Gone are the days when investors had to depend on stock exchange agents to invest in financial markets. With the advent of stock trading apps, investing in stocks has become a matter of a few clicks and zooms. The apps keep you updated on the stock movements and allow you to buy/sell stocks in real-time without the involvement of any intermediaries.
This ease that the stock trading apps provide has not gone ignored by the investors and firms who wish to make the whole trading experience seamless for everyone.
There are a number of applications that have made investing and trading accessible for users. One of those applications is Robinhood – the app that defines the benefits of stock trading apps.
And in this article, we are going to look into the details of the Robinhood application and see how much does it cost to make a stock trading app.
About Robinhood Stock Broking App
How Does Robinhood-Like App Make Money?
Must-Have Robinhood App Features
How Much Does It Cost to Develop an App Like Robinhood?
Factors That Affect the Cost of Stock Trading App
FAQs About Robinhood Like Stock Trading App Development Cost
About Robinhood stock broking app
The Robinhood application lets users invest in stocks for free. The online brokerage app was launched in 2014 on the Apple’s App Store to enable investors to buy and sell ETFs and stocks without the need of paying a commission. The app currently has 22.5 million active users and has executed over $150 billion+ in transactions in 2021.
Here are a few benefits of using Robinhood app:
- The app lets investors create an investment portfolio
- It offers people up-to-date market data
- It sends investors push notification with respect to their upcoming dividends
- It allows investors to trade without waiting for the funds to “settle”.
- Zero commission fee for selling or buying stocks
- No annual or monthly charges
- No commission on cryptocurrency trading
- Referral program enabling users to earn free stocks
How does Robinhood-like app make money?
Like we mentioned at the beginning of the article, the Robinhood app offers free of cost trading to the users. It raises an immediate question: If Robinhood does not charge any trading fees, how do they make money? What is the Robinhood app business model?
The main source of earning that the Robinhood app works around is its premium offering known as Robinhood Gold.
Robinhood Gold is an upgrade for app users who are a lot more experienced and are willing to take greater investment risks. The upgrade calls for a monthly payment in exchange for giving users extended trading hours and more buying power. This extra buying power translates into the fact that the users are able to borrow money when they wish to purchase stocks.
The monthly fees, which range from $10 to $200, is heavily dependent on the tier of the user, which in turn is determined by the amount of money there is in users’ account. They also collect securities and cash in the Robinhood just like how banks charge from clients’ cash deposits.
Now that we have learned about the Robinhood app, let’s see what features are required to build an app like this.
Must-have Robinhood app features
When developing a stock trading app, it’s important to decide which features to include in your app. You must make sure to include such features that make the whole experience user-friendly for the users. Below are a few features that you must include in your mobile app.
Dashboard
This is the space that carries everything an investor should know – order status, watchlist, balance, charts, holdings, and so on. Since the screen will contain a huge variety of information, it is important that you show them all in a way that it doesn’t become a case of information overload.
Portfolio
Using this functionality, the investors will be able to create and manage their own portfolio without relying on any third party agent. It would be beneficial at this stage to add the filter and sort functionality in the portfolio to make it easy for investors to find what they are looking for.
Latest market data
The application should contain all the latest market insight to help investors be in the know-how of their stock performance along with an insight into which all stocks are trending in the market.
Stock trading functionality
Stock trading is the core of Robinhood or similar stock trading applications. It is the functionality that your users will be interacting with the most inside the application. You should make the entire process of holding, buying, and selling the fund a hassle-free event for the investors.
Fund transfer
This part of the application will primarily focus on transferring funds from the users’ accounts into the application to then use in trading of the stock. This functionality is one where the most attention should be given to the development of a secure platform that would make it safe for users to transfer funds in real-time.
Watchlist
In order to make it possible for investors to track the stocks they are interested in, you should give them the option of adding the stocks to the watchlist – this way they will not have to search for them individually every time they open the application.
Notification and alerts
Stock trading requires quick reactions and having relevant data right at your fingertips. Notifications and alerts allow users to receive important information about events, earnings, and growth and falls. Usually, the users can set up their custom alerts, e.g., when the value of the stock reaches a certain threshold.
Trading learning
Stock trading apps like Robinhood are not only used by experienced investors but also newbies. This is why some apps offer a learning feature to make it easier for new users to understand all about the stock trading market. You can also utilize gamification to increase user engagement. Some apps also use a trading simulator in which a user doesn’t spend real funds but fictional ones. It is an excellent way to help users realize the risk coming from trading.
Data protection
The Robinhood app features a well-established security system that encrypts all the sensitive user data. So if you are building a stock trading app, you need to focus on the encryption of user’s personal data like bank data, balance, transaction details, etc. This will help in building a good relationship with customers.
Now that we have seen the important features to be included in the Robinhood app, let’s see how much it costs to develop an app like this.
How much does it cost to develop an app like Robinhood?
The average cost of developing a stock trading app might range from $15,000 to $40,000. However, this is a rough estimate. There are a number of factors such as design of the app, the location of app developers, and features of your app that can increase or lower the final price. Make sure to consult reliable companies like Appinventiv that help in developing world-class stock trading apps to create new milestones.
Factors that affect the cost of stock trading app
There are a number of factors that come together into consideration to estimate the cost of Robinhood clone app development. It is only after understanding those factors, you will be able to get a complete understanding of what is shaping the cost to develop an app like Robinhood.
Here is a breakdown of the cost of stock trading app like Robinhood, which will give you an idea of what goes into deciding the cost of an application.
Design requirements of the app
Robinhood application rides on a simplistic and clear design. But they do make use of a lot of micro-interaction elements that are not commonly seen in other similar information-rich applications. These elements add to the cost of developing a stock trading app. You also need to add features such as push notifications, icons, and customization if you wish to make an impression on your users. A good design will make your users want to use your app more and not drift away from it in the long run.
The Robinhood clone app cost with respect to designing will not be very high for it requires more innovation compared to complex design elements.
Backend and frontend development
The frontend and backend of the application will play the biggest role in the cost to develop an app like Robinhood. These costs, in turn, will depend on the type of technologies and frameworks you use.
When we talk about the backend part of stock trading app, there are two approaches that you can choose from – Monolithic and Microservice. While Monolith is a lot more cost-effective, it is a Microservice backend that holds the ability to make your application long term and highly scalable.
Testing
Testing of an application like Robinhood, which handles people’s money in real-time, with an attached cost. There are multiple things that you will have to ensure when testing your Robinhood–like application – the working of the app when the market is open, ensuring all the APIs are working as they are supposed to, and checking if the synchronization is seamless.
Platform choice
Ideally, a stock trading application should be operational on two platforms – Android, and iOS. So, if you are releasing your app on multiple platforms, the cost of stock trading app development will also increase. It’s best to start with a single platform and then move on to other platforms. This will help you save costs in the initial stages. And once your app is successful, you can launch it on other platforms.
Choice of app development company
The cost of your stock trading app development will also depend on the app development company you choose. A reliable app development company has expertise in multiple domains and offers expert resources to deliver excellent services. While it will add to the development costs, the quality of service will not be compromised and it will definitely speed up the development process.
The factors that have to be considered do not end here. You will have to look into other elements as well like the details of the features and functionalities, the technology set used, etc.
FAQs About Robinhood Like Stock Trading App Development Cost
Q. How to estimate the cost to develop stock trading app?
The answer to how much does it cost to make a stock trading app is an estimate that is arrived at after gathering a complete understanding of the app development project.
Some of the factors that you will have to look into are:
- The designing requirements
- Platform choice
- Technology set
- Team size
- Scope of testing
Q. Why develop a stock trading app for investors?
There are a number of reasons why entrepreneurs should focus on stock trading apps but the primary most are the massive user base and investors’ interest in the app category.
Q. What are some of the features you can include in your stock trading app?
Some of the common features that you can include in your app is dashboard, stock trading functionality and portfolio.
Final note
We hope this article was helpful in understanding the cost of building a stock trading app like Robinhood. However, developing a free stock trading app like Robinhood needs skilled developers to overcome tech challenges and ensure a smooth and stable performance of your app.
If you are looking to develop a stock trading app like Robinhood, it’s advisable to consult a fintech app development company. They have a highly skilled team of app developers who have mastered the technologies that are needed to develop top-notch stock trading apps.