Tarun Nagar 
Scroll this blog to know what Social Media App Development and Its Cost. Social media is nothing but a web and mobile app that brings people together and allows them to share their life activities/events with other people.
This media has conspicuously risen to the status of an effective advertising medium because of the constant buzz it witnesses all 24 hours of the day. So, if you are yet to develop a social media app for your business, you are actually missing a lot.
A social media app can help your business achieve a number of objectives:
- Reach audience super quick
- Provide consumable content to users to portray thought leadership
- Generate customer responses almost instantaneously
- Quick resolution of customer queries and complaints
- Targeted marketing campaign designing
- Selling products online
Since social media app helps in achieving all these objectives, it is essential to learn about the type of social media networks and the corresponding app development-related aspects.
Table of Contents
Types of Social Media Networks
Come, meet, collaborate, and share – social media apps offer the convenience of connecting with the world without stepping out of homes or offices.
However, not all social media networks are meant for your business. According to the purpose, the social media network apps are categorized as:
- Social Networks
- Blogging and Publishing network
- Content Sharing Networks
- Discussion Forums
- Interest-based social networks
1. Social Networks
Who does not know about Facebook or Twitter? With a user base of more than a billion, these social networking apps have come a long way since their inception.
Every user or a group sees to it that something is updated about their work or life every single day on these platforms. There is one more network called LinkedIn where people communicate and interact to find new job opportunities and career options.
The purpose of all these networks is one and that is – to connect! To make the best use of this platform, the users look forward to sharing pictures and videos as well. So, the social media app development has to ensure that all such functionalities are embedded in the MVP they create.
So, when you are trying to figure out the cost of developing a social network app, you have to consider:
- Coding cost
- UI/UX designing cost
- Maintenance and Server Hosting Cost
Some reputed social media app developers propose that the cost of developing an app like Facebook lies anywhere between $5,000 and $17,000.
2. Blogging and Publishing network
The apps have made the lives of people including that of writers easier. With the development of blogging and publishing networks like WordPress, Medium, etc. the writers, influencers, or thought leaders can reach their audience and share their knowledge. So, what do they look for in these apps:
- Tools for attaining SEO-friendliness
- Plugins support
- Responsiveness
- Ability to create media-enriched blogs
- Ease of sharing the blogs in social networks
3. Content Sharing Networks
These networks allow you to share your work with other people connected to you. The users may share pictures or videos and get feedback.
They can use these networks to link them back to their websites, generating traffic in the process. Pinterest is a fine example of this type of social media app.
4. Discussion Forums
Very recently, people have found big learning support in the discussion forums. People having no credibility to high authority become a part of these forums and answer questions posted by other users, or post questions to get the answers.
Those people who write the answers with well-researched facts are most likely to win lots of audience through this channel. Businesses see these forums as a promising platform for building backlinks for their websites.
5. Interest-based social networks
Also known as niche social media networks, these networks provide a platform for people with common interests to connect. There are networks like Dribbble where designers meet and bid for projects of logo designing, graphic designing, etc.
Goodreads is another interest-based network where the people interested in reading books can share reading suggestions and, write and share book reviews. Last.FM is another network of this kind that provides a platform to the musicians, music bands, solo performers of singing, and so on.
The requirements of these social networks may vary according to the type of content people use to create their accounts and showcase area. For example, the Last.FM kind of space requires a music file upload and share facility, live recording tool facility, and so on.
Irrespective of the type of social media app to be produced, there are certain basic features that any mobile app development company needs to include in its development module. Let’s see what these common features are.
Common Features of a Social Media App
- User Profile
- Add post
- Newsfeed
- Chat
- Search
1. User Profile
This is what everybody needs to have when registering with any social media app. The profiles are so important that these have become as important as the identity cards of users.
They need the options to make their profiles as creative as possible. Secondly, the users expect to have facilities like the option of restricting access to the profile by strangers, deciding who gets to view and share their profile or comment on their post, and so on. Thus, a lot of thinking goes into creating this feature to let it stand out.
2. Add a post
The uses come here only for this purpose primarily. When they are not writing something original, they are sharing other peoples’ posts. Therefore, the add post is a must. It can also have the facility to select a mood, location, and image and video insertion while building a post.
3. Newsfeed
Social media app developers have to include a newsfeed feature invariably. Scrolling through newsfeed has almost become a universally loved hobby.
People in their free time-kill boredom by going through newsfeeds. The creation of a newsfeed requires the addition of interest, support to follow the pages of their liking, and to follow or befriend people. Thus, depending upon your interests chosen, newsfeed changes for every user.
4. Chat
Connecting becomes more instantaneous and sort of virtually tangible with the help of a chat feature. Thus, a social media app of any kind is almost unimaginable without a chat feature. Instant messaging and chatting applications have seen a surge in usage since 2014- 15. Although there are still very limited known apps and hence to create a chat app is an incredible idea.
5. Search
Why are you on social media? Mostly, the answer is to search and connect with like-minded individuals. So, the inclusion of a search bar or any other search strategy is a must-include feature for a social media app.
Some Advanced Features to Include in a Social Media App
Apart from these features, the social media app developer can also consider including these special features. Though categorized as advanced, these features are gradually becoming sought-after features for the users of social media apps.
- AR filter: Looking good and presentable is always a priority. The users want to look or to make the post materials like some flat or scenery look as fabulous as possible. Thus, they do appreciate the AR filter feature in the app.
- Editing: Editing pictures is the second most important feature after the AR filter. In fact, usage-wise, it is more desirable than the AR filter. The users would want to edit unwanted objects from the picture or do actions like crop, rotate, etc. Thus, it is a must-have for the people who are too much into updating posts on social media
A quick look at all these requirements leads us to a stage where we can ideate an MVP or minimum value product. This MVP will have all the above-mentioned features. So, the app development process can be outlined below.
- Creating an MVP: The purpose of MVP is to create a product that meets the minimum expectations of a user. Apps for social media are developed as a systematic process that involves three main departments – Backend Development, iOS app development, and Android app development. The progressive web applications are the kinds that make it easy for businesses to get apps functional on all sorts of operating systems.
- Testing the MVP: MVP is made to let people use and test and provide feedback. The users can offer feedback on the MVP based on which the developers can go back to the designing part and make changes in it.
Elaborated Requirements of Social Media App Development and Its Cost
To understand the cost involved in making a social media app, you can go through the time required for various processes involved.
- Backend development
- iOS development
- Android Development
1. Backend development
Basic features – 325 hours
Advanced features – 14 hours
Admin panel – 138 hours
Frameworks and libraries integration – 36 hours
Quality assurance – 100 hours
DevOps services – 30 hours
Project Management – 80 hours
Total time – 723 hours
2. iOS development
Basic features – 593 hours
Advanced features – 154 hours
Frameworks and libraries integration – 35 hours
Quality assurance – 120 hours
DevOps services – 35 hours
Project Management – 90 hours
UI/UX design – 140 hours
Total time – 1167 hours
3. Android Development
Basic features – 593 hours
Advanced features – 154 hours
Frameworks and libraries integration – 35 hours
Quality assurance – 120 hours
DevOps services – 35 hours
Project Management – 90 hours
UI/UX design – 140 hours
Total time – 1167 hours
In Eastern European countries, the developers are working on per hourly basis. Their per hour rate is approx. $50 per hour. So, at this rate, the businesses can prepare themselves to spend about $94,000 for one platform (including any one of iOS or Android) and $152, 850 for two platforms.
This price is valid only for the Eastern Europe region. It tends to vary with the location because the developers work at different rates as applicable in their region. For example,
- Australia. $305,700 (based on $100/h)
- North America. $305,700 (based on $100/h)
- Eastern Europe. $152,850 (based on $50/h)
- Western Europe. $275,130 (based on $90/h)
Talking further about the requirements of developing a social media app, let’s take a look at the requirements in terms of team and technologies.
Team Required to Build Social Media App
A well-coordinated team of dedicated developers is the guarantee of a good quality social media app. The companies prefer to employ the best hands in the industry for the app development work. The project managers roll out the list of people to be hired, which more or less includes the following specialists:
- UI/UX designer
- Back-end developer
- QA engineer
- 1 or 2 Android developers
- 1 or 2 iOS developers
Technologies required for making a social media app
Depending upon the type of platform for social media apps, the technology list looks something like this:
1. Android App
- Networking: OkHTTP3
- Programming Language: Swift
2. iOS App
- Networking: Alamofire
- Programming language: Swift
3. Tools
- Push notifications: FCM
- Search: Elastic search
- AR filters: ML Kit, ARCore
- Storage: Amazon S3
- Emails: Elastic Email
- Geolocation: Google Maps
4. Back-end development
- Signup: Amazon SES, Amazon SNS
- Framework: Express 4
- Programming language: Node.js
- Database: MySQL
- Chat: Socket.io
- API: Swagger
This list shows some of the standard tools and technologies that a designer may choose to apply. While hiring a developer, you may require testing their knowledge on some or all of these working tools.
Some mobile app development companies may have different opinions about the tools and technologies to employ for making a social media application.
The companies may require downloading or buying these tools and technologies for development; some of these may carry a price too. So, when you are writing down the expenses expected to the last penny, you can also include the cost of these tools and technologies in the budget plan.
Conclusion
Social media apps have a world of their own. The designers need to be thorough with the skills and the tools to make the process of social media app developing error-free, fast, and yielding. Some companies do require apps developers who can deliver the results in a time-pressed setting.
There are designing techniques like progressive web apps designing, or hybrid app designing that cost less than native apps. Since the latter are meant only for a single platform, the companies require spending cost equivalent to development for two platforms.
This can be saved by going for progressive web apps and hybrid apps. So, take into account all the features and requirements and then work out the cost, people, resources, etc. needed for building social media apps.
