How Much does it Cost to Develop an App like TikTok

6 min readApr 27, 2019

TikTok is in trend and it has hit the market so hard that there is no way bringing it down. Until and unless people use it repeated again and again for many times, the app is not going to lose its gleam.

Now when we talk about TikTok, there is a very thin chance that you haven’t heard about the app to date. Still, if you fall into that category let us tell you that it is a Chinese music video platform. The users create a small music video using the app and share it among their friends. The app was earlier called as Musical.ly then it was renamed into TikTok by its ownership company ByteDance.

What does actually TikTok do?

Basically, the app brings in songs, videos, and tunes which is currently popular in the market to the users. The users can lip-sync to it to make videos, dance to songs, add effects, add filters and do all sort of creative acts to make their video better than others. Moreover, TikTok works as an effective platform to interact with others as you will get to share your videos as well as browse the ones added by others.

Creating your own video after app installation is an easy process. Even if you are new to the app, you can come up with a creative video in no time and become popular among the mass in a few days.

Some of the features which made the app popular in no time are:

Sharing videos on social media
High-speed image capture
Broadcasting music videos
Amazing effects and filters
Music library with a daily pick from the editor

Sounds amazing right?

If you have reached this part of this article, then it is sure you are interested in knowing the cost of developing an app like TikTok. When said that you need to look into different factors which contribute towards the expenses like the features in the app, technologies used and resources needed that will help you have an app like TikTok. Using this information, you will get an approximate idea about the cost of developing an app, but this can still fluctuate based on the mobile app development platform which you choose for your project as well as on the functionalities that you plan to add up in the app.

“Must-have” features for your mobile app like TikTok

Login and splash screen:

Like any other app here you will have to sign up first to login to the app. This section will not be an issue for the users.

Simple user interface and app navigation:

Once you have got into the application, you will find all the trending videos. You can easily view them one by one just by scrolling the screen. You can follow your friends and even set the screen in such a manner that you can easily see the videos of your friends or people that you follow. The app is easy to use and navigate.

Commenting and hearts:

The hearts are the measure of popularity for the videos. The more number of hearts you get, the more popular you will be and your videos. It has to be said at this point that some people have become celebrities just through TikTok. If you have liked a video and want to save it, just give it a heart and you will find the video added in your profile.

Face filters and effects:

If you are a user on Snapchat, then you have something to find here too. Apart from the special features like slow-mo, reverse, zoom or flash, you will also find here effects and face filters. You will find here cat faces, split screen or Valentine’s day filters.

Sharing:

There is no meaning to coming up with an amazing video build with all your effort just to know that you cannot share it. TikTok understands this well and so it comes with a sharing option. You can easily use this feature and share your app on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Whatsapp, Messenger and even on email.

Upload video and sound:

Apart from working on the trendy music and sounds, it is also possible for the users to make use of their own voice in order to create a unique video.

Notifications:

The users can know about the latest likes, tags, and followers by checking out the real-time notifications.

Duet options:

If you would like to work on a song with someone else then you can do it. Once you have created the video, you can add a hashtag #duetwithme. The other users in TikTok will come across this and will come up with their own spin and duet with you.

Settings:

By visiting the settings section it will become possible for the users to change their profile picture, choose between private or public account, change the password, access the help center, switch the language and block users.

Video editing:

Now users can make their video all the more attractive by adding in filters, stickers, and funny animations.

Technology requirements to build the app like TikTok

In order to filter and personalize the data for the users, you will need AI technology. The app makes use of the AI algorithm in order to understand and add tags automatically by making use of object and image recognition.

The app needs cloud storage. Here you can make use of cloud storage options like Amazon S3 or Google cloud storage. The cost will depend on the operations, the network and the data storage you choose

Content delivery networks
A universal operating system
A database such as Cassandra and MailChimp integration
GWT for better programming productivity
Video and audio transcoding
Database management with Datastax
Easy payment methods like e-wallet or PayPal

If you want to build the app for Android, you can use the programming languages of Kotlin and Java and for iOS development, you can use Swift or C. In case you plan to build a hybrid app then you can use the technologies like Flutter, Xamarin, and React Native.

Development team requirement

Android and iOS developer
UI/UX designers
Mobile development
Database expert
QA expert
Front-end and back-end developers
Sales and marketing team
Product manager
Delivery expert

Cost to Develop an App Like TikTok

To put it straight, the cost to develop an app which is like TikTok will take around $20,000-$30,000. Again, it has to be kept in mind that as per the app store guidelines, it is not recommended to come up with the same kind of app versions. This means if you plan to build an app which more or less looks like TikTok, chances are more that the audience will not find it interesting and it will fail badly in the market.

As said above the cost to build such an app will depend on several factors like platform used for the app, complexity in terms of design, resource needs and much more. One of the easy ways to know the approximate cost of developing an app can be to count the number of hours to build the app and multiply it by the cost per hour. You need to know that the experience and expertise of the developer will also play a crucial role in deciding the charge per hour.

Conclusion — Get your app ready before its too late

Being a popular app, there is a fierce competition going on in the market. This means you need to come up with your app before it is too late. At this point, you have two options. Either you can come up with your own app by adding in the latest features or come up with a clone app for TikTok. Just be sure to have expert mobile app developers on board to take care of your mobile app development needs.