How to Build Your Own Health and Fitness App from Scratch

There are several different types of health and fitness apps you can get as an idea for your next business. But, if we are speaking about building your own health and fitness app from scratch, you need to know about core features and stages. Read our ultimate guide and reveal all possible issues.

Want to create your own workout plan app? Or does a healthy meal planner and calorie counter sound like a better option? Both of these are great ideas, so we’ve put together the ultimate guide to health and fitness application development to guide you through the project.

WHAT ARE THE HEALTH AND FITNESS APPS?
Health and fitness applications are tech solutions that help users control eating, keep track of activity, and improve their well-being by promoting healthier habits. They motivate people to get involved in sports or exercise programs, cope with eating disorders, and improve other aspects of their physical and mental health.

These apps are popular because they help users achieve healthy lifestyle habits that have been trending globally for several years. And since the pandemic, the development of these applications for home workouts and more at-home meal planning, are on the rise, and this trend is expected to continue. If you are thinking about creating a workout app or another self-care solution, right now is a great time to do it.

TYPES OF HEALTH AND FITNESS APPS
You may be wondering what the best health and fitness application is. The best app is actually one that fits the needs of your target audience and helps solve a problem that needs to be addressed. There are a lot of health app types and each is for a specific issue. Here is a list of the major ones:

• Online fitness and workout apps. A lot of self-care applications fit into this category. These are apps that allow users to create their workout plans, get in touch with online fitness trainers, set goals, and track progress.
• Nutrition monitoring and hunger control apps. These apps have the functionality to help you plan your meals for proper nutrition and curb your appetite with the help of calorie counters, personal meal plan preparation and suggestions, shopping lists, and other features. There can also be plans for weight loss or gain developed according to the needs of the users.
• Yoga and meditation apps. These apps open up access to yoga and meditation practices. With their help, you can practice yoga, meditation, proper breathing, and personal affirmations without the help of a coach.
• Activity tracking apps. Sometimes activity tracking features come as a part of fitness apps that are paired with wearable devices, but there are also stand-alone activity tracking solutions like the one embedded in the Apple Watch.
• Positive habit development apps. This is an easy one to overlook, but don’t forget about apps that address habits while thinking about healthcare application development, since many habitual activities are directly connected to heath (e.g. smoking, drinking alcohol, and eating unhealthy foods).
• Sleep control apps. These apps help you develop good sleep patterns and control your nighttime schedule better.
• Mobile health applications. Mobile health app development is a separate category that includes apps tied to the specific health needs of people like monitoring heart rate or sugar levels for example. This category may also include remote health control apps, recovery apps, self-diagnostic apps, and telemedicine solutions.

WHERE CAN YOU GET DATA FOR YOUR FITNESS APP?
Gathering data sets is an important step in healthcare mobile app development. The quality of data and its potential to engage your audience will be a factor in the popularity of your app. There are three ways to get the data needed for your health and fitness mobile application.

• Research. Gathering any data starts with research. Depending on your app type, you may need to research and collect tons of information on living a healthy lifestyle, fitness, proper nutrition, possible side effects, and precautions to provide your users with high-value information.
• Create from scratch. If you want to create your own workout app, then you have to show users how to perform particular exercises. In addition to training programs, you will need to create lots of visual and animated content or film content for videos so users can train with a virtual coach in the app.
• Develop an AI-driven data model. Applications powered by artificial intelligence (AI) such as ones that suggest nutrition plans based on the user’s physical health, goals, and budget, need even more high-quality data. In this case, you need to create an AI algorithm that will provide verified suggestions based on the users’ requests.

HEALTH AND FITNESS APP BASIC FEATURES
Defining the features you need to create is an essential part of the healthcare mobile application development process. Below are the most important functions you may need to build:

• Registration/login. This is where users sign in to start interacting with your app.
• Personal profile. This section collects important information about the user. For example, if your application offers personalized workouts or weight loss opportunities, you need to ask users about their current physical state and their goals at the very beginning of the journey in order to offer personalized suggestions.
• Diaries. Depending on the type of application, the diary section may differ. For example, for a nutrition app, the users should be able to track meals consumed, but if this is a sleep monitoring app there should be features for tracking hours slept and offering suggestions on how to improve sleep.
• Blog. Users who turn to health and fitness applications are likely to be concerned about their overall health and lifestyle. A blog is a good idea to support your users, build your brand, and provide the information needed while inspiring loyalty.
• Wearable device connection. Fitness, yoga and weight loss applications are best when connected with a wearable device so the user will be able to track the number of calories expended and the time spent on training and exercise.
• Social media sharing. Sharing achievements with friends is useful for support and motivation purposes, but it’s also great for attracting new users to your app.
• App integration. It might make sense to connect your app with other apps like the Health app on iPhones for smooth data sharing.

5 STEPS TO BUILD YOUR OWN HEALTH AND FITNESS APP
So, how do you make a healthcare app? Below is a five-step strategy.

1. CHOOSE YOUR HEALTH AND FITNESS APP TYPE
Start by categorizing your ideas according to the list we’ve provided above, and keep in mind that your solution shouldn’t be squeezed into a limited framework in order to come up with a novel idea that will stand out amongst competitors.

2. DECIDE ON PLATFORMS AND TECHNOLOGIES
Health and fitness solutions make the most sense when created in the form of mobile applications. Start with an analysis of your target audience to understand what mobile platform you should focus on. You may decide to create a native app for a specific platform or two native apps if you want to meet the desires of both Android and iOS users. Or you can choose cross-platform mobile development to speed up the process and save costs.

3. DEFINE IMPORTANT FEATURES
We’ve already listed the essential features you need for health and fitness applications. However, you should research and test some additional features depending on the specifics of your app and the expectations of your target audience. Follow the lean methodology so you only invest in those functions your users really need.

4. CHOOSE A SUITABLE MONETIZATION MODEL
Health and fitness apps can be monetized in several ways including:

• Subscription. This is the most popular monetization strategy since it allows users to pay a fee annually to unlock all the available features.
• In-app ads. This is another way to create an income stream, but you should be mindful to show your users only relevant ads. Otherwise, they may abandon your app. As for health and fitness apps, cooperation with brands from these industries is a good fit.
• Fees. If you want to build your own workout app that will connect with online fitness coaches that have potential customers, you may ask for a small fee from each person accessing a training module on your platform.

5. FIND A TECH PARTNER
Your health app development will be smooth and risk-free if you partner with an experienced tech vendor. Don’t hesitate to ask your health app developers to show you their portfolio, and tell you about the projects they have already implemented for the medical, sporting, and healthcare industries.

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO CREATE A FITNESS APP?
The price of healthcare application development varies based on complexity. First, it depends on the mobile platform you choose. Applications for iOS are pricier than apps for Android. However, if the share of iOS and Android users are equal in your target group, it makes sense to consider cross-platform healthcare app development.

The location of your healthcare mobile app development company matters, too. For example, the hourly rate for American healthcare app developers is ten times higher than what Indian coders charge. Alternatively, you may consider outsourcing your fitness app development to Eastern Europe to cut costs without risking quality.

CONCLUSION
Creating a health and fitness app will be easier if there is a tech-savvy vendor in close proximity to your location. Cprime is a healthcare application development company with robust experience in creating solutions for the medical and fitness industries. What’s more, we have a lot of insights to share with you in a personal consultation, so feel free to contact us at learn@cprime.com!