How to Build a Personal Finance App: Key Features, Types and Insights

Digital services for financial management have greatly simplified the budgeting process, which resulted in their increased popularity. Today, more and more people are enjoying various financial planning apps due to their budget maintenance functions and income analysis features. So we have a prepared audience that aims to manage their finances and organize expenses, which are interested in personal finance management app development. According to Allied Market Research, “The global personal finance software market was valued at $1.4 billion in 2022, and is projected to reach $4.2 billion by 2032, growing at a CAGR of 12.2% from 2023 to 2032.” The statistics prove the value of the personal finance apps and audience’s awareness about them.

That’s why fintech technology is a good startup idea. With the right approach, such a project will bring you good profit. The only question is how to build a personal finance app. 

In our new article, we're going to answer it. Moreover, we'll discuss the factors that influence the development cost, enumerate the most effective ways to monetize these services, and give you many other useful tips.

Role of Personal Finance Apps

Personal financial applications are indispensable tools for users’ budget maintenance as their major role is providing clients with financial assistance regarding income tracking, expenditures, debt repayment, etc. This type of monetary platform plays a valuable role in providing users with analytical insights about their monetary status in relation to their financial needs and the ones of their families.

The key personal finance app features represent the following: 

• Expense tracking for categorizing the user’s expenditure behavioral patterns.

• The feature of budgeting helps the clients to allocate their financial means to maintain the budget. 

• The bill reminder feature updates the users with information about the payment deadline. 

• Data analysis and generation of insightful reports per clients’ expenditures, income, etc.

• Integration with a bank account where the personal financial application checks transactions and balances. 

Hence, when you consider building personal finance software, you should remember that it should ensure a decent level of monetary analysis for the client to optimize their resource allocation and spending/saving behaviors. 

Key Types Of Finance Apps

These apps can be grouped and classified in many ways. And first, we'll deal with the most popular one.

Simple Financial Management Software

Such an application doesn't offer any advanced features and has the simplest functionality. With its help, users plan their purchases, control expenses, and perform other similar tasks. 

There is one more thing we should probably mention: users have to enter all the data themselves, that is, manually (on the bright side, the process of personal finance mobile app development is cheaper and faster in this case, which makes it a good idea for most startups).

Pros:

• greater confidence in the app's security. Since the bank card isn't connected to the application, financial data is completely safe;

• a simpler development process (which we’ve already indicated earlier). This means the project can be implemented in less time and on a smaller budget.

Cons:

• the process of manually entering information may seem too boring and tedious to the user;

• it is more difficult to compete with top personal finance apps that offer a variety of features for smart budget management.

The last item on the mini-list above might make you anxious, and rightfully so. However, the small number of personal finance app features can be made up in other ways. One of the ideas is a cool interface design and special attention to user experience. Thus, you’ll increase the competitiveness of your service.

How to build a personal finance application is a complex process, which requires understanding a vast number of details. Let's say, pay attention to the finance app concept below, such a design has every chance to attract the attention of users, what do you think?

By the way, the Wally app offers manual data entry and is quite successful. So don't dismiss a simple application type as non-working; it can definitely benefit you.

Advanced Money Management Apps

If you have the resources and budget, we advise you to consider releasing a financial planning app with more advanced functionality. Most importantly, you save users from having to enter all the information manually. The best way to do this is to allow them to link their bank cards to the service. As a result, the application will receive the necessary data automatically.

Pros:

• such an application is very user-friendly, as it requires a minimum of manual work. Budget management is automatic;

• it becomes easier to stand out from the competition (or at least you can adequately rival similar services).

Cons:

• financial data protection is your focus (an issue we’ll discuss below);

• the project takes longer and requires more effort to implement (which in turn increases the personal finance app development cost).

There is also another approach to finance app classification, based on the nature of the task being performed:

• Effective work with financial habits;

• Personal budget management;

• Investment software;

• Full-service financial application;

• Financial projections.

Of course, the above types of money management apps can be combined with each other: the more tasks an application performs, the easier it is to keep users interested when thinking about creating a personal finance app.

Top Personal Finance Apps

Let's discuss the global personal finance management market and its main players. Who should you fear first? Whose strategy should you explore and adopt?

Mint

Mint is one of the most popular money management apps on the market today. It was launched in 2008 and has since managed to win and attract at least 15 million users worldwide. 

Markers of Mint’s Success?

• User-friendly experience. After almost 15 years on the market, Mint has become a proven solution. Users are unlikely to be disappointed with their choice because Mint considered most of their wishes.

• Free access. Of course, Mint makes money in other ways, not as apparent as paid access to content.

• A passive approach to accounting. Mint shows the balance on each user account and illustrates the recent spending habits and dynamics.

• Saving-money tips. These tips may seem too simple to some, but they would be handy for personal financial planning.

• The high degree of cyber security. Mint is well protected from scammers (at the bank level, according to the company).

We've covered the Mint application from A to Z in our other article. In it, you'll find everything you need to know about this useful finance app.

Monetization strategy

Mint doesn't require payment from the users themselves. It acts better and smarter.

In addition to simple earning methods such as in-app ads, the company is quite wise in using the collected consumer data. It analyzes all the information and offers each user something to interest him. It can be an investment project or good loan terms... depending on what a particular customer needs according to his financial behavior.

If the user agrees to the offer made, Mint receives its commission from the company that provides this particular financial service.

YNAB

YNAB stands for You Need a Budget. This personal finance app sets itself the task of making budget planning manageable. With YNAB, users can synchronize all their accounts, track monthly expenses, save money for emergencies, and more. Also, the company offers online seminars aimed at teaching users to deal with old debts.

YNAB application incorporates the following four rules of work:

• The first rule means that YNAB helps users spend money wisely. It mainly refers to the smart categorization and systematization of expenses;

• The second rule suggests that the user save some money for a rainy day (after all, you never know what can happen!);

• The third point reflects a popular rule in boxing when a boxer follows an opponent and his punch, using it to his advantage. What does it have to do with all types of finance apps? It's very simple: YNAB focuses on flexible budget management and adapting to any financial surprises;

• And finally, the last rule deals with the ability to live on the money earned, without exceeding the monthly income.

Monetization strategy

For a month, the user can enjoy YNAB features without paying (just to make sure he has chosen the right personal finance management software). After 30 days, he’ll have to give up YNAB... or buy a monthly or annual subscription.

Acorns

The Acorns app is more focused on savings and investments. To be precise, its main task is to help users save money and automatically invest in change.

The company was founded in 2012 by a father and son (Messrs Cruttenden) who wanted to promote passive investing. Therefore, the main feature of Acorns is micro-investments.

Today, Acorns is used by at least 10 million people.

What is good about Acorns?

• Emphasis on automation. Acorns fully automates the process of passive micro-investing. Users link their accounts to the finance app, and the rest runs its course and comes naturally (i.e., purchases are rounded to the nearest dollar).

• Ease of use. Even novice investors can understand how Acorns works. No special skills are required.

• Several types of accounts. Acorns users can deal with a variety of accounts: individual (taxable) investment accounts, individual retirement accounts (IRA), custody accounts for children, and more.

Monetization strategy

Acorns offers a simple pricing system: $1, $3, or $5, depending on the subscription level.

How to Build a Personal Finance Application?

Let's start by listing the key development processes on how to build a money management app. More precisely, it’s about technologies which could help you bring a fintech project to life.

Key Phases in Creating a Personal Finance App

Let's discuss the stages the project goes through:

Discovery Phase

Discovery phase analyzes the activities for a successful project start. The tasks include conducting market research, analyzing the target audience, considering the must-have app functionality, choosing a tech stack, developing a user flow, and performing other similar steps.

UX/UI Design

Among the deliverables of the Discovery phase are often prototypes (sketches, wireframes, or detailed ones, depending on the project). The next step is to turn them into a full-fledged interface design capable of delivering the best user experience.

Efficient design implies that you must create a UI (user interface) that can provide the best UX (user experience). The main task is to make your financial planning app pleasant and convenient to use. 

All of the above can be summarized in a few points:

• user-friendliness. Don't give the user a hard time figuring out how to work with your application. The interface should be as intuitive as possible.

• a small number of steps. Make sure that the user gets the maximum effect by taking a minimum of steps. Eliminate all unnecessary steps if possible (this doesn’t apply to transactions, which require verification of the user's identity).

• compliance with UI/UX trends. Design trends aren't just plucked out of the sky: they reflect the current tastes and preferences of the majority of users. So keep in mind what's hot in UI/UX design at the moment.

Get some inspiration with this great UI/UX concept. What you see is also a finance app and it looks really cool!

Development Phase

This is one of the most difficult and responsible stages of the project. It requires special attention and expertise. 

The development phase includes the following sub-categories:

№ 1. MVP/MLP 

The highly functional personal finance app is quite expensive, which requires reconsidering the approaches to its development. You just need to start small, namely, with the creation of an MVP. Such a product only has basic functionalities, making it cheaper to implement.

Better yet, build an MLP, a minimum lovable product. It is similar to MVP and also has only the most important features. But in some ways, MLP is superior to MVP. The thing is, MLP has an improved UI/UX, thanks to which it attracts and interests users.

If you want to know what MLP is and how it differs from MVP, read our article. It covers the topic in detail.

№ 2. Security Measures

Data security is of great importance, especially if your application is linked to the user's bank card. After all, an insufficiently protected system can end with the theft of money, which won't do you any good either (you risk losing your reputation along with users).

The security measures the developers can craft during the Development Phase are as follows:

• Multi-factor user authentication (implies that the developers integrate a multiple-layered system of verifying the client’s identity: password, entering the code, answering secret questions, using fingerprints, etc.).

• Data encryption (means that the developers utilize a blockchain system to cipher the data, which will be decrypted by the users who have the key).

• Short-lived sessions. Client-server finance applications shouldn’t run in insecure mode. The developers integrate the feature in order to automatically require clients to re-authorize if they are inactive during a certain period of time. 

№ 3. Convincing Functionality

When it comes to building a personal finance app, the developers usually implement the following features to make it stand out:

• saving personal settings and data;

• connection with social media profiles;

• the use of geo-settings;

• smart alerts and notifications.

If the above options are included in the list of personal finance app’s features, the chances that your service will be in demand increase.

Testing

Before a product is released to the market, it must be properly tested. QA engineers need to make sure it will run smoothly and without failure. Regardless of the versatility of testing procedures in app development, the top three worth mentioning are: 

• Usability testing aims to check whether the UX/UI elements adjust and run smoothly via different platforms. 

• Functional testing analyzes whether each of the features at the discovery phase operates correctly in the app.

• Security testing checks whether the personal finance app adheres to the PCI DSS and other relevant regulations.

Product Launch and Support

Finally, the software takes its place among other solutions. If necessary, the dev team offers its follow-up support.

The elements of product ongoing support can comprise bug fixing, developing app updates, as well as working with clients’ feedback, which is essential to promoting the post-launch product maintenance. Bug fixing implies keeping the correct operation of the application. App updates mean that the product is evolving, underlining its market liveability. Finally, the work with clients’ feedback enables the dev. team, to determine key success patterns, as well as dislikes to make further improvements and satisfy their needs.

Let's discuss how to create a p2p payment application. Interesting? Then follow the link right now!

Tech Stack For Creating A Finance Management App

The tech stack represents the technological basis like environments, libraries, programming languages, and frameworks utilized for the personal finance management app development.

Front-end:

TypeScript / JavaScript, React.js, Angular, Vue, HTML, CSS / SCSS / Less, Bootstrap, Material UI, Tailwind CSS, PrimeFaces. 

Back-end / API:

Ruby on Rails, Node.js (NestJS, Express). 

Database:

MySQL, PostgreSQL.

Mobile App:

Swift (iOS), Kotlin (Android), React Native, NativeScript, Ionic. 

DevOps & IT Stack:

AWS, Heroku, DigitalOcean, GitLab.

Finance / Accounting Stack:

Recurly, Square. 

What you see is the tech stack that our team uses for fintech development projects. Of course, you can choose other solutions, but we consider our approach to be the most effective. 

Anyway, these technologies may sound unfamiliar, incomprehensible, and, perhaps, intimidating to you… which is natural, as you aren’t a development expert. That's why you should hire a personal finance application development company and entrust it with your project. Other reasons to opt for professionals are listed below.

Key Features For Personal Finance Apps 

The process of building a personal finance software is now requiring you to convert its basic tasks into the personal finance app’s features (be it iOS or Android-based). We offer the following options (although, of course, everything depends on the specific project, its goals, and your budget):

• User Registration & Authorization. Sometimes the registration step can be skipped or made optional, but it doesn't apply to financial applications. When dealing with money matters, it is very important to create a personal profile containing all the user information. This is especially true for finance apps that allow attaching bank cards: in such cases, you need to take proper measures to protect the profile and secure the process of user authorization. 

• Bank card connection. We're talking about the just mentioned linking of a bank card to a user account so that all financial information is automatically entered into the application database. Of course, when creating a finance management app with manual data entry, the feature isn't needed.

• Access to transactions. The user should be able to view the history of transactions on their bank accounts, track each one if desired, and obtain relevant information about them.

• Smart budgeting. One of the important tasks of all types of finance apps is to provide the user with the ability to set an acceptable budget for a day, week, month, or another period.

• Planning expenses by categorizing them (say, Food, Hygiene, Clothing categories, etc.) and setting deadlines for bills(which is necessary for mandatory payments).

• By the way, a calendar with planned expenses and payments would be a good idea too. Such a feature will make your application more attractive to users.

• Template payments. You can simplify the user's life even more and offer him to create payment templates so that he could make regular transactions faster and easier.

• Statistics. It's about statistics on expenses, the possibility of comparing them, and so on. These features for financial planning apps should help the user get an idea of how he managed his budget during the specified period. 

• Notifications: any alerts and reminders regarding recurring payments and other financial tasks.

• In-app search. The feature is designed to help users navigate the application and easily find the information they need.

These are basic features for fintech app development. But there are also advanced ones, which can add value to your application:

• Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML). If you have a good budget, be sure to supplement your application with AI and ML. By using AI and ML solutions in fintech, you can offer users many more cool features: smart expense grouping, receipt recognition, AI-based chatbots, and so on.

• Advanced analytics tools. Don’t confuse this feature with simple statistics, which you should provide in the basic functionality. Advanced analytics tools are able to make real financial forecasts and help users with budgeting and tracking their personal capital.

There's a flip side to that coin: the implementation of the above features requires more resources, which means more time and money. So it's up to you what to choose.

Cost of Building a Personal Finance App

Let’s dive into the costs of building a personal finance application and determine the factors that shape the figures. 

The overall cost for crafting a personal finance platform ranges from $65,000 for the basic apps to $330,000 for the custom financial applications. The price already counts design, coding, and testing expenses. 

Here is the list of key factors that will affect the price of building a personal finance application:

• feature complexity;

• UX/UI design;

• platform preference.

Feature Complexity

The factor of feature complexity can be categorized into standard, advanced, and custom features. 

The standard features represent expense tracking, budgeting, basic security, and goal setting, so the price will not be that high due to only the basic functions the app will support.

Speaking about the advanced features like the tools for retirement planning, investment analysis, and integration with banks, the price for the app development will be moderate. This is due to the enlargement of its functions and a more in-depth effect they will have on the user’s financial decision-making. 

Finally, custom features like an AI-driven financial advisor, automated savings, and gamification tools will be the most expensive in building a personal finance software due to their service diversification and user all-in experience. The generated financial forecasts and game elements, like challenges with the reward system, will ensure users’ better understanding of the financial literacy that will shape their budget-relevant behaviors. 

UX/UI Design

The selection of a color palette, custom elements like animations, and maintenance of the elements’ intuitive work will affect the development price considering the degree of complexity these elements bring to the app crafting process. 

Platform Preference

Choosing the platform preference will directly affect the finance app development costs based on the client’s motivations regarding its functionality. If you are interested in a better and accelerated performance, the native development will be a perfect match, but it will be an expensive option. 

If you prioritize cost-effectiveness, then, the cross-platform development will be a cost-effective variant to simultaneously develop a few platforms but will lack effectiveness in the performance, especially in the graphics-intensive applications.

How To Monetize Personal Finance Management Software

• Paid access. The easiest way to earn on any application is to make it paid. There is a downside, though: convincing users to spend money on lifetime access to your program won't be easy! At least, without a trial period... what if they don't like what they buy? So the next monetization option on our list has a better chance of success.

• Freemium approach. The basic functionality is provided to everyone, and some special features should be paid for. Of course, the application will work well in its basic version too, but if a user wants to get access to even greater features, he has to buy premium access.

• Subscription model. The third monetization option is similar to the previous one, with the difference that the user must renew a paid subscription every month in order to freely use the finance app content.

• Advertising is another way to make money on any application. However, to succeed, you need to follow a few rules:

• find those advertisers whose products or services may be of interest to your users (which means you should resort to research data on the target audience when choosing world brands advertised);

• advertising should not be too intrusive, otherwise, there is a risk of scaring off users. According to statistics, an excessive number of ads (especially of an irrelevant nature) is one of the reasons why users abandon a particular personal finance app.

• Monetization of financial information. Your users inevitably leave a lot of information about themselves regarding their financial habits, money behavior, habitual spending, and more. And all this data could interest different marketing or research agencies. Of course, the information sold should be of a general nature, without the ability to track a specific consumer.

• Special personalized offers. Also, gathered financial information on consumers can be used for personalized offers. It's what Mint is doing (we've discussed its monetization strategy earlier).

• Paid access to SDK/API. Also, by creating a finance management app, you get a chance to collaborate with third parties and sell them your SDKs/APIs. They can use these tools to improve their own products (say, Dwolla integration offers the opportunity to connect mobile apps to American banking services).

Choose Agilie as a Reliable Partner

When thinking about how to build a personal finance app, it is important to keep in mind the importance of selecting the right development team. The key factors that determine the partner's reliability are their years of experience, range of services, and attitude to work. 

At Agilie, we share the philosophy of result-orientation, focusing on crafting from scratch and optimizing products to meet our client’s needs. Passionate about self-improvement, we adhere to modern tech trends and incorporate only proven technology to implement a zest of sophistication in our projects. 

With 14+ years on the market, we help businesses integrate our digital solutions within the various areas of business like fintech, healthcare, marketing, and real estate. Our fintech software development services include blockchain, mobile banking, and payment solutions enabling us to create magnifique solutions with both fiat and cryptocurrencies, enabling you to get a truly mesmerizing and competitive personal financial application. 

Summary

Let's briefly recall the main things discussed in the article to ensure the success of your project. The core elements that a personal finance application includes are expense tracking, bill reminders, and budgeting. The scope of feature complexity, UX/UI design, and platform selection will directly affect the app’s final price. Our Agilie team has successful experience working on fintech projects. That's why we offer our services as a qualified personal finance application development company.

Interested in tech-savvy solutions for your personal finance app? Just contact us to implement digital sophistication in your idea.