In this article, we’ll look at Tinder-like app development and answer the most-asked question, “how much does it cost to make an app like tinder,” with the goal of more in-depth answers. To give businesses an idea of ​​how much their tinder clone app will cost.

First and foremost, what is the Tinder app? 

Tinder is a social dating app that enables users to find a match for themselves and then set up a date with that match using the chatting feature of the app. Tinder requires a Facebook ID to log in so a user’s location and interests can be used to find the ideal match.

Despite the fact that Tinder was, in many ways, the leading brand in the mobility dating world, several other apps immediately followed the brand lead. Moving on, we will talk about how to make a Tinder app, how much does it cost to build a Tinder app, and who are the current market leaders in the dating app category.

Related Article: How Much Does it Cost to Set Up an App?

Market Leaders in the Dating App Like Tinder

• Bumble, a dating app, is one app that is trying to compete with Tinder. What Bumble does better than Tinder is that it allows users to chat instantly, whereas Tinder requires users to wait weeks to chat.

• Happn is a major competitor to Tinder, offering incredible features like finding and connecting with strangers. Each move is tracked by the app, which uses GPS to do this.

• Raya is reserved for the upper layer. According to the evolution of the dating app, users are ‘accepted’ in circles based on their social media strengths and other factors.

• Hinge is based on Connection, and it allows users to find a match that is a friend or friend of a friend.

How to Make an App Like Tinder: Things to Know and Cost

Modern technologies have transformed not only human-machine relationships but also interpersonal relationships. Do you remember the last time you sent a handwritten letter or informed in person about an upcoming meeting?

In short, the price of an app like Tinder is determined by the complexity of the app’s functionality as well as the development company you choose. A native Android or iOS app can cost $50,000-$55,000, based on average hourly rates of $50 in Eastern Europe. If you want to develop apps for both platforms at the same time, you will need a budget of at least $100,000.

To build your own Tinder app, you need to understand the following algorithms and techniques.

Tinder’s functionality appears to be very simple at first glance, but it hides quite complex algorithms that are not visible to users. Before building an app like Tinder, consider the following features:

• Users can only see one person at a time, but there are thousands of people swiping left and right simultaneously.
• Everyone (or at least some group of people) sees people in a different order. This means that the developer’s job is to categorize profiles into groups.
• To make a match, a specific algorithm must be in charge of determining who to show and when.

Features and Technologies Used in TinderTinder

App When thinking about building a dating app, the algorithms mentioned above are not the only considerations. There are many more features in the app. They require a certain amount of time and money to implement. Let’s look at each separately.

1. User profile and authorization

You should use the Facebook authorization engine to create apps like Tinder. This is usually done using an open authorization protocol such as OAuth. Registration is implemented so that the app does not remember the login and password of the social media account (in our case – Facebook). However, it creates a new account within the application using these credentials. You can also use the phone number to log in. You can use any existing type of user authorization to create your own Tinder app. Our experts will gladly assist you in making the best decision.

It’s a good idea to onboard them after you’ve authorized them by showing them how to use the main app. For this reason, we created an open-source library, Sliding Tutorials.

2. Profile Matching

Implementing its development into your Tinder clone app can cost anywhere between $1,500 to $3,000.

Both the client and server sides of the application are used for editing profiles. The user enters/edits data on the client-side (gender, bio, photo). Appropriate records are saved on the server.

Tinder allows users to create a web profile that can be found outside the app. If the application is not installed when the user clicks on the ‘Like Me on Tinder’ button, he is directly redirected to the application or Play Market/App Store.

The process works like this: the client sends a request to the server. When the user clicks on the link, the server remembers that he wants his picture to appear. The server creates the link, which displays the image to anyone who clicks on it.

This is how Tinder works with users and their profiles. When building an app like Tinder, try to follow the same approach.

3. Notifications and Settings

Tinder, like any other app, allows users to customize the settings for their convenience. For example, you can turn notifications on or off to receive new matches, messages, likes, and super likes. To display the distance, you can also select the preferred units of measurement (km or miles).

Notifications may be received by interacting with Apple or Google servers through your application. The app receives push notifications from the server. Your development team can use FCM (Firebase Cloud Messaging) for Android and APN (Apple Push Notifications) for iOS to create a Tinder clone with similar functionality.

4. The application is based on geolocation.

 Because the app is all about finding people nearby, it would be useless without it. To build a dating app similar to Tinder, your app development team can use the Geolocation API and Core Location.

On Tinder, users can chat with each other only if they have a mutual liking. Otherwise, the chat feature is turned off. This function is usually implemented using a RESTful API or HTTP. Permanent socket connections are not used to prevent the server from being overloaded. The polling interval is determined by the frequency with which messages are sent.

Users can link their Tinder profile to their Instagram account in order to display their latest Instagram photos on Tinder. Tinder content, on the other hand, doesn’t come to Instagram.

5. In-app purchases are a way to monetize your app.

Tinder users can purchase a paid subscription to gain access to additional features. For example, change their location, rewind the last swipe, or turn off ads. The In-App Billing API for Android and the Store Kit framework for iOS is used to integrate in-app purchases.

Proper integration of this feature can cost anywhere between $4,000 and $5,000.

6. Facebook data integration Facebook account

Depending on how much data you want your app to collect, implementing this feature in an app like you can cost anywhere from $10,000 to $13,500.

Total time and cost to build a Tinder-style app.

How much does it cost to set up an app if you have read this article, you know how much it costs. After watching this series you will be familiar with the app development cost equation: Total development cost = Feature set + Scale + Hourly rate.

Using this equation, we can estimate that the cost of developing an app with a feature set similar to Tinder would range from $80,000 to $150,000, depending on the size of the app. Of course, these are categories of your app’s initial development costs; You can expect to spend a fifth of the total development cost on app maintenance each year.

We can sum everything up to find out how long it would take to develop an app like Tinder, how many hours it would take, and how much it would cost. While these figures may not reflect accurate data, they provide a clear picture of what a Tinder-style mobile app is building for any business.

• The number of hours required to build a Tinder-like app is as follows: Overall, it takes a total of 1200 to 1500 hours to build a Tinder-like app for both the platforms. If it is for just one platform then 350 to 400 hours can easily be cut.

• There’s a Cost to Build a Tinder-Style App: Before determining the cost of developing a Tinder-like app, there are several factors to be considered. Typical Indian mobile developers who work at an average rate of $20 to $25 can charge anywhere from $24,000 to $35,000 and more, depending on requirements and specific business requirements.

• How long does it take to build a Tinder-like app: A simple Tinder, like PP, without any additional features, can take up to 4 months. The higher the requirements, the longer it will take to complete the project. The development of such an app may take up to 6 months in some cases.

If you want an app for one platform (iOS or Android) and assuming an hourly rate of $50, it will cost you at least $35,000.

Cost of Tinder Like Dating App Development From Scratch

Every functionality will take some time to prepare and develop.

• Design [ 80h – 100h ]
  • Main screen
  • SignUp / SignIn screens
  • Settings, User profile
  • Chat screen
  • In-app purchase screen
  • Landing page
  • 3 revisions
• Mobile app development [ 452h ]
  • Authentication – 14h
  • User profile – 50h
  • Notifications – 20h
  • User settings – 40h
  • User location – 8h
  • Real-time Chat / messages with other users – 110h
  • In-app purchases with premium bonuses – 40h
  • Logic (matching with other users, likes, dislikes) – 100h
  • Other features like reporting other users, fake accounts – 38h
  • Saas integrations – 20h
  • Multi-language – 12h
• Backend development [ 238h ]
  • Authentication
  • RESTful API
  • Database structure
  • Services
  • Web UI
  • Admin panel
• Devops [ 25h ]
• Testing [ 36h ]
• Release [ 20h 

• Project management – 200h
• Business analysis – 24h
• UX/UI design- 160h
• Frontend development (Android+iOS) – 960h
• Backend development – 960h

Is it possible to make a Tinder-like App at a cheaper Price?

Not all app ideas necessitate a $100,000 investment, making an app development like Tinder is one of them. You can save money by using different technologies and building a simpler prototype.

• You can use react native instead of two separate native codebases and share 80-90 percent of the code between platforms. The total cost for both platforms will be around $30000, with the native code costing $22600+$22600 = $45200. React-native does, however, have some limitations. More information can be found in “React native vs. native app development.”

• White Lable Tinder Clone App will cost your near $5000 for android and iOS apps. Find a agency who offer readymade tinder like apps.

The total time and cost of making a Tinder-like app in India.

Android/iOS mobile app stack:

• Swift
• Objective C
• Java
• Ruby/Cucumber
• Rubymotion

Backend/API stack:

• Node.js
• JavaScript
• HTML5
• Elasticsearch
• MongoDB
• Redis
• AWS
• Python
• Bash scripting
• Mapbox
• GoDaddy SSL

Website stack:

• jQuery
• Node.js
• Nginx

• Freelancers – from $10/hour.
• In-house development team – up to $150/hour.
• Outsourced development team – around $40-50/hour.

• $55 000 as a starting point for a basic dating app like tinder;
• up to $70 000 for a single-platform app;
• from $100 000 for a cross-platform or hybrid app with premium features.

We can arrive at cumulative ballpark numbers representing the total cost of building an app like Tinder based on the resulting efforts, resources, and time spent developing the app. If we only consider one platform (for example, iOS) and one resource per skillset, the total number of hours would be between 750 and 950. Adding another developer’s time to the total would bring the total time to 1350-1650 hours. While development time would be between 5 and 6 months if all resources were dedicated and working on the project at the same time.

If we take the average of the rates applied to various resources, we get a range of $25-$30. Given the two programmers involved, a ballpark figure for developing the app on one platform would be in the range of $35k to $50k (rounded to multiples of 5).

*All figures are based on global averages derived from various countries and referring to various business quotations. Based on the profile of the development team, the experience they have building such apps, and most importantly, the area they come from, these figures can swing up to 30%-40% in either direction.