX Design	$2000-$2300	120-140
Frontend Development	$5000-$6000	310-350
Backend Development	$4500-$5500	280-340
QA Testing	$1800-$2200	110-130
Total	$14600-$17600	900-1060

An expert dating app development company like us will give you the best advice to balance out your software lifecycle in time. The period in which you want to deploy your project does matter in the choice of tech stacks, features, and functionality.

Every good thing takes time to happen, and the same is the case with every SDLC. You must take your time with something that is meant to happen in a specific time frame.

There is also a cost to maintain a dating app throughout its lifecycle. As an investor, you also have to look into the cost of online dating apps. It is one of the core expenses in the overall building of a dating app SDLC. Let’s have a look at it!

Cost to Build a Dating App: Maintainence Cost

There is more than just to build an app. Every app has to grow in the online world. And to do that, one has to lure the audiences, stay with the trends, and fix the bugs in real time. All this has to be done with great caution and expertise. Thus, it is viable to go ahead with great minds at work.

Key maintenance cost is as below:-

• Server and infrastructure cost to host an app and its database.
• Update new features and improve UI/UX with it.
• On time bug fixes during the SDLC functioning online.
• You hire customer support to handle the user queries and issues instantly.
• Marketing your app on other platforms to get user reach and brand loyalty.

One needs to study the cost of dating app development in two parts. You have to look into its production and execution cost; you need to look into the after deployment cost.

To build a dating app do requires constant improvement and new features to surpass the competitors. There are certain costs that you have to look at right from the planning stage. And yes, 70% cost comes from operations while 30% comes from the maintenance services.

Here is a brief look at the factors that affect cost to build a dating app development.

Factors That Affect Dating App Development

Our dating app developers have discussed some of the crucial factors that affect dating app development. Dive right into them and do take a mental note of it!

#1 UI/UX Design

A UI/UX is the face of your brand image. You need to get it right! UI UX will always help you to jell along with a user.

We all love intuitive browsing, don’t we?! We get one with the help of a smart UI/UX development team. To win the design game of a dating app, you have to study your target audience and your competitors closely.

The right blend of visually appealing layout, user flow, and other attractive elements makes a good app design. The budget depends on the following:-

• How complex is your design?
• How many features do you want to represent in your design?
• Do you want to integrate engaging animated elements?
• Do you want to deploy your app on several devices?

Designers are meant to bring a balance in the design with your needs and aesthetics of the app. The design is made in a way that helps establish harmony with the brand and the user.

#2 Types and Sizes of App

In today’s competitive world, it is not easy to build an app that tracts every single user. To become a best matchmaking app like Tinder or Bumble, you need to be accurate with your audience and the primary focus to build a dating app.

To decide how big is your online venture is a crucial task. The type and size of your dating application will give you the actual cost to create an online dating application.

The bigger the size, the more features and functionalities with user traction at one time. The smaller the app, the fewer the features, functionalities, and user requests at a time.

In a dating app, there are three types of mingling audiences, based on which these are the type of dating apps.

Geolocation based app

To get the match makers in the same vicinity, one opts for this kind of app. A user gets to match up and mingle around with the interested personality at the same location.

Algorithm based app

With the apt use of AI and ML, these apps study user behavior with the help of surveys. Then, they come up with recommendations for the users. It creates likes, choices, etc., as per their user type.

Traditional matches

The build dating algorithm is integrated into the mobile apps.

Niche dating app

A niche is a set of audiences that is specifically made just for your app. Your design, features, and functionality cater only to that particular class of people. 

You can either use one or multiple types in one app as per your budget. Users use multiple types when they wish to reach mass audiences at once. And want to handle every kind of real time traction. 

Indeed, the cost of a dating app depends on your type, time, and overall budget that you have in mind for the project.

#3 Features & Functionalities

When you decide to create an app, there are some basic features that every venture has. If you want to build a basic dating app, then it will cost you approx $20,000-$25,000. In the basic dating app business model, you will get the following features:-

• Signin/signup: You can keep direct social media sign in facility or the account creation from scratch. A profile photo, along with some personal details, is apt to be on such matchmaking platforms.

• Security: Many online fake identities have been made. And to plan a dating SDLC, the major point to think upon is user security. You need to have a robust security measure that helps verify the identity of a user. As a result, it will help manage online users in the best ways.

• In-app chat: It is the best way to get to know other users in a dating app. This feature allows one to communicate easily with the one interested match. Thus, it also works as an ice break functionality for individuals on the app.

• Location: With the help of GPS, a user is able to find out a match in his vicinity. It helps to mingle around in real time, apart from in-app chatting.

All the above features are the ‘must have’ basic model. They will keep the users engage and tract more users at the same time.

#4 Development Team

When you have a certain dating app idea in mind, you need experts to build the exact thing for you. It is all about talent and skill set. Whether you want to deploy a small project or a big project, you will need an expert to guide you through the process.

A dating app development team usually consists of 2-3 backend experts, 1-2 frontend experts, 1 UI/UX designer, and 1 PM. Larger and experienced team will give you instant updates, real time bug fixes, and a robust online support. A small team will need more expert touch in some bug fixing scenarios online.

The cost to build a dating app also varies as per the team’s geographic location. If you hire a developer for dating app development from India or East Europe, it will cost you less. In other parts of the world the range to build such SDLC is high.

An offshore app development company like us will always cost you less. We have a pool of talented experts with 5+ years of technical expertise. Also, our team gives you market insight into your app idea when you approach us. And we do consult you for free! 

#5 Tech Stack

The choice of tech stacks is the heart of one’s app. As they decide how the user experience will be online. For more complex stacks, one needs varied databases, third party APIs, as well as cloud services. It all adds up to the cost of an online dating app. 

A tech stack determines the number of features, screens, other tool integration, security, personalized filters, etc. Also, on what platforms do you want to function? Cross-platform, only iOS, or only Android. 

For a robust performance, one needs to use the right set of optimal tech stacks. It is responsible for your future online growth as well. Thus, it is a one time investment which will surely give you goodwill and profits in the long run.

#6 Third Party Integrations

The third party tools and services do affect the overall budget of an app. It all depends on the features that you want to include in the app. Chat, social media, payments, analytics, etc., are some of the functionality that are made with APIs. The more complex the app features, the more API integrations you need. So, while you prepare the overall cost, you need to include the estimated integration costs to know the whereabouts of the third party integrations.

#7 QA Testing

A QA analyst can do many types of QA testing in your app. It is very crucial to take systematic steps to ensure every minute functionality is well achieved. A QA development service is all about testing your UI/UX, platform compatibility, device functionality, etc., which an expert tests in a particular time frame. If you let the experts run tests, you will get great results for your project in real time. One can hire a dating app company to determine the estimated value of QA testers based on the time consumed and their firm’s location.

These are the basic factors that contribute to the final cost of a dating app. It highly depends on the development partner you choose. Now, let’s know how much cost the best dating apps had to put in to get their online ventures to impart a great user experience online.

What must be the cost that Tinder, Bumble, etc., have paid for their SDLCs? Let’s dive into it.

Leading Dating App Development Costs

#1 Tinder

Tinder has never made its cost to build an app public. But as per our experts it must have been between $40,000 to $1,00,000. The online dating platform did start its journey by an MVP model which had a basic swipe and match feature.

With the help of its lightweight tech stack it did manage to lower the costs in the initial stages.  But with time it did expand with features and functionalities. It was a matchmaker online for over 75 million active users at a time. 

It upgraded itself with robust infrastructure and complex algorithms. Thus, to keep their top spot in the dating app market, they did invest in servers, new features, user support, and marketing.

#2 Bumble

Bumble was a step ahead of Tinder. It allowed users to link their Instagram or Spotify accounts. And also had kept some ice breaker emoji reactions and questions which indeed helped the users on the platform talk to each other.

In other unique features, it also had a ‘women first’ message, which required complex algorithms. On behalf of these and other complex premium add ons, our experts estimated its cost between $50,000 to $1,30,000.

100 million active users are a lot to handle at once. But with its sane features, Bumble did had that capability.

Partner with WebMob Technologies for Your Dating App Idea!

To have an app idea is not enough, you need a great team to work along for you in real time. Being in the software development world for over a decade, we know exactly what it takes to build a successful app solution. 

Our team will assist you and integrate best tech stacks and features. Also, we did create a Tinder like app in the name of Hindeep. It is an intuitive dating app that is catered as per our client’s needs. 

Our goal is to provide a smooth experience by being aware of the subtleties of user engagement. When you work with us, you can be sure that your app will be profitable and will engage users. Let WebMob Tech assist you in deploying a popular dating app. Consult us for free and also get a free quote!