How to Build a Fitness Tracking App [Benchmarking Tips]

Fitness tracking apps are a great example of how technology can connect businesses and consumers and benefit both. In January 2022 alone, the most popular fitness applications were downloaded 16.91 million times, compared to only 3.23 million times in 2018, according to Statista. 

So, looking at the 2018-2022 range, we can see that the global pandemic played a role in the importance of fitness tracker app development. People started paying more attention to their health and many physical fitness centers closed, so the new habit has emerged and it’s not going away.

Time Period	Monthly Downloads in Millions
Jan 2022	16.91
Jan 2021	15.26
Jan 2020	18.28
Jan 2019	8.84
Jan 2018	3.23
Jan 2017	2.76

Fitness apps come in all shapes and sizes. Workout libraries like Nike Training Club, pedometers (or step-counters) like Fitbit, exercise apps like Peloton, combined wellness programs like BetterMe, unusual outside training apps like Dryft…the list goes on.

So, are you looking to start a fitness tracking app? You’re on the right track. In our guide, ProCoders shows you market data, your future top competitors, essential features, steps on building an application, and more!

If you want to build a modern solution with top-notch user experience, you need this guide.

Key takeaways:

• Creating a fitness tracker application is a profitable idea, proven by the market revenue growth at 16.36% CAGR. User penetration increases as well, which means that the public is becoming more interested.
• The top applications for different purposes are Nike Training club (as a free app), obé Fitness (for group training), and others. All have over 4 stars on both App Store and Google Play.
• The best features recommended for the fitness tracking app you make are personalization, various fitness activity trackers for physical progress and nutrition, geolocation, and others.
• The development process includes thorough market research, UI design, building the fitness tracker app’s prototype and MVP, creating the final version, and launching.
• The tech stack for a fitness application may include SDKs and APIs like Google Fit, Apple’s HealthKit, Fitbit, and Misfit, programming languages such as .NET, PHP, Node, and more.
• The article contains a FAQ section with questions about app development cost, how to monetize the project, what influences the price, etc.

Overview of the Fitness Applications Market

According to Statista, the CAGR of the at-home gym app industry revenue is forecasted to be at 16.36% in the years 2022-2027, with the expected market volume of $33.04 billion in 2027. The data was gathered from paid apps where people purchase plans, workouts, and other materials. This means the real numbers are bigger as apps tend to include paid ads; some also charge per download.

User penetration is also expected to grow from 8.67% this year to 12.21% by 2027. A steady growth shows not only the interest of Internet users towards their health is growing but also your profit opportunities.

Moreover, this market research offers data on fitness apps alone, when in reality you can also cover physical and mental well-being, nutrition, and more. Before starting your healthcare app development, consider various niches.

Our next stop is the most popular fitness tracking applications with millions of downloads worldwide.

The Most Successful Fitness Tracker Apps

Let’s get to know the leaders of the market. You can take them as examples for your concert or look into how you can create a different application and become the leader of your own niche.

According to Healthline, these are the best programs:

• Nike Training Club – the best free app with iPhone and Android ratings of 4.8 and 4.3 respectively. Lots of free workouts and plans, easy-to-apply filters.
• obé Fitness – the best solution for group training with iPhone ratings of 4.8 and Android ones of 4.4. A paid app with 20 live classes offered each day and a library of over 2,000 workouts.
• Fit Body – the best female community – 4.9 on App Store and 4.7 on Google Play. 4 trainers, 12 programs for fitness, and healthy meal ideas for 72 weeks!
• Centr – the male counterpart created by Chris Hemsworth. 4.7 on App Store and 4.7 on Google Play. Not for beginners, but the app has daily workouts and meals, not forgetting some mindfulness techniques to balance the mind and body.
• Studio Bloom – the best prenatal and postpartum fitness app with 4.8 on App Store and 4.7 on Google Play. 300 classes including injury rehab, yoga, cardio, strength training, HIIT, etc.

ProCoders has worked on a challenging and very unique fitness app as well. It’s called Dryft and it needed all these sophisticated functions for trainers and class attendees. The former had to upload the info about their workouts, locations, etc., receive payments, and more. The latter had to pay in a couple of clicks, have the class info uploaded to their calendars, etc.

Along with Dryft’s UX/UI designers, we’ve created an application that diversifies human lives and helps them stay fit!

So, what features are in demand nowadays in fitness applications? What are the audiences most drawn to? Keep reading to find out!

Features of a Fitness Tracker Application that Bring Profits

Before thinking about how to make a fitness tracking app, let’s see what features are in demand nowadays. After all, you have to launch something your target audience needs, so it makes sense to look into that. 

Personalization

Allow to fill in a personal profile for everyone. Name, age, gender, and preferred workout type alone will give you lots of info to show targeted ads or the most fitting training. This feature may also help you estimate the number of calories lost during the workout or running session.

Push notifications

Push notifications have to be personalized as much as possible, depending on the most used features, set bodybuilding goals, progress, and even suitable deals from your eStore.

Trackers

Various trackers for nutrition, fitness, and overall progress make these apps even more personalized and engaging. You can send notifications to the users when they reach a new milestone to remind them to use the app more often.

Geolocation

With user consent, of course, offer geolocation tracking so that they can see where they ran or went and how long the distance was. Offer the best places for working out, the ability to build routes beforehand, etc.

Gamification

Make fitness fun with some gamification, like rewards for running or walking a certain number of miles. The rewards can be discounts for your eStore items or points that can be later exchanged for a week or a Premium plan.

Other notable mentions are social login and sharing, wearables synchronization, setting goals, and sleep tracking.

OK, with the list of features you can use for the program, we can proceed to see how to build a fitness tracking app.

Stages of Fitness Tracker App Development

So, how to make a fitness app? What steps do you have to know about? How to make sure you don’t miss out on anything? ProCoders has a neat step-by-step guide on how to develop a fitness tracker app.

Step 1: Research the market and create a concept

Thorough market research shows you:

• What the audience expects from similar products
• What your direct and indirect competition is
• What niche is the most popular nowadays, and more.

All this helps you see how to create a fitness tracker app that meets users’ expectations. With this in mind, you have to create a concept where you’ll have info on design, features, messaging, etc.

Step 2: Choose the features you want for the fitness app

Some entrepreneurs want to launch a really useful app so badly that they stuff it with features right away. First of all, it’s going to confuse people and the fitness tracker app you’ve started won’t have one clear goal you can market. Besides, more features mean more developers and/or more working hours, which also makes the price skyrocket.

So, it’s better to position your app in a niche where it can be useful (that’s what we’ve done all that market research for).

Step 3: Design the interface with UX in mind

An intuitive interface makes a difference. Hiring a designer with experience in the Health & Wellness industry will ensure that your idea finds the right way into the real application. You’ll have to pick colors, buttons location, menu, profile design, font, its size, etc.

All that should not decrease loading speed and other user experience metrics, so there’s a lot to think about.

An expert can help you make the right choice so the app reflects what you wanted to launch and suits your target audience.

Step 4: Develop a prototype and an MVP

A prototype will help you see how your app may look after development and testing. It’s suitable for first presentations when you’re looking for sponsors or researching the target audience.

An MVP or a minimum viable product is a working version of your program with basic features like registration, a workout or two, and progress tracking. You can pitch it to potential investors or even launch as a beta version to get the first reviews and revenue.

Step 5: Build a fitness tracker app and test it

Hiring the right people with the proper skills is essential for this step. If you don’t already have a team or need additional staff, make sure to turn to ProCoders. We’ll find the experts who will bring value to your app and use their skills and experience to make it as good as it can be.

The building of the program will consist of frontend and backend development. After compiling the two, it’s absolutely crucial to test the application. For that, a specialist uses a combination of manual and automatic tests.

ProCoders highly recommends hiring QA specialists instead of trusting the testing to developers. Qualified pros know what software to use and what types of assurance your product needs.

Step 6: Launch, gather feedback, and consider improvements

The final step is to launch the product and execute your marketing efforts. It’s important to gather initial feedback to see where the app may need improvement and make changes to the new version.

And there you go!

Tech Stack You Need to Build a Fitness Tracker App

Another important topic is the tech stack your developers need for a fitness tracking app start.

• SDKs for wearables integration – Fitbit, Misfit, Nike+, etc.
• APIs and SDKs for tracking data – Google Fit or Apple’s HealthKit
• Running features – Tomtom
• Barcode scanning – Nutritionix API, Open Food Facts
• BMI calculator API – written in PHP, Node, .NET, Java Ruby, etc.

Now, finally, let’s see who you can turn to for help whenever you need project analysis, skilled developers and QA specialists, and full technical support even post-launch!

How ProCoders Can Help If You Decide to Develop a Fitness Tracker App?

ProCoders may already have the needed people on board for you! But even if not, we’ll be honest about it and promise to find you the right match in several weeks instead of months. 

We are a staff augmentation company, which means we can find qualified people for your project ASAP. Our values are communication, efficiency, and professionalism, that’s why we hire mobile app developers and other specialists full-time and pay them, whether they are engaged in the development of a client’s product or not.

Trust us with:

• The hiring process
• Resume reading
• Interviews
• Practical tests
• Development
• Testing

And take this time to do other essential tasks for your future application. 

We have experience with the Health & Wellness sector, which can be clearly seen in the Dryft app.

We worked with the non-technical founder of the company who came to us with a bold plan to build an app where you could “drift” around top locations in major cities and work out there. They needed a team and an amazing product for an adequate, even limited, budget. So we delivered what they wanted.

That is:

• A fully dedicated team to create a cost-effective, high-quality platform
• Capabilities for both desktop and mobile use
• Features both for trainers and students, calendar integration, promotional content, in-app purchases, and more.

We offer you to get discovered and start turning your idea into reality!

Conclusion

Starting a fitness tracking app can be difficult, but once you research the market and make your positioning clear (what app you want to make, how it’s going to be useful, what the target audience is), it becomes much easier.

By including the features like profile personalization, geolocation tracking, nutrition and workout plans, and progress tracking, you’re going to have a very promising product.

As to the technical part, ProCoders can help you with it by finding top-notch professionals with the necessary tech stack knowledge and experience. We’ve already helped develop fitness apps, so be confident to apply to our Discovery Phase to discuss your idea!