How much does Venmo app development cost? A complete guide

With the number of mobile-based P2P payment users reaching 26 million in the US alone, the industry is showing a picture of uncontested growth.

Straight from the number of participating players to the transaction volume that is on the verge of becoming mobile-only, every facet of the P2P payments industry is on a fast-tracked growth rate.

The transactional growth of P2P payment marketplace is mainly the mix of these two factors driven by the leading P2P payment providers:

• User’s inclination towards innovative tech
• Ease of doing untimed financial transactions.

Now when we talk about the mobile P2P payment providers that have contributed to shaping the present state of the industry, there are a few names that emerge to rule the charts and Venmo leads them all. Some of the other best cash apps that have made it to the list are –

Now the primary question that these entrepreneurs are always struggling to find an answer to is How much does Venmo-like app development cost? One that is very closely related to how to build  the best P2P payment app.

Well, the struggle ends here.

To give you a rough idea, Venmo-like P2P payment app development costs can range from $35,000-$200,000, or more.

In this article, we are going to give you detailed insights into all the factors that lead to determining the Venmo app development cost. We are also going to discuss the Venmo app holistically – covering not just Venmo’s cost structure but also its market, features, and monetization strategies that made the app famous.

But before we head on to the estimate of the cost to develop a best p2p app like Venmo, let us start by looking at the market growth chart that Venmo business model has drawn for itself among the users across all its operative nations.

Understanding the Popularity Behind Venmo

Popularized by Braintree, P2P payment app Venmo, at the back of its innovative features, saw itself becoming the center of Millenials’ attraction in 2012 when it was acquired by Braintree. And soon, the stories of its ease and social quotient reached the ears of PayPal who took no time in acquiring Braintree and became the name behind Venmo.

Being a part of the PayPal family brought an instant spike in demand for the application. A demand that has grown to such an extent that it has become a tough competition for other industry’s players and an ideal business model for the many entrepreneurs who aim to follow its growth trend.

One of the reasons why Venmo has found a strong, loyal customer base in the P2P payments market is because of its easy user flow which brings down the learnability curve. Knowing how the users move within Venmo can be a great starting point for entrepreneurs who are looking for an answer to how to make an app like Venmo.

While this is simply a skeleton view of the Venmo app user journey, there are a number of features that go behind the development of a robust P2P payment app. But before diving into their details, let us try and offer you statistics that support the growing popularity of P2P payment apps like Venmo.

• According to Precedence Research, the global P2P payment market was able to witness a revenue of $1.89 trillion in 2021, which is expected to grow to $9.87 trillion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 20.16% from 2022 to 2030
• More than 84% consumers user P2P payment apps
• More than 2 billion people used mobile payment apps in 2021
• Venmo is the spearhead of the payment mobile apps with over 49% penetration rate
• Venmo was capable of witnessing a market share of $63 billion in the Q3 of 2022
• 32% respondents in US download Venmo app in the last twelve months

Now that you understand how the P2P payment apps market is expected to look like in the coming years, it is the right time to invest in the market and get guaranteed ROIs.

Now, before further ado, let us move ahead and discuss the main part of the blog- Venmo app development cost and the various factors that affect it.

How to Determine the Venmo-like P2P Payment App Development Cost?

As discussed earlier, the payment P2P app development costs can vary between $35,000 to $200,000. The overall cost can further increase or decrease based on a number of factors like the app’s wireframe, UI/UX design, app platform, development process, location and hourly rates of developers, etc.

Simply put, we can say that overall app’s complexity is the major deciding factor that defines the exact cost of the app. For instance, a simple mobile app with a basic feature list can cost you less as compared to a highly complex app that has an extensive feature set.

Now let us try and give you a brief outlook at the estimated costs and time frames to build P2P payment apps as per their complexity.

These are only rough estimates of the app development costs as per complexity. In order to determine the exact costs, let us try and offer you an infallible formula that can help you measure the overall development budget.

Here the total development hours is the time frame required to complete the app’s wireframe, its U/UX design, coding, quality assurance, etc.

Now that you have a reliable formula to determine the Venmo-like app development costs, let us move ahead and discuss the various factors that affect the costs in detail.

Factors that Affect the P2P Payment App Development Cost

A well-structured and a scalable payment mobile app requires you to choose a reliable business model at the initial stage. Integrating features into the app as well as the various nitty gritties of the development process further affects the overall budget for app development.

Here is the detailed description of all the factors that influence the development budget for cash apps like Venmo.

App Wireframe

The wireframe of the mobile app gives us an architectural view of the app’s overall design and working. A well-defined wireframe is the result of multiple testing techniques carried out by a team of dedicated quality assurance analysts. This can further increase your overall app development budget. In general, the cost of a wireframe for a P2P payment app ranges between $10,000 to $20,000.

UI/UX Design

A seamless UI/UX design is a major factor that defines your app’s success. It is advisable to have in place a custom UI/UX design strategy so as to create an app that is capable of increasing the user engagement as well as retaining them. The use of various design prototypes and their testing further impacts the overall app development budget.

App Platform

To carry out a smooth app development process, it is necessary to choose the underlying app platform at the initial stage. Based on your target audience, you can either choose iOS or Android app development or can go for a cross-platform app. We usually recommend choosing a single underlying platform at the initial stage considering it keeps the budget in check. As the app gains traction in the market, you can then switch to a cross-platform app.

Team Size

Team size for building peer to peer money transfer apps further affects the overall cost of development. For instance, you can either choose to outsource your project to a dedicated app development agency or hire an in-house team.

It is necessary to understand that outsourcing an app development organization in a country with lower development rates can help you optimize the budget. Also, you don’t have to worry about the lengthy hiring process of an in-house team and managing resources from scratch.

The minimum team requirements to create payment cash app like Venmo:

• 1-2 project managers
• 1-2 business analysts
• 2-3 frontend developers
• 2-3 backend developers
• 1-2 designers
• 1-2 quality assurance analyst

Location of the app development agency

The location of the hired app development organization affects the development budget. For instance, the hourly rates of development in regions like Asia or Africa is comparatively less compared to the regions like the UK or US.

Here is the estimated rate of development for Venmo cash app:

Maintenance

The app development process doesn’t usually end with deploying the app. You have to maintain the app in order to keep it running bug-free as well as upgrade it as per the market requirements. The overall maintenance charges for the app can sneak up at the end and directly impact your app development budget. It is advisable to understand that timely app maintenance contributes to the success of your overall app and helps you in gaining better ROI.

Tech Stack

The tech stack associated with the payment app is capable of directly impacting your app development budget. Implementing a robust tech stack can help your app gain traction in the market while increasing the overall user engagement.

Feature List

The features integrated into the app are capable of affecting the Venmo-like app development costs. A well-defined feature list can offer your app a much-needed edge in the competitive payment app marketspace.

Here are the necessary features required to create a robust P2P payment app:

Primary Features of Venmo Like Application

1. Make payments

The primary/base feature of the Venmo like application would be the facility to make payments in real-time. You can either make payments to someone you know or you can use your Venmo money for bill payments.

2. Link bank accounts and debit cards

Another important element of a P2P payment service like Venmo is enabling users to link their bank accounts and debit cards in the app. This makes it easier for the users to make payment straight from their bank account, without having to rely on the in-built wallet.

3. Purchases

Venmo, one of the best cash apps, has tied up with a number of businesses and websites for enabling the facility of making purchases on their sites through the app. To make the whole process streamlined, they have created their own API.

[Also Read: A Complete Guide to API Development]

4. Venmo Money transfers

In order to make your peer to peer payment system all the more useful and convenient, you should give users the feasibility of P2P money transfer  from their Venmo-like application to their bank account. And then from their bank account to their app wallet.

The ease with which Venmo P2P money transfer happens is something that you too should plan to achieve in your app design.

5. Share payments

One of the features that separate Venmo’s business model from other payment applications is that it gives the option of sharing the payment transactions with friends and other people in the Venmo app through an in-built social feed.

6. Sync with Facebook and phone contacts

Syncing phone contacts should be an obvious part of your Venmo like application in order to make it easy for your P2P payment users to easily find people to connect with. But syncing Facebook with the application is more of a Venmo centric feature. The idea behind this is to make the whole process of selecting contacts and sending messages expansive and convenient.

7. Data encryption

This part of the feature deals with creating an ecosystem where the data of the users are protected with such robustness that they become hack-proof.

8. Request money

Using this feature, users can request money from other Venmo users who owe them an amount. This functionality requires an in-app messaging and notification feature to notify the other users of the request.

9. Track payments

Both for the sake of federal financial regulations and user experience, you should give the users the option to keep track of their financial history. In addition to giving the option to track transaction history inside the application, you should send them weekly/ monthly mailers as well.

10. PIN code

It is very important for you to have a multi-factor authentication system integrated into your application. It helps in ensuring that your users’ account is secure and that nobody is able to use the application when the phone is unlocked, besides them.

11. Account settings

The next crucial feature that should be added in your P2P apps is account settings. Your users should be given a space where they update information and select a preferred payment method, amongst other features.

12. Split bills

This feature is related to giving your users the ease to split bills with their friends from inside the application itself.

13. Notification Alert

Use this feature to alert users every time a payment is made or received. Users will get information about these activities as well as any changes made to their digital wallet.

14. Chatbots

Chatbots or virtual assistants must be implemented in your peer to peer payment app to save users during disputes in transactions. Before even making a simple purchase, users might want some questions answered. In such situations, virtual assistants can help in making tasks easier for users.

15. Buy/sell cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoins have been talk of the town for the past few years now. You can add a feature in your Venmo like peer to peer payment apps wherein users can buy and sell cryptocurrencies efficiently and safely. This feature can be a game changer as it will attract many people who have keen interest in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

The features set that we just looked at are ones which are commonly present in the many peer to peer payments apps.

Now that we have looked at the various features required to create a Venmo-like app, let us move ahead and discuss Social Feed, the one feature of the Venmo app that has made it the millennial’s favorite.

The One Feature That Has Made Venmo a Millennial’s Favorite

While other P2P apps are more on the transaction side of the operation as compared to social, Venmo offers a pleasant change with its Social Feed functionality.

Along with being one of the most leading P2P apps, Venmo also acts as a social network for its millennial user base.

Users can share their payment activity with their friends who can then post a comment using the ‘Friends’ feed. The users can even share their activity with the whole Venmo public for strangers to see and react to it via the app’s public feed.

For a lot of the young aged consumers, sharing everyday activities is how they lead their life. And catering this second nature of the consumers has become an inherent part of the business models of companies like Instagram and Venmo.

Even though Venmo exists to perform the same old boring purpose of P2P money transfers and paying bills, the social feed is what makes it the emoji infused, millennial heavy, thriving social phenomenon.

Moving forward, let us look at the various monetization strategies adopted by the P2P payment app Venmo.

How Does Venmo App Make Money?

There are multiple ways through which Venmo makes money – ways that the brand uses extensively to stay in a high-profit state.

Here are the ones which you can incorporate in your Venmo like application –

1. Credit Card Payment Charges

Venmo charges a 3% transaction fee when payment is made through credit card as opposed to a debit card transaction. By incorporating this monetization model in your P2P payment wallet app, you will not just become the recipient of a steady income but would also be able to cut down on the losses that you might face when the credit card payment doesn’t go through.

[Also Read: Best Mobile App Monetization Strategy for Better Revenue]

2. Faster Money Transfer Charges

Venmo charges a fixed amount from all app users who wish to avail the fast peer to peer money transfer facility. What happens is that usually, Venmo takes some two or three days to transfer money to the users’ bank account but when the user agrees to pay an additional amount to expedite the P2P money transfers, the money transfer time shortens to a great extent.

3. Merchant Charges

Venmo monetizes from its merchant partners to a great extent. This is also one of the reasons why the company is working on increasing the customers to business transactions on the platform.

The idea of this plan is that Venmo takes a percent cut, something around 2.9% of the transaction charges.

4. Cash a Check

In January 2021, Venmo launched a new service called Cash a Check. By using this feature, users can cash checks and have them sent to a Venmo account. Eligible customers can take a picture of the check they want to cash and send it for review using the Venmo app, rather than visiting a physical check-cashing location. If approved, this peer to peer money transfer app deposits the money into the user’s account. Venmo charges 1 percent in exchange for this verification service. A minimum of $5 has to be cashed in.

5. Cashback Program

Like most other debit cards, Venmo offers a cashback reward facility to users at selected merchants. These cashback programs transfer a percentage of the overall purchase price back to the customer’s account. The partner then pays this peer to peer money transfer app a commission for referring that customer.

Final Note

This was all about how Venmo makes money, what features it has included in its app, and how much does Venmo app development cost. Now all you need is to hire a dedicated organization for custom FinTech app development services. .

Appinventiv has a team of industry’s leading Fintech app developers that can help in developing scalable FinTech apps custom to your business requirements. Get in touch with our team and the developers will guide you through the entire process of fintech mobile app development and assist you at every step.

FAQs

Q. How to make an app like Venmo?

A. Step1: Define your business goals and expectations.

Step 2: Make a thorough market research and analyze your competitors

Step3: Decide the features you wish to integrate in your Venmo-like payment app and the technologies required for completing their functionalities.

Step 4: Start with the app’s UI/UX design process

Step 5: Complete the coding process and make sure to test your app

Step 6: Deploy and launch your app in the App store.

Step 7: Maintain your payment app by offering regular updates, security checks and more

Q. How does peer to peer payments work in Venmo?

A. P2P payment apps like Venmo or SquareCash allow users to send each other money from their mobile devices through P2P payments. To make the best peer to peer money transfer possible, they are giving the functionality to both – link their bank account/ card and keep the money in their in-app wallet.

Q. How does Venmo make money?

A. There are five ways through which Venmo primarily makes money –

• Credit card payment charges
• Merchant charges
• Faster money transfers
• Cash a Check
• Cashback Program

THE AUTHOR

Sudeep Srivastava

Co-Founder and Director