Financial Apps Development: Top 7 Things to Consider

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Technology adoption is the defining factor in human progress. There has been a noticeable increase in the usage of different devices over the recent years, not least of which are smartphones. Smartphone ownership rates are high in developed economies, and they are growing at extraordinary rates in emerging and developed nations. India has already become the second biggest smartphone market, with the number of smartphone users surpassing the mark of 220 million in this country.

People use smartphones for many different purposes behind oral communication: they take photos, access social networks, listen to music, send messages, play mobile games, surf the Internet, and more. Smartphones are also a powerful tool that can be used to run a business. That is why the popularity of specialized mobile apps is on the rise since they not only help their users to save time but give access to all necessary features 24/7. At this point, please note that an app does not replace mobile browsing, but rather complement it.

Fact on Financial Apps Development:

Financial apps represent one of the most promising directions of the mobile apps development. They are in the top five regarding the highest mobile adoption. The apps offer many benefits to their owners and users. From an owner’s viewpoint, the apps help to retain customers and attract new ones, create a direct marketing channel, boost revenue, etc. Some institutions offer discounts to their apps’ users. For instance, customers have to pay several dollars to process a check through a teller, while a cost of this operation via a smartphone is approximately 10 cents.

Many financial apps like Mint, Pocket Expense, and Prosper Daily have already gained ground. Different financial institutions are now interested in launching their own apps since they hope that their apps will also become successful. These apps can be used to control personal finances, share money, shop online, manage a bank account, etc.

Money is something that everyone cares about, and developers must take this fact into account. A financial app is not a low-risk app like an alarm clock or an Angry Birds game. Financial apps developers and owners must understand that they take on certain responsibilities since financial risks and losses of users mean the same for them.

Below are listed important things that developers must consider before starting a financial app development project.

1. Security

As mentioned above, such apps are all about the money. Problems caused by a hacked bank account are immeasurably higher than those resulting from a Facebook account hack. There has been an amount of upsurge in the number of data breaches and credit card data thefts, and people are highly concerned about security risks. It means that robust security features are a must for any financial app. How can an app be made secure? We suggest developers configure application servers to reduce security risks. They should pay much attention to mobile app security essentials to make sure that their app will comply with them. Digital signature technologies and a password strength checker can also be incorporated into the app. The app should be updated regularly to eliminate security risks.

2. A simple or feature-rich app

Many financial apps (and banking apps in particular) cannot load quickly: their load time is often 10 seconds or more. This is often a result of the intention of their developers to include as many features as possible into one app. However, developers nowadays choose narrow functionality since such an app is simple enough to learn and users can operate it immediately. A simple app is also a good choice when time matters: its development will not take as much time as it is needed for a feature-rich app. However, if unique features are believed to be something that will make an app distinct from similar apps, extended functionality can be chosen.

3. Native or cross-platform app development

The main advantage of native development is that it enables developers to take the full benefit of the technology. Besides, it provides rich user experience. However, a cost of the native development is high and if you plan to make the app available for different platforms, be ready to spend a significant sum of money on the project. Cross-platform development is often chosen when an app able to run on different platforms is needed. It is cost lower, and the project requires less time. Such programming languages as HTML 5 make the cross-platform development possible.

4. Internal or external app development resources

A budget and time limitations play a major role in this case. If you have your own development team that can create an app you need this is good enough for you: a cost of the project will be not too high. However, your IT experts may lack experience in this field, and they may not meet a deadline you set. If your budget is sufficient enough and you need to introduce the app to users as soon as possible, and the external team can help you to address all your needs.

5. An approach to the market data integration

You should also choose between a traditional data feed and cloud solutions. Low-latency apps mainly use the traditional feed. It requires infrastructure and maintenance, and this sometimes leads to high expenses for an app owner. Cloud solutions, in their turn, provide improved functionality to apps that use them. A level of security is greater when it comes to cloud solutions (it is not easy to steal data from a cloud platform), so financial information of users is safer.

6. UI/UX

The user will not love an app that lacks good design or does not provide good usability. People judge by the first impression, and if users do not like an app when they experience it for the first time, it is likely that they will never use the app again and advice it to others. Platforms developers issue UI/UX guidelines that can help IT experts to create a great app.

7. QA

A beautiful cover is not enough for a good financial app. The app must work smoothly, and that is why testing of the app is not something to be saved on. If you issue an app having different bugs, users will never use it again. The statistics show that 23% of users abandon an app after one use. Can you be sure about your app will not be abandoned? The answer is clear – there are too many apps with similar functionality to give a second chance to an app.

Conclusion:

To sum up, the financial apps market continues to develop. It is believed to be lucrative for an increasing number of IT companies and financial institutions (e.g. banks and trading platforms). Many businesses believe that they can benefit from launching their own apps given the fact that the smartphone penetration continues to grow across the globe driving the demand for mobile apps.

This article is written by Tatsiana Levdikova. She is a Tech/IT Journalist at EffectiveSoft, a custom software development company with 250+ specialists who boast expertise in different business domains. Follow her: Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn.