How to Create a Fitness App

Fitness mobile apps aim to promote and encourage physical activity. These tools can be downloaded onto mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, for training and achieving fitness goals.

With COVID-19, fitness apps have surged in popularity. This increase is partly due to the global lockdown, which prompted people to seek ways to exercise, engage in sports, and train when gyms were closed. Additionally, individuals have become more focused on their health, lifestyle, nutrition, and diet.

As a healthcare solution, fitness apps help monitor various health parameters, including heart rate, saturation, and blood pressure. They also assist with exercise and other forms of physical training and track nutrition, including calorie intake and macronutrient consumption.

Digital transformation has impacted fitness applications, enabling them to help users achieve their wellness goals, such as losing weight, building muscle, or increasing flexibility. These apps also support a more active lifestyle by tracking distance traveled, steps taken, and calories burned.

Digitalization has transformed fitness apps into tools for progress tracking, motivational reminders, and assistants that engage users on their fitness journey. By combining expert guidance, tracking tools, motivation, and community support, these apps help individuals establish healthy habits, stay accountable, and work towards their fitness goals.

Why develop a fitness app? The answer lies in a brief overview of the fitness solutions market.

Fitness Apps Market Overview

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly boosted the fitness app industry since the onset of the digital transformation era. In 2023, there were over 858 million fitness app downloads, with more than 368 million users. Although these figures show a slight decrease compared to 2022, the global fitness apps market is projected to reach a market volume of US $10.04 billion by 2028. This forecasted growth represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.99%. By following best practices in fitness app development and incorporating the latest trends and innovations, you can expect up to a 28% conversion rate and over a 50% retention rate.

But before answering how to create a fitness app, let's deal with the current trends in this sphere.

What are the biggest trends in fitness apps?

The rapidly evolving industry necessitates staying current, making it essential to follow the latest trends. The current trends in fitness mobile app development are:

Integration with wearables

The increased adoption and popularity of wearables have boosted the demand for compatible solutions. These devices track heart rate, physical activity, and even stress levels. As a result, apps that seamlessly integrate with various wearables are growing in popularity. They track user data and provide real-time feedback on users' conditions.

Social engagement and gamification

Modern fitness application developers extensively integrate social media features and gamification elements into their solutions. This approach adds fun and encourages user engagement. Fostering a sense of community is crucial, especially when users work towards similar goals, such as training, nutrition, or other fitness objectives.

Personalization

Everyone wants to feel special, so AI and ML technologies are widely integrated into fitness apps. These technologies analyze user preferences and goals to provide personalized nutrition advice, training plans, and progress tracking, allowing users to experience the benefits of having a personal trainer in their pocket.

Virtual fitness training

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the popularity of virtual workouts and fitness classes. During the global lockdown, many gyms, coaches, and fitness studios offered online training to their clients, a trend that remains strong today.

The market for fitness apps will continue its upward trajectory. Growing health consciousness, increasing popularity of wearables, and technological advancements favor this process. So, could you consider the trends, the target audience, and the type of solution you want to introduce to the market?

KPI criteria for fitness apps?

Once you have answered the questions above, could you consider how your application will address fitness KPIs? This will guide you in building the most effective fitness app.

By following the best practices in design and development, you should aim for and expect the following results:

• DAU (daily active users) around 9%-10%,

• Up to 30 % conversion rate. This is how many customers install your app upon discovering it,

• Getting into the top 100 fitness apps with a 5-star rating,

• A 7% retention rate after the 1st month and strain after an even greater result than that,

• Gaining at least US $2 million monthly as the top-grossing fitness apps worldwide do.

Let's examine the types of fitness apps to gain a better perspective on the opportunities in this field.

Types of Fitness Apps

Activity tracking apps

These applications help users track and analyze their physical activity and monitor health parameters throughout the day. They leverage data collected through sensors in smartphones or wearables, such as steps, distance, calories burned, and sleep quality. Often integrated with other fitness software or devices, these activity-tracking solutions provide real-time insights into daily activity and movement habits, encouraging healthier choices. Users can set personalized goals and track progress over time, with gamification features like challenges and rewards to keep them motivated and active.

Workout apps

These digital solutions offer various exercises, workout activities, and training programs in multiple formats, including instructions, guided videos, and exercise demonstrations.

Users can find options that suit their preferences and help achieve their fitness objectives. These apps typically offer progress tracking, training schedules, rest timers, social features, and virtual coaching, allowing users to reach their goals more effectively.

Diet and nutrition apps

These digital tools help users manage daily dietary intake, maintain a healthy and balanced diet, and make informed food choices. Diet and nutrition apps offer food logging, meal planning, and hydration tracking features. They also support calorie, macronutrient, and micronutrient monitoring and nutritional analysis.

These solutions offer valuable insights into individuals' nutrient intake, calorie balance, and eating habits, encouraging healthier choices. Let's move on to the key features of fitness apps to ensure you are well-equipped to navigate the intricacies of software development and build your fitness app.

Fitness Application Features

Workouts

People install fitness apps to get in shape and often to lose weight, making a workout planner a core feature of many fitness solutions. This functionality can be implemented in various ways, such as image-based instructions with voice prompts, videos, or live video streams.

It's crucial to differentiate workouts by difficulty level and provide a workout schedule or calendar. This approach helps users create a personalized yet structured workout plan.

Maps and routes

Outdoor activities like walking, running, and cycling become more convenient to plan, track, and review with a routing overlay map. Therefore, many fitness apps include GPS tracking functionality.

Consider the integration of the following features to gain a loyal audience:

• key stats' integration, like speed and pace at a glance,

• automatic map markers set up for training achievements,

• highlighting the areas of the track where the individual can do better.

To stay competitive in the modern market, consider adding unique overlays to the map, such as weather forecasts or air quality information, which is especially important for those sensitive to environmental conditions.

Meal plans and calorie counting

Calorie counting and meal planning are essential to developing a fitness or workout app. The most advanced solutions provide information about ingredients and suggest dishes and recipes tailored to the user's eating habits, body type, and goals.

To develop a fitness app of your own and make it stand out, consider the following:

• Adding barcode scanning and getting nutrition data from external sources,

• Tracking water intake,

• Dynamic adjustment of the recommended meals based on the calories consumed and spent.

Integration with other services and devices

Integrating with other services and applications provides a more comprehensive view of user training statistics and progress. Data should be pulled from various trackers, such as Fitbit, Apple Watch, and Google Fit.

A good idea is to allow users to train with their favorite music without switching to another app or player. To achieve this, integrate your app with Apple Music, Spotify, or other streaming services.

You can also go ahead and offer your customer a ready playlist, choosing the tempo that matches heart rate or pace. Let’s finally proceed to the main questions about creating a fitness app and look at the clear steps.

6 Steps to Create a Fitness App

A great idea is enabling users to train with their favorite music without switching to another app or player. To accomplish this, integrate your app with music streaming services like Apple Music, Spotify, etc.

Research the market

Your primary goal is to understand your target audience and determine what product you want to build. During your research, you might discover that users switch between a tablet, a TV, and a wearable device throughout the day for various purposes, such as logging calories, working out, and checking stats on their wrists.

Therefore, all these device types should be considered during fitness app development. Additionally, the user experience for home workouts should be significantly different from training in the gym.

At this stage, it's very important to look over your competitors, identify their strengths and weaknesses, and understand how they address their audience and user concerns. This will help you develop your unique selling proposition and envision your potential audience.

Plan the app's features

The initial research will help you determine the essential features to include in your app. Must-haves include user profiles, personalized workout plans, training libraries, and activity and nutrition tracking. Also, could you consider incorporating progress analytics, gamification, and social features to make your fitness app more competitive and engaging?

Choose the tech stack

Knowing your target audience and their preferred devices will help you choose the tech stack. Choose the appropriate technologies, tools, and frameworks to create a custom product that meets your audience's needs. Whether you opt for native development or cross-platform solutions, consider scalability, compatibility, and maintainability.

Please review the necessary integrations and payment systems to accommodate various needs, such as accepting user payments, paying fitness instructors, and receiving payments for sponsored apps.

The tech stack is crucial as it defines the capabilities of the app. However, it can also impose limitations and significantly impact the budget. Conversely, your budget may dictate the choice of the tech stack.

Create UI/UX design

The fitness app should be functional, with a design that is appealing, clear, and intuitive, without unnecessary elements. Ensure it is easy to navigate and enhances the user experience, making it simple and convenient for users of all fitness levels.

Develop an app

An MVP is a great way to test your fitness app concept and gather user feedback. We recommend developing this simplified version of your product first to validate its potential.

Once you receive positive feedback and identify areas for improvement, you can develop a more complex solution that includes all the initially planned features and incorporates user feedback.

Launch, market, and promote the app

Launch your app on popular platforms such as Google Play and the App Store, ensuring you follow all the guidelines. We assist Stfalcon clients with this process, making it hassle-free since we know all the nuances.

But it’s not yet time to relax. To ensure your product grows, you need to market it effectively. Optimize the app store listing with compelling descriptions, attractive visuals, and relevant keywords. Develop a marketing strategy to reach and engage your target audience. Utilize social media, influencers, and content marketing to expand your user base. Simultaneously, keep the app up-to-date by adjusting its functionality and adding new features to stay current with trends.

How Much Does It Cost to Build a Fitness App?

This question can only be answered once you clearly understand what type of app, target audience, devices, and features to implement. After that, you can discuss the budget with the development team. They can estimate how much it will cost to create a fitness app according to your specifications.

The best approach is to hire a dedicated development team to carry the project from scratch. Experienced developers from Eastern Europe, particularly Ukraine, offer the best cost-quality ratio.

Regarding rough estimations, you'll need approximately 80 hours for research, 160 hours for design, over 800 hours for development, 280+ hours for quality assurance, and around 250 hours for project management. Therefore, you should expect to start with around $80,000. However, remember that the number of hours and the level of developers may vary.

An accurate budget estimation requires precise data about your project and input from the vendor company you choose. If you'd like to know the cost of creating a fitness app with Stfalcon, you can contact us for a detailed project estimation.

Monetization Strategies

Nobody builds a fitness app for fun; profit is the driving force behind any idea. Therefore, it's crucial to understand the potential revenue-generating strategies and long-term benefits. This section is dedicated to the most popular monetization strategies. You may choose one or several for your fitness app. These strategies are similar to those used for other mobile solutions but tailored to the fitness theme.

First, you can provide a free version of your app with basic features. Then, offer a paid version or a subscription model with different levels. You can charge users a one-time fee or offer in-app purchases for premium content, services, or virtual goods.

Also, could you consider incorporating an e-commerce platform to sell sports equipment, clothing, and nutrition products?

Another aspect of the e-commerce store is partnerships with fitness brands, equipment manufacturers, or health companies. You can sell their products and earn commissions or promote them through in-app ads. However, be cautious with advertising to avoid spoiling the user experience. Ensure the UX remains consistent, as your primary focus is helping users stay fit, isn’t it?

Create a Fitness App with Stfalcon

You are lucky to have come across this article and Stfalcon as a fitness app vendor. Having extensive expertise in healthcare app development, we also carried out the STRONGMom project.

A client approached us with a completed fitness app designed for use before, during, and after pregnancy. Users reported confusing logic and platform malfunctions, and the owner was unhappy with the admin panel. Stfalcon conducted a comprehensive project audit and cost assessment. As a result, it was decided to redevelop the project from scratch.

The app's primary goal is to provide women with the tools to maintain health and good physical condition before, during, and after pregnancy. This is achieved through video lessons from professional trainers, medical professionals, and other specialists. Our team delivered an optimized app with a fresh design, much to the client's satisfaction.

Conclusion

Following ISO 9001:2015 requirements, Stfalcon has demonstrated its commitment to meeting international standards and legal regulations. Our company is renowned for its extensive expertise, professional experience, customer-centric approach, and ability to create custom software solutions that surpass client expectations. This was exemplified in the STRONGMom project, showcasing our proven expertise as a fitness app vendor. We can give you the best technical solution for your idea. Please contact us now to discuss how we can help make more people strong, fit, and healthy together.

Below are the answers to the most popular questions. Please let us know if you still have any.

FAQs about Creating a Fitness App

What is a fitness app?

Fitness mobile apps are tools that can be downloaded onto mobile devices for training and getting fit. These apps are often used for working out at the gym or home, helping users track nutrition (calorie intake and macronutrient consumption), and monitoring health parameters.

What are the key features of a fitness app?

Key features of a mobile fitness solution should include registration and user profiles, which contain personal parameters and preferences for workouts and nutrition. Live streaming and video instructions can also be incorporated. Essential elements include a dashboard, goal setting, progress tracking and analytics, reminders, and notifications. Your app should support multiple integrations with third-party apps and wearables.

Additionally, it incorporates gamification and social features for sharing achievements and added motivation. Fitness challenge apps should include leaderboards, rewards, and badges to make the fitness journey more enjoyable and engaging.

How long does it take to build a fitness application?

You should expect 3-6 months to develop a custom fitness application of medium complexity.

How much does it cost to build a fitness app?

If you start with an MVP, expect to spend around $25,000 to $30,000. A full-featured application may cost between $80,000 and $170,000 or more, depending on the complexity and technologies you wish to implement, such as AI, ML, voice integration, and video streaming.

Originally published at Stfalcon.com.

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