Robinhood: How to Build a Micro Investment App Like This

During 2021, Robinhood was part of the scandal and also became the 11th most popular company on other investment apps. What is the secret and can other app repeat it?

Photo by Aidan Hancock on Unsplash

Surely, you have heard of the GameStop short squeeze situation at the beginning of 2021, in which the Robinhood app played a critical role. Since that, its downloads have increased significantly — but it definitely is not the only reason why this online broker became so popular.

Innovative and extremely popular, Robinhood lets its users avoid trading commissions while they are getting passive income and supporting their favorite companies.

What users like most about this app:

• very simple interface;
• no commissions;
• works fast;
• trades cryptocurrency along with stocks and options.

HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN INVESTMENT APP

User-friendliness and innovative features is the best way to gain people’s interest and trust in such a competitive market. We’ll provide some tips to help you select and follow the best practices for building an investment app.

INTUITIVE USER INTERFACE

Why should a mobile application’s interface be intuitive? UX design makes it clearer, more understandable, and easier-to-navigate for each user. The best investment apps work well for both categories — a curious novice and an experienced investor.

How do you develop an intuitive user interface for an investing app? You can follow these tips:

1. Keep things simple.
2. Focus on saving a user’s time.
3. Think about how best to solve pain points.
4. Create a rational, consistent user journey.
5. Decide on the tappable (action) elements and indicators, alongside the walk-through (coach) elements.
6. Choose the right colors of elements to encourage actions.
7. Adjust in-app graphics to different screens.
8. Carefully design your investment apps’ logo and icons.

FEATURES FOR A USER ACCOUNT

An investor account will be a crucial part of your app. Make sure it enables personalization and has lots of exciting features.

Key examples of user functionality on investment apps

Some apps provide real-time market news for their users. Another useful feature is providing third-party integrations with other apps because people typically download products from different companies to figure out which one is best for them. Many apps offer visualized statistics of user activity.

Are you planning to add some advanced features to your investment app? Here are some ideas to choose from:

• individual progress bars;
• leaderboards;
• cryptocurrency;
• multi-currency;
• comparison of companies’ financial performance;
• expert reviews;
• risk prevention;
• tax wrapping;
• donations and charitable giving;
• user statistics and reports;
• in-app community;
• tutorials and FAQs;
• trading simulator;
• free trial time.

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

Investing app users deal with lots of information that may be new to them. Provide fast support and problem-solving, and people will be much likely to use your app and rank it higher in stores. There are many ways to organize customer support:

1. Comment & Review section where you can answer.
2. E-mail support.
3. Phone support with a callback.
4. Chatbots for typical inquiries.
5. In-app help center.
6. 24/7 live chat.
7. Personal advisor.

It’s best if you choose several different communication channels for your investing app. Do you want to foster the users’ trust? Make sure that you provide fast and quality feedback.

MODULAR STRUCTURE FOR INVESTMENT APPS

How do you implement the essential functions to your MVP and create the basis for later expansions and improvements? The answer is — creating functional blocks, or modules. They are easy to develop and maintain.

Besides, a modular structure means you can create several versions of your investment app to offer free and premium subscription to users.

You’ll find some examples of a trading app’s functional modules in the chart below.

Functional modules for investment apps

DATA SECURITY FOR TRADING APPS

It’s not enough to create an investment app and invite users. Protection of their data is essential, especially when it comes to online transactions.

Moreover, it’s a huge competition factor — the more secure your application is, the more likely investors will use it and recommend it to friends. And finally, advanced data security measures will help you avoid legal disagreements.

The most common encryption standards are 256-bit and 2048-bit SSL certificates. Some investing apps use SIPC to protect money, stocks, and bonds. Other ways to enhance in-app security include two-factor authentication, PIN codes, and biometrics like fingerprint authentication.

What else you can do to strengthen the data security system on your investing app:

• provide your customers with quick tips on how to protect their passwords and other sensitive data;
• offer long, random, unique passwords;
• apply session management with an automatic logout and lockout;
• isolate the components receiving sensitive data;
• hire professional programmers;
• thoroughly test your app’s security.

COST TO MAKE A MOBILE APP FOR INVESTMENTS

Reading this article, you might have already realized that investing apps come in different shapes and sizes, e.g., have variable purpose and functionality. The complexity of your project will directly influence how much it costs to build an investing app.

Another influencing factor is your preparation before you hire the development team. For example, you can conduct research to gather valuable information about your app’s potential audience and their needs. If you do business analysis, select a list of features, and even create an app’s prototype, it will be a significant price-reducing factor.

How much time and money does it take to build an investment app? You’ll find some approximate numbers in the chart.

Cost to make an app like Robinhood

If you wish to build a product from scratch, the price will start from $53,000. In case you already have worked on your idea in detail and only need the development and testing, the price will be around $45,000.

Many startups and long-existing companies find reasonable prices in Eastern Europe, where experienced developers’ hourly rate is from $30.

To sum up, the main pricing factors are:

• business model (your audience, monetization strategy, etc.);
• platform (iOS, Android, both);
• type (simulator, advisor, gamified, etc.);
• functionality (basic, extended);
• design (custom, UX/UI, animated elements, etc.);
• development team (experience, size, location, etc.)

Working with Exceed Team, you get all stages performed for you, from business analysis and UX/UI design to app development, Q/A testing, and launch. Contact us, and let’s turn an initial concept into a full-blown product.