Code a dating app

Interested in building a dating app? 

This is a huge industry that promises huge rewards. 

A staggering 46% of Americans have used an online dating app at some point, as this Statistia report shows.

Building a great dating app is not just a chance to make money. Innovating in this industry is a great way to bring people together also. Here’re a few amazing case studies of companies who hired DevTeam.Space to build their software products:

1. DentaMatch – Healthcare Android and iOS App
2. MyTime – Scheduling And Payment Web Application
3. Learning Solution For The Chinese Market – Class Scheduling and eLearning App

Mobile dating app features
Configure Zoplay’s ready-made Tinder clone app
Configure ready-made app from Tinderbox solutions
Configure a ready-made mobile dating app from Appscrip
How to build an app like Tinder using Appy Pie’s dating app builder
How to make a dating app using the PubNub platform
Dating app development

Mobile dating app features

What makes a dating app successful?

Given that online dating involves sharing sensitive information, it‘s important to take all precautionary measures to protect all those who participate. That‘s why it‘s extremely important to think about all the features through and offer your users a great and safe experience.

You should consider including the following features while you create a dating app:

Online dating safety features

While both men and women increasingly use dating apps, this feature is of prime importance for women. Knowing a partner requires time and many face-to-face interactions. Since mobile dating apps start with the premise that people can ‘meet’ online first and start a relationship subsequently, women need additional safety assurance.

Insights into a persons’ background with some validation are important. Read more about the importance of it in “Safe Online Dating”.

Good UX for mobile dating app

A mobile dating app needs a good UX, and should offer the following:

• Users can navigate the app easily;
• Ability to easily find a ‘match’;
• A good chat interface.

Read more the importance of this feature in “For The Love of UX: Tinder’s Product Designers Talk User-Centered Design for Emotional Experiences”.

Monetizing is important for the overall design

When you create a dating app, you need to remember that “Winner takes all”. See how Tinder is way ahead of its competitor in monetizing their app, in “This is how much dating apps make every minute”.

Hence, you need to strategize on how you will monetize your app. Effective strategies could include premium account, in-app ads, and promotions. However, remember the adverse effect of annoying in-app ads on your UX.

Let’s now review what approaches you can take for dating app development.

Configure Zoplay’s ready-made Tinder clone app

If you are an entrepreneur trying to quickly launch your mobile dating app and don’t have a development team, you can choose to configure readily available apps. Zoplay provides you one such Tinder clone app.

You only need to do the following:

1. Buy their Tinder clone ready-made app;
2. Configure it to include your branding;
3. Publish it in Google Play and Apple App Store;
4. Grow your business by using Analytics, and monetizing techniques.

The readymade app has all the key features you will need in a dating app, e.g.:

• Social sharing;
• “Like” and “Dislike”;
• Group chat;
• Distance-based search;
• Age and gender-based filter match;
• In-app notifications.

You can check out their offering in the Zoplay Tinder clone app webpage.

Zoplay charges a one-time fee of US $ 1499 for a website and Android app combine, and the fees are the same for a website and iOS combined. If you want a website, Android, and iOS, they charge a one-time fee of US $ 2499.

You get the complete source code, installation support, and regular support from Zoplay. There is almost no other dating app development cost. You don’t need to engage a dating app development company or hire dating app developers in large number.

However, you need to arrange backend hosting. I recommend you consider ‘Mobile Backend as a Service’ (MBaaS) providers like Google Firebase, Kinvey, or similar companies. Many of them have a free tier, hence, depending on the projected usage of your app, you may be able to work with a free tier initially. Check out “How To Choose The Best Mobile Backend As A Service (MBaaS)?” for a comparison of MBaaS providers.

Configure ready-made app from Tinderbox solutions

This is another option for entrepreneurs looking for a speedy launch of their mobile dating app without coding. Tinderbox Solutions has a complete ready-made dating app called “Tindo”.

Their app has both Android and iOS versions. Like Zoplay, they offer standard features, for e.g. “Like/Dislike”, distance-based search, reject profile, chat, social login, Geolocation, etc.

Their pricing plan includes a few components for free, e.g.:

• Free updates for the first 12 months;
• Free support for 3 years;
• Source-code;

They provide their pricing information upon inquiry. Like Zoplay, you need to arrange for an MBaaS account.

For Zoplay and Tinderbox options, you will only likely need to create your branding logo and have a business analyst finalize your apps’ features. That may take a week, and then you can hire a tester for 2 weeks. It sums up to one person-month of effort.

Your geography will determine your manpower cost. You need to add the MBaaS and product pricing to it.

Configure a ready-made mobile dating app from Appscrip

For entrepreneurs without access to a highly skilled and experienced development team, Appscrip provides another option to build a mobile dating app without much coding. They have designed their “Datum” taking inspiration from dating apps like Tinder, Grindr, etc.

You can customize “Datum” easily, and the base source code is PCI compliant hence you needn’t worry about in-app purchase functionality. Their pre-built script makes deployment easy, while they support Android and iOS.

They claim to have a scalable design, with multi-language and multi-currency support. Their app has the standard dating app features, e.g.:

• Social login;
• Photo and video upload;
• Social linking;
• Browse profile;
• Matches;

Check out the Datum webpage for more details. They provide a pricing plan upon request. You will need to arrange your MBaaS plan.

I recommend that you assemble the following team:

• 1 business analyst for 1 week;

• 1 graphics designer to create your branding material, for 1 week;
• 1 mobile front-end developer for 2 weeks;
• 1 tester for 2 weeks.

How to make an app like Tinder using Appy Pie’s dating app builder

Appy Pie is a mobile app creation software that you can use to create different kinds of apps. They support Android, iOS, Fire OS, and Windows platforms. This is perhaps your best option if you can assemble a reasonably skilled development team.

Mobile dating app features with Appy Pie

When you make your Tinder clone app with Appy Pie, you can include the following broad features in it:

• Your users can find matches with simple swipes and taps.
• The app will provide a chat facility to your users.
• Easily monetize your app by adding in-app purchases.
• Match profiles of users using broad interests.
• Your app will support push notifications.
• Your users can easily add photos.
• The app will support login authentication with Facebook.
• The app admin has an easy-to-use admin panel.
• Users can use their Facebook profile or create their own.

How to build a dating app using Appy Pies’ intuitive platform

Appy Pie provides a simple, drag-and-drop platform for you to create your mobile dating app. You don’t need to code; this provider allows you to customize app layouts easily.

There are 3 broad steps, as follows:

1. Choose your design layout;
2. Add the features you need in your app;
3. Use the tools to push it to the Google Play or App Store easily.

Access their app builder here.

Get help from Appy Pie documentation for dating app development

Appy Pie has excellent documentation, and you can consult it in pretty much every step. For e.g.:

• You can view this video tutorial on how to create a Tinder clone.
• The documentation will tell you how you can integrate the login API.
• Appy Pie’s documentation will clarify your questions on push notifications.
• You can learn how to create, update, and delete your app here.
• Let’s assume you want to include Twilio SMS service in your app. You can learn how to do it here.
• Learn good tips to monetize your app here.
• You can check out how to send push notifications using the Appy Pie platform here.
• The platform allows you to add YouTube videos to your app, find out how you can do so here.
• If you want the Appy Pie team to submit your app on Google Play, they provide instructions for it here.
• Suppose you want to publish your app to the Apple App Store. You can learn how to do that here.

This is not an exhaustive list. To view their comprehensive documentation, visit the Appy Pie Support webpage.

If your focus area is iOS, and you are planning to build an iPhone app, check out their step-by-step instructions here. On the other hand, you can access their instructions on how to make an Android app here.

Dating app development cost with Appy Pie

With the drag-and-drop app builder that Appy Pie provides, you don’t need to hire dating app developers specifically! I recommend that you have a developer with generic mobile app development skill in your team, along with a tester, a business analyst, and a project manager. You will likely need a graphics designer for your branding work.

You will likely need less than one and a half person-months of total effort, assuming you are planning to include standard features. Appy Pie has a tiered pricing plan based on features, for e.g. you can use the free tier only to create a web app.

When you upgrade and buy their basic, gold, or premium plans, you get a wider choice of platforms. There are no ads for you to contend with, in the paid pricing plans. Their pricing includes MBaaS, hence you don’t need to arrange it separately.

You also have a higher quota of push notifications and bandwidth, just to name a few examples. You can get assistance from the Appy Pie developers, too. Check out their pricing page here.

How to make a dating app using the PubNub platform

PubNub provides a platform for building various kinds of mobile apps, including mobile dating apps. With their ‘Software Development Kit’ (SDK) you can build the following features in your mobile dating app:

• Encrypted private messaging;
• Typing indicator;
• Unread message count;
• Message history;
• Emojis;
• Push notifications;
• Read receipts;
• User online/offline status;
• Content moderation to filter out inappropriate messages and images;
• Geolocation capabilities.

PubNub has good mobile chat app SDKs, and they bring that expertise into the dating app SDKs too, with their ChatEngine. PubNub offers SDK, plugin, UI components, and messaging framework for dating apps. Read more about it in the PubNub dating app webpage.

PubNub has an extensive array of SDKs, and they support Android, iOS, Xamarin, PhoneGap, and Windows. Read their extensive SDK documentation in the PubNub Developers webpage.

They are an established ‘Infrastructure as a Service’ (IaaS) provider with their Data Stream Networks (DSNs) infrastructure in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. They have a free tier in their pricing plan, besides there are ‘STANDARD’ and ‘PRO’ plans. Check out their pricing plan here.

You will likely need to hire the following development team in this approach:

• 1 graphic designer for 1 week;
• 1 business analyst for 1 week;
• 1 Project manager for 4 weeks;
• 1 Android and 1 iOS developer, for 2 weeks each;
• 1 tester for 2 weeks.

How to develop a dating app following a ‘Do It Yourself’ (DIY) approach

If you want a custom dating app and the above options aren’t sufficient then you need to take a DIY approach. You will need the following skills:

1. Graphic designer for your branding;
2. Business analyst;
3. Project manager;
4. Android and iOS developers;
5. Web developer;

I still recommend that you use an MBaaS provider so that you can save backend development time. So, how much does it cost to develop a dating app like tinder with this approach? Assuming you buy an MBaaS service, the following is an estimate:

• Developing a version for one platform can take about 1,000 hours;
• UI/UX design: Approximately 100 hours;
• Testing: Approximately 50 hours.

This is a relatively complex approach, which is why it‘s best to hire an expert dev team powered by an Agile development process and make sure that your dating app is well-built and easy to use.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does it cost to make an app like Tinder?

The cost of a typical dating app varies according to its complexity and the number of OS platforms it needs to work on. However, a basic dating app that works on Android will begin from $40,000 up.

How do you create a dating app?

You create a project outline, onboard the required developers and project managers, set up the infrastructure and communication channels, then set the ball rolling. For top developers, fill in a DevTeam.Space project specification form and we will connect you to the right ones.

What framework does Tinder use?

It is build on the AWS platform using JavaScript, Python, HTML5.