The dating apps are immensely successful in the app market and their demand among consumers doesn’t seem to decline anytime soon as the crowd of people using dating apps is increasing with every passing day. It won’t be wrong to say that dating apps are more like social networks, as everyone around you seems to be using them and the figures are still continuously increasing.
However, despite the dating apps being there in abundance, still, people are looking for new and interactive dating solutions. Hence, entrepreneurs who are keen to develop a dating app can implement their idea on a market full of low-quality dating solutions that present an opportunity for them.
What are consumers’ expectations from dating apps?
As per research held by Applause, consumers’ top-most priority is security and privacy as it comes to a dating app. So, if you desire to create such an app, then you must intend to invest in some kind of security checks for people who register to your app. Thus, offering a safe user experience is certainly your app’s competitive advantage.
Next, the most desired feature in a dating mobile app is an intuitive user experience. Location-based dating apps like Tinder enjoy a huge craze among their users as they offer an effortless swipe technique with a sophisticated user interface.
So, now let’s discuss in detail how you can make a successful dating app like tinder app clone development and provide the desired experience to consumers. In this post, we discuss the app’s basic framework, advanced features, the development cost of a dating app, and the right kind of team required to create such an app:
Market & Growth Stats
Over 40M people are meeting with their interested partners to be happy to be a part of online relationships. As a huge demand for Online dating apps with more than 20M matches a day, these numbers are a welcome place for entrepreneurs and startups to wedge in this industry.
According to a “Research and Markets” report, the market of global dating apps with a CAGR of 6% is going to be forecast at $8.4B by 2024. Top players in the globe are OkCupid, Match Group Inc., Tinder, Badoo, PlentyOfFish, Bumble, and many more. According to business of apps, Tinder has a market share of 7.8M, next to it is Bumble with a shared user base of 5M. OkCupid with a 1.7M market of people is another great leader in this industry. According to the reports given by Statistics, over 52.4% are men using these dating apps. Overall youth proportion of 30% under the age of 18-29 years using these apps.
One of the major reasons people are adopting the concept of online dating apps is that they want to make themselves secure with the people they will possibly go to look out for relationships or continue their mere meetings. The top 3 things the app comprises, in a nutshell, are unique matches, privacy, and safety, convenience.
Types of Dating Apps
The market of dating apps is abundant and it’s a big challenge for newcomers to decide the perfect niche to give head-to-head competition to the competitors as well as deliver a sufficient market for the audience. According to the estimate, there is already 8k dating apps available.
Geographic Proximity Dating App:
These kinds of apps are based on location and navigation services. Users can find the eligible match from nearby places. If users have come interested, this platform helps them to filter specific suggestions for you only. Coffee Meets Bagel is one such platform-based app, gives power to women. Women have the credit to start the conversation and then men can continue on that. It’s a perfect example to promote meaningful relationships.
Niche Dating Mobile Apps:
These dating mobile apps are specific to the niche. In a specific niche, competition is comparably very less and there are more chances to generate a loyal user base. One such app is DateMyPet, which is not a dating app but if you are a pet lover this app is for you.
Matching Algorithm-Based Dating Apps:
These apps usually have large data residing inside the databases and suggest great matches while searching. It requires great intelligence for developing these kinds of apps. These apps consist of certain very important features. If your profile gets a higher number of likes then your profile visibility will increase and chances are it will match with the right partner.
So mainly these are the types of possible areas where you can analyze the market and invest accordingly.
Business Models
Businesses have to adopt a few of the monetization models, to generate revenue from a successful model.
Subscription: This type of model is fully paid, less with many advanced factors.
In-App Purchases: This model is best to generate profit. It is a freemium model where users can enjoy the services for free. While there are some additional features present inside the app covered by in-app purchases.
Advertising: Businesses relevant to the dating app development company run their advertisements on the app. There are third-party apps that want to market to a large audience. This model is the main source of income for apps like Tinder, Bumble Bizz, Super like Gold, etc.
App Monetization: This allows developers to choose any of the platforms from a list for various models. This allows them to pay a little charge. There are thousands of subscribers already present on the pages.
Market Leaders
There are various prominent leaders in the market of dating app development service apps. There is already huge demand in the market, alarming the eyes of many new owners and stakeholders to trigger into the market. Yet to match the customers’ needs your app would be composed of many exceptional features including revenues, platform ratings, customer service feedback, privacy and security, other rating terms, and business needs of users.
Now let’s see some of the best online dating apps of 2021, which have uncovered many trustworthy partners for dating.
Tinder:
Tinder is the major platform amongst youth to search for their partners without any fear. Its easy swipe feature is one of the best features to select the choice of the person. It was founded in the year 2012, now reaching 6.6M subscribers across the globe. It offers both free and premium features to the users. Some of the advanced features it comprises are location-based search, interactive UX, profile boost options and push notifications.
OkCupid:
OkCupid app with a 23.4% increase reached a user base of 1.7M in the year 2020. Times Group has listed it as a top 10 dating app, organized by Match Group. OkCupid comes with a pair of other important features like a dashboard where you can see a list of match percentages, versatile gender options, filter the profiles as per your choice from global to local profiles, etc.
Bumble:
Bumble is one of its kinds of apps considering the choices of female users and allowing them first to make their move. Bumble has a great command in the market of around 42M active users. It supports music integration of Spotify, to experience the best music under the platform. Some of its features are SuperSwipe, Verified Profiles only, etc.
Badoo:
Badoo is a big platform to connect with nearby people. With a user base of 500M across 197 countries, Badoo is no doubt known as the biggest fish in the pool of online dating apps. Features like video calling, swipe in and out are vastly used by people.
Coffee Meets Bagel:
In 2012, Coffee Meets Bagel was founded in the beautiful city of New York. Within a few years, it has effectively had a positive impact among users with establishing advanced services, it has crossed 10M users. Some of the features are video dating, match search, and a heart button on user profiles to show interest. Commenting on the profiles can increase the percentage of responses.
You are planning to develop your dating app, then analyze the results and success of already aligned companies who have made their presence in this industry for a long time. Analyze the market, scope, features and popularity, basic structure, recent trends, other important factors, and make a rough sketch of your application.
Benefits of Developing an Online Dating App
When comparing dating mobile apps with offline people, there are many benefits of developing an app with a strong desire.
Connectivity: People are more satisfied with their relationships. Women feel more secure and ready to get married and have a family. People of different backgrounds and geographically are getting connected.
Wide-Scale Demand: Such apps are hugely in demand compared to previous times.
Versatile Audience: All kinds of generations are connected over the platform. Not rely on geographic locations.
Multiway Earnings: These applications sustain a Multi-way mode of earnings.
Basic Framework of Dating Mobile App
User Panel:
Sign-up/Log-in: This is the section where the user first lands on. Users can simply register to the app by signing in using their email ID or social networking credentials.
Send Real-Time Notification: In case a person meets the desired criteria of the user nearby, then the user receives a notification on a real-time basis.
Tracking & Navigation: Users can easily find persons who meet their preferences and can begin a conversation with them in an easy & simplified manner.
Send Requests: Users can instantly send requests for communication as per their interest and they can also send a request to people to meet in person.
Profile Builder: It is a smooth ride for the app users to create & manage their dating profiles by simply uploading pictures, quotes, or writing something which describes their personality.
Check Profile Views: App users get to know who has seen their profiles. Thus, they get to analyze interested people and can initiate conversation, if desired.
Private Album: Users can also create private albums while being on a chat. For maintaining the security & privacy of users, the albums are encrypted; hence they can’t be accessed by any third party.
Winks & Emoticons: This feature makes the conversation among users all the more enticing. They can send greetings, emoticons to convey their feelings easily.
Accept/Reject Requests: As per their likings and interests, users are free to accept/ decline requests sent by other users.
Admin Panel:
Membership level management: From this section, the admin manages all the app users. S/he also analyses security-related issues thus keeping spam at bay.
Track Revenue: On a weekly/monthly basis, Admin can conveniently check the revenue generated via in-app purchases/subscription packages.
Multi-language Support: This section enables Admin to check all languages which dating apps support. As per users’ physical location, Admin may delete/add languages.
Feature management: Admin manages and monitors the features related to dating apps, like usability graphs, loading time, and other significant details.
Screen Management: From this section, the admin monitors all app screens. Can manage the screen, displays features embedded and also manages all provisions to improvise the screen.
CMS: Under this section, Admin looks after all the techniques to be implemented for improvising the static content pages like About Us, App Privacy, Contact Us, FAQs, and a lot more.
Advanced Features
In-app purchases
In-app purchases play a crucial role in determining the success of dating apps. It enables users to get more features by paying a little more. Thus, the users won’t have to look for various options to remove ads or to get something more useful. After all, everything is present in the app itself, and this way they won’t have to look elsewhere for finding exciting and trending features.
Matching Algorithms
App reliability depends on showing the most desired matches to the users. The App offers the most suitable matches for the user based on his/her location, preferences, likings, and other profile information. This concept is much-loved by users as they don’t need to invest a lot of time to search for the desired match.
Virtual Gifts
This feature enables users to send virtual gifts to their partners. Users get to send gifts and other things liked by their special ones. Using this inbuilt feature, users can create virtual images of such items. This certainly adds to make the conversation all the more smooth & effective.
Gamification
It is useful for the functional criteria of a dating app. It is easy to attract users using interactive & appealing images, statistics, graphical elements, etc. Hence, gamification enables the users to complete their goals and allows them to find their desired partner at convenience.
User Anonymity
This feature is countable when you are planning to develop a dating mobile app such as Tinder. It permits the user to select the information that is to be shared. Meanwhile, all other basic data stays safe & hidden. Users can even choose to hide their identity and can accordingly change settings to not allow the general public to view their profile.
Customize Templates
Through template customization, users can turn their profiles all the more appealing. Template design & interactive themes are added to make the entire profile layout more attractive. In this manner, there are a myriad of templates offered, which helps in making the conversation among the users more intuitive.
Promotions/Advertisements
It is possible to generate huge revenues via your app by showing useful advertisements. Ads related to the mobile app concept are displayed to keep users aware of your app.
Few other features/technologies that can be embedded in order to make the app stand out in the competition:
Cloud-flare integration: To enhance app performance, speed & security.
Discovery Settings: Enable app users to discover matches as per their interests & likings.
Push Notifications: Notifies people about nearby app users, sends alerts regarding new requests, new offers, subscription packages, and a lot more, hence increasing user engagement.
Facebook/Instagram: Fetches user data that is uploaded on social networking profiles and thus, the app accordingly provides suitable matches and notifies users about the appropriate nearby person.
Match-making: Users can identify reliable users, meeting their preferences & specifications.
User-search (with Proximity): Allow users to identify the other user’s location in real-time, hence help them conveniently discover people.
Rewind Button: Enabling users to change location, track the likes, etc. are a few of the features that make the dating app all the more attractive and intuitive.
Search and Match Algorithms: Location-Oriented Algorithm: Based on a list of locations, made easy filtration for searching suitable partners.
Behavioral Algorithm: With different analytical tools, it is useful to predict the behavior of users and retain more proximate results.
Mathematical Algorithm: If your profile has a higher reach, then you will get more relevant results.
Artificial Intelligence: It is one of the modern advanced tools to get the right result for your choice.
Steps to Build Dating Application
Planning: Prepare a dynamic plan to develop a dating app online with a pile of advanced features.
Market Research: To get the approximate research about any gap or downfalls, you must have to analyze your market before beginning.
Know Your Audience: Identify your real audience, and give them more personalized features and results.
Create a USP: To beat the competition, plan your app with unique features which are of specific niches. Like feminism, gender-based, or others. This different community of people would love your app.
Design Your App: Plan a beautiful design inside your UI to fulfill users’ expectations.
Develop App Architecture: Development is a very crucial part, of all other aspects like integrating databases, and other functionalities.
Integrate APIs: For smooth delivery of all features, add unique APIs either free or premium.
Testing: The whole testing is essential to figure out any bug inside the app.
Launch & Distribute: To market a large number of people, distribute it to various stakeholders.
Tech Stack
Geolocation: Google Maps, Apple Maps
Data Storage: Amazon Data servers, Google Cloud Storage
SMS, Voice & Phone Verification: Facebook SDK, Google sign-in, Twilio
Database: MySQL, Postgres, MongoDB, HBase, Cassandra, etc.
Required Team Structure
Project Manager: Well-equipped with managerial skills & must be astute enough to recognize the best in the mobile app arena.
Developers: iOS Developers, Android Developers, Back-end Developers for dating app developers.
Designers: Skilled & Expert UX/UI designers, Graphic Designer
Testers: Proficient & experienced QA experts to deliver a rich & smooth experience to users
Cost of Development
Well, the price to develop a dating app depends on several factors; however, one thing is for sure that it is an expensive affair. You need to consider a lot of things to determine the cost estimate, such as the number of platforms on which you want to build your dating app. iOS or Android, or maybe both. Integral parts of software development, like the design, prototypes, backend specifications, and testing cannot be skipped. Then comes the kind of features you want for your app, and these may vary based on the budget and time you have on hand.
Meanwhile, creating a basic app is also certain to consume around 1200 hours.
App Development (Single Platform):
For iOS:
- Time Consumed: 1200 hours
- The cost incurred: $40,000
For Android:
- Time Consumed: 1200 hours
- Cost Incurred: $45,000
App designing:
- Time Consumed: Near 100 hours
- Cost Incurred: $ 6,000 and $8,000 for iOS and Android respectively
Back-end Development:
- Time Consumed: Above 250 hours
- The cost incurred: $8,000
App Testing:
- Time Consumed: Around 150 hours
- Hence, the cost incurred is $4,000 and $ 5,000 for iOS and Android respectively.
So, upon calculating the entire charges to develop a native app, it is going to cost somewhere around $68,000 (for iOS) & $70,000 (for Android). Further,
Wrapping the overall cost:
- A basic dating app with simple features is going to cost around $45,000
- A tinder-based-app (for the single platform) is going to cost around $60,000
- An app for both iOS and Android platforms with rich features is going to cost around $125,000.
Conclusion:
With the advancement and reliability of technology, people are making decisions based on apps. The above statistics have mentioned that the presence of these online dating apps is trending this time more than ever.
People want to feel more confident and comfortable with strangers over their phones, share their communication and experience their suitability with them. However, if you are the one who is planning to establish their ground on such apps then we recommend you to hire a professional firm suitable to mandate your goals. Octal Info Solution with their years of experience inside building such apps is aesthetic to engage large people.
Some of our recent online dating apps are ReneHarley, spotted with the Instagram and Spotify integration, available for multiple platforms like Android and iOS. It’s a super easy swipe technique that connects you only with the perfect partner. UnionDating app developed for connecting black singles in the USA. Another one is Socialdv8, created for the same community of people. It’s less with many additional features like video chat and group messaging.
Our past experiences in building online dating apps are enough to revamp your exciting journey. So, don’t hesitate, connect with us to discuss your app idea.
