Dating App Development: Build an App Like Tinder, Badoo, Happn

Tinder is perhaps the most successful dating app out there, and it has prompted numerous entrepreneurs and software companies to create a dating app that is both similar and unique.

The magnitude of the target audience is one of the reasons for the high level of interest: 57 million users spend over 1.5 hours each day on the app. It generates user engagement and can provide revenue streams if effective and successful matches are made.

Dating applications are socially acceptable and in demand. So, how can your app stand out from the crowd and become the next Tinder? Continue reading.

Trends and Stats Dating App

Before we dive into the full data sets and conclusions, we wanted to share a few quick teasers of some of the things we learned and found interesting throughout the study.

• Over 74% of people admit checking their online dating accounts while at work. This includes 34.13% who say they check them regularly and 39.88% who say yes, but only rarely.
• The number of men who regularly check their online dating accounts while at work is significantly higher than many women. 42.91% of men claim they check their online dating accounts regularly while at work, instead of only 25.20% of women.
• Using exactly 2 dating apps at one time was the most popular response across all age brackets at 44.44%. People 45-54 years old were the most likely to only use one dating app at a time (33.60%). 75.4% of all respondents use at least two dating apps.
• Men were far more likely to use 3 or more dating apps at one time than women. The results were 36.62% for men and 25.20% for women.
• 79.37% of respondents say they check their online dating accounts at least once per day. The youngest group studied (18-24 years old) was the least likely to check their accounts multiple times per day (42.06%).
• Most respondents say they primarily use their phones to access their online dating accounts (78.17%). The statistics were nearly identical across all age brackets for phone usage (77.78% and 78.57%).
• The older users were, the more likely they would use their online dating accounts in the evening. Additionally, the younger users were, the more likely they would use their online dating accounts in the afternoon.
• Men were more likely to use their online dating apps in the morning (10.63% versus only 6.80%). Conversely, women were more likely to use their apps in the evening (40.00% versus only 29.92%).

Dating App Development Process

Investigate the market and rivals.

What about those 8,000 dating apps? That’s a lot of information. However, you won’t have to compete with every dating app on the market; instead, you’ll only have to compete with those who share your specialization. So, once you’ve decided to go into dating app development, you’ll need to find your immediate competitors among the 8,000 and evaluate what they’re doing properly and poorly.

What other dating services are there besides the world’s giants, Tinder, Happn, Match.com, and Badoo?

Making a comprehensive list would most likely take all day.

Grindr and Her — dating apps for LGBTQIA+ and lesbian and queer women, respectively — are the first that come to mind. However, dating services cater to a wide range of demographics.

Focusing on a specific specialty is a fantastic approach for a dating app startup. You have fewer competitors in a niche, and if you do things correctly, you’ll gain a more loyal audience. For example, DateMyPet allows pet owners to discover a match who will never object to their devoted fluffy companion. It’s a good business idea because breakups over pets aren’t uncommon. Research shows that 86 percent of people choose their dogs before a potential spouse.

As previously said, there are slightly more males than women who use dating apps. Men are also more proactive when it comes to dating, which, let’s face it, isn’t always a positive experience. Unfortunately, unsolicited R-rated photographs, slurs when ignored, and date rape are too common.

When Coffee Confronts Bagel gives women the power to take the first step – if a man likes a woman’s profile, he can only start contacting her if she likes his profile. Coffee Meets Bagel also restricts the number of possible likes per day, encouraging real interactions rather than merely hooking up with whoever responds from the hundreds of profiles you’ve swiped.

As you can see, the options are limitless. At the same time, it’s always a good idea to look at the general market leaders – you might be able to come up with a unique approach to incorporate some of their characteristics into your specialty.

Tinder

Time magazine dubbed it a “cultural phenomenon” when it debuted in 2012. Tinder debuted on the iOS platform two years later, followed by Android.

Sean Rad, one of Tinder’s co-founders, claimed in 2012, “Computers are going extinct, and I believed mobile was the future.” And he was correct.

The app’s logo, which represents the spark between two people interested in one other, is directly linked to the name Tinder. This idea caught on, and now there are roughly 50 million regular Tinder users worldwide. How do you make a Tinder-like app? Take a look at some of the amazing features that consumers enjoy:

Intuitive UX.

Swiping became Swiping with a capital S, which we immediately connected with Tinder. Tinder is a matchmaking app. Swiping left and right to find a prize: your Tinder match is addictive.

Tinder offers Facebook and Instagram integration, so you don’t have to spend hours perfecting your dating profile.

Users are enthralled by innovative features such as List, Matchmaker, and Moments.

Tinder is popular in the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Australia, and, perhaps most surprisingly, India. Badoo, its greatest competitor in the other half of the world, dominates the online dating business in Latin America, Oceania, Eastern Europe, and Russia, its largest market.

Badoo

TechCrunch predicted Badoo to take the world by storm a year before Tinder when local dating app development was just getting started, and it did. This app, which has already made $130 million in sales, has its quirks:

Badoo offers two main screens: one for Tinder-style swipes and the other for simply browsing a list of individuals in your area.

It lets you start a conversation with anyone, not just your “matches.” Badoo has a two-message restriction and blocks those who can’t amaze you in their first two efforts, so don’t worry about getting tormented by unwanted fans.

Badoo boasts outstanding security – thanks to its selfie-on-the-spot feature, you won’t have to worry about catfishing anymore!

Happn

Happn takes a unique approach by displaying people you’ve passed during the day, sat across from at a cafe or on the bus, or seen on the opposite side of the street. That is, assuming they have the app installed as well. Here’s what makes happn stand out from the crowd of dating apps:

• Unlike Tinder, you can have an unlimited amount of likes.
• It shows you various people, without pressuring you to like or dislike them.
• Users can use it for free because of its monetization mechanism.

On the other hand, others have attacked happn, claiming that its major function encourages stalking. If you’re considering adopting a comparable feature, you may need to conduct additional research on your target audience.

Dating on Facebook

Facebook Dating adds something unique to the table, and it’s not simply Facebook’s tremendous amount of user data (though it does play a huge role).

The Facebook Dating app (which has a separate profile and maybe concealed from your Facebook friends) has a few unique features. One of them, in my opinion, is unique: live location. You can send your location to a trusted buddy when you’re meeting someone you’ve matched with. They’ll know where you went, when, and with whom you went. Facebook couldn’t make online dating completely safe, but it can give daters peace of mind. Consider adding a comparable function to your dating app; many women, and possibly some men, would appreciate it.

Aside from that, while Dating matches you with like-minded people in your city based on your Facebook profile, events, and organizations, it does not match you with your Facebook friends. By default, they’re not included in your possible matches. Additionally, you can disable matching with friends of friends!

If you want to be paired with a buddy, you can add them to your Secret Crush list, another significant Facebook Dating feature. It’s a fairly subtle function, which is something that many users appreciate. Add up to nine pals to your Secret Crush list that you consider more than friends, and they’ll get a notification that someone is crushing on them. They won’t know who you are unless they add you to their Secret Crush list, resulting in a match. This prevents you from being embarrassed by a friend who knows you have a crush on them but does not reciprocate.

It’s all about the cash flow.

Because the expense of developing a dating app is fairly significant, how can you monetize your dating app? There are a few options that are widely acknowledged.

Advertisement within the app. Incorporate an offer wall or other forms of advertisements into your app. You’ll be compensated for each ad click.

Purchases are made within the app. Allow users to purchase emojis, more swipes, likes, and other items. Happn uses this monetization method: you can buy “charms,” and they are quickly notified when you “charm” someone for a few dollars.

Premium access is available. Tinder earns money by selling Tinder Plus memberships, which include limitless swipes and likes and access to other features.

Prototyping, testing, and receiving feedback are all part of the process.

Prototypes can be created after evaluating your idea and conducting a business analysis. We recommend a low-fidelity prototype (LFP). This enables you to comprehend all of the cause-and-effect linkages between buttons and windows. An LFP can also assist you in estimating development costs.

Create a black-and-white prototype as the following step. To create a UX design for your product, you must first complete this stage.

Then put the wireframes to the test and make a change map.

A high-fidelity prototype is the final stage of prototyping (HFP). This is required for conducting crowd testing, which provides feedback from your target audience and assists your developers in finding flaws to address early in the development process.

Read: How Does Tinder Make Money (Business and Revenue Model)

Dating app features that are a must-have

Is it difficult to create a Tinder-like app?

At first appearance, most dating apps appear to be the same. The dating app procedure entails signing up, searching for potential mates, selecting one, and sending messages. However, the functionality of a dating app may differ depending on consumer expectations. We’ll go over the essential elements that an online dating software like Tinder should have.

1. Log in

Users don’t want to waste time filling out lengthy registration forms. As a result, you’ll need to implement a quick sign-in function that works with Facebook/Instagram, email, and phone numbers. Don’t forget to protect your information. Users should be aware that their personal information is completely secure.

2. Create a dating profile

Users can edit their profiles and include information such as age, location, a brief description, interests, and hobbies. It’s also critical to organize the profile elements in a straightforward and user-friendly manner so that other users can make judgments without hesitation. Then, your online dating app should include data from other platforms that reflect one’s interests, such as Spotify and Instagram.

3. Discover people

Naturally, people prefer partnerships in which they can easily meet their spouses in person. It is less likely to meet someone who lives thousands of miles away; thus, not everyone wants to text them. People that live in the same city or, at the very least, the same state are a fantastic alternative.

Tinder, for example, modifies its finding parameters based on age, sex, and distance. Customers can only set a distance of up to 10 miles in freemium. Most online dating applications, including Tinder, use location-based services to display users’ potential soulmates.

4. Matching

Any online dating app’s matching algorithms are at its core. Matching isn’t a random process. With AI or AR, it is now possible to advance matching algorithms. Artificial intelligence will learn about their interests based on user likes and ignores profiles. In addition, an online dating app based on recognition data and behavior analysis, similar to Netflix, would give more efficient matching.

Another example is OkCupid, a free online dating service. “What kind of relationship are you searching for?” this online dating app will ask you. Then compare your responses to others. The proportion then matches someone higher.

5. Chat

Users can start conversing and getting to know one other after being matched. That’s why we use dating apps in the first place. With chat, video calls, photo uploads, and other profiles, the dating app must satisfy their want to learn more about potential mates.

Tinder is considering incorporating GIFS, symbols, stickers, or video calls for more advanced communication to improve the experience of using a dating app.

6. Push notifications

Push alerts are a must-have feature in every online dating app. As a result, users will spend more time inside your app, allowing them to keep in touch with potential soulmates in real-time. Tinder sends you to push notifications when you have new matches, messages, or app changes.

How much does it cost to create a Tinder-like app?

Several factors determine the cost of developing a dating software like Tinder or Badoo:

The platforms you want your app to run are Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android, or both?

The quantity and complexity of features you intend to implement Here’s an estimate of how long each of the basic features listed above will take:

Features Hours

• Onboarding from 96 hours to 120 hours.
• Up from 160 hours on the profile
• 151 hours spent discovering individuals
• From 80 connections/chats to 140 hours, match other people.
• Features of security
• 54-hour time limit
• 39 hours of push notifications, 
• 63 hours of settings

At the same time, to make an app like Tinder, you’ll need other specialists besides mobile app developers. You’ll need strong backend developers to set up the servers that manage your app’s data and provide a connection to it. You’ll need UI/UX designers to design how your app looks. 

And since launching an app without testing is a very bad idea (we can’t stress that enough), you’ll need to add a quality assurance (QA) specialist to the list. Finally, if you’re planning to hire a dating app development company to outsource the work to, you’ll have a project manager to coordinate the development process.

A custom iOS dating app will take 1447 hours or longer to develop. Therefore, the cost to make an app like Tinder for iOS will begin at about $50,000. Developing a second app for Android will cost you an additional $25,000.

Dating App Development: Summarizing

As the Beatles once sang, all you need is love. People find their soulmates in different ways, and using apps is one of them. As time passes, dating applications are becoming more and more trustworthy. We may be suspicious of new startups at first glance, but happily-in-love users will keep the fire burning if they turn out to be handy. The more ideas that keep people falling for each other, the better our world might eventually become.

We hope this article was useful for anyone looking up how to create a dating app like Tinder or Badoo.