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In 2024 alone, the medical imaging software market size reached $8.11B. By 2029, it is projected to grow to $11.83B and up to 7.84% at a CAGR. This is a fairly predictable trend due to the development of AI. Especially since big data, cloud technologies, and other advancements are already significantly speeding up the accuracy of diagnostics. 

If you are considering custom development of medical image analysis software, now is the most favorable time. Below, we will reveal the specifics of creating such solutions and describe the requirements and the challenges you may face.

What is the definition of medical imaging software?

Medical imaging software — it's the digital tool doctors use to examine medical images. Think X-rays, MRI and CT scans, ultrasounds, PET, and other radiology scans. Basically, it helps to see the details of every complex illness and make informed decisions about patient care.

To maximize efficiency, medical imaging software integrates a range of advanced technologies. These include AI for anomaly detection, ML for image segmentation, and methods for filtering, contrast enhancement, and noise reduction to improve image quality. 

Also, 3D reconstruction technologies create volumetric models of organs and tissues. Developers also rely on the DICOM standard for medical images as it allows seamless transfer. They also use cloud tech to access data, integrated medical records, and VR and AR to visualize data and create interactive interfaces.

As a result, with medical image analysis software, healthcare organizations reduce the workload of their doctors and researchers and minimize the likelihood of misdiagnosis.

Examples of medical imaging software

To better grasp how these solutions work, we suggest you look at several medical imaging software examples that have gained worldwide recognition.

RadiAnt DICOM viewer

It is a high-performance medical imaging software that processes DICOM images. Due to its rich functionality, both doctors and researchers use it in their work. It has smart multimodality tools for 3D and 2D visualization and MPR (multiplanar reconstruction). Moreover, developers made the interface very user-friendly, so this software is also a great choice for users with low technical skills.

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OsiriX MD

Specifically designed for macOS, OsiriX MD is a powerful DICOM platform that meets the needs of radiologists. Its advanced capabilities support 3D and 4D image analysis, hybrid imaging with PET-CT and PET-MRI, and integration with PACS servers. Crucially, it is FDA- and CE-certified for clinical use.

Horos

Horos is a free OsiriX-based DICOM viewer available on macOS. It has rich customization options for analyzing volumetric data, such as 3D reconstruction, and is especially useful for students and researchers. 

GE Healthcare Centricity PACS

GE Healthcare Centricity PACS is a proprietary enterprise medical image analysis software that analyzes medical images. It has EHR and EMR integration, real-time collaboration, advanced AI analysis, DICOM standards, and format support. It can be a full-fledged assistant for doctors and researchers. 

Philips IntelliSpace Portal

Tailored for large clinical institutions, Philips IntelliSpace Portal excels in medical image analysis and visualization. It integrates AI-driven automation and tools for multiparametric imaging in cardiology, neurology, and oncology; this medical imaging software supports multi-user collaboration.

Key features of medical image processing software

This section explores the key functionalities typically found in standard medical imaging software.

Tools for viewing and processing medical images

Ensure your medical imaging software works with various input data (CT scans, MRI scans, X-rays, ultrasounds, and hybrid studies like PET-CT and PET-MRI). Usually, this is done by supporting the DICOM format. In addition, you will need tools to scale, rotate, and adjust image contrast. So, optionally, develop a panel for 3D and 4D visualization, including multiplanar reconstruction.

AI-driven image analysis 

AI is key in automating the detection of anomalies in medical scans. It can identify cancerous tumors, blood clots, and fractures early, with a high degree of independence. Also, AI in your medical imaging software can classify pathologies using trained models. It can segment organs and tissues on scans and analyze multiparametric data.

Diagnostic and treatment planning tools

This includes tools for creating 3D models, surgical planning, and evaluating the effectiveness of treatment. You should also consider integrating your medical imaging software with robotic surgical systems.

Medical data management tools

To implement effective medical data management, you will probably need to integrate your medical imaging software with PACS (for storing and transmitting data), EHRs (for centralized access to personal patient information), and cloud solutions (for unimpeded access to images from anywhere in the world where there is an Internet connection).

Collaboration tools

It's mainly for remote access so doctors and specialists can chat and comment on each other's actions. It also involves integrating telemedicine platforms to discuss complex cases and hold educational seminars.

What types of organizations need medical image analysis software development?

A wide range of organizations can benefit from medical image analysis software development. Now, let's find out which areas of healthcare benefit from medical imaging software the most.

• Cardiology.

In this field, medical imaging software is mostly used to analyze CT and MRI of the heart and angiography. In addition, it monitors treatment effectiveness, plans operations, and predicts cardiovascular disease risks.

• Dentistry.

Inevitable for 3D scanning when planning dental implants, diagnosing jaw diseases, visualizing root canals, etc.

• Oncology.
  Here, medical imaging software detects and classifies tumors, tracks their growth, and assesses treatment effectiveness.

• Neurology.

In this sector, medical image analysis software analyzes brain MRIs and CTs and provides 3D visualizations to assess the spine and nerves.

• Orthopedics.

Orthopedics studies thrive on precise X-ray analysis, which includes 3D joint modeling and spinal disease diagnostics.

• Mammology.

Medical imaging software can detect microcalcifications and early breast cancer through comparative analysis of changes in mammary gland tissue.

• Urology.

In this industry, medical imaging software helps diagnose kidney and bladder diseases. It does this by analyzing CT and ultrasound images. Additionally, the software can help plan operations and monitor patients with chronic diseases.

• Pulmonology.

Industry specialists can use such software to diagnose lung diseases, analyze chest CT data, and assess COVID-19 damage.

• Gynecology.

In most cases, medical image analysis software is used to perform pregnancy ultrasounds. It helps monitor the fetus, find pelvic tumors, and analyze the endometrium and other tissues.

• Traumatology and emergency medicine.

In traumatology, 3D medical imaging software can quickly diagnose fractures and internal injuries. It can also visualize organs for urgent decisions.

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Still, deciding on the right healthcare sector for your medical imaging project? Contact us and discuss the possibilities of its practical implementation with Darly Solutions' experienced developers.

Medical imaging software development: Steps to follow

Custom development must follow clearly defined stages that most teams use. But, it can still be approached in various ways. Below, we outline how healthcare software development services are delivered in our company.

Concept formation 

Start your medical imaging software project with market analysis. Define the target audience, prioritize tasks the software should solve, and research competitors (to identify their strengths and weaknesses). Based on the insights, our medical imaging software development team assesses the functional requirements and evaluates the need for specific technologies to handle image processing. This ensures that the chosen solutions align with the project's technical needs and optimize the processing of healthcare-related images.

Planning

Once we agree on the conditions with all stakeholders, we will write a technical specification for your medical imaging software. This document will describe its functionality, interface, API, security, and integration requirements. We will also approve the tech stack and necessary integrations. Finally, we create a roadmap that defines the milestones and deliverables for each medical imaging software development project stage.

Prototyping

Now that everything is ready, we can begin creating user stories. They include handling DICOM file uploads and 3D models, among other key tasks. For UX/UI best practices of safe data, we follow the WCAG 2.1 guidelines. They ensure accessibility for users with varying technical skills. We also test prototypes with focus groups to see feedback on complex features, which is helpful for future design improvement. Finally, after the edits are done, we develop a full-fledged design.

Coding

The frontend has algorithms to process and analyze medical images. The backend ensures secure data transfer between the medical imaging software and storage. It also encrypts data and protects against vulnerabilities like SQL injections. These involve writing database queries for smooth software interactions and data storage interactions. And last but not least — we also integrate with your healthcare org's existing systems and services (if any).

Testing

Once the code for your medical imaging software is ready and all components have passed unit tests, we run complete test cases. We check for load, functional, non-functional, security, and usability issues.

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Deployment

At this stage, we are choosing hosting for your medical imaging software (usually either cloud or local servers), setting up CI/CD, and training end users, for example, by providing them with documentation, training materials, or live courses. Once we've done it, we deploy the solution (first in the test environment and then — in the actual usage environment).

Support and updates

Finally, after the medical imaging software is deployed, we set up monitoring systems to track its performance and detect errors, fix post-release bugs, optimize it according to user feedback, and add new features if required.

Key tech specifications for medical imaging software development

Such software development can be complex, especially in its early stages. Basically, there is often no clear way to turn an abstract idea into actual requirements. 

So, let's examine all  the key tech specifications that are usually implemented in medical imaging software apps:

• Support for common medical image formats such as DICOM (including DICOM tags for metadata) and standards for storing, transmitting, and processing medical images (such as C-STORE, C-FIND, and C-MOVE).
• Compatibility with various devices (CT, MRI, ultrasound, etc.).
• Image processing can improve images by adjusting contrast brightness and applying filters. It can also segment them to highlight organs and tissues. Lastly, it can register them to compare scans over time.
• 2D and 3D visualization, including volume rendering (CT/MRI), support for iso-sections and reconstructions, and interactivity (e.g., rotation, zoom, and pan).
• Data security, including HIPAA and GDPR compliance, support for TLS (for data transfer) and AES-256 (for image and metadata storage) encryption standards, as well as access control with role-based authorization and two-factor authentication.
• PACS and EHR/EMR integration (e.g., via HL7/FHIR).
• Annotation (adding labels, arrows, and text comments) and providing real-time collaboration tools.
• PDF report generation and image export.
• Scalability (including horizontal scaling via the cloud), multi-threading, and hardware acceleration.
• WCAG 2.1 compliance and user interface customization.
• Logging and monitoring events (including loading, processing, and exporting scans), auditing user access, tracking system performance, and setting up failure notifications.
• Local deployment of software on physical servers (most likely, this will require ensuring compatibility with Linux and Windows OS).
• Setting up regular data backups and automatic recovery after system failures.

Of course, this is just a basic list of specifications. In practice, your project team will expand and refine the list of features while specifying the tools and technologies for the project's unique needs.

Medical imaging software development cost

When it comes to the development cost of medical image analysis software it depends on its complexity and the technologies used. Without data and business needs — it's hard to define the precise price, but on average, basic DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) typically ranges from $30K to $300K. A customized version of Basic DICOM may cost $30K to $50K. Advanced customizations could cost $70K to $150K.

Implementation costs differ based on the size of the practice:

• Small practices typically cost $5K to $10K and take 1 to 2 weeks.
• Medium facilities cost $20K to $50K and take 1 to 3 months.
• Large enterprises may cost $100K to $200K and take 3 to 6 months.

Please complete this form to calculate the precise budget for your medical imaging software development idea. We will contact you shortly.

Challenges in medical imaging software development

Let's examine the main challenges encountered when developing medical imaging software.

• Regulatory compliance.
  Software handling sensitive data, like patient information, must comply with HIPAA, GDPR, FDA 21 CFR Part 11, and CE Marking regulations. Key security measures include code audits, RBAC, 2FA, and strong encryption (e.g., AES-256, TLS).
  To avoid fines, consult a local lawyer on medical standards.

• Integration with existing systems.
  Integrating PACS, EHRs, and other systems requires DICOM, HL7, and FHIR support. Also, medical organizations have very different established IT infrastructures, which makes it hard to unify their software. If you create a universal solution, you must provide some middleware. It will help users adapt to various services and systems.

• High performance and scalability.

Medical images, especially CT and MRI, are large. This can slow their processing and increase resource needs.
In this regard, you may need to implement lossless compression mechanisms for images and multithreading and parallel data processing algorithms. By the way, a common fix is to move your software to a cloud solution designed for healthcare businesses.

• The complexity of big data management.

Storing and processing massive data, like images and metadata, require a careful choice of databases and storage. In particular, this implies a preference for distributed databases and object storage.
For even greater reliability, do not forget to provide backup and auto-recovery.

• Risks associated with cyber attacks.

Cyber attacks that leak medical data are a serious problem for healthcare software. To solve it, you must implement constant monitoring. Also, set up regular security updates, including patches and OS updates.
Finally, train your staff on social engineering. It can reduce the risks of phishing attacks.
Providing a user-friendly interface.
Interfaces for doctors and medical personnel should be user-friendly and intuitive, requiring minimal technical training to operate efficiently. To achieve this goal, you must test hi-fi prototypes on the real target audience and perform subsequent optimizations. Also, do not forget to ensure your interface is created under the WCAG 2.1 guidelines.

The future of medical imaging software

Medical imaging software development will advance by adopting the newest technologies, process optimization, and increased integration with other medical systems. 

So, here are the core areas in which medical imaging software can be optimized:

• Speeding up diagnostic.
• Increasing image recognition accuracy.
• Costs reduction.
• Improving user experience.

This can be achieved through the implementation and development of the following technologies:

• Artificial intelligence and machine learning.

For highly accurate and automatic analysis of medical images and accelerated diagnostics.

• Cloud computing.

To provide quick access to medical images from anywhere in the world, process large amounts of data without the need to upgrade local infrastructure, and implement remote collaboration between healthcare specialists.

• VR/AR.

Medical imaging software development allows anatomy and pathologies to be studied using interactive 3D models and visualize the patient's anatomy before surgery.

• Quantum computing.

While most quantum computers are not yet available for widespread use, they will speed up processing large datasets and training neural networks for image recognition in a few years.

• Blockchain.

To guarantee the immutability and protection of data from medical imaging software while providing patients with comprehensive control over their medical information.

Our experience in medical imaging software development

This section covers the development of the PrismaORM brain scanner. This platform was crafted for chiropractors, neurologists, and neurosurgeons to monitor brain activity and brainwaves before, during, and after chiropractic treatments.

First, we assembled a team of eight experts to bring this vision to life. They worked closely with two external teams of medical imaging software engineers. We've pointed out a tech stack based on PostgreSQL, Typescript, React Native, Nest.js, Expo, Three.js, and SQLite. This tech of choice lets us build a platform that processes real-time data from brain activity helmets. The BLE protocol transmits this data. A tablet interface visualizes it. A key to the project's success was optimizing the user experience. This included better platform performance and integrating 3D models. 

As a result — we've made a powerful tool that empowers medical professionals to conduct more precise diagnostics and offer more effective treatment recommendations. 

For a detailed look at this project, visit our portfolio.

Wrapping up

Now that you understand the specifics of medical image analysis software development, you can begin searching for a team to bring your project to life. We are a reliable provider of custom healthtech solutions, ensuring a smooth, transparent, and predictable collaboration. Simply fill out the form, and we'll get in touch as soon as possible to discuss your medical imaging software project in detail.

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From long patient wait times to inefficient manual processes and risky paper records, the healthcare sector has faced numerous challenges historically. This has created a fertile ground for doctor appointment apps. According to Verified Market Reports, in 2023 alone, the market was valued at an estimated $318.49M, projecting a surge to $862.16 million by 2030 (15.29% CAGR). 

Given the growth of AI-based solutions in telemedicine tech and the modernization of the healthcare system, we can now highlight the importance of such solutions and dive deep into the specifics of healthcare appointment apps.

What is a doctor appointment system?

A doctor appointment application — is a digital solution that automates the registration of patients for an appointment with medical specialists. However, modern solutions imply more than just scheduling online appointments. They give patients useful information about a healthcare institution's services and specialists. Also, they connect patients with doctors and give access to their records in the comfort of their homes.

Why is this system gaining traction in the healthcare sector? Let’s break it down into factors:

• The widespread digitalization of the healthcare sector.
  Healthcare is moving beyond in-person consultations in the facility. Now, it includes remote consultations, app-based therapies, and remote health tracking for timely interventions.
• The development of modern technologies.
  Various mobile applications and the affordability of smartphones make this format of interaction with patients desired and preferable.
• Reducing the workload on administrators.
  To prevent personnel burnout, medical institutions can use healthcare scheduling software systems to reduce the number of routine tasks assigned to administrators and the number of errors associated with the human factor.
• Increased patient satisfaction.
  Transparent access to doctors' schedules and the ability to choose a suitable time — increase customer loyalty.
• Increased occupancy of doctors' schedules.
  With a doctor appointment system, healthcare organizations can minimize empty appointment slots since it will be easier for patients to choose the optimal date and time for a visit.

Key doctor appointment app features

Since the Apple App Store boasts approximately 35,019 healthcare and medical apps, among which are approximately 10 to 20 types of doctor appointment apps, features might hugely range from app to app. Let's examine the main features of the doctor appointment app.

Online appointment booking

The system should have filters for doctors by specialization, review patient feedback, and book appointment availability by date and time. Additionally, patients should be able to receive reminders for upcoming appointments (e.g., push notifications, email, or SMS).

Telemedicine

For routine follow-ups, an online medical appointment system is essential. It's not a choice but an inevitability. Both patients and healthcare providers save travel time and can schedule appointments just in the app via online consultations, video conferencing, or text chat.

Integration with EMR and billing system

Integration with electronic health records provides access to the patient's medical data directly from the application, allowing doctors to update and review these records directly from the platform. As for the billing system, the PCI DSS-compliant payment gateway will be the core element of the online payment process. In addition, it provides an option for generating bills and receipts.

Feedback and ratings

Usually, this is a window where patients can rate their experiences and write reviews for specific providers using a simple scoring system. For usability, this feature must remain unobtrusive within the app interface.

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FAQ and educational materials sections

The app should include a FAQ section covering usage and privacy. It should also have an educational section with information about specialists, a map of the institution, and service costs.

Monetization strategies for doctor appointment apps

The ideal monetization strategy for a doctor appointment system depends on the target audience and the organization's business model. Let's look at the most popular types of monetization in this niche:

• Subscription-based.
  According to this model, after paying for a monthly or annual subscription, patients get access to advanced features, such as priority appointments or online consultations. 
• Pay-per-booking.
  This model involves charging a fixed fee or a percentage of the service's cost (usually 5-10%) for each appointment.
• Advertising.
  Based on this model, you can publish advertisements for medical services, pharmacies, insurance companies, and other partner organizations. This can be contextual advertising, static banners, or affiliate programs (for example, you can recommend pharmacies for buying drugs).
• Payments for telemedicine services.
  This approach to monetization involves charging a fee (either a percentage of the service cost or a fixed amount) for online consultations implemented within the application.
• Patient data monetization.
  This type of monetization involves selling anonymized patient data to global healthcare corporations. They can be used in the future for both clinical research and to improve the quality of services of partner organizations (for example, insurance companies, laboratories, etc.).
• White-label solution.
  Finally, you can develop a customizable solution and sell it to other companies under their brand. In this case, you must provide a settings panel where each organization can set individual configurations.

Benefits of doctor appointment booking app development

To understand the benefits of the doctor appointment booking system, we first need to figure out the main pain points such software can solve. Previously, we’ve mentioned some, but for the sake of completeness, let's consider each of them:

• Simplification of the procedure for making an appointment with a doctor.
  Earlier, patients had to call the clinic, wait for the admin to answer, and adjust to the schedule. With the app, they can choose the best time and date within a few moments on their smartphone.
• Drop in missed sessions and treatment gaps.

With appointment alerts or medication reminders, patients won’t forget about upcoming visits to the doctor and taking medications, which ultimately saves the clinic's resources.

• Transparency of pricing.
  Some patients find it difficult to understand the cost of the services; in turn, with the application, they will have access to all the price information before making an appointment.
• Comprehensive information about doctors and services.

To prevent patients from choosing doctors blindly, the application can offer them a convenient rating system, reviews, and descriptions of services; thanks to this, they will make a more conscious decision about choosing a particular doctor/service.

• Minimization of paperwork.
  Without a doctor appointment application at hand, medical personnel often had to work with paper journals. An app that integrates with the CRM, EHR, and other software will reduce reliance on paper docs.
• Higher revenue.
  You can sell additional services through the application; moreover, its convenience and transparency increase the likelihood of repeat visits.
• Reduced need for human resources.
  The application’s launch will help reduce the need for a large administrative staff, allowing existing employees to focus less on routine tasks and more on value-driven activities.
• Greater return on marketing efforts.
  The patient's behavior analytics can help you craft more targeted offers. With insights into patient habits and preferences, you can create highly targeted offers that resonate with your audience, optimizing both campaign success and budget efficiency while increasing engagement and retention.
• Increased competitive advantage.
  Modern clinics that offer convenient digital solutions win more patients, improve operational efficiency, reduce no-show rates, and enhance patient satisfaction, all of which contribute to a stronger competitive position in the overall healthcare market.

Steps to build a doctor appointment app

Let’s check the steps included in the medical software development services that our doctor appointment app development company provides.

Market research

At this stage, our doctor appointment app development team defines the application's target audience (the patients' age, smartphone proficiency level, etc.). Next, we analyze the institution's business model for which it’s being created while researching competitors and identifying their strengths and weaknesses. 

Based on the insights received, we determine the app's basic and advanced features. For example, we want real-time patient monitoring through wearables. We also need to agree on the OS, which can be Android and/or iOS. Lastly, we must choose the best monetization model. Finally, we determine the necessary integrations with third-party solutions and the requirements that must be met (usually GDPR, HIPAA, etc.).

Prototyping and UX/UI design

At this point, our experts create user stories to guide the development of prototypes (first lo-fi, and when agreed upon with all stakeholders, hi-fi). Once the prototypes are finalized, our team starts working on the full-fledged doctor appointment app design. We aim to create user-friendly navigation that cuts off the input needed from the user to complete tasks. At the same time, the team works on the UI, optimizing it for mobile platforms and obtaining WCAG 2.1 accessibility guidelines.

Architecture development

This stage involves choosing an architectural approach (for example, microservices for better scalability, REST or GraphQL for API, and so on). It is also important to plan the processes that will be implemented on the server side (in particular, record management, authorization, etc.). On the client side (usually, this is the patient and administrator interface) and on the database side (as a rule, flows for transactions and caching are separated). We also select specific solutions for implementing the necessary integrations.

Coding

Now, we have everything ready to define the technology stack for the backend and frontend. This decision is based on whether native or cross-platform development will be utilized for the doctor appointment app. Once individual program modules are ready, we proceed with coding and testing each component.

Testing

Since the entire code base is ready, our doctor scheduling app development team ensures that it is fully covered with test cases to perform integration, load, and other types of testing. If there are any bugs, we will fix them immediately and then test the product again. Repeat this process until we meet all the specifications.

Launch and deployment

Finally, our doctor app development experts set up the server infrastructure (optionally, they also introduce CI/CD practices). Ensures data security (through encryption and regular security audits) and carries out a test launch of the software. If there are no critical bugs in the beta version of the application, we release it in the App Store and/or Google Play.

Post-release support and development of updates

This stage includes maintaining app stability, fixing failures, adding new features, optimizing existing ones, updating the design, and scaling with the growing user base.

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Doctor appointment app design: Best practices

When it comes to the UI design of a doctor appointment app, we prioritize WCAG 2.1 guidelines. This section details and provides practical examples of their effective implementation for an optimal user experience.

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• Readability of information.
  Maintain a color contrast ratio between text and background (at least 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text). Also, include doctor avatars and icons, ensure text scalability up to 200% (without loss of functionality), and add subtitles and text transcripts for videos (if any).
• Ease of navigation.
  All UI elements should be keyboard-accessible and have a minimum clickable size of 44x44 pixels. Ensure there’s extra space around buttons or links to prevent accidental clicks and include breadcrumbs for easier navigation.
• Clarity of the interface.
  Use simple language in the interface, label all form fields, provide input format examples (like "dd.mm.yyyy"), highlight errors, and offer step-by-step instructions for complex tasks, including a progress indicator.
• Interface reliability.
  Ensure that your application is compatible with assistive technologies (for all functional elements, use ARIA labels). Test your app on various devices and ensure it uses standardized data formats like JSON and XML for smooth communication with integrated third-party services.

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Of course, this is only a small part of the best practices you can implement in the doctor consultation app development process. To maximize the loyalty of your audience and better understand what the design should be — read the WCAG 2.1 guidelines directly.

Doctor scheduling app development: Overcoming key challenges

Generally speaking, everyone who is going to develop a doctor appointment app faces challenges to one degree or another. To overcome them effectively, it's crucial to understand them in advance. Let's explore them in detail:

• Integration with software solutions that you already use.
  Your application may require integration with systems and services that are either legacy or support non-standard data exchange protocols (i.e., different from HL7 and FHIR). In this case, you may need additional middleware development to ensure seamless data transfer.
• Data security.
  Medical information must be protected with particular care, as its leakage can lead to large fines and loss of reputation for your organization. To minimize risks, consider data encryption at rest and in transit, implement two-factor authentication and role-based access control. After all, try to regularly conduct pen-tests.
• Performance and scalability.
  High server load during peak hours can lead to failures in the operation of your application. To prevent this, you can initially choose cloud platforms that support autoscaling for hosting and implement data caching.
• Testing complex scenarios.
  During testing, your QA specialists risk missing complex interaction scenarios with the application. For example, when several patients simultaneously make an appointment for the same doctor or when the selected order of visits to several doctors is conflicting. To ensure comprehensive coverage of test cases, use automated testing tools.
• Accessibility.
  A confusing interface can drive users away, leading to fewer interactions with your app. To prevent this, conduct thorough UX research with real users before launch. Based on their feedback, make necessary adjustments to the app's functionality and design.
• The unwillingness of personnel to switch to new digital solutions.
  Adjusting to new rules might be hard, especially within historically established healthcare practices. You might consider providing training for your staff on how to manage new progressive software.

Beyond technical challenges, there are many business-related obstacles, from USP's definition to the choice of an effective monetization model. This is why, besides carefully selecting the right doctor appointment app development team, consider hiring skilled marketing experts, too.

Doctor appointment app development cost

From our experience of doctor appointment mobile app development, it is impossible to determine the accurate cost of such a project without understanding its functionality and the platforms it is intended for. However, based on the average cost for app development, we can give an approximate cost guide. Here’s a breakdown:

Complexity of projects:

• Simple apps typically range from $20K – $30K, and their implementation takes 4 – 6 months. These apps usually include basic functionalities like appointment scheduling and doctor search features.
• For medium apps like telemedicine integration and electronic health records (EHR), costs can rise from $30K to $45K with an approximate 6 – 9 months timeline. This includes both web and mobile platforms with a broader range of functionalities.
• Highly complex applications with real-time video consultations, comprehensive analytics dashboards, and AI-driven functionalities may exceed $45K+ and take 9 – 12 months.

Geographical variations

The cost can also vary by region:

• North America: Because of advanced technological capabilities, on average, it has the highest cost, ranging from $30K – $150K+. 
• Europe: Cost ranges from $20K – $150K, influenced by economic conditions from country to country.
• Asia: Development costs are generally lower, ranging from $20K – $100K.

Have a thriving idea for a doctor appointment app and are curious about a budget estimate for its deployment? Simply fill out this form, and we will swiftly calculate your project and contact you back.

Top 5 successful doctor appointment apps

Now, let’s explore some top-tier doctor appointment apps that excel in every aspect. These examples might inspire you to build a doctor appointment app for your healthcare organization.

Zocdoc

Zocdoc is praised for its intuitive interface and powerful search tools. The platform has an intuitive interface and powerful search tools. The platform streamlines appointments and has instant confirmation features, reminders, a feedback system, and seamless integration with insurance providers and document uploads.

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Practo

Popular in India, Practo gives patients access to doctor appointments, telemedicine services, ordering medicines for delivery, and storing medical records. Patients can view individual doctor profiles, including their education, experience, and certifications, allowing them to choose the best specialists for their treatment.

Doctolib

The Doctolib application simplifies making appointments with doctors and provides the option to cancel a visit. This application is integrated with doctors' calendars, automatically sends notifications, and provides rich functionality for doctors (including scheduling management and provision of telemedicine services).

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Healthgrades

As for alternatives for the US market, we cannot help but mention Healthgrades. This application helps users find doctors and medical institutions based on location, specialization, and rating. Plus, it allows patients to make appointments and get detailed information about particular specialists and organizations.

MyChart

MyChart — is a top charted app in the US and Canada. Designed to manage medical information and schedule appointments, it allows patients to communicate with doctors online and get family access.

Darly Solutions' expertise in online booking and enhanced customer engagement

The most relevant case for online doctor scheduling app development was Glamezy, a B2C solution for the beauty industry. Our client sought to create an online platform to help small and medium businesses in the beauty sector expand their reach, especially after the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The goal was to develop a website that allowed customers to book beauty services online based on location easily. Also, the platform must have an easy and encouraging interface to communicate with potential partners while boosting sales and driving customer engagement. Ten experts worked on this project; and for the tech stack, we used React and Node.js.

As a result, we created a solution for easily searching and booking top beauty professionals. Now, the platform lets users add salons to a shortlist with one click, view nearby salons on an interactive map, and earn points for every transaction on the platform.

If you’d like to explore this case further, please visit our portfolio.

Final thoughts

It’s fair to say that at the heart of every design lies a larger goal for the benefit of humanity. A well-designed doctor appointment app boosts access and patient satisfaction while helping small and medium healthcare organizations and businesses thrive in the tech sector.

After you’ve read all the details about ideas and challenges for developing a doctor appointment app, it's time to find the right team to turn your vision into reality. 

For now, don’t settle for less. Darly Solution is here to help! Contact us today to discuss your project in detail.

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The future of healthcare is digital. In 2022 alone, the global patient portal market reached $2.9B, as the Grand View Research reports. By  2030, it’s projected to grow even higher — at a CAGR of 19.44%. This trend reflects how public and private healthcare organizations strive to digitize paper documentation and automate everyday business operations.

Indeed, the stakes in healthcare are high. Even minor errors can lead to incorrect diagnoses and worsen patients’ conditions. This is where patient portal software greatly minimizes errors, particularly those caused by human factors. 

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Below, read on how to create a patient portal. We’ll analyze the target audience’s needs, dive into the most successful examples of its implementation, and examine the nature of the target audience's requirements.

What is a patient portal system?

An online patient portal is a web or mobile solution (usually for Android and iOS platforms) that gives patients access to medical records, helps schedule appointments in a few clicks, and easily communicate with healthcare providers at any time. 

By automating the interaction between the parties via the patient portal, organizations can improve the quality of care while making their services more accessible and convenient for patients.

In particular, modern patient portal requirements are:

• Fast and secure access to their medical data and records with guaranteed privacy protection.
• High-quality medical services without the need to wait in long queues.
• A clear understanding of the treatment plan and progress.

Healthcare organizations instead aim to:

• Reduce their administrative costs – in particular, for maintaining paper documentation.
• Maximize personnel efficiency without the risk of burnout.
• Increase patient satisfaction through transparent interaction and remote patient monitoring.
• Comply with the healthcare regulations.
• Reach a new level of income by reducing expenses and attracting new patients.

That is why the patient portal system is the one-stop solution that, if implemented correctly, covers all the above-mentioned needs. This is typically achieved through the following features:

• Access to medical records (including medical history and test results).
• Appointment booking (with the option to select the date, time, and doctor).
• Online consultations (for example, via video calls and chats with doctors).
• Repeat prescription orders (automatic issuance of electronic prescriptions and reminders for refills).
• Online bill payment.
• Personal data management (including patient contact information).
• Push notifications (reminders for upcoming visits, tests, vaccinations, etc.).
• Educational materials.
• Feedback tools (surveys for patient satisfaction and forms for submitting complaints, etc.).

Types of patient portals: Which fits your healthcare needs?

Generally, there are two global types of patient portals: integrated and standalone. The former is presented as a component of electronic health records (EMR/EHR) and is fully tied to the infrastructure of a healthcare facility. Integrated portals ensure uninterrupted data exchange between doctors and patients but, in the case of ready-made solutions, are limited by the functionality offered by the specific healthcare provider.

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Standalone portals, however, come in two forms: SaaS and on-premise. The former are hosted in the cloud and are available by subscription, which is especially convenient for healthcare providers within small organizations. Their advantage is quick deployment and configuration. At the same time, their customization options are often limited. 

As for the second category, these are software solutions installed on local servers of a specific healthcare organization. They provide comprehensive control over data but require significant infrastructure and support costs. They can also be difficult to scale and integrate with third-party solutions.

It is worth noting that every medical organization has its own regular processes and specific business tasks distributed among different departments. In particular:

• The reception desk keeps track of patient records.
• Laboratories collect, process, and store test results.
• The finance department is responsible for payments and insurance processes.
• Doctors and medical personnel work with medical records and appointments.

All the above processes can rarely be integrated into a single system, which makes it difficult to automate them using only one off-the-shelf patient portal. Moreover, medical institutions vary greatly in specialization (including clinics, dentistry, laboratories, hospitals, etc.), and ready-made products do not always meet their needs. 

If we add to this the need to comply with regional security standards for patient data, it becomes clear that out-of-the-box solutions may not be viable. This is the main reason why healthcare organizations are increasingly resorting to custom healthcare portal development.

Patient portal requirements: Key features and functionalities

Now, let's check the main functionalities and features that should be integrated into a patient portal.

User authentication and access management system

This portal component uses OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect for secure login. It protects users' credentials and enables multi-factor authentication. Usually, developers provide multi-level access with restrictions based on user roles (including patients, doctors, administrators, etc.). 

At the same time, when implementing role-based access, it is important to adhere to widely recognized patient data security policies, such as HIPAA and GDPR. Specifically, doctors and administrators should have full access to all patient data. In contrast, individual patients should only be able to view, edit, and delete their info.

Medical data storage

The storage is located on local or cloud servers using AES-256 and TLS 1.3 for data encryption. By the way, many cloud vendors have ready-made solutions for healthcare organizations that meet the standards of patient data privacy (including AWS HealthLake, Azure Healthcare, and others). It is also crucial to ensure that such storage is protected against data misuse and unauthorized access.

Integration with EHR systems

This integration is necessary for consolidating patient data. Thus, developers must adhere to FHIR and HL7 standards to ensure compatibility and data exchange. As for the integration itself, if we are not talking about legacy solutions, it is carried out through an API. 

Finally, to ensure that the patient portal system complies with the requirements of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (particularly, the ONC's Cures Act), it is essential that the platform could get full access to the patient, with all the ability to edit and delete.

Appointment schedules, doctors’ cards, and telemedicine tools

The first two components involve creating a catalog with therapists’ information and a scheduling system where patients can book visits. This can be achieved through RESTful API to synchronize with hospital calendars. Also, integrating with trusted video communication platforms like Zoom Healthcare can facilitate direct communication between patients and doctors.

Automation of bill calculations and online payments

Online payments are processed through integrations with payment gateways like Stripe or PayPal. In general, they must support PCI DSS standards. As for the automated billing system, this is essentially a regular calculator that “pulls up” data on the cost of services selected by the patient and sums them up (minus insurance and benefits, if any).

Integration with wearable devices

This is necessary so that doctors can monitor the condition of patients in real time. To do this, developers use APIs to collect data from devices (for example, from Apple HealthKit or Google Fit, as well as more specialized IoT equipment). At the same time, they must also implement a mechanism for obtaining prior patient consent to collect personal data.

Messaging 

It also makes sense to integrate a chat (with the ability to attach media files) for interaction with doctors, supporting end-to-end encryption (E2E) and using WebSockets protocols that provide real-time messaging.

User dashboards

The patient portal needs an interface for each user role. Basically, it should adapt the data and tools for doctors, admins, and patients. Among other things, it can also be enriched with advanced analytical tools. For example, Power BI or Tableau can be used to generate reports and visualize data (assessing attendance dynamics, treatment results, patient satisfaction, etc.).

How to develop a patient portal software: From concept to launch

When it comes to custom solutions, our telehealth website development services are provided in several subsequent stages. Let’s consider them in detail.

Ideation and requirements analysis

At this stage, our team consolidates the portal concept of custom healthcare portal development, according to your business goals, unique aspects of your internal business processes and IT infrastructure, the needs of the target audience, and an analysis of competitors’ strengths and weaknesses. Based on this blueprint, we create documentation indicating functional and non-functional requirements.

Architecture design

From now on, our patient portal development team has everything ready to define the project's technological stack (for the frontend, backend, and database) and choose a specific architectural approach. We also approve the necessary third-party Integrations (including EHR, payment gateways, telemedicine solutions, etc.). 

Finally, we select tools and protocols to ensure our portal has a proper security level, including data encryption, user authentication/authorization methods, diagrams of interaction between components, etc.

UI/UX design

This stage involves building interface prototypes and gradually transforming them into a full-fledged design after usability testing. At the same time, our patient portal app development experts always take into account the requirements for the accessibility of the user interface. Basically, they are most accurately outlined in the WCAG 2.1 and ADA guidelines.

Development

Now, we can start working on the frontend and backend of the patient portal. Once individual functional modules are ready, we conduct unit testing to prevent hard-to-fix bugs at later stages of the project. This stage also involves the implementation of security mechanisms and integration with third-party solutions.

Testing and quality control

When the code base is ready, our patient portal development experts conduct rigorous testing, including functional, load, security, usability, etc. This stage ensures that the solution meets the best specs and software quality standards in healthcare.

Deployment and launch

Before launching the portal, we prepare all the necessary infrastructure, build a CI/CD pipeline, and set up a monitoring system. If needed, we can train your staff on how to use the portal. After all the previous stages are checked — we usually start deployment.

Post-release support and updates

To better understand ​​​​its further optimization, our patient portal development experts regularly check the portal’s logs and metrics, collecting feedback. In addition, as post-release bugs are discovered, we fix them and, if necessary, implement new features.

Understanding the needs of your patients

A patient portal and medical website design should fully adapt to the target audience's problems. That is why it is essential to define them in advance. Based on our experience, we would like to highlight the following ones:

• Long wait time when making an appointment.
  Patients often encounter long wait times in phone and in-person queues. A patient portal can help. It lets users book online appointments 24/7 and choose a specialist. In addition, it sends SMS or push notifications to remind patients about upcoming visits.
• Lack of full access to medical data.
  Many patients are forced to visit clinics because healthcare organizations still document their test results manually. The patient portal gives access to electronic medical records, test results, and doctor recommendations, which can be easily downloaded or saved (for offline access).
• Lack of understanding of the treatment plans.
  Patients may find it difficult to track their treatments' progress, which may result in forgotten, delayed, or canceled visits and procedures. To prevent this, portals display the treatment plan and the current status of therapy. In addition, patients get notifications about upcoming procedures, calendars, and recommendations, which is very smart.
• Difficulties in paying for medical services.
  The need for patients to be physically present makes offline payments resource-intensive. Patient portals eliminate this headache with integrated payment systems, allowing users to view their payment history and current bills in just a few clicks.
• Insufficient communication with the attending physician.
  In-person appointments to explain test results and treatment plans can be time-consuming for both patients and healthcare providers. Patient portals streamline this process with online chat and video calling capabilities.

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• Weak control over the treatment of chronic conditions.
  Patients with chronic conditions often lack convenient tools for regular monitoring. Portals can address this with real-time health data visualization, medication reminders, and appointment scheduling, as well as integrating with wearable devices for continuous data collection.
• Low involvement in the treatment process. 

Since some patients find it difficult to understand how their actions affect treatment results, the patient portal development team can also add interactive tools to the portal to track patients' treatment progress or provide educational materials.
Gamification elements can enhance the effect.

Patient portal development challenges and solutions

In this section, we will analyze the most typical challenges of patient portal software development and the most effective ways to overcome them.

• Ensuring compliance with regulations.
  Telemedicine hugely relies on strong data protection, first — to comply with laws like HIPAA and GDPR, and second — obviously, it is for patient trust. End-to-end encryption, role-based access control (RBAC), and multi-factor authentication are key practices, along with regular system audits and penetration testing to ensure security.
• Integration with existing solutions in the organization's IT infrastructure.
  Many healthcare providers still use older systems that don't easily connect with modern software. To solve this, developers can build 'middleware' — software that acts as a bridge — to automate data transfer between patient portals and other systems, ensuring everything works smoothly.
• Ensuring high performance and scalability.
  Many portals frequently freeze when user traffic exceeds the original design capacity. To solve this, developers can host the portal in a cloud environment that scales as users grow and use a microservice architecture to balance the workload across the portal's services. Additionally, they can optimize a database through indexing and caching.
• Ensuring intuitiveness. 

Since the target audience of patient portals is diverse (including the elderly, people with disabilities, and people with no technical literacy), there should be universal access to the full use of all portal functionality. To solve this, during the development of the patient portal software, the team should conduct user research and surveys to guide and optimize the software effectively. They should also adhere to the compliance of this software with the WCAG 2.1 guidelines. 

• Accessibility on mobile OSes.
  As patients increasingly manage their healthcare on digital devices, patient portals must offer a seamless mobile experience. Poor mobile optimization can lead to slow loading times and display issues. Developers can address this by building progressive web apps (PWAs) or cross-platform solutions, implementing offline access for key features, and optimizing content loading with techniques like lazy loading and data compression.

Patient portal software cost: What to expect

The cost of telemedicine app development depends on project complexity,  the team involved in the patient portal software development process, geographic location, development timeline, and the scope of features. Let's examine each of the points that influenced the cost in detail:

1. Project complexity

• Basic consultation apps with user registration, appointment scheduling, video calls, and messaging: $30K — $100K.
• Advanced telehealth platforms with multi-user portals, integrated EHR, and health analytics: $100K —  $300K+.
• Telemedicine platforms with IoT/AI integration: $250K — $500K.

2. Team composition

A typical team for creating a basic patient portal usually includes:

• 2-3 developers: Where 1-2 are front-end developers, and 1 back-end developer.
• The project manager: Tracks the project goals and wins. 
• QA specialist: Tests the app to make sure it works correctly.

3. Development timeline

The time it takes for patient portal software development also affects costs. Most telemedicine apps take between 2 to 6 months to develop:

• Simple apps usually take about 2-3 months.
• More complex apps may take up to 6-12 months.

4. Geographic location

American tech experts can be expensive. For example, a front-end developer might earn over $100K annually, about $8K monthly. He might charge between $70K — $80K for a three-month project.

Hiring remote developers can save you money. For instance, Eastern European developers or other regions often charge between $2,500 and $3,500 monthly. You can easily hire a similar team for about $30K to $40K for the same project.

If you want to find out the patient portal software cost in your case, please fill out this contact form. 

Improving patient outcomes with data management: A case by Darly Solutions

From theory to practice — let's examine our relevant Darly Solutions experience through a top case from our portfolio.

In particular, we were approached by a HealthTech company specializing in consolidating unstructured medical data for organizations in the healthcare sector. They needed a custom digital solution to monitor clinical data. 

Faced with a tight deadline and the need for high precision, we meticulously planned and assigned all the UX/UI design, web development, QA, and project management tasks. We also reviewed the team's work schedule, as some members had to work overtime. Finally, we carefully chose the technology stack. We settled on Angular, HTML, CSS, Docker, ngRx, TailwindCSS, NGX Pagination, and JSON. 

Finally, our efforts paid off. We launched the product on time and met all design, functionality, and quality standards. As a result, the client has a competitive product with all the chances to thrive in the innovative telemedicine sector.

Find out more about this case here.

The future of patient portal development

In general, the future of patient portal software development is closely connected with the fast development of modern technologies, such as:

• Artificial intelligence and machine learning. 

These technologies will personalize the portal and related healthcare services. AI-powered chatbots, including ones with recognition of human voice commands, will assist with scheduling appointments and answering FAQs. In advance, machine learning can also analyze patient data and symptoms to provide preliminary diagnoses.
Blockchain.
The introduction of blockchain technologies in patient portals can be aimed at more secure storage of their medical records and ensuring access to them only to authorized users. In addition, with its help, each interaction with data (adding, editing, and deleting) will be recorded, increasing the system's transparency.

• Virtual and augmented reality.
  These technologies can form the basis of next-generation telemedicine solutions. In particular, in the future, patients will be able to interact with doctors at a distance without reducing the quality of service. AR interfaces will also help inform patients about upcoming treatment plans.
• Internet of Things and integration with wearable devices.
  IoT solutions can provide end-to-end RPM in real-time (for example, portals will be able to collect and analyze data on the patient's pulse, blood pressure, oxygen level, and activity). Based on this data, doctors can receive instant notifications of critical changes regardless of patients' locations.
• Big data and business intelligence.
  Examples of patient portals use big data to identify trends, such as tracking the rise in the incidence of a particular virus or assessing the effectiveness of treatments. Also, end-to-end medical data analysis ensures timely prediction of exacerbation of chronic diseases. Finally, doctors and administrators of healthcare institutions will be able to monitor departments' workloads and optimize appointment scheduling.
• Biometric identification.
  Biometric mechanisms can give users access to the portal through fingerprint, face, or voice scanning, making the authorization process more secure and easier.

Conclusion

Now you know everything about patient portal development and can safely choose an off-the-shelf solution or search for a team to implement a custom one. If the second option is closer to you but you would not like to turn the search process into a real headache, you can contact us, and we will be happy to discuss the details of our future cooperation to implement your idea.

In recent years, mental health has taken center stage globally. Currently, approximately 792M people globally have mental issues and lack access to traditional therapy due to financial constraints or societal stigma. The best way to solve the issue — is to go digital. That is where mental health app development comes into play. It cuts costs and makes mental health available to everybody around the globe. 

As to the market, in 2024 alone, the app market saw expansion to approximately $7.38B. In a decade, forecasts promise growth up to nearly 10% annually, scorching $17.52B. 

If you are ready to build a new solution — now is the perfect time to start. Below, we will explain how to develop a mental health app, share standout mental health app ideas, and highlight key factors to keep in mind.

Why mental health apps are in demand

Even though people have faced mental disorders throughout the entire history, only in recent years solving these problems become normal and generally accepted. And it won’t stop. Let’s numbers speak louder — according to 2019 alone, the global capitalization for the global antidepressant market was estimated at $11.67B. By 2027, the market promises to grow to a record $18.29B. 

Of course, depression is not the only issue. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there is a growing tendency for PTSD, anxiety, and OCD (due to economic instability, military conflicts, pandemics, as well as personal problems). 

Additionally, the fast-paced world daily brings panic attacks, triggers, and burnout (prevalent among doctors, teachers, and IT workers). Youngsters are prone to issues, too; among the most “popular” — are low self-esteem and social isolation.

Financial constraints and a lack of free time put hefty pressure on those who need a traditional approach to addressing mental problems. Then, an in-person visit to a psychologist or psychiatrist becomes a real luxury. But what if there is a more efficient, accessible alternative? That’s where developing your mental health app comes in.

Business and monetization models of mental health applications

For mental health app development, the following monetization models have proven to be the most profitable:

• Fee for the services of real psychologists.
  According to this model, the application acts as a platform, connecting users with professional psychologists, coaches, or therapists (similar to a marketplace with reviews, ratings, cost of services, and other attributes). In this case, the application earns the commission from each transaction (usually 15-30%).
• Subscription-based model.
  This model has a fixed fee for regular access to content and/or services for a certain period (month, year, etc.). If your app has diverse content and functions, offer multiple pricing models. This lets users pick a plan that suits their needs best.
• Freemium.
  These models give free access to basic functionality, with particular features to be paid. Usually, there are personalized recommendations, access to exclusive courses, advanced progress analytics, etc.
• One-time purchase.
  This model involves a one-time purchase of the application, after which the user has access to all its functionality.
• In-app purchases.
  Here, the basic functionality is available for free, but additional materials or services are paid (personalized plans, unique selections of tracks for meditation, etc.).
• Ad-supported model.
  In this case, app is free but includes built-in advertising (banners, videos, native advertising, etc.). At the same time, to improve the user experience, you can offer an option to turn off ads for an extra fee.
• B2B model.
  This model translates into you selling licenses to companies with internal programs to support employee mental health.
• Selling merch.
  This model focused on branded wellness merchandise promotion via scented candles, self-improvement guides, and mindfulness notebooks.

Top mental health apps on the market

Now, let's explore the most popular mental health apps. Perhaps they'll give you extra inspiration for your mental health app development project.

Headspace

Endorsed by the editors of the New York Times and 2.8 million users globally, Headspace is a product of the mental health company of the same name. Its core functionality includes meditations dedicated to improving sleep quality, relaxation, and cultivating mindfulness. They also offer courses on meditation, managing borderline emotional states, and more. Moreover, the platform has scientifically proven results in stress reduction and a user-friendly interface.

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Calm

The Calm app is loved for high-quality content and a simple and intuitive interface. by 4.5 million (2023). And it is rightfully so. This app spins everything, from meditation sessions and effective breathing exercises to audio programs that are good for falling asleep faster. As for monetization, there is a free version with limited access.  Full access to functionals is only available with a paid subscription.

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BetterHelp

BetterHelp has over 2 million users and connects with licensed therapists via text, phone, and video. Patients must pay a fee to continue their subscription and can also volunteer to donate to others. This app goes far beyond mood issues. It covers complex disorders and symptoms, such as clinical depression and PTSD. 

Talkspace

Talkspace provides online therapy with licensed therapists through a tiered subscription model (with health insurance coverage). Moreover, this app is ideal for managing medication treatment and has many formats for direct communication with psychotherapists (including cases of emergencies).

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Moodfit

Founded in 2018, Moodfit has become the top mood assistant for more than a million people worldwide. It has personalization options, customized mood data analysis through visualization tools, and mood-improving recommendations. In addition, the app has cognitive-behavioral therapy exercises as a handy and entertaining way to deal with mental issues. 

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Woebot

Woebot is a free AI-driven bot founded by Dr. Alison in 2017.  It is based on text format and has cognitive behavioral therapy methods. Initially, this software was intended for youngsters in college and graduate school, but today, people of all ages use it.

Sanvello

Sanvello, created by Dale Beermann and Chris Goettel, provides evidence-based CBT techniques and tools to support mental well-being. Since 2015, the app has offered free features and premium content through subscription or insurance.

Key components of a mental health app

Let's determine what mental health app features should be included by default.

Registration/authentication/authorization system 

The main functionality of this system includes two types of registration: full-fledged, with the user’s email, and fast, through social networks (this is implemented through the OAuth 2.0 protocol, which is suitable for integration with Google, Apple, and Facebook). 

For better protection of user data, use two-factor authentication and store hashed passwords. This can be done, for example, using bcrypt. Additionally, allow password recovery via email or SMS and register log-in/logout events for a data security audit.

User profile

Include the functionality for adding, saving, and changing personal information (name, age, mental health goals), maintaining the user’s activity history (exercise completed, courses, sessions with psychologists, etc.), and privacy settings (public/anonymous profile). Typically, profile data is stored in a relational database (PostgreSQL/MySQL); it is also necessary to set a clear separation between public and private user data.

Home screen and navigation

The home screen should feature a clickable menu, allowing users to update content based on their settings. You can also add push notifications (for example, using Firebase Cloud Messaging). As for the menu, place meditations, psychological tests, stretching, and yoga exercises in text, video, and/or audio format. You can also include real-time communication with specialists via text, voice, and video chats.

Use cloud platforms such as AWS S3 to ensure scalable content storage. If your application is media-rich — add media streaming via HLS. 

Finally, localize content for users from different regions if you plan to maximize your target audience. 

In-app payment system

If you plan to monetize your app through subscription payments or in-app purchases, integrate App Store and Google Play to process payments via the In-App Purchase API. You can deploy the web version via Stripe. Once everything is ready, provide access control based on the paid features.

Analytics and recommendations

Place functionality for tracking user progress and boosting their motivation (e.g., mood changes) and recommendations based on analytics. The latter makes sense to implement using machine learning models (e.g., based on TensorFlow).

What to consider before creating a mental health app?

The basic functionality of a mental health app goes far beyond making it popular and profitable. Therefore, to maximize your chances of success, consider the following factors before creating a mental health app.

Competitive environment

Usually, it involves the user interface, content accessibility, and the quality of the exercises/recommendations. Notably, the Calm application (sleep stories) and BetterHelp (online chat with therapists) are prime examples of such. 

Analysis of bad ratings — matters too. In particular, users usually complain about the high subscription costs, lack of personalization, navigation problems, and negative experiences with customer support service. You can use it to make a competitive feature. 

Target audience

Your target audience — above all. This can be young people (18-35 years old) who need an effective solution for stress management and improving sleep quality. Or the elderly might be searching for a more convenient professional in-home/palliative care format. Finally, it could be corporate clients who want to implement programs for the mental support of their employees. 

Ultimately, user needs may vary. Based on the insights, determine the preferred content format (e.g., meditation, CBT, DBT, video sessions) and presentation style.

Regulatory requirements and user data privacy

The most common and comprehensive regulations are GDPR and HIPAA regulations, which govern the processing of personal data and medical information. To comply with them under the mental health app development process, you must implement data encryption (via SSL/TLS) and ensure transparent privacy policies.

Marketing strategy

To attract a broad user base, create a unique selling proposition. This can be achieved through AI diagnostics, integration with wearable devices via IoT, or simply offering a lower price than competitors. Next, point out the comprehensive marketing strategy. Select the right promotion channels: social media, partnerships with therapists, or advertising through user reviews. is essential for developing a comprehensive marketing strategy. Additionally, to retain users — regularly update content. 

Testing and feedback

It’s better to subject an app with a diverse target audience to beta testing. To do so, find the first users who could be your potential consumers, gather feedback, and optimize the app based on their input.

Financial costs and ROI

Finally, estimate the project budget. It should include development, marketing, updates, customer support, and infrastructure maintenance. Given the costs, you must also estimate how long it will take till your project is profitable. It might be useful for future investors.

What are the main phases of mental health app development?

Now that you have so many insights at hand, you can start the mental health app development process. Let's find out how this happens in practice.

Ideation 

First, define the problem. It is the mental health issues that trouble your audience and their goals. Obviously, your app should cover it. The solution might vary. It could reduce stress, help with sleep, or heal depression. Moreover, in the very first stage — conduct a competitive analysis. This will help identify niche leaders, find the target audience, and formulate a USP.

Planning 

At this stage of the mental health app development process, you will already have enough information to determine the main functionality of your teletherapy application. Select a technology stack (or at least decide whether it will be a native or cross-platform solution), and clarify the business model. Based on this, you can calculate an approximate project budget.

Design 

From now on, your mental health app developers can start creating prototypes and gradually turn them into a full-fledged design. Note that to develop mental health apps, you must use WCAG 2.0 guidelines, which ensure all users can access the app's functionality. Once the mental health app design is complete, test usability with real users to refine the navigation.

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Development 

The mental health app development process is divided into frontend and backend. The first includes the implementation of the user part of the software, and the second – everything that happens on the server side. As individual modules are ready, your mental health app developers will need to perform unit and integration testing to prevent difficult-to-fix bugs in the future.

Testing 

Once the entire codebase is ready, QA specialists and testers will create test cases to ensure each function works correctly and the app performs well under high user load. This testing also ensures that all user actions within the app are secure and protect their privacy.

Release

Now that testing is complete, and all detected bugs are fixed, you can publish the application in the App Store and/or Google Play (your development team will first need to check whether it meets all platform requirements). After publishing, you can launch an advertising campaign to attract the first users, as well as set up tracking tools like Google Analytics and Amplitude to analyze user behavior.

Post-release support

At this mental health app development stage, you must check your application's speed and stability regularly. You will also need to update/expand its functionality once in a while and optimize what already exists based on feedback from real users. An equally important point is ensuring compatibility with newer versions of iOS/Android.

Challenges in mental health app development

Various challenges can arise during the mental health app development process. Let’s analyze them:

• Compliance with regulations.
  Mental health apps often handle and maintain personal information, including medical data, which imposes obligations on you as a developer to implement GDPR, CCPA, or HIPAA compliance.
• Balance between personalization and privacy. 

While personalization — is a key feature of these apps, it sometimes conflicts with privacy requirements. To address this, implement advanced mechanisms for anonymizing user data, which will reduce the need to send sensitive information to the server.

• Evidence base.
  The content provided by your app must be scientifically sound and effective for users. To do this, you should either accompany all your treatment plans with individual recommendations from real therapists or initially use approaches with proven effectiveness.
• User retention.
  Many users abandon apps after a few days of use, so your app may need additional retention mechanics (such as gamification and adaptive push notifications) that won’t make users feel guilty or overwhelmed.
• Monetization efficiency.
  Most users search for free or cheap health-related apps. At this point, you need to figure out the balance between user accessibility and the financial sustainability of your software.

How much do developers charge to build a mental health application?

The budget for developing a mental health app development depends on its complexity. So, we can't give exact numbers without first discussing your idea with your development team. But the approximate price ranges from:

• $140K for a teletherapy app.  
• $70K for a simple mood-tracking app with self-monitoring features.

Back-end features, like a database and admin panel, are often overlooked in cost estimates. Developers typically include these in the overall pricing for mental health applications.

If you want to get an estimate of your project, please contact us. 

Mental health app design: Best practices

Now, let's analyze several mental health apps (some of which have already been presented to you above) whose design has pleasantly surprised us. Maybe they will help you think better through your mental health app development process. 

Headspace

This app is praised for its simple and minimalistic interface, with bright illustrations and smooth animations that literally "nudge" users to meditate with its help. It is also adapted for beginners and is generally perceived as intuitive. This approach to design minimizes anxiety in users and motivates them to meditate regularly.

Calm

The aesthetics of the Calm app lie primarily in the author's images of nature, a soft color scheme, and smooth animations. Together, they create an atmosphere of relaxation  - that’s what you need to reduce stress. The app also stands out from its competitors with its "sleep stories" that help people with high anxiety fall asleep faster. 

Reflectly

Reflectly's unique design uses artificial intelligence to offer a personalized experience. A clear, user-friendly interface, dynamic prompts, and mood analytics complement this. Together, these features make the app an ideal choice for audiences of all ages.

Daylio

Daylio's intuitive interface is accompanied by simple icons for tracking the user’s mood and activity. Moreover, all these application elements are easy. Developers ensured that performing target actions doesn’t take too long. The application also has a built-in report generator with visualization elements so that users can monitor their progress.

Happify

The Happify app has a gamified interface. It simplifies and informalises the process of improving the psycho-emotional state. The gamification principles here are based on scientific methods to improve mood. So, it does not add to users' cognitive load.

Mental health app ideas to succeed in 2025

In this section, let’s look through the most viral mental health app development ideas so you can pinpoint your project to success:

• Integration of AI.
  AI assistants can help analyze moods and behavior patterns, give personalized recommendations on how to improve well-being, and remind them of any regular upcoming activities, like a daily mood rate system.
• Social interaction.
  This can be implemented via in-app groups of users with similar mental problems where they could share their healing experiences and receive mutual support.
• Integration with wearable devices.
  Through the IoT, you can analyze heart rate, assess stress levels, determine sleep quality, and create a common mental health map.
• AR and VR tools integration.
  It might be useful for relaxation (to enhance the immersion effect).
• "Instant help".
  Through the screen for quick access to ready-made materials and an online chat with a psychotherapist.
• Content specially adapted for children and adolescents.
  For example, these could be games for managing emotions or recommendations for teenagers on dealing with anxiety and stress;
• B2B solutions for companies.
  in particular, these could be psychotherapeutic assistance to prevent burnout.

Highlights of our experience in delivering healthcare solutions

Finally, we'd like to share our experience developing a mental health app. A client approached us to expand their services to the web, specifically to support small businesses recovering from the recession caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The objective was to create a platform to attract a target audience seeking health-related products and services.

For this project, we assembled a team of ten specialists. We chose Ionic and Vue.js for the frontend tech stack, with Laravel for the backend. The result was an online platform featuring a simplified login process, the ability to schedule and reschedule meetings between clients and trainers, an intuitive search for events and classes, role-based access, and an integrated payment system for online payments (covering group and individual courses, as well as event participation). We also implemented live session connections via Google Meet and Zoom. The solution was complemented by a clean, minimalist design with a calming color scheme, ensuring a pleasant and user-friendly experience.

If you want to learn more about this project, please follow this link.

Final thoughts

With this comprehensive guide, you can confidently start looking for specialists who would bring your idea to life. Don’t go any further, as you are already in the right place! Just fill out this form, and our mental health app development team will contact you as soon as possible!

In recent years, healthcare IT outsourcing has become a top solution for healthcare organizations in the United States, and even in 2024, it still holds positions. Actually, the U.S. healthcare IT services market was worth $11.44 billion in 2023 and is expected to grow to $52.59 billion by 2033. This occurrence continues to grow because of the huge demand for solutions like Electronic Health Records (EHRs), telemedicine, healthcare data analytics, cloud computing solutions, AI-driven diagnostic tools, etc. It is essential for healthcare organizations of different sizes and types, like clinics, labs, fresh startups, and medtech companies that develop hardware. 

Outsourcing helps organizations to allocate their resources more efficiently and enables them to invest in other critical areas such as patient care and service expansion. It also helps them avoid any issues connected with strict regulations, because outsourcing companies have expertise in building secure systems for data protection and privacy, so they stay updated with upcoming changes, and implement necessary updates to maintain compliance. 

Generally, healthcare organizations in the USA often rely on IT outsourcing for solutions such as:

• secure hospital management systems;
• telemedicine platforms;
• medical billing software;
• data analytics tools;
• remote patient monitoring;
• mHealth apps;
• system integrations;
• secure cloud storage for sensitive data.

As the healthcare industry evolves, the necessity for improvement and expansion of IT services grows. This is where web and mobile app development, quality assurance testing, software development, and UI/UX design help meet this demand and improve patient care. 

Moreover, AI is being integrated into healthcare technologies, providing advanced predictive analytics and automation. This means providers can streamline administrative tasks and improve patient outcomes. 

It is more effective to combine the integration of technology and design simultaneously, so when a company handles both development and UI/UX design, it ensures smooth collaboration between teams, helps to detect early issues and reduce the risk of rework or delays. This approach keeps the project on track, improves cost efficiency by minimizing operational expenses, and provides flexibility for adjustments based on client needs. Plus, it helps to match the final product with the original design vision.

If you are looking for outsourcing companies, we suggest you take a look at the top 10 IT outsourcing companies in the USA, with a wide selection of services that focus on healthcare organizations.

Top 10 healthcare IT outsourcing companies in the USA

1. Darly Solutions

Darly Solutions stands out in healthcare IT outsourcing because our full-cycle approach covers everything from UI/UX design to software development and quality assurance. Darly Solutions supports a wide range of healthcare providers, from medical startups to SMEs, including clinics, labs, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and diagnostic centers. Additionally, we provide software for medical hardware, such as CT scanners, mammography machines and other diagnostic equipment. 

Our company ensures smooth communication between teams and fast project delivery. We can create reliable healthcare solutions such as EHR/EMR, telemedicine platforms, mHealth apps, SaMD, medical billing software, custom MVP solutions, AI-powered healthcare tools, patient portals, hospital management systems, and more. 

Our ability to combine development and UI/UX design reduces project costs and speeds up delivery timelines. We also offer mobile app development for both medical professionals and patients so that you can enjoy your experience across iOS and Android platforms, too. 

Moreover, we provide project management services such as managing remote teams, overseeing software development, and more to help healthcare providers maintain a seamless development process. 

We guarantee high quality, innovative IT solutions, and reliable cooperation by providing a full range of services for the healthcare sector.‍

2. Lifepoint

With years of experience in the industry, Lifepoint offers healthcare software development services that improve the efficiency of medical operations. Their expertise covers areas like cloud-based systems, data management, and healthcare compliance solutions, which help healthcare organizations monitor processes while maintaining high standards of patient care. Lifepoint's technology ensures seamless integration across multiple platforms, which can help clients boost outreach and guarantee regulatory compliance.

3. Bitcot

Bitcot offers a range of healthcare software development services. They specialize in AI and automation to streamline data management and predictive analytics. Moreover, the company provides consulting and strategy services, they guide clients through technology choices and implementation plans ensuring compliance and security of all healthcare needs. Their system integration services unify disparate systems, while legacy software modernization improves performance and security. 

4. Binariks

Binariks provides healthcare software development services and offers custom solutions like telehealth, remote patient monitoring, and cloud-based infrastructure. They focus on developing SaMD and hospital management systems, as well as EHR/EMR and CDMS software. Binariks also builds healthcare insurance solutions, automating interactions between insurers, healthcare providers, and governments.

5. Ntiva

Ntiva offers healthcare IT services that help healthcare providers meet regulatory requirements like HIPAA compliance. They ensure secure, compliant IT solutions and thoroughly understand best healthcare industry practices. Ntiva also improves multi-location workflows by consolidating systems for secure, centralized access across multiple offices. Additionally, they offer data backup and recovery services to protect patient information and maintain business continuity.

6. Scopic

Scopic is a healthcare software development company that has over 16 years of experience. They offer custom solutions for the healthcare industry and use an 8-step workflow to deliver their projects. The process starts with gathering project requirements through a free consultation, then they analyze, make a detailed planning, and go through execution, testing, deployment, and ongoing support. They also offer digital marketing services to improve outreach in the healthcare sector.

7. Glorium Technologies

Glorium Technologies suggests healthcare software development services and focuses on mHealth applications, mental health and meditation app development, medical device software, and IoT healthcare solutions. Their expertise supports healthcare providers in creating digital health tools to improve wellness and streamline medical device functionality. 

8. Interexy

Interexy develops healthcare mobile apps for medical professionals and patients. Their solutions integrate seamlessly into the broader healthcare ecosystem and work with pharmacies, prescription systems, and EHR mechanisms. Interexy delivers custom app development to improve homecare and medical services.

9. Velvetech

Velvetech supports a huge list of healthcare organizations, including hospitals, clinics, and pharmaceutical companies. Also, they help medical device manufacturers, biotech, and life science companies accelerate product delivery through innovative software and hardware solutions. For diagnostic centers and medical research, Velvetech offers tools to streamline data management and research efforts. They also provide IT solutions for dental providers and medical education centers. 

10. Enterbridge

EnterBridge offers solutions for custom healthcare software development, like Robotic Process Automation (RPA), to automate manual tasks and reduce human error. They also provide tools for mobile workforces, particularly for in-home care, and enable seamless connectivity and centralized data access for better patient care.

Conclusion

When you choose an IT company for outsourcing, we recommend to focus on service providers that offer flexibility, quick delivery, seamless integration, and full-cycle development.

If you need a reliable IT partner for healthcare software development, contact Darly Solutions and get solutions that meet your business needs.

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If you have an idea for implementing a digital solution, but its business model is not yet clear, you may need a lot of resources to find the right one. But how can you test the effectiveness of this idea in practice when each of the potential target audience’s representatives may perceive it differently? The answer is simple: you should consider minimum viable product or MVP development for startups. Below, we will explain its peculiarity and analyze the advantages of this approach.

What Is an MVP for a Startup?

An MVP for startups is a software solution with a basic set of functions and a simplified visual that clearly demonstrates its unique selling proposition (USP) and does not have any additional features (that is, if you remove something from its functionality, it will lose this USP).

The Importance of MVP Development for Startups

The main purpose of MVP development for startup is simple: since early-stage startups do not have clear, verified business models, it is important to make sure that they will be accepted by their target audiences. Otherwise, their owners risk losing a lot of financial and time resources on something that “does not work” for the end consumers. So, to avoid this, it is better to implement such projects gradually, optimizing and expanding them, taking into account feedback obtained from real users.

MVP Development Process

Here are the main stages of the MVP development startups process:

• Defining the problem or goal of the target audience that you are going to help them solve/achieve with your product;
• Conducting market demand analysis, which consists of a detailed study of the target audience, market trends, similar software solutions, etc.;
• Rapid prototyping of the future solution and defining its key features that form the USP;
• Agile development of an MVP;
• Collecting feedback from real users;
• Continuous product iteration after the MVP launch aimed at tailoring the product to the needs of its target audience.

Top 9 Benefits of Building an MVP for Startups

In this paragraph, we would like to introduce MVP benefits that are valuable for each startup owner.

Cost Efficiency

Creating a minimum valuable solution is, first of all, much cheaper than in the case of a full-fledged one. This means that the initial budget for your project will be moderate, and you will not have to sacrifice anything important – for example, the budget for marketing, the salaries of your full-time specialists, and so on.

Faster Time to Market

No matter how unique your idea is, there is always a risk that someone will follow your example before you. In turn, the implementation of the MVP will allow you to reduce the time-to-market and, thus, gain an additional competitive advantage.

Market Validation

A quick launch of the MVP will help you validate it in real market conditions as fast as possible. In the future, you will be able to optimize it based on real feedback from its users and then improve it with each iteration and make it more and more valuable to them.

Risk Mitigation

Getting a working solution up and running quickly will help you identify its hidden issues early on, all thanks to the fact that it will be accessible to users from all over the world. In fact, no other type of testing, no matter how many resources are involved, can provide the same thoroughness in identifying errors and inconsistencies.

Investor Attraction

By launching a “raw” but functioning product to market early, it will be available to potential investors, too. Agree that this approach to demonstrating your idea looks much more viable and capable of achieving your goals than presenting a business plan only.

Customer-Centric Development

Generally speaking, creating a minimum viable solution is one of the key startup success factors since its entire development cycle is tailored to “please” its target audience. Indeed, since user feedback has to be taken into account long before the solution is released (first, it is tested by the project team and then – by representatives of focus groups), it turns out to be truly focused on the needs of the end users.

Enhanced Learning

MVP in startups helps to conduct an end-to-end assessment of market needs and make decisions based on the data obtained. This way, you can use the obtained insights in the further evolution of your product, turning it into a full-fledged software solution step by step.

Flexibility and Scalability

MVP development for tech startup involves creating an initially scalable, flexible foundation that is easy to modify and to which you can quickly add new/remove unnecessary functionality without much risk (primarily, associated with the appearance of hard-to-fix bugs).

Building a User Base

Finally, when you launch a full-fledged solution, it will already have some audience interested in using it. Thus, you will be able to reduce your budget for early adopter engagement and, in particular, the time and money needed to research and create a portrait of a potential client.

Conclusion

Now, knowing all the advantages and goals of startup MVP development, you can understand whether this option is right for you. In particular, if you are inclined in its favor, you can contact us, a service provider with many years of experience creating MVP solutions for startups in different industries. We will accompany you throughout the entire lifecycle of your project – from the ideation stage to the release and support of its full-fledged version.

First announced in 2014 by Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood, today, the concept of the next-generation internet, called Web 3.0, opens up a whole niche for startups. Below, we will look at its basics, describe its advantages and disadvantages, and also find out what technologies can be used to implement Web 3.0 solutions.

What Is Web 3.0?

The Internet that we are used to is defined as Web 2.0. It allows all users to upload content themselves, making it publicly available. This became possible thanks to the emergence of social networks, which over time, instead of providing users with the desired freedom, began to limit them with all sorts of rules and censorship. This, in turn, has become the main reason for looking for new, alternative concepts that would go against these restrictions, giving users more control over their publications.

In this regard, instead of centralized networks, the operation of which was tied to central servers, decentralization was proposed. It had to provide a “smart” distribution of content to servers located throughout the world. Thanks to this approach, widespread availability of user content would be ensured. With this approach, to block specific publications, the consent of all network nodes is needed – instead of just one, as was the case with Web 2.0.

As for technologies capable of implementing a decentralized network architecture, these include, first of all, blockchain, which would transform the centralized Internet into a distributed content database. Actually, this radical transformation would give the world the Web 3.0 Internet.

Today the simplest Web 3.0 formula looks like this: "read + write + own".

Why Is Web 3.0 Important?

Due to its undeniable value for ordinary Internet users, Web 3.0 can be of particular interest to businesses that are constantly developing in the digital plane.

Specifically, by increasing content accessibility, reclaiming ownership of user-created content, and overall end-to-end user centricity, businesses can benefit from launching personalized Web3 websites, apps, and services that aim to increase trust and engagement among their users, as well as providing advertising based on their behavioral patterns.

This way, businesses can strengthen their relationships with consumers and, therefore, increase their profits.

How Web 3.0 Works

As you can already understand from the above, Web 3.0 is based on decentralized networks, but this description is not complete. In particular, Web 3.0 also implies that any Web3 website or application must be able to process information like the human brain, that is, as artificial intelligence and machine learning already do today. This is how an alternative name for the 3rd generation of the Internet has appeared – the semantic web.

This requirement for the “intelligence” of the Internet arose for a reason: since, due to decentralization, users and machines interact with data directly, this data must be recognized by the network not only using predefined algorithms – now, its context has become no less important.

Benefits of Web 3.0

With the right approach, virtually any company that continually grows its online presence can reap a number of benefits from Web 3.0 software development. These include the following:

• Increasing customer loyalty achieved through the AI and smart chatbot introduction aimed at completely personalizing digital content and services;
• Improved analytics thanks to more complete and accurate sets of user data obtained from disparate sources (and, as a result – the ability to create more accurate marketing strategies);
• Automation of a wider range of tasks provided by blockchain, ML, and AI;
• Increased security that only distributed registry technologies can guarantee;
• New partnership opportunities without the involvement of third parties thanks to blockchain and smart contracts;
• Supply chain optimization, also enabled by blockchain that provides full control and transparency of supply chain operations;
• Copyright protection provided by giving users full control over their data (also thanks to blockchain).

Challenges of Web 3.0

Despite the existence of decentralized solutions, it is too early to say that the 3rd-gen Internet already exists. To make this thesis true, developers have to implement connectivity between Web3 solutions so that the data they collect and process become globally accessible.

For example, if we are talking about Web 2.0, in it, data exchange occurs via the HTTP protocol. In this case, there is an intermediary between the participants (namely, the server) on which information, databases, applications, etc. are stored. The concept of Web 3.0 implies the organization of a new level of network interaction, without a server. So far, such technologies do not exist – it can be explained by the limitations of physical equipment and infrastructure in general. 

An equally serious challenge is to ensure proper speed of data transfer and processing in the Web 3.0 development solutions. In a more global sense, this means a scalability problem since the need to maintain a proper balance between decentralization and security is most often achieved by limiting throughput, as we can see in the examples of Bitcoin and Ethereum.

At the same time, options to circumvent these obstacles are already being considered – a potential way out of the situation could be the creation of a cross-chain infrastructure to integrate all blockchain networks. Similar solutions (though not so large-scale as to replace the whole Web 2.0) have already been implemented in the Polkadot and Cosmos projects.

Technologies that are powering Web 3.0

Earlier we talked about the need to use AI and ML in Web 3.0, but let's take a look at the full list of technologies that will be relevant for each Web 3.0 developer.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Together with machine learning, artificial intelligence in Web 3.0 provides better analysis of user data and creates a personalized user experience based on it. Thanks to this, users get the content they need faster, without getting confused by colossal volumes of useless or only partially useful information. These technologies can also be responsible for automating resource-intensive processes such as data sorting and forecasting. Finally, we should not discount natural language processing – one of the areas of AI that ensures more accurate and context-sensitive recognition of user queries by machines.

Blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies (DLT)

In Web 3.0 application development, blockchain and other DLTs provide better security when storing user data by eliminating centralized control over it. These technologies also make it possible to create tokens (including non-fungible ones, NFTs), which are decentralized digital assets stored on the blockchain. They define ownership of real or virtual objects and, in the future, can be used to protect copyright.

3D graphics and animation

With the faster content delivery typical to Web3, 3D graphics and animation solutions will become commonplace. In particular, Web 3.0 opens up new opportunities for creating realistic three-dimensional objects to ensure an immersive experience that was previously unavailable with any other digital technologies. Supplemented with reality-like animation, these objects can act as avatars of living users and thereby make them full-fledged participants in meta universes.

The future of Web 3.0

Given all of the above, it is unlikely that Web 3.0 will be a single system – we are sure, it will be a comprehensive solution that goes beyond the traditional web. This approach will ensure the management of the Internet by the user community and exclude content monopolization.

As for specific areas of development, the most promising are considered to be meta universes that combine physical, augmented, and virtual realities with their own blockchain-based tokenomics. At the same time, it is important to understand that despite the many points of contact, currently, metaverses and Web 3.0 are different things since those that exist today are still products from centralized IT companies, with their typical problems. Therefore, the solutions that will mark the emergence of Web 3.0 will differ significantly both from the point of view of technical implementation and the very concept of interaction with users as well.

If you, like us, consider the Web 3.0 direction to be promising for your business and already have an idea that will bring this concept closer to reality, you can contact our Web 3.0 development company. We will advise you on the implementation of your project and also select specialists who will guide you from collecting project requirements to its launch.

Nowadays, having a company website is as essential as having an office, domain or telephone number. By 2020, approximately 4.5 billion people, or more than half of the world’s population, are connected in some way to the World Wide Web in order to satisfy their entertainment, education, research and consumer needs.

If your business does not have a website, we provide a number of benefits to you:

1.  It sets the first impression

When your audience visits your website, it gives them their first impression of your business. They will judge your business within seconds. In these first few seconds, you can make a positive or negative impact on your audience. The impression you make on them can either get them to remain on your page and learn about your business, or leave your page and turn to a competitor.

2.  Cost-Effective

Use your website to sell goods and services directly to consumers without various forms such as printed media, radio, television, etc. Having the website will make promoting much easier and less expensive.

3. Online 24/7

Anyone, anywhere and anytime, has access to your website and gets business information and details about your products and services.

4. Advertising and Increase Sales

SEO and online advertising are a great way to be the first company that a potential new customer sees when searching for a product or service online. An effective website with great content can attract many more people and increase sales.

5. Customer Service Online

Websites provide an easier way to handle customer service. In the modern world, people buy products and services using mobile phones to browse the internet.  So, it might help customers find your location while they are on the move. This is especially important for restaurants, cafes, and other eateries, but is also relevant for other businesses.

However, there are a few disadvantages of having a website for your business:

1. Reliability

The information on your website might be updated on a regular basis. Otherwise, you will lose some part of potential customers due to unreliable information on the website.

2. Bad Publicity

If customers are unhappy with your products or services, they may feel the need to reference your website in their reviews or comments. This could potentially be damaging, hurting your reputation and your search engine ranking. Of course, not having a website won’t prevent such things from happening, but it might allow you to monitor and be aware of it.

3. Right development team

It is no secret that there are lots of companies that can design and develop a website. Among the sea of designers and developers, you need to find a team that will understand your business goals and the needs of your customers and convert them into a beautiful website.

Having read that, you might come to the conclusion that having a website is a crucial thing in the digital world, and it is a great opportunity to raise your sales.

Darly team understands this fact, and we are going to show how we can provide your business and your potential customers with a great experience.

At Darly Solutions, we offer two main approaches to creating a website:

Creating a website from scratch

Required knowledge and tools:

1. HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language)

HTML is the basic structure of web pages and web applications, which makes the content semantic to the web browser. Every web page you see on the Internet is written using one version of HTML code or another.

2. CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)

CSS is the language for describing the presentation of Web pages, including colors, layout, and fonts. Without CSS, a web page would look like a large white page with some unordered text and image on it. CSS is the thing that makes it all look pretty.

3. Scripting Languages

HTML and CSS cannot be interactive without scripting languages. To make a dynamic web page that will respond to user actions, you need languages like JavaScript and jQuery. Server-side languages like PHP, Python and Ruby might also be needed over time.

4. Database Management

Database Management allows to organize, store and retrieve data from a computer. Database Management Systems like MySQL, MongoDB and PostgreSQL are used on the server-side to do this job efficiently.

5. FTP (File Transfer Protocol)

FTP is a standard Internet protocol for transmitting files between computers on the Internet over TCP/IP connections. FTP is used to transfer a website’s source files to its hosted server more easily.

Creating a website with CMS

WordPress is extremely powerful and can run most types of websites. Statistics show that WordPress is currently the most popular CMS (Content Management System) in the world. It powers 27.8% of all sites on the web, with about 50,000 new sites being created daily. With more and more people viewing sites on their smartphones and other mobile devices, it’s really important to have a site that is responsive to these digital demands. With WordPress, most themes come mobile friendly by default. Usually, WordPress is used for creating blogs where you have to work with a big amount of texts and need to edit them all the time.

Design

The success of any website entirely depends on how good its web design is. It is important so much that 38% of the visitors will leave a website if they find the design unattractive. When your audience visits your website, it gives them their first impression of your business. They will judge your business within seconds. In these first few seconds, you want to make a positive impact on your audience.

You can think of web design like selling a car – it could have the most incredible engine, but if the appearance is hideous, people will not be interested in buying it.

Good website design needs a wide range of professionals having expertise in different areas.

Here in this article, we’ll outline the 5 steps to create the perfect design.

1. Set your goal and strategy

2. Research the latest web design trends

3. Select a team for cooperation

4. Decide on your branding

5. Think about positioning and optimization of your content

We’ll run through all the steps in detail below.

Set your goal and strategy

Before you jump head-first into designing your website, you need to be clear on its purpose. Keep in mind that your visitors want to understand what your business is all about in the blink of an eye. Having multiple main objectives is likely to result in confusion.

Once your purpose is clear, the focus shifts towards what action you want visitors to take when they land on your website. Is your site there just to display information? To sell products? To get sign-ups? The answer to this will ultimately dictate how your website looks and feels. Using E-Commerce as an example, one crucial element of your design is your landing page.

Research the latest web design trends

It’s important to note that just because a web trend is current, it doesn’t mean it’s necessarily right for you. You can look at what competitors are doing and analyze the things and features that you like and dislike. Each sector will have different styles, so it’s important to consider this fact.

Select a team for cooperation

Design of your website plays a vital role in your online marketing campaign’s success. If you want to drive the best results for your business, you must invest in designing a website that encourages people to learn more about your business. At Darly Solutions, we have over 4 years of experience designing websites.

We are a full-service IT company that specializes in web development, mobile app development, UI/UX design and so on. Our team of experts will bring their knowledge and expertise to your campaign. We know the importance of web design and can help you create a website you’ll love.

Wireframes, prototypes and mockups form three of the earlier steps of product design. The great way to explain them is to imagine a parallel between them and the human body. The wireframe is the skeleton or the structure of the product. The prototype is the brain or the organ that decides how the human should move and interact with something. The mockup is the skin, hair, and facial features, or brand, that make the human instantly recognizable.

Decide on your branding

Color is one of the brand’s biggest communication tools. In fact, according to Color Matters, a signature color can boost brand recognition by 80%. There’s a lot of psychology behind people’s perception of color, so it’s important to understand how it’s used in relation to your industry.

Most brands have one dominant color, then two or three secondary colors. Blue is the most popular color, with one third of the top 100 brands using it in their logo.

There are many factors that should be considered like colors, font style, imagery etc. In this case, a professional designer can help and suggest a solution based on your business and your requirements.

Think about positioning and optimization of your content

There are two things that you need to consider: positioning and optimization.

Recent research shows that website users scan a page in a shape that resembles an ‘F’. This is why navigation bars on websites are nearly always displayed across the top of the page. It’s the first thing people are drawn to when landing on the site.

Optimization is the process that helps content rank higher on search engines (primary example being Google). Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can increase the quality or quantity of people landing on your pages.

Conclusion

After all of that, congratulations! Your website is now live. You can publish it, but it’s time to check if everything works before you go live! Ask your family, friends, and colleagues to test the site in preview mode (all website builders and E-Commerce platforms will have this), and see if they find anything wrong. You can even get members of the public to test it too. Always take the time to properly check your website. After that, you’re ready: publish your site!

Now, you’re the owner of a live website. But, if you think that you can kick back and relax now, you are quite wrong. Regularly checking the growth and performance of the site will be your responsibility.

However, you can connect your website to tracking tools or at least have an analytic app to install. Alternatively, you can connect your site to Google Analytics.

The truth is, a web designer’s job is never truly done. If you just sit back and admire your work, others will overtake you. So, you need to keep on top of your site’s performance and check for design trends updates.

When you are going to create a new web solution from scratch or optimize an existing one, one of the key indicators of top high quality will most likely be a high response rate (to user actions) and SEO-friendliness. 

Unfortunately, client-side rendering, which is done by default in many modern web frameworks and libraries, can become an antagonist for developers pursuing these two goals. In this case, it makes sense to consider the possibility of implementing server-side rendering. Below, we will explain to you what it is, what its features are, with the help of which software tools it can be implemented, and also for which projects it is best suited. 

Definition of Server-Side Rendering

Generally speaking, server-side rendering (SSR), as is probably clear from the name, occurs on the backend side. First, the browser sends a request from the client side to the server, after which the SSR server returns an HTML page with all the necessary meta tags, styles, markup, and other attributes. Then, in the browser, the rendering itself happens, the results of which immediately become visible to the end user.

Why is all this necessary if you can use the default option, client-side rendering (CSR)? – you may ask. In fact, everything is simple: search engine crawlers do not recognize the SEO text contained on the pages (or the page, if it is the only one) of the CSR solution. Thus, if the CEO occupies a significant part of the promotion strategy of your project, you can achieve better results only by implementing SSR. Let us add that projects with sophisticated business logic may “suffer” from CSR in the context of performance since the increased load in the form of several synchronous requests will lead to delays in the interface’s response to user actions. And this is exactly the case where server-side rendering can also become a win-win solution.

Currently, SSR technology is actively used in such world-famous solutions as Airbnb, Upwork, YouTube, Netflix, Uber, etc.

What Are the Benefits of Server-Side Rendering?

Now, based on the above, let's look at the key benefits of SSR.

• SEO and social media friendliness. The server side render approach ensures improved SEO ranking through the correct indexing of pages – now, search robots can recognize SEO text and other attributes important for good ranking. First of all, this is due to the fact that now, search robots do not need to read SSR JavaScript code. As for friendliness for social platforms, it is explained by the ability to display colorful previews when sharing SSR-rendered pages – all due to the correct recognition of meta tags. 
• Better app/website performance. SSR rendering provides a faster initial page load as the JS to HTML conversion is done on the backend. Thus, users see refreshed content faster than with CSR, in particular when it comes to dynamically updated pages. In the long term, this can ensure a reduced bounce rate for websites and web applications. 
• Lower load on the user's device and better user experience (UX). Due to the fact that user requests are now processed on the server side, the user device will experience minimal load. All that remains for it is to interpret the HTML code returned by the server.

What Are the Risks of Server-Side Rendering?

To ensure the objectivity of our review, let's also analyze the disadvantages of server-side rendering.

• Higher TTFB. TTFB or time to the first byte is one of the highest priority indicators of good (or, vice versa, insufficient) performance of web pages. This parameter indicates the time it takes for the browser to receive the first byte of page data processed on the server side. Typically, compared to CSR, the TTFB value is higher because instead of returning a file with links to JS, the server spends some time converting JS to HTML code.
• Limits on the number of requests simultaneously processed on the server side. Due to the increased load on the server, the number of requests processed synchronously will be less than in the case of client-side rendering. Thus, the server throughput will be reduced.
• Need to wait for all the HTML code to load. While the page is loading HTML code under SSR, the user will not be able to perform any new actions on it.

If we add to the above disadvantages a fairly high entry threshold into SSR, as well as an increase in the budget of such projects (due to frequent requests to the server), it becomes clear that this approach is not suitable for everyone.

Server-Side Rendering Frameworks and Tools

As for the server side rendering frameworks and libraries that can be used to process client-side requests on the backend, these include React, Next.js, Nuxt.js, Angular (v7 and newer), and Svelte/Sapper. They use one of the most universal server-side templating languages – JavaScript.

Below we propose to consider server-side rendering React concepts only since React is one of the main tools that we use in web development.

Server-Side Rendering vs Client-Side Rendering

Server-side rendering is not a one-size-fits-all solution since there are situations where its alternative, client-side rendering, is the best choice. In particular, if the content on web pages is updated dynamically – that is, it requires the rendering of some components only (i.e., those with whom the user interacted) while the whole page doesn’t need to be updated, CSR is better suited since part of the content with which the user did not interact will be already loaded.

However, considering that during initial initialization, the content is not displayed until the page is fully loaded into the browser (this can take 2 or 3 seconds, which is critical for a modern consumer of Internet content), when implementing CSR, the site may have poor SEO regardless from the professionalism of SEO specialists (note that this is not a default situation, because with the right approach, lightweight projects with CSR are still ranked well). And this is where the SSR React approach can come to the rescue as usually, React server side components are well-recognized by search crawlers. Thus, by resorting to it, you will be able to ensure enhanced content visibility for search engines.

Server-Side Rendering: SEO vs. Performance

As you can already understand, server-side rendering is capable of providing the best SEO performance for solutions that really need it. In particular, thanks to this approach, search engines will not need to interpret JavaScript. At the same time, if you decide to render in React applying CSR by default, for the React server side rendering implementation, you will have to use additional tools to indicate metadata (for example, React Helmet).

As for performance, in the case of high-load projects, with the server side React rendering, this indicator will be better than with CSR since the SSR website or application will not be limited by the resources of the user device and browser. Also, the user device itself will be less loaded since its only task in the context of updating content will be its output (without rendering).

Conclusion

To sum up, we would like to emphasize that with the correct use of JavaScript frameworks for SSR, you can solve the problem of poor ranking of single-page applications (SPAs) as well as content-heavy websites where SEO and bootstrap performance are critical. On the other hand, CSR is suitable for software with dynamically updated content, that is, content that should change without completely refreshing the page.

However, you should not limit yourself to just these two rendering approaches. In particular, there are also hybrid rendering approaches that combine the best characteristics of SSR and CSR. For example, you can consider the static site generation (SSG) vs SSR couple – perhaps the first option will be the best choice for your project.

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Hey, are you here to find a solution for a consolidated and easy-to-access “home” for your business information, which is usually transferred from different places, often unrelated to each other? Then, you probably need to think about creating a digital space where it will be integrated, cleaned, structured, and stored accordingly, for further use in your regular business operations. But what is this space? Let’s find it out right now.

What Is Data Warehousing?

In a nutshell, it is a repository where your business data comes from disparate sources, where it is brought to the proper quality, and where it is stored, providing individuals with the appropriate rights with easy and fast access to it. Typically, such repositories serve as one of the central components in automated analytical solutions, but, as practice shows, the range of their application can be much wider.

Key Components of a Data Warehouse

In general, its main components are considered to be the following:

• Sources, from which structured and unstructured information comes – these can be third-party databases, tables, systems, applications, etc.;
• Data Extraction, Transformation, and Loading (ETL) tools, which define scenarios for extracting, transforming, and loading the information;
• Data warehouse database, which is the main repository (usually in the form of a database management system, DBMS) with already prepared, i.e., cleaned and structured data, that can be used for analytics, reporting, and other business tasks without additional manipulation;
• Metadata repository, which includes the permissible data types and the rules according to which this data will be used;
• Query and reporting tools, which define algorithms for fast and unified access to data, as well as its analysis;
• Data mart, a subset of the data warehouse that is used for individual business tasks (this can imply, for example, marketing data warehouse design) which formation occurs either directly through the collection from disparate sources or pre-preparing within a consolidated space.

Core Principles of Data Warehouse Design

Now, let's talk about the main data warehouse design principles:

• A clear definition of business requirements and goals, as well as metrics that allow you to objectively assess the degree of their achievement;
• Understanding how information is integrated from multiple sources and what should be the unified format after its transformation;
• Choosing the right type of data modeling – these can be star schemas, snowflake schemas, fact tables, and so on;
• Choosing the right methods and data warehouse software to ensure the quality and consistency of information, in particular, the methods of cleansing, validation, and supplementing of data;
• Planning, scaling, and managing the performance through various methods of indexing, partitioning, compression, etc.;
• Choosing the right tools for metadata management to simplify and improve access to the information;
• Ensuring security and access based on policies and rules (usually, this is achieved through the implementation of advanced encryption algorithms, the introduction of access policies for different user groups, as well as providing reliable authentication and authorization methods);
• Implementing end-to-end monitoring for ensuring data quality and security, performance of processes occurring within the data warehouse, and so on.

Steps in Data Warehouse Design

In this section, we invite you to consider the key steps leading to a successful and agile data warehouse design.

Requirement Gathering

According to the principles to design a data warehouse we defined above, the key to effective data warehouse design is to gather business requirements and clear business goals that it should fulfill. It is also important to identify the requirements for security, scalability, and performance of the repository.

Data Modeling

This is not yet a practical stage, but it still requires the participation of specialists – in particular, it implies the identification of entities, their attributes, as well as possible relationships between them. After this, the most suitable type of DBMS implementation needs to be selected – for example, in the form of tables, columns, indexing, etc. After this, you have to make sure that the selected type performs all the tasks assigned to it according to the predetermined requirements.

ETL Process Design

We have already explained above what the ETL process means, and this stage actually involves choosing the right tools and scenarios for their use.

In particular, you will need to define methods for extracting information from disparate sources (these can be database queries, API calls, file transfers, etc.), methods for bringing data to a single format and ensuring its proper quality (since you will most likely have to deal with big data, there may be many inconsistencies), methods for aggregating data to create complex information structures, automation methods for bulk loading of data (this can be full or incremental loading, and so on) with the usage of temporary storage areas, methods for detecting and eliminating data errors, as well as methods for checking data for completeness and accuracy.

Database Schema Design

There are several well-known data warehouse design patterns, such as:

• Star, which has a fact table at its center and dimension tables associated with it around it;
• Snowflake, which is a more complex Star and also implies additional dimension tables that surround each base dimension table;
• Galaxy, which contains two fact tables and the dimension tables between them.

Data Integration

Now, you can start integrating the data using the previously defined ETL tools and technologies. At this step, you need to make sure that everything works as intended, and the data is transformed into the required unified format.

Data Storage Solutions

At this stage, you need to choose specific data storage solutions according to your requirements for the expected data volume, performance, scalability, and cost. Usually, the choice is made between relational databases, columnar databases, data lakes, and cloud data warehouse solutions.

Data Presentation Layer

Finally, to design data warehouse, you will need to understand what your data presentation layer will be – the layer at which end users will be able to seamlessly access the data and use it to solve specific business problems. This includes developing interfaces, dashboards, reports, and various data visualization tools.

Conclusion

Now that you have a clear guide to data warehouse design, you can begin implementing it with a full understanding of the principles and stages on which it is based. If you would like to delegate this comprehensive task to seasoned data warehouse development specialists, just contact us.

The first question that you should ask yourself before contacting the IT outsourcing company is “what billing model is the best fit for my project?”. If you are confused about choosing an outsourcing model from the Dedicated team vs. Fixed price vs. Time and Materials for your business idea, then welcome aboard!

In this article, we will compare these business models for your project. Let’s analyze each in detail and describe the advantages and disadvantages of 3 main IT outsourcing models.

Fixed price

The fixed-price agreement is a single-sum contract where the software development team must deliver the project within a predefined sum which is agreed by both parties. A client should be able to share his clear vision of the product with developers to ensure appropriate final results. This model requires the client to provide a detailed list of requirements for the project and all required developer documentation.

Pros of fixed price model:

• Clarity. Project requirements are agreed upon before signing the software development contract, as well as all the required developer documentation is specified beforehand.
• Accuracy. The project scope and time frames are known and discussed in advance, so the team can set the deadlines, and it is convenient to monitor the project progress.
• Autonomy. The development process is coordinated by a project manager, so the client’s participation isn’t necessary.

Cons of fixed price model:

• Preparation. The period is needed as all requirements for implementation and deadlines must be documented.
• Inflexibility. Any change in the scope of work would cause a change in the total cost of the project and this change would be compensated by the service provider’s end.
• Risks. If you don’t provide your requirements correctly, then the delivered product won’t be the same as expected.

When is recommended to use a fixed price model:

• Clear requirements and determined deadlines.
• Limited or fixed budget.
• MVP.
• Small and medium projects with limited project scope of work.

Time and Materials

Time and materials contract is absolutely different. This model is great suited for long-term projects with changing requirements, where the final requirements are not known in advance and can be changed on the go. This is a flexible approach to IT outsourcing, as the customer pays in smaller chunks for work accomplished during the billable hours. To say more, this pay-as-you-go model allows you to pay only for the work actually done. For example, for features delivered, milestones, etc.

Pros of Time and Materials model:

• A flexible approach. The customer can change the scope of work, requirements or add/drop features on the go to meet his business aims without thinking about the budget. This model perfectly combines with modern agile methodologies, for example with Scrum.
• Transparency. This model allows the customer to control the cost and concentrate on important elements of the project. The client pays only for the results actually delivered.
• Involvement. The client can monitor the process of the development of a certain work schedule in accordance with the expected results.

Cons of Time and Materials model:

• Budget and time. It is not always possible to estimate the budget in advance. It’s hard to predict when the product will be delivered or how much it will cost. This depends on the accuracy of the specifications or its changes in the process of work;
• Communications. To achieve a high-quality product, continuous communication with the team is necessary. It requires full-fledged involvement from your side, which includes spending much time in communication with the development team.

When is recommended to use Time and Materials model:

• Long and middle term projects with dynamic requirements;
• Project scope is not fully known;
• The customer wants the flexibility to modify the project scope.

Dedicated team

The Dedicated Team model is used to compensate for the lack of in-house IT expertise on mid-to-long-term projects. The billing is based on hourly rates of the developers, and they become a part of a team that is only concerned with the project and not engaged in any other tasks. The developers report directly to the client. However, the client is responsible for team management and control.

As an example, let’s say the client wants to develop software that is not in his team’s expertise, he can hire a developer or team who can do this. In this case, the client can outsource to an experienced team that can help him fulfill his customer’s needs by creating rich quality projects. This will enable the client to maintain stability between your team and the dedicated team.

Pros of Dedicated Team model:

• Control. The customer is provided full control and management of the team. Cooperation between the client and the team is very important because it allows for effective planning and evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the work process.
• Development. When a team is focused on one project, it ensures the best results. The team has a full understanding of all project features and is dedicated to running the project smoothly.
• Progress. The ability to optimize the product is important for product growth. With the dedicated team, it is much easier.
• Reduced costs. The remote team solves many problems with the recruitment and hiring of staff. Plus, you always know the next month’s payments and taxes.

Cons of Dedicated Team model:

• Thoroughness. The client must consider process planning and task distribution for every member of the team.
• Engagement. You might have to invest more time in communication, discussion and software development.
• Graduality. Looking for the perfect candidate takes a lot of time and the client has to be involved in hiring team members.

When is recommended to use Dedicated Team model:

• For long-term IT projects with rapidly changing scopes.
• Adding more workforce to set up a strong development team.
• When you want to access cross-border expertise and knowledge sharing.

Conclusion

To sum up, every project provides the best results when it is managed according to the most suitable IT outsourcing model. Each software product development pricing model has its pros and cons. Choosing the best possible approach fully depends on the specifics of your project and expected results.

According to this, the first step is understanding your business model’s requirements. After determining your project’s needs, you can select the right outsourcing model and start with it.

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