In today's world, health depends on many factors, including stress and nutrition. The pandemic has increased interest in health apps that help improve physical and mental well-being. As the demand for such applications grows, creating a unique and competitive application that solves user problems and generates revenue becomes increasingly difficult. For those looking for expert assistance, Stormotion offer fitness mobile application development services.
In this article, we will discuss self wellness app development, including the specifics of developing health applications, the features that should be added, and the technologies to choose. We will also share our experience on how to create a wellness app. Let's begin!
📊 Understanding the Wellness App Market
Let's begin our research on the market and the latest trends in the digital health and wellness app development sector, and take a look at real, successful examples of such apps.
Market Trends and Statistics
The wellness app market has significantly grown in recent years and shows no signs of stopping. Exploring how to develop a mental health app can provide insights into creating solutions that support emotional resilience and reduce stress.
Stormotion's case study in wellness app development - Mindance - an enterprise wellness app.
(image by Stormotion)
According to Statista, revenue in the health and wellness training market is expected to reach $17.37 billion in 2024. User penetration is 13.69% (as of 2024) and is expected to reach 15.79% by 2029. Globally, the highest revenue will be generated in the United States ($3,829.00 million in 2024).
Real-World Examples
There are already many successful health apps on the market; let's review the most popular ones in different categories:
MyFitnessPal | A leading fitness and nutrition app that helps users track their diet and adjust it according to their preferences and needs, is an excellent reference for how to create a diet and nutrition app |
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Calm | One of the most popular apps for meditation, sleep, and relaxation. The app aims to support users' mental health and reduce stress. |
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Freeletics | The number one fitness app in Europe for home workouts. Using artificial intelligence, the app helps users stay in shape, track progress, and monitor nutrition. | Fitness app features list include:
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Step Counter | An app for tracking the number of steps. |
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Similarly, for yoga enthusiasts, partnering with a yoga app development company can help create an app that meets specific user needs.
Wellness Apps Future
Key trends shaping the next generation of wellness apps:
- AI Personalization – apps will analyze sleep, stress, and diet to offer tailored insights (this will be particularly beneficial for those interested in how to make an app for women's health.).
- VR Fitness – workouts with AI trainers in virtual reality for immersive training.
- Mental Health Focus – expanded meditation libraries, stress/sleep tracking, and advanced health features.
Wellness mobile app development
(image by Kevin Bhagat)
Engaging a healthcare app development company can provide the expertise needed to integrate advanced mental health features.
To summarize, the wellness app market is quite diverse and promising. The popularity of these apps is emphasized by the demand for them, and future trends indicate that the market continues to evolve, with plenty of room for growth.
Types of Wellness Apps
Mental health app developers have embraced a diverse range of approaches to meet the diverse needs of their users. Understanding the distinct types of wellness apps can help guide your development process and ensure that your app meets the specific needs of your target audience.
Workout and Training Apps
With these apps, users track how many steps they take, how many calories they burn, and how far they walk each day. Also include workout plans, goal-setting tools, and up-to-date progress information.
Check out our customer's review – Force USA is an workout app for functional training equipment
Meditation and Mental Health Apps
Meditation apps offer users guided meditations, stress relief programs, and mindfulness techniques. These help alleviate anxiety, improve sleep, and minimize severe mood swings.
If you want to build something like that, hiring a mental health app development company can significantly raise the chances of success.
Nutrition and Diet Apps
These apps are designed for meal planning, calorie monitoring, and logging your food intake. The apps also offer personalized meal plans and complete information about foods.
Sleep Tracking Apps
Sleep apps check your habits and provide tips on how to achieve restful sleep. These may include setting a smart alarm clock, going to bed regularly, and monitoring your environment.
Hydration Reminder Apps
Apps remind users to drink water regularly by sending notifications. They usually change hydration recommendations based on a person's age, weight and physical activity.
Wellness Challenges and Communities
These apps promote motivation by allowing users to participate in corporate wellness programs, interact with others, or even explore software for club management development to manage groups and events effectively. Whether it's group fitness goals or collective meditation, the social aspect helps increase accountability and engagement.
Have a wellness project in mind? We’d love to hear it!
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🛠️ Essential Features of a Wellness App
Developing a wellness app requires not only an understanding of market trends but also the needs of users and the features utilized by your competitors. To help you navigate this, whether you're looking into how to make a yoga application, how to develop a physical therapy app, or another type of wellness app, we have prepared the main features to focus on during the app creation process.
User-Centric Design
Users should be able to understand the entire navigation logic and intuitively move through the app's functions from the first use.
User-centric design principles ensure that healthy habits are seamlessly integrated into daily routines, promoting productivity and well-being.
(image by Nixtio)
💡 To ensure a smoother adaptation process, you can add features such as tutorials and quick setup options to personalize the program based on user preferences.
Personalization and Customization
App retention drops fast (23% on day 1 → ~3% on day 30). So, how to make a wellness app with personalization?
- Personal health data.
- Customizable plans.
- AI-based recommendations.
Estimating how much does it cost to make a fitness app with these personalizations can assist in planning resources and features effectively.
Integration with Wearables and IoT
Smartwatch users grew from 149 million in 2019 to 219 million in 2023 and are expected to reach 231 million by 2028. Wearables and IoT are gaining popularity, so adding easy integration with devices like fitness trackers, smartwatches, smart scales, and heart rate monitors enables real-time data sync and comprehensive health insights.
To create a robust MVP as part of self wellness app development, consider hiring experts who specialize in integrating wearables and IoT seamlessly.
(image by Awsmd)
💡 A great solution would be to include data visualization. With graphs and charts, users should be able to understand and track their metrics more easily.
Gamification and User Engagement
Gamification elements will help you motivate users to achieve new goals. Incorporate various badges and achievements, as well as rewards, into your app's design. This will help increase engagement and encourage consistent use of the app.
Gamification enhances user engagement by integrating game elements into non-game contexts, such as wellness apps.
(image by Aman Verma)
By focusing on these key features, your wellness app can provide a holistic and engaging experience, helping users effectively achieve their health and wellness goals. To learn more about how to build a wellness app and tailor these features to meet user needs keep reading!
🚀 Advanced Features in Wellness Apps
In this section, we offer you a detailed look at the advanced features that will help you create a unique product through our wellness app development services.
AI-Driven Insights
Everyone is talking about AI right now. Many different companies are beginning to integrate it into their apps, from customer service chatbots to complex data analytics systems. Wellness apps are no exception. By integrating AI into corporate wellness programs, you can offer users personalized health recommendations and data analysis. Such features are very important in any fitness app, especially in an app for a corporate fitness challenge.
Telehealth Integration
Telehealth integration allows users to consult with healthcare professionals directly through the app, offering convenience and accessibility. This can include video consultations, messaging, and appointment scheduling.
Telehealth integration requires robust software and specialized mobile app development to ensure seamless connectivity and functionality for remote healthcare services.
(image by strangehelix.bio)
Social and Community Features
The community feature in a health app promotes user engagement and motivation. A social platform right in your app allows users to share their progress, participate in challenges, support, and communicate with each other.
For example, this could include a leaderboard, group workouts, or forums for exchanging tips and experiences. Social interaction within the app creates a supportive environment, fostering long-term user retention.
Data Analytics and Reporting
With advanced data analytics and reporting tools, users can monitor their progress (which is also a portion of motivation), set goals, and get detailed insights into changes in their physical and mental health.
Want to know how to build a fitness tracking app? Go to our full guide on this topic!
Let’s bring your feature wishlist to life!
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⚙ Tech Stack for Wellness App Development
At our wellness app development company, we value our expertise and authority, and therefore believe that any technical information should be provided by experts experienced in the field, such as those who can guide you on how to develop a fitness application. So, our developer Natalia Yandola will tell you about the tech stack that is perfectly suited for creating a wellness app. Let’s Start!
Mobile Development Frameworks
Choosing the right framework is key for performance, cross-platform support, ease of use, and wellness-specific features.
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Native frameworks(e.g., SwiftUI, UIKit) are built for a single OS, offering full access to native APIs and high performance.
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Web/Cross-platform frameworkslet you write code once and run it on iOS, Android, and sometimes the web, using hybrid approaches to deliver a native-like experience.
Here you can see the pros and cons of native development:
Native Development | |
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Pros
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And cross-platform development:
Cross-Platform Development | |
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Pros
| Cons
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If you want native performance with cross-platform efficiency, React Native is the most suitable choice.
- Performance & UX: Delivers apps with a native-like look and feel.
- Ecosystem: Large community, extensive libraries, and plugins for quick problem-solving.
- Native access: Supports integrating device-specific features when needed, e.g. health tracking in wellness apps.
In short: React Native combines the strengths of native apps with the flexibility of cross-platform development.
AI and Machine Learning
Wellness apps are evolving from simple trackers into AI-powered companions that adapt to user habits and health data. Key technical aspects include:
- Recommendation systems: AI analyzes activity, diet, sleep, and goals to suggest tailored workouts, nutrition, meditation practices, or sleep strategies. Integrated via professional meditation app development services.
- Neural networks & deep learning: Extract complex patterns from large datasets to enable smarter app features.
- Time-series analysis: Interprets continuous data like heart rate or sleep patterns.
- Natural language processing (NLP): Enables interaction through voice or text.
For React Native apps, AI can be integrated using cloud services like AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure. Examples:
- Amazon Rekognition (image/video analysis)
- Amazon Comprehend (NLP)
- Firebase ML (APIs for text recognition, face detection, etc.)
Data Security and Compliance
Data security in wellness apps requires strong encryption for storage and transmission, secure authentication, and role-based access control. Compliance with GDPR (Europe) and HIPAA (US) ensures responsible data handling.
Technologies like NestJS (backend), PostgreSQL (database), and AWS (cloud) provide scalability, reliability, and built-in security features.
Not sure what stack is best for your idea?
Get Technical Advice!
🔍 Steps to Develop a Wellness App
Developing a successful wellness program involves 4 main stages: research and planning, design and prototyping, development and testing, launch and post-launch activities.
In this section, we will cover the main stages of creating a wellness app, from initial research to post-launch activities.
Research and Planning
At this stage, you define the idea, analyze the market, identify your target audience, and set clear goals to ensure the app solves real user needs and aligns with your business strategy.
Ideation and Planning
The initial stage of developing a wellness app should always start with formulating an idea and clearly planning the timing of the next steps and processes.
Market Research
During market research, focus on health trends, user demographics, and specific problems your program needs to solve. This research will ensure that your future app meets user requirements and stands out among competitors.
Define Your Target Audience
Knowing the needs of your target audience will help you create truly useful and attractive functionality. Gather all the necessary information to create a user persona, which will help you better understand who will use the app and which features you need to prioritize.
Set Clear Goals
Setting clear, measurable goals — such as user retention rate, downloads, or engagement time — will guide your feature set and business strategy.
Choose a Development Approach
Decide whether you'll build a native app for each platform or use cross-platform frameworks like React Native to save time and resources.
In the research and planning phase of wellness mobile app development, thorough analysis ensures a focused and user-driven approach to creating the app.
(image by Fireart UI/UX)
Design and Prototyping
UI/UX Design
Creating wellness app designs and prototypes is the first step toward an intuitive and attractive user experience. This stage usually involves wireframing (sketching the app interface). Prototyping allows you to visualize how your future app will look.
💡 You can present the prototype to your focus group and refine the app at early stages based on real feedback from potential users.
Design and Prototyping stage is crucial for refining ideas into tangible user experiences that prioritize functionality and aesthetic appeal.
(image by lazy kar)
Feature Selection
The main purpose of this stage is to decide on the set of features of your app. Based on the analysis of the market, competitors and the needs of your target audience, you already understand approximately which features are worth adding to your app, and which ones are useless and nobody uses them.
Technology Stack
At this stage, you will need to choose the right technology stack. We will talk about it in the next section!
HIPAA Compliance
If your app handles sensitive health data, ensure compliance with regulations like HIPAA (for the US) or GDPR (for Europe) to protect user privacy and avoid legal issues.
Development and Testing
The most responsible and challenging stage in wellness mobile app creation – is development and testing.
At this stage, you will need to choose the right technology stack. For example, at Stormotion, we work with React Native. This framework allows us to develop apps simultaneously for iOS and Android, significantly saving time and resources for our clients.
Important aspects of this stage include wearable app development, integration with APIs and wearable devices, ensuring data security, and compliance with regulations.
It's crucial to hire experienced professionals to ensure robust functionality and user satisfaction.
(image by Olena Kychun 🇺🇦)
Thorough testing, including automated tests, user acceptance testing (UAT), and performance optimization, ensures the reliability of the app and the absence of errors.
Launch and Post-Launch Activities
App Store Optimization
The final stage, when the entire app is ready and tested, is placing the app on marketplaces such as the Apple App Store and Google Play with all necessary metadata, screenshots, and descriptions.
Marketing and Promotion
Develop a marketing strategy to increase visibility and drive downloads. Use social media, partnerships, and influencer marketing to reach your target audience.
User Onboarding
Create an onboarding experience that educates users on how to use the app effectively, highlights key features, and encourages long-term engagement.
Gather Feedback and Iterate
Additionally, after launch, the app requires constant monitoring to track bugs and regular updates. Monitoring allows you to identify and quickly fix technical issues, ensuring the smooth operation of the program and user satisfaction. Regular updates are necessary not only to fix issues but also to add new features, improve the user experience, and keep the app relevant in the market.
Cost of Creating a Wellness App
Let's move from theory to concrete numbers. How much does it cost to create a wellness app? Here is a detailed table:
Phase | Estimated Hours | Estimated Cost |
|---|---|---|
Research and Planning | ||
Ideation and Planning | 40–80 | $2,000–$4,000 |
Market Research | 40–80 | $2,000–$4,000 |
Define Target Audience | 20–40 | $1,000–$2,000 |
Set Clear Goals | 10–20 | $500–$1,000 |
Choose Development Approach | 10–20 | $500–$1,000 |
Design and Prototyping | ||
UI/UX Design | 80–200 | $4,000–$10,000 |
Feature Selection | 20–40 | $1,000–$2,000 |
Technology Stack | 10–20 | $500–$1,000 |
HIPAA Compliance | 20–40 | $1,000–$2,000 |
Development and Testing | ||
Frontend Development | 200–400 | $10,000–$20,000 |
Backend Development | 300–600 | $15,000–$30,000 |
API & Wearable Integration | 80–160 | $4,000–$8,000 |
Testing & QA | 80–200 | $4,000–$10,000 |
Performance Optimization | 40–80 | $2,000–$4,000 |
Launch & Post-Launch | ||
App Store Optimization | 20–40 | $1,000–$2,000 |
Marketing & Promotion | 40–80 | $2,000–$4,000 |
User Onboarding | 20–40 | $1,000–$2,000 |
Gather Feedback & Iterate | 40–80 | $2,000–$4,000 |
TOTAL | 1,270–2,560 | $63,500–$128,000 |
As you can see, creating a wellness app will cost between $63,500 and $128,000. Even though we have tried to give you the most realistic estimates, the total cost can still vary depending on the complexity of your app development, marketing strategies, and number of features.
To make the most of your investment, it's worth partnering with a company that offers comprehensive wellness app development services tailored to your business goals.
Tell us about your project — we’ll estimate the cost!
Request a Quote
Monetization of Wellness Apps
A wellness app can be monetized well by choosing plans that appeal to users and offer them benefits. In this section, we have collected the most common monetization methods for you:
1. Freemium model– a limited version of the app is free and the rest of the features can be purchased for a fee.
2. Subscription model – give users access to all features of the app by charging them a regular fee (monthly or yearly).
3. In-app purchases – allow users to purchase personalized pricing plans or exclusive products.
4. In-app advertising – advertisements are shown in different formats so that they harmonize with what users are doing online without interfering with them.
5. Affiliate marketing – partner with related companies by advertising their products or services in the app. If users make a purchase on your recommendation, you get a part of the profit as a commission.
💼 Our Case Studies and Experience Than We Proud
At Stormotion, we provide wellness app development services and have several successful cases of wellness and fitness app development. Our developer, Nataliya Yandolya, who was directly involved in their creation, will share this with you:
- Mindance
Mindance’s mission is to enhance the mental well-being and professional development of users at various life and career stages. Offering over 1,000 interactive courses, exercises, and podcasts in multiple languages, their platform serves a diverse audience, including executives and young professionals. These tools promote health, personal development, and employee engagement.
(image by Stormotion)
Operating under an outstaffing model, we provided Mindance with dedicated IT resources, enabling them to manage the project’s budget and timeline effectively while benefiting from our technical expertise.
- FitTracks
A fitness application with audio instructions through voice-guided workouts for fitness enthusiasts and sporties. While most fitness apps are focused on inside-the-gym activities or home workouts to get 6-pack abs, FitTracks has a goal of turning wellness into a lifestyle. FitTracks’ online workouts have already been recognized as prevention courses by the German government. This gives users the right to ask their health insurance companies for up to 100% reimbursement of costs.
(image by Stormotion)
Stormotion, as a wellness app development company, assembled a team of a Designer, a Project Manager, and a React Native Developer to fit in with the project. Our core task was to deliver a user-centric product that would be consistent with the website and matching mobile behavior patterns as well. Our development team was also responsible for the full release-related support. Now the FitTracks app is available for iOS and Android users in Germany.
- Feel Amazing
Feel Amazing is a meditation and wellness application that allows users to unwind their minds, and become a better version of themselves. It provides an array of functions for improving mental health by way of guided meditations, mindfulness workouts, and health monitoring. Feel Amazing focused on simple, intuitive design.
(image by Stormotion)
We followed the minimum approach, creating an application that didn’t overload with soothing colors and navigation. The hybrid development approach saved development time while enabling concurrent iOS and Android deployment.
👂 Takeaways
Developing a wellness app is an interesting and complex process. Considering the market demand and size, it's quite a successful sphere. So, let's summarize:
- The market is actively growing, creating excellent opportunities for new projects.
- Consider implementing additional features such as artificial intelligence, which can significantly enhance user experience and make your app competitive.
- Choose an appropriate technological stack that meets your project's needs and direction.
If you have any questions about developing a wellness app, feel free to reach out to us - we'll be happy to assist you in all aspects of your project.
![Stormotion client Pietro Saccomani, Founder from [object Object]](/static/40e913b6c17071a400d1a1c693a17319/1b3aa/pietro.webp)
