How Much Does It Cost To Make An App Like Venmo?
Venmo is a top-rated U.S.-based digital wallet service owned by PayPal. In fact, it ranks as one of the most popular P2P payment services in the United States. According to the reports of Forbes and Market Watch, it has about 52 million users and 450 million in revenue. The massive success of Venmo might make you wonder what is so attractive about this app? Is it not like another peer-to-peer app? The fact is everything lies in the details.
To answer the question above, Venmo app owners make customer satisfaction a priority, and this is what keeps them in demand. Satisfying users is not only about giving them what they want, but also about exceeding their expectations. The way that things have been going with Venmo, it does not come off as a surprise that you have the desire to follow in their footsteps and create a similar app.
If you are keen to know how much it costs to make an app like Venmo, you are in the right place. In this blog, we will layout the estimated cost of developing an app like Venmo.
Key features of the Venmo app & time estimation:
TRANSFER MONEY:
Stating the obvious, it is impossible to make a peer-to-peer app without having an option to send money. The Venmo users can credit funds to friends’ accounts as well as pay house bills and other regular services. Venmo is a bank-free app which means it has its own mechanism to handle digital payments. If you wish to follow this model, you should make an e-wallet within an app. This e-wallet will act as a money accumulator. Every time the user makes a remittance, the money first goes to their e-wallet and later to the point of destination.
The estimated time for implementation of this feature is 320 hours
LINK BANK ACCOUNT:
It is not necessary to have a bank account to receive money through Venmo. However, the app has the option to let users add their bank account as a payment option if that is what they prefer. This option extends the app capabilities and enables the user to choose the way they want to manage their money. With Venmo, it is possible to rely on the in-built wallet or transfer right from the bank account.
The estimated time for implementation of this feature is 140 hours
MAKE PURCHASES:
Venmo’s initial concept was a handy tool for digital remittance and joint payments. However, now the app supports payments for making online purchases. The app developers implemented an API to enable Venmo payments. Only the sellers who meet current requirements can use it to prepare shops for accepting such payments.
The estimated time for implementation of this feature is 480 hours
SPLIT BILL:
This option helps to split payments between several participants. For instance, users can use Venmo to share the apartment rent, restaurant bill or make a mutual purchase. The method is relatively straightforward. First, the user makes a payment and then chooses the friends with whom the bill is supposed to be shared.
The estimated time for implementation of this feature is 300 hours
ACCESS CONTACTS:
Applications like Venmo should access the contact list to enable users’ interaction. With this option, users can send money to each other without knowing the recipient’s card number. All that is required to do is select a person from the contacts.
The estimated time for implementation of this feature is 10 hours
REQUEST MONEY:
Thanks to this feature, you can request money from anyone in your contact list. There is no need to call or meet in person to get money. All you have to do is press “Request,” enter the needed amount and send it to a selected person. If the individual confirms the request, you will receive the required sum. Adding this feature in your app requires you to implement in-app chat and push notifications.
The estimated time for implementation is 240 hours
VIEW HISTORY:
Viewing transaction history allows you to analyze your financial behavior and contributes to reducing spending. To make this information even more useful, you can visualize it with graphs or diagrams. Thus, the user can evaluate expensive areas at a glance and optimize their finances.
The estimated time for implementation of this feature is 40 hours
SECURE AUTHORIZATION:
The purpose of this feature is to protect clients’ data. You can mix static passwords with biometric identity confirmation. The most common ways are face recognition, iris scanning and fingerprint login.
The estimated time for implementation is 120 hours
DATA ENCRYPTION:
Data encryption is crucial when it comes to app security, and developers need to take care of safe data transfer. A cryptography technique that will be most suitable to fit the nature and amount of transmitted data needs to be chosen.
The estimated time for implementation of this feature is 160 hours
ACCOUNT SETTING:
An easy and intuitive interface needs to be made for editing personal data such as name, phone number, email etc.
The estimated time for implementation of this feature is 40 hours
SOCIAL FEED:
The social feed feature is what makes Venmo so unique because it brings an all-new experience to the usual process of transferring money. Users have the option to use comments and emojis. This option is more appealing for the younger generation who were born with gadgets in their hands.
The estimated time for implementation of this feature is 32 hours
COST BREAKDOWN OF DEVELOPING AN APP LIKE VENMO:
A P2P app like Venmo is a very complex project and requires high-level professionalism and in-depth knowledge. The total estimation of the cost goes far beyond than what we discussed earlier. Now, let’s consider some more aspects.
- Business analysis – 240 hours
- UI/UX design – 200 hours
- Testing phase – 460 hours
FINAL WORD:
Having summed up the time for the development of each feature and the time for non-development works, we get a total of 2786 hours. In order to clone an app like Venmo, you need a team of at least ten people if not more. Not to mention, the cost will vary based on the developer’s hourly rate, the region of the developer and the features you wish to include in the app. The total cost of making an app like Venmo will be something around $100K and $150K.
