As the social distancing has now become the new normal, and all the fitness centers or gyms are not going to open soon, many people have started home workouts. Many companies are taking advantage of this shift and capitalizing it by offering online workouts in the form of live video-streaming, on-demand fitness apps, interactive platforms, and mobile apps, etc. 

A lot of traffic on the internet has shifted to these online services, which maybe could lead to some permanent change in the fitness industry. Let’s have a look at some quick data on Google trends to have a clear picture of the popularity of the fitness apps. In March, the search terms ‘home gym’ rose to 66%, and ‘at home workouts’ rose to 55%. In April, these terms fell back by about 30%, but they are still way much above the normal.

According to the latest data, the global fitness apps market is forecast to reach USD 14.64 Billion by 2027. Last year, a total of USD 7.5 billion was invested in various healthcare start-ups in the USA, as a part of digitizing the healthcare system. 

The statistics show that users always remain loyal to their favorite fitness apps. Almost 96% of users use only one fitness app. More than 75% of active users open their apps for at least two times/week. The most enthusiastic users open their fitness apps for more than ten times/week. 

After reading these remarkable statistics, you surely have planned for developing your own fitness app in your head. Well, let’s get deep into the developing process to make your dream come true. 

In this blog, you’ll find:

• Different types of fitness apps
• Successful fitness apps in the market
• Fitness app features
• Monetization strategy
• Cost of fitness app development

Define which type of fitness app you want to develop: 

➣ Fitness tracking app:

This app helps users to track their physical activities, such as steps climbed, sleep duration, calories burned, distance traveled, cycling distance, measure pulse rate, etc. To carry out the fitness activity tracking feature, users not necessarily have to connect the app to smartphone sensors. 

Some companies have issued wearable devices such as armbands, wristbands, chest straps, smartwatches, etc., to extend the capabilities of their fitness app. These wearable gadgets constantly keep the check on you and will notify you, when you are about to doze off, taking a break, etc.

➣ Workout apps:

Workout apps provide users with a set of exercises with the detailed guide on how they should be performed in different formats such as text, graphics, or videos. Some workout apps even allow users to choose a personal coach based on the level of training they need.

These apps act as a personal trainer in your smartphone, which helps you track everything from your workout schedule to set personal workout goals, the number of calories you burned in a day, etc. Normally, these workout apps follow a set of procedures, which starts with warm-up exercises, followed by active exercises, and lastly, cooling down workouts. 

➣ Diet and nutrition apps: 

These apps help users to control their body weight by keeping track of their food habits, providing healthy recipes, calorie intakes, and maintain their fit bodies. These apps are beneficial for the user, who wants to stick to a perfect diet. AR/VR plays a very important role in making these apps successful. Another best feature of these apps is the barcode scanner that logs the food purchase.

Successful market players of the fitness app industry: 

➣ Fitbit:

Fitbit is a fitness tracking app. Moreover, it also avails ‘Fitbit Fitness Bands’ with high-end features. Fitbit is ideal for every exercise from running to yoga. It also enables you to log the food you consume, to calculate your daily calorie intake. 

➣ MapMyFitness:

MapMyFitness is a GPS-enabled fitness tracking app offered by Under Armor. You can share routes and details of your fitness activity, custom training plans with friends or family on social media to chase your workout progress.

➣ Runtastic:

Runtastic is a workout app, which includes running, push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, cycling, and squats exercises. The apps even guide you in water intake, tracks your sleep cycle, and offer you healthy food recipes.

➣ Google fit:

Google fit offers its users two distinct activity goals: moves minutes and heart points. These activity goals will help you stay focused and conscious about your workout goals. Google Fit also tracks your workouts via phone and screens your achieved goals, health progress, calories burnt, etc. You can also synchronize Google fit with any other app/gadget to get the complete visibility of your health.

Essential features of the fitness app: 

(Source: Medium.com)

• Workout guides:

Fitness apps should have a wide library of workout guidance separately for each level of workouts in different formats like audio, video, and graphic, with all-round assistance to accommodate a large mass of people. 

• User activity tracking:

It helps users to monitor the outcomes of workouts, calories burnt, set & achieve new goals, etc., and track records of the daily activities. 

• Training schedule:

Provide users a facility to plan, organize, and log their workout sessions regularly. An organized training schedule motivates users to work out, bring discipline to the training, and makes it more effective.

• Push notifications:

This feature helps in reminding the users about scheduled training, send them useful workout tips, motivational quotes, or personalized health recommendations, etc.

• Contact with trainer:

You can also collaborate with some gym trainers to avail user personalized experience. 

• Social media integration:

Enable your users to share their achievements with their friends on social media, and invite them to the app through social media. It will help to promote your app and gather a community.

• Geolocation

This feature helps users track their current location and build their workout plans in the context of their desired location. 

• Music app integration:

Quite a lot of people prefer listening to music while exercising. Music app integration eliminates the need of switching between two different apps and makes the workout experience simple and enjoyable. 

Monetization strategy for fitness app:

Defining the monetization strategy for your fitness app prior to the development will help reap the maximum benefits and gain high profits. Any mobile app monetization requires extensive marketing support before and after the launch, its recommended to choose an effective app monetization strategy right at the beginning.

Here are the most common monetization models followed in the fitness app industry:

• Paid model: 

This is a 100% subscription-based model, which is best fits the apps that have high brand recognition and outstanding reviews and ratings.

• In-app purchases: 

You can sell fitness products within the app itself while letting the users download and use the app free of cost.

• Freemium: 

In this model, users can access the limited features of the app free of cost, but the premium end-to-end features can only be accessed after making payments for the same.

• In-app advertising: 

You can advertise and promote the brand through video-ads at certain intervals or visibly static stickers in the background. 

Cost of custom fitness app development:

(Source: Medium.com)

The cost of a fitness app development broadly depends on its type and features provided. The time of app development also plays a large part in deciding its cost. Hence, the overall cost of fitness app development can cost you somewhere between $15000-$50000. However, the cost may get altered, depending on the features and complexity of your fitness app.

Turn your fitness app development idea into reality with Coruscate:

Developing a custom on-demand fitness app is a challenging task. But with Coruscate, you can achieve this smoothly, we guarantee you to deliver a market-changing fitness app tailored to your business needs. Coruscate will ease out all your technical concerns you might have of entering the fitness app market. We know the ins and outs of the industry and have developed similar apps in the past. 

If you have an idea of developing the fitness app and looking forward to executing it into reality, contact us now to get a robust solution, live project demo, and personalized quotes with a free consultation.