With the dawn of digitization, not only people have become more tech-savvy but mobile and web applications are a prerequisite these days for a smooth life. Social media platforms currently are the best communications mediums.
For instance, Instagram with its inception on 6th October 2010 managed to acquire a whopping amount of 1 million users just after its release. Currently, it is a highly renowned video & photo-sharing application.
So if you are also keen on inventing an application like Instagram, then along with the pros and features, you must also learn about the cost to develop an app like Instagram.
Don’t worry even if you are a novice because as you hire an iPhone app developer, you will be receiving professional assistance.
How Instagram Functions?
While wondering how much it cost to make an Instagram app, you can never know it at once. First, it is vital to apprehend how Instagram operates. Start by downloading the application from your app store. After you create your own account as you put in all the necessary details, you will witness three options on hitting the camera icon.
- Gallery – Here you can upload pictures from your Smartphone
- Video – Here you can shoot compact videos
- Photo – You can click pictures & post online
☛ Importance Of Hashtags
Prior to learning how much to make an app like Instagram, you must understand the concept of hashtags as it can bring loads of benefits to your online business endeavors.
When you upload a video or a photo, you need to type the symbol – # along with the text & put it next to the text.
For example – #Wanderlust. In hashtags, you can only put in numbers & letters. Be it any hashtag that you find in the social networking app, you can click on it for witnessing the images that are uploaded.
☛ Benefits Of Hashtags
If you have gained inspiration from Instagram & want to know how much it cost to design an app, you need to calculate the investment that you are ready to make, probable profits, loss, ROI, everything with your developer to get started.
The correct use of hashtags in apps similar to Instagram can bring in a plethora of benefits namely:
- Strengthens brand image
- Categorizes posts
- Attracts more & more followers
- Reach the apt target audience
- Enhances engagement
Looking Into The Features:
1. Account authorization
If you are aiming to build an Instagram like an app, the integration of the feature of account authorization is a must. You can witness this feature in all user-oriented apps. The two authorization ways that you must offer users are:
- Sign-in with present social media account
- Craft a fresh account by utilizing email or phone number
On top of that, users must also be able to reset their lost passwords through email, social media account or phone.
The amount of time it will take to execute authorization features are:
| Features |
Mobile Development (Hours) |
Back-end Development (Hours) |
| Authorization through email |
9 |
6 |
| Authorization through a phone number |
9 |
6 |
| Sign in and Sign Out |
7 |
6 |
| Sign in and Sign Out from Social Media |
8 |
6 |
| Total – 57 hours |
|
|
2. Messaging
The cost to develop an app as Instagram depends on the number of features included as well.
For instance, if you want your app to gain popularity just like Instagram it is of utmost importance to add in the real-time messaging feature. This is the best way of offering users exactly what they are seeking.
You must emphasize on push notifications as well as this is the major component of this feature as it helps in notifying users about incoming messages.
The amount of time it will take to execute real-time messaging feature is:
| Features |
Mobile Development (Hours) |
Back-end Development (Hours) |
| Sending & receiving messages in real-time mode |
75 |
95 |
| Send videos and photos |
26 |
30 |
| Push notifications |
15 |
20 |
| Total – 261 hours |
|
|
3. Upload videos & photos
As you strive in creating an app similar to Instagram, the feature of uploading photos and videos holds special importance. Users must be able to upload seamlessly and rapidly.
The sharing options must be well designed so that your app can give tough competition to other photo-sharing applications.
The amount of time it will take to execute video and photo uploading feature is:
| Features |
Mobile Development (Hours) |
Back-end Development (Hours) |
| Video & photo upload |
12 |
15 |
| Additional options like comments and tags |
42 |
25 |
| Feed screen |
12 |
10 |
| Post details |
39 |
28 |
| Total – 183 hours |
|
|
Technology Stack
How will you build an app like Instagram if you do not know what is Instagram built on? Learning about Instagram tech stack & language coding will not only help you understand the app better but will help you to work seamlessly with your developer as well.
☛ iOS Application
- Networking – Alamofire
- Language – Swift
☛ Android application
- Networking – Retrofit 2, OkHttp 3
- Language – Kotlin
☛ Backend Development
- API documentation – Swagger
- Framework – Express 4
- Messaging – Socket.io
- Language – Node.js (JavaScript)
- Database – MySQL
☛ Third-Party Services
- Emails – Elastic email
- Push notifications – FCM
- Storage – Amazon S3
- Geolocation – Google Maps
Measuring Pros And Cons:
Instagram mobile apps have their own set of pros and cons. If you do not measure those, you will not know whether you must move forward with your plan to build apps like Instagram for Android or not.
Hence, the pros and cons of the Instagram application are as follows:
☛ Pros
1. Effective promotion
Instagram in the present time functions as a highly efficacious marketing tactic. Brands that are successful these days salt away their Instagram pages for displaying products or services whereas startups can easily craft an audience through images on Instagram.
In fact, individuals such as artists & models can display their works & fabricate a solid fan base as well. So after learning about this pro, you can start addressing questions like how much does Instagram makes for the purpose of building your own application.
2. Strict privacy
As compared to other platforms, the makers of Instagram have put a lot of emphasis on the privacy aspect. Here users can keep their photos private between their followers.
In no way, they can bypass the privacy settings. In fact, they can keep the profile picture private as well. Instagram is one such social media account that does not even permit photo downloading.
Instagram like apps will truly gain prominence if you keep such features intact.
☛ Cons
1. Overpowering advertisements
There is no doubt about the fact that Instagram is the finest social media platform in current times for promoting a brand. But anything that is done too much doesn’t seem to attract users and visitors; in fact, they can get annoyed as well.
In Instagram apps, most of the time, users are barraged with several advertisements. So if you are contemplating the cost to develop an app like Instagram for building your own app, you must measure such cons carefully.
2. Addictive
Instagram is an application that largely undergoes toxic addiction. Individuals these days remain glued to this app. This is witnessed as a waste of time as well.
So if you do not want to offer such an Instagram like an app where there is a chance that people become unproductive due to the content, you must think twice before building one.
The Business Model of Instagram
Apart from educating yourself about the Instagram stack, you must learn about the business model as well. By the insights that you gain, it will be easier for you to initiate the development process of your own application.
Instagram earns money through the following ways:
- Advertisements – The organization drives the profits by offering businesses not just a substitute for enhancing brand awareness but enhancing website visits & offline sales as well.
- Facebook Advert – The revenue model of Instagram is linked with Facebook’s model. You can post an advertisement on the former via Facebook & for that, you do not even need to create an Instagram account. The user base of Instagram is an ever-expanding one & it is an essential component of the revenue model of Facebook.
These are the following points to learn about the Instagram business model:
- The business model of Instagram empowers people to explore, speak & share with each other on their Smartphones. The model targets every individual having a Smartphone. (Consumer Segment)
- It is mainly a photo editing application which is the major functionality. It comes with a plethora of colorful filters.
- This is an innovative platform that employs simple mediums (value propositions) such as videos, stories, photos, superzooms, boomerangs, live video, etc.
- It offers numerous cool features such as Geotags, DM, filters, Hashtags, pushes notifications, etc
☛ Cost Breakdown
If you want to develop an app similar to Instagram, you must be familiar with all the investments that you will need to make throughout the entire development process. You can speak to Instagram developers or hire app developer costs for learning about the expenditure as well.
You must begin by calculating the MVP development expenditure. This estimate will incorporate basic features which are an impressive beginning for all photo-sharing applications.
The total timelines with all the features for developing apps like Instagram will be approximately 1,180 hours for the development of every platform. If you want to transfer the man-hours in dollars, you must multiply the figure by the hourly rate of the employees.
Following this:
- Average Developer hourly rate – $50
- We get $59,000 in entirety for every application as we multiply it by 1,180 hours
- In regards to North America, the figure needs to be multiplied by $75-100
- The Total Cost To Develop App Like Instagram will be between $88,500-118,000+
This is the price without admin panel development & design services
Conclusion
Instagram today has been able to gain so much global popularity because of the fantastic interface, arresting features, great performance, etc.
So does your business model have what it takes to reach the pinnacle of success like Instagram? Along with the cost to develop an app like Instagram, measure the cons, pros, think about what new features you can add to attracting users, etc.
Work out the business model, cost, ROI, etc with your developer as you hire an Android app developer who is the best in the town. Connect with us today.
