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  • # Paul Blake
  • # App Development
  • # 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

  1. Platform
  2. Features
  3. Design
  4. Development Team
  5. 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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