Payment app development in 2026: key features, steps, and challenges

Digital payments stopped being something extraordinary a long time ago. Nowadays, paying for goods and services through an app has become standard behavior, no matter if we’re shopping online, subscribing to digital platforms, or sending money to friends.

Given the convenience and flexibility that digital payments provide, it comes as no surprise that their usage will continue to grow, with their global market projected to reach $361.30 billion by 2030.

For companies that have long been thinking about developing their own payment app, these figures may be a nudge to move forward. After all, owning the payment layer implies strengthening the customer relationship, gaining greater visibility into transaction data, and unlocking extra monetization opportunities.

In this article, we’ll provide a comprehensive payment app development guide for founders and project managers who are planning to launch a secure and scalable payment application with multi-currency and invoicing capabilities. We’ll cover the key steps, core features, and critical challenges to consider when building a payment product.

What is a payment app?

A payment app is a specialized tool that enables people to send, receive, store, and manage their money through either a mobile or web interface.

To get started, users just sign up, link a funding source such as a credit card, debit card, or bank account, and can begin transferring and/or receiving funds within minutes.

The best thing about payment apps is that they let users execute transactions without having to switch between different banking platforms. Plus, these apps centralize users’ transaction history, invoicing, and balance tracking in one place, which provides users with full visibility and control over their finances.

4 Key payment app types

Payment applications can be broadly categorized into four types, namely P2P transfers, merchant payments, digital wallets, and B2B payments and invoicing.

Let’s explore each app type in greater detail.

P2P transfer apps

These apps primarily facilitate person-to-person (P2P) money transfers.

In most cases, P2P apps integrate with bank accounts and/or payment cards to support quick top-ups and withdrawals.

Merchant payment apps

Merchant payment apps aim to enable customers to pay for goods and services that they purchase from merchants. They typically support payment methods such as QR-based payments, online checkout integrations, and POS connectivity.

Digital wallet apps

Digital wallet apps allow users to store funds right inside the platform and make payments from an embedded balance. They support multiple funding sources, including bank accounts, cards, and external transfers.

Furthermore, it was reported that digital wallets like Google Pay and Apple Pay have been the top choice for European consumers when shopping online.

B2B payments and invoicing apps

Focused mainly on business-to-business transactions, B2B payment solutions come with features such as invoice generation, automated payment reminders, recurring billing, and approval workflows to support business operations.

Payment app development: 10 must-have features

Even though every payment app is unique in terms of its positioning and functionality, there are some universal features and functionalities that are essential to incorporate during the mobile payment app development process.

These features form the MVP foundation and cover essential aspects such as onboarding, transaction processing, and security, as well as support compliance requirements such as PCI DSS.

So, let’s check them out.

1. User onboarding and profile management

It’s the first impression that counts, so the onboarding flow must be smooth and reasonably fast. Users should be able to sign up and verify their identity within minutes and quickly understand how to send, receive and manage money.

In a mobile payment app, onboarding typically includes steps such as phone or email verification, setting up authentication (PIN or biometrics), completing identity checks, and linking a bank account or card. The primary objective here is to make users transaction-ready as quickly as possible and make sure that all the required regulatory requirements are met.

Beyond onboarding, you need to introduce robust and convenient profile management functionality. This one should empower users to manage their account, including adding or removing linked payment methods, adjusting transaction limits, updating personal details, and configuring preferences such as notifications and currency settings.

2. Payment methods management

The payment application should enable users to effortlessly add, edit, and remove different payment methods such as credit and debit cards, bank transfers, and digital wallets.

Plus, within this feature, users should be able to set a default payment method, prioritize their funding sources, and effortlessly switch between them during a transaction.

3. Sending and receiving transactions

Money transfers are the primary function of any payment app, and, sure thing, they must work fast and reliably. You should offer users multiple ways to send funds, including through contacts, manually entered identifiers, or QR code scanning.

It’s also useful to support off-platform recipients. For example, users can send money via SMS or email, and the recipient receives a notification with instructions to claim the funds after registration.

4. Transaction history and reporting

Given that transparency is fundamental in financial applications, your transaction history functionality must provide users with a detailed overview of all their in-app activity, including payments, transfers, refunds, fees, and statuses.

Ideally, transaction history should also include advanced filtering options by date, amount, status, and counterparty, and provide real-time status tracking and access to detailed transaction breakdowns.

5. Real-time notifications

Push notifications should cover key events such as successful/failed transactions, balance updates, payment reminders, and security alerts.

At the same time, remember that users should have full control over their notification preferences and be able to opt in or out of specific alerts, choose their preferred channels, and enable email duplication for critical events.

6. Balance visibility and account overview

To give users an accurate view of their available funds, the app should display real-time balance updates across wallets, linked accounts, and currencies.

Plus, if your app supports multiple currencies, then you need to provide a detailed balance breakdown per currency along with transparent exchange rate information.

7. Multi-factor authentication and biometrics

In payment application development, security is of utmost importance, and multi-factor authentication is widely used to protect user accounts. Adding a second verification step, such as a one-time code, device confirmation, or authentication app, helps to substantially minimize the risk of unauthorized access.

What’s more, biometric authentication like fingerprint scanning or Face ID makes payment approvals both secure and convenient. It strengthens protection and keeps the user experience smooth and free from unnecessary friction.

8. Encryption and tokenization

From the outset, your mobile payment app development team should ensure that all sensitive financial data, both in transit and at rest, is well protected.

The encryption technique can play a big role here, as it keeps transaction details, credentials, and personal information unreadable to unauthorized parties during transmission and storage.

Besides, you should consider implementing tokenization. This measure can add an extra layer of protection by replacing actual card or account details with secure tokens during processing.

9. Fraud detection and risk monitoring

Yes, this is another feature dedicated to security. Hopefully, it doesn’t come as a surprise. After all, wherever money moves, fraud attempts tend to follow.

To detect risks early on and minimize disruption for legitimate users, we recommend integrating risk monitoring into your payment app. The system should be able to analyze transaction behavior in real time so as to promptly spot suspicious patterns, unusual amounts, and abnormal login activity.

10. Bill payments and invoicing

If you want your payment app to feel complete and useful beyond simple transfers, consider integrating support for bill payments and invoicing into the solution.

With this functionality, both users and businesses will be able to generate invoices, send payment requests, track payment status, and settle bills right in the app.

Payment app development: 11 advanced features

Once the core MVP is up and running, the next step in your payment app development journey is introducing more advanced capabilities that would support revenue growth and improve user retention.

These features are normally added after the initial launch, within a few months, as the product gains traction and user feedback comes in.

Now let’s take a closer look at each functionality and the role it plays.

1. Multi-currency support

Multi-currency support allows your payment app to scale beyond one local market as well as empowers your users to hold, convert, and send funds in different currencies.

From a product perspective, this also reduces friction for cross-border transactions and opens doors to international users and businesses.

2. Split payments

Split payments allow users to divide a bill or shared expenses between multiple participants. This feature is especially useful in situations such as group dinners, shared subscriptions, and business expenses.

Plus, it also improves usability in social and collaborative scenarios and increases app engagement metrics as users tend to interact with the app more frequently when splitting and settling shared costs.

3. B2B invoicing

If your payment app targets business users, consider integrating the invoicing functionality. This one will make it simple for users to generate invoices, send payment requests, track their status, and mark payments as completed.

4. Payment requests and reminders

So as to make collections easier and reduce unnecessary follow-ups, consider adding a payment request and reminder feature.

With it, users will be able to send payment requests through the app, while automatic reminders will help nudge recipients who haven’t completed their payments yet.

5. Recurring payments and subscriptions

Support for recurring billing enables automatic payments for subscriptions, memberships, and service agreements. Thanks to this feature, users can authorize recurring charges once, and the system takes care of the rest.

In addition, if your payment app targets SaaS companies, digital services, and subscription-based businesses, this feature becomes even more important as it creates steady and predictable transaction volume for your ecosystem and, at the same time, helps businesses collect payments on time.

6. Payouts and settlements

If your platform connects sellers, freelancers, and partners, then developing a payout and settlement functionality is a smart move.

It lets users automatically send funds to external bank accounts or wallets without handling everything manually.

7. Transaction limits and alerts

Transaction limits serve as both a security measure and a monetization tool.

From a security perspective, they reduce risk by controlling how much money can move within a specific period, say a day or a month. Plus, when you combine limits with instant alerts, users stay informed about their activity and get notified as they approach their cap.

Moreover, limits create a natural incentive to upgrade. You can set lower daily or monthly caps for free users while premium subscribers unlock higher limits, faster processing, and extra features.

8. Refunds and chargebacks

Another feature that you should consider when you create a payment app is refund and chargeback management.

Both users and merchants need the ability to initiate refunds within the app, with transparent status tracking and well-defined processing stages.

As far as chargeback management is concerned, this functionality is important when card payments are involved. Disputes must be handled in accordance with payment network rules, with proper documentation and response timelines.

9. Scheduled payments

Scheduled payments allow users to set transactions for a future date and automate financial planning.

This is particularly convenient for rent, vendor payments, and planned transfers since the automation capability allows users to save time, stay organized, and reduce the risk of forgetting important deadlines.

10. Customer support and in-app chat

So far, we’ve focused mainly on technical capabilities. However, communication and support are also important in a payment application.

With regards to this, consider implementing support tools such as in-app chat or AI-powered chatbots that would assist users in resolving their routine questions.

Yet, when it comes to more complex and sensitive cases like failed transactions, disputes, and blocked accounts, make sure to escalate the case to the human support team for their thorough review and assistance.

11. AI-powered expense tracking

If you want to make your payment app smarter and more valuable for users, then why not add AI-powered expense tracking?

This feature is able to automatically categorize transactions and show users where their money is going. Plus, it can highlight recurring payments, track spending patterns, and suggest better budgeting decisions.

Payment application development: a step-by-step guide

If you’ve been wondering how to start a mobile payment business, we suggest reviewing the key steps needed to be taken to deliver a secure and flawless payment app solution.

1. Define the problem and position your product

First and foremost, you need to define your niche, the problem your app will solve, and what will differentiate it from other solutions on the market. This is typically done during the discovery phase, where you clarify your value proposition and collect all the insights needed to guide key decisions that follow, including feature prioritization, compliance planning, and technical architecture.

So, for example, your product may focus on P2P transfers, B2B invoicing, cross-border payments, embedded finance, or may be a combination of all of these – and depending on the direction you choose, the requirements will surely look different.

2. Establish compliance and legal foundations

Since you’re engaging in the development of a financial application, regulatory aspects must be addressed well in advance. Thus, before you build a payment app and the development progresses too far, make sure you understand all the applicable regulatory requirements and compliance considerations.

Keep in mind that payment applications generally need to account for PCI DSS requirements, data protection regulations such as GDPR or CCPA, and potential licensing obligations depending on the markets you plan to operate in.

3. Outline your MVP scope and core requirements

Once positioning and compliance fundamentals are settled, you can move on to defining your minimum viable product.

An MVP allows you to test your concept in the real market without investing in a full-scale platform from the outset.

Some foundational steps when building an MVP of a payment application include:

• Creating a clean and user-friendly interface

• Enabling users to send and receive money

• Including basic transaction history

• Supporting a secure bank account and/or card linking

4. Take care of UX/UI design

To design a user-friendly payment app, your design team first needs to do thorough research and define key user roles, flows, and interactions before moving into visual design.

After this, designers can create wireframe examples, refine interfaces, and build interactive prototypes to test usability, reduce friction, and make sure that the payment process feels intuitive and secure.

Read also: How much does it cost to design an app

5. Choose your tech stack and build the architecture

At this stage, you, alongside your key stakeholders, need to do research and choose the right tech stack for your solution.

We suggest that you pay attention to the following technologies:

• For mobile development, you may use Kotlin for Android and Swift for iOS if you want high-performance native apps. Alternatively, cross-platform frameworks such as Flutter allow you to streamline development across both platforms.

• On the web side, React.js and Next.js are strong choices for frontend development

• For backend development, Node.js, Java, or TypeScript-based architectures can provide scalable environments for building transaction logic and APIs

• You will also need a reliable database such as PostgreSQL or MongoDB to securely handle transactional data

• Cloud platforms like AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure provide hosting, scalability, and infrastructure resilience

6. Integrate payment providers and financial services

To function properly, your app must integrate with different payment gateways, banking APIs, and currency exchange providers. These integrations are needed to power core features such as fund transfers, settlements, and multi-currency transactions.

Therefore, carefully select reliable providers and design integration layers that will allow for flexibility in case you need to switch partners in the future. 

7. Implement robust security mechanisms

Security in a payment application impacts user trust and regulatory compliance.

With regard to this, your development team should equip your app with the most advanced security mechanisms, including tokenization, encrypted communication channels, secure SDK integrations, and strong authentication protocols such as multi-factor authentication.

In addition, real-time monitoring systems and automated user alerts will help promptly detect suspicious activity.

8. Test performance, functionality, and security

Before launching your application, conduct comprehensive testing that would cover the following stages:

• Functional testing to verify that all features work as they should

• Load testing to evaluate system performance under heavy traffic

• Security testing to identify vulnerabilities

• Compatibility testing across devices and operating systems

9. Launch your app and collect feedback

Measure twice, cut once. Thus, rather than releasing your app to everyone at once, begin with a soft launch for a limited group of users and monitor how the system performs, gather feedback, and analyze user behavior under real conditions.

Then, you may well leverage these insights to introduce further improvements, like refining features, removing friction points, and enhancing usability.

How to create a payment app: SolveIt experience

Now let’s take a look at a payment platform scenario similar to the fintech solutions SolveIt helps companies bring to market.

Merchant payment and digital wallet app

In this project, a fintech startup approached SolveIt with the idea of building a payment platform that would allow businesses to accept online payments, manage balances, and track transactions from a single application.

Many small and medium-sized companies rely on several disconnected tools for payment processing, invoicing, and financial tracking. The goal of the project was to create a unified platform where merchants could accept customer payments, generate invoices, and monitor financial activity without switching between multiple systems.

SolveIt started with a discovery phase to define the product architecture, prioritize the MVP functionality, and design a secure payment infrastructure. The development team then built a scalable mobile and web solution that supports merchant onboarding, payment processing, and integrations with external payment providers.

Key features include invoice generation, payment requests, real-time transaction tracking, balance visibility, and detailed reporting tools. The platform also integrates with payment gateways and banking APIs to enable seamless payment processing and settlements.

Results

The resulting solution allows businesses to manage payments, invoices, and financial activity within a single platform, while the flexible architecture supports future expansion with additional payment integrations and advanced financial tools.

Payment app development cost

Now comes the big question: how much does it cost to build a payment app?

Let’s make this clear. The payment app development cost is individual for each project and depends on its complexity, required integrations, compliance scope, infrastructure architecture, and team structure. Also, app development cost can vary depending on whether you’re launching a lightweight MVP or an enterprise-grade financial platform.

Still, let’s take a look at the approximate costs while remembering that these figures are not exact and may vary based on specific requirements.

MVP / Basic version: from ~$40,000 to $70,000

A lean version normally covers just the core functionality such as user onboarding, basic transaction processing, wallet functionality, authentication, and integration with a single payment provider. If you’re just starting out, partnering with a team that provides MVP development services can help you validate your concept quickly, reduce risks, and define the core functionality before scaling further.

Medium complexity version: from $80,000 to $150,000

At this level, the product includes more advanced features such as multi-currency support, invoicing, recurring payments, reporting dashboards, fraud monitoring, and multiple payment integrations. The architecture becomes more scalable, security requirements increase, and compliance efforts usually expand as well.

Advanced / Enterprise-grade version: 150 000+

A full-scale payment platform includes custom processing logic, built-in risk engines, automated settlements, marketplace payouts, advanced fraud detection, and high-availability infrastructure.

These systems also require a strong backend architecture, redundancy, regulatory alignment across jurisdictions, and continuous security monitoring.

Main challenges of payment app development and tips on how to avoid them

Sure thing, when you start to create a payment app, you’ll be faced with certain technical, regulatory, and operational challenges.

Below, we will explore the most common pain points that teams come across and share practical tips on how to build a payment app the right way.

1. Integrations with payment gateways and banks

Connecting to payment gateways and banks is much more complex than businesses expect. Each provider has its own API structure, documentation quality, and technical limitations, and integration differences between partners can create hidden complexity.

To deal with this issue, you should plan integrations well in advance, choose reliable providers, and design your system with abstraction layers so you can switch providers without rebuilding the entire architecture from scratch every time.

2. Fraud detection and chargeback management

Unfortunately, payment platforms are attractive targets for fraudsters and without proper monitoring, transaction abuse, account takeovers, and chargebacks can quickly transform into serious and costly problems.

In this case, you will be better off if you timely introduce and integrate robust security measures such as real-time anomaly detection, transaction monitoring rules, and well-defined dispute handling workflows.

3. Regulatory licensing and compliance across countries

Developing a payment app means securing the right licenses such as money transmitter licenses and electronic money authorization, plus meeting regulatory requirements, which differ from country to country. So, if you plan to expand into new markets, you need to account for these differences from the start.

Thus, before scaling internationally, it’s better to consult legal experts, work out a comprehensive compliance roadmap, and take care of all the regulatory aspects.

4. System complexity and architecture design

Payment systems consist of multiple components, including wallets, encryption layers, APIs, databases, integrations, and transaction engines, and if these parts are poorly structured, the system becomes difficult to maintain and scale.

That’s why it’s important to design the platform with a clear and modular architecture, supported by thoughtful user flows and interface planning delivered through professional UI/UX design services, so that all components stay organized, flexible, and easier to expand as the payment product grows.

5. Balancing UX with compliance requirements

Strong identity verification and compliance checks are part and parcel of mobile payment app development, even if users don’t always see them as necessary at first. At the same time, though, it’s fair to admit that they may create friction and lead to drop-offs if the process becomes too long or complicated.

The key is striking the right balance between security and usability by applying the required controls without making the experience slow or frustrating for users.

Final thoughts

Payment app development opens up a wide range of opportunities for businesses, including better control over transactions, stronger customer retention, and new revenue streams.

However, building a high-quality, secure, and scalable payment application requires thoughtful planning. You need to define a clear product direction, prioritize the right features, follow compliance requirements, and implement strong security practices.

If you have an idea but aren’t sure how to turn it into a thriving payment solution, feel free to reach out to the SolveIt team. We’d be excited to discuss your concept, review the technical approach, and support you throughout the development process.