How Much Does it Cost to Create an App Like Netflix

If you look back to your childhood there was a time when families sat together in front of their TV sets to watch their favourite shows together. But, with the development of web and mobile app innovations, online video streaming apps are pushing the old TVs to the drawing-room corners.

In 2022, everyone has a smart device and all the traditional TVs are changing to smart ones. People love to watch content from any episode they left at any place and on any device. Customers look for the best experience and seamless video streaming, including live streaming on their smart devices.

The on-demand video streaming apps market is expected to hit more than 200 billion by 2028, which is at 55.9 billion in 2021. The numbers say the growth and the future of on-demand streaming apps.

And when we think of online streaming shows, the first app that comes to mind for most of us is Netflix, and for good reason, it is now the most dominant source, for streaming movies and TV shows worldwide.

About Netflix

Netflix started in 1997 by Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings as a company that pioneered the concept of renting DVDs by mail along with an idea of charging a flat monthly fee. By 2007, Netflix introduced the feature that let subscribers stream TV shows and movies directly to their PCs. By 2012, Netflix took up an active role as distributor and producer for both films and television series.

Topping the list of movie streaming apps for Android and iOS platforms, Netflix offers an impressive library of content to watch, including original programs, movies and series from different languages. And this is the reason why Netflix has paid subscribers in over 190 countries.

The prominence of movies and series streaming apps in a users’ life has made both users and businesses understand the role of such apps in the present and the future of the entertainment world.

According to Statistics

• • • Netflix holds 71% of the global streaming video on-demand market.
    • It captures 63% of the market in the USA.
    • The video streaming industry is predicted to hit $223.98B by 2028.
    • Netflix has more than 221.64 million paid subscribers.
    • By 2026, the subscriber count is expected to reach 1.5 billion.
    • By 2020, Netflix will be available in around 114M households.
    • The average time a user spends watching TV is now just 25 minutes a day.
    • 60% of millennials and Gen Z watch streaming videos daily.
    • About three-fourths of internet users watch online video content every week on a regular basis from a video streaming platform.
    • In 2020, the amount of time spend by customers on online streaming apps is 485.25 billion, which is expected to grow day by day.

Advantages of Netflix

• • • Top-notch streaming
    • Unique substance
    • Commercial free
    • 30-day free trial
    • Wide range of ‘Original TV shows’
    • Offers high-interest movies and series
    • Download content and watch it offline
    • Affordable membership plans
    • Quality-driven content
    • Create favourite lists Parental controls
    • Stream on multiple devices at once (premium plan)
    • Available on different smart devices ( TV, Mobile, Tab, Laptop)

How to Develop a Video Streaming App like Netflix?

A video streaming platform can be built either from scratch or a clone of a video streaming app can be modified as per your requirements. Considering the requirements, development budget, and time frame, one needs to choose a suitable development process.

Video streaming apps can be developed according to your personalised ideas and strategies but for the same, it is important to hire a skilled mobile app development company. The following are the main features of an on-demand video streaming platform.

• • • User Registration Module and Login
    • User Profile
    • Live video streaming
    • Secure Transactions & Payment Gateway
    • Multi-language support
    • Multi-device support
    • Content search
    • Create video playlists
    • Settings/ controls
    • Download/watch offline
    • Social login/Sign-up
    • Push Notifications
    • Share playlists
    • Video Resolutions
    • Review & Ratings

Steps You should Undertake before Creating an App like Netflix

1. Develop a Unique Strategy

Every app starts with an idea. But it requires some set of unique strategies; define how your app needs to work and what are features to include. Also, add how you are going to differ from your competitors.

A few questions you can ask yourself:

• • • What features should you include? Differentiate between want and need.
    • What are the effective app marketing strategies? List out all the strategies you and evaluate in advance.
    • How do you create content for your video streaming app?
    • Does your app’s interface meet varying cultural and language expectations?

2. Choose the Desired Platform

Launching an app like Netflix is a complex project. So, it is better to start with an MVP (minimum viable product) which you can further modify according to the market feedback.

MVP plays a big role in managing the risks while developing a complex project like Netflix. With the help of MVP, you can develop the basic version of the app with minimum needed features and you can iteratively add the features in the coming releases with the help of the customer feedback.

MVP helps in building the app which customers really like because we build the app based on customer feedback and reviews. Once you make your MVP market fit you can release your app on different platforms.

Google Play and App store are the most widely used app platform, there are other app platforms like the Windows store. So the customer base for your video streaming app is in different app stores and you have to build an app compatible with every platform.

It may sound like a difficult task, but cross-platform app development technologies like Flutter, and React can help you build an app with single coding for different app platforms.

So before selecting a platform to develop your MVP product, look into all the future factors and how it will compact with all app platforms to acquire a large user base.

If you wish to cover a larger user base then, it’s better to choose cross-platform app development where you can create an app for both the platforms.

Read: A Beginner’s Guide to MVP Software Development: Benefits, Challenges, Examples, and more

3. Hire an Efficient Team

To create an efficient app you need to choose a talented team that can make the best use of different frameworks to deliver a cost-effective development process.

The team includes: Software Architects, Business Analysts, UI/UX Designers, Android/iOS Developers, Testers, and Project Managers.

There are three ways to hire an efficient team:

• Hiring your own team

Search and find the perfect fit on your own. You can use different job searching portals to find the right fit. It may be a tiring one sometimes you may find an imperfect fit. But with the in house team, your security data  will be more secure and you can rely on your team members for any emergencies.

• Hiring freelancers

You can find a large number of software freelancers on the internet. You can choose the one with the experience and the price you looking for. Freelancers will give you a large pool of talent to choose from. But there are some restrictions like time zone, some may not have the same experience as they projected. .

• Hiring a product development company

If you have less technical knowledge or have some other important works to handle in another department of your app, you can simply hand over the development process to a reliable app development company. They will handle the development from scratch to till the app reaches the market.

Many provide after release maintenance too. When choosing the product development companies you can find experienced candidates to develop your product. But the involvement from your side will be limited and data won’t be inside the house for enhanced security.

Anyway, you can hire the best for your project. If you choose to in-house then have an experienced project manager to avoid some basic hiccups in the development.

Read more: How to Hire App Developers to Develop Your Startup Idea?

4. App Designing

Researches have proved that a high-quality UI/UX design can create 200% to 400% of conversion rates. So, if you think spending too much on the design part is a waste of money and time, then think again. Because, the final goal is to provide the users with an impeccable & flawless experience.

Great user experience comes from the best UI/UX design. If your app has some lags in user experience then the shelf lives will be very low on their device. To provide an enhanced user experience, try to:

• • • Provide easy onboarding
    • Follow the same colour and font codes
    • Offer assistance by adding the FAQs section, tutorial videos
    • Use AI for a personalised experience
    • Never ever ignore user experience testing

5. Pick the Right Technology for Development

Along with choosing a perfect team, design concept and platform, you will also have to choose the right technology stack for building a live video streaming app.

Below is the list of current in-demand tools for building a video-streaming app:

• • • Programming languages & frameworks for a web app: C++, HTML5/CSS3, Java, JavaScript (Node.js, React, AngularJS, Vue.js), Python, Ruby (Ruby on Rails).
    • Programming languages for mobile app: Kotlin/Java (for Android); Swift, React native and flutter (for iOS).
    • Front-end: Angular, Vue.j, React and RxJS, Falcor (a JavaScript library developed by Netflix).
    • Databases: MySQL, PostgreSQL, Cassandra, Oracle.
    • Big Data Tools: Hadoop, Parquet, Pig, Presto, Spark, Kafka Analytics and insights: Google Mobile App Analytics, Flurry Analytics, Hive, MixPanel, Localytics.
    • CDN services: Amazon CloudFront, Cloudflare, Fastly, Open Connect.
    • Streaming protocols: RTMP, Adobe HTTP Dynamic Streaming, Apple HTTP Live Streaming, Microsoft Smooth Streaming, WebRTC.
    • Media formats: AVI, DMW, MOV, FLV, WMV, SWF, MKV, MP4, AVCHD.

6. Build your Content

Since content is the base of your video-streaming app, it’s important to determine what type of content you prefer to use.

Two types of content to use:

• • • Collecting from the distributors and publishing it
    • Creating your own content and publishing it.

Either way, the choice completely depends on the business goals and requires authorised licensing.

7. Monetisation Model

To start with, first give the users an optional free trial for a month and then proceed to a paid subscription. This would give the user an idea about the app and the content. For an on-demand video streaming app you have 3 different ways of monetisation:

• • • Pay-per-view: PPV only charges the user when a service is used; it’s a straightforward pricing scheme.
    • Advertising: It’s a strategic use of an advertising medium, to reach a specific target audience.
    • Subscription: This is the monetisation strategy that is used by Netflix. Subscribers are charged according to their plan. If you can regularly update content to the app, then this would be the ideal monetisation model. Go for flexible subscription models that allow the users monthly, quarterly, or yearly plans.

8. Payment Gateway

It is important to create a secured payment gateway in your app. If you have a troubled payment process it will affect your user experience.

Every customer values their money more than anything, so while handling it we need to use the perfect and reliable payment gateways to ensure smooth and secure transactions.

You should have multiple  payment options like debit cards, credit cards and online payment methods to pay for your subscription.

9. Integration with Social Media Networks

Social media integration feature on your VOD app is a great way to promote the app online. Including such options allows users to share links on their social media platforms which will in turn help you improve app visibility & encourage more people to download the app.

You can share small clips from your video content on any social media to create a large impact on your target audience. You can direct them to your app from your social media account for more user coverage.

Having social media login options, apart from the usual email login or user name option will also be helpful.

10. Multiple language support

This feature is helpful to target regional audiences from different countries. If you are planning on expanding your app to a global audience or in countries like India where people use more than 50 languages you need multiple language support to cover the audiences.

Cost to Create a Video-Streaming App

The cost of app development depends on the following factors:

• • • App development: The cost for app development depends on how you choose to develop your app and which platform you choose to develop.As we mentioned earlier, you can create your in house team or can outsource to a product development company.
    • App Features: While developing the app the cost of development mainly relies on the number of features you are going to add to your app. If you need any fancy features then you need a lot of time, money and resource to make it happen. So the number of features will have a high impact on the cost.
    • Cloud hosting: Many companies rely on cloud hosting to avoid many expenses. But that doesn’t come cheap, you have to prepare for the future in consideration of sudden spikes while you deliver any live content. It may cost a good fund to cloud host your app.
    • Streaming devices: The main purpose is to deliver video content. People also prefer to watch content on Mobile phones like Android, iOS, Windows, Android TVs, Amazon firestick, Google Nest and more. Then we have to prepare to deliver on all-important streaming ways. Developing a multi-support app will demand large resources. Simultaneously this will have a good influence on cost.
    • Multi-lingual content delivery: So we need to provide content on regular basis. When you cover a large area of the audience then you need to provide very versatile content in different languages. Buying or creating content will consume a lot of money. You need to consider a minimum of one year of content to be released while budgeting.
    • Content protection: While buying or creating content, you need a separate fund for licencing and protecting your content. You have to register your content in the Digital Rights Management (DRM) solutions to protect your content.
    • Payment gateway: When you charge the users. You need to pay for the companies which provide the service. You need to integrate an in-app payment gateway to secure payment options.

While looking into the above features, you need to choose which suits you.  According to your choice, the rates may vary.

The most significant variable here is the hourly rates. See how hourly rates differ depending on the region:

Because of differences in price range, a video streaming app with the same set of features and technology stack can cost you from $30,000 to $200,000 depending on the country where the app development company is situated.

Final thoughts

Performance is the key to every successful online video-streaming platform and there is no short road to it. Though there are already many great players in this industry, the market is far from saturated. Beyond question, Netflix is an ultimate game-changer in the video-on-demand industry and has brought out limitless opportunities for online streaming.

There are many apps emerging in the industry. Also, the cinema and video industry have a long history and numerous content. So if you have an awesome app idea for building a unique on-demand video streaming app like Netflix. Go ahead.

A perfect and reliable product development company can develop an awesome app according to your preference. By doing it you can easily concentrate on other factors like marketing, branding and other for better results.

Are you planning to launch a video streaming app with custom features? A team of true professionals can turn your ideas into a unique application.

So if you are ready to switch from ideation to development, then book a free consultation with NeoITO experts, who has expertise in developing mobile applications and web applications across different platforms.