Diet & Nutrition Tracking App Development Cost & Features

People are becoming very cautious of the food they are consuming and their calorie intake with each meal. This has not only been helping them maintain a healthy lifestyle but also keeping their weight in check.

While there are many, who have been turning towards sports and other physical activities to stay fit, then there are those who have also been concentrating on their eating habits and scheduling their meals accordingly.

Tracking your fitness has become the new lifestyle and there are many who have installed apps that help them schedule their meals and assist them in their eating habits.

Gone are the days when you would have to visit dietitians to list down a diet plan for you after checking your weight and height.

Some mobile apps and gadgets can help you calculate your Body Mass Index (BMI), according to which you can then select a diet plan from among the various options available on healthy eating schedule apps.

With the evolution of technology, you can get access to all lucrative apps that do all your work and remind you about your meals at different intervals. Users just have to install one of these apps from the app store and enter all their details to get a suitable diet plan.

They can also set reminders about their diets on the apps. This has made life very simple and easy for the people who have been using these applications.

Although there are several healthy Diet & Nutrition Tracking apps available in the app world, there is always scope for more. The more the better!

The ratings of all apps are based solely on the reviews and ratings given to them by the users, hence, it becomes for the new users to choose the best one from amongst all those available in the app stores.

Why is there a wide scope for new healthy eating apps?

The food and nutrition segment of the health industry has grown leaps and bounds in the past three years. People have realized the importance of healthy eating to sustain a balance between work and their personal lives.

According to a report by Netimperative, the engagement rate of apps based on health and nutrition has shot up by almost 330% in the last three years, so you can well imagine how good these apps are likely to do.

Even though there are plenty of apps that provide you with these services, there is always a scope for more and better. A new and improved app will always make its way to the top in the app store.

Here are some numbers and figures to explain why these apps are much needed and the reason why their future is so bright:

• In 2017 alone, more than 47% of high school students were trying to lose weight, according to a report by Statista.
• In another report by Statista, it was mentioned that the rate of obesity grew from 19.4% to over 31% in 20 years (1997–2017) in the U.S.
• In yet another report by Statista, it was suggested that 26% of the people aged 18 – 29 use these meal planning tools, while 17% of the people aged 30–45 use them.

This is why most people turn to apps that can help them maintain a balanced diet that can direct them over what to eat, how to eat, and when to eat.

How do these apps help the users?

If you think that these apps are just there to provide a meal plan and schedule to the users, then you are wrong. There are a lot of things that these apps help in apart from creating a meal schedule.

Here are some things that are covered in such apps:

• These provide complete guidance to the users about nutritious food and health.
• They allow the users to maintain track of the total amount of calories being taken in by them.
• Users can exercise control over the calories being consumed by them on a regular basis.
• While all users have their separate preferences when it comes to food, these apps can customize their meal plans according to their tastes and likes.
• The healthy eating schedule apps are a platform for several dietitians and nutritionists, and allow the users to get in touch with them to get a detailed meal plan.
• Lastly, users can also select what meal to eat and get to know the recipe of any dish. The ingredients are also listed separately for each food.

Why do people need healthy eating apps?

There is a lot of demand for healthy eating and meal scheduling apps. In this fast-paced life, we sometimes forget to even think of food and give it a miss.

However, there is a sudden realization among people about the importance of each meal. Dieting is no more the new normal, but a healthy diet is on the list of everyone’s agenda nowadays.

We have listed down a few reasons stating the importance of healthy eating schedule apps:

• Saves time that goes into thinking about what foods are healthy and what is not.
• The retention rate is amazing.
• Since wearable devices are the new trend, users can carry their recipes and their apps with them the help of these devices.
• They get their personalized meal plans, therefore, they do not have to stick to any strict diet plan.
• Getting insights into the health benefits of each food has become everyone’s concern. The best way to know how food is helping you is by feeding it on the device and getting all the required information.

Trends in the healthy eating schedule app industry

The health and fitness industry has given rise to several new mobile applications that have been on top of the app store.

However, all these apps have some distinct features to make them stand out from the crowd, but certain trends are followed by the entire industry and these should be on top of your list if you are planning to launch a mobile app that has anything to do with the health and eating habits of the users.

Take a look at some popular trends in the app industry:

• Making use of AI (Artificial Intelligence)
• Technology like OCR can be used in your app which can help users in entering details about the food consumed by them and their calorie intake with each food.
• The latest trend is that of food recognition, which helps in generating all nutritional value of that particular food.
• Machine Learning

Features to be integrated into a healthy eating schedule app

• Registration and sign-in: The basic and most important feature that allows each user to have their separate profiles on the app. With this, the users can save all their information and mention their likes and preferences about the food they have a fondness for. Each application should have a social media integration to allow users to make an account using their social media information. This saves them all the time which is otherwise spent on entering their details over and over again.
• Social media integration: Fitness and managing meals is an entire journey, which the users might want to share with their friends. For this purpose, the app should allow them to share their meal status and their timeline with their friends and acquaintances on social media.
• Push notifications: This is a vital feature in such apps as these notifications are sent out as reminders to the users, reminding them when to eat their food and how many calories to consume. Also, any information about the app or any updates can be shared with the users via push notifications.
• Blog: Several people like to write about their journey with the app and their health by writing a blog. Therefore, this feature makes that writing space available for the users.
• Wearable devices: Smartwatches are the new trend and people prefer getting all the information and apps on their phones on these wearable devices. Therefore, this feature allows the users to connect their wearable devices with the app and get all updates that they receive on their phones.
• Shopping list: By integrating this feature in your app, you will allow users to create a shopping list of their own on the app itself.
• Calendar: Since the users have to schedule all their meals on the app, there is a requirement for a calendar to set reminders and alarms. The calendar also helps in keeping a track of the eating habits of a user.
• Data of each meal: This feature enables users to log in all the details of their food intake by them in a day. This will show them the result of how well they have been keeping up with their diet plan at the end of the day. This feature also helps in generating a cumulative report by the end of each month.
• In-app camera: The app should have this feature essential for the users to click photos of their food and upload them on the app to generate the details of each food consumed by them. The app should also be able to recognize the food with the help of the photo.

• Calorie counter: One of the most important features is the calorie counter, it helps you keep a tab on the number of calories consumed by you in a day and in each meal.
• Special dietary tips: Since you are developing a healthy eating schedule app, you must get access to free diet tips to help you set out a course for yourself. This one is especially for beginners, who have no idea of how to follow a diet and which diet would suit them the most.
• Dashboard: This feature enables the users to get access to the progress made by them in the past. All their information and the number of days they have been following their diet are stored here and they get a cumulative report in a graphical representation.
• Goals: A user can not set their diet goals with the help of this app. They can select a diet plan that suits their body type and all their requirements.
• Suggestions: While a diet plan is selected before in hand by each user, and it is expected for them to stick to those plans, it is very important to receive suggestions from the app as well. These will help them in making any changes to the diet they are following if need be.
• Food log: All the food that is consumed by the user can be logged in to the app with the help of this feature. They have to click a photo of the food consumed by them and upload it on the app along with a detailed description of it.
• Barcode scanner: Each food product that you purchase from a supermarket has a barcode on it. The barcode scanner feature on the app allows users to scan the code to get a detailed description of the product and the number of nutrients, proteins, and calories that it contains.
• Ratings and reviews: Users have their own opinions about each application. An app should allow the users to rate their experience with a healthy eating schedule app and give it the rating of their choice. This will help other users looking for similar apps to know how well the app has been performing.
• Recipe search: Since the app might show you some off-track food to introduce in your meal plans, there are chances of users getting confused about how to make it. Therefore, the app should integrate this feature which allows the users to look up the recipe by entering the keywords in the search bar and getting details of the dish, along with the list of ingredients required to make it.
• Share with other users: This feature allows users to become food bloggers, by allowing them to share the recipes created by them on the platform. This is also beneficial to other users, who get access to a variety of recipes.

Procedure for developing a Diet & Nutrition Tracking App

Each mobile application goes through various stages before it is finally developed and launched in the App Store. Here are a few steps that you must definitely keep in mind if you are planning to launch a health app.

• Planning: Before proceeding with the development of the mobile application, you should be clear about the roadmap of your application and the special feature you would like to integrate into it. Several things should be listed down and discussed in detail before proceeding. Take a look:
• The audience you want to target.
• A number of features you want to install in your app and all features to provide for free, along with the premium features.
• Plan of development
• Your goals, if you have set any during the development process.
• A strategy regarding rolling out the app.
• Team: After you have your roadmap in place, it is time to get in touch with some of the best app development agencies who have prior experience in the same and that can provide you with a team of experts for discussing and developing the app. It is very important to figure out if you want to hire full-time experts for the project, or would like to appoint a team of experts just for the time being, being who will do all your development and testing work.
• Technical aspects: A blueprint of the mobile application has to be laid down comprising all technical documentation. This will give you clarity on how to go about the project and how to execute your plan into action.
• UI/UX design: An app needs to be engaging and attractive, it should be able to do all the talking itself. Therefore, it is important to emphasize the design and layout of the app. Go for a simpler design at the beginning with understandable features, so that the users do not require assistance or any sort of help in using the app. They should be able to understand the functioning of the app on their own.
• Development: The most crucial and important step of the entire process. This is when the app goes through various development phases where the team does all the coding and functioning based on the kind of platform you want to launch the app on. The development process of an app being launched on an Android platform will be different from an app that is being made for iOS or Windows.
• Testing: This is the final step an app goes through before being deployed. The app development team comprises especially of testing experts who test the app on their phones and devices personally and look into each aspect carefully. If there is any problem or technical glitch in the app, they will resolve the issue and test the app again. Once the experts feel that the app meets all the standards and requirements, and the quality of the app is up to mark, they will deploy the app on App Stores and Play Stores. The app is then finally available for the users to download.

Revenue models of a Healthy Eating Schedule App

The motive behind creating any app is to earn a return on investment and make profits. While you are helping people make health their priority, it is important to learn how to make money from apps. Here are some revenue models of a healthy eating schedule apps:

In-app purchases:

While the users are offered basic features free of cost, there are some advanced features for which they have to make payments. Loyal users will always stick to the app and pay to avail of additional features.

Advertising:

Marketing the name of third parties on your app is a great way of making money. This is one of the most common ways of earning revenue for mobile apps. A small space is given out to other brands to display the name and logo of that company with a tagline.

Paid subscription:

This is also a way of earning money, however, you must know that users like to use apps that are free of cost. Most users will look up alternatives if they have to pay to use an app right in the beginning.

There have been times when the apps have generated huge income from paid subscriptions, therefore, it should be known that these subscriptions can sometimes work in your favor as well.

The team required to build a Diet & Nutrition Tracking App

While most other things can be taken care of by yourself, it is important to hire technical app developers to build the app.

For the same, the app owners should get in touch with the app development agencies and ask them to provide them with manpower who have expertise in developing health-based apps.

It is very essential to bring only the best people on board if you are looking for efficient and quick results. Here is a list of people you might want to hire in your app development team:

Project Manager:

He plays a major role in the development phase as he has the authority of exercising his control over the entire team and give them special instructions. He understands the entire technical know-how of the application and knows what the client is looking for.

His role is to get everything working smoothly in the team. Secondly, it is very important for the manager to understand the entire project and the several stages it has to go through.

Android developer, iOS developer, and back-end developers:

The technology stack that will be used by the app development team during the development phase is decided by them as they create the blueprint of the idea.

They get their ideas on their table and discuss them with their clients before proceeding with the development. It is the developers who are the most vital people in the creation of any app, as it is with their expertise and knowledge that the app is developed.

Graphic designers and UX/UI designers:

An app can only function smoothly and be free of any glitches and interruptions with the help of graphic and UX/UI designers. They will speed up the entire process and give you the maximum output. Also, it is very important to work on the look and feel of the app, as the display intrigues the users.

Quality Assurance testers:

Keep your app up to date and make sure that it meets the quality standards in the market. It is the work of QA testers to deal with all these things and offer you an app that works the best.

Cost of developing a Diet & Nutrition Tracking App

While it is the work of the developers to assist with the cost of the app you want them to develop, you must also know that the price can change going forward. Each new addition to the app might increase the price, shaking your budget.

Therefore, you can never be certain about how much money you will have to spend on developing an app. Here are some factors that affect the cost of developing a healthy eating schedule app:

• The type and size of the app are two important factors that affect the cost of an app. If you want to develop an app on a large scale you might have to spend some extra bucks on the same.
• Platforms: Are you planning to launch the app only on a single platform (iOS or Android)? The cost of developing the app for a single platform will be less than an app that is made to function on various platforms. Also, the price of development varies for each platform.
• The geographical location of the team: Are you getting an app development team from the U.S. on board? Well, be ready to spend heaps of money on them. The charges of app developers from the U.S. is much more than the developers in Europe and Asia. The app development cost in the U.S. is $50 to $250 per hour, whereas, the charges of Indian app developers are merely $20 to $80 per hour.
• Design: An app with many complexities and a complex design will take a longer development time, therefore, you will have to spend a lot of money on the same. Meanwhile, a less complex app with a rather simple design is quick and easy to make. The charges of the same a reasonably low.
• Features: An app with minimum and basic features will be quite reasonable to make than an app that has multiple feature options. Therefore, the budget should be decided to keep in mind the number of features you want to integrate into your app. Clients can also choose to get an MVP developed in the beginning if there is a money constraint and keep adding more features going forward.
• Maintenance: At least 15-20% of the development cost is spent on maintenance annually. This cost should also be a part of the total budget of the mobile application.

Conclusion

Healthy food eating habits and proper dietary information are one of the most important things among people today as they have become extremely cautious about the food they are consuming.

Therefore, apps based on healthy eating and diet tracking have become very common. There has been a rise in these applications, and so has the consumption increased gradually.

If you are planning to invest your money in such an app, you must get in touch with the best app development agency, that can provide you with the best assistance and manpower who have expertise in this field.

Another important thing is to get nutritionists and diet experts on board so that they can answer the queries of the users and give them special tips on food and their eating habits.