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How to create a fitness app like Nike Training Club? Just do it!

Doing sport and taking care of yourself — a trend that many of us, successfully or not, have tried to follow. For the niche startups, the benefits are clear: your app will always have new users. To create a health and fitness app, it’s better to find a professional agency. But first, let’s figure out what a fitness app is, and why you should start to think about how to build a fitness tracker app of your dreams.

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How to create a fitness app? Let's see!
Table of contents

What is a fitness app?

Health and fitness apps are designed to make our life more comfortable and relaxed. There are many reasons for people to integrate sport into their lives. It can be a desire to lose weight to fit into favorite jeans, advice from a doctor, or simply a goal to become better at doing something — for example, to run further or swim faster.

This trend is supported by the statistics. According to Allied Market Research, health and fitness apps market is growing annually by 24.3%. By 2030, it’s estimated to reach $120.37 billion. And if we look at leading device types, we’ll see smartphones holding the largest share and growing faster than tablets and wearable devices. What a time for creating your own workout app!

The main advantage of fitness apps is the online mode. It’s easy to add a workout into a schedule: just do it from home, you don’t need to catch the gym schedule.

Types of Fitness & Health Apps

Nike Training Club, where the user can find workouts for athletes, is not the only example of a fitness app. Fitness applications help to solve problems: find an appropriate workout or stop putting sports on the back burner — functionality of the app depends on the problem. We have identified 5 types of health and fitness apps and want to tell you about each of them. Let’s go!

  • Workout planning

Fitness apps can be categorized by a training type: there are exercises for strength, endurance, or mobility. The major task of training apps is to teach users how to do the exercises correctly, that’s why audio and video content is a ‘must-have’.

Create a fitness app like FreeleticsA good example of workout apps — Freeletics

Most often, training apps are used by people who have already paid their dues in the wrong way of doing exercises. They cannot imagine a workout without a fitness bracelet or other wearable device. Therefore, it’s important to add synchronization with wearable devices in such an app.

  • Diet and Nutrition

Diet and nutrition apps help you track dietary habits, count calories, and stay hydrated. One cannot imagine a diet app which doesn’t provide users with an opportunity to set goals, check calories, and find proper nutrition recipes.

Usually, Diet & Nutrition apps include:

  • food data tables — allow the user to find information about calories, proteins, fats, and carbs of a product;
  • calorie counting calculator — helps to calculate a daily calorie intake depending on the user’s body like age, gender, height-to-weight ratio;
  • food diaries — lets users record data about meals they eat during a diet.
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  • Activity tracking

Over the last few years, people started buying smart devices more often: Apple Watch, Xiaomi Mi Band, SmartWatch. With their help, the user can count the number of taken steps, the heart rate, and even the stress level of a day! Activity tracking apps are used not only by professional athletes but also by people who want to track their health indicators. Think in advance about the potential of your own fitness app and add sync with a wearable device — users will appreciate it. 

Create a fitness app and make a connection with wearable deviceCreate a fitness app: make a connect between wearable device and smartphone

  • Habit tracker

Regularity will lead you to success in any business! Habit-forming health and fitness apps help users get rid of bad habits, form good ones, and gradually begin a healthy lifestyle.

Here is an example:

Alex sets a goal — ‘I want to run a half marathon’. It’s not an easy task, especially if an app is not reminding the user to track the progress. Without it, Alex forgets about his goal. 

And the other way around. Alex sets the goal, downloads a fitness application, and sets reminders. In this case, starting from a short distance, Alex will move towards his goal!

This is how good habits keep users coming back to the app again and again.

Key Features for Health and Fitness App

It’s up to you to decide what features will be in your fitness app. To help you with the choice, we have compiled a list of basic health and fitness app functionality that will allow you to become a serious competitor for Nike Training Club or My Fitness Pal. Welcome!

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  • Activity and progress tracker

To set goals means to challenge yourself. The desire to get better every day needs to be encouraged. Make sure that for each new record or completed goal, the user gets something in return. Add a results-based achievement system and grant the user a virtual or real prize. It will help with the marketing strategy of your fitness application — you can find advertisers willing to show up as partners.

  • Filters

Allow users to pick a workout plan according to their needs. Add filters to quickly search the workouts.

Search parameters can be different — think about them in advance. For example, it can be a filter by training duration, physical level required for a training, type of load, or focus on a specific muscle group.

  • Gamification

Progress bars and leaderboards are powerful generators of motivation. An opportunity to compete with each other even at home affects performance.

Well-known fitness tracking app Nike Run Club has a great option — you can set a goal with your friends. Users can choose a distance, date, and invite their friends. The one who does the best receives a gold medal!

Create a fitness app: gamification achievementsHow to create a fitness app: allow users to achieve their goals with fun

  • Push-notifications

Those who struggle to plan their day will appreciate a customizable push-notification system. The most common problem in sports is the loss of enthusiasm. Bad weather, laziness, or household chores — good reasons to skip exercises or break the diet. However, notifications will remind users of their goals. A good health and fitness app is always ready to remind you of the importance of training. 🤘🏻

  • Mentors

Being guided by a highly trained professional is always safer, so users will appreciate having access to expert advice among your fitness app features.

Think about adding an online mode of workouts under the mentor’s control. You can hire a professional that will help your users develop an effective workout program, teach them how to track progress, and set the right direction in building their health.

  • Chat

The ability to share results will motivate users to grow. To prove a point, there is a case:

  • on the one hand, when no one knows that you have started doing sport, there is a temptation to reduce the physical activity or skip a workout
  • on the other hand, if there is someone (for example, a friend who uses the same app) who can find out that you skipped a training session, it is an additional motivation not to do it 

Friends will motivate users to practice regularly and enter the results in the fitness app! 🙃

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  • Sync with wearable devices

Most users have smart devices to help them track their physical activity while doing sports. Smart devices became popular a few years ago, and today almost everyone uses them to monitor health indicators. The user who has a smartwatch bought it for a reason — they want to use it in training. Most likely, this user will prefer a health and fitness app that works in tandem with their device.

Monetization strategies

Let’s dig deeper into the monetization models and learn how you can earn money from health and fitness apps.

create a fitness app: monetization

  • Ads

One of the monetization options is to add other brands’ advertisements in your app. Everyone is happy in this scenario: brands increase sales, users get a free app, and you earn money from advertising.

  • Paid app

Selling a fitness app on the store isn’t the safest option for a startup. Users are only willing to pay when they are sure of receiving a quality product. However, you can always offer the user to start with a trial version and add relevant in-app purchases.

  • Subscription

Users need to subscribe to get access to the functionality of an app. Add a trial period so that users could evaluate the quality of your fitness app.

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  • Freemium

The basic functionality of an app is available to everyone. The user pays only for premium or additional features like disabling ads, access to personal trainers, or individual training plans. You can mix this strategy with other monetization models.

How to create a fitness app step-by-step

Now that you know the types of fitness applications and what features an app can have, let’s move on to the best part of the process. Here is a step-by-step guide to health and fitness application development that helps not to be sidetracked on your way.

Step 1. Analyze the project. 

Discuss the idea of your own fitness app with a development team, define your target audience, outline the app’s features, and let the team estimate the costs and timeframes for the application development. 

Step 2. Create a design. 

You need to find design references and set your expectations for the future app. Your design team will map users’ journey, come up with design concepts for each step, and present them to you.

Step 3. Develop the app. 

Your developers will work on architecture and the interface on both client and server side.

Step 4. Test the app. 

The QA testers will look for any possible bug and fix it before the app release.

Step 5. Release the app and get feedback. 

Now, when the application development process is over, it’s time to launch your app and receive feedback from the first users. Collect all ideas for improvement, update the app if needed, and take your rightful place in the health and fitness category. 

Finish line

The health and fitness app niche is growing rapidly, but there is still room for new apps. Hurry up to take your own! 🙂

Developing a fitness app is a complex and multi-step process. You will have to invest a lot of time and effort in it: determine the type of your app, choose a business model, and work out a monetization strategy.

Health and Fitness App Development Cost

At Purrweb, we estimate app development cost at the discovery stage. If you’re going to create your own workout app, you should be aware of all the parts of the fitness app development process and know what the total cost of development consists of.

Here’s how our team estimates rates and timeframes of health and fitness app development:

Stage Estimation in hours Estimation in weeks Approximate costs
Project analysis 20 1 $ 1000
UI/UX design 120 4 weeks  $ 5 400
App development stage 800 – 900  9 – 10 weeks  $ 36 000 – 40 500
QA Testing 270 – 300 concurrently with the development $5 400 – 6 000
Project management during the whole project during the whole project $3 950 – 4 100

Overall, you will need $ 50 000 – $ 56 000 to launch your own fitness app. And the application development process will take approximately 920 — 1020 hours, which equals 4 months.

Bring us your health and fitness app idea and get a free estimation of your project from Purrweb’s experts. Also, if you have any questions about fitness tracker app development left — fill the form below 👇

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FAQ s

  • How do you create a health and fitness app?

    After researching the market, analyzing competitors and drawing up a business plan, you have to choose the type of the future app — workout planning, diet and nutrition, habit or activity tracker, social fitness app, or a mixture of several types. Then it’s time to define your audience’s needs and come up with key features that the app should have. Now you’re ready to find a team and launch a fitness app development process.

  • How much does it cost to build a workout app?

    Fitness app development cost can vary from $ 50 000 to $ 56 000 depending on the features you choose to include. At Purrweb, we ensure that the client learns the total cost of building an app during the project estimation phase.

  • How do fitness apps make money?

    Most efficient monetization models are offering users a paid app, subscription or a free app with in-app purchases. Partnering with brands and placing their advertisement is also one of the lucrative ways to make money on the app.