Fitness is no longer a destination—it’s an app away.

Have you ever felt like losing motivation and getting tired of starting your fitness journey? If your answer is mostly yes, then you need a consistent and simple routine that keeps you motivated every single day.

But what makes a person stick to a routine? It’s not just willpower; it is having the proper support and tools in your pocket. That is what a fitness app offers.

The world is becoming increasingly focused on prioritizing fitness, particularly since the COVID-19 outbreak. Fitness apps serve as virtual personal coaches, allowing users to set their goals, log meals, track their progress, and receive ongoing support.

With the right combination of technology, fitness apps help users to live healthier lives. The fitness app market is growing rapidly, with a nearly 14% annual increase between 2025 and 2030. Are you an entrepreneur or an emerging start-up looking to develop a fitness app?

Then, this blog is for you, where you can learn about the steps, costs, and features required to create a successful fitness app.

Market Stats of Fitness Apps

• The global fitness app market was valued at approximately$10.6 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $23.2 billion by 2030.
• In 2024, North America led the fitness app market, making up nearly 47% of the total global revenue.
• Among different types of fitness apps, exercise and weight loss apps were the most popular in 2024, accounting for over 54% of the market.
• When it comes to devices, smartphones were the top choice for using fitness apps in 2024, with almost 67% of users accessing apps on their phones.
• Looking ahead, the exercise and weight loss app segment is expected to continue growing at a rate of around 5% per year from 2025 to 2035.

What is BetterMe?

BetterMe is a popular fitness and wellness application that offers a range of health and wellness-related services to its users. This app provides easy-to-follow workout plans, habit tracking, and mental wellness tools to users. Through this app, users can easily find personalised training assistance to lose weight, reduce stress, and manage their health.  To create an app like BetterMe, consider partnering with a women fitness app development company. This application also offers assistance related to women’s issues, which attracts the attention of many female users worldwide.

Success Story of the Fitness App Like BetterMe

BetterMe was launched in 2016 with the goal of making fitness easily accessible to everyone. This app was launched by Ukrainian entrepreneur Victoria Repa, offering simple features such as weight loss and fitness. The wide popularity of this app in the future will help BetterMe expand its features to mental health tools, personalised workout plans, and habit builders. As of mid-2025, BetterMe’s annual revenue has reached $75 million.  This app has over 150 million downloads and has become a top-rated app on both Google Play and the App Store.

Top Reasons Investors Are Investing in  Fitness Apps

Here, we have discussed the main reasons that influence the attention of investors towards the fitness app industry, so let’s have a quick look:

1. Rapid Market Growth

The fitness app industry is booming at a rapid rate, driven by the increasing accessibility of smartphones and a growing health awareness. Recognizing the growth potential of this industry, investors are investing on a large scale.

Long-term scalability and rapid market growth opportunities are one of the main reasons that attract businesses to invest in the fitness app market.

2. Post-Pandemic Fitness Trends

COVID-19 has increased the demand for virtual and at-home workouts. Investors are investing in fitness apps to provide safe, convenient, and flexible fitness options, ensuring ongoing engagement. Following the pandemic, fitness trends are on the rise, with users seeking multiple exercise options in a single location.

This increased the demand for the FitOn app, which offers businesses an opportunity to earn high revenue.

3. Low Operational Costs

Fitness apps require minimal physical infrastructure, offering a low-cost development facility for businesses. The low overhead cost attracts investors to maximise their profitability index while having a high revenue generation opportunity.

The digital-first model is one of the prime reasons that attracts entrepreneurs to invest in this cost-effective business model.

4. Recurring Revenue Models

The fitness apps market offers businesses the opportunity to generate revenue from multiple sources, including in-app purchases and subscription plans. These are predictable income streams that attract the attention of investors.

Fitness app Like Hevy is investing in this market to have a consistent cash flow and experience high growth.

5. High User Engagement

BetterMe alternatives enhance user engagement through goal tracking and personalized workouts. High engagement leads to improved retention, enabling businesses to reach a broad base of users regardless of revenue generation.

The Role of Artificial Intelligence in  Fitness Apps

• In today’s period, artificial intelligence has become the driving force behind many of the most successful fitness apps.
• From intelligence progress tracking to personalised workout plans, AI is transforming ordinary applications into intelligent fitness companions.
• AI analytics is helping to analyze human behavior and further provide recommendations tailored to their needs.
• Businesses in the fitness app industry are leveraging AI to deliver real-time coaching and personalized workout plans to users.
• AI is enhancing the efficiency of smartwatch fitness tracker apps by analyzing user behavior and providing them with accurate health updates and personalized suggestions.
• AI-powered fitness apps enhance user engagement and provide intelligent, real-time coaching. This is making AI the future of digital fitness.

10 Popular Fitness Apps

Let’s find out the leading and popular fitness app like 7 Minute workout in the market that are experiencing stable growth with millions of downloads and consumer reach.

How to Build a Fitness App Like BetterMe: A Step-by-Step Guide

Now, the real game of application development begins, for which we have discussed every important stage that you need to know to make a fitness app.

1. Market Research & Business Planning

Fitness app development starts with identifying and analysing the target audience, competitors’ strategies, and market trends. This stage helps entrepreneurs develop a robust business plan and create a blueprint for their budget. The successful making of an app like FitCoach, starts with planning the timeline of app development.

The market research stage helps entrepreneurs establish clear directions and ensures app development follows a step-by-step procedure. This helps in avoiding unnecessary mistakes in the future.

2. Select Key Features

For the best fitness app development, selecting the right features makes the application more engaging and effective. Standard features of fitness apps include step counters, workout plans, goal setting, meal tracking, and water reminders.

To make BetterMe alternatives, personalisation is essential. It helps attract users through live coaching. Feature selection must be unique and easy for users of all ages. With this, entrepreneurs can make their app stand out from other rivals in the industry.

3. Choose Platform (s)

To build a fitness app like BetterMe, you must first decide whether your app will run on iOS, Android, or both platforms. An on-demand app development company helps you build an app for both devices, offering a high reach and a wider audience. To keep your costs low, entrepreneurs can focus on- platform app.

Selecting the right platform is an important stage that helps you reach a broader audience and reduce the cost and time of app development. BetterMe app development can only be successful when businesses select a suitable platform that aligns with their budget and goals.

4. UX/UI Design

This stage in app development helps you to make your app look good and easy for users. With UX tools like Figma, entrepreneurs can create a workout app for fitness that users can experience without confusion. The UI interface helps make an app attractive with buttons, colors, and layout.

Avoid clutter or too many buttons. Keep it clean and simple. A good design helps users stay focused, feel motivated, and enjoy their fitness journey. This makes them more likely to keep using your app daily. Businesses must avoid complex buttons in fitness apps and ensure to integrate user-friendly images and fonts.

5. App Development

At this stage, the real app development begins, where developers write code to create the design and features of the application. Hire mobile app developers who handle complex processes such as integration of data storage and user accounts. In this process, the frontend development team is responsible for making the app visually attractive.

Application development is a critical stage that helps ensure the security and speed of the fitness app. A similar app like BetterMe, focuses on making its app unique by integrating features like fitness trackers and payment systems.

6. Testing & Quality Assurance

The testing stage helps you identify and fix bugs, ensuring the app works effectively across various systems and devices. Here, entrepreneurs need to identify issues such as slow loading and crashes. With the help of iOS app developers, you can test all the features of the app, including reminders and tracking.

Taking real-time feedback from users helps build trust, which in turn enhances the scalability and market reach of a fitness mobile app. To create a BetterMe clone app, testing and quality assurance are the most crucial stages, as they improve the user experience

7. Launch and Post-Launch Services

Once the application is launched, the next step is to publish it on app stores. After launching, keeping your fitness app is also essential. To develop a fitness app like BetterMe, fixing bugs, adding new features, and planning help you build user trust.

An app similar to BetterMe utilizes user feedback to implement necessary changes and add-ons within the app. With this, they improve user satisfaction and continue to attract new customers. Hire dedicated developers to make essential changes in your app at the right time with minimal expense.

Must-Have Features for Fitness Apps

To create a fitness app like BetterMe, there are some must-have features which is important for entrepreneurs to have. Let’s take a quick look at the table below to identify the important features you need to have.

Advanced Features for Fitness App

Let’s make a fitness app like BetterMe, featuring advanced features that will make your app stand out and differentiate it from rivals.

1. AI-Powered Personalization

Integrate AI tools to provide personalized meal and workout plans tailored to users’ progress and goals.

2. Integration with Wearables

Build a weight loss app, by connecting it with smartwatches to sync sleep data, heart rate, and calorie intake.

3. Real-Time Coaching & Live Classes

Provide one-on-one video coaching and live sessions to engage users. Take regular feedback to keep users engaged.

4. AR/VR Fitness Experiences

Virtual reality helps to provide interactive workout plans. This makes users experience an environment like beaches and trails.

5. Progress Visualization & 3D Body Scans

To create a fitness app like fitbit, display users’ visual progress by utilizing a 3D body scan, allowing them to see changes in their bodies.

6. Habit & Mental Wellness Tracking

Integrate tools for sleep analysis, meditation, daily mood tracking, and stress analysis. It helps to offer overall health advice.

7. Gamification & Challenges

An on-demand fitness app includes fitness challenges and badges, which help keep users engaged.

8. Nutrition Scanning & AI Meal Recognition

Allow users to scan food labels, which helps them easily track calories. AI meal recognition improves he accuracy of your fitness app.

9. Voice Assistant Integration

An AI voice assistant helps users to ask questions, which improves the retention rate. To develop a fitness app like BetterMe, this advanced features allow users to stay connected.

10. Community Features & Social Sharing

Support voice commands through Google Assistant, Siri, or Alexa. Users can start workouts, ask for progress, or log meals without using their hands.

The Cost to Develop  Fitness Apps

The cost to develop a fitness app is $8,000 to $25,000, depending on various factors. Design quality, feature complexity, platform choice, and third-party integrations all play a crucial role in determining the budget. To create a BetterMe clone app, include other elements, such as real-time functionalities and backend infrastructures.

This can increase the overall cost of developing a fitness app. Additionally, post-launch support, ongoing maintenance, and testing all contribute to the cost of fitness app development. An on-demand app development company provides constant assistance to entrepreneurs and start-ups in creating a fitness app tailored to their budget.

Top Factors That Affect the Cost of  Fitness Apps Development

The mobile app development cost mainly depends on different factors, such as features, testing, UX tools, third-party integrations, and maintenance. Let’s examine how these factors influence the BetterMe app development cost.

1. Features and Complexity

BetterMe app development cost is affected by the number of features your app has. Integrating features like live videos and AI-powered coaching can increase the overall cost to develop a fitness app like BetterMe.

2. Platform(s) Targeted

To develop an app like BetterMe, selecting the right platform is crucial. However, the cost to develop a fitness app will fluctuate depending on whether the app is for Android or iOS. Developing a fitness app for a separate platform increases the cost to build a fitness app like BetterMe as compared to a cross-platform approach.

3. Design (UI/UX)

You need to ensure that your fitness app has simple icons and menus, as it helps users enjoy the app without complexity. This helps in improving the scalability and reach of the fitness app in the market. However, integrating tools like Figma and InVision can increase the cost to build a fitness app like BetterMe.

4. Third-Party Integrations

A highly interactive and well-designed plan, which is easy to use, requires more funds and time.  Payment systems, social media logins, and fitness trackers increased the cost to create a mobile app. Entrepreneurs need to analyze the fitness app development cost to integrate third-party integrations within their budget.

5. Testing & Quality Assurance

Testing and quality assurance help entrepreneurs provide a seamless experience to users.  This helps ensure that your app works smoothly on various devices. Multiple testing takes time and funds enhances the fitness app development cost.

6. Maintenance and Updates

After app launch, regular updates, improvements, and bug fixes are essential. Ongoing maintenance to keep the app secure increases the long-term development cost. Workout apps for fitness must be bug-free, as they provide users with health updates.

Best Tech Stack for  Fitness Apps

Let’s take a quick look at the table below to identify the essential tech stack required to create a successful fitness app. An app like Nike Training Club integrates backend, frontend, and database to make its app easily functional on multiple devices.

How To Make Money From Fitness Apps?

Let’s find out how entrepreneurs can earn extra income from fitness apps. These strategies have the potential to generate income from multiple revenue streams.

1. Subscription Plans

Fitness apps offer businesses the opportunity to generate income by offering annual, weekly, or monthly subscription plans to users. An app like Google Fit offers access to premium features, including meal plans and personalized workouts, which can help increase your revenue. The subscription plan monetisation model helps the best fitness apps establish a stable revenue stream.

2. Freemium Model

This monetization strategy enables businesses to attract users by offering a free version of a fitness app and subsequently convert them into paying customers through attractive discounts. With an iPhone app development company, you can include irresistible upgrades that allow users to unlock advanced features.

3. Live & On-Demand Classes

You can monetize a fitness app by providing high-quality live and on-demand workout classes to users. It facilitates consumers’ payment for programs like Pilates or yoga. These features help entrepreneurs boost engagement and add value to recurring payment options.

4. Corporate Wellness Programs

Entrepreneurs can earn income from fitness apps like BetterMe by partnering with companies to provide corporate wellness programs and offer healthcare benefits to employees. Organisations pay for tailored fitness solutions, which is an excellent way for you to earn revenue from these apps.

5. Merchandise Sales

Fitness apps like BetterMe enable entrepreneurs to earn extra income by selling branded fitness products directly through the app. These products can be supplements, apparel, and equipment. This monetization strategy helps a smartwatch fitness tracker app to attract the attention of fitness-focused users, a great way to generate revenue.

Conclusion

At the end of this blog, we have concluded that creating a fitness app like BetterMe offers opportunities for start-ups and entrepreneurs to help users live healthier lives. Investing in this industry gives investors a high-growth opportunity. With a mobile app development company, you can conduct thorough planning, which helps entrepreneurs create a fitness app within their budget. You must emphasize making your app unique by integrating advanced features and UX tools.

FAQ’s

Q1. What is the Average Cost to Develop a Fitness App Like BetterMe?

The cost to develop a fitness app like BetterMe is  $8,000 to $25,000. The fluctuation in this cost will be based on the basis on below factors:

• Platform Selection
• UX/UI tools
• Third-Party Integrations

Q2. How Much Time Does it Take to Develop a Fitness App?

The time required to develop a fitness app like BetterMe is 3-4 months. The time to app creation will increase based on bug fixes, testing, and maintenance.

Q3. What Features Should a Fitness App  Like BetterMe Have?

The features which is important to build an app like BetterMe to have are:

• Sign Up/Login
• Profile Management
• Workout Library Access
• Meal Plan Access
• Progress Tracking
• Notifications & Reminders

Q4. How Does a Fitness App Make Money?

The fitness app makes money from several monetization strategies like

• Subscription Plans
• Freemium Model
• Live & On-Demand Classes
• Corporate Wellness Programs
• Merchandise Sales

Q5. What is The Best Tech Stack For Building a Fitness App?

The best tech stack which entrepreneurs need to develop a fitness app like BetterMe includes:

• Frontend (Mobile App)
• Backend
• Database
• APIs & Integrations
• Analytics
• Testing Tools