What Does It Take to Create a Finance App for Kids? Let’s Find Out

Kids-friendly payment app development is quite promising but not without challenges.

 

• How to create an app that will be interesting and engaging for children?
• What features do parents want most?
• How to navigate the complex waters of financial regulations?
• What's the best way to ensure the app is secure, user-friendly, and ready to grow as the user base expands?

 

At Onix, we’ve worked with businesses to solve these challenges and deliver reliable solutions that work for them.

 

One of our projects involved helping a client create an app that lets teenagers take control of their finances, shifting from the usual “Can I have some money?” to a smart, digital solution that promotes saving and responsible spending.

 

This blog post will explain the key steps and considerations for successful child-friendly banking app development based on our real-life projects.

After reading this article, you'll know:

 

• What’s essential to create a solid MVP
• Expert tips and strategies for developing your app
• A rough breakdown of the costs involved

 

Kids Banking App Development: Features That Matter

A successful finance app for kids is about the balance of attractive features for children and practical tools for parents. 

 

Based on our experience in developing similar solutions, here are the key features you should consider:

Parental controls

Parents need reliable tools to monitor and guide their child's financial activities.

 

The following features can ensure peace of mind:

 

• spending limits
• transaction approvals
• activity monitoring.

 

Moreover, you should consider a parent dashboard where they can set rules, view spending patterns, and adjust allowances.

 

Educational content

The app should teach kids basic money skills like saving, budgeting, and goal setting.

 

To make learning fun and rewarding, add:

 

• interactive lessons
• quizzes
• progress trackers.

 

For example, including real-life scenarios, such as how to save up for a new toy, can make lessons relevant and practical.

 

Read also: Neobank Development: How to Build a Neobank in 2025

 

Task and reward system

A system of tasks and rewards encourages children to complete chores or achieve goals to earn money. This feature teaches the value of earning and managing money and helps parents reinforce positive behaviors.

 

Savings goals

Allow kids to set specific savings goals to help them learn the importance of saving. Add visual progress indicators or rewards for reaching goals to motivate consistent saving habits.

 

When we worked on an online banking app for children, we implemented the Saving Spots feature, making saving fun and developing healthy financial habits.

 

Kids allocate funds for specific goals and learn the value of money management. With the app, they can:

 

• Create multiple accounts for different savings goals
• Personalize each account with unique names
• Allocate funds from the main account to savings goals
• Track progress visually to stay motivated
• Withdraw funds upon reaching savings goals
• Learn financial skills through hands-on saving

 

Read also: How to create micro investment platform

 

Customizable debit cards

Offer kids the option to personalize their debit cards with colors, designs, or even their names. It adds fun and individuality and encourages them to manage their finances.

 

How To Create a Finance App for Kids: Onix’s Development Process

Well, to better understand our learning-focused finance app development for kids, let's consider in detail six important steps we follow to ensure a seamless and successful project:

 

Turn your idea into a clear plan: Discovery phase stage

We recommend our clients who have a business idea but need to know how to implement it technically to start with the product discovery phase. 

 

A project discovery phase helps you to:

 

• turn your business idea into a functional product
• predict and reduce risks and roadblocks
• plan a budget to avoid loss
• prioritize product scope and split it into iterations
• build the groundwork for extra funding for your project
• define goals and scope for the MVP, and provide a well-developed UX prototype.

 

Read also: What is the Project Discovery Phase and Its Role for Software Development

 

Onix provides software product discovery services to bridge the gap between your software project's business concept and its technical implementation.

 

In 2-4 weeks, we'll finalize your product vision, create a clickable prototype, design the product architecture, and provide a time-bound cost proposal.
 

The primary deliverables:

 

 

Choose the reliable technology stack

The chosen technology stack affects the scalability, maintainability, development time, and cost of developing a mobile finance app for kids.

 

Below, we consider the typical app development approaches and relevant technologies to create a finance app for kids:

 

• Native development 

Native development involves building separate apps for iOS and Android platforms using their specific programming languages and tools.

 

• Cross-platform development

Cross-platform development uses a single codebase to deploy apps on both iOS and Android, reducing development time and costs.

There are various technologies and tools for building kids' banking apps.

 

To make the right choice, it's necessary to consider such factors as:

 

• app type
• scalability
• time to market
• security. 

 

 

Start with an MVP development

MVP allows you to test the application concept and collect user feedback quickly. By focusing on core features and functions, you can speed up the development process and reduce time to market.

 

In addition, MVP development allows you to test the viability of your app idea, minimizing development costs and risks.

 

 

By testing your concept and getting user feedback, you can iterate and improve your app based on real-world data, ultimately creating a more reliable and successful product.

 

Create a banking app design for children

At this stage, our designers:

 

• create wireframes to define the structure and flow of a kids’ experience with a financial app
• design interactive prototypes to visualize the app’s layout, navigation flow, and features, including color schemes, typography, and branding elements.

 

Read also: How to Move From Idea to Prototype [A Step-By-Step Guide]

 

Enhance the functionality with third-party services

Here are some of the popular third-party services the Onix team can integrate:

 

• Payment gateways. Integrate Stripe or PayPal to facilitate secure payments and in-app transactions.
• Security and authentication. OAuth helps to simplify identity management for kids and parents.
• Parental control features. Twilio lets parents know in real time about their children's spending or savings.
• Educational content providers. For example, the Khan Academy API offers financial literacy content tailored for children.
• Analytics and monitoring. Google Analytics for Firebase tracks app usage and user engagement.
• Chat and customer support. Intercom or LiveChat allows parents and children to receive in-app support. And Zendesk lets you manage customer inquiries and provide app-related support.

 

Learn more: How AI is changing the banking industry: benefits & use cases

 

Test and launch

Our quality assurance engineers:

 

• detect and fix any bugs to ensure the app works well on different devices and operating systems
• provide a high-quality product that meets user expectations.

 

After the app passes the quality check, we:

 

• support the launch process, whether in app stores or private distribution
• continue to provide technical support, monitor user feedback, and implement updates to ensure the smooth operation of the application
• add new features as needed.

 

Developing kid-friendly payment apps can seem daunting and challenging, but at Onix, we're with you every step of the way. Our development process is transparent, collaborative, and supportable, ensuring your vision is a seamless reality.

 

Challenges and Solutions in the Development of Financial Literacy App for Kids

We asked our fintech application developers to share valuable development tips and insights based on their hands-on experience building banking apps for children.

 

The information below will help you avoid costly mistakes and create an attractive, user-centric product.

 

Here’s what they had to say:

 

Balancing fun with educational value

Creating a financial literacy app that speaks to both audiences (kids and parents) in their unique contexts requires a thoughtful development strategy.

 

Here’s how you can achieve this balance:

 

• Separate dashboards for kids and parents. 

For the kid dashboard, use bright colors, playful animations, and gamification elements like rewards, badges, and progress trackers to make the app engaging and fun.

 

For the parent dashboard, apply a clean, professional interface with practical features such as spending insights, goal monitoring for saving goals, and customizable controls.

 

• Gamification for kids

Introduce interactive games, challenges, and quizzes to teach financial concepts enjoyably.

 

Use storytelling or characters to guide kids through tasks like saving or budgeting.

 

• Robust parental controls

Allow parents to set spending limits, approve transactions, and monitor activities. Also, you can enable real-time notifications and alerts for better oversight.

 

• Educational content tailored for both users

You can provide age-appropriate tutorials, animated videos, and simple language explanations for children. You can also offer resources or guides for parents to help teach financial habits at home.

 

Ensuring app security and privacy for minors

Protecting sensitive user data is vital, especially when dealing with minors.

 

There are a variety of best practices to ensure a high level of security. Among them, we can highlight:

 

• Data encryption to encode sensitive data into a code that prevents any fraud
• Session mode to offer short-lived sessions or terminate inactive sessions
• Two-factor authentication with fingerprint, face integration, voice recognition, or one-time password
• Tokenize data to use a random string of characters that replace sensitive data

 

Also, consider the legal requirements of the country where your kids' banking app will be operating and make sure you comply with all regulations.

 

Here are the most common regulations and agencies in various fintech markets: 

 

• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
• Anti-money laundering (AML)
• Fintech Action Plan (FAP) 
• Electronic Fund Transfer Act (EFTA) 
• Federal Trade Commission (FTC) 
• Electronic Identification and Trust Services (eIDAS) 

 

Developing age-appropriate content

Creating content that resonates with children at different may be a difficult task.

 

First of all, it's vital to understand developmental milestones.

 

For example, young children (ages 6–8) should focus on basic concepts such as recognizing coins, understanding needs and wants, and learning about saving through fun games.

 

For teens (ages 9-12), you can introduce slightly more complex topics such as budgeting, getting paid for homework, and setting simple financial goals.

 

When talking about teenagers (age 13 and up), expanding on advanced topics such as managing allowances, understanding interest, and responsible use of digital wallets is appropriate.

 

How Much Can Kids Banking App Development Cost?

It is difficult to provide the exact cost of building a kids-friendly payment app. First, amounts may vary primarily depending on your needs and requirements.

 

Among the factors affecting the final cost are:

 

• The number of selected features
• The complexity of the functionalities
• Mobile app design
• Application size
• The choice of the platform(s), i.e., Android, iOS, both
• The choice of development technologies
• Deadlines
• Team size
• Whether an in-house team, freelancers, or an outsourcing company builds the app
   

Below, we provide an approximate cost breakdown to guide you:

Note: This is just a rough example of the cost. To calculate the final price, we need to know your project's requirements, complexity, necessary technologies, and many other factors.

 

Onix Experience in Building Kids Banking App

Onix has experience in building a children-focused banking app for financial literacy. 

 

Our client sought to offer an app designed to change how teenagers manage their finances, moving away from traditional verbal requests for money to a digital solution promoting responsible spending and saving.

 

So, the Onix team needed to:

 

• Work closely with clients to understand their vision and requirements while providing expertise and guidance on technical and design aspects.
• Develop an MVP in a tight time frame of three months.
• Ensure Know Your Customer (KYC) compliance by implementing identity verification procedures during registration.
• Create an intuitive and attractive user interface focusing on ease of use and accessibility.

 

The online bank for kids serves three primary types of users, each with distinct needs and goals:

 

1. Sponsors (parents). They monitor their children's spending, set allowances, and manage allowances.
2. Wards (children). They manage their allowances, set savings goals, and make online and in-store purchases.
3. Administrators (clients). Our client can access an admin panel to manage user accounts, resolve issues, and oversee the application's operation.

 

We started the development process with lean inception. Using this approach, we helped our client set clear expectations by defining the main concept, audience, and features upfront, enabling efficient project delivery.

 

Then, we moved on to developing the MVP.

 

The MVP included such features:

 

• Authorization
• Onboarding
• Invite Your Friend feature
• Account settings

 

We collaborated with the client to prioritize features and make informed decisions to optimize the development.

 

This strategic approach helped us meet client deadlines while laying the foundation for future improvements.

 

As a result, the Onix team released a beta version of the app during the specified period, allowing for early user feedback and testing of essential features.

To gain more details about how we built a spending card and banking app for kids, check our case study.

 

Ready to Start Mobile Finance App Development For Kids?

In this blog post, we shared the idea behind developing mobile financial apps for kids, including helpful development tips and cost estimates.

 

Creating a kid-friendly banking app is a complex process that involves deep research and great experts. So you don’t have to do it alone. At Onix, we have a wealth of experience in fintech. 

 

Our experts will happily guide you through the development process using our extensive experience and proven methods.

 

Whether you:

 

• want to build a kids' banking app from scratch,
• need consultation 
• or have any other questions

 

We’re here to help!

 

FAQ

 

How to choose a financial literacy app development company?

Look for a company with proven experience in fintech and educational apps, strong security expertise, and a portfolio showcasing user-friendly designs for children.

 

How long does it take to build a financial literacy application for kids?

It typically takes 3–6 months to develop an MVP, depending on features, design complexity, and regulatory requirements.

 

Can I hire dedicated financial literacy app developers from Onix?

Yes, we offer dedicated developers skilled in building secure, engaging, and scalable financial literacy apps.

 

How do you ensure security and privacy for kids?

Our specialists follow strict data protection laws (COPPA, GDPR) and implement robust security measures like encryption, authentication, and parental controls.

 

How can Onix help in building a financial literacy app?

We provide end-to-end development services, from discovery and design to launch, leveraging our fintech and kid-friendly app development expertise.