Customers look at the deals that different sellers and suppliers are offering before choosing a product or service. This helps them find the best deal. Price comparison apps, that have a lot of different apps in one place, are the best way to do this. Many entrepreneurs are looking to build a price comparison app due to its huge popularity.
Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.” – Warren Buffett.
Statista says that 8 out of 10 people who shop online use price trackers. Such projects are simple to make and run, make a lot of money, and don’t need a lot of money to grow or make material. So, if you build a price comparison app it is always possible if you look outside of the main trends and find a good area.
This blog will discuss the list of the best price comparison apps, steps on how to make one, an explanation of how they work, and advantages for you as an online store owner.
So, let’s begin!
Quick Summary: This blog will tell you everything you need to know to build a price comparison app, such as its benefits, features, competitors, how it works, how much it costs, and how it works. So, let’s get started.
What is a Price Comparison App?
The goal of price comparison apps is to help people choose where to buy things by showing them the prices of those goods on different platforms. There are, of course, a lot of other technologies and features, so it’s not easy to make this kind of game.
That’s the point, though: you help people find the best deals on things. When you own an online site for comparing prices, it’s like hitting gold. So, if you are planning to build a price comparison app, you must validate your idea with an IT consulting firm.
Price Comparison App Market Overview
- A name awareness of 59% makes Google Shopping the most well-known price comparison website in the U.S.
- When asked if they often compared prices before buying something online in an August 2022 study, 82% of those who answered said yes.
- In 2023, almost 47% of Italians who shopped online said they had used comparison apps to learn about shipping and delivery costs.
- Over a quarter of people in the UK, no matter what age, use tools to compare prices at least once a week.
- Before they buy something, 90% of people who buy gadgets look online for the best price.
- A study found that 78% of people would rather buy something from a different online store for less money.
How Does A Price Comparison App Work?
Usually, an app that compares prices gets information about products from a number of different stores or sellers. It also shows things in a way that lets users compare them and make smart buying choices. Let’s look at some simple steps that show how a price comparison app works explained by an offshore mobile app development company.
1. Search for Products: If you know the name of the item or can scan the barcode with your phone’s camera, you can find it.
2. See Prices Across Stores: The app gets data from many online stores and shows you a list of stores that sell the same or related items.
3. Compare Prices and Details: You can easily see how different items are priced next to each other and compare things like shipping costs, features, and seller reviews.
4. Find the Best Deal: With all of this data at your hands, it’s easy to find the store that gives you the most for your money.
5. Navigate to Retailer: You can make a purchase on the store’s website straight from some apps.
“We collaborated with Dev Technosys to create a price comparison app. Their team was nothing short of excellent. Our expectations were surpassed by a sleek, easy-to-use app that they made thanks to their expertise in mobile app development and user experience design. Our app’s user engagement has surged, and it is quickly becoming the preferred medium for our community. We highly suggest Dev Technosys for development project.”– Alen (United States)
Steps To Build A Price Comparison App
So, you’ve thought of a fantastic way to compare prices. But it’s important to make sure your idea is solid and that it really fills a need in the market before you start a price comparison app development solution. If you want to build a price comparison app that stands out, here are the steps given by a price comparison app development company that you need to take:
1. Validate Your App Idea
Do not be hesitant to get your hands filthy. So,to build a price comparison app, do in-depth study on the market to learn about the current price comparison apps. For example, you want a price comparison app for coupon app development solutions. So, it is vital to validate it with experts.
More importantly, find an area that isn’t being met well enough. Your app might be all about eco-friendly goods or things that people in a certain area want. Users can be friends, family, or even people you don’t know at the mall. Ask them how they compare prices and what bothers them. Their comments will be very helpful in making your app work better.
2. Set a Clear Goal
Once you have a confirmed niche, you can outline the basics and aim to create a price comparison app. What issue do you address for users? Do you think it helps them find the best deals on electronics? Or maybe making it easier to compare grocery store prices in your area?
Having a clear goal to build a price comparison app helps you stay on track to create a price comparison app and makes sure that every feature adds to a smooth user experience.
3. Choose the Platform Type
Will your price comparison app for online shopping take over the world of mobile devices or make its way online? Think about who you want to reach and what they like to do. Build a price comparison app. When you develop a price comparison mobile app, it is the best way to reach deal-savvy millennials who are always on the go.
A web-based app, on the other hand, could reach more people who are happy using desktops or laptops to compare prices. If you build a price comparison app for both platforms, it can help you reach more people, but keep in mind that it costs more to make.
4. Craft a User-Friendly Design
Visualize your app as a virtual helper that helps you shop. Make a user interface (UI) that is simple and easy to use to build a price comparison app. Users should be able to look for goods by name, barcode scan, or even picture. It’s important to have clear product information, like titles, specs, and high-quality pictures.
Similarly, the user experience (UX) needs to be taken into account for mvp app development. Speed up and improve the search process. It should be easy to filter choices by price, brand, or store. If there is a checkout method, it should be streamlined and safe.
5. Develop a Backend Structure
This is the stage where you should start to build a price comparison app. As long as you follow the terms of service, it saves the list of goods, gets price data from different stores using APIs or web scraping, and then compares prices. It is essential to keep the dataset secure, so use robust safety precautions to protect user data and data accuracy.
6. Test and Launch
It’s important to do thorough tests. Look for bugs that could make things hard for users and fix them. A small group of people can test your app and give you comments on how to make it better. Once your app is finished and ready to go, it’s time to use it! But don’t forget that the trip isn’t over yet.
Regularly add new features to your app and listen to what your users have to say. To stay ahead of the curve, make sure your price information is correct and full.
Guided Features Of A Price Comparison App
Admin Panel
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Manage Product Database
Database management is an important task especially in the e-commerce and retail market. Different products are managed through multiple inbuilt tools to maintain transparency level.
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Price Listing
Listing of market price is another feature that an admin can perform. The product value must be updated regularly to give users a fair market listed value.
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Search Functionality
Searching features enable users to find multiple product categories. Keywords restriction is also very important to limit the searches over a wide range of products that are prohibited.
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Display Support
Images supportability help businesses to increase user engagement on the price comparison mobile application. Images are the best source to attract customers and ensure correct product matching.
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Update Notifications
Real time updated notifications help business experts to keep their users busy on the mobile app. Price and product related updates is the core of this price comparison feature.
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Dashboard Management
Multiple users create their profile on these applications. It is the responsibility of the admin to manage the dashboards consisting, cart listing, coupon allotments, and wishlists of the users.
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Regularize Pricing
Fluctuation in market value of different products is updated regularly according to the priority of the categories. Representation of the right price for a product helps to channelize the business growth.
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Provide Discounted Offers
Product discounts are offered by altering the app settings from the admin’s side. These discounts are dependent upon the algorithms which track the sale of a particular product to predict offers.
User Panel
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Build Profile
Users can build their profile and manage their product listing. There are a lot of features available on the dashboard portal to help users easily compare prices.
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Product Scanning
These apps provide barcode and QR scanning options for different products to the users. It also registers multiple product identification numbers to differentiate between multiple product items.
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Payment Options
Price comparison apps also provide multiple payment options to the customers so that they can easily rationalize between price tags.
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Price Tracker
Users can keep track of the real time prices to match their budget needs. Price tracker features allow users to share prices with the vendors and discuss on the portal.
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Filtering Options
Filter options allow users to refine products among the list of multiple items. They can bifurcate products in two different price categories which are high-priced and low-priced.
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Feedback Portal
Providing reviews and ratings to different products help vendors and users to keep control over market price. App algorithms read these reviews to list products with low price at the top.
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Compare Prices
This feature is the primary motive of price comparison apps. Users can include multiple products in the chart and compare their market values simultaneously.
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Buy Coupons
These apps allow users to avail different coupons for comparing the right price and also buying products within the expected price rate. Users can redeem these coupons through code verification.
Advanced Features To Build A Price Comparison App
Let’s look at additional features that were thought of when you build a price comparison app now that you know about the basic ones.
1. Price History
When you develop an app for price comparison, add a price history feature. The app keeps track of past prices, lets users see how prices have changed over time. It lets them compare prices within the mobile application.
2. Scanning a QR Code and Barcode
Some price comparison apps let you use your phone’s camera to scan QR codes or barcodes to get information about the products and quickly compare prices.
3. A Reward Program
There are some price comparison apps that offer rewards for users who buy things through the app and use certain features. Users can earn points, savings, and other rewards with store price comparison apps.
4. Integrate Payment Gateway
The payment gateway integration makes it possible for users to buy things directly from the price comparison app, which speeds up the buying process.
5. Managing and Customizing the Profile
When you build a price comparison app, it allows users to change their preferences, control their profiles, and make the app work the way they want it to.
Top 5 Price Comparison Apps in the Market
Top Price Comparison Apps | Available Platform | Downloads | Ratings |
Price History |
Android | iOS |
1M+ |
4.2 |
Idealo |
Android | iOS |
10M+ |
3.9 |
Smartprix |
Android | iOS |
1M+ |
4.0 |
MySmartPrice |
Android | iOS |
1M+ |
4.2 |
PriceSpy |
Android | iOS |
5M+ |
3.9 |
1. Price History
The price of a product can be seen changing over time. This is very important to know if the price you see now is a good deal or if it will go down even more soon.
2. Idealo
You can search for particular products, see what they’re made of, see how much they’ve changed in price. It sees what the newest deals are so you can save money and buy at the best price.
3. Smartprix
Smartprix is the best price comparison app that is the best price comparison app that only shows a small amount of price data. When you create an app like Smartprix, it usually shows the current price and might also say what the lowest price was in the past.
4. MySmartPrice
Like Smartprix, MySmartPrice is the best shopping price comparison app that only shows a small amount of price history information. It usually shows the current price and may also show the previous lowest price.
5. PriceSpy
PriceSpy is the best shopping price comparison app at keeping track of past prices. It gives you detailed price charts that show how prices have changed over a certain time frame.
Challenges of Price Comparison App Development
Although price comparison apps are always changing their formulas to keep up with changes to different e-commerce apps. It can be hard to make and keep up with dynamic comparison apps. Some problems with collecting and utilizing when you build a price comparison app are:
1. Comparison technology
The different ways that different companies organize their pricing info is one of the main problems we often have. Not all forms can be compared in this way, so it’s hard to make one that does. For these reasons, there are often discrepancies between what an app says an item costs and what a price comparison tool says.
2. Data volume
It takes a lot of work for a store price comparison app development to work with more e-commerce apps and a bigger range of products. This makes the job even harder
3. Detecting Scrapers
A honeypot is a trap that app makers put on their app to catch people who steal information. Most of the time, these traps are hidden from people, but scrapers can see them. Once a scraper falls for this trick, the management team will block it from ever getting into the app again.
What Are the Benefits Of Price Comparison App Development?
Price comparison apps aren’t just for people who want to save money! Having a business in a price comparison app or even making their own can bring them a lot of benefits. Why should you build a price comparison app?
1. Valuable Customer Insights
Store price comparison app development often keeps track of what users do and what they buy. Businesses can get a lot of useful information from this data, which can help them figure out what their customers want and how to best price their products.
2. Improved Conversion Rates
When you build a price comparison app, it can speed up the buying process and increase the chance of a sale by making it easy for customers to find your products at the best prices.
3. Increased Brand Awareness
If you build a price comparison app with the help of an app development services provider, it will show your brand to more people who are actively looking for the items you sell.
4. Boosted Customer Loyalty
When customers see that your business always has low prices, they will trust you and be more likely to come back for more purchases.
How Much Does It Cost To Build A Price Comparison App?
A price comparison app’s development cost with an outsourced mobile app development company will vary depending on a number of variables.
It includes where the outsourcing business is located, how many experts will be working on it, what third-party technical help will be needed, and how complicated the app is. The cost to develop a mobile app is usually made by a set of professionals, described below.
- 1 project manager
- 1 UI/UX designer
- 1-2 frontend developers
- 1 iOS or android developer
- 1 QA specialist
According to the Dev Technosys team, it will cost to develop mobile app for price comparison between $10,000 – $16,000 to make an MVP for a price comparison app. If you need a full-fledged project, the cost to build a price comparison app is about $25,000. To build a price comparison app, it is better to talk to a shopping app development company.
How Does A Price Comparison App Make Money?
Setting up a price comparison app can’t be cheap, so you need to find a way to make money and cover your costs. So you should actively make money off of the project if you want it to pay off and start making you money.
1. Affiliate Marketing
This is a big one. The app helps you find shops that have the best deals, kind of like a matchmaker. The app gets paid a small fee every time you click on a product and then buy it (often through a special link). You, the app, and the store will all benefit!
2. Premium Features
It may be free to use some apps, but you may have to pay a monthly fee to get extras like a full list of prices or special deals.
3. Commission
People use your price comparison app to find an app they like, then they place an order. The seller of that app has to pay you a certain amount of money.
4. Target Marketing
Price comparison shopping app development can look at how their users act to figure out what those users want. You can use this information to start focused marketing right away.
5. Paid Accommodation
For sellers to be listed on your app, they have to pay you a set amount of money upfront. This is how you get paid.
6. Google Ads
Ad revenue is proportional to the app’s popularity, measured in clicks, and ads adapt dynamically to the content of individual web pages.
7. Brand Advertising
There are deals for certain names that you can put at the top of your pay-per-click or impression ads. To work with the brand owner, your resource must be in high demand, or “heavy hitter.” If it’s not, they probably won’t want to work with you.
Ready To Develop A Price Comparison App!!
Now you know all the ins and outs of creating a profitable price comparison app. Finding an experienced development partner is the next step to making that idea come true.
The best website development company is standing by at Dev Technosys to build a price comparison app for your business. We’ve helped both small businesses and large companies with their problems, and we know just what price scraping and comparison apps need.
Are you ready to build an app with us? Then let’s get your project going by connecting! Get in touch with us right away to set up a consultation.
FAQs!
Q1. How Much Does it Cost to Build a Shopping App?
The cost to build a shopping app can vary on the basis of project requirements. Generally, it can cost you between $10000-$25000.
Q2. How Long Will It Take To Build A Price Comparison App?
It can take 2 to 3 months to make a simple price comparison app. But if you make a complicated app, it can take up to 7 months longer. So it is very important to talk to a company that makes price comparison apps.
Q3. What Are the Benefits Of Price Comparison App Development?
When you build a price comparison app, you will get many benefits from it. Here are some of them:
- Increased brand awareness
- Valuable customer insights
- Boost customer loyalty
- Competitive edge
Q4. How To Monetize A Price Comparison App?
If you want to create a price comparison app, you need to know how you will make money from it. So, here are some methods:
- In-app purchase
- In-app advertisement
- Freemium model
- Sponsorship model