We live in an era where we no longer have to rely on TVs to entertain ourselves. Thanks to video streaming apps like Netflix, we can now access thousands of movies and programs at any time and from anywhere.

Today, Netflix is drawing a vast amount of people to its video-streaming service from all over the world. In fact, a recent report revealed that Netflix is responsible for 8 percent of all time spent on watching videos on the internet worldwide.

The same report also revealed that Netflix made $403 million dollars as net profit in the 3rd quarter of 2018.

These statistics clearly prove that there is a lot of potential in the video streaming market, and since you’re reading this article, I’m assuming that you’ve already made the decision to develop an app like Netflix of your own.

So, without any further ado, let’s get to the point!

How Much Does It Cost to Develop an App Like Netflix

Before we jump in, let’s first get a clear understanding of Netflix’s technical side.

Netflix is a kind of app that requires heavy streaming of data transfer. This means, adding just the main features or the MVP features will cost a significant amount of money. So, for the beginning, it’s best to build only the main features.

While you can always develop Netflix like app for much lower cost through outsourcing, but we’ll discuss that later.

Right now, let’s focus on understanding what determines the total cost of developing an app like Netflix.

Now when it comes to mobile application development, a lot of factors go into deciding the price. For example, first you need to decide whether you want to build an app for just one platform or both of them (Android & iOS).

Apart from mobile apps, you also need to develop a web app since video streaming services are majorly used in web versions.

In this article, I will be sharing the feature-wise approx. design & development hours it would take to build a mobile app for a single platform and for the web version.

With that being said, let’s dive right in!

1 – User Registration

User registration is a feature that cannot be ignored. In your Netflix like app, you must provide registration via social networks and email in addition to the boring registration form to make your app convenient for users.

Estimated Hours

Mobile Development: 10-13 hours
Front-end Development: 10-15 hours
Back-end Development: 8 hours

2 – User Profile

This feature should allow users to update their profile information such as name, profile picture, contact details, payment information, and most importantly, their favorite shows and movies.

Estimated Hours

Mobile Development: 30-40 hours
Front-End Development: 32-35 hours
Back-End Development: 25 hours

3 – Search

Once users finish setting up their profiles, they should be able to directly search movies and TV shows they would like to see through search functionality.

Estimated Hours

Mobile Development: 30 hours
Front-End Development: 30-33 hours
Back-End Development: 20 hours

4 – Video Streaming

While this is an obvious feature so I don’t really need to explain except to point out that while adding the video streaming functionality, make sure to provide an option to choose different video quality rates to support a broad range of gadgets.

5 – Content Recommendation

Content Recommendation, in simple terms, is something that Netflix often suggests their users what they would like to see based on their past preferences and watch history.

Integrating this functionality can be done through an algorithm. For example, Netflix uses CineMatch system to provide the best possible recommendations. But you can use other options in the market that better suit your needs.

6 – Ratings & Reviews

Ratings & Reviews is basically a very basic and common feature that’s being used by millions of apps and software products in the market. It basically allows users to rate a product or service and write a brief review.

Now in the case of Netflix like app, you should embed this feature to let user’s rate TV shows and movies on your platform so that others can make a better-informed decision.

7 – Payment Gateway

Now, there is no need to build a payment gateway from scratch. Apple and Google both offer special frameworks to integrate payment gateways. You can also use either Braintree or Stripe. Both of these payment gateways offer lots of benefits and also provide native libraries for Android and iOS applications.

Estimated Hours

Mobile Development: 60 hours
Front-End Development: 40 hours
Back-End Development: 45 hours

8 – Admin Panel

Admin Panel is basically for you to monitor everything that’s going on in every aspect of your mobile application as well as the web application. So, be sure to integrate all options like managing users, payments, videos, and so on.

Estimated Hours

Front-End Development: 120 hours
Back-End Development: 150 hours

Cost to Develop an App Like Netflix – The Actual Amount

As you saw just above, building an app like Netflix can take a lot of time and resources. However, the final cost of the app will depend on the hourly rate of the development team that you hire.

For example, if you hire local developers, they might cost you anything in between $50-$100 dollars an hour. While having a local development team can give a lot of advantages, but at the same time, the cost will be significantly high.

On the other hand, you can always outsource your project to a mobile app development company overseas who’s pricing generally range anything between $15-$40 dollars per hours. And as far as project status and development monitoring is concerned, you can always get in touch with them via Skype call, email, and be updated about everyday work through platforms like Trello and Asana.

So, the final cost to develop an app like Netflix boils down to one thing: the hourly rate of the development team you choose to hire.

That being said, if you’ve any queries, feel free to ask them in the comment section below.

This article is contributed by Atman Rathod, Co-founder at CMARIX TechnoLabs Pvt. Ltd. – mobile app development company.

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