Doctor Appointment App Development Cost: What to Expect

The evolution of the digital market has brought significant alterations in the face of the healthcare industry. It is not until the public got its first doctor appointment app, it knew that it was something the entire populace has been looking forward to. The lifestyles of people these days do not allow them a day off to get a regular health checkup.

Now, if you have trending mobile app ideas in your brain, the healthcare app business is not one to ignore. As of the third quarter of 2022, there were 54,546 healthcare apps available on Google Play. An estimate of the revenue of the online healthcare market by 2025 has shown a huge increase to 189 billion US Dollars. If you are someone who’s planning to begin with something in this field, this is your sign to move ahead with that thought.

Here, let’s talk about a popular one from the types of healthcare apps present in the market-the doctor appointment apps. We shall discuss in detail the cost of doctor appointment app development.

How much does a doctor appointment app development cost?

If you are getting into something, you better acquire some of the fundamental knowledge about that field. Besides finding the right healthcare app development company, if there is anything that is important to know, it is how much expenditure would the idea incur. Here is a quick summary of the doctor appointment application development cost.

The healthcare app development costs can vary depending on numerous factors, but here is a rough idea of how much your pocket is going to feel light after a doctor appointment mobile app development.

• Basic or simple: a very basic doctor appointment booking app development cost can be around $15,000 to $30,000. This one has all the fundamental features required for basic functioning and has a basic design.
• Medium: this one goes a step ahead of the basic app. You can add a few features and get some modifications and advancements to the basic version. This doctor booking app cost would be nearly $30,000-$60,000.
• Larger or complex: the next category is the most complex form of the doctor booking app. You can get all the features you want your users to have, add complex customizations, get superior designs, and a lot more art for around $60,000 and higher.

Factors affecting the cost to build a doctor appointment booking app

App development is an extensive process that takes nearly 300-500 hours. Such hard work and time investment from a developer’s end is worth some respectful and reasonable money. Yet, this is not the only thing that matters when you are opting for an online business wherein you need an app. Here are the factors that will affect the money that you’ll have to pay for doctor appointment booking app development:

Features included in the app: it is needless to say that the kind of features you choose for your app will ultimately affect the cost you have to pay for the app. The more complex apps you put in, the higher the cost will go. Before you get the quote for the on-demand doctor appointment app development cost, here are a few features that you might want to consider:

• User registration
• Search for doctors
• Doctor’s profiles
• Appointment scheduling
• Online consultations
• Push notifications

Payment getawaysThese are some of the features that can be integrated into the app. You can go for advanced features like electronic health records, API integration, etc.

Platform of development: developers look for various platforms to get the development started based on the requirement of the app. If the owner wishes to get the development done for Android users, the platform shall be chosen accordingly. For iOS, there must be a different platform.

Often, businesses opt for cross-platform development to facilitate functioning on different platforms all at once. Here is a rough view of what the costs of development will look like on using different platforms and programming languages:

• Android-$20,000-$40,000 (Kotlin, Java)
• iOS-$30,000-$45,000 (Swift, Objective-C)
• Cross-platform- $25,000-$50,000 (React Native, Flutter)

Overall, whichever platform you choose to initiate the development of your app, it will influence the overall cost, timeline, and the user experiences and performance of the app in the end.

UI/UX: For an app that helps schedule an appointment with your doctor, though it certainly doesn’t require a lot of designing and decor, it does have the UI/UX component impacting its end development costs. Take, for example, Zocdoc, one of the leading healthcare appointment apps.It has a minimal and relevant User interface. The Zocdoc clone app development cost will have the UI/UX component influence in it because you do not want to miss out on the good outlook that Zocdoc already has.

The number of screens, the complexity of designs, the number of developers working in the team, time taken to add the designing elements, all help estimate the cost of building an app for doctor appointment booking. With a relevant medical-aid outlook, the look and feel of the doctor appointment booking app can be modified by using some animations. Here’s how the design costs can vary:

• Simple- $3000-$5000
• Medium- $7,000-$10,000
• Complex- $10,000-$15,000

How does geographic location affect the doctor appointment app development cost?

The location of developers is the place where you hire a developer for your app development. It definitely has a say in the doctor appointment app development cost. Since the medical expenses and the fees of doctors differ from place to place, this will certainly have an impact on the cost. Also, whether you hire a freelance developer or a company will also have major cost differences.

• If a doctor appointment app development team is based in the US or Canada, the cost of making this tool may range between $125-$220/hour.
• In Eastern Europe, the developers to build such appointment booking apps shall charge you between $70 and $150 per hour.
• Being an outsourcing hub, India shall cost you affordable rates to build an appointment app development fluctuating between $20 and $60 per hour.

How long does it take to build a doctor appointment app?

The doctor appointment booking app is quite a lengthy project to take up because of the nature of the services provided. Putting in all the features, doctor’s details, getting doctors on board, and making advanced healthcare features available for the users, all of this would take slightly more time than any typical app development.

Taking all these into consideration, the time to build a doctor appointment app should be around 355 hours to 655 hours. This can vary depending on the developers, the tech stack, the features, and a lot more.

Key features to be included in a doctor appointment booking app

The features of a doctor appointment app are going to be very different from any other regular eCommerce or sales app. This one requires special medical features to help the users get the most out of the app for their medical use.

There are many healthcare app ideas but you should look at the features that must be included in the app along with the advanced ones to enhance the user experience:

• Login/registration: apart from the basic user registration and login, you can add features that allow the user to add a government-approved medical card or ID. This will help the users access the beneficiaries and schemes relieved by the government in terms of healthcare. Also, the app can save this data to maintain a solid medical history and expenses.
• User profile: help the customers build an extensively detailed user profile to get the most information for a better experience on the app. The user profile shall have the preliminaries of medical examination like weight, height, basic measurable vitals, etc.
• Doctor search: allow the users to search for the doctors, clinics, and hospitals based on different departments and locations as required. The available time of the doctors can be made visible so that the users can pick up a suitable slot.
• Geo-location: add a feature that allows the users to search for doctors and facilities near their current location. Make use of Google or Apple maps and integrate those into your app to make accurate presumptions about the location.
• Appointment booking: this is the protagonist of your app. The user must be able to seamlessly book an appointment at the clinic or the hospital of their choice at the exact department they wish to go to.
• Medical history: everything about the past appointments, the conditions or medical issues, if any, prescriptions, and current medications to be reflected in one place so that it makes it easier for the doctor in the next appointment.
• Doctor review and prescription: this section should include whatever the doctor has to say about the patient’s condition and the prescription that the doctor is giving. This one should be saved after each appointment so that the user can access it whenever required for future use as well.

Tech stack for doctor appointment app development

The technology stack for the doctor appointment app should be robust and free of bugs as it is a matter of health and privacy in an application that books an appointment with the doctor of your choice. The user’s health shall not be compromised at any stage because of any faulty selection of technology stack. Take a look at what all technologies you would require to build the app:

• React JS and Angular for Front-end developments.
• Python, Node.JS, and PHP, for all the back-end development. For databases, you can use Postgres and MySQL.
• Mobile development- Java or Kotlin for Android and Swift for iOS.
• Payment- Paypal, Braintree, etc
• Maps- Google Maps, MapKit, Corelocation.
• Push notifications- Push.io, Twilio
• For In-app calling- Twilio

Serve humankind, go for a noble cause

As it is clear from the above discussion that the requirement for a doctor appointment app is increasing day by day because of the lack of structured healthcare systems contrasting with high demands and the changes in lifestyle that allow little time for such things. Building a software tool for the same is not just business, but also a noble cause.

All in all, the need for developing a healthcare appointment booking app is apparent these days; however, you should also mind some compliances and regulations while building a medical application; for instance, you may opt for a HIPAA-compliant app to stay safe and secure in the healthcare business. If you wish to get going in this direction, you should step in now!

Adarsh Nair

The world is now very much compact, we call it Global Village as a result of digitization and this impresses him! He likes to explore the nooks and corners of the incessantly modernizing world and marvel technologies. He leads the Digital Marketing Team at Prismetric. His passion for digital trends taught him the knack of reaching the huge digital mass to find business opportunities instantly. He writes articles about digital, technical and marketing tactics for business enhancements.