How to Make a Meditation App: Features, Development Process, Costs

Mindfulness and meditation are our true saviors in modern times. It’s been proven that some practices help people get through crises, which we’ve seen plenty of in the last couple of years.

Of course, the business world couldn’t skip such a trend, so meditation mobile app development has become increasingly popular. In fact, according to Statista, the annual growth rate of such apps in the years 2022 to 2027 is expected to be around 13.7%. So, by 2027, the market volume may reach over 7 billion dollars.

It’s not too late to hop on this consistent trend train, make money, and improve customers’ lives.
To find out everything about meditation app development, from best practices to cost, read our guide. It’s non-coder-friendly, which means you’ll find no hardcore tech terminology – only useful statistics, accurate numbers, and professional recommendations.

Key takeaways:

• When developing an app for meditation like Headspace, consider using the best practices such as UX personalization, eCommerce approaches to sell assets, smart notifications, diversifying content, offline availability, and others.
• The best features to include in the meditation app you start are social login, in-app purchases, search, progress tracking, etc.
• You can encounter non-technical challenges such as choosing partners, idea brainstorming, talking to sponsors about how much your meditation app will cost and how much you need from them, building a reputation, and maintaining transparency.
• The step-by-step on creating such an app includes a clear business idea and thorough competitor research, considering platforms and adding special features, MVP using and launching the final product.
• How much it costs to craft a meditation app depends on factors like scale, urgency, and platform, and can vary between $15,000 and $50,000 and even more.

Best Practices in Meditation Apps: Market Overview

Along with fitness app developing, building a meditation application is beneficial for both parties (your business and the end-user) if you do it properly. Let’s overview best practices.

User experience personalization

66% of customers expect brands to understand what they need and expect from products. To do that, you have to personalize user experience. When developing a program for meditation like Headspace, make sure the onboarding process will provide some information about the user. The needed info includes:

• Their meditation experience
• Their goals
• Their favorite type of sessions

Also, consider adding an option of a custom chatbot, rating meditations, saving favorites, and reviewing them.

eCommerce features

It’s not just about buying exclusive meditations and podcasts. You can implement eCommerce features and sell physical items that will help your users practice. Not many companies that develop meditation apps do this, but you can sell:

• Smart pillows
• Meditation goods
• Weighted blankets
• Yoga mats and attire, etc.

Smart notifications

Users have different routines, time zones, meditation preferences, and reminder needs. So, sending everyone only general notifications may not hit the goal and be pretty annoying. Allow people to customize notifications, and set reminders for the most effective kinds of practices for them, and you’ll level up your user experience.

Device and OS compatibility

To make sure the meditation application you’ve made is widely available, make it compatible with different devices (smartphones, tablets, laptops, even smartwatches) and operating systems.

You may need to learn how to make several meditation apps so that your products are available on smartwatches as well, but it will boost user experience and make the software easier to use.

Chatbot

An AI-powered chatbot (for example, GPT-3 AI chatbot) will show users that you care about their experience. It can help people find the best meditation for their request, and answer basic questions on topics from mindfulness to in-app payments.

A perfect upgrade for such a chatbot is an opportunity to address a particularly tough request to a human operator.

Content diversity and offline availability

To target more people with the meditation app you make, diversify the materials that you have in it. Some people like guided meditations, while others are more drawn to the sounds of singing bowls for chakra tuning and relaxation.

There are also people who meditate through movement, so videos with basic yoga moves may be helpful. Themed meditations for morning focus, night relaxation, gratitude, etc. will find their listeners as well. Organize this diversity in a neat menu.

Besides, you can allow the user to cache favorite guided meditations or other practices and access them when they have no Internet connection. Think Spotify and Apple Music, the download feature makes them much more convenient.

Of course, the success of the meditation app you build also depends on the features you include. A simple progress tracker can make your program more personalized and keep more people subscribed to it.

Top Features of Meditation Apps Like Headspace and Calm

Headspace and Calm, being some of the most popular mindfulness apps, have set a standard for top features users may anticipate now when considering downloading a new meditation program.

Social login

Social login adds 1,000 points to the quality of user experience. Instead of filling several fields with information, it’s easier to click on a button and provide all the needed information just like that.

To make your app universal, offer logins with Apple and Google IDs, as well as with Facebook. Logging in allows users to keep track of their progress and provides you with essential information about their ages, genders, and demographics. 

Search

Oftentimes, machine learning is responsible now for learning users’ habits and recommending the best meditations to them. However, when using your app for the first time, people deserve the ability to search according to their preferences.

A neat Search feature with filters by the type of practice, the level, and the theme, will help out.

In-app payments

Being able to pay within the app makes the checkout process easy and quick. Make the way as short as possible (a couple of clicks ideally), add multiple payment options, and you will simplify monetization, which often makes a difference.

Progress tracking

When you build an application for meditative practices, keep in mind that you’ll have to retain users somehow. Progress tracking is a good way to do so as people will be more drawn to come back and finish a marathon or reach a level. 

For example, create several levels from Newbie to Guru and assign ranks based on the number and complexity of practices or the overall time spent meditating using your application.

Profile

To personalize the experience of the meditation app like Headspace that you’re developing, allow users to see specific information in their profile, including:

• Saved practices
• Previous meditations
• Notes
• Progress
• Purchases, etc.

This data will also help you personalize content, recommending the best meditations and paid items from your store.

You can include all the top features and use all the best practices, but it doesn’t mean the path to success is clear. Obviously, you’ll have challenges to overcome. Gladly, we know which ones.

Challenges For Non-Technical Founders Who Build a Meditation App

Just as skilled mobile app developers for hire may encounter problems they have to solve during the development of a meditation app, non-technical founders have their challenges.

Choosing the right development company for your meditation application

If you choose outsourcing or staff augmentation to add valuable developers to your team, the search for a partner may be a challenge because:

• Not all providers are equal
• Many charge way too much
• You have to know at least a little bit about who and what you need

We at ProCoders take care of the last concern with our Discovery Phase. You can turn to us for help and get an analysis of your idea and a detailed explanation of how to make an app for meditative practices, including who you need, how many people and how much money you require, and more. You can then continue our cooperation, turn to another vendor, or even hire the team of developers for your mindfulness app yourself.

Establishing a reputation and anticipation

For the app to be successful, you have to think about its marketing, among other more technical things. Choosing strategies, building anticipation within your audience (or building the audience if you’re a young brand without a community), providing sneak peeks on the development process and the features you will offer, and other duties are on you.

This is a true challenge, but you can also hire a marketing team to take care of it. However, remember that it’s important to be a part of the process as you know best what’s good for your company.

Brainstorming improvements and attention hooks

Users are picky nowadays, so you have to think of attention hooks like marathons, studies, special guests, podcasts, sales, etc. There’s nothing new in meditation apps, so it’s difficult to impress someone with Surya Namaskar and a morning gratitude meditation.

Establishing/maintaining transparency

In the plethora of mindfulness software, it’s not that easy to find one backed at least partially by research. Consumers tend to be rather skeptical now when it comes to Health & Wellness apps, so it may become a challenge to find the right research and experts to build meditations and other practices that actually work.

Talking to sponsors

Pitching your application to sponsors can be tricky. As the field is quite popular nowadays, you have to think of a feature or several ones to prove that your software is better or different from others in some way. 

Coming back to a more technical part, aside from features, the tech stack your developers use is essential. And while skilled pros know what’s best for your project, it doesn’t hurt to find out the tech that can be used when developing an application for meditation like Headspace.

Tech Stack You Need to Build a Meditation App

Here’s what your specialists may need to know and be fluent in to be qualified for a mindfulness app creation:

• SwiftUI for Apple platforms
• Kotlin for Android platforms
• React Native for all platforms
• Ruby, Firebase, APNs, Sidekiq, etc. for backend
• Ghost as a CMS (content management system)
• PayPal or Stripe for payments
• Twilio, Firebase for push notifications
• AWS as a hosting
• GA (Google Analytics), Hotjar for analysis

Remember that when you hire seasoned professionals who have had experience with the Health & Wellness segment, chances are they know what tech to use for the best results. So, you should definitely discuss this part with them so that you’re on the same page. Don’t hesitate to ask questions. You deserve to know the details of the project, even if you’re not a tech person yourself.

Meditation App Development Step-by-Step Plan for Product Owner

We’ve already given a lot of info on how to create healthcare app, but let’s compile a step-by-step so that you as a product owner can take action right after reading this article. Your project may already be on the stage or development or just planning. And if you need help with that, ProCoders can take it up at any step!

Step 1: Compile a wholesome business idea

Before thinking about how to make an app for meditations, consider what kind of app you want:

• Community app – a social network where people who practice mindfulness and meditation can do it together, find friends, discuss materials, etc.
• Guided meditation app – a compilation of guided practices for all kinds of situations.
• Mindfulness app – guided meditations, meditative background sounds, yoga, lectures, podcasts, etc.

Think about the problems your project solves, who it will be targeted at, what colors you’re going to use, how you’re going to create the mindfulness app, how you’re going to monetize it, etc.

Step 2: Conduct market and competitor research

Research the market to understand consumers’ needs. What are they struggling with? What meditations and additional materials can help them solve problems? Where are the most users located? What features do they enjoy the best?

Also, conduct competitor research. See what features, meditation topics, and additional content and features (sleep stories, exercises for every day, the ability to share favorite practices on social media) they use that resonate with the audience, what colors are used in their design (so that your app doesn’t become a clone), etc.

Step 3: Consider the platform

The ideal scenario is to create both App Store and Google Play versions of the application. However, the cost of development for the meditation app will rise in this case, obviously. 

You can also choose the secret third option – building a cross-platform app. That’s what we at ProCoders did when working on the Dryft fitness app.

Step 4: Add a special feature

It can be gamification, research incline, a free trial of premium features, or another quality you thought about when creating your business idea. All kinds of progress trackers and personal stats will improve user engagement, while research data will help persuade skeptics to take up your practices.

Step 5: Use the MVP (minimum viable product)

MVP must include basic features like sign-in, introduction, a couple of meditations, an example of a user profile, and special features. You can use this model to pitch the app to sponsors and even create a focus group of users to see how the program performs.

Step 6: Develop the final app and launch

You can outsource development or hire an in-house team. Make sure the people you work with have experience in writing apps for the Health & Wellness sector. Have your marketing team ready for active promotion as the app launches. And, if you need qualified developers and testers, turn to ProCoders for help. We’re ready to find additional staff for you in several weeks!

Now that you know how to start meditation app, let’s discuss an equally important topic of costs. We figured out you may plan to monetize the app, but investments come first.

How Much Does It Cost to Create Your Own Meditation App?

$60,000+ is how much it costs to build a meditation app with basic features.

The question “How much does it cost to build a meditation app?” is quite vague, so this is a rough estimate.

When developing an app for meditations, there are many financial factors. To get a real estimate, we recommend using our Discovery Phase services. There, we’ll communicate about your needs and market trends, see what features you want in the app, how sophisticated you want it to be, and what you’re willing to invest.

Based on our analysis, we’ll provide an exact number of people, meditation app development cost, and timeframe for your application. 

For example, we were working on this Dryft health app. First, the client got an estimate of $50,000, then came to us to “get discovered”, as we call it. We analyzed the request and adapted what wasn’t working for the customer.

So, it makes sense to turn to a company that knows how to save you time and money.

We know one such company. We are one such company.

Start Your Mental Health App with ProCoders

When looking for healthcare app development services, don’t overlook staff augmentation and outsourcing. When you don’t have the needed professionals on the team, it doesn’t mean you must hire them in-house.

Turn to ProCoders. Our job is to connect highly skilled developers, testers, and other experts with businesses that need help with their projects. We can:

• Connect you to a specialist(s) we already have on the team
• Find a niche-specific developer(s) for your project
• Analyze your business idea as a part of our Discovery Phase and come back with information on the number of people, time, and cost for your meditation app development

We’re all for honest communication and transparent processes, so you’ll always be updated on the project status. We’re also good at looking for the best price tags on people’s skills, with no quality loss. If this is something you’re looking for, let’s communicate!

Conclusion

As you finish reading this guide, it becomes much clearer how to make your own meditation app.

First of all, it’s a good idea to use the best practices the mindfulness software market has to offer, such as personalization, using eCommerce features, device and OS compatibility, and more.

It’s also beneficial to use top features anticipated by users, which are Search with filters, social login, progress tracking, in-app payments, and personal profile.

Keep in mind that you may come across app-related challenges as a product owner. Some of them are choosing the right company to trust meditation application development to, maintaining reputation, brainstorming improvements and attention hooks, talking to sponsors, and establishing/maintaining transparency.

To overcome those and avoid mistakes, you can hire a team of professionals who know how to create your own meditation app not just in theory but also in practice. We at ProCoders are ready to provide you with such people, ready to start your project in several weeks instead of months you would’ve spent looking for in-house experts.

We can also provide you with the costs, timeframes, and steps on how to create a mindfulness app as a part of our Discovery Phase. The Health & Wellness segment is gaining popularity as people start taking their well-being seriously. Catch the wave and launch a perfect product that will meet your target audience’s demands!