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Blog Summary:
Reading this blog post helps you discover detailed insights into the cost of building an app like Azar. We outline specific factors that directly affect the development and maintenance costs of such apps. Explore further details and understand why creating a similar app can be lucrative for your business.
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The unprecedented rise of video chat and social discovery apps has revolutionized the way people connect. Azar is among these, with 9.5 million monthly active users (according to PR Newswire) and over 100 million downloads (according to Google Play Store). The app enables seamless video interaction, allowing users to connect in real-time.
According to Business of Apps, the total app revenue of the Azar app through its premium subscription was approximately $88 million in 2024. Entering the video chat and social discovery app development market also helps unlock substantial revenue opportunities.
This can be achieved through various methods, including subscriptions, in-app purchases, and advertising. Additionally, it fosters your brand visibility and engagement.
So, what is the cost to build an app like Azar? It’s one of the questions that may come to your mind. The cost depends on the type of app you wish to develop, as well as factors such as robust infrastructure, advanced technologies, user-centric design, and other relevant considerations.
Go through a complete breakdown of the development cost of an app like Azar. It helps you optimize your budget accordingly and plan strategically.
The final cost to develop an app like Azar is something influenced by numerous features that are as follows:
Let’s break down the complete cost.
| Component | Estimated Cost Range |
|---|---|
| UI/UX Design | $10,000 to $15,000 |
| Frontend and Backend Development | $40,000 to $60,000 |
| Real-time Video Streaming | $15,000 to $30,000 |
| AI/ML and AR/VR Features | $20,000 to $40,000 |
| Testing and QA | $10,000 to $20,000 |
| Deployment and Launch | $5,000 to $7000 |
Maintaining an app like Azar is essentially an ongoing process necessary for security, smooth performance, and user satisfaction. The maintenance cost again depends on several factors, which are as follows:
Apps often need frequent updates to boost performance, fix bugs, introduce new features, and more. These updates are necessary to keep the app fully compatible with advanced devices and OS versions.
Regular bug fixing is essential for enhancing the user experience, preventing crashes, minimizing negative reviews, and more. It relies heavily on complexity and frequency of updates. For bug fixes and regular updates, allocate around 10 to 20% of your annual maintenance budget.
You need to understand that video chat has an extensive dependency on streaming servers and cloud infrastructure to handle real-time communication. Hosting depends on several factors, including bandwidth, server capacity, user volume, and others.
Video streaming and cloud hosting often become recurring expenses for apps with improved engagement. The cost starts at $1,000 and ranges up to $10,000 per month for mid- to large-scale software.
Protecting user data is of great importance, especially for apps that manage personal information. Whether it’s encryption upgrades, regular security patches, or compliance updates, they are essential to prevent data breaches and avoid legal issues.
These updates often need cybersecurity measures and skilled developers, which cost approximately $10,000 to $15,000. It depends on size as well.
With the skyrocketing user base, your app should provide a highly efficient scaling infrastructure and customer support. It includes various things such as chat moderation, support teams, scaling servers, and more, when it comes to maintaining app performance.
For scaling and support, your expenses vary. The monthly cost is approximately $5,000 to $10,000, depending on the number of active users.
As we have already discussed, several factors directly impact the overall budget for building an Azar-like app. We will discuss some of the most popular factors in detail:
Whether it features or the app complexity, they have a direct impact on the cost to build an app like Azar. When you create a simple video chat app along with video challenge and text, it costs less compared to an app with cutting-edge features like real-time filters, AR/VR effects, AI matchmaking, in-app social networking, and more.
Apart from this, many other functionalities, such as chat moderation, push notifications, geolocation, and friend suggestions, also increase development cost and time. In other words, the more interactive and complex an app you build, the more it will cost.
When developing an app like Azar, you need to select a variety of technologies for different purposes. You also need to consider that technology selection has a direct impact on the overall cost of app development.
The following are some of the essential technologies that developers opt for most frequently:
| Technology Stack | Purposes |
|---|---|
| WebRTC | Real-time video and audio communication |
| AI/ML | These algorithms allow features such as chat moderation, user recommendation, and facial recognition filters |
| AR/VR Integration | It adds immersive experiences but needs specialized frameworks and experienced developers. |
When you build a separate native app by targeting platforms like iOS and Android, it offers platform-specific optimization and improved performance. However, it also requires a higher cost at the same time. On the other hand, your decision to go with cross-platform development minimizes the overall app development cost.
The reason is that frameworks like Flutter, React Native, and others facilitate you to use a single codebase across various platforms. It not only minimizes the development hours but also the overall development cost.
Location is another factor that significantly impacts the overall development cost of your app. For example, developers located in Western Europe or the Americas often charge the highest hourly rates, which range from $50 to $200/hour.
On the other hand, developers from Eastern Europe, India, Southeast Asia, and others charge less, ranging from $20 to $50 per hour. Its team composition mainly includes backend developers, frontend developers, UI/UX designers, AI/ML specialists, QA engineers, and more.
It’s essential to craft a visually enriched app while ensuring it’s user-friendly, as this leads to higher engagement. However, creating such an app also increases your app development costs. It requires custom transitions, animations, AR/VR elements, interactive interfaces, and more. These maximize design hours and, therefore, increase costs.
Investing in quality-based design is essential for a seamless user experience. It boosts both retention rates and long-term profitability.
We often overlook post-launch costs, but they are highly important when it comes to making apps functional and competitive. Maintenance of the app encompasses various activities, including OS updates, bug fixes, cloud hosting, server scaling, adding new features, security patches, and more.
Post-launch requires approximately 10-20% of your overall budget. Meanwhile, it depends on factors such as user base growth and the complexity of the app.
We help you build an Azar-like app with robust video chat and social discovery to drive engagement, revenue, and user growth.
You need to consider cost variations and complete market benchmarks when strategizing to develop an app like Azar. It’s also important for realistic budgeting.
Many popular social discovery and video chat apps serve as a great reference for both feature expectations and development costs:
Badoo or Tango are two of the most sought-after apps that combine video chat with social networking. They have substantial budgets to allocate to server infrastructure, development, user acquisition campaigns, AI moderation, and many other expenses.
Going through this allows businesses, especially small businesses, to get a perfect estimation of realistic costs while prioritizing features for an improved ROI. They can plan well for developing an app like Azar by adopting a strategy that balances functionality, quality, and budget.
We have already discussed above that the development cost of an Azar-like basic app can exceed $50,000. A basic app typically includes only the necessary and limited features, such as text messaging and standard video chat.
Moreover, when you create an advanced version app, its cost starts at $50,000 and can go up to $150,000 or even more in some cases. The reason is quite obvious – the app includes many advanced features. Apart from this, testing, deployment in a real environment, and promotion often require additional investment as well.
As mentioned above, a developer’s location has a direct impact on the expenses associated with app development. Let’s explore this through the table below:
| Location | Hourly Rate |
|---|---|
| North America/Western Europe | $50 to $200/hour |
| Eastern Europe/Southeast Asia | $20 to $50/hour |
| Offshore/Nearshore partnerships | Lower than Onshore |
Yes, developing a similar app to Azar can be profitable, provided you plan it strategically. With the surging demand for video communication and social discovery, businesses can grab a plethora of opportunities and also vast growth potential.
Let’s discuss several profitability aspects in-depth:
When it comes to monetization, it’s highly important for profitability. An app like Azar brings numerous revenue streams, which are as follows:
The global video chat and social discovery market has experienced significant growth in recent years, driven by the increasing adoption of smartphones, the rise of remote communication trends, social media integration, and other factors.
According to Cognitive Market Research, the global social discovery software market was valued at $2,514.2 million in 2024 and is projected to reach $7,636.4 million by 2031. It is expected to surge with a CAGR of 17.20% during the forecast period.
This expansion paves the way for huge opportunities for several new entrants, providing an outstanding user experience and next-generation features.
User engagement is a crucial factor in achieving profitability. Be it gamification, AR/VR effects, personalized recommendations, or AI-based matchmaking, these features maximize both session duration and retention.
Whether it’s push notifications, regular updates, community-building initiatives, or loyalty programs, they are pivotal to keep users active. They also have the capability of minimizing churn while maximizing lifetime value.
It cannot be denied that the development and maintenance of an app similar to Azar require a huge investment. But they also yield long-term profitability.
The most important thing you can do is to select the top features without overspending on perfect monetization strategies. And optimize continuously for an outstanding user experience.
To achieve a strong market presence and a competitive edge, you need to target scaling infrastructure, high-growth regions, and utilize multiple revenue streams. It thus brings significant revenue generation opportunities.
We bring your video chat app idea to life with feature-rich solutions that enhance user engagement, drive growth, and increase ROI.
As a leading Android app development company, Moon Technolabs offers world-class video chat app development services and possesses the necessary skills to develop apps like Azar. We understand that building a similar app is more than just coding.
Our team strategizes well and proceeds accordingly:
So, you have now already understood the development cost of an app like Azar? You have already explored how certain factors impact the overall development cost, which varies globally.
You can set your budget accordingly to proceed with app development. Partnering with us helps you obtain a precise estimate for developing your apps, while also providing secure, scalable, and affordable solutions tailored to meet your specific business needs.
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Jayanti Katariya is the CEO of Moon Technolabs, a fast-growing IT solutions provider, with 18+ years of experience in the industry. Passionate about developing creative apps from a young age, he pursued an engineering degree to further this interest. Under his leadership, Moon Technolabs has helped numerous brands establish their online presence and he has also launched an invoicing software that assists businesses to streamline their financial operations.
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