How to Build a Peloton-Like App: A Workout Streaming App Development Guide
Peloton is a fitness and workout streaming app that further drives high customer satisfaction and raise user confidence in the Peloton brand. If you are interested in fitness app development, look closer at the Peloton app case study. You can use this app experience for your workout streaming app development.
In this article, the team of an IT outsourcing company Join.To.IT. specializing in developing IT solutions for the fitness industry shares our experience developing a workout streaming app like Peloton. You will learn about the essential features, types of fitness apps, development process, costs, monetization, and more.
Basic Features of a Workout Streaming App
The features you may incorporate in your workout streaming app seem endless. However, look at your rivals. You will see a benchmark of features that distinctively satisfies users in the fitness app. Below you will find a list of typical must-have elements to include in your fitness app.
User Profile Registration
Only a minority of users will start using the app to begin their workouts immediately. Keep the registration brief and to the point. Users should be able to sign up in the app in about a minute.
Since it's a fitness tracking app, you'll need to collect personal data like age, sex, weight, height, and any fitness issues. Still, keep the data collection up to five screens.
Determining the Level of Physical Exercise
The primary focus of any fitness application is exercises made up of several activities. Sorting exercises based on their level of difficulty would be an excellent idea. Health data should be displayed in real-time while exercising.
Personalized Training Program
The user's personal information, such as sex, age, weight, percentage of fat, and user’s goals, should be collected to help design a personalized training program with exercise routines for different parts of the body that are most effective for them.
Live Fitness Classes Streaming
Live fitness classes improve the quality and the regularity of the training sessions at home allowing to perform exercises with an instructor in a real time. Online workout classes app like Peloton influences long-term user behavior. For example, users who take online sessions are more likely to visit the app not to miss a live one.
Fitness Indicators Tracking
A fitness app should assist in keeping track of the various exercises the user performs throughout the day. Their daily activities are further counted with calories burned. Users can use tracking to see whether they have met their daily objectives.
Training History
Tracking the history of users’ activities in the app increases users' motivation and helps them track their progress over a long period. Tracking history raises users' engagement and prevents them from abandoning their exercises and using the fitness app.
Payment Gateway
A payment gateway integration is required to enable in-app purchases. With it, you will be able to offer memberships, subscriptions, or individual on-demand courses. Payment gateway should proceed with transactions fast, keep users’ data safe, and be easy to use.
Push Notifications
Push Notifications are an effective remarketing method for engaging with both active and inactive app users. They can notify users about forthcoming live exercises, inform them about new on-demand courses, follow up on chats and other social activity updates, or tempt users to use the app again when it has been a while since they last used it.
Types of Fitness Apps
Different types of fitness app development perform different functions. Among them are fitness and workout apps, diet and nutrition apps, fitness activity tracking apps, and yoga and meditation apps.
Fitness and Workout Apps
Fitness and workout apps are incredibly popular with beginners who may be unsure how to organize their routines and fitness pros who must adhere to a rigorous schedule. To be in demand, online workout classes app like Peloton should be user-friendly and highly motivating. Examples are Peloton, Runkeeper, Strava, and Join.To.IT client’s app that we will discuss later.
Diet and Nutrition Apps
The users' eating habits are a particular focus of these apps. According to the users' needs, they recommend healthy foods and dishes. Apps for nutrition and diet are highly customizable and come in several modes. Users can track the amount of daily water and food intake and calculate the calories. MyPlate Calorie Counter, PlateJoy, and MyFitnessPal are examples.
Fitness Activity Tracking Apps
Apps that track your physical activity let you know how far you ran and how many calories you burned. They give those who are already active in fitness or want to start one more incentive to continue and see long-term results from their fitness endeavors. Some examples are Fitness22, FitNotes, and Google Fit.
Yoga and Meditation Apps
Apps for yoga and meditation encourage regular practice and promote the formation of wholesome habits. Yoga and meditation apps may be ideal if you have trouble remembering to practice yoga or even simply get started with meditation. Simply Yoga, Calm, and Headspace are some of the top yoga and meditation apps.
Why Create Fitness and Training Apps?
Training and fitness apps aim to help users develop good training habits and to stimulate physical exercise. The most recent download trends indicate that the expansion of fitness apps has continued since the outbreak.
Revenues from health and fitness applications in the United States totaled 209 million dollars during the fourth quarter of 2020, compared to 82 million dollars from consumer spending in Europe during the same period. The popularity of new health app categories like mobile menstruation calendars and hydration self-tracking apps has been on the rise, and the meditation app Calm has been able to attract a sizable global user base.
What Essential Features Should an App Like Peloton Have?
Join.To.IT has substantial experience in workout streaming app development. Based on it, we’ve highlighted the features of a fitness app that are vital for the app’s success. Besides the basic fitness app features mentioned above, it is essential to consider the following functionality when developing the app.
- Determining the level of the user’s physical fitness before the formation of their training program.
- Saving and synchronization of the training history on various devices.
- Displaying of accurate training metrics for better control of the training process.
How to Build a Fitness App Like Peloton
Based on the workout streaming app development experience of Join.To.IT, there are the following stages of fitness app development from idea to realization.
- Choosing the type of sport. Is it cycling, rowing, running, etc. for which the application will be developed? What are training conditions (indoor, outdoor)?
- Choosing the platform. What type of device (tablet, mobile) and the platform for which the application will be developed (iOS, Android)?
- Deciding on a programming language. We have used the following stacks: ReactJS, Laravel, HTML, CSS, Javascript, and PHP.
- Determining the method of data transmission from sensors (trackers) to the device. Bluetooth Low Energy and ANT Plus (BLE, ANT+)
- Determining the types of sensors. Cadence, power, heart rate (cadence: speed, distance/power - calories/heart rate - calories)
- Determining the goal of training. In our case, it is to allow the user to train and improve their performance.
- Developing simple and easy-to-use functionality for the end consumer. The user can fulfill the purpose of the application.
- Application development process
a) Description of methods of processing data from trackers and converting them into training indicators
b) Development of UI/UX design
c) Application development
d) Testing of all functions and correctness of data transfer and processing - Publication of the application on the market
How Much Does It Cost to Develop a Fitness App
The cost of fitness app development varies greatly. It depends on app’s features, complexity, and your vendor location. If you hire developers from Eastern Europe, your workout streaming development cost may start from $30,000. Hiring developers from Western Europe or North America will significantly increase development costs for the same project.
To provide you with an accurate price estimate for your fitness app development, we need to discuss your app's concept and features first. Don’t hesitate to contact us to receive a free estimate for your workout streaming app project.
Common Mistakes in Workout Streaming App Development
Having an experience in workout streaming app development, we would like to share some mistakes to avoid in fitness app development.
- Focusing on the customer's needs instead of the end user’s. The main thing in developing a fitness application is for the end user to enjoy using the application.
- Lack of connection between architecture and design. For example, suppose the designer does not understand the entire project and the application's primary purpose at the beginning. In that case, you can get an application design that does not match the main functionality.
How to Monetize Fitness Apps?
Peloton is a brilliant example of how a fitness streaming service can work and how it might generate revenue. Customers may purchase high-end treadmills, exercise cycles, and subscriptions on the app. Below are some ideas for your fitness app monetization.
- Offer subscriptions for premium features and personalized training programs.
- Include user-friendly in-app purchases in your app. You can sell fitness equipment or sports nutrition.
- Limit users to make purchases only through the application's built-in website.
- Charge trainers and gym equipment sellers for their advertisements in the app.
Our Experience in Developing a Peloton-Like Training App
Join.To.IT is a talented team of web and mobile app developers from Kyiv, Ukraine. We combine all our experience with the client's to create the best IT solution for the fitness business. We have a successful track record in developing trainer software, web app development for gyms, mobile apps for diabetics and much more.
Our client manufactures commercial and home bicycles and trains fitness instructors to reach millions of cycling enthusiasts in over 80 countries worldwide through a network of over 35,000 fitness facilities. The company's digital product manager was looking for experienced developers to create a fitness application that would help the company's customers improve the process of training and tracking their progress.
Client’s Workout Streaming App Development Requirements
- Developing a user panel. With the help of this, the user could register or enter their personal training room. The user must have the following basic features in the training room: access to training programs with an instructor, testing the user's physical condition, and a user profile.
- Data tracking from sensors that are built into the simulator and sensors that the user wears during training. Transmitting information about heart rate, movements, etc. to the software. The software processes this information and displays it on the screen as physical indicators.
- Implementing the video display with the instructor on the device screen.
- Developing a cross-platform app. The app has to work both on the tablet of the simulator itself and the user's mobile phone.
- Developing an admin panel for software management.
- Using the following tech stack for project implementation. ReactJS, Laravel, HTML, CSS, Javascript, and PHP.
Project Outcomes
With the help of this app, the customer successfully realized their commercial goals. They sell subscriptions to the app for owners of exercise bikes and gyms. Also, they improved the user experience of the company's customers by creating comfortable conditions for training anywhere, anytime. The operation of the application on different devices allowed the users to have constant access to their indicators and training history.
Develop a Cutting-Edge Fitness App with Join.To.IT
The number of downloads shows the popularity of fitness and workout streaming apps. Online workout classes app like Peloton generates millions of dollars in revenue. Take advantage of the workout streaming app development to help thousands of people build healthy habits and monetize your app for your own good.
Join.To.IT has a proven experience in fitness app development. Our workout streaming app allowed our client to sell subscriptions and improve the user experience creating comfortable conditions for online fitness training.
Contact us to discuss the details of your fitness app development.
