Credit: from MobileAppDaily
Previously, all transactions were regulated by a mighty intermediary – a bank or credit institution – that performed the transfer and charged a fee for such assistance. Today, the p2p transaction market is gaining popularity as more and more people choose to transact without intermediary oversight.
The market quickly rises in size, projected to exceed $600 billion by 2023. So, businesses specializing in p2p payments or planning to launch such products are in a unique position in the growing industry, guaranteeing a steady customer base increase and demand for services.
Here is everything you need to know about developing a custom money management app, ranging from the minimum set of features to the ins and outs of its development and budgeting. Stay tuned, and you’ll get the upper hand in the software design process to join the market with a top-tier product.
What Is P2P?
The acronym P2P stands for peer-to-peer, or person-to-person, transactions. This model of transacting funds presupposes no financial intermediary, like a bank, meaning that one individual sends money to another one in a private transaction.
P2P transfers can be done via a digital app from one user account to another. This system helps remove friction among clients of different banks. A good example is PayPal – a p2p system allowing users to send money to other people’s accounts regardless of the banks they’re using.
Credit: from American 1 Credit Union
Features to Include in the P2P App
Once you plan to set up a P2P app, it’s vital to include some mandatory features without which it won’t deliver upon its promise – instant and frictionless peer-to-peer transactions. Here is the list of features to consider:
- Wallet creation. New users need to be able to create new accounts by going through identity verification and linking their payment data.
- Sending and getting money. The sense of p2p apps is in allowing payments, so every user needs to have all tools for completing incoming and outgoing money transfers.
- Billing and invoicing. Users should be allowed to pay for services and products using the invoices of their providers or bill their clients to get paid.
- Multiple currencies support. P2P apps with international coverage should support multiple currencies and in-app currency conversion.
- Passwords and IDs. The users need to have a secure way of logging in to their accounts, which is guaranteed by safe one-time (or constant) passwords and user IDs.
- Alerts and notifications. Once a user receives money or an invoice, they should be notified with push notifications.
- Transaction history. Every user should have access to the history of their activities in the app.
- Deposit/withdrawal. Apps are digital-only, but they should be connected with traditional financial instruments, enabling hassle-free withdrawals and deposits of money across bank accounts, bank cards, and wallets.
The Development Process Step by Step
Now let’s proceed to the development process. Every P2P app is created according to a fixed algorithm of steps, so missing any of them can result in critical functional flaws in the product.
- Choose the type of app you want to create.
- List the features it should possess.
- Choose the underlying technology for your product.
- Take care of rigorous security measures.
- Check for the regulatory compliance of your app’s architecture and encryption.
- Develop the front-end and back-end parts of your app and integrate them efficiently.
- Test the app for code quality and bugs.
- Launch the app to the market.
- Conduct ongoing maintenance, support, and app updates for the users.
A Few Words about Regulation
As any P2P app is a Fintech product, you need to check the regulatory environment and set of compliance measures before launching the app to the market. Some examples are the FCA oversight in the UK, the EU Directive 2015/2366 and GDPR in the European Union, and the ASIC activity in Australia.
A failure to comply can result in a lawbreaking fine and permanent removal of your app from the app stores. So, compliance is a serious matter to consider at all dev stages.
Cost Estimation
It is hard to estimate the p2p banking app’s cost precisely, as the final budget depends on your product’s complexity, your dev team’s location, and the hiring model you use. On average, such projects take 2,200 development hours, and the ultimate cost is determined by the hourly rate of your software provider. Thus, if you hire a dev team working for $20 per hour, your costs will be around $44,000, and developers charging $50 per hour will do the project for $110,000.
Please also keep in mind that app creation takes more than one specialist, and the rates of different team members may differ. This way, the ultimate budget for your project will surface once you complete the hourly breakdown for every team member, multiplying those hours by their work rates and adding the overhead of the software provider’s administrative and project management services.
