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Shefali Basu
Shefali Basu

Posted on • Originally published at pixelcrayons.com

How Much Does it Cost to Develop an Android/iOS App Like PayPal?

The revolution in the world of cash transactions has been massive. From withdrawal slips to ATMs and sending money orders to receiving PayPals, things have come a long way. Talking about today’s era, digital money transfer, or, as software development companies say, P2P payment apps have taken a special place in our lives. Most of us don’t even go to ATMs now or don’t stand in queues to submit the electricity bills. This is because carrying money has always been a responsible task. The fear of cash being stolen or lost has prevailed amongst us for years. But payment apps like PayPal have made our lives easier and hassle-free. 

According to SpendMeNot, a review site of financial products and services, PayPal currently has 286 million active users. If you also want to compete with the PayPal payment app, you must know what all it will take to create an android/ios mobile app like PayPal.

mobile app development

Know your competitor first!

Before we move on towards the costing and features of apps like PayPal, we must know about Paypal and how it works. 

Founded in 1998 as Confinity, the idea behind PayPal is to facilitate transfers between computer systems using encryption software. Users can send and receive funds to email ids which are connected to PayPal. This fund transfer can be done directly from their bank account or debit/credit cards. 

PayPal users can withdraw funds in 56 currencies, while they have the ability to hold funds with PayPal in 25 currencies (source Devteam.space). This withdrawal is possible because PayPal has given the option of using PayPal debit cards for shopping or withdrawal from ATMs.

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Features required in payment app like PayPal:

1- Separate accounts for Business and Customer

Differentiating the accounts for business and customers will help in user engagement. Also, it will help in knowing the business traits for the future. This means that you will know who is loving your app more, the businesses, or the customers. Also, you can then plan your strategies accordingly to make it popular among both customers and enterprises equally.

2- Allow international payments

As we know, our competitor, PayPal, is a global name, allowing international payments for a small fee or currency conversion charge can help your app to run globally. Giving multiple currency conversion options will definitely be loved by people who are fond of traveling or by parents whose children study abroad. But with this feature, extra monitoring of transactions will also be required in order to stop any misuse of international currency.

3- In-app POS

If you own a business, you must be familiar with this term called ePOS. It stands for electronic Point Of Sale and is used to read debit and credit cards. In short, the card swipe machines you see at shops is ePOS. Keeping the same in mind, mPOS has been introduced. It is a mobile app supported by a small wireless device that can read cards. Enabling this feature in your payment app can be an impressive point. If a customer has that device, it will save their time, and instead of filling the whole form of card information, they will just have to enter the pin.

4- QR code and scanner

By now, all of us are familiar with the term QR code and how to use it. Having these QR codes and a scanner fastens the customer to merchant payments. Not only customers, anyone can transfer money by scanning the other person’s QR code.

5- High-level encryption

For incorporating this feature in your app, you must hire a mobile app developer who has excellent knowledge in his/ her domain. Having high-level encryption ensures the safety of your customers’ money. This also helps you in gaining customer loyalty, which is very much needed for the success of an application.

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6- ID verification or KYC

‘Know your customer’ or KYC is a vital feature to be added to an online payment app. This helps in knowing how many genuine users of mobile apps you have. Also, it ensures the safety of other genuine customers. This might cost you a bit more but will ensure the security of your brand image and your customers.

KYC can be done by making centers where users can easily approach and submit their ID proof and biometric. Later, a person from your company can collect those proofs. Another thing to attract more users is to keep this procedure free of cost or with minimal fees.

7- Purchases 

Allowing your users to do shopping on your payment app can surely win laurels. This can be done by doing tie-ups with some businesses and eCommerce sites. Increasing customer engagement on your app will automatically help in the success of your app.

8- In-built social feed

Providing your mobile app users with a feature like social feed will win their hearts. For this, the mobile app can ask to sync the contact list of the user, after which the user will be able to share money with chats. Also, this will help in the easy splitting of bills.

9- e-Passbooks

Keeping the record of the financial history of your user is beneficial for federal financial regulations as well as user experience. Allowing users to keep track of their credits and debits will definitely build users’ trust in your business and mobile app.

Cost so formed:

Now we come to the costing part. So pick your cart! 

The costing is directly proportional to the features you add in your P2P payment mobile application. Also, the quality of the mobile application is directly proportional to the number of features your app has.

The cost completely depends on the platform for which the app has to be developed.

COST(USD)
For Android app platform 23k
For iOS app platform 28k
Hire developer USD 15 per hour

 

The costs so formed may differ from business to business. This is because the number of features, security, encryptions, team, and efforts required to make such an app is customizable. 

Summing Up:

Mobile payment apps are the most significant move in the history of transactions. It has resolved so many problems of users, which used to be the biggest concern at a time. Also, going cashless helps in saving the environment. It is the most accurate and hassle-free payment solution.

If you own a business or want to compete with the Paypal payment app, then you can incorporate the above-mentioned features in your P2P payment app. You can also contact the top mobile app development company in the USA and get the mobile app made for your business. Cheers! 

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