How Much Does Headspace Like Meditation App Development Costs?

Ever since the yoga and fitness industries went mainstream with mobile app development, it took very less time for meditation and mindfulness branches to follow the route.

As per the top meditation app statistics, meditation apps such as Calm, Headspace, Yoga-Go etc, have grown to become multi-billion sectors. For instance, in the recent quarter of 2022, Headspace is among the top three mental well being apps, projected to generate around $19 million in IAP revenues and $5 million in in-app revenue worldwide.

Headspace App Development Cost – An Overview

A meditation and wellbeing app like Headspace brings businesses maximized revenue, numerous monetization opportunities, and a secure market position, which is why, app industry’s top ranking question revolves around the Headspace app development cost.

“How much does it cost to make an app like Headspace?” Well! To give you an overview , the Headspace app cost can range from $20,000 – $100,000 based on your project requirements. However, you would require a detailed analysis of factors that contribute to the headspace cost so that you make a well-informed budget decision.

This article talks about the headspace app development cost, the feature set and various associated factors that impact the cost, and the headspace business models you can follow to make a successful meditation app.

So let’s get started with the top features of the Headspace app that play a significant role in the final headspace app cost.

Top 8 Features to Include in Your Headspace Like App Development

Meditation and well-being apps like Headspace carry mindful yet engaging features such as introductory courses, gamification, activity tracking, etc, along with the basic app features.

It is highly recommended to seek guidance from a reliable wellness app development service company while deciding your meditation app features. Your outsourced app development team can help you with thorough market research on required app features to entice and engage your targeted audience.

[Also Read- 15 features that can make your fitness and wellbeing app popular]

Now, here is a curated list of top eight headspace app features that you need to incorporate into your next meditation app.

User Profile

Unlike other applications, the information set you would have to work around would be different. While the data associated with the user name, their social media links, and emails would be the same, you should ask for additional information from your meditation app users to help you understand their requirements.

Therefore, the user profile feature in your meditation app like headspace must include questions such as:

• Age of the user
• Time they would be able to invest in the app in a day
• If they would appreciate Newsletter and Course update on email
• (Optional) Their understanding of their stress level

Introductory course

The one thing that makes apps like Headspace successful is that the app does not work under the impression that every user visiting the application has an understanding of the 2,500 years old practices.

Headspace app consists of an introductory course for all the users to get a headstart on how the meditation and mindfulness process works.

Note: Creation of personalized introductory courses is what usually makes up for the higher headspace app development cost. This is why most experts recommend integrating ready-made courses inside the application or adding YouTube links in the app in case of a low budget.

Gamification

Even in an anxious state, people crave the kick of competition. Adding gamification elements in the application doesn’t just quench this kick addiction but also strengthens the app retention strategies.

For reference, check out how AR/VR apps are gamifying the fitness and wellbeing for the users

The headspace app comes loaded with its achievement system wherein the users get badges for finishing the sessions on Days 1, 3, 10, 15, 30, 90, 180, and 365 in a row. This desire to match the scores makes the users visit the application on an everyday basis.

Not to mention that adding gaming elements would relatively increase your meditation app like headspace app development cost.

Session sets

An important part of any meditation app is the session set. Every meditation application is made of multiple session sets which guide users through the process of achieving calmness and relaxation.

The sessions, individually, can last for anywhere between 3 minutes to an hour, depending on the issue that is being targeted. Here is a glimpse of the value matrix of the headspace app based on its numerous session sets.

Apart from this, you can also add search and filter options on the session page to help users choose what session they want to practice.

Audio and video playback

An important part of the session sets would be an audio and video playback option. In addition to being integrated into the sessions, you can even offer users to record their chanting voice, or video log their meditation practice to see how their breathing has improved from day one to now.

Push notifications

Nothing helps in solidifying the app retention strategies as much as a push notification does. Seeing how task-like it is to keep returning to an application that brings you outside of your comfort zone, it is easy for people to skip days.

And the function that keeps them from making this a habit is pushing notifications. By sending them timed push notifications, you can remind them that they have to visit the application to continue being calm.

Activity tracking

This part of the app would look into the users’ app interaction history. It will show them how far they have come in the application and how many stages they are yet to cover to reach the next stage of calmness.

Activity tracking is an important part of app engagement that you must not skip while deciding the features of your meditation app.

In-app purchases

You should give your users the option to pay for subscriptions or purchase advanced modes of your application features through an in-built in-app purchase option. For this, you must also ensure to integrate a secure payment gateway that makes the whole transaction experience hack proof.

For detailed insights on the in-app purchase features, you can explore the app monetization guide .

While we are now familiar with the must-have features that determine the headspace app cost, we are yet to discover the advanced features of a meditation app like headspace that makes it stand ahead in the competition.

Five Advanced Meditation Features for Successful Headspace like App Development

Incorporating core features into your meditation app is insufficient to target a broad market. You must add advanced features when building your meditation app to engage your user’s attention.

While these features straight up add to your headspace app cost, you need to build an app that must be uniquely different from your existing competitors. Let’s dive into some advanced features that you can incorporate into your meditation app like headspace.

Meditation guides

A meditation app like headspace must facilitate users to meditate on their own using a meditation app. To help health seekers, you can incorporate complete meditation guides that walk through different meditation practices, and fitness exercises. It will help provide a great help to your users, especially beginners.

Meditation exercises

You must get your meditation application equipped with numerous meditation exercises to help your users relax, reduce stress level, and handle depression issues. The Headspace app comes with manifold breathing exercises, making users relaxed and peaceful.

Hence, you can include certain features that enable your users to learn different meditation techniques.

Stress-buster Sessions

Typically, users seek the path of meditation due to certain problems, including stress, insomnia, depression and many more. Therefore, it is time to be mindful of offering different solutions to such issues in your meditation app. You can add sessions of different lengths that help your users fight their issues and build trust in your app.

Progress tracker

Tracking everyday user progress is very crucial when it comes to meditation app development. Make sure you add a tracking feature in your app to make your users analyze the time they invest on meditation, listening to sessions and more. However, they can compare the data and check how usable and worthwhile your app is for them.

Localization

If you want to develop an app like headspace – you can easily launch it globally. App localization facilitates users to access content in different languages across different regions. It helps you gain more and more customers and increased market reach.

With this feature, you get access to a massive global user base, enabling them to use your meditation app in their local languages.

You might also want to read: how to increase mobile app conversion through app localization.

Now, based on the features discussed above, here is the headspace app development cost estimate – $20,000-$50,000.

Note: The above mentioned headspace app development price range is based on average industry development standards, hence can vary with every app requirement.

These features can hugely impact the success of your meditation app, if you utilize them the right way. Now that we are done with the core and advanced features for your headspace like app development, it is time to discover the headspace app development cost associated factors.

Associated Factors that Determine the Cost of Headspace Meditation App

As discussed above, apart from the feature set of headspace app development, a few other factors such as the app complexity, design, development, platform, and the hired development team etc. contribute directly to the development budget.

Here is a list of factors you must keep into account before developing your meditation app:

Complexity of the app

The complexity of the app determines the development time to build an app and the expertise required to develop the app.  An app developed with the simplest architecture and design will take less time, effort, and cost. But at the same time, an app incorporated with advanced features or functionalities will raise your development cost.

For instance, at certain times, you also need to integrate your app with APIs to activate specific services which include certain costs. It’s better to include the number of features according to your app budget.

Here is the headspace app development cost breakdown based on its complexity:

App design

The app animation and design process is again a crucial factor directly contributing to your headspace like app development cost. There are various designs and animations out there, and the costs for implementing them can vary depending on the type and quality of these designs.

Since it is a meditation app, make sure you put minimal designs that are soothing and easy to your users.

Here is the headspace meditation app cost breakdown based on the design requirements:

App development platform

There are two most popular app development platforms available in the market – Android and iOS. Each platform has specific app requirements. You are required to choose the right platform since the cost of developing apps for both platforms can vary.

Although, to reach a higher audience base, it is recommended to develop your meditation app on both platforms or opt for cross-platform development.

Size of your development team

Whether you hire a freelancer or a meditation app development company for your app project, the cost varies. The location of the developer or the company also affects your app development cost as the developer’s rates vary from region to region.

Therefore, here is a rough estimate of what your Headspace-like app development cost should range to with an outsourced app development team.

For a rough estimation, you can also follow the industry based app development calculation method.

Calculator to Estimate Your Headspace like App Development Cost

To effectively calculate the cost of headspace application development, a formula has been curated by industry experts. It involves the amount of time (in hours) taken in the app development process, which is then multiplied with the billable hours of the resources spent in the whole development process.

Now that we have seen how much a headspace app costs, let’s move on to the Headspace app development process to get an idea about how you can create an application like Headspace.

Steps to Develop a Headspace-like App

As a business owner, the Headspace-like app development process for you should start with conducting thorough market research and competitor analysis, then choosing the app’s essential features and platform, and finally developing the MVP version of the application.

Step 1: Perform market research

Before starting with the app development process, you first need to identify your business requirements and perform a thorough market research. You must also look at all the major meditation apps in the market and perform in-depth competitor research. Through your research, you must understand what your competitors are doing to attract their target audience and succeed in the market.

Step 2: Identify your target audience

The next step to consider while developing a meditation app is identifying the targeted audience. You can increase the success rate of your business by identifying your buyer personas. You can follow certain methods that help you identify your targeted audience:

• Conduct interviews to know customers’ preferences and demands
• Conduct surveys to identify industry trends
• Perform competitor research and analysis
• Identify the specific user persona, age group, and interest
• Use Google analytics

Once you know your users, you will be able to build a successful meditation app like Headspace and serve your customers with better services.

Step 3: Select the mobile app platform

Before going into the meditation app development process, you need to consider the mobile app platform on which you want to build the app. You can view either Android, iOS, or hybrid. If your budget is tight for app development, you need to select the platform carefully as the platform has some additional expenses too. Also, Android and iOS users have different demographic profiles. The app development platform you choose will entirely depend on your targeted customers, preferences, location, and other factors.

Step 4: Consider the design of the app

The app UI/UX design determines the tools and technologies developers would need to build the application, which directly impacts the final cost of the meditation app. The design of your Headspace-like meditation app should be user-centric, wherein users feel the ease of navigating through elements of your application and keep engaging with different features.

Step 5: Consider gamification to boost user engagement

To widen your market reach, an app developed with core features is not enough; you have to incorporate advanced features and gamification elements into the app. This will encourage app users to not only download your app but also use it daily.  You can integrate gamification elements, including points to motivate app users to listen to meditation sessions each day. After each meditation session, users can gain points to move to the next level of the meditation program.

Step 6: Create an MVP

To save your cost and time in developing a full-fledged meditation app, creating an MVP (minimum viable product) is advisable. An MVP is a basic version of your app having minimal features that validate your idea in the market. It’s the beta version of your app. It helps you test your app among the users before it launches in the market.

You can perform modifications in the app simultaneously with the recommendation and responses of the users.

Now that you are aware of the Headspace-like app development costs and the development process, it’s time to look at its business revenue model to get an idea of how meditation apps make money.

Headspace Revenue Model You Can Follow

The answer to how much does it cost to develop an app like headspace is closely followed by the answer to how to make money with a headspace-like meditation app?

The app monetization models when you make a meditation app like headspace can take multiple routes. Let us look at the most popular ways you can re-earn your headspace app cost.

Subscription

It is one of the most commonly applied app monetization models when you aspire to make a meditation app like headspace. The idea behind this is that the users would get access to all your app features upon paying a subscription amount on a weekly or monthly basis.

In-App Purchases

Another monetization model that your partnered recognized wellness app development company will vouch for is the in-app purchase option. Under this, you can give your users the option to pay to access certain elements of the app or charge them to reach the next stage inside the application.

Advertisements

Advertisements is another most popular way to earn money that works seamlessly in the Meditation app development domain. Here, you earn money from partnered agencies who show their advertisement on the app, and it gets clicked.

The cost of developing a meditation app like headspace depends on specific parameters. You need to analyze those and contact a reliable meditation mobile application development company to get started with a smooth development process.

How Can Appinventiv Help You With Headspace Like Meditation App Development?

If you have a unique idea to build a meditation app like Headspace, Appinventiv can help you turn that idea into reality through its state-of-the-art wellness app development services. The experts here carry extensive experience and market knowledge, ensuring that you are served with nothing but the most functional, innovative solutions.

From strategic planning to designing, development, and launch, Appinventiv team takes pride in working closely with you at each phase. Talk to the wellness app experts to uncover unlimited app development opportunities.

FAQs Around Headspace App Development

Q. How much does Headspace-like meditation app development cost?

A. It is nearly impossible to predict the exact Headspace app development cost without getting a clear understanding of your project.

But in case your app idea is limited to features mentioned in the article above, the cost of a headspace app can range from $20,000-$100,000. You can get in touch with a trusted wellness app development company like Appinventiv to get an accurate estimate and detailed insights.

Q. Why should you develop an app like headspace?

A. You can avail of numerous benefits in the headspace business model by investing in a headspace-like app –

• High market stability
• Greater revenue
• Plentiful app monetization opportunities

Q. What are the top meditation apps in the industry?

A. Some popular meditation apps in the market include – Headspace, Calm, Aura, and Simple Habit, Inc. Out of these, on the back of its ease of functioning and high user base, Headspace has helped define the benefit of meditation apps and has grown to become an important part of the meditation application ecosystem.

THE AUTHOR

Amardeep Rawat

Co-Founder and Director