Most Americans now use fintech (90%) – did you know that? That means more people use fintech than social media (72% vs. 78%) or video streaming (78% vs. 72%). And finance apps are one area of fintech that is growing the fastest.
You should not be surprised by that number. For many people, managing their money is hard, so they use apps to do it for them. Any app that says it can help people with this problem is sure to be a hit.
Thus, if you want to know the about the steps to build a personal finance management app, you have come to the right place. Our blog explains the costs, steps, models of monetization, and features we believe every personal finance management app should have.
So, let’s begin!
What is the Personal Finance Management App?
A personal finance management app, which is also called a budget app, helps you keep track of your money. This kind of software is not the same as a banking app, which only works with cards and accounts from one bank.
On the other hand, a finance management app gives users a detailed look at how they can generally manage their money. Many apps are available to help you keep track of your personal finances. For example, Mint, YNAB, Goodbudget, EveryDollar, and Fi Money.
So, if you are too looking to build a personal finance management app, then you must first validate your app idea with a fintech app development company.
Future Predictions and Projections of Finance Industry
Source: Statista
- In the U.S. in the second quarter of 2024, about a third of Gen Z bank account holders said they were worried about their financial future.
- Capital One had the most popular personal finance app in the US, with 59.73 percent of consumers knowing about the brand.
- The segment Games is especially interesting because it is worth 249.9 billion U.S. dollars.
- The Personal Finance Apps Market was worth $101 billion in 2023 and is expected to be worth $450.8 billion by 2030, rising at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24% from 2024 to 2030.
How Does Personal Finance Management App Work?
If you are planning to build a finance management app, it is crucial to know about its working process. So, here is the step-by-step working mechanism explained by our iPhone app development experts.
1. Download and Set Up
First, users get the personal finance app from an app store. After installing, they make an account and give some basic information about themselves.
2. Link the Accounts
Users can connect their bank accounts, credit cards, and other financial accounts to the app so it is easier to keep track of their money. In this way, the app will be able to import their transactions automatically.
3. Track Your Income and Expenses
The transactions will be put into groups by the app, such as income, expenses, and savings. If needed, users can also add transactions by hand.
4. Set Goals and Budgets
Now, users set money goals with the app, like saving for a trip or a down payment on a house. To help them keep track of their spending, they can also make budgets for different types of costs.
5. Analyze the Finances
The app will show users the time they spend and how healthy their finances are. They can see where their money is going, find places where they can save, and see how close they are getting to their financial goals.
Types of Personal Finance Management Apps
Before you build a personal finance management app, you also need to know the two major types of budgeting apps in this category. So, let’s have a look at them:
1. Simple Finance App
This type of personal finance management app is very simple. It requires users to manually insert their financial information or data. On top of that, users should manually classify every purchase and income. Users can easily keep track of their spending, make a budget, and plan for future investments.
Merits:
- This type of simple finance app is risk-free. It does not ask users to link their bank account with the app.
- It is a cost-efficient app due to its simple mobile app development process and functionalities.
Demerits:
- The entire procedure is time-taking.
- The human error rate is very high due to manual data entry.
2. Complex Finance App
As the name suggests, this type of personal finance management app is very complex and advanced. It enables users to link their bank account and cards for automatic data synchronization. With advanced features, it fetches the users data from their account.
Merits:
- It is a very efficient app because it saves users time.
- It provides various functionalities to its users and enables them to perform different features instead of just a few basic ones.
Demerits:
- The cost to build a personal finance management app with advanced features requires a high cost.
Steps To Build a Personal Finance Management App
It is best not to follow the “go big or go home” mentality when putting out a new solution. The MVP app development method has worked well hundreds of times, so we strongly suggest that you stick with it. Without further ado, let’s find out the process to create a personal finance management app in just simple steps with the MVP approach.
1. Conduct in-depth Business Analysis
To build a personal finance management app that will help a business grow, you have to look at how it works. This is called business analysis. When you do a business analysis to create a personal finance management app, you get benefits like:
- Finding methods to make work go faster with the new product
- Set the project’s cost accurately.
- Finding ways to cut down on costs
- Shortening the time it takes to make a mobile app and speeding up the development process
When you do a thorough business analysis, you get a clear picture of what needs to be built, how it will be built, how much it will cost, and when it will be finished.
2. Make a List of Requirements To Develop An App
After you have done a business analysis, you need to make a list of what your future app will need. Also, you need to be very clear about how you want your personal finance app to look and work. Make a list of what you need in terms of design, size, number of features, functionality, and other things.
Giving your mobile banking app development company a detailed list of requirements will help them build a personal finance management app that is easier to understand and works better. This time, having clear requirements will also help you finish your project faster and better.
3. Hire a Personal Financial App Development Team
Now you should hire a mobile app development team with a lot of experience, a well-developed fintech app development process, and a group of dedicated people who will get all of your important tasks done on time.
We help our customers make their ideas come to life by giving them the best technologies, tools, and methods here at Dev Technosys.
We are here to help with everything from coming up with a unique value proposition to supporting development all the way through final deployment and support after the release. Once you have picked a dedicated development team, you can start making the user interface look good.
4. Design UI/UX
A UI/UX design can be started as soon as the idea is clear. At this stage, design teams make wireframes of the future user interface and decide on its style, which includes things like fonts, colors, images, and so on.
When it comes to user experience, it is important to plan out user journeys and flow charts. Make sure you do your best to build a personal finance management app. UX and user-friendliness are very important to the success of an MVP.
5. Develop Your App
At this point, the Android app development team working on the personal finance management app starts writing the codebase. A frontend developer and a backend developer are what you need to hire.
It takes the most time to make the server side of the app. First, the coding to build a personal finance management app should be done. Then, parts of the back end should be lined up with parts of the user interface.
After that, a set of APIs is made so that the app can work with other apps. Lastly, all of the modules are tested thoroughly to see how they work together.
6. Test and Final Launch
It is time for your QA team to test your personal finance app once the development is done and the first MVP is ready. Since the app deals with people’s money, not testing it could have bad results. To make sure that a personal finance app works as well as other apps, it needs to be tested more thoroughly. Your app can go live once everything has been fully tested and improved. Do not forget that launching is more than just putting the app in stores. Make sure you give the marketing plan the attention it needs because it is important to the launch’s success.
Key Features To Develop a Personal Finance Management App
To build a personal finance management app, you need to take a unique approach that includes doing a lot of research on business, users, and technology. But because there are so many apps out there, users have become used to getting great service. And obviously, they will not accept anything less! To not let them down, here are some features that we think your personal finance management app must have based on our own experience:
1. Integration with Payment Services
Individuals frequently keep a number of bank accounts and credit cards. So, it is hard to find what you need when you have a lot of stuff around. When they connect these accounts to a personal finance management app, they can manage all of their money in one place and get a full picture of their finances.
2. Strong Security
When you develop a money management app like Fi Money that can directly access all of the user’s bank accounts, you need to make sure that it has very strong security to keep private data safe. Additionally, to keep the app infrastructure safe from data breaches and bot attacks, you need to use modern technology. The cloud infrastructure should offer strong encryption for your personal finance app.
3. In-App Search
When you build a personal finance management app, you should integrate an in-app search feature. It is a must-have feature that helps users navigate the budgeting app without any hassle. They can easily find any needed information and reduce demand on the support team with the personal finance management app.
4. Data Visualization
For a budgeting app to work, the user interface needs to be clear and accurate. Users can better understand information and make smarter financial decisions with the help of beautiful data visualization. This can be done by giving users visually appealing charts, infographics, and dashboards to help them understand information and keep track of their money.
5. AI-Powered Financial Assistance
Make sure that your personal finance app has AI so that it can stand out from other tools for keeping track of time and money. So, using AI algorithms to help you build a personal finance management app can help you look at the data you collect and find insights that you can use. It helps users make sure that their spending is in line with their goals for savings.
6. Gamification
Personal finance management apps with game-like features keep users more interested and get them to use the app more often. You could add things like a point system, clear goals, prizes, and important dates. As a result, it keeps people interested and helps them save more.
7. Manage Your Bills
There are times when we all forget to pay a bill, since we all have different ones that need to be paid. An amazing benefit is a money app that alerts you to your due dates and bills so you do not forget them.
8. Push Notifications
When you build a money budgeting app like Mint, adding a notification feature helps the user keep track of their money. Users are also told about upcoming bills, deadlines, and important milestones. Anyone who could help them is also told about it.
9. User Login
If someone wants to use a personal finance app, they have to “sign up” for it and give it their information. Users can keep track of their spending and sync their accounts once they have signed up. To keep the user’s important information safe, it is important to use two-factor authentication or a system that generates unique codes during the registration process.
10. Synchronization
When people use a budgeting app, they will want to keep all of their money in one place so that they can easily see information and data about their finances. They will definitely want to be able to add new accounts and spend less time keeping track of their bills, income, and spending. That is why your app should sync all of the user’s accounts, including debit and credit cards, so that the right data is always available.
11. Budgeting and Expense Categorization
To give your users the best experience possible, you should give them a number of budgeting options. It can be done by putting the user’s transactions and spending into groups. People should be able to plan their spending for a week, a month, or more than one month.
12. Customer Support and Consultation
Making use of a money app can be tough at times. At some point, users may have problems. Giving your users help, advice, and good customer service 24 hours a day, seven days a week is a smart way to make sure they get the most out of your app.
13. Investment Tracking
Your users can keep track of their spending and choose where to put their money with this tool. Users may be able to stay on top of market trends and keep an eye on their asset allocation with the help of an investment tracker. Like bank accounts, real estate, mutual funds, IRA investments, and so on.
Best Personal Finance Management Apps
Below are the popular personal finance management apps that have distinct features but have one objective, which is to teach users to manage finances. So, before you build a personal finance management app, you must go through the below top money management apps.
Top Personal Finance Managed Apps | Available Platform | Downloads | Ratings |
Mint | Android | iOS | 1M+ | 4.9 |
EveryDollar | Android | iOS | 1M+ | 3.8 |
Fi Money | Android | iOS | 10M+ | 4.2 |
YNAB | Android | iOS | 1M+ | 3.7 |
Albert | Android | iOS | 5M+ | 4.4 |
Benefits of Personal Finance Management App Development
If you are still not sure about personal finance management app development solutions, these points should help you. So, let’s have a look at the benefits to develop a finance apps like ZOGO.
1. Opportunity for Revenue Generation
Personal finance apps can make money in a number of ways, like affiliate marketing, subscription fees, and in-app purchases. There is a big chance to make money in this space because people want personal finance apps more than ever.
2. Improved Customer Engagement
When you build a personal finance management app, it can help banks get customers more involved and keep them coming back. Banks can strengthen their relationships with customers and keep more of them by giving them an easy-to-use and personalized tool for managing their money.
3. Cross-Selling Opportunities
Financial institutions can make more money by cross-selling through personal finance apps. It suggests other financial products and services based on users’ financial information.
Cost To Build a Personal Finance Management App
When it comes to developing a mobile app, one question always comes into every entrepreneur’s mind. “What is the cost to build a personal finance management app?”. Well, it all depends on your project requirements, but we can provide a rough estimation.
The personal fiance management app development cost can range between $10000-$25000. If you go for a single platform, then the cost can be higher. So it is suggested to go for cross-platform app development. Let’s be more clear with the below mobile app development cost table:
App Complexity | Cost Estimation |
Simple Personal Finance Management App | $10000-$15000 |
Medium Personal Finance Management App | $15000-$20000 |
Complex Personal Finance Management App | $25000+ |
Besides, you can calculate the cost to develop a personal finance management app with the below formula:
Personal Finance Management App Development Cost = Developers Hourly Rate * Development Time
Thus, when you make a personal finance management app, the product cannot be simple because there are so many user roles, features, and ways to change a lot of data. So, it is best to consult with an expense management app development company about the actual cost to build a personal finance management app. All you need to do is share your project requirements and get a quotation on the cost.
Why Is It Important To Fix A Budget For Your Project?
Now that you know the personal finance management app development cost, it is vital to know the importance of fixing a budget. Setting a budget helps you plan a proper structure and get a super app developed. So, let’s have a look at the below factors that show the importance of fixing a budget.
1. Helps Identify the Actual Needs
The budget you set to create a personal finance management app helps you think about what the end users want, so you can give them what they need right now. This will make it easy for you to understand what features your app needs and help you make the right choices.
2. Aids in Market Research
As soon as you think about your budget, you have to go out and do a lot of research on the market to find out what the going rates are.
3. You Need the MVP
The minimum viable product is what will get you to the investor meetings. To figure out how much and how long an MVP will take, you need to have a budget.
4. Need to Save for Marketing
There is no way you can be sure that your work and expenses will end when the app is finished. The development process has a few steps left. The real challenge is getting the app out there, marketing it, and getting it to the right people. Even though you can figure out the cost to build a fintech app like EveryDollar or others, it is the costs that come up after the development is done that really affect app performance.
Let’s Create a Personal Finance Management App!
People want personal finance apps, and they should. They help people make smart budgets and offer a one-stop solution for managing money. Users get alerts and notifications about required payments and unplanned expenses thanks to the smart algorithms used in these apps.
So, if you are planning to build a personal finance management app, it is time to turn your idea into reality. All you need to do is hire dedicated developers from a reputable mobile app development company who can create a budgeting app. Dev Technosys can help you turn your dream app idea into reality.
Our dedicated developers are proficient in creating budgeting apps with the latest technology. So, what are you waiting for? Contact us right away for an amazing personal finance management app development solution.
FAQs
1. How Much Does It Cost To Build a Personal Finance Management App?
The cost to build a personal finance management app varies depending on the project requirements. It can cost you somewhere around $10000-$25000. So, it is best to consult with a mobile app development company about the actual finance management app development cost.
2. How Long Does It Take To Make a Personal Finance Management App?
The time to develop a personal finance management app may be between 2-7 months. However, there are many factors that play a significant role in affecting the time. So, it is best to consult with a personal finance management app development company about the exact time.
3. What Are the Benefits of Personal Finance Management App Development?
The benefits to develop a personal finance management app are mentioned below:
- Increased brand awareness
- Global customer reach
- Boost user engagement
- Cost-effective solution
4. How to Develop a Personal Finance Management App?
You can build a personal finance management app in the following steps:
- Do market research
- Know your competitor apps
- Create a feature list
- Create a UI/UX
- Develop the app’s backend
- Test your app
- Final launch
5. How To Monetize Your Personal Finance Management App?
You can make money from your personal finance management app in the following ways:
- In-app purchase
- In-app advertisement
- Subscription model
- Sponsorship model
6. How Much Does It Cost To Maintain A Personal Finance Management App?
The cost to maintain a personal finance management app will be around 15-20% of the total app development cost. Generally, it can be around $1000-$5000 annually. So, if you too want to update a personal finance management app with advanced features, then you should first determine the cost of maintenance.
7. What Are the Advanced Features To Add In A Budgeting App?
If you are looking to build a personal finance management app, you need to add the advanced features to make it stand out. Here are some of them you must checkout:
- Gamification
- AI and ML integration
- Investmnet Tracking
- Biometric Access
- AI Chatbots
- Loan Management
- Reward Programs