How Much Does It Cost to Develop a Buy Now Pay Later App like AfterPay & zippay?

If you are willing to get into the FinTech startup business, then creating a ‘Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL)’ application is a trend today. But often, people hesitate to take up this ideology and turn it around to business because they believe creating FinTech business apps can be expensive.

To give you a general idea, the cost of developing a BNPL application is around $25,000 on average. That is reasonable pricing, but it might vary depending on various factors.

Your feature & functionality requirements hold the maximum weightage to decide whether your app’s price would go higher or lower.

So, if you want to know how various factors influence the overall cost of developing a BNPL application, then read this article till the end.

Cost Breakdown of Developing a Buy Now Pay Later Application

Keeping aside the average, availing the professional mobile app development services for creating a BNPL platform might cost you between $10,000 to $50,000, depending on your specifications upon the project. Now, the obvious question is whether people’s minds will be upon the widened window in this cost range!

But the fact is that app development of all types can be influenced by many reasons and inclusions.

Therefore, before you hire the best mobile app development company to take up your project, it is important to get a complete insight into the cost breakdown and associated influencing factors.

To start with, here’s the cost breakdown for developing various types of BNPL applications, with the time window it might take for being completed:

1. Simple BNPL App with Basic Features

If you are willing to get a simple BNPL app with basic features such as user registration & login, product browsing, payment tracking, payment options or others, it will cost you around $25,000 to $35,000. Moreover, it will take around 2 to 3 months.

2. Slightly Advanced or Medium-Level BNPL App with High-End Features

Such an application will consist of all the features of a simple BNPL app. Following that, it will also provide you integration capabilities with several eCommerce platforms, provide advanced support solutions and suggest personalised recommendations.

You can expect to pay somewhere between $35,000 to $45,000 for such an app. And it will take around 4 to 7 months to be ready.

3. Complex BNPL App with Advanced Features

It will consist of all the features highlighted in the medium-level BNPL app. Following that, it also consists of customisable user preferences and profiles, multiple payment options, advanced reporting & analytics features, API integration capabilities, and more.

You will pay around $50,000 or more to create such an app. It would take around 8 to 12 months for such an app to be ready.

Factors that Influence the Cost of Developing a Buy Now Pay Later Application

Now that you have a clear idea of the key features of a BNPL app across all levels of development and how it impacts the overall cost of BNPL app development, it is time you get an insight into the factors that influence those price tags:

1. Choice of the App Development Platform

If you are seeking AfterPay-like app developmentsolutions, the first and most important factor of consideration is the choice of platform. Businesses must look after their target audience to pick the right platform to work on.

When you seek to develop an application for Android and iOS platforms, the turnaround time will be longer, and the project will be expensive. On the other hand, cross-platform design can be a better alternative, but you won’t be able to fine-tune the interface for any specific platform.

Once you have gathered insight into the preferences of your target audience, the next step is to understand how pricing differs in terms of choosing the right app development platform. So, the pricing you would pay with respect to the development platforms is as follows:

So, make the choice of your BNPL app development platform by considering the target audience, available resources, business goals, budget and other such aspects. Choosing the platform is of utmost importance, and it is advisable you spend your time deciding it.

2. Choosing the Key Features for a BNPL App

The next big consideration is the choice of features that you want for your BNPL app. When you are developing an application like AfterPay, you must be keen on matching the feature effectiveness that they have to offer.

With proactive features in the BNPL app, you can provide users with a secure and seamless payment experience.

So, to build an application like AfterPay, here are some of the important features that not just enhance the abilities of a BNPL app but also influence the increase of the overall development cost:

1. Offer Personalised Payment Schedules and Credit Limits

It will enable your customers to set their preferred re-payment schedules and choice of credit bureau.

2. Third-Party Integration Capability with Online Retailers

To ensure your customers adopt your BNPL services, you can integrate your platform with third-party eCommerce platforms. It will allow users to avail your easy financing options.

3. Analytics & Reporting Features

These features will allow your business to monitor important insights, such as payment trends, financial performance, customer behaviour, etc.

4. Automated Scheduling of Payments and Reminders

It is one of the most important features, where payment scheduling for the customer will be done automatically, without manual intervention. And automated reminders will help customers never miss out on their payment dues.

These are just a few of the crucial features that add enormous weight to the efficacy of a BNPL app. But apart from that, there are also other features that influence the overall cost of development, which includes:

There’s an endless array of features that you can add to your BNPL app. But, with every choice or inclusion of a feature, the cost of development will gradually increase, leading to a higher end-cost. So, choose your features wisely.

3. Choosing the Right Team for BNPL App Development

The third and most important factor which influences the cost of BNPL app development is associated with picking the right team for the job.

Hiring the right team can help you save a lot of money on overall app development considerations. May it be UI/UX design, feature inclusion or complex development, they can save you a lot of money.

Not just that, but the right team of professionals can also help you with monetisation strategies for BNPL apps that are commonly being used by your competitors, like After-Pay. But, people believe that hiring a BNPL app development company is quite expensive, as they work with big teams and more resources.

But the truth is, outsourcing your app development needs will help segregate your development requirements among professional team members. In this way, the turnaround time will be even faster, and the cost of development on a per hour basis will be lowered.

To ensure your project is being developed with utmost quality consideration in mind, you will need a project manager, business analysts, front-end & back-end developers, UI/UX designers and QA analysts. Now, hiring such a big team in-house will be more expensive than outsourcing the needs.

Therefore, choosing the right mobile app development services will influence your overall cost for the project. Choosing a productive and professional team might help you reduce the final cost of development.

Conclusion

So, these are some things that would definitely add clarity to your understanding of how much it would cost to develop a BNPL app. If you are a budding FinTech entrepreneur and want to adapt to the digital payments landscape era, there isn’t a better way than creating a BNPL service for the customers.

People of today are looking for convenient ways to pay for their desired goods or services. Staying ahead with the trend and providing them with the service they need will be a winning deal for you. So, let’s make it count!