How Much Does Pinterest Like App Development Cost?
What started off as an introvert’s haven, soon became the house of some of the most creative minds of the world, who came to the platform looking for ideas and hobbies.
The idea that backed it, bagged 50 Best Websites of 2011 award from the Times Magazine. And after a decade, its application now hosts over 450 million monthly active users.
This product that took an off-stream approach and created a new business model & industry standard was Pinterest.
In addition to being a non-intrusive platform, Pinterest has set a benchmark for businesses: giving them a path to succeed on both user engagement and business revenue front.
Today, there is hardly any business person who doubts the benefits of building an app like Pinterest. Or one who is not scratching the internet looking for answers on how much does it cost to develop Pinterest like app.
What is Pinterest and how does it work?
Pinterest is a social media platform that enables users to share media related to goods, services, and projects and discover new interests by looking at the images that others have posted.
One might think of the Pinterest app download as a web-powering bulletin board, but with higher organization capability.
Users normally save a.k.a pin the images they find on the web or Pinterest on different boards on their profile. Most of the images which are saved on Pinterest are clickable and opened in a new tab when clicked. The Pinterest app for Android and iOS is free to download.
Pinterest in the news
A. Pinterest started 2020 with around 320 million monthly active users. And now their user base has increased to 459 million monthly active users.
B. In August 2021, Pinterest launched a first-of-its-kind hair pattern search for inclusive beauty results. This hair pattern search enables Pinners to refine hair searches by six different hair patterns: protective, coily, curly, wavy, straight, and shaved/bald. So basically, this feature allows users to find hair inspiration that is most relevant to their style and preference. Pinterest also introduced new tools for the creator community that will allow them to make money from their content.
C. Getting more conscious about its users’ mental health, Pinterest trained its algorithms to identify disturbing content and remove it from the application.
Must-have features of the Pinterest app
The feature set that Pinterest comes with is fairly straightforward and concentrated on one purpose – saving and sharing ideas. Here are the features that carry an impact on the cost of Pinterest like app:
Login/Create Account
Similar to the maximum of applications operative in the market today, the Pinterest app too offers users the functionality of creating an account and logging in. To expedite the process, the app offers the option to do social media logins.
Home Feed
The Pinterest home screen is made of slab like portrayal of media that users can then choose to Pin or scroll through. This part of the application is governed by Artificial Intelligence technology. The feed gets adjusted on the basis of users’ interest.
Search
This is the section that users make use of to search for pins related to the topic of their interest. Pinterest has been making a lot of effort to make the search functionality advanced and extremely precise. If you too are planning to build a Pinterest-like app, then this feature is important. It will help users get information on topics of their interest without any hassle. The search function will give them relevant information and in turn increase users’ engagement.
Save and Share Pin
This is another feature you can include in your Pinterest clone app. When users click on a pin they are given two options – A. Put the pin on a board B. Share it with their friends through different mediums. This is one way how Pinterest betters their user engagement numbers.
Create
Pinterest gives users two options when it comes to creation – Pin and Board.
You can either create a pin by uploading a media element from the gallery or capture a picture from the camera. You can also create a board wherein you can add multiple pins related to the topic of your interest.
Once created, you can modify the pins on the board or delete it – pin/board – altogether.
Following Tab
This part of the application shows users what people they follow have saved in the app. It also comes with a recommendation tab, giving users to find new people/accounts to follow.
Notifications
Pinterest uses this re-engagement marketing technique perfectly by sending notifications to users related to their boards, and new additions made in the pin type they have shown an interest in.
Dashboard
Denoted as ‘Saved’ this is the user profile section of the application. This details the number of followers and following, and boards and pins that they have created and saved. Here, the users also get a Sort feature, which gives them the facility to either sort their boards according to alphabetical order or time-wise.
Advanced features of the Pinterest app
Although not main or must-have, these advanced features are one that makes Pinterest what it is. These tend to carry an impact on the cost of Pinterest app development, greatly.
Group Boards
Pinterest gives users the functionality to create board and invite their friends to collaborate in it. This makes it possible for them to make plans together and work on them.
Post Reactions
While not originally in the plan, Pinterest gives users the functionality to react to a pin through emoticons.
Message
Stepping one step further in the social media game, Pinterest gives its users the ability to send messages to other people from inside the application.
Suggestion Feed Queries
When you enter a search term in the app, Pinterest gives additional queries for you to select from. This makes the search process a lot more advanced and engaging.
Designing guidelines of the Pinterest app
When you create a Pinterest mobile app, you don’t just have to consider the features set. What makes the app truly special is the experience that it offers to the end users through its design.
When Pinterest started its operation, there was little to no focus on design principles. The focus, back then, used to be entirely on offerings. That was the time when Pinterest UI looked like this:
It was in 2017 when Pinterest’s product design team brought the corporate focus on changing the app design on the phone.
The foundation that they set for the app was –
Lucid
- It’s intuitive, not learned
- It makes the user feel powerful
- It makes the content taste better
Animated
- It’s colorful
- It’s visually responsive
- It’s unexpected in a good way
Unbreakable
- It’s built for exploration
- It’s impossible to mis-tap
- It’s reversible
The foundation principle gave birth to a revamped app design that focused on white space and intuition. The two factors played a massive role in taking the app’s engagement off the charts.
At Appinventiv, we perform a series of research to back the UI and UX of an application. We start with a product discovery workshop which lasts for 5 days. This, lets us create wireframes and mindmaps which help set the future of user experience. We also follow a series of UI/UX trends to ensure the app design is extremely on-point, right from the onboarding stage.
This is something our clients would find in our estimate of the cost of developing apps like Pinterest.
Besides the designing process and elements, the other factor that is included in the Pinterest clone app cost breakdown is the technology stack.
Pinterest like app techstack
The technology stack used to create a Pinterest clone application can majorly be divided into four segments – Application & Data, Utilities, DevOps, and Business Tools.
Pinterest, as an application grows continuously, both in terms of the user’s count and the ads business. Increasing with it is the review volume. In order to develop Pinterest like app, businesses will have to work around a technology stack that solves the flourishing operational and engineering challenges at scale.
How much does it cost to develop Pinterest like app?
The cost to create a Pinterest clone application can be estimated upon the study of the factors that would go into it. While the design is one of those, it is not the only one. There are a number of things that come into play in the cost of app development range.
Here are some other prime factors that affect the cost of Pinterest like application development.
The platform choice
When developing an app like Pinterest, you should keep in mind that the cost for developing the app for iPhone differs from the Android platform. However, there is not much difference. If you are a startup with a minimal budget, better opt for one platform in the initial stages, later on, you can shift to multiple platforms.
However, it’s best to get an MVP developed and validated first, before going live on multiple platforms. Once you have tested your product in the market, you can decide which platform is best for your product. In case, you still cannot decide between iOS and Android platforms, you can take help from an iPhone application development company or Android app development company.
We also give them a third choice – Cross–Platform app development, specifically React native app development. There are a number of reasons that validate why React native can be the best decision for startups.
Frontend and backend development
Developing the frontend and backend of the application takes up the majority of the developers’ time along with adding on to the cost of Pinterest like app development. While the efforts required to do Frontend development are still less compared to Backend, it is not unimportant.
Now when we talk about Backend development, there are two options available to businesses – Monolithic and Microservices with the latter being more expensive than the former.
App complexity
There are a number of elements that define app complexity – features set, the tech stack that backs it, the design elements, etc. It is the app complexity that differentiates a $10,000 app from a $100,000 mobile app.
Pinterest in itself is a mid to high–complexity app. But it’d depend on your business choice whether you want to make your app complex or not.
The team size
Another factor that greatly affects Pinterest like app development cost is the team size. Usually, the team composition for an app like Pinterest looks like this –
1 Project Manager
1 Team Lead
2 Back-end Developers
2 Front-end Developers
1 QA
2 UI & UX Designers
Location of the agency
The cost of developing Pinterest like app also depends greatly on where the development agency is located. An agency based out of the USA or Australia will charge a lot more than agencies based out of Eastern nations like India.
The difference in the average hourly cost can go up to over $40 – $50 per hour.
This massive difference in the development cost of Pinterest clone app that you are bound to see is what will make it a lot more beneficial to outsource the app development process.
The next part to attend to after knowing the development cost of Pinterest clone app is to plan how you would earn money on it.
Monetization strategies of Pinterest like app
Pinterest mainly earns its money through advertising, more specifically promoted pins. These promoted pins are advertisements that appear similar to user–generated posts.
If you are following the Pinterest route, the answer to how much money you can earn will also majorly revolve around advertisements.
FAQs about Pinterest like app development cost
Q. How do I create a Pinterest app?
If you want to create a Pinterest app, it’s advisable to work with an experienced app development company. They will guide you through the whole process while getting a better end result.
Q. How much does an app like Pinterest cost?
The cost to develop a Pinterest app for Android or iOS can be anywhere between $5,000 to $11,500 per platform.
Q. Does Pinterest have an API?
Yes. Pinterest offers an API. It allows developers to offer Pinterest’s Pin feature inside their application.
Q. What are the alternatives to the Pinterest app?
There are a number of applications that have emerged as Pinterest’s competition. The top three of them are – We Heart It, Jux, and Gentlemint.
Q. Is the Pinterest app download free for people and businesses?
Yes, the Pinterest app download is free for both individual people and businesses.
Final Note
We hope this blog was helpful in answering some of the most asked questions like ‘what is Pinterest and how does it work’, ‘how do I create a Pinterest app’ and ‘how much does an app like Pinterest cost’. If you’re also planning to build an app like Pinterest, you need to think out-of-the-box to make the app user-friendly and fun and exciting for users. Pinterest came up with a new concept, giving all these aspects importance and therefore gained recognition.
In case you are looking for social media app development, you can contact us. Our experts will guide you through the whole process and help you build an app like Pinterest with exceptional features and functionalities.
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