How to Create a Money Transfer App: A Step-By-Step Guide
Some of us still remember standing in long banking queues to send money to an addressee. However, Generation Z representatives sometimes need to learn what the bank looks like inside.
The statistics show that today around 70% of smartphone users transfer means to another individual via mobile money transfer apps. With a few simple taps money can be transferred from person to person, or company to company quickly and seamlessly yet securely.
No wonder the development of apps like Revolut, launched in 2015, has gained momentum in the last few years. This platform is now valued at $40 billion. It demonstrates the general upward trend of just one player in this market.
By 2032, the Global Market of Mobile Payments is anticipated to exceed $2983.9 Billion, growing at a CAGR of 12.22%. It is expected to benefit from increased use of NFC, host card emulation, and RFID technologies. The growing number of customers who prefer cashless purchases and the popularity of subscriptions for software, entertainment, and other goods and services are also boosting the demand for hassle-free mobile recurring payment options.
With all the above mentioned, there can be no doubt that money transfer application development is a beneficial and promising undertaking. We are going to look closer at it today.
What is a Money Transfer App?
A money transfer app is software that helps people make financial transactions using their portable electronic devices. The applications allow purchasing goods or services, checking out on mobile e-commerce sites, and even sending money to friends and family.
Smartphones, being always around, are becoming the most convenient way of payment today. They substitute not only cash but also credit cards. So, to provide a seamless online or in-store customer experience, lots of businesses incorporate mobile payments in addition to standard credit card processing methods.
That’s why developing a money transfer application can help businesses and individuals introduce solutions for easy, fast, and secure domestic and cross-border money transfers. Let’s look at different types of applications to get a better picture of what is in demand today.
Types of Money Transfer Apps
There are 3 main types of money-transferring solutions worth mentioning.
Mobile OS systems
You may be surprised, but Apple Pay and Android Pay allow P2P payments. NFC technology is growing in popularity, and so is app software. Yet, the systems have drawbacks. A user can only make money transfers within the same system, and the area of usage is restricted. G-pay stopped this service in the US in June 2024, for instance.
These are examples of mobile OS systems.
Independent services
Independent services allow card payments through electronic wallets for P2P transfers. PayPal is a well-known service that tops the list. You could also have heard of Venmo, Stripe, and some others. The weak side of these services is that they, as a minimum, support MasterCard and Visa types.
Banking services online
Traditional banking is becoming outdated, so banks are keeping abreast of trends to gain a foothold in the digital sphere. P2P payments are a perfect example of this. Zelle, Chase QuickPay, and Popmoney can be mentioned as bank-centric applications.
Key Features of a Money Transfer Application
To make your money transfer app development successful, you should define the core features and not hurry with the optional ones. So, we are proceeding to the list.
Security and Compliance
In a sensitive financial matter, security and compliance should go without saying. So, make it your focus from the very beginning and provide your app users with:
Multi-factor authentication, where biometric verification can be one of the steps. Facial recognition or fingerprint is a widely used practice.
- Data encryption and asymmetric encryption for transfers in cryptocurrency, in particular,
- AI-powered fraud detection,
- E-signature for transactions,
- Alerts on the SAR suspicious activity detected,
- Automated SARs,
- Compliance with all the relevant industry-specific, country-based, and international regulations. They are ISO 20022, GDPR, KYC, AML, PCI DSS, PSD2, and more.
Bill payments
This is about the convenience of paying bills from any place and at any time online. You allow your customers to pay their bills without hassle and get a loyal audience. It’s a valuable competitive advantage nowadays.
Payment statistics
Users value the possibility of seeing the transactions and their history. A sound idea is to provide the opportunity to visualize these statistics and filter them by such criteria as status, receiver, volume, and possibly country. So, while building a money transfer app think of the necessary set of features for the purpose.
Keep in mind to make your user experience smooth and software solution convenient and user-friendly. It will help you attract and keep those users, who like to manage and analyze their finances.
Online ID check
Online ID verification helps ensure a user is who they claim to be and deals with a real individual during a money transfer. By making your payment system safe for consumers with online ID checks, you prevent any kind of fraudulent actions with your application. Customers like to feel safe and protected, especially regarding money. That’s why, at minimum, automated verification requests and money limits are worth your consideration.
E-wallets
Electronic wallets come in various forms. They differ from banks and can be applications or mobile services allowing online transactions. E-wallet integration allows users to interact with the service and make contactless payments in various countries. It relieves modern people of needing to open multiple bank accounts for different currencies and countries.
Notifications and Alerts
Notifications are essential, they keep users informed of the actions and state of things within their banking account: transaction status, monthly subscriptions due, and payments due, pending or successful.
International transfers/Currency exchange
International online transfers are growing in demand.
Integrating the possibility will relieve people of the necessity to go and do it physically in the bank. It will enable users to send and receive messages within a few seconds and swipes. So, just do it and gain ardent customers for your app. If you manage to keep fees low and add value to your solution through the currency exchange feature integration, you are sure to stand out in the market.
Let’s proceed to the development process and check how to build a money transfer app.
How to Create a Money Transfer App in 7 Steps
A professional development team is the secret ingredient of successful money transfer application creation. They can make this process smooth for you. Before the development, you should make the initial step — research the market.
Market Research
This is the first step in any software development process. It allows us to understand the up-to-date market, products, and players comprehensively. This step is crucial before diving into development. It helps to understand the competitors and the overall competitor landscape. You should define your target customers and validate your concept through an accurate discovery.
By becoming aware of the products represented in the market, you can spot their strengths and weaknesses. Thus, you identify potential gaps that can be filled with your product. The market’s leaders and outsiders can teach you a lesson about what to do and what for sure not to do. So, you can sketch a list of requirements and, based on the research, ensure you will craft something outstanding in the market.
You can proceed to the next stage when all the details are clear.
Optimal tech stack selection
At this stage, the decision is made to create a money transfer app. The choice of a tech stack starts from the choice of platform. Whether you will create a native Android or iOS solution or a cross-platform application determines all the technical aspects: programming language and tools, features and integrations, specialists needed, and budget. It should be kept in mind that there is no better or worse option. Each variant has benefits and drawbacks. You should simply weigh all the options; relying on expert advice is better. Some technologies, like Flutter, can save your budget, but they are not so beneficial. So, let the professional development team choose and realize the project for you.
UI/UX Design
Developers and engineers are in charge of everything in the back end of your software solution. They make sure your app does its job. You can influence it if you are not a developer yourself. However, you can influence UX and UI design since it is critical for the users. Poor UX can cause the loss of clients once and forever. A user-friendly app, in turn, can help you stand out among the competitors and keep users returning to your software solution repeatedly. Create a customer journey map and get insights into how users will interact with your application and reach their goals. Make sure their way is effortless and without unnecessary obstacles. Remember: satisfied clients drive higher conversions.
Development and testing of the application
This is the most critical part of the whole development process. Developers make magic and turn the desired design and functionality into code, which is the core of any app. As a rule, this stage comprises front-end and back-end development, when the developers ensure each feature and function operates seamlessly, ensuring a smooth customer journey and meeting security and business logic requirements.
Security
Even the top 10 Android applications were found leaking data (names, usernames, emails, and more) of millions of users who downloaded them. This happened because of Firebase misconfigurations. With money-related data, the breach can cause significant financial and, more importantly, reputational damage to the company. So, to protect your users when sending money, turn to security best practices: user authentication and authorization, secure APIs, and data encryption, at minimum.
Testing
Rigorous testing is vital before unleashing your software solution on a wide audience. Testers find and fix bugs, deal with technical and security flaws, evaluate performance, and ensure user experience is smooth across different platforms and devices.
Unit, functional, acceptance, and regression testing are advisable to detect possible issues. Each test should cover all features and use cases. If something is detected, it should be fixed, and the affected module should be retested.
Deployment of the application
To make your mobile money transfer application available to the world, you should submit it to the relevant app store or platform. The most common ones are the App Store for Apple or Google Play for Android.
At Stfalcon, we often do it for our customers because these platforms demand detailed descriptions and screenshots adhering to their guidelines. Our specialists are experts, while an ordinary individual can fail to do everything right the first time. When the long-awaited approval is gained, its users can download and enjoy your app.
However, continuous updates, adaptations, and user feedback are part of the exciting journey, which begins with the app launch. Still, this adventure is exciting, so let’s see why you should take the chance to craft a money transfer app now.
Reasons to Build Your Custom Money Transfer App
We have reviewed the Global Market for Mobile Payments, and the prospects are quite promising. But why should you create your own application for money matters? Let’s look at the reasons.
No matter if you are a business owner or have an idea to create a money transfer app for a wide audience.
Everything is shifting to online.
People nowadays have no time and wish to stay in one place for a long period. That’s why everything moves online, becomes mobile, and spins around applications. Why turn to physical banking institutions with their long queues and paperwork? You can simply use a mobile app to pay, transact, or transfer with a tap. Provide your user with extended functionality, as Revolut did, and gain those interested in cryptocurrencies, blockchain, insurance, splitting payments, or virtual saving accounts. Users value having one-stop-shop solutions not to run from an app to an app for diverse operations.
The demand is growing.
After the appearance of Revolut, lots of neo-banking fintech solutions have appeared. Though they develop peer-to-peer payment infrastructure, they still fail to cover the growing demand. Migration and globalization are rising continuously; people send means abroad to their family members, and they require safe money transfer software due to the growing remittance flow. So, by keeping an eye on migration patterns and economic data and modifying services and policies, money-transferring services can win the competition in the international arena.
Businesses need mobile financial services.
Not only individuals but businesses can use fintech software. It reveals opportunities for e-commerce platforms, new collaborations, and the growth of the neo-banking sphere. Modern customers are placing greater emphasis on convenience, speed, and dependability. So, e-commerce platforms and businesses are eager to provide them with this. Improved customer experience promotes loyalty to businesses ready to invest in mobile money transfer applications.
If you can provide them with a solution with seamless integration and one that allows international payments, you will surely benefit.
How Much Does It Cost to Create a Custom Money Transfer App?
A custom money transfer app cannot be simple, so the development cost can not be expected to be low. As with any software, many aspects and factors influence the project budget. They are app complexity, tech stack, type of cooperation with a development team, level of experts, and more.
If you want a rough figure, US $150,000 is needed for a basic app with all the regulations and requirements met. An MVP creation may cost around US $25,000. In fact, there's no price limit for a complex solution with full-featured extended functionality. After the development, maintenance, support, and updates will follow.
Why Develop a Money Transfer App with Stfalcon
Stfalcon has been in development for about 15 years. Though not all the solutions were Fintech, almost every software product required payment system integration. So, we know nearly everything about the international regulations. Moreover, we carried out some projects with very specific payment systems. We are not afraid of challenges and have enough expertise to deal with sensitive financial matters.
This expertise has been manifested in a project for the biggest French bank, which also belongs to the group of the biggest companies in France. Stfalcon had to develop an interface design for payment kiosks to release the bank of queues and cashiers of some work. As the client mentioned in their feedback, our team went above and beyond the project's initial scope.
Stfalcon’s portfolio includes the SDK project for the creation of Android and iOS mobile platforms. The SDK was for a crypto wallet based on the Kotlin Multi-Platform. Our team developed a ready-to-use SDK that integrates business logic and encapsulates all internal processes responsible for encryption, storage, and authorization.
Conclusion
Stfalcon knows how to develop a money transfer app that can stand out in the market. Our expertise and portfolio provide good backing for any project we take on. Moreover, we like challenges that are abundant in fintech projects. Millions of users appreciate our apps worldwide and can be sure of their security.
Since the Russian invasion, security has been a special matter for Ukrainians and the Stfalcon team in particular. If you still hesitate, contact us today and make sure that together, we have the potential to offer the money transfer solutions market something quite special.
Some outline to enlighten the most common questions about money transfer apps.
FAQs about Creating a Money Transfer Application
Why should I create a money transfer application?
The growing demand for online fintech solutions for businesses and P2P services, as well as the increasing international money flows, create fertile ground for the creation of money transfer apps. You can seize this opportunity or miss it, but now is the best moment to undertake it.
How long does it take to develop a money transfer app?
Every development project depends on multiple factors. For a money transfer app, you can expect 3 months for MVP development and 6+ months for a full-featured solution. However, if you have a complex product in your mind, the development time can be a year or more.
What is a money transfer application?
It is a software solution crafted for portable electronic devices like smartphones, tablets, and PCs. It facilitates financial transactions online without visiting physical banking institutions. These apps enable users to perform banking transactions, often using multi-currency options and cashless payment modes.
Originally published at https://stfalcon.com.
