How Much Does it Cost to Build an App like TikTok?

TikTok’s popularity has surged over the last few years. The short-form video app now boasts an impressive user base of more than 1.6 billion globally. Approximately 1.1 billion monthly active users log in to and interact with TikTok. That’s a huge MAU! To give you an idea of scale, there are 4.8 billion internet users on the planet right now so TikTok is about 20.83% of all internet users.

If you are thinking about how to make a social media app, you must consider an app like TikTok because it has proven its roaring success in the market. Key factors include having an intuitive interface, gamifying content creation, making sharing and discovery easy, enabling profiles and followers, and creating a sense of community.

For entrepreneurs and developers, TikTok’s tremendous success begs the question – how much does TikTok app development cost? How much would it cost me to build an app like that? While TikTok’s exact costs and economics are private, we can break down the major components and do some napkin math to develop a realistic estimate.

Mapping out TikTok’s core features

Before estimating the cost to create an app like TikTok, it’s important to outline the key functionality and components that make TikTok tick:

• Short video recording & editing – TikTok’s core business. Users can capture, modify, and upload 15 to 60-second video clips on any subject along with music, visual effects, filters, and more.
• Powerful recommendation engine – TikTok’s algorithm examines your interests based on the kind of videos you interact with, generating a continuous stream of similar content. This feature is primarily responsible for user retention.
• Hashtags & challenges – Popular hashtags and viral challenges encourage discovery and interaction. Anyone can join trending challenges.
• Profile & follows – Users can access profiles, followers lists, and notifications to share and keep tabs on videos from people they follow.
• Duets & reactions – Users can perform “duets,” react, comment, like, share, and more to connect with others’ videos. Building user engagement is vital.
• Live streaming – Live streaming empowers creators to interact with fans in real time via virtual gifts and comments.
• Creator monetization – Top creators can earn income through ads, virtual gifts, money tips, and brand endorsements.

The experiences anticipated by users are crucial. As the application expands, it becomes possible to construct more features such as electronic commerce, bullying prevention protocols, age confirmation, etc. The mobile app industry trends are experiencing rapid growth, with over 27 billion app downloads in 2023. Moreover, augmented reality and artificial intelligence trends are increasingly seen in applications. Constructing an app similar to TikTok necessitates keeping up with the newest mobile application industry trends to allure users.

How much does it cost to build a TikTok app?

The TikTok app development cost is determined by multiple factors as well. These costs are imputed in line with each stage of the development cycle. You should also consider various mobile app development tech stacks that developers use to create TikTok-like mobile apps. Social media apps such as TikTok have gained popularity over the years and to build them tech stack such as React Native, Flutter, Swift, Kotlin, Xamarin, and PhoneGap, a cross-platform tool is essential.

To be more precise, the price for creating an app similar to TikTok depends on which kind of app you want to develop, in which area you’ve selected developers, how complex your project is, and much more.

Developing such an app as the TikTok app would cost a range starting from $20,000-$250,000. But let’s discuss TikTok development costs based on the app feature complexity, and based on the figure for hiring developers.

• Simple – A simple TikTok app with core video upload/watch capabilities, basic editing, and camera features can be built for around $20,000 to $25,000.
• Medium – For a TikTok app with medium complexity including more advanced features like user profiles, comments, filters, effects, and algorithmic feeds, expect costs from $30,000 to $40,000.
• Complex – A complex, full-featured TikTok app with live streaming, sophisticated editing tools, content moderation, scalable infrastructure, and unique matching algorithms will cost upwards of $50,000 to $60,000+.

For better clarification, we have bifurcated the budget based on app development complexity.

• Simple TikTok app : $20,000 – $30,000
• Medium complexity with more features: $30,000 – $45,000
• Highly complex with advanced functionality: $50,000 – $60,000+

Cost based on clone vs fresh from scratch

Building a TikTok clone using their open-source code allows faster development but less customization. Creating fresh from scratch takes more time and effort but allows deeper integration and flexibility. Clones bypass the initial design and can reuse TikTok’s interfaces and UX.

Original apps need more planning and wireframing. However, clones can hit technical limitations if they need complex new features. Overall, the timeline and budget can be lower for clones, but original apps have more innovation potential.

• Compare the cost of constructing a new social media application and the TikTok Clone App Development Cost.
• The price of developing a Tiktok clone app starts from $10,000.
• The cost to build fresh Tiktok apps from scratch is starts from $20,000.

The place of outsourcing TikTok-like app development

If you want an extremely feature-rich complex app for social media, expect to pay more. The app development budget depends entirely on the regionally based geography. This variable is crucial because rates depend wildly on which provider you partner with closely. So that you can see why costs vary by country/city, we need to break down the budget of some of the regions with the highest development of mobile apps and software worldwide.

• If your development team is located in the USA and Canada, developing an app similar to TikTok would cost quite high between $80 – $200/hour.
• The price will be between $70 to $150 an hour in Eastern Europe.
• Cost in India ranges between $20/hour to $60/hr.

How long does it take for TikTok app development?

It would take a small, focused team of approximately 2–3 months to create an MVP of Tiktok clone with basic video shooting/sharing functionality. A medium complexity (more social components — likes, comments, profiles, some algorithms) would take an estimated 3-5 months to develop. The time required for such a high-complexity app with editing features, live streaming, elastic infrastructure, and bespoke algorithms is typically 6 to 12 months.

Why Prismetric for TikTok or TikTok clone app development?

Prismetric has extensive experience building successful video-sharing apps like TikTok clones, dating apps, social apps, etc. Our expertise in using streaming, camera functions, and content moderation can accelerate your TikTok-like app development. We follow standard steps to build an app like TikTok include creating an idea, creating wireframes, finding a technical partner, building a minimum viable product, testing, refining, and launching; hence, our process helps ensure apps are built efficiently.

Prismetric follows proven processes like agile development to ship faster with greater alignment. Our blended teams of designers and developers bring in superior quality with cost savings.

Prismetric stays on top of the latest trends and can innovate features like AR filters that help apps stand out. Our end-to-end support covers UX design, dev, QA, and launch and even provides marketing services to grow the user base. If you want to turn your TikTok clone idea into reality, Prismetric makes an ideal technology partner.

Pragnesh Modh

With a deep interest in new technologies, analyzing mobile application trends and impressive technical concoctions keep him inquisitive. In addition to managing the Operations and Delivery of projects at Prismetric, he likes to read and write a lot about the latest in technology. New app technologies, gadget fascinations, and big technology announcements kindle the writer in him spontaneously. His articles are his passion for innovative technologies.