FinTech
Table of Contents
Digital transformation continues modernizing the FinTech industry, with finance apps as the key drivers in this process. These solutions facilitate transactions, data collection, analysis, and forecasting, making personal finance management easier. Our guide will walk you through the key concepts and processes of finance application development.
A finance app facilitates money management: expense tracking, investments, saving plans, tax payments, and more. These apps help users make savings and generate additional income, thus being a lucrative option for those interested in better personal budget allocation.
Feature-rich financial apps can provide valuable insights about spending patterns, recurrent payments, and expense categorization. It analyzes data, and can also give tax advice, offer investment options and insurance suggestions.
Main finance app possibilities:
The global fintech industry has experienced significant revenue growth, reaching an estimated $79.38 billion in 2023, according to Statista. This trend is expected to continue, with the industry projected to surpass $141.18 billion by 2028.
Big FinTech players like banks have recently started operating in personal finance. Moreover, the demand for online operations raised by the pandemic and lockdowns, which have proven convenient and time-saving since then, has stayed. That is why finance application development remains a promising domain to explore.
There are several classifications of personal finance apps.
These apps help users make thoughtful financial decisions and improve money allocation. Based on monthly income, budget planners can help not only prevent overspending but also cut debt and plan more efficient spending patterns.
Such apps enable people with or without special knowledge to create a portfolio, make investments, and calculate risks. Investing platforms and apps can propose suitable projects, provide market news and insights, and allow users to manage their assets from mobile devices.
They allow quick and safe transactions directly from the payer to the payee with financial mobile apps. The most popular examples of peer-to-peer apps are PayPal and Payoneer. The top features to look for in P2P payment apps are supported countries and currencies, transaction limits, security measures, and fees.
Banking apps allow you to access your bank account and make transactions via mobile devices. They're made for checking balances, paying taxes, transferring funds, and viewing payment history. This type of app enables financial institutions to broaden their client base, increase customer loyalty, offer personalized service, and reduce operation costs.
These apps offer tracking income and expenses, tax organization, payment receipt collection, and report creation. Users can collect and classify their purchases, manage cash flow, and find out where they can allocate more money. A spending tracker lets you organize your budget and discover and adjust spending habits.
Financial forecasting software enables economic data analysis and prediction-making. For individuals, the apps help set financial targets and milestones and see the long-term effects of their current budgeting system. For businesses, financial web app development helps evaluate performance and improve decision-making.
Personal finance apps fulfill a wide range of money-related tasks, helping to manage the budget and make better investment decisions. At some point, they can encompass the functions of all the above mentioned types, targeting personal use instead of corporate ones.
How to build a finance app? Aside from basic steps, let's dive into the peculiarities of financial app development, highlighting the main differences from other types of apps.
Personal finance apps can target different demographics. Adults and teens, people who want simple expense tracking features, and those who want to set up a savings plan or do investments — choose the audience and determine its pain points.
Simple or complex, web or mobile — ensure the app has enough features to satisfy the target audience. Do not disregard the competitors. Analyze their products to make yours a better alternative.
Gather business and technical requirements. Define the tech stack for your future app and choose a monetization strategy. After getting the complete picture of the future software, conduct a feasibility study. At this step, you can also make some assumptions about your finance application development cost. You can consult finance app developers for more information.
Critical factors of UI and UX development are simplicity, intuitive navigation, and app responsiveness. Ensure that your finance app runs seamlessly on different devices and screens and serves well people with special needs.
Build the core features of your app. From basic functionalities, such as login and manual data input, to more advanced features, such as data visualization, integrations, AI features, and personalized advice, create what was planned while keeping in mind the convenience of use and modern technologies.
Ensure your app is working as it is supposed to and is not susceptible to hacker attacks and security breaches. Conduct thorough testing and fix identified bugs. Again, security is the most vital part of financial mobile and web app development. When it comes to money and personal information, there is no room for compromise.
Introduce your product to users, whether an MVP or full-scale product. Think about app promotion via social media and ads, and engage in content marketing. Make clear the usefulness of your product and what benefits it can bring to users.
The post-launch period does not mean that all work is over. This time is good for analyzing feedback and making adjustments and updates to the application to increase user experience and app performance. Keep security measures updated, as they are vital for every financial app.
These ten features are the most popular to consider in financial app development. Depending on the type of your app, the features can vary, but these cover the core financial activities:
Include integration with banks, cards, and money-related activities to provide seamless transactions and statistics collection. Make your app the single source of the user's financial operations.
Security comes first when we talk about finance application development. FinTech remained the main target for hacker attacks and suffered the most data breaches in 2023. Measures such as biometric access, multifactor authentication, real-time alerts, regular security audits, and transparent privacy policies will provide solid security to your app, decreasing the probability of data theft or financial fraud.
AI technologies enable expenditure categorization, analytics, and personalized financial recommendations, making finance management more accessible and practical. AI can analyze your spending habits and economic goals, offering customized advice on saving, budgeting, and investing. Additionally, AI can automatically extract information from receipts and categorize your spending.
Personal finance apps feature chatbots that answer your finance questions and provide real-time insights into your financial health. They provide enhanced customer service and can quickly find and give relevant information upon request, troubleshoot transaction errors, and escalate complex issues to specialists. In addition, they can send personalized summaries, suggest budgeting tips, and also alert users of unusual transactions.
Tracking expenses and sending notifications allows you to control your spending in real-time, decreasing the risk of running over your budget. Notifications will remind you when you need bills to pay, inform you about the best investment deals and low balances, and fulfill financial goals.
The design must be convenient for the user. Keep it simple, appealing, user-friendly, and easy to navigate. Remember the 3-click rule: make the path to certain functionality at most three clicks. Think about your target audience and provide a smooth onboarding process and decent accessibility, including features like adjustable text size, color contrast, and screen reader compatibility.
24/7 customer support is a vital point for your app's success after the financial app development stage. Give users a helping hand when they most need it. The support forms can vary from phone calls to in-app chats and emails; ensure the chosen approach is suitable for your users. You can also include an FAQ section in the app to empower users to find answers to common questions independently.
Rewards, coupons, and discounts help raise customers' engagement, so consider this option during the development process. Motivate users to interact with an app more frequently by introducing gamification to increase their loyalty and attract more customers.
Getting professional advice on your budget can be one of your app's most lucrative features. The feature enables users to change their spending patterns towards more thoughtful and rational spending, offering more profitable plans or saving opportunities.
This feature makes the user's data easy to read and understand. The collected and analyzed information is presented in charts and graphs, enabling users to gain insights about their expenses and improve finance management.
Top technologies driving innovation in FinTech include artificial intelligence, cloud computing, machine learning, blockchain, open source and SaaS.
No matter delving into financial web app development, building a mobile alternative, or both, the choice of monetization method is dictated by your model (B2B or B2C), available resources and app type. Here are the most common approaches.
Collecting and analyzing app’s data can provide valuable insights into the user’s behavior and preferences. Companies and financial institutions can further look into them to create targeted ads and special offers. As an app owner, you can collaborate with data analytics companies to provide businesses with user insights for targeting marketing campaigns and decision-making. Nevertheless, user privacy and security are the priority; thus, implement user data gathering and anonymization mechanisms while financial app development.
This widespread solution for free apps encompasses opportunities to buy additional goods, services, or content. Ad removal, premium content, customizations, or access to exclusive features — choose an approach that suits you best.
In-app purchases allow users to buy only necessary features, such as one-time reports, consultations with the financial advisor, or custom financial dashboards. Such a low-friction strategy can increase conversion rate, deliver value for a particular user segment, and promote personalized pricing plans.
In-app ads may complement the look and feel of your app. Consider using ads relevant to the services your app offers, and thoroughly check the advertising client to avoid low-quality or misleading ads. Another good point is to know when enough is enough: nobody wants to use an app where ads constantly mess up the functionality.
Offering subscription plans implies periodic payments to access more app features or content. It is one of the most commonly used models. The best application practice is to make apps free for a while and then engage users to pay for premium features.
You can attract users to buy other products through your app. The key to success is to partner with reputable companies that offer relevant products or services. The core benefits of this approach are no price for users and ease of implementation. The flip side is, you impose revenue dependency on third parties, and can possibly harm your UX.
This revenue model combines the approaches of in-app advertising and paid software, taking their best practices. The freemium monetization model app has some free features and content to use. At the same time, if you want to deepen user experience and get the complete feature set that the app provides, a one-time monthly fee is required.
The Fintech sector remains the primary target for hackers, experiencing 23.5% of all phishing attacks, thus it’s vital to prioritize your app’s data security and alignment with legislation. The main challenges for regulatory compliance during financial application development are information security, compliance with added products, cross-border operations, high cost of regulatory compliance, and anti-fraud compliance.
A compliant app protects users' data from unauthorized access and leakage, creating a safe environment and increasing customers' trust.
Here are some laws and regulations applicable to the FinTech industry. The exact application of each of them will depend on the type of your app and its functionality.
Overall, the key aspects of safe and secure finance app development are protecting users' data, safeguarding against potential lawsuits, ensuring responsible practices, and building trust among customers and stakeholders.
As we already know, finance application development can take different forms, from an MVP with several core features to a full-fledged multipurpose application enriched with features and integrations. The cost of a web app and mobile app may vary greatly depending on the set of features, time frame, technologies used, and overall app complexity. Let's describe the most common options.
Simple apps usually have only some basic features, such as tracking expenditures, often requiring manual data input, not integrating cards, and solving only one user's problem. The advantages of simple apps include no financial risks, as no card integration is entailed. They are also a cost-effective solution in terms of development and, at initial steps, can take the form of MVP. Nevertheless, simplicity is what makes them difficult: manual data input is a time-consuming task, and human error can be made, leading to incorrect statistics.
Complex finance app development means introducing advanced features and enhanced security, automation, and even AI functionality. For example, integrations allow users to add cards and bank accounts to the app, while data synchronization removes the need for manual input.Complex apps can fulfill diverse tasks, save time, and allow users to receive real-time transaction notifications and updates. On the other hand, complex app development has higher costs and requires more investments in security, as apps store more sensitive data.
Complex apps can fulfill diverse tasks, save time, and allow users to receive real-time transaction notifications and updates. On the other hand, complex app development has higher costs and requires more investments in security, as apps store more sensitive data.
Hesitating about your project cost? Book a consultation with an experienced financial application development partner. The professionals will help you to draw up a budget and will suggest the best collaboration options.
We are moving to more down-to-earth matters and will see some prominent examples of financial application development.
Evidently, financial app development can be a rewarding experience, facilitating users' finance management and bringing profit to the app owners. A well-crafted finance app can open up new revenue streams for your business, improve customer retention, and reach out to the wider market.
Need a team of vetted developers for your FinTech project? Drop us a line and get a free, non-binding consultation with our professionals.
US-based and operating globally, NEKLO spearheads digital transformation initiatives for businesses worldwide. We deliver software solutions complying with your market and legislation.
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