The financial app market is booming than ever! All thanks to the advanced technology changing how people handle their money. Hiring financial app development services or creating these financial apps is transforming financial management. Whether it’s simple budgeting or advanced wealth management, financial apps are increasing in popularity for people of all ages and income levels.
SoFi started out focusing on refinancing student loans but has grown to offer a wide range of financial services. This change is a part of a bigger trend towards digital banking focusing on offering smooth and customized experience.
If you have an idea to develop an app like SoFi then it needs a deep understanding of the Fintech industry and a hefty financial investment. SoFi is a popular financial application, known for its unique approach to managing personal finance by offering a range of financial services in one platform.
These services include personal loans, student loan refinancing, and investment opportunities.
Want to enter the Fintech market or improve your current services? This guide will help you through the development procedure, Key features to know, breakdown of cost and so on to enable your app to stand out in a crowded field.
What Is The Financial App?
A Financial app is a software tool that helps users manage their money. It can be as simple as a budgeting tool or as advanced as an investment platform. These apps make it easy to track your spending, set a budget, save money and access financial services. Financial apps are digital solutions for managing your personal finances.
Why To Invest In Financial App Development Like SoFi?
Are you thinking about starting a fintech business? Creating an app like SoFi offers a great chance for companies and entrepreneurs to break into the fintech market.
Increasing Need for Digital Financial Services
The demand for digital financial services is growing fast. Many people are using online platforms to manage their finances, get loans and other financial activities. A study by Statista shows that the global fintech market is predicted to reach $305 billion by 2025 which shows the huge potential in this field. Building an app like SoFi lets you take advantage of this expanding market giving consumers the convenience and efficiency they want.
Complete Financial Solutions
SoFi offers everything you need for your finances including loans, insurance and investments. This solution is great for users who want to manage their money on a single platform. Creating an app like SoFi lets you offer various services that draw in customers and keep them engaged and boost their loyalty.
Creative Features and User Experience
SoFi’s success comes from its unique features and user experience. The app uses advanced technology such as biometric login and personalized financial advice and AI insights. Creating an app like SoFi lets you add these modern features offering a secure, smooth and personalized experience for users.
Marketing Differentiate and Competitive Edge
In the fintech market, making your app unique is crucial. SoFi’s combination of financial services, community and education tools makes it stand out from its competitors. Creating an app like SoFi lets you use a successful model while adding your own features to make it unique. This strategy can attract many users and help your app become a market leader.
Revenue Opportunities
A well-designed fintech app such as SoFi can generate various sources of income, like fees for loans, investment management and subscriptions. McKinsey reports that the global digital finance market holds billions in revenue potential. Investing in developing an app like SoFi can lead to significant financial returns and is a smart choice for long-term growth. Building an app like SoFi allows you to address the needs of modern, tech-savvy users, build a strong presence in the market and take advantage of the growing fintech industry.
Key Features To Consider While Developing An App Like SoFi
SoFi has advanced features that make banking easy to use and secure. Adding these features can increase the cost of building an app like SoFi but they are essential for a better user experience. Let’s explore some essential features of Fintect App like SoFi.
Loan Management
- Refinance and combine your existing student loans at competitive interest rates.
- Get personal loans with flexible terms and low interest rates.
- Users can apply for home loans and mortgages directly through the app.
Investment Tools
- Use robo-advisors for low-cost, automated investment management.
- Buy and sell stocks, ETFs and cryptocurrencies without paying commission fees.
Banking Services
- Handle your daily finances with a high-interest checking account.
- Enjoy high-yield savings accounts without any fees.
Credit Card
Through this feature, users can avail rewards on their first purchase, or while paying bills and also track spending.
Financial Planning
- Get personalized Financial Advice for financial planning from professional advisors.
- Use built-in tools to track your spending and manage your budget easily.
Insurance Products
- Use the app to apply for term life insurance policies.
- Get quotes and buy auto and home insurance.
Integration with Other Financial Tools
- Link with other financial tools and platforms for a seamless financial management experience.
- Developers can use APIs for custom integrations and features.
Security Features
· Use fingerprint or facial recognition for secure access.
· Protect user data with advanced encryption and fraud detection.
AI and Machine Learning
· Use fingerprint or facial recognition for secure access.
· Protect user data with advanced encryption and fraud detection methods.
Educational Resources
· Find articles, videos, and courses on personal finance and investing.
· Join programs aimed at improving your financial knowledge.
Social Community
· Join special events, webinars and financial workshops.
· Get rewards for referring friends to the SoFi platform.
Wealth Management
· Services to help wealthy individuals manage and grow their money.
· Full services to help organize and protect your wealth for the future.
Crypto Investing
This feature allows you to buy, sell and manage different crypto tokens while tracking the prices in real time.
How Much Does It Cost To Develop A Financial App Development Like SoFi?
Creating a financial development app like SoFi may cost between $200,000 to $500,000. The exact cost depends on various factors such as design, developer’s location, developer’s team, development and maintenance. For a more accurate estimate, it’s best to consult an expert fintech app development company.
Factors That Affect SoFi Clone App Development Cost
Building an app like SoFi includes the various factors that impact the total development cost. Let’s explore the primary factors that influence the cost of developing a Fintech app like SoFi.
Feature Complexity
The cost to develop an app like SoFi mainly depends on how complex its features are. Basic features such as user registration, payment processing, and transaction history are crucial. Whereas adding advanced features such as biometric authentication, AI-driven insights, and real-time fraud detection higher the cost. The more complex features will increase the cost of development.
Cost Estimation
For Basic features, development costs may range between $50,000 – $100,000
For advanced features, developing a fintech app like SoFi ranges between $60000-$120,000.
Development Partner Location
| Location | Hourly Rate ($) | Pros |
| Latin America | $40-$60/hour | Good communication, moderate cost and cultural alignment with North America |
| India | $20-$40/hour | Very cost-effective, highly experienced developers with diverse projects |
| Eastern Europe | $30-$50/hour | Cost-effective, highly skilled and dedicated developers |
| Western Europe | $100-$150/hour | High-quality work, transparent communication, time zone alignment |
| North America | $150-$200/hour | High-quality work, experienced developers, strong communication skills |
Picking the right location for your development partner is key to balancing cost and quality.
You need to consider the rates, communication, time zone differences, and the developers’ reliability to ensure your project succeeds.
Tech Stack
Choosing the right technology stack for creating a SoFi clone is important because it affects the app’s performance, scalability, and how much it costs. The tech stack consists of different technologies and tools used for backend and frontend development, databases, and other key parts. Here’s a detailed look at the tech stack and its costs.
| Tech Stack Component | Estimated Cost |
| Frontend Technologies | $40,000-$80,000 |
| Backend Technologies | $30,000-$60,000 |
| Payment Gateway Integration | $15,000-$25,000 |
| Database | $10,000-$20,000 |
| Cloud Hosting | $20,000-$40,000 |
| APIs and Integration | $15,000-$30,000 |
| Security Measures | $10,000-$20,000 |
| Testing and QA | $10,000-$20,000 |
| Maintenance and Support | $10,000 – $20,000/year |
Picking the right tech stack affects not just the upfront cost but also the app’s scalability and maintenance costs over time. The chosen technologies should match your project needs and business objectives,
Developer’s Expertise and Experience
The expertise level of developers plays a great role in financial app development. The skills and experience of the developers you hire are crucial to both the cost and quality of creating an app like SoFi. Experienced developers have the knowledge to make your project more efficient and successful.
| Developer Level | Experience | Hourly Rate | Pros |
| Junior developer | 0-2 | $20-$40 | Low Cost |
| Mid-level developer | 2-5 | $40-$80 | Good problem-solving skills |
| Senior Developer | 5+ | $80-$150 | Dedicated and skilled developers |
| Specialists/Consultants | 10+ | $150-$300 | Deep expertise, Short time hiring |
Hiring skilled developers guarantees your project will run smoothly. Good developers improve performance, reduce bugs, and make the development process smoother which saves your time and money in the long run.
App Development Platform
Choosing the platform to launch your app also influences the cost. You need to decide if you decided whether you want to create a native app, a cross-platform app, or a hybrid app that directly impacts the development time, cost, and user experience.
| Development Platform | Technology | Description | Cost (Estimated) |
| Cross-Platform | React Native, Xamarin, Flutter | Single codebase, quicker development and cost-effective | $60,000-$80,000 |
| Hybrid Development | Ionic, Cordoava | Lower Performance, Web applications wrapped in a native shell. | $60,000 – $100,000 |
| Native Development | Android (Kotlin/Java), iOS (Swift) | High performance, better user experience | $50,000 – $80,000 per platform |
The platform you choose for development greatly impacts both the cost and time needed to create an app like SoFi. It’s important to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of each platform considering your project needs, budget, and user experience goals.
SoFi Alternatives To Watch Your Favorite Financial
Nowadays, SoFi has improved financial services. But it’s not only the one option. Other platforms offer strong financial management tools and services/. Let’s check out its good alternatives.
Beem
Beem is a cutting-edge financial platform that offers a unique way to get quick cash advances. Users can borrow between $5 and $1,000 with Everdraft™ from their verified bank deposits. This financial app is the best option for paying emergency bills such as groceries or medical costs.
As the top choice for instant cash advances, Beem stands out with its easy-to-use interface and a range of helpful features.
Upstart
Upstart sets itself apart by using artificial intelligence in a unique lending model to make personal loans more accessible.
Instead of just looking at financial history, Upstart also considers factors like education and work experience. The app allows people with limited credit history to get loans. For an alternative to SoFi, Upstart offers loans from $1,000 to $50,000 and lets you check if you pre-qualify without affecting your credit score.
Final loan terms are set after a formal application and credit check but Upstart helps improve your credit score by reporting payments to credit bureaus. Loan amounts might vary based on your application details and where you live.
Sageworks Lending
Sageworks Lending, a key part of Abrigo is known for its effective loan automation tools. It helps banks speed up the loan application process by simplifying loan origination and boarding.
In May 2022, Abrigo teamed up with Validis to improve how financial institutions extract data from general ledgers, making the process more efficient.
With the Abrigo-Validis partnership integrated into Sageworks Lending, banks experience a smoother lending process. The platform’s Loan Decisioning solution promotes efficiency and consistency in managing documents and analyzing loans.
Finflux
Finflux is a cloud-based SaaS platform that’s specially designed to help institutions handle their lending processes. It covers everything from starting loans to financial accounting in one seamless system. In July 2022, M2P Fintech acquired Finflux, marking an important step in their growth. Finflux is similar to SoFi which offers app-based lending, data-driven credit scores and strong dashboards for analytics and reporting.
With more than 60 global clients including fintechs, non-banking financial firms, microfinance institutions, banks and credit unions, Finflux’s recent acquisition by M2P boosts its competitive edge.
LoanPro
LoanPro is a top SaaS platform for lending and loan servicing that stands out because of its clever use of APIs. This allows users to manage the entire loan process from one place.
In July 2021, LoanPro received a notable $100 million investment from FTV Capital which shows its importance in the industry. With over 600 clients in North America and Canada and handling $15 billion in loans, LoanPro competes with SoFi in making loan management and servicing more efficient.
What Is the Revenue Model Of a Financial App Like SoFi?
To make lots of profits from financial apps like SoFi, it’s essential to use effective ways to make money. Here are some methods to earn returns and what you might expect to earn from each.
Subscription Plan
If you offer a subscription plan with extra features and benefits like better interest rates on savings, lower loan rates and special financial tools then users are willing to pay more for these advanced services.
These plans can be divided into different levels to fit user needs.
Monthly subscriptions might charge between $5 and $50 based on the plan. With 10,000 subscribers paying an average of $20 per month. So the annual revenue could reach $2.4 million.
Transaction Charges
Charging fees for financial activities like transferring funds, paying bills or making investments can offer enough income.
You can set these fees as a percentage of the transaction amount or as a fixed amount. This gives you an option for how to earn billions of money.
Transaction fees usually vary from 0.5% to 2% per transaction.
If the app handles $100 million in transactions each month and charges an average fee of 1% then the monthly revenue can reach to Charging fees for financial activities like transferring funds, paying bills, or making investments can provide a steady income.
You can set these fees as a percentage of the transaction amount or as a fixed amount, giving you options for how to earn money.
Transaction fees usually vary from 0.5% to 2% per transaction.
If the app handles $100 million in transactions each month and charges an average fee of 1%, the monthly revenue could be about $1 million or the yearly revenue to $12.
Investment Service Fees
Making money from investment management services like robo-advisory, stock trading, and portfolio management could generate profits.
These services attract users who want all their financial solutions in one app.
Management fees usually fall between 0.25% and 1% of the assets managed each year. For instance, if you manage $500 million with an average fee of 0.5% you can earn $2.5 million annually.
Referral Commissions
Working with banks, insurance companies and other service providers to get referral commissions for attracting new users can help create new ways to generate money. These partnerships use the app’s existing users to make extra income.
Referral commissions can differ but they usually fall between $10 and $100 per referral. If you have 10,000 successful referrals each year with an average commission of $550 you can make $500000.
Data Monetization
Selling anonymized user data to other companies for market research and ads can be a great option for making money. However, it’s important to have strong privacy protections in order to win user’s interest.
The amount of money you can generate from data depends on how many users using your app and how valuable the data is. For instance, if you sell data insight for $0.50 per user/month and have 50,000 users you could earn $3 million yearly. Using a combination of these strategies can greatly boost the return on investment (ROI) for apps like SoFi.
Each strategy has its own revenue potential and can be customized to match the app’s business model and user base.
Interest on Loans and Credit Products
Financial apps like SoFi mainly earn money from the interest they impose on loans and credit cards. This can include personal loans, credit cards and student loans. These financial apps attract users by offering competitive loan offers with low interest rates that help them earn a steady stream of interest income.
For instance, interest rates usually vary from 5% to 20% per year which is based on the type of loan and the borrower’s credit score. So if an app has $10 million in loans with an average interest rate of 10% then it could earn about $1 million a year from interest. Let’s explore the tech stack for developing a financial
Tech Stack Required To Develop a Financial App
The technology stack chosen for financial app development affects both functionality and overall expense. Selecting the right technology is crucial when developing a financial app like SoFi. The right tool helps to keep the data secure and ensures a smooth user experience. They also enable advanced features and make the app run efficiently.
| Technology Stack | Option |
| Backend Framework | NodeJS, Django, and .NETCore |
| Frontend Framework | React, Angular and Vue.JS |
| Databases | MongoDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL |
| Cloud Platforms | AWS, Azure, Google Cloud |
| Programming Language | Python, Java and C# |
| Mobile Development Frameworks | React Native, Flutter, Swift UI, Xamarin |
Why Consider eBizneeds For Financial App Development?
Ready to upgrade your financial services with a top-notch banking app? eBizneeds is a top financial app development company committed to bringing your ideas to life. Our skilled developers offer complete solutions designed just for you.
From planning and design to launch, maintenance, and support, we make sure your app excels in the market. Work with us to use the latest technology and provide your users with a smooth, safe, and engaging banking experience.
Wrapping Up
Financial app development requires careful planning, market knowledge, and a big investment of time and money. To succeed in this competitive market, focus on essential features, use good monetization methods, and pick the right development partner. Developing an app similar to SoFi usually costs between $200,000 and $500,000. The exact cost of development is based on its complexity and features. With proper planning, your app can offer a great return on investment and make a strong impact in the fintech world.
FAQs
If you decide to create an app similar to SoFi then choosing the right development partner is crucial. It means looking out for their experience with fintech apps, checking their previous work and client feedback, evaluating their technical skills and making sure they understand what your business needs. A trustworthy partner will offer complete development services, starting from the first consultation and planning to deployment and ongoing support.
Common challenges involve:-
Financial regulations
Setting up strong data security
Connecting with other services
Controlling development cost
Provide a smooth user experience
To overcome from these issues, proper planning, a skilled team and an understanding of the fintech industry are essential.
AI is essential for improving how a SoFi app clone works and the user experience. It can give personalized financial advice, spot and stop fraud, handle customer service with chatbots and provide predictions to help with financial planning. These AI features can make your app stand out in the crowded fintech industry.
Can I create a SoFi clone for both iOS and Android?
Absolutely yes, you can create a SoFi app clone for IOS and Android. Making the app available on multiple platforms helps reach more users and boosts engagement. However, it also raises the development cost and time. Using cross-platform development tools can make the process more efficient and cost-effective.
There are various ways to make money with a SoFi app clone. This includes earning interest from loans and credit products, charging fees for transactions, offering paid subscription plans, collecting fees for investment services, partnering with other financial companies for referral commissions, and using user data for revenue while protecting privacy. These various methods can greatly improve the app’s profitability and long-term success.
Creating an app similar to SoFi can be highly profitable and improve user engagement while staying competitive in the fintech sector. It let you offer many financial services in one place and also attract several users and make money through different methods like loan interest, subscription plans and transaction fees. Moreover, the increasing need for digital financial solutions makes it a great chance for new players in the market.
What are the main features of a SoFi app clone?
A SoFi app clone should have key features like user log in, loan management, budgeting tool, investment choice and customer support. More advanced features might include AI-based financial advice, fraud detection, real-time analytics and personalized financial planning. These features improve the user experience and offer a complete range of financial services in one place.
Usually, financial app development takes between 6 to 12 months. This time includes steps such as planning, designing the user interface and experience, developing the backend and frontend, testing and launching the app. The exact time can differ depending on the project’s size, feature’s complexity and how efficiently the development team works.
Financial app development costs between $2,00,000-$500,000. The final price varies based on various factors like the app’s feature complexity, development team location, the technology used, the developer’s experience and many more. There are other important factors including meeting financial regulations, integrating with third-party services and implementing security measures.
Naveen Khanna is the CEO of eBizneeds, a company renowned for its bespoke web and mobile app development. By delivering high-end modern solutions all over the globe, Naveen takes pleasure in sharing his rich experiences and views on emerging technological trends. He has worked in many domains, from education, entertainment, banking, manufacturing, healthcare, and real estate, sharing rich experience in delivering innovative solutions.
