In 2024, our revenues had dropped for obvious reasons, and we all began to look for ways to reduce our expenses and optimize budget planning. As a result, the demand for personal finance applications has increased several times. And their popularity is still growing even though a couple of years have passed since those sad days.
You see, a budget management app is a real opportunity to keep your finances under control. It is, therefore, not surprising that the audience of loyal users is so large we can hardly count it. Moreover, investors are, too, rather willing to support such projects by allocating funds to their development and promotion.
Interested? Okay, then let's learn about the pros and cons of personal finance planners by taking a closer look at them. What do applications like Mint, one of the top examples of this type, offer? Why are they in great demand? And, finally, how to build a budget app like Mint? We’ll provide you with detailed answers to these (and many others) questions so that you know where to start.
But first, we’ll deal with the very basics.
Why Are Personal Finance Apps In Demand?
Developing a successful personal finance app (like Mint or another one) is hardly possible without you understanding who your users are and why they need such software. That's what we're trying to figure out right now. So let’s do it!
It doesn't matter how old you are or what you do for a living. You still face the problem of budget planning. Ignoring it is unwise, and here's why.
Agree, each of us makes an impulsive purchase from time to time: a purchase we later regret. Usually, it is something expensive, but useless. You can avoid (or reduce) reckless spending by constantly keeping track of your personal finances and planning expenses.
Modern digital technologies, namely, a budget planner app, will help you with this. It is much more convenient than a simple paper notepad, not least due to the phone being always at your fingertips!
Why use mobile personal finance apps?
Personal finance apps help you manage and monitor your income and expenses. They have a bunch of useful features, which we’ll discuss later. In the meantime, let’s take a look at some of the main advantages of various mobile finance planners:
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Data visibility and visualization. All your financial information is transformed into clear and colorful charts and graphs, making it more visual and suitable for further use and proper budgeting.
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Data synchronization. Features of a budgeting app like Mint and other top products include the ability to connect all your financial accounts and synchronize the relevant data.
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Automation. Part of the processes associated with budget planning can be automated; thereby, you have a chance to simplify your life.
Now you know why the audience of mobile financial planners is so huge. It makes sense to create one too, right?
The Global Personal Finance Software Market
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Fintech market targeting personal finance values at $710+ million.
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Budget management apps of all kinds were downloaded almost 25 billion last year.
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According to the latest data, more than half of those with a smartphone use fintech software.
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The fintech market is becoming more and more in demand, and the number of transactions is growing annually (so far it has exceeded $700K).
What does the fintech market offer today? What should be considered to launch a successful product? In the end, the cost to build a personal finance planner app like Mint isn't exactly low so you have to do your best to avoid possible pitfalls.
Keep in mind other fintech apps
Don't forget about your direct competitors you'll have to deal with. You can see the most popular ones in the diagram above (and we’ve described some in the section below).
Mint is far from the only market rival you'll face, which means you have to be ready.
Banking mobile services are your new enemies
When pondering over how to build a fintech app, remember that banks also compete with you. Many financial institutions create their own applications, one of the features of which is budget management.
By the way, why not try to cooperate with a certain bank? You get access to its clients, and it works with your mobile platform. A perfect win-win situation.
Beware of FinTech chatbots
Recently, there are more and more chatbots acting as financial advisors, so to speak. These chatbots perform various tasks, including keeping the user up to date with his bank account, expenses, and more. And voice assistants are joining the game too.
What is the conclusion? You have to be better than them. You need to figure out how to develop a personal finance app like mint. In the end, Mint has the best feature set (as you'll see after reading our article). You should do the same, that’s all.
Focus on the younger generation!
If you think your audience is just middle-aged people (35+), then you’re wrong. In fact, your users include the younger generation too.
The thing is, today young girls and boys want to understand how to properly manage their budget and they love digital technologies. So various budget planner apps are what they’re looking for.
Don't neglect the cryptocurrency market
Finally, bear in mind the growing popularity of cryptocurrencies. And if your users are fond of Bitcoin, Ethereum (or any other option), you should provide them with the ability to track their cryptocurrency spending too.
Choosing Mobile Personal Finance Apps
What is the first thing users look at when choosing fintech applications? Knowing this, you’ll be able to create your own development strategy:
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The number of OS supported. What platforms does the app work with? Which platform owners can use them? The ideal option is one where the service works with both Apple and Android devices.
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Ease of use. Of course, users pay attention to whether the application is well designed. Is it convenient to use it?
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Features. How thoughtful is the functionality of the application? Does it have all the tools users need to manage their budget?
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Usage cost. A good budget management application shouldn’t reduce the income of the user, its task is to help him manage his expenses.
Mint meets all the requirements and is therefore popular among users. So if you want to figure out how to build a fintech app, focus on this application, it's your example to follow.
What’s Mint?
It's not an exaggeration to say that Mint is sort of the gold standard for fintech apps focused on budgeting. It has an impeccable reputation, which has helped it win 20+ million users. And the number keeps growing.
Mint has many great features and easy-to-use tools, which allow users to streamline and automate budgeting and save money in the end. After all, the main task of Mint is to reveal the structure of your expenses, change your financial habits for the better, and teach you how to manage your money in the best possible way.
You start using Mint by synchronizing accounts, which are somehow related to your finances. The app will then divide your expenses into appropriate categories, be it utilities, lifestyle, food, or entertainment. Of course, sometimes Mint gets it wrong when classifying your spending, but things can be fixed manually.
What is good about Mint?
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Mint is famous for its intuitive interface: the app is very user-friendly;
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Mint is free to use, which also increases its rating.
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Mint supports both iOS and Android operating systems, so users of any device have no trouble downloading the Mint application. And if you intend to create a budget management app like Mint, you have to follow its lead. With a tight development budget, you can start with just one OS, but in the future, be sure to add a second version too.
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Many people use Mint to get an overall picture of their financial situation (they just have to connect their financial accounts to the service).
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The mentioned categorization of expenses is a big thing too, and it promotes user loyalty.
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Mint allows you to learn from the best. The service analyzes market trends, financial habits of other users and, based on the data obtained, offers the right approach to budgeting.
So, you now understand why Mint is a good role model and why users value it (why they choose it). But before we explain to you how to build a finance management app like Mint, we'll cover many other related issues.
Must-have Features of a Budgeting App like Mint
First, let's focus on the features your application cannot do without:
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Sign up / Sign in. Of course, you can't skip the registration step. The whole process should be simple, reliable, and secure.
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Account access. After registration, the user gets access to his account with the ability to manage personal information (if necessary).
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Security. This cannot be called a feature in the full sense but we couldn't fail to mention it. Data security always matters, especially when it comes to money management app development. Keep it in mind and implement such protection methods as multi-factor authentication, face (or fingerprint) recognition, and more.
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Bills management. We all have different bills we have to pay on a regular basis. But sometimes there's so much to do that we forget about a due date... so if you create a powerful financial app reminding users about the time to pay their bills, they'll be grateful.
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Cost management. Of course, one of the most important features is the ability to effectively manage your expenses. This includes classifying expenses, setting spending limits, and other things to help users take care of their expenses properly.
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Data sync. Cost management will only be effective if all related data is being updated in real-time. So be sure to include the sync option in features of personal finance app development.
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We’re talking about data related to the movement of money in the user's bank account, his credit bank & loan information, that sort of thing.
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Notifications. The feature is a must for any application, so add this option to your app's functionality. Notify customers about everything that may be interesting and useful to them.
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Analytics. Collecting and analyzing spending data and turning it into detailed reports is another feature you need to consider to build a custom budget planner app like mint.
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App support. We hope your app will run like clockwork and the user won't have any questions or complaints... but anything can happen, which means 24/7 support won’t hurt either.
And now we’ll discuss additional (and rather optional) features. We suggest that you include them in the premium (paid) functionality:
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Investment analysis. The feature is aimed at users interested in making smart deposits and investments. The application can analyze information coming from different sources and use it to give helpful advice.
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Gamification. Of course, a personal finance app isn't meant to be fun, but why make it boring to use? You can always add an entertainment element to increase user engagement. What about the reward points that a user gets if he achieves some goals set (say, cost savings or something)? You’re welcome to come up with your own idea, though!
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AI-based tips. We've already mentioned Mint's ability to tell users the right course of action (regarding optimization of their spending and improvement of financial habits). So, in order to implement the feature practically, you have to resort to the help of artificial intelligence. By analyzing the behavior of all its users, the AI-based program evolves and learns to make real recommendations.
If you have a limited budget, go with MVP for money management app development. This approach implies that you create only the most important features (from the first list). As to additional ones, you can add them later when the solution starts bringing you profit.
Key Types of Mobile Personal Finance Apps
There are several ways to develop a fintech application: you can choose a simpler approach (which won't give such excellent results, but it’s easier and cheaper to implement), or you can create a powerful financial app with more advanced features. What to choose in the end is up to you.
#1. Simple Fintech Apps
The user records all the data on his spending manually. This reduces the level of process automation, but it doesn't mean the service of the sort is completely useless. It still has a lot of cool features. Among them is the ability to classify and analyze your costs, improved budgeting, and so on in the same vein.
In general, if you’re low on funds, it would be a good project to start with. You’ll be able to scale it later.
#2. Advanced Fintech Apps
If you intend to create a personal budget app like mint, you should choose the second development option (because that’s how Mint works). To specify, you must allow the user to connect all his/her bank accounts and cards to the application. As a result, there is an opportunity to automatically collect data about each transaction (without the need for manual entry).
Technology Stack for Mint Clone App Development
Don't worry, we'll show you how to build a personal finance app like mint from scratch very soon. But first, you need to understand what technologies your development experts will have to deal with.
And now is the time to answer the main question, which is…
How to Build a Personal Finance App like Mint?
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Preliminary analysis. The research covers the market, competitors, and target audience. The goal is to identify market trends, analyze the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors, and reveal the user needs. You can either do the work yourself or entrust it to specialists who know how to run the process and interpret the results.
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Discovery phase. You can perform the market analysis yourself (or do you already know everything you need?), but the Discovery phase is too crucial a moment to save on it. So it'd be smart of you to order the Discovery service from experts. They'll conduct professional research and suggest the best way to approach the development process so that you get the most out of your project. Discovery Phase consists of many stages, including the following (you'll find more information on the subject here):
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Prototyping (primary visualization of your product, creating prototypes, whether it be wireframes or mockups);
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Choosing a technical stack (those solutions that will help you build a custom budget planner app like mint within your budget);
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Creation of lists of required and desirable features.
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Hiring a team of skilled developers. They must have experience in mint clone app development. Ideally, if you find a team offering both Discovery and development services, all in one, so to speak (by the by, our Agilie team is doing just that).
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MVP creation. We’ve already mentioned that with a limited budget, you'd better start small (with the MVP model). You get the opportunity to test your product with end-users and understand what they like and don't like about your product.
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Application development. The next step is to create a full-fledged app, which includes all the required features and meets relevant user expectations.
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Testing. Of course, you shouldn't think about launching your personal finance app without first testing it. And since your Mint clone deals with finances, special emphasis should be placed on data security.
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App release & Collecting user feedback. Your work doesn't end with the launch of the application, as you might think. Now your task is to collect and analyze the feedback from your users. The goal is to understand what needs to be fixed and what should be added in future releases.
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App improvement. Knowing what to improve in your application, you can develop and implement new features. The sky is the limit, that’s true, so never stop trying to achieve the best possible result.
How to Monetize Your Mint Clone?
The cost to build a personal finance planner app like Mint is quite high. It means you should think over the monetization strategy in advance.
Explore these ways to make a Mint clone profitable and pick the ones you like most. And don't put all your eggs in one basket. Combine several monetization options (this way, you'll achieve the best return on the project).
Other Top Mobile Personal Finance Apps
You Need a Budget
The main goal of the You Need a Budget app is to make your money really work. It offers different ways to manage finances, including choosing the best investments, paying off debt, covering current expenses, etc.
Among the tasks of the service is to teach the user to live within his means and give advice if he goes beyond his allowed budget.
Unfortunately, the application is only available in English, which can be a problem for some users.
Goodbudget
The app name is very eloquent and indicates the task of the service, namely, work on improving your budget. In essence, the software digitizes the process of putting money into envelopes, each of which is designed for a specific purpose. Moreover, the budget can be managed by several users at the same time.
However, the application is hardly user-friendly and intuitive. And a beginner might find it difficult to understand the way it works. But if you've already dealt with financial planning, Goodbudget is what you need.
Spendee
If you're trying to figure out how to build a fintech app, you should definitely check out Spendee, another south-after financial solution.
It is an intuitive application with a clear and modern interface. That’s why it’s very easy and pleasant to use.
The coolest feature of Spendee is the AI-based analysis of financial data in an adaptable environment. The analysis is followed by smart, personalized recommendations for proper budgeting.
The app used to be paid, but now there is free access to it too, which made Spendee even more popular.
Summary
Have we managed to convince you the game is worth the candle? Then it's time to take real action.
Don't know where to start? You’re welcome to hire us and we’ll help you implement your project in the best possible way!
Our team knows how to build a personal finance app like mint from scratch. Moreover, we have relevant development experience. We’ll make sure you get a product, which meets your expectations 100%.
You’re welcome to contact us right away.
