How to create a fitness app: complete development guide [steps, features, costs]

No doubt that a healthy lifestyle is still a huge trend. People’s motivation to be fit and healthy is growing strong. And if you’ve been thinking about fitness app development, now is a perfect time to find a unique niche and make your product go viral!

Today, the number of people who tend to use fitness mobile apps as a great alternative to costly personal trainers has skyrocketed. So, the demand for custom fitness app development keeps going up despite the high competition on the market.

Read this blog post, if you’re looking for actionable tips and design ideas to build your future fitness app. We’re going to talk about how to create a competitive and profitable fitness app that would be able to engage people and build a loyal fanbase easily.

Why creating a fitness app is a promising idea

The fitness app market is experiencing strong growth, driven by an increasing demand for digital wellness solutions. The recent report by Statista indicates that this market will continue to flourish, with an expected revenue of $8.30 billion by 2025 and an impressive $10.06 billion by 2029, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.93%.

Key statistics highlight the expanding user base and market potential:

• User penetration will be 12.21% in 2025 projected to reach 13.21% by 2029, reflecting the growing adoption of fitness apps.

• The average revenue per user is anticipated to be around $20.79.

• In global comparison, most revenue will be generated in the United States $2,490.00m in 2025.

The growth of the fitness app market can be explained by several factors. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the shift toward digital fitness solutions, as many individuals tried to find alternatives to traditional gym workouts. The rise of virtual classes, personalized coaching, and community-based features has made fitness apps more appealing than ever.

Moreover, advancements in technology, such as the integration of wearable devices and smart home equipment, have enhanced user engagement and provided more personalized experiences. Apps that offer comprehensive features, including workout tracking, meal planning, and social sharing, are likely to attract a wider audience and retain users more effectively.

In light of this strong growth, the next section will explore the various types of fitness mobile apps that cater to different user needs and preferences, ultimately enhancing their wellness journey.

Types of fitness mobile apps

The main purposes of all wellness and fitness apps are the same: to provide guidance, motivation, and accountability, to give people control over their health, activity, and life. However, there are 3 types of such fitness apps that should be distinguished. Note, that this is not a strict rule - sometimes, a fitness app includes features of different app types.

1. Online fitness and workout apps

According to Grand View Research, this is by far the most popular health & fitness app category. Common workout app features include fitness programs, yoga & meditation practices, proper breathing techniques, and personal affirmations with (or without) an aid from a coach. These fitness apps help to create effective workout plans, get in touch with online fitness trainers, set goals, and track progress every step of the way. The most popular apps in this particular category are Calm, Fitbit, and 7 Minute Workout.

2. Diet and nutrition apps

These fitness apps help users take control of their eating habits and maintain a balanced nutrition intake. Features include planning meals for proper nutrition, calorie counters, nutrition monitoring, personal meal plan preparation and suggestions, shopping lists, and working tips for weight loss (or gain). The most popular apps in this category are MyFitnessPal, Fooducate, and Carb Manager.

3. Activity tracking apps

Activity tracking fitness apps help users take control, monitor, and track their sports activities like jogging, steps per day, as well as sleep tracking, ovulation & periods tracking. However, this category also includes mobile health applications which are tied to specific health needs like heart rate or sugar levels.

Often, activity-tracking apps are paired with wearable devices and come as one of the features used as a tracking solution (like the one embedded in the Apple Watch). The most popular fitness apps in this category are Strava, C25K, and HealthifyMe.

How to create a fitness app: must-have features

1. Personal profile

Includes personal data, settings, goals, and programs the user selected.

2. Diaries

This feature allows users to track their daily activities based on the fitness app’s type and purpose (meals consumed, hours slept), gives suggestions on how to improve parameters for a certain user, and data insights (charts, activity/macronutrient ratios display). This fitness app feature should be easy to use. For example, for food tracking, integrated barcode scanners can be used for easy data input.

3. Expert blog and recommendations

Provides exclusive content, insights, hints & tricks from your experts in text form, shortened or full-sized videos, audio files, downloaded tutorials, etc. Can be either free or premium. Ideally, this feature works best if personalized for each user. The content categories should be easily searchable with the ability to save or download to users’ mobile devices.

4. Catalog of courses or special programs

Includes food recommendations and daily menu for weight loss, tips on how to improve sleep or get rid of the sleep disorder, effective 7-days workout programs, etc. Can be free or premium.

5. User content

Make sure that social media is embedded into your app where users can share posts, videos, and stories with like-minded people to boost engagement.

6. Social media sharing

Allows sharing achievements and app content with friends on Facebook, Instagram, etc. This feature is very useful for support and motivation purposes, but it also works great for drawing more new users straight to your app.

Fitness app development: additional features

Building on the foundation of essential fitness app features, let's explore advanced functionalities that will set your app apart in the competitive market.

1. Live streaming or video-on-demand workouts

You can incorporate real-time workout sessions or pre-recorded videos featuring fitness experts. This feature adds an interactive and engaging element, allowing users to follow workouts at their convenience.

2. Coach-on-demand

Offer users access to personalized coaching sessions, creating a unique value proposition. Users can interact with fitness coaches in real time or access pre-recorded coaching sessions tailored to their fitness goals.

3. Community and leaderboards

Foster a sense of community by integrating leaderboards that showcase user achievements. Encourage friendly competition and support among users, enhancing engagement. This feature aligns with the social media sharing functionality, creating a cohesive user experience.

4. Customizable workouts

Offer users the ability to tailor workout plans based on difficulty levels, preferences, and fitness goals. Provide video streams or image-based instructions with voice prompts to cater to different learning styles.

5. Interactive maps and routes

For running and cycling enthusiasts, implement a feature that displays maps with routing overlays. Enhance the user experience by automatically setting map markers for achievements and providing key stats like speed and pace.

6. Intelligent notifications

Add a smart notification system that goes beyond just reminders. For example, you can offer personalized messages, daily motivational quotes, and quick actions to initiate activities directly from notifications. Allow users to manage notification preferences for a tailored experience.

7. Integration with wearable devices

Syncs health data from wearables, offering personalized insights based on real-time metrics like heart rate and activity levels.

8. Nutrition tracking and meal planning

Helps users track their dietary intake and plan meals, creating a comprehensive approach to fitness that includes nutrition.

Now we explored a comprehensive range of features from basic functionality to advanced, you shouldn’t have a doubt about how to create a profitable fitness app and provide an engaging fitness experience for users.

How to monetize a fitness app?

Once you come up with an app idea, don’t wait any longer and start building your own fitness product, whether it's a workout tracker, a nutrition guide, or a personalized fitness routine. But keep in mind that there is one of the most important issues that you need to think about and figure out - fitness app monetization.

Based on the opinion of Natalia Ivleva, Lead Business Analyst at SolveIt, we’ve compiled a list of the most relevant fitness app monetization options.

Freemium

This is by far one of the most effective app monetization options that draw in lots of new users by letting them get a hang of the fitness app and explore its basic features for free. Once the trust and loyalty to the product are built, you can organically offer advanced features for a fee so that users get the most out of your fitness app.

Subscriptions

Unlike freemium, with subscriptions you make money by selling your exclusive content. The subscription option usually offers weekly/monthly/annual plans where users pay for a certain time period after going with a free trial first.

In-app advertisement

Gives free access to an app with ads (monetization via partners) but users can pay a fee to switch off the ads. This monetization option works pretty much anywhere but don’t go too heavy on ads.

In-app purchases

In this case, the fitness app can be free but you make money by selling specific programs or services like weight loss programs or a 1-time consultation with a coach.

Paid apps

Users must pay a set fee to use the fitness app after a free trial is available for new users. Experience shows that this is the least effective option in terms of fitness app monetization success while people tend to be extra cautious when it comes to health-related issues.

“The most relevant option for wellness apps in most cases will be freemium solely or combined with in-app purchases/ads. Anyway, the best practice is to make a decision based on your market analysis and user research which one would be the best option for your product.”

- Natalia Ivleva, Lead Business Analyst at SolveIt.

How to make a fitness app: step by step process

Step 1. Investigation / Discovery phase

When creating a fitness app, the discovery phase requires a business analyst who will conduct the competitive analysis, as well as target audience research to come up with the refinement of your product concept and prepare the necessary technical specification for your featured fitness app based on the use cases. At this stage, you should also decide on a monetization model, define MVP version features, and build your UI kit.

Step 2. Choose technologies

As native app development adherents, we suggest choosing native because it is the best approach building a fitness app in terms of performance.

However, if you are more into cross-platform fitness app development, we recommend Flutter. Flutter is considered nowadays the best solution for cross-platform apps because the performance results of Flutter-based apps are very close to native apps while the cost and development time remain lower. To leverage these advantages, consider Flutter app development services for your project.

In case you are still hesitant about the tech stack for your solutions or can’t come up with a detailed solution architecture, schedule a free consultation with SolveIt.

Step 3. Prototyping and design

This step involves creating wireframe examples, basic fitness app design, and having your app prototype ready for fitness app development. Then proceed with the prototype testing and evaluate the results.

It is important that the design is made by professionals who not only make beautiful visuals but also have proper experience in creating UX. So, the fitness app should be designed in a way that any user can intuitively navigate it, while also considering factors such as app design cost to ensure a balanced approach.

Step 4. Fitness app development & support

At this point, you need to work on MVP development and app testing. There are 3 options to develop a fitness app:

1. Hiring an in-house development team 2. Working with freelancers 3. Outsourcing the project to a development company.

Long story short, from the cost and quality ratio perspective the latter option is the best one. At SolveIt, we have hands-on experience in developing health & fitness mobile apps. Contact us to find out how we can help you.

Step 5. Launch, track, and maintain

After the first MVP release of your fitness app, the exciting journey of growing your app begins. You can finally test it on real users, and gather feedback. It will help you decide on what are the most demanded features and create a roadmap for further development of your fitness app. Alongside this, developing a solid contract management strategy will ensure that all partnerships and contractual agreements are streamlined. You should also start promoting your product, launch marketing campaigns, and analyze user behavior to make your app go viral.

Fitness app development: SolveIt experience

After exploring the step-by-step fitness app development approach you noticed that developing a fitness app requires careful planning and execution. Each step is crucial in shaping your app's concept, design, and functionality. Now let’s take a look at this case study that demonstrates SolveIt's expertise in developing engaging and scalable fitness apps.

Client:

A leading fitness device manufacturer, specializing in fitness bracelets, earbuds, and fitness-oriented mobile phones.

Challenge: 

SolveIt was asked to perform a detailed discovery phase and propose the application architecture keeping scalability in mind. We were also hired to create a fitness mobile app design. A high-level app idea included health and fitness educational videos, recommendations from experts, and social features to share personal results with like-minded people.

Goals:

• To get a winning mobile app concept;

• To get a modern, eye-catching, and intuitive app design;

• To make sure the app architecture is scalable for future updates; 

• To understand how to launch a fitness app including the features for MVP and backlog.

Approach:

Market and competitor research

We chose 4 competitors to analyze their apps and propose a fitness app design and development approach to launch a market-winning app. 

Design 

• Developed the design concept, UI style, and UX/UI design;
• Designed wireframes;
• Created a clickable prototype for interactive exploration.

Technical specifications

• Prepared the entire detailed backlog based on the analysis;
• Segmented the backlog into user stories with detailed descriptions.
• Wrote user cases (story scripts);
• Proposed the architecture to ensure the app’s scalability.

Main features proposed for MVP:

1. Sign up / log in

Ability to sign up and log in via phone number or social media profile.

2. News feed

Focused on increasing user engagement with:

• User's friends' stories

• Friend management and new connections.

• Personalized recommendations based on the user metrics and goals;

• Expert articles suggestions;

• Announcements of new challenges from the experts, a user is subscribed to.

3. Experts

• Profiles of the experts, a user follows;

• A selection of the most popular experts;

• Filters to quickly find experts based on the topic user is interested in;

• Recommendations of new experts.

4. Profile

• Ability to choose a day and see your result;

• Study each indicator in detail by swipe;

• Direct access to the indicator screen.

5. Additional features 

A consolidated space for less frequently used screens, easily accessible from any main screen.

Key Results:

• UI Kit and a clickable prototype.

• Comprehensive documentation, including CJM, lean model canvas, product/project roadmap, metric system, user stories, growth metrics, and technical specifications.

• Detailed project description, covering technical architecture, workflow, code review, testing policies, and the assembled project team.

Our Success Story:

The client got a comprehensive understanding of how the app should be developed, the features that should be included in the MVP, and further app versions. Our team also created a dynamic design concept that was based on market trends and best practices.

How much does it cost to build a fitness app?

Fitness app development cost heavily varies depending on several factors: • Features and integrations • Tech stack • Complexity of UI/UX design • Expertise of the team • Dedicated development team location

The cost of developing a fitness app MVP by a reliable development agency starts from $50,000. You may find astonishing numbers like $15,000 or even $5,000, but from our experience, for a quality bug-free fitness application development this budget is barely enough.

To develop a full version of a fitness app, expect the app development cost from around $100,000 to $250,000.

The numbers mentioned above are pretty rough. To get the precise fitness app cost estimation based on your specific requirements contact us for a free consultation.

Summary

Starting fitness app development is always challenging, costly, and risky. To make every step of the way go smoother, hire a reliable development partner like SolveIt, whose experts’ insights will provide the edge you need for building the best fitness app and snatching the market from your competitors. While you or your team can focus on the financial issues, promotion, and user acquisition.

FAQ: Fitness app development

1 | How to create a fitness app?

To create a successful fitness app you can follow this step-by-step process:

1. Discovery phase. 

2. Choose technologies.

3. Prototyping and design.

4. Fitness app development & support.

5. Launch, track, and maintain.

2 | What are the must-have features of a fitness app?

To build a successful fitness app that meets user needs and enhances engagement, it's important to include the following features:

• Personal profile.

• Diaries.

• Expert blog and recommendations.

• User-generated content.

• Social media sharing.

3 | What are the main types of fitness apps?

Fitness mobile apps fall into three main categories:

• Online fitness and workout apps. These apps provide workout programs, yoga, and personal training. Examples: Calm, Fitbit.
  

• Diet and nutrition apps. Focused on meal planning and calorie tracking. Examples: MyFitnessPal, Fooducate.
  

• Activity tracking apps. Monitor physical activities and health metrics, often paired with wearables. Examples: Strava, HealthifyMe.

4 | How do fitness apps make money?

Let’s break down the ways fitness apps make money—from subscriptions and ads to in-app purchases:

• Subscription model. Selling exclusive content through weekly/monthly/annual plans, often with a free trial period.

• Freemium.  Offering basic features for free and introducing advanced features for a fee.

• In-app advertisement. Providing free access with ads, allowing users to pay to remove ads (monetization via partners).

• In-app purchases. Making money by selling specific programs or services within the app, such as weight loss programs or consultations with a coach.

5 | How much does it cost to build a fitness app?

Speaking from our experience, a reliable development agency's pricing starts at $50,000 for a quality MVP. For a full-featured fitness app, anticipate costs between $100,000 and $250,000. These figures encompass the comprehensive development process, ensuring a bug-free and high-quality fitness application.

6 | What makes a fitness app successful?

The success of a fitness app depends on several key factors:

• User-friendly interface. 

• Flexible subscription options.

• Personalization.

• Quality content and user engagement.

• Sleek design and smooth experience:

• Responsiveness to user feedback.