How to Make a Social Media App? – Development Guide 2025

According to Statista, there are over 5 billion people globally who are using social media platforms to interact with their friends and family. At the same time, Fortune Business Insights states that the global social media management market is valued at $32.48 billion in 2025, which is expected to grow with a CAGR of 21.2% to achieve the valuation of $124.63 billion by 2032. The burgeoning craze among not only the youngsters but also the middle-aged makes social media app development a great investment, which is only going to offer significant returns in the future.

Around 67.5% of the entire internet population is already using at least one social media platform on their devices. The presence of such a significant population opens the doors to numerous monetization models that can bring a multiplied return on investment. However, before you choose to build a social media app, it is important to know the basics so that you make the right decision throughout the development lifecycle and your end product aligns with your initial vision.

In this blog, we will talk about everything social media app development, different types of relevant apps, the process to build one, the right technology stack, and the social media app development cost.

Why Should You Invest in Social Media App Development?

Social media app development requires a significant investment, which makes it important to understand the relevant benefits and scope for ROI. Here are some of the reasons that make social media app development a great investment idea-

1. Multiple Monetization Opportunities

Unlike other mobile apps and software, social media platforms never depend on a single monetization model to generate marvellous returns. You can leverage multiple monetization models like brand collaboration, advertisement, subscription fee, affiliate marketing, and much more to generate revenue. At the same time, you can also offer the premium version of the app that can be accessed by users after paying a particular charge.

2. Expand Reach

Having a social media platform expands the reach of your associated businesses. As the time spent by users on such apps is increasing every year, it becomes extremely easy to showcase your products or services to millions of customers with just a click. At the same time, when you own the particular app, competitive advantages become inevitable.

3. Low Cost Marketing

Marketing is the first need for businesses to gain competitive advantages and attract customers. However, digital marketing campaigns and paid ads are often very expensive for businesses with no guarantee of results. Having your own social media app allows you to leverage the low-cost marketing of your product and services. At the same time, you can use your app to send push notifications about new sales and deals.

4. Better Customer Understanding

Social media platforms are the best place to interact with the end customers and gather real feedback. Whether it is analyzing the customer perception about a particular product or exploring the areas for improvement in your own business. At the same time, you can also dive into the latest trends among the customers to navigate your product design accordingly.

5. Faster Customer Support

By investing in social media app development, you need not opt for a dedicated customer support system to offer instant query response. A social media platform allows you to establish seamless two-way communication with customers to collect feedback, reviews, and user experience. Moreover, you can integrate an FAQ section in the platform that also reduces the common queries from customers.

Types of Social Media Apps

Facebook was the first social media app that receive global recognition with core features like chatting, photos, video sharing, and community building. However, when we observed the latest scenario, there are different types of social networking apps which loved by users. For instance, Pinterest allows users to upload or download from a billion pictures, X enables users to share views on a topic, while Instagram helps to connect with favorite personalities and closely watch their lifestyle.

Therefore, depending on your vision and business goals, you can opt for a diverse range of social media app development.

1.Real-time Messaging Social Media App Development

As the name suggests, this type of app is designed to help users instantly send and receive messages to their friends and family using an internet connection. At the same time, messaging social media apps even enable users to send multimedia files like images, videos, audio, and documents without compromising the quality.

2. Live Streaming Social Networking App Development

Live streaming social media apps help users connect to their followers and friends without individually messaging anyone. The live feature allows the user to share videos in real time, where the follower can share their thought using the comment box and interactive elements.

3. Community-Based Social Media App Development

Building a community-based social media app platform can help you attract a large audience in the least time. This type of social media app allows users to create a community based on their interests, profession, lifestyle, or location to connect with other people of the same interests and professions. The features make it easier for people to find like-minded friends.

4. Professional Social Media App Development

LinkedIn is one of the biggest professional social media platforms with over 1 billion users. The app helps users create their profile while highlighting everything about their career and journey. At the same time, companies can connect to their clients or make a job opening where the eligible candidate can apply with their resume. Building such a platform that offers professional growth to the users can be a great idea to build a social media app.

5. Dating Social Media App Development

The apps like Tinder and Hinge are loved by users to find their dates. Such apps offer features like profile swiping, which signals the interest of one user in another. At the same time, dating social media apps offer profile suggestions to users on the basis of their preferences, taste, lifestyle, location, profession, and much more, which brings compatibility in a couple. In the fast-moving world where no one has time to randomly connect with people in their surroundings, dating apps turn out to be a great platform, both for finding love as well as getting a good return after development.

6. Short Video Content App Development

As witnessed from the performance of TikTok and Instagram Reels, short video content apps have gained enormous success among users. So, you can consider building an app where users can upload their short videos, showcasing their skills, sharing their thoughts, and getting paid for their skills.

How to Make a Social Media App? – Development process

If you want to make a social media app, it is highly important to understand the process that helps to curate the envisioned solution. While the exact development phases might vary, a standardized process is followed by all social media app developers globally. Here is a glance into the mobile app development process-

1. Ideation and Brainstorming

The project begins with a collaborative session between the social media developers and the client to discuss the type and idea of the social media app. It helps to prioritize the feature list, time, resources, and final cost. Also, the phase focuses on identifying the target audience to curate the software accordingly.

2. UI/UX Designing

The next step is dedicated to building an intuitive user interface that allows the end-users to navigate through different pages and features. At the same time, a prototype of the social media app is also developed that allows the client to closely assess all the features, workflow, design, interactive elements, and much more. Thus, it becomes easier for the client to provide feedback and seek changes.

3. Frontend and Backend Development

This is the core development stage where the frontend and backend of the software are curated using the right technology stack. It makes all the features of the social media app functional. At the same time, tasks like API integration and third-party integrations are also carried out at this phase, which helps to bring additional core competencies into the solution.

4. Quality Testing

As the name suggests, this step is dedicated to conducting quality tests of the software. The testing team conducts a range of tests, like automated testing, performance testing, unit testing, manual testing, and much more, to ensure that only the best version of the software is deployed for the targeted audience.

5. Deployment

This is the final stage where the end solution is deployed to the decided platform or marketplace. Most of the social media apps are deployed to the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. We ensure to adhere to all the relevant rules and compliance during the deployment of the software.

6. Maintenance & Support

The post-deployment maintenance and support services are offered to the client, which ensures that social media platforms perform well in the live environment, with all the features functioning according to expectations. At the same time, it also helps to track the latest market trends and offer periodic updates to the solution.

Tech Stacks to Build a Social Media App

Technology stack refers to the entire set of technologies that are used to build a social media app. The scalability and efficiency of the software are highly influenced by the technology stack, which makes it highly important to choose the right frameworks and tools during development. Here is the ideal technology stack that you can prefer to make a social media app–

• Frontend- NodeJS, React Native, Flutter, Kotlin
• Backend- Laravel, PHP, ASP.NET, Drupal
• Database- MySQL, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, Firebase, SQLite
• Design- Figma, Adobe XD, Photoshop, Sketch
• Cloud Technologies- Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure
• App Testing- Junit, Appium, Mocha, Selenium
• Payment Gateway- Stripe, Razorpay, PayPal

Social Media App Development Cost

The cost to make a social media app can range from $40,000 to $200,000 and even more. The exact app development cost is influenced by a range of factors, and thus any alteration during the planning and execution of the software can have a big impact on the social media app development cost.

Here are the core factors that help determine the investment required to develop a social media app.

1. App Complexity

The basic social media app with limited features and functionalities can be developed with a few thousand dollars. On the other hand, building an advanced software solution with the latest features, third-party integration, and complex technological infrastructure will require more resources and thus increases the development costs.

2. App Design

It is very important to integrate a seamless user interface and design that well-aligns with the brand image. However, you must remember that high customization in the social media app often leads to increased development costs. Similarly, integrating the unnecessary interactive elements and menus also serves no purpose while increasing the cost.

3. Development Platform

You should choose the development platform according to the availability of the target audience on a particular marketplace. You can choose from building separate native apps for the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. At the same time, cross-platform mobile apps allow you to target both kinds of users simultaneously. However, you must be aware that the cost of building a social media app for these different platforms and operating systems highly differs from each other.

4. Advanced Technology Integration

You can make your custom social media apps stand out by using the industry 4.0 technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, natural language processing, blockchain, metaverse, and much more. However, integrating these technologies into the solutions requires significant investment and skilled professionals, which increases the overall development cost.

5. Development Team Location and Hiring Models

It might sound strange, but the location of the development team is one of the biggest factors that influence the social media app development cost. Hiring a social media app development company from the USA, UK, Australia, and European countries costs more than twice as compared as hiring a team of social media app developers from an Asian country like India.

Similarly, there are a number of hiring models to choose from for hiring the development team. Each engagement model is designed for a particular project type and requirements. So, different hiring models also change the social media software development cost.

How to Monetize Your Social Media App?

There are multiple monetization strategies that you can use for your social media app. Here are the best monetization models that you can rely upon-

1. Advertisement

In-app advertising is a prominent monetization model that allows you to collaborate with third-party businesses and brands to show their ads on your platform and earn significant revenue. With personalized ad campaigns, you can charge a premium fee to the brands. However, it is first important to secure a good user engagement to get the ad revenue.

2. Subscription Model

As the name suggests, the subscription model enables the app owners to charge a periodic fee from the social media users to leverage the platform and its features. The subscription plans can include monthly, quarterly, and annual pricing tiers. You must offer the right features and content to your users so that customers can get the value of their subscription amount.

3. Registration Fee

This is a one-time fee that the user has to pay while signing up for the social media app. You can use this monetization model with or without the subscription model.

4. Freemium Model

Freemium consists of two words, viz. Free and premium. It encourages users to leverage the basic app feature for free. However, if they want to access the advanced features and unlock the premium content, a fee is charged for the same. For instance, a messaging social media app can offer a premium feature that allows users to send messages without being in the follower list of another user.

5. Affiliate Marketing

One can earn a good revenue by promoting the products and services of other companies. By sharing a link to a particular product on the social media platform, you can earn a good commission every time a user purchases that product from your shared link.

How to Promote Your Social Media App?

Social media app development is just one phase of the project, but promoting it among the target audience is another crucial factor. As long as the people are not aware of your software, it won’t be possible to scale the user base and earn revenue. Therefore, here are the key practices that you can rely on to promote your social media app-

1. App Store Optimization

Similar to search engine optimization, you can opt for app store optimization to get more interaction on your social media app. You can use the relevant keywords, design an eye-catching icon, add compelling screenshots, and add a clear description that can elevate your app’s position on the marketplace.

2. Paid Advertising

Paid advertising helps you see results in the least time. All you have to do is utilize platforms like Facebook, Google Ads, Instagram, and App Store to run ads. At the same time, you can also choose the demographics, location, and the particular target audience while running an ad to get better results.

3. Influencer Marketing

It can be a great idea to hire influencers who can help you connect with your targeted audience. While it might require certain investment at the beginning, influencer marketing often brings a good return.

4. User Generated Content

People are often influenced by user-generated content like shared experiences, reviews, ratings, and video content. Therefore, you can encourage your existing users to share their experience with the app.

5. Other Strategies

There are several other strategies that you can use to promote your social media app. It includes email marketing, partnering with other businesses, creating a dedicated website for promotion, referral programs, etc.

Conclusion on Build a Social Media App

According to Statista, the average daily social media usage of internet users globally amounted to 141 minutes every day. There is no doubt that these apps have become the digital hangout places for the youth as well as middle-aged people. Therefore, it can be an amazing investment idea to build a social media app with unique features. Not only will it help you achieve a good return on investment, but you can also strengthen the market positioning of your associated businesses.

FAQ’s

1. What are the steps to build a social media app?

Here are the key steps to build a social media app-

• Ideation and brainstorming
• Designing and prototype
• Frontend and backend development
• Quality testing
• Deployment
• Maintenance and Support

2. How much does it cost to build a social media app?

Social media app development generally costs anywhere between $40,000 $200,000. However, the exact project cost to make a social media app depends largely on multiple factors, like-

• Project complexity
• Designing
• Customization
• Third-party integration
• Location of the development team
• Number and types of features
• Hiring models
• Advanced technology integration

3. How much time does it take for social media app development?

Social media app development time normally ranges between 4-6 months. However, there are multiple components like hiring model, team size, API integration, development platform, and feedback implementation that can affect the overall project timelines.

4. What are the different monetization models that can help generate revenue from a social media app?

Here are the different monetization models that can help generate revenue from a social media app-

• Advertisement
• Freemium Model
• Registration Fee
• Subscription Model
• Freemium Model