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Paul Blake
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App Development
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26 October, 2020
How Much Does It Cost to Build an App like TikTok
App like TikTok Development Cost
Who knew a social media startup like TikTok, will take over established and veteran social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, and whatnot?
It turned out to be a behemoth app at the tender age of just three years. It was the most installed app ever during the first quarter of the year 2020. It has 850 million monthly active users all around the world as of September 2020. It has the highest social media engagement rates per post. It is available in 155 countries and in 75 different languages. Moreover, it has been downloaded 2 billion times on users’ phones now. So, the numbers are pretty tremendous!
What is TikTok?
It is an application for promoting social entertainment. It allows the users to make videos of 3-15 seconds on any topic. The video can be as long as 1 minute, albeit cut into loops.
Who Made TikTok?
Zhang Yiming, a 37 years old tech company owner of Bytedance, is the real name behind TikTok. He is an entrepreneur who led the completion of app in 200 days. It had a valuation of $78 billion which is only a bigger valuation behind any mobile-app than Uber. It is an international version of Dyuoin and a musical app. Dyuoin was originally released in China and it got 100 million users in the country in only one year.
What Does TikTok Do?
TikTok is able to;
- Provide music background for videos in 75 different languages
- Record high-speed videos and images
- Apply loads of filters and effects
- Broadcast music videos
- Make the music library available
Who Uses Tiktok?
Anyone can have an account on it, but children and teenagers seem to be the main audience of this app. When building an app like TikTok, remember that 60% of TikTok users are aged between 13 to 21. It’s clear that the app specifically targets Gen Z.
Benchmark Features of Apps like TikToK
Apps like TikTok should have some benchmark features without which the app seems incomplete;
Sign Up/ Log In Screen
The first screen that interacts with any user is the sign up/ login screen. The best thing about this screen on this app is, it [provides the option to log in from multiple other social media apps like Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc. The user can also login using email, phone number, and user name.
Friendly User Interface
One thing the developers and UX designers tend to forget about the interfaces is, it has to be used by multifarious users, and not all of them have vast experience of interacting with the complex featured apps. So, if you want to want a bigger audience as TikTok has done it, keep the interface way too friendly and placid.
The interface of a video-sharing app like TikTok should contain the top trending videos from the platform.
Likes, Shares and Comments
A video-sharing app like TikTok should contain the feature to share, comment, and like the videos from friends, family, or acquaintances or even to top trending video from strangers.
Video Editing/ Filter Options
The users must be able to edit or record their videos using the filters and effects from the library of filters.
Music library/ Recording Music
TikTok not only enables the users to choose their favorite track for the library of music but also to record their own songs if they want to use them as background music.
Real-Time Analytics and Geolocation
The bloggers can have the access to their users’ demographic by using the feature real-time analytics. It displays and locates users the bloggers doing any online activity nearby.
Live Streaming
The users can go live with the app and send each other loves in the form of virtual objects with the help of TikTok coins.
QR Code Scanner
Users are able to follow each other with the help of UR code scanner. This is generated uniquely for each user.
Settings
The basic settings section that allows the users to customize their security, blocking, sharing settings.
Duet
This feature allows the two users to film the video at the same time.
Two Feeds
Tiktok maintains two feeds for videos, one is named “for you” that contains videos based on your preferences and likes and the other is the “next” feed in which videos from friends, family, and strangers are displayed.
Factors in TikTok Development Cost
- Platform
- Features
- Design
- Development Team
- Technology Stack
Platform
Mobile applications have two platforms in which they are built i.e. android or IOS operating systems. In order to reach a bigger audience, the mobile app should be built in both platforms so that both android and Apple users can have it downloaded on their phones. Coding Pixel social media app development company and many companies like provide cross-platform development solutions. Coding Pixel can develop a cross-platform app like Tiktok by using latest programming languages like Flutter, React, Angular, Vue, and more. By leveraging the single codebase, developers can run the cross-platform app on multiple operating platforms including Android, iOS, and Windows.
| Platform | Android | Apple |
| More people use android phones, development is a bit difficult. | Takes 20-30%less time in developing |
Features
The rough estimate of the time required for different features of TikTok like apps and cost required for development is given below;
| Features | IOS Development | Android Development | Back-end Development | Approximate Cost |
| Login & Sign in | 25-30 hours | 25-30 hours | 20 hours | $3,500-$4,000 |
| Upload Video | 10 hours | 10 hours | 5 hours | $1,200 |
| Filters & Effects | 80 hours
|
80 hours
|
4 hours
|
$8,500 |
| Video Editing | 45 hours | 45 hours | 4 hours | $5,000 |
| Likes & Comments | 30 hours | 30 hours | 18 hours | $4,300 |
| Sharing | 5 hours | 5 hours | – | $300 |
| Notifications | 10 hours | 10 hours | 12 hours | $1,500 |
| Admins Portal | –
|
– | 40 hours | $2,000 |
| User-Interface | 50 hours | 50 hours | 35 hours | $9,000 |
Design
For the design, a UI/UX designer would be needed to design a seamless and fluid experience to users.
| Design | IOS App | Android App |
| Estimated cost | 90-100 hours | 90-100 hours |
| Estimated Time | $5,500-$6,000 | $5,500-$6,000 |
Development Team
The development teams are onshore, offshore, nearshore, and hybrid teams. The highest service charges are of onshore American development companies. So, the development costs are pretty much low if you’re developing an app with an offshore, nearshore, or hybrid company. CodingPixel has a detailed section post on this topic. Kindly check it if you want more detailed information.
Technology Stack
The technology stack of a TikTok like an app should be more or less like this;
| Frontend | React Native |
| Backend | Python, JAVA, C#, PHP, Erlang |
| Database | Postgres, Schema less on top of MySQL |
| Cloud | Google Cloud Storage, Azure, AWS |
| Media Server Configuration | Google Cloud Storage, Azure, AWS |
| Video/Audio Transcoding | Amazon, Elastic Transcoder, FFMPEG |
Conclusion
TikTok is quite famous in the app development world and that is why many startups and businesses are turning towards apps like TikTok. The Cost to Develop an App like TikTok is always calculated with a number of features, level of complexity, required platform, and more.
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