A simple comparison of today’s finance market with the historic one will delineate the significant changes brought forth by technological advancements. What’s more, these have streamlined the otherwise integrated and rigid business workflows, thereby culminating in enhanced efficiency and improved overall performance. Owing to the high demand for technology integration with conventional financial methodologies, the fintech market valuation is projected to reach a whopping value of $608.35 billion by 2029.
Given the numbers and the proven excellence of the industry, several organizations have started to invest in building a strong, reliable, and secured fintech application. Integrated with custom and OOTB features, these applications can streamline operations and enhance the user experience by several notches. However, the main hurdle comes in the form of accurate estimation of fintech app development cost. With innumerable factors influencing the numbers and a lack of prior knowledge and analytical views, fintech companies do struggle a lot with budgeting. Given this, we have compiled a detailed guide, illustrating the major determinants of app development costs for the fintech industry, types of fintech software applications, and other relevant facts.
Growing importance of fintech applications
Before learning about the cost estimation process of fintech applications, let’s have a brief look at their contributions to the financial market. By this, you will at least have clarification about the software’s importance for your organization and invest dedicatedly in building the application without any compromise in quality and performance.
1. Financial inclusions
Low-functioning and localized financial institutions, like rural banks, startup agencies, and others can invest in fintech apps to survive in this hypercompetitive market. It will foster the principle of diversity and inclusion by paving the road for all financial organizations to come together and adopt new technologies.
2. Data-backed decisions
Custom-developed fintech applications can be integrated with modern and advanced data analytical modules. These will help users to gain valuable insights into the finance market and make accurate decisions without fail.
3. Fosters innovation
Without a doubt, fintech applications will foster innovation in terms of technology adoption and streamlined operations. For instance, the digitalization of monetary transactions, storing records on the blockchain, and investing in virtual assets within the metaverse are a few examples of market innovations.
4. Cost reduction
With automated routines integrated into the fintech applications, financial organizations won’t have to depend on human resources too much. It will inadvertently help in reducing the overall operational expenses while enhancing process efficiency and business productivity.
5. Enhanced user experience
Businesses can leverage the fintech software to enhance end-user experience through streamlined and efficient workflows. The ease of making international payments from the comfort of a mobile or investing in virtual assets will attract more customers in no time.
Classifications of fintech applications and development costs
Since there are several types of fintech applications, the development costs aren’t the same for all. A finance company must understand the categorization and determine which application type to invest in based on the estimated development costs and functional approach.
Personal finance applications
One of the recent additions to the fintech industry is the personal finance application. It helps users manage their daily expenses, plan budgets accurately, and even monitor incomes perfectly. Since the features included in the personal finance applications are mostly OOTBs, the overall development cost can start with a minimal investment of $50,000. However, with custom features, advanced UI, and more technological integrations, the development costs can increase up to a whopping value of $300,000.
Banking applications
As the name implies, a banking application allows users to access numerous features for day-to-day operations involved with a conventional bank. For instance, customers can create accounts or transfer money from one account to another using a mobile or web application. Although the architectures remain the same for different software platforms, the inclusion of custom features and automated workflows results in a whopping development cost of $30,000 to $300,000.
Insurance apps
In recent times,more insurance companies have ventured onto the path of digital transformation and fintech applications have a huge role to play in the same. From accessing policy details to raising claim applications, and requesting any benefit alteration, users can perform other tasks without visiting the insurer in person. Besides, it helps customers to have in-depth knowledge about new offers from the insurer, policy changes, and other such details without fail. Since insurance apps will have varied features adhering to the company, the development cost can range between $45,000 to $500,000.
Investment applications
Another type of application you will often come across as a fintech software development company is investment software. As the name implies, it helps users to invest in different assets, including shares and stocks, metaverse assets, funds, and many more. Appropriate security measurements, authentication features, and real-time market integration are necessary for the application’s optimal performance. As a result of so much intricacies, the overall project expense for building and deploying an investment application is estimated to be within $60,000 and $300,000.
Lending software
Another major category of fintech application is the lending software. B2B businesses leverage it to allow customers to submit loan applications, withdraw money, deposit premiums, and perform relevant tasks. It helps businesses to extend prompt financial solutions to customers in no time while implementing enhanced security and protection. $50,000 and $150,000 is the estimated expense range for developing this fintech software.
Factors influencing the fintech app development costs
Before you even outsource the task to a third-party software development company, you must prepare an accurate cost estimation. To do so, understanding the influencing factors is crucial since they will help you decide the budget limit and acknowledge the price variations. In this below section, we have explained a couple of major determinants that play a crucial role in the pricing structure of fintech application development.
Specific product requirements
Firstly, the overall app development cost will depend on the specific requirements of the product as per the company policies. For instance, if you plan to integrate enhanced security features, like military-grade encryption and a dual-authentication layer, the cost will be higher than building an application with simple security features. Similarly, the budget will automatically skyrocket once the software plan includes custom features and integrated domain workflows.
Location of the development company
Based on the location of the fintech software development company, the overall project budget will vary a lot. An offshore company with the same geographical location will give you a much more affordable project quote estimate than an onsite organization. For example, when you hire a company from countries like India, the labor costs will be much cheaper than a company based in the UK or the US. So, be very specific about the company’s geographical location to accurately estimate the overall project budget.
UI/UX interactivity and responsiveness
Another factor that will influence the accuracy of your budget estimation is the interactivity level of the FinTech application’s UI. For instance, if you want to develop software with enhanced UI features like AI chatbots, on-the-go page loading, and so on, the overall costs will skyrocket. Besides, developing a highly responsive application that can perform uniformly across multiple devices and operating systems will also incur heavy costs on the budget estimation.
Time required for development
The overall time window for developing a fintech application won’t be the same for every project. The longer the duration, the higher will be the project costs and vice versa. However, when you need the application to be developed within a shorter time frame but has complex features, the project cost might increase due to the involvement of more hands on the deck.
Features to be included in the application
One of the major factors influencing the fintech app development cost is the list of features to be included and their complexities. For example, if you want to include AI chatbots for customer interaction or separate admin and user panels, the cost will increase due to their complexities. Based on the expected feature list, the app development company will provide you with a cost estimation. It might change based on any further modifications you propose for the features. Also, if you are planning to integrate custom features in the fintech application, the project budget will increase.
Proposed technology stack
Last but not least, the influencing factor for fintech app development cost is the technology stack to be used. For example, if you want to use blockchain for developing the transaction ledger or integrate a data analytical model within the software, the proposed project cost will be much higher.
Conclusion
In this article, we have discussed the major factors that influence the cost of developing a fintech app that has both custom and OOTB features. Once you are done with budget estimation, your responsibility will be to hire the best app development company having enough expertise in the fintech industry. Leverage reviews and testimonials to gain valuable insights about the company and make the call accurately.