Cost to Build a Price Comparison App: A Comprehensive Guide

Many online platforms sell the same items at different prices. Let it be any item, customers are smart enough to compare prices on different applications and order from the app with the best deal. To streamline and digitalize this process, price comparison apps have been introduced.

• Over 25% of Americans use price comparison apps before purchasing anything.  
• According to a report, 75% of online shoppers use price comparison apps before purchasing anything.
• 73% of travelers use price comparison apps before booking hotels or properties.

In this blog, we'll discuss the importance of price comparison apps and the cost of developing price comparison apps.

What are Price Comparison Apps?

Price comparison applications are mobile apps designed to help shoppers compare prices of products and services from many online retailers or platforms. These apps enable customers to compare prices of products without having to visit each store’s website/app. Many shoppers appreciate these price comparison services because the same product is likely to be found at different prices due to a different store, a different sale, or a different location.

There is no need for much effort from the customers to look for current price lists from the different vendors, as they can simply search for the product through its name, shelf code, or even without any specific name by searching through the categories. To aid users in decision-making when purchasing, these types of mobile applications usually have restrictions, reviews, rating systems, and a detailed description of the product.

The development of a price comparison application creates some challenges for app developers including the ability to source real-time information from many different places, coming up with a user-friendly interface, and even ensuring good performance on operating systems such as iOS and Android.

Top Price Comparison Apps

• Google Shopping

Google Shopping is one of the best price comparison sites that is available. It goes a step further to allow a user to look up products in different online stores without only seeing the price comparison, product information, and sometimes price reviews. The application offers advanced pricing information from different retailers and easy integration with Google web search.

• ShopSavvy

ShopSavvy empowers its users to compare in-store and online prices by scanning product barcodes or QR codes. The app's features include current pricing, product availability, and customer ratings, which help users in finding the best deals. Also, it monitors prices and alerts the users whenever there is a decrease in a specific product's price.

• The PriceGrabber

PriceGrabber is also a famous mobile application that allows users to compare the prices of different items including clothing, electronics, household goods, and others. PriceGrabber helps users in comparing prices of various products by displaying the prices of the products on different websites, as well as, in a brick-and-mortar shop.

• CamelCamelCamel

CamelCamelCamel is one of the most famous services that allows browsing the price history of various products stocked by Amazon. The application alerts the users when the price of an item drops to a specific target, while also presenting graphs illustrating the price dynamics over time. It’s a great app for those people who use Amazon regularly and want to be sure that they can get the cheapest prices.

• BuyVia

BuyVia employs components for price checking and hunting for bargains. Beyond sourcing discounts, coupons, and other bargains, members may also input products and check prices in retail competitors. Furthermore, the use of the application involves scanning in barcodes, and users are also provided with alerts in case of price drops or other special promotions.

Benefits of Developing Price Comparison Apps

Price comparison applications are advantageous to both the end-users and the businesses. They are becoming increasingly popular in the eCommerce sphere as they provide economy, convenience, and honesty. There are many reasons why developing a price comparison application is beneficial for businesses.

• Growing User Population

With the increase in online shopping, consumers always want to get the most affordable deals possible. Price comparison apps help meet this demand by offering a service that lets the users look for the prices of various retailers on one web page. Therefore, many businesses compete to attract these users and thus there is a huge user base, Hire web developers for your project ideas.

• Increased Customer Engagement

In most circumstances, customers download price comparison apps to check on prices before making a purchase. Frequent operation of the application increases user engagement and encourages the users to stay in the application for a longer duration. Your application can attract new audiences and increase the retention of existing audiences with the right elements such as being able to create wishlists, set price alerts, and get recommendations on products.

• Monetization Opportunities

The applications are likely to reward generously from the use of affiliate marketing, advertising in the application, offering advanced features, and any other means. The efficiency of these combined monetization strategies can be there because they can contribute to the increase of the app’s income.

• Improved Transparency for Consumers

Utilizing price comparison applications puts the cost to more than one merchant in the hands of the customer. This, in turn, builds the user’s confidence in the app as more people will want to use it for fair and honest comparisons and makes the app trustworthy. Once your audience knows the truth about your app, they will likely recommend it to some of their friends.

• Partnerships with eCommerce Platforms

Localization of price comparison apps becomes possible with the inclusion of major retailing e-commerce portals. This is because price comparison applications serve as a marketing communication channel to prospective clients hence retailers and eCommerce sites are interested in having them. But of course, with the obvious advantage of generating more trust, and more importantly, more revenue in the form of commissions.

• Competitive Advantage

The development of a price comparison application can be beneficial for companies operating within the eCommerce or application development sectors. To find specific ways to beat your rivals in the same app market, you may opt to add features such as price history, ratings, and reviews, or offer limited deals, among other things. A seamless and effective user experience can also lead to higher retention rates.

• Flexibility and Scalability

Price comparison applications are highly scalable. After the development of your application, there is always room for growth as more shops can be added or new features can be developed. For example, you can start by comparing prices on electronic gadgets and later extend your application to cover food, clothes, and other items. Such flexibility allows you to expand the features and capabilities of your application by the growing number of users.

• Business Understanding Information Gathering

Price comparison apps provide information on consumer preferences, behavior, and buying patterns. If you have access to these data, you can personalize the experience, improve your application, and even provide targeted discounts and promotions. Also, your application can provide useful recommendations to retailers and help them in changing their pricing strategies.

• Brand Awareness and Loyalty

One effective means of enhancing brand awareness is through the development of a reliable and user-friendly price comparison application. If the app earns customers’ trust, they will keep using the app for any shopping needs thereby creating loyalty to the brand. This can also help improve the position of your company within the eCommerce or app-building industries.

• Accessibility Over Multiple Platforms

With a well-prepared application that works on all iOS, Android, and web platforms, your customer price comparison tool can be accessed by customers from anywhere. This type of compatibility encourages a better experience for a wider audience and increases the reach of your application. Hire dedicated developers to cross-platform app development.

To sum up, the benefits of building a pricing comparison application outweigh the needs of the users by enabling and creating possibilities for scalability, engagement, and monetization of the business. Therefore, hire app developers, eCommerce companies, and other mobile development firms have a great chance to exploit this growing niche market.

Cost to Develop Price Comparison Apps

Every application can be said to be different from the other in terms of its characteristics, design, development, technologies used, and even the platforms. Thus, we have provided a detailed analysis of the pricing comparison application development cost structure.

• Features of the Mobile Application

The degree of complexity of the features of a mobile application directly affects the cost of the mobile application development. Developing a few basic functionalities such as comparing prices, and searching for products and pictures along with filters can be done at a cheaper price. However, advanced functionalities like, say, setting price alerts, scanning items with barcodes, live pricing along user reviews will tend to be more expensive to develop.

• Platform (iOS, Android, or Both)

The cost will differ based on the medium you choose. It is more cost-effective to create a mobile application for either iOS or Android than for multiple systems. While Android app building may take more time due to the multiple devices available, developers who make applications for iOS tend to be more expensive because of the constraints presented by Apple.

• UI/UX Design

It is important to have a design that is both effective and appealing to the eye. The cost is dependent on the level of sophistication or simplicity of the design. The creation of a simple design would be cheaper as compared to that of a complex stylish design.

• Backend Development

Constructing a solid backend capable of supporting functionalities such as live product and pricing updates, entails more intensive planning efforts. Depending on the scope of work, implementing a robust architecture with secure hosting and linking several store databases may incur higher costs.

• Third-Party Integrations

Integrations with third parties such as affiliate networks or payment systems, promote increased costs of development when completing the websites. These integrations, however, offer more benefits to the users, which increases the time and labor required to integrate such services.

• Development Team

The place and shoeshine experience determined the level of the development team of the budget. In this case, most developers are more expensive than clients seeking the services of a developer in Southeast Asia or India. Though perhaps more costly, a professional mobile app development company can provide assurances of the specialized quality of services.

• Testing and Maintenance

Post development process, it is necessary to carry out tests on the application’s usability and performance. Testing usually accounts for approximately 15% to 20% of the total budget. Adjustments on performance and operating systems superseding the current version will also incur costs after the product is launched into the market. Maintenance costs will be incurred too.

• Estimated Cost Breakdown

1. Basic App: $15,000 – $40,000 (Simple price comparison with limited features)
2. Mid-Level App: $40,000 – $80,000 (Includes price alerts, barcode scanning, and user reviews)
3. Advanced App: $80,000 – $150,000+ (Advanced features like real-time updates, affiliate marketing, and cross-platform support)

Must-Have Features for Price Comparison App

It is essential to include user-friendly and value-adding features for the good development of any pricing comparison application. The following are the salient features of a pricing comparison app:

• Product Search and Product Filters

With a simple type-in of the relevant keywords, a customer can find the product quickly due to the advanced search capabilities. Further, such users would be able to find what they are looking for with more advanced limitations such as the category, the brand, the price range, or even the rating.

• Price Comparison

At the heart of any price comparison tool’s features lies the ability to compare prices from different shops. Ensure that your application allows users to get the best deal within the application by providing accurate and current price updates for multiple products from different stores.

• Using Cameras for Barcodes and QR Codes

In a store, for instance, a customer should be able to compare prices without wasting time looking for a price in a phone catalog, rather than by scanning a barcode or QR code of a product. Such an option helps customers when they are physically shopping and want to know if there are better deals in other places.

• Alerts

This functionality allows users to set price alerts for certain items. They will be alerted when a certain item’s cost drops to their favorable levels. This maintains the interest of the customers and keeps them within the app whenever the prices are favorable to them.

• Product Reviews and Ratings

Allowing product reviews and ratings increases the chances of customers making the right choices. The ability of customers to post reviews and read about others’ experiences adds credibility to your application.

• Saved Items

The wishlist feature allows users to save for later purchases, items of their interest that they are not ready to buy at the moment. This goes well with price alerts since it lets users know when the price of an item in their wishlist has dropped.

• Product Comparison

Aside from price, users may also wish to compare the features, attributes, and even the reviews of several products. Allowing the customers the chance to see products on offer side by side assists them in making tough choices.

• Price Due to Seasonality

Ensure that your application provides information about the current product prices. Enriching your application to make it more reliable and functional will require applying retailer APIs, enabling consumers to see the current pricing and offers.

• Geo Pricing

Some retailers have different prices for certain customers based on their location. In extending such limitations, when geolocation functions are included, clients can see the prices of the closest shops or the prices within their areas.

• Discount Codes and Coupons

Providing users access to certain coupons or discount codes within the application increases their enjoyment. Partner with business owners and provide better offers to increase the frequency of app usage. Integrating these critical parts, you can create price comparison software that is competitive and easy to use for both eCommerce merchants and their customers.

Conclusion

Mobile and web applications allowing a user to view and compare prices of given products on different websites have gained significant importance in the present day wherein consumers seek the best deals across various platforms. These applications, while enhancing the customer experience and adding value to the end users by enabling product comparison, real-time price scanning, and price change alerts, also offer companies opportunities for monetizing services via various revenue models including in-app purchases and affiliate marketing. To make a pricing comparison application animated, one needs to have certain features that give the user the nostalgic feeling of superiority and therefore generate sustained loyalty and continued use.

The cooperation of an accomplished mobile application development company is crucial to the creation of any price comparison application. At Hyperlink InfoSystem, the development of such high-performance applications is our core business. We have a gifted pool of app developers, including iOS app developers and Android app developers, and they are ready to help you design an application that is attractive and useful, and that will bring profits to you. Connect with us now to discuss how we can convert your pricing comparison application idea into a functional existence!