Cooking is more often a passion for people and they can take it further as a profession or a hobby. People love to cook new and innovative recipes but cooking mouth-watering food is not always an easy task. Here, the recipe apps work as a rescue to help you cook delicious food with a few taps. The massive rise in the use of food recipe mobile apps has been seen in the initial stage of the COVID-19 pandemic phase, where people were locked in their homes and were craving outside cuisines.
During the pandemic, businesses started noticing that people are taking keen interest in improving their culinary skills through using online apps rather than going for traditional ways to learn cooking. Therefore, they found it beneficial to opt for cooking learning app development services to develop an app for their business from a leading firm to gain an extensive customer base in a short period.
Mainly during the time of lockdown, people directed their interest towards cooking and loved sharing pictures of their delicious recipes on social media platforms. Seeking an opportunity from the prevailing interest of people in the food industry, the mobile app development companies started offering on-demand app development solutions to potential clients.
If you are also looking forward to know the cost to develop a food cooking app, then, in this article, we will bring you information about how to develop recipe apps, must-have features, leading recipe apps, food cooking app development cost, etc.
Table of Contents
What Is the Need to Invest in Development of a Food Recipe Mobile App?
As per the market survey, it has been recorded that people after the age of 35 are more involved in recipe apps as well as people with an age bracket of 25 to 34 years use their mobile phones while cooking. Smartphones have become a mandatory tool for people who want to cook by themselves and try new cuisines. During their cooking journey, they are on their phones for most of the time as with its help they get an idea of what to cook, how to cook, and also apply this knowledge in practical life. Businesses are keener to get insights into the recipe cooking app design & development services. Here are some of the key reasons that play a vital role in generating the need to invest in the development of a food recipe mobile app:
- Continuously growing food recipe platforms
- Huge demand from the people across the globe
- Advanced features in the apps to generate higher revenues
- Rising passion for cooking
Why Recipe Apps Are So Popular and In-trend?
Within a short span of time, the recipe app market has seen a massive growth. The market covers an extensive range of audiences, may it be singles, teenagers, families, women, old people, or men, they all love to cook and want a solution to their everyday problem: What to cook? Here are some key reasons why recipe apps are trending so much:
1. Experiment Learning & Enjoyment
Generation Z has a growing tendency of cooking. They prefer to cook and enhance their culinary skills in their spare time. Experimenting the unfamiliar cuisines gives a sense of enjoyment to learning where the person learns a lot of new things and also has a sense of contentment with their successful attempts.
2. On-demand Model Approach
In today’s time, people value their time as money, and so, they look for solutions that can save their time now and then. Thus, the demand for on-demand food cooking app development services has been increased at a rapid rate because it provides instant answers to the questions of cooking enthusiasts. Without wasting time on searching and getting results for the correct recipes, these recipe mobile apps give fast and better outcomes to the users.
3. Increased Communication
The food cooking app development solution provides a common platform to like-minded people where they communicate with people who have similar interests and are likely to discuss new and innovative recipes, food suggestions, and other aspects of cooking.
4. Digitization
Even restaurants, food delivery companies, and electronic businesses are not left untouched by the global digitization wave where these companies are introducing their recipe apps to help the users to cook varied dishes with one product. Therefore, the product brands are also working hard to meet the requirements of the users. For example, earlier microwave or OTG brands used to provide a recipe booklet with their products, and now they have their apps where the customers can get online recipes to cook food using their products.
Working of a Food Recipe Mobile App
The following points will help you understand how does a food recipe mobile app works:
- The user download, install and sign up on the app.
- In the second step, the user selects a recipe of his choice or can also search from the available ones.
- The users check the cooking process, time taken, and the ingredients needed to make the particular cuisine.
- If the above-mentioned aspects like time, ingredients, etc. suit the users, then a cooking job is initiated and also people can share the pictures of the prepared meals with their social networks.
Benefits of a Food Recipe Mobile App
One of the key factors behind the sudden growth of the recipe app market is the developing interest of users in cooking. With a change in the eating habits of people and inclination towards healthy food choices, it has driven the recipe app market. Let’s discuss the benefits of a food recipe mobile app:
1) For Chefs
On a tap, chefs get to know about the latest cuisines and their recipes which makes their work very much easier and fast in comparison with the traditional ways of looking for new recipes.
2) For Nutritionists & Health Coaches
It is highly beneficial for the nutritionists and health coaches as they can recommend specific healthy diets which have high nutritive content to their clients. Instead of consuming time on sharing recipes, they can share links or provide the details of the app from where the clients can fetch the recipe information for their healthy diet plans.
3) For Foodies
The on-demand cooking recipe app development companies have done wonders for the foodies by creating such types of mobile apps. People are fond of delicious delicacies and for that, they kept on searching for amazing cuisines and their recipes. But with these recipe apps, the foodies are not required to check for recipes as technology made these recipes handy and easy to store and also use in the future.
4) For Food Start-Ups
Even the start-ups can gain multiple benefits out of these food recipe apps. Various start-ups businesses needed quick access to recipes of famous dishes. Therefore, these apps play a significant role in providing solutions to these businesses.
Leading Recipe Mobile Apps
The food recipe app market is extensively large with various app solutions that are presently available in the market. To dominate the market, it is essential to offer exclusive and one-of-a-kind services. Some of the leading players in the global food and cooking recipe app market are listed below:
How Recipe Mobile Apps Earn Revenue?
The on-demand app development solutions work as a great source of revenue for businesses.
Following are the ways by which the businesses can monetize the app and develop it as a revenue source:
1. In-App Advertisements
Advertisement is the primary means to earn revenue in mobile app-based businesses. The on-demand food recipe apps advertise the products and services of their affiliated partners such as grocery vendors, kitchenware stores, etc. By this, the customers also remain engaged and the businesses get a fixed amount of revenue for advertising these services and products.
2. Subscription
Various apps are present in the app stores. To make money, you can work upon a subscription model where the users can use the recipe app but only for a limited period. And once the subscription is expired, the users need to pay a subscription fee again to smoothly use the app services.
3. Sponsorship
Once the app is famous and recognized, then various sponsors can be approached for monthly, quarterly, or yearly sponsorships. It could be a great revenue source for the business.
4. Freemium
Once the basic services in the free subscription are over, then the premium version is launched by the app to earn revenue. Here, the users need to download the paid app where there are advanced features.
Features of a Recipe Mobile App
When any cooking recipe app development company works upon the design and features of the application, then the following are the must-have features that establish the core of a successful recipe mobile app.
Basic Features
In the food cooking recipe app development process, the developers put key attention to the basic features as it helps the companies to acquire a large customer base. If the users get several features that met the basic requirements, then there are high chances of the app getting popular. Following are some of the basic features of a food recipe app:
Sign-Up
This is the most common and mandatory feature of any food cooking app, i.e., registration or sign-up. The users can link their social media accounts to sign-up.
Account Creation
After registration, the user has to create an account by filling few details such as name, location, age, email-id, occupation, etc. In case the user has registered via social media platforms, then this info. can be gathered from that channel as well.
Cooking Content
A list of famous recipes should be displayed at the home screen of the app, based upon the rating, most searched, novelty, etc. It helps the users to save time and visit the recipe page.
Filter & Search
There are two features i.e., search and filter which make the app user-friendly. It helps the users to find the required recipe based upon their choice and preference.
Recipe Lists
The mobile app development companies provide this feature where a combined list is present to the users of the available recipes of the categories chosen.
Recipe Description
This feature provides a complete description of the selected recipes. There is a link for every recipe, the user can click on the respective link and read the recipe. It comprises the ingredients required and the cooking instructions.
Nutritional Value
The users can check the nutritional value of the ingredients used in the recipes. This feature helps fitness freak users and nutritionists to manage their diet plans very well.
Social Networking
This feature offers a platform for users to socially integrate with other users. It helps users to share their recipes and photos on other social media platforms. It also works as a promotional channel for the users to market their recipes.
Wishlist
This feature helps the users to save recipes for future reference if they do not have enough time to view the recipe tutorials at present.
Ratings & Reviews
With this feature, ratings and reviews can be given to the recipes. With the help of this feature, the users can filter recipes that are top-rated and also read the reviews before using the recipes.
Notifications
In the app, there is provided a notification feature with the help of which the app users are notified when there is the release of any new recipe, it also works as a promotion strategy.
Setting
In the setting option, users can manage their account and also update settings of various other features like notifications, wish lists, recommended apps, etc.
Advanced Features
Here are some of the advanced features that can make a recipe app more functional and profit-making:
Video Manual
With this feature, the users get access to the videos of the recipes where the users can learn the recipe by watching the video with step-by-step instructions.
Auto-lock screen
In recipe apps, auto-lock is one of the primary features which is highly essential from the user’s perspective. It helps users to avoid all sorts of distractions when they cook.
Voice Assistance
Voice assistance is one of the most vital and technologically advanced features which is required for a food recipe app. Via voice assistance, the users can get quick access to recipes as well as have direct answers to their queries without much effort.
Menu Planning
This advanced feature helps the users to plan a menu with varied recipes included in it.
Community Creation
This feature helps the users to create small communities of people who have similar interests and cooking habits. On this community page, users can ask questions from each other and also assist others whenever needed. Categories can be based on several factors such as geographical location, gender, age group, etc.
Backend CMS
This feature has a pivotal role in all the operations of the food and cooking recipe app. It is essential to update the app content regularly so that both the existing users as well as the new users can remain engaged and use the app for a longer duration.
Required Tech Stack
For the successful development of any application, a set of technology stacks is needed. In a similar way, before understanding how to build a recipe app, you should know which technologies are required for its development. So, here is the answer:
| Functions | Technology |
| Push Notifications | Apple Push Notifications / Firebase SDK |
| Facebook Sign-in Option | Facebook SDK |
| Pre-made database API’s | Pearson, Spoonacular Recipes, Food2Fork, Yummly, Edamam Recipe Search, BigOven |
| Hosting | VULTR & AWS |
| Database | Redis & MySQL |
| Server | Nginx |
| Barcode Scanning | Barcode API |
| Search with Autosuggestion | Qloo API |
| Supermarket & Grocery store List | Google Places API |
| Android | Kotlin & Java |
| Cross Platform | Flutter & react |
| List of Ingredients | Edamam Nutrition Analysis, Spoonacular Food Products, Foodpairing, Spoonacular Ingredient and Nutrition |
| Frameworks | Laravel |
| iOS | Swift, Objective-C |
Required Team Structure
For developing a fully functional and efficient food recipe app there must be a strong team who can effectively handle all the operations and create an app within the given deadline. It is essential to have a dedicated team with defined responsibilities who can work upon the overall app development of a technology-driven food recipe app with all the advanced features. Following is the required team structure for the food recipe app development:
- Project Manager
- UI/UX Designers
- Food cooking App Developers (Both backend & Frontend)
- Quality Analysts
The above-mentioned are the crucial members responsible for the app development. The team can be increased or decreased in size based upon the food cooking app development cost.
Cooking Recipe App Development Process
In this section, you will get to know about how to develop a food cooking app. Here are the significant steps involved in the development process which further helps in determining the cost to create an app:
Step 1: Market Research
Doing in-depth market research is the foremost step to be performed before initiating the app development process. It is vital to get insights about the market, competitors, and the target audience. The food cooking app development company you hire must get a clear idea of all the existing issues and work in the direction to develop an app solution that can resolve those problems.
Step 2: Designing
When it comes to app designing, the developers must create a platform that is user-friendly so that it becomes easy for the users to use the application. The technology used in the food cooking app design should be innovative and advanced but at the same time, the design should be acceptable by the user base.
Step 3: Development
Once the app designing is done, the next step is app development. The company you hire should have a good knowledge and expertise for developing a productive recipe app. By integrating advanced technologies with the app features, the expert mobile app developers can build a profit-making food cooking recipe app.
Step 4: Testing
Even after performing deep market research and designing an app with advanced features, there are still higher chances that the app might have a few bugs and errors which restrict the smooth functioning of the app. Hence, the testing phase is one of the most vital phases of the food cooking recipe app development process where all the issues identified are resolved and an app passes this phase only when it is completely error-free.
Step 5: Deployment
This is the final stage in the food cooking app development process where the app is ready to deploy on the global platform, once the app has successfully crossed the testing phase. After this phase, the app owners work upon their marketing strategies in order to attract the target audience.
How Much Does It Cost to Develop a Food Cooking App?
Here is the most awaited section of the article where you will get to know how much does it cost to develop a food recipe app? Whether it’s a successful business or any start-up, it is necessary to have a correct idea about the food recipe app development cost. Following are the aspects on which the cost of app development is based:
- Basic and Advanced features
- Technology Stack
- The Complexity of the App
- Team Structure
- Different App Platform
- Experience of App Developers
- Geographical Location
Based on the above-mentioned factors, the food recipe app development cost ranges from $25,000 to $35,000 with basic features. Though, the cost is increased when there are more improved technologies and advanced features integrated within the app.
Key Takeaways
The market area of mobile apps is continuously growing with fast-changing time and technology. Businesses are developing a huge interest in how to build a food cooking app and the working of these apps. The recipe app is a great idea for budding start-ups as it offers several revenue sources. In the market, various companies provide on-demand cooking recipe app development solutions where the clients can get an app based on their requirements.
But before the final call, it is good to get enough knowledge of the food cooking recipe market and app development market to get a feature-rich app for your business. Among various app development companies present in the market, We at SemiDot Infotech offers you excellent services of mobile app development to help you lead the market.
