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How Much Does It Cost To Build An App Like Viber?

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How Much Does It Cost To Build An App Like Viber?
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How Much Does It Cost To Build An App Like Viber?

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App development

Develop Credibility and Trust

World-class app development that allows you to start, run and grow your business.

Building a custom app can boost your brand's trust and credibility, ultimately benefiting your business in the long run. We will discuss the following topics:

1. Reputation Management
2. Customer Support and Engagement
3. Data-Driven Decision Making
4. Demonstrating Social Responsibility

A well-made custom app can dramatically improve your brand's marketability and reputation. A trustworthy app will show that you are dedicated to providing top-notch goods and services. As a result of knowing they can rely on you, your clients and business partners will have more faith in you.

A custom app also strengthens your brand identification by demonstrating your professionalism and attention to detail.

Customer Support and Engagement
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A custom app enables you to offer personalized customer support and engagement, helping you address the unique needs and pain points of your African target market. 

By incorporating in-app support features, such as chatbots, help centres, or direct communication channels, you can provide timely assistance to your users, leading to increased satisfaction and loyalty. 

This level of support also encourages users to share their positive experiences with others, further boosting your brand's credibility.

Data-Driven Decision Making
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You may get useful user data through custom app creation, giving you insights into user behavior and preferences. You may improve your app and broader business strategy by studying this data and making wise decisions.

Delivering a more individualized experience for your users is made possible by a data-driven strategy. This helps to increase their faith in your brand and ultimately ensures that they will stay visiting.

Demonstrating Social Responsibility
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Putting money into a customized app that caters to your target market's needs demonstrates your commitment to social responsibility.

You can showcase your brand's dedication to having a beneficial influence by developing an app that takes into account regional difficulties, environmental issues, or social issues that are pertinent to your audience.

This thoughtful approach to app creation not only strengthens the integrity of your brand, but it also appeals to customers who value companies with a clear sense of mission.

Custom App development

Benefits of Custom App Development

World-class app development that allows you to start, run and grow your business.

Imagine custom app development as an expert chef crafting a personalised menu for their restaurant. Just as a meticulously planned and executed meal can leave diners with a memorable culinary experience, a custom app is specifically designed to cater to your business's distinct needs and objectives, leaving a lasting impression on your users. 

Investing in custom app development offers several advantages, including:

  1. Improved user experience
  2. Increased efficiency
  3. Competitive advantage
  4. Higher profitability
  5. Seamless Integration with Existing Systems
  6. Enhanced Flexibility and Adaptability
Improved user experience
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A custom app allows you to create an interface that is tailored to your target audience, ensuring a seamless and enjoyable experience. By focusing on the preferences and expectations of your users, you can craft an app that not only meets their needs but also delights them with personalized features and intuitive navigation.The best part? If you develop an app that your users love, you ensure that they keep coming back for more and turn them into lifelong customers.

Custom apps can be designed to streamline business processes and boost productivity. By automating repetitive tasks, integrating with existing systems, and providing real-time data access, custom apps empower your team to work more efficiently and make informed decisions quickly, just like a well-tailored suit that enables effortless movement and comfort.

A unique app helps you stand out from the competition and attract more customers. In a world where off-the-shelf solutions are abundant, a custom mobile app acts as a distinctive and exclusive suit that sets you apart in the crowd, showcasing your brand's personality and commitment to providing a superior experience.

A well-designed app can generate increased revenue and improve customer retention. By offering a memorable and engaging user experience, your custom app encourages users to continue using your services and make purchases. It's akin to wearing a sharp, tailored suit that not only grabs attention but also instils trust and confidence in your brand, ultimately resulting in increased profitability.

Custom app development enables seamless integration with your existing systems and third-party applications. This ensures a smooth flow of data between various platforms, enhancing communication and collaboration within your organization. The ability to integrate effortlessly is like having a versatile tool that easily connects and works in harmony with other components in your business ecosystem.

As your business evolves, a custom app can be easily modified or expanded to accommodate changing requirements and market trends. This adaptability is like having a dynamic strategy that can be adjusted and fine-tuned to suit your business's changing needs, ensuring continued relevance and success in an ever-changing environment.The benefits don’t just stop there though. If you want to build trust and credibility with your customers, a custom app is a great way to do so.

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Pivoting and Iterating

Investing in custom app development can be expensive, but being open to pivoting and iterating based on market feedback is crucial to ensure long-term success. By adapting your app to the ever-changing needs and preferences of your target market, you can stay ahead of the competition, increase user satisfaction, and maximize your return on investment.

Encourage users to provide feedback and reviews, which will help you identify pain points and areas for improvement. By addressing these concerns, you demonstrate your commitment to serving the unique needs of your users, enhancing your app's credibility and increasing user satisfaction. Tools like in-app surveys, app store reviews, or social media can be used to gather feedback and gauge user sentiment.

Iterate Based on User Data
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Analyze user behaviour and engagement data to understand how your app is being used and identify potential bottlenecks or areas of friction. By making data-driven decisions, you can prioritize improvements and new features that will resonate with your audience, maximizing the impact of your development budget and efforts.

As you adapt your app based on market feedback, be prepared to allocate resources for ongoing updates and improvements. While this may increase your app's overall cost, the benefits include increased user satisfaction, reduced churn, and ultimately, higher long-term profitability. Regular updates also demonstrate your commitment to delivering a high-quality app experience tailored to your users' needs.

Adopt a flexible, agile development methodology that enables prompt iteration and change in response to market feedback.

Your app will stay relevant and helpful to your target market if you are receptive to user needs and can swiftly pivot and make adjustments.

By prioritizing products and enhancements that have the greatest impact, an agile methodology can also assist you in managing development expenses more successfully.

While it's essential to iterate and adapt your app based on user feedback, it's also crucial to balance this with innovation and forward-thinking. Continuously explore new technologies, trends, and market opportunities to ensure your app stays ahead of the curve and caters to the evolving needs of your user base. By striking the right balance between adaptation and innovation, you can maintain a competitive edge and secure long-term success for your app.

App development

The Importance of UX and UI

Creating an outstanding user experience and design is crucial for a successful app. A well-designed app should be visually appealing, intuitive, and user-friendly.

  1. Consistency: Consistent design elements throughout the app, such as typography, colours, and button styles, create a unified look and feel. This consistency reduces the cognitive load on users, helping them navigate your app with ease and understand its functionality more quickly.
  2. Simplicity: A simple and uncluttered interface reduces distractions and makes it easier for users to focus on the tasks at hand. Strive for a minimalistic design by eliminating unnecessary elements, using whitespace effectively, and prioritizing essential features.
  3. Feedback: Providing feedback, such as visual cues and confirmation messages, helps users understand the results of their actions. This can include animations for button clicks, success messages for completed tasks, or error messages when something goes wrong. Clear feedback enhances user satisfaction and encourages continued use of your app.
  1. Understand your target audience: Research your users' demographics, needs, preferences, and behaviours to tailor your app to their expectations. Conduct surveys, interviews, and usability testing to gather insights that help shape your app's features and design.
  2. Use clear navigation: Intuitive navigation is essential for a positive user experience. Implement well-organized menus, easily accessible search functions, and recognizable icons to help users find their way around your app effortlessly.
  3. Optimize for performance: Fast loading times and smooth performance are critical for user engagement. Optimize your app's code, reduce file sizes, and use efficient algorithms to ensure your app runs quickly and seamlessly on various devices.
The Impact of Good Design on App Adoption and Retention
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Higher app adoption rates and greater client retention result from spending money on excellent design and user experience. A well-designed app has a higher likelihood of being passed along by users and being used again, which leads to better ratings, word-of-mouth advertising, and long-term success.

App development

Security Considerations for App Development

In today's interconnected digital world, app security is paramount. We take a look at some vital security considerations.

The Privacy Act of 1974 is the primary privacy regulation in America that regulates the sharing of data. The Privacy Act governs how federal agencies may gather, utilize, and disclose personal information. Individuals are given specific rights under it, including the ability to access and update their personal information, and federal agencies are required to protect such data from illegal disclosure.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) for health information, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) for financial information, and the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) for children's online data are just a few federal laws that deal with privacy and data sharing in addition to the Privacy Act. Additionally, each state has its own privacy laws that could offer additional protections.

Keep up with the latest security threats and best practices, such as incorporating multi-factor authentication, securing APIs, and using secure coding practices. Regular security audits and vulnerability assessments can help identify potential weaknesses and protect your app from emerging threats.

Working with Trusted Vendors
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Select a reputable development partner with a proven track record in security best practices, like Scrums. A reliable vendor will prioritize security throughout the development process and help you build a secure app that meets industry standards and best practices.

Scrums.com provides high quality engineering teams to scaling enterprises at lower costs. Scrums.com designs, builds, deploys and maintains custom software that gives scale-ups the opportunity to grow world-class businesses.

Scrums.com provides high quality engineering teams to scaling enterprises at lower costs. Scrums.com designs, builds, deploys and maintains custom software that gives scale-ups the opportunity to grow world-class businesses.

How much does it cost to build an app?
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How Much Does It Cost To Build An App Like Viber?

Developing an app like Viber for Europe involves several factors that impact the app development cost.
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Building a Viber-like app for the European market presents both opportunities and challenges. Viber, a highly popular messaging app, offers encrypted messaging, free voice and video calls, social features, and integrations with mobile payment services. Its broad feature set combined with its ability to work as a VoIP application has made it a crucial tool for both personal and business communications, especially in regions with strong internet infrastructure.

However, developing an alternative to Viber in Europe requires accounting for several unique aspects like GDPR compliance, multi-language localization, and user experience across Android, iOS, and desktop platforms. Furthermore, Europe's cross-border usability adds complexities in terms of regional payment integrations and regulatory requirements.

In this article, we delve into the critical factors affecting how much it costs to build an app like Viber for the European market, highlighting relevant regional considerations, including privacy needs, cultural localization, and platform diversity.

Platform and Device Compatibility in Europe

Android vs. iOS in the European Market

Platform choice is a cornerstone of custom app development, and in Europe, it’s impossible to ignore how device preferences differ across countries. For a Viber-style app to succeed in Europe, you’ll have to account for varied platform usage.

  • Android Dominance: In many parts of Western and Eastern Europe, Android continues to maintain a dominant market position. Countries like Germany, France, and Spain favor Android, which means any Viber-alternative app will have to prioritize Android development. However, developing for Android entails dealing with numerous device ecosystems, from high-end Samsungs to more affordable third-party devices.
  • iOS Penetration: Certain regions, like the U.K. and Scandinavia, have higher rates of iOS usage. Developing an app for iOS users demands in-app integration with Apple Pay, cloud services, and prioritizing privacy features, which will require more stringent UI/UX compliance with Apple’s guidelines.

Cross-Platform vs. Native Development

Many developers opt for cross-platform development using technologies like Flutter or React Native, which allows the app to function on both iOS and Android with a shared codebase. 

However, native development tends to offer better performance, especially for heavy communication apps like Viber, which rely on real-time messaging, calls, and multimedia sharing.

Additionally, WebRTC technology for VoIP is better optimized in native development, so if smooth performance is more critical than quick-to-market development, this is a point to consider.

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Design and User Experience (UX/UI): European Preferences

Designing for a European audience involves accounting for both regional tastes and functional efficiency. UX/UI in Europe must hit a balance between elegance and minimalism while still making the app easy to use for multiple audiences.

Minimalism in Design: Many Western European countries, especially Scandinavian markets, tend to favor sleek, minimalist designs. Apps like Viber need a user interface that prioritizes clarity and simplicity over too many design elements. This cuts down on distractions and helps users flow through core functions like messaging and calls without complexity hindering their experience.

Trust and Transparency in UX: User trust is paramount in Europe, especially after the implementation of GDPR. Providing transparent interfaces that let users see and manage their data preferences is key. Ensuring that data preferences are easily accessible and that privacy-related features are prominent builds loyalty, particularly with the privacy-sensitive segment of the European population.

Localization Considerations: For countries where translation impacts comprehension of services (e.g., France, Germany, Spain), localized text must adapt in both length and cultural clarity. This may introduce extra translation costs during development, especially for multi-language registration processes, help centers, and in-app features.

Incorporating region-specific UX/UI can push up development times but results in a better market fit for each European country.

Integrations with Third-Party Services/External Systems

Payments and Regional Systems Integration

In Europe, integrating with third-party services must consider local partners for mobile payments or bank-related services. The diversity of payment expectations ranges from mobile-based Klarna to cross-border SEPA payments. Moreover, EU-specific regulations like PSD2 ensure that any financial integrations in eCommerce apps come with authorization codes and must comply with secure authentications.

  • Klarna and Bancontact Payments: Popular in Germany, Sweden, and Belgium, these payment options must be integrated to accommodate European buyer behavior.
  • SEPA Payments for Peer Transfer: If integrating P2P payments within the communication app, instant payments via SEPA could be necessary for certain services.

Cross-Border Payment System Integration

Apps in Europe must be flexible enough to handle cross-border payments, which often involve more regulatory hurdles and compliance checks. Building these sophisticated systems takes time and requires scaling backend servers to handle multiple currencies when serving an EU-wide audience.

Integrating financial services in Europe—especially across its various countries—can contribute significantly to total development costs due to the long compliance and testing stages.

Database & Back-End Infrastructure: Europe Regulations and Scalability

The back-end systems that power Viber are substantial, managing not only large user databases but also ensuring real-time voice and video calls across borders. This creates unique demands for European app development, especially considering GDPR and data storage regulations.

GDPR Compliance: In the EU, GDPR provisions require that data processing, storage, and management meet high standards. The app must allow users to consent to data collection, request deletions, and be informed about where their data is hosted. Ensuring compliance significantly impacts back-end architecture, requiring stringent security layers, consent capture, and data transfer regulations.

Data Residency in European Data Centers: Due to data protection laws, storing app data within the borders of the EU in data centers that comply with GDPR (such as AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure in European regions) is non-negotiable. Scaling the infrastructure to incorporate automated backups and retrieval systems and maintaining access speeds across European nations is critical but adds to overall storage and server hosting expenses.

Ongoing Maintenance and Updates

GDPR-Compliant Feature and Security Updates

Even after the app launches, keeping up with frequent GDPR changes means consistently updating the app to ensure compliance. This involves sending notifications to users when privacy policies are updated, providing user access to downloaded data, and refining data encryption algorithms to match the evolving security requirements.

OS-Specific Updates and Localization Adjustments

Europe's tech diversity demands that apps regularly update their operating systems for regions with fluctuating rates of iOS vs. Android usage. Additionally, localization must be reconsidered post-launch, especially as the app expands into newer countries or adds languages.

Ongoing development for a multi-regional European app wrestles with multiple simultaneous updates, especially when new features might require network optimizations regionally while also adhering to data privacy laws in different countries.

Team Expertise and Location for European App Development

A critical factor in app development costs is the expertise and location of the development team. Europe presents unique opportunities here, with some regions offering deep specialization in fields like data privacy laws, cloud infrastructure, and UX localization.

Working Across European Time Zones

Hiring teams from Eastern Europe, such as Poland or Ukraine, offers cost advantages while maintaining high expertise in mobile-first app development. Central European-based teams often possess more in-depth knowledge of local data regulations or language localization for diverse user bases, ensuring easier navigational flow across regions.

GDPR and Data Security Expertise

Ensuring compliance with GDPR means having specialists on the team who understand all facets of European data privacy laws. Developers familiar with the intricacies of managing, storing, and deleting user data without breaching regulatory frameworks will assist in streamlining this complex task while avoiding heavy future fines.

Hidden Costs & Miscellaneous Factors for Europe

QA & Testing: When testing an app meant for Europe, QA becomes crucial. The app should be put through rigorous testing across different countries’ internet speeds, device compatibilities, and region-specific interfaces. Ensuring cross-region synchronization for real-time communication features (like in Viber ) increases the timelines for testing and debugging.

App Store Fees & Guidelines: Each app market—Google Play for Android and Apple’s App Store for iOS—requires specific fees, but more importantly, submission across various European nations also necessitates compliance with different localization rules.

Legal and Compliance: Apps that process or store sensitive personal information in Europe also face additional compliance costs associated with GDPR audits and compliance with data collection best practices. For apps such as a Viber-like service, complying with secure communication and data privacy requires dedicated resources to ensure that the app adheres to all relevant laws. Legal teams proficient in GDPR, DPP (Data Protection Provisions), and EU Cookie Directives may need to be consulted on an ongoing basis, adding to the total project costs.

One thing to keep in mind, especially for apps like Viber, is that non-compliance with GDPR can result in hefty fines that could far outweigh the costs of initially setting up proper data handling protocols. Therefore, ensuring your app is fully compliant from the outset makes the legal and compliance costs worthwhile.

What Makes This App Category Unique in Terms of Development for Europe?

Developing a Messaging/VoIP App Like Viber for the European Market

Messaging apps like Viber hold a special place in a region as diverse and regulated as Europe. Given the popularity of real-time messaging and VoIP platforms, there are key factors that differentiate Europe from other regions and make development unique.

GDPR and User Privacy: In Europe, GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) greatly impacts the development of Viber-like apps. User consent, data retention, and the right to be forgotten are cornerstones of this legislation, and how personal data is processed, stored, and shared must be deeply integrated into the app’s data-handling architecture. This impacts not just the back-end development but also the entire user flow—users must be able to easily opt-in and manage their own data preferences, which means constant adjustments in response to any ongoing updates to local and regional frameworks.

Cross-Border Usability: A unique challenge in developing a Viber-style app for Europe is the cross-border usability of the app. Users in Europe often communicate with people in neighboring countries or even outside of the region, and staying within the rounds of cross-border regulations—especially telecom laws, VoIP restrictions, and payment processing rules between different countries—requires a robust back-end infrastructure capable of seamlessly navigating multi-country communications. Ensuring smooth transitions of calls and texts, alongside managing in-app purchases across different currencies and payment systems, adds complexity to the development roadmap.

Multi-Language and Localization: With 27 official languages in the European Union alone, multi-language localization is a non-negotiable aspect of developing for Europe’s app market. Users in France, Germany, Italy, and Scandinavia expect interfaces, help sections, and even notifications to all be fully translated and customized to their local dialects and cultural preferences. Localizing an app also requires various UX iterations since the design/layout often needs to adapt to longer or shorter phrases in different languages.

Culturally-Specific Design Preferences: Lastly, European companies put a strong emphasis on design aesthetics, but this looks different from region to region. For instance, Nordic countries prefer minimalist, function-forward designs, whereas Southern European users might favor more interactive or vibrant interfaces. Ensuring that your UX/UI design can cater to regional tastes within Europe adds another layer of complexity that non-European markets may not demand.

All these factors make creating a Viber-like app a complex but rewarding endeavor when companies adapt the product for a European market. Despite these unique requirements pushing up the initial app development costs, the result is a user-focused, legally compliant, and better-optimized product.

Looking for a custom app built to succeed in Europe? 

At Scrums.com, we specialize in developing compliant, localized software that meets the diverse needs of the European market. From GDPR readiness to multi-language interfaces, we know what it takes to make your app stand out on the European stage. Contact us today for a custom-fit estimate for your European app project!