Cost of Building a Healthcare App Like Practo: Features and Benefits
Digital technologies have brought about significant changes to the healthcare sector in recent years. Because they simplify medical services, promote patient care, and improve productivity, healthcare applications are currently quite popular. Practo, an app that enables appointment scheduling and access to medical information, is a prime example. You should understand the characteristics, advantages, and expenses of Practo in order to develop a healthcare software similar to it. In order to give you comprehensive information, we’ll cover these issues in this blog.
Table of Contents
What Is Practo?
Practo is a top mHealth app. It helps users find doctors quickly without spending hours. Practo shows how useful SaaS development can be. But that’s not all it does. The app lets people book appointments, book check-ups, get medicines delivered, and even consult doctors online without leaving home.
Factors That Affect The Cost of Developing a Practo App
The development of an application such as Practo, a feature-rich healthcare platform, requires many key components that influence the app’s price. Businesses and developers may make better plans and budgets by being aware of these aspects. Here are some important things to think about:
1. App Features and Complexity
The cost of your app, like Practo, depends on the features you choose. Basic features like sign-up, doctor profiles, and appointment booking are standard, but adding advanced options like telemedicine, EHR integration, AI assistants, and real-time notifications increases complexity and cost. Each extra feature requires more development time and expertise.
2. Design and User Experience
Having an intuitive UI and a polished application are essential for maintaining user engagement. Investing in high-quality UI/UX design is costly but vital for success, with costs varying by complexity, screens, and customization. Hiring experienced designers may raise costs but ensures a smooth and attractive user experience.
3. Platform Selection
Choosing the appropriate platform is essential. It is more expensive to develop native apps for both iOS and Android than to focus on just one platform. On the other hand, by using a single codebase, cross-platform frameworks such as React Native or Flutter can save expenses; however, native apps often offer superior performance and a more personalized experience.
4. Backend Infrastructure and Integration
Designing a robust backend architecture is essential for handling user information, scheduling, and other critical tasks. The cost is influenced by the complexity of database administration, server configuration, and API integrations. Including third-party services like payment gateways and EHR systems can raise development costs for apps like Practo.
5. Regulatory Compliance
When engaging with top healthcare app developers or using their services, verify local rules, certifications, and legal requirements. Important rules include PCI-DSS, HL7, GDPR, and HIPAA. Strong security measures, including encryption and two-factor authentication, will increase the time, expense, and effort required for development but will guarantee the privacy and security of patient data.
6. Maintenance and Updates
Once the app is launched, you’ll need to set aside funds for regular upgrades and maintenance. To maintain the app’s security and competitiveness, regular updates are necessary to address bugs, upgrade functionality, and introduce new features. The complexity of the app and the frequency of updates required will determine its maintenance cost.
Must-Have Features of a Healthcare App Like Practo
A good healthcare app, like Practo, can change how users connect with their healthcare providers. Here are some key features that make a healthcare app effective:
1. A user-friendly interface
A healthcare app has to be user-friendly and visually appealing. This facilitates user navigation when making appointments, getting health advice, or accessing medical records. The interface should be easy enough for everyone to use, including non-techies.
2. Appointment Scheduling
Appointment scheduling is an important part of a healthcare app, enabling users to quickly make, modify, or cancel appointments. Reminders and calendar integration helps guarantee users don’t miss any appointments.
3. Telemedicine Services
Telemedicine is increasingly important, and the app should support secure video calls, screen sharing, and document uploads for a better remote consultation experience.
4. Electronic Medical Records (EMR)
Access to electronic medical records is essential. By allowing users to check their history, test results, and prescriptions in one location, it improves treatment continuity and records health improvement.
5. Prescription Management
The ability to monitor, schedule reminders, and request refills straight from the app is essential for managing medications. This procedure may be made even more efficient by integrating with pharmacies.
6. Health Tracking
Users may get real-time health data and insights by integrating wearable devices with health tracking features, including vital signs, exercise, food, and medication adherence.
7. Doctor Reviews and Ratings
The app should provide ratings and reviews from doctors to help users choose the finest healthcare provider. This would enable users to make well-informed selections based on recommendations from other people.
8. Secure Messaging
Users who want to communicate with their healthcare professionals in private can do so securely and confidentially by using a secure messaging system.
9. Insurance Integration
Integrating insurance information simplifies billing and claims, letting users view coverage details, check eligibility, and manage their insurance in the app.
10. Health Education Resources
Offering educational content on health conditions, wellness tips, and preventive care helps users make informed decisions through articles, videos, and interactive materials.
The Benefits of Using a Healthcare App Like Practo
Practo is unique in that it offers a full solution that makes managing healthcare easier. Here are just a few of the many benefits of using a healthcare app such as Practo:
- Easy Medical Appointments: Making doctor appointments conveniently from home and avoiding congested waiting rooms is Practo’s best feature.
- Wide Network of Healthcare Providers: Practo makes it easier to find the proper care by connecting people with a variety of healthcare providers.
- Digital Health Records: Practo’s digital storage for lab results, medications, and medical histories makes managing health information simpler.
- Prescription Management: Users may easily order, access, and receive drugs online with Practo’s technology.
- Health and Wellness Tips: Practo manages appointments and prescriptions while offering health information, articles, tips, and wellness advice.
- Personalized Health Reports: Practo’s algorithms provide individualized screening and check-up reminders, as well as personalized health insights and suggestions.
Cost of Developing a Healthcare App Like Practo
The actual cost of a mobile healthcare app like Practo depends on these factors:
1. App Platform
This is one of the main factors affecting the cost of developing an app like Practo. There’s a big difference in how much it costs to develop medical apps on different platforms. Creating a doctor appointment app for Android is costlier than iOS due to slower emulators, more devices, and extra code needed.
2. App design
Creating a good app like Practo costs more money. The main goal of a good app design is to attract users with a great user interface and user experience. Without a good design, it’s hard to keep users interested.
3. App size
App size refers to the total features and functions of a health app. This includes things like doctor and patient databases, articles, patient queries, and doctor suggestions.
4. App developers
The cost to create an app like Practo can change depending on where the developers are from, their skills, and their experience. Developers in India usually charge less than those in other countries for building an app like Practo.
5. Mobile wallet
A mobile wallet helps make payments easy and quick. Adding a wallet to an app might cost more, but it can be very useful.
6.Cost Breakdown
Standard MVP App: This tier of healthcare app development costs anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 with mainstream functionalities like account creation, appointment scheduling, refilling prescriptions, and user login security.
Intermediate App: Such a level of mid-range mobile applications consists of some modern features like medicine reminders, semi-EHR integration, general telemedicine consultations, and more. It could range from $10,000 to $40,000.
Feature-loaded App: This level boasts some of the most advanced features developed by top healthcare app development companies, like comprehensive EHR integration, AI in healthcare like virtual assistants, chatbots, reminders, push notifications, encrypted chats, and video conferencing, in addition to remote patient monitoring capabilities. The cost to develop a healthcare app with such rich functionalities could easily go above $50,000.
Final Thought
The healthcare industry is expanding quickly, so there is a growing need for appointment booking apps. That’s why many businesses are investing in apps like Practo. These apps help healthcare companies connect with patients online. Using the Practo app is helpful because it saves users from waiting in long lines to book doctor appointments. With Practo, they can easily communicate with doctors and discuss their issues.
It’s important for every hospital and clinic to have their own app. But creating an app isn’t easy. In this case, you should get help from a React Native app development company.
FAQ‘s
What is Practo?
Pacto is a leading mHealth app that helps users quickly find doctors, book appointments, access medical information, and consult doctors online.
What are the key features of Practo?
Practo features include appointment scheduling, telemedicine services, electronic medical records (EMR), prescription management, health tracking, doctor reviews, secure messaging, insurance integration, and health education resources.
What factors affect the cost of developing an app like Practo?
Main factors include app features and complexity, design and user experience, platform selection, backend infrastructure and integration, regulatory compliance, and ongoing maintenance and updates.
How does the cost of developing a healthcare app for Android compare to iOS?
Developing an Android app is generally more expensive than an iOS app due to slower emulators, more devices to test, and additional coding requirements.
Why is app design important for healthcare apps?
A good design is crucial for attracting and retaining users by providing a user-friendly interface and a smooth experience, which helps in maintaining user engagement.
How does the platform selection impact app development costs?
Developing native apps for both iOS and Android is more expensive than focusing on a single platform. Cross-platform frameworks can reduce costs but may impact performance.