Mental Health App Development: Features, Tech Stack & Cost

This guide is intended for entrepreneurs interested in mental health app development. Whether you wonder how to develop an app for tracking mental health or remote consultations, want to update your existing software, need a budget estimate, or look for new ideas — you can find helpful tips here.

You are also welcome to explore Onix’s custom medical software development services. See how we help healthcare businesses build compliant and scalable solutions!

A Few Reasons to Develop Mobile Mental Health Solutions

As of 2020, nearly 1 billion people lived with mental disorders. In low-income countries, only 1 out of 4 could receive treatment. Millions of people die due to alcohol abuse every year, and suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death among 15-29 year-olds.

 

What looks like alarming stats presents an opportunity for behavioral health app development.

 

Mental health mobile apps offer information, techniques, activities, and encouragement to help users manage their stress and nurture their overall mental health or get extra support between therapy sessions or after therapy.

As our lifestyle becomes increasingly stressful and mental health awareness increases worldwide, so does the use of specialized applications. The global mental health applications market, estimated at $8.5 billion USD in 2025, is expected to grow at a CAGR of 17.6% til 2034.

 

Mental health app development is a win-win option both for businesses and users. Here are several benefits for consumers:

 

Convenience

Mental health apps offer flexibility and can be a life-saver when visits are problematic. The use of apps limits the number of participants or even excludes anybody except the user from the therapy process.

 

Telehealth apps are especially good for people who may feel ashamed of their symptoms and problems. They can choose a mental health professional without opening up in front of others or even without a face-to-face consultation and interact with them from the comfort of their home.

 

It’s also easier to conceal than visits to a counselor. This instills in people the confidence necessary for seeking help and resolving their issues.

 

Efficiency

Many mental health apps are backed by scientific research, proven therapy techniques, and specialists. At the least, they help improve a patient’s mood and develop better coping skills. 

Onix built a VR meditation game app, that helps users relieve stress and anxiety.

 

Psychological therapy app development offers effective alternatives to traditional therapy sessions or clinical treatment. Such apps are easy to use, facilitate access to patients’ data, and increase engagement in treatment plans. Live patient-therapist communication and symptom monitoring via an app make treatment more manageable and effective.

 

Receiving assistance at home is liberating and productive. For instance, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) delivered remotely is reported to be as effective as in-person therapy. Having a doctor or support within their smartphones 24/7 helps patients feel free and secure.

 

Read also: How to Implement TeleHealth for Chronic Care Management

 

Safety

Remote therapy app development became most relevant during the pandemic, but its benefits extend to normal conditions. Virtual interactions between mental health professionals and patients reduce the risks for both, e.g., in the case of patients with violent behavior.

 

Cost reduction

Mental health apps are mostly free or low-cost. Online therapy sessions are likely a more affordable option than seeing a therapist in person, and there’s no need to travel.

 

The perks for businesses and healthcare providers are equally significant:

 

Broader patient base

Mental health professionals also appreciate the benefits of taking their practice online. Patients that feel insecure will agree to digital therapy due to perceived higher confidentiality, others due to its convenience. The massive smartphone penetration allows reaching more locations where mental health treatment is required.

 

Streamlined work

Even a basic app can be helpful in data recording and monitoring. Moreover, there’s evidence that mental health apps may help improve the management of several conditions.

 

Specialists can receive regular updates on their patients’ general well-being, the severity of symptoms, etc., and constantly keep in touch with their patients. They can build a bigger picture of a patient’s mental state and adjust the treatment accordingly.

 

Automation

Mental health monitoring app development also facilitates automation and greater control over the patients’ health data and helps reduce therapists’ and psychiatrists’ workload. 

 

Read also: The Importance of Data Security in Healthcare Software

Entrepreneurs creating a mental health app may expect to rely on several sources of revenue:

 

Subscriptions. Most top-performing mental health apps stick with a subscription revenue model. It implies monthly or yearly payments to access constantly replenished content and services.

 

An app usually offers several regular and customized payment plans (e.g., basic, medium, and premium). The app may have to accept various types of insurance.

 

Freemium. Usually, a freemium app provides a limited range of features for free. If users want more functions or content, they must buy it through a subscription or one-time purchase.

 

There may also be a trial period when users can access all content and all functionality for free. Usually, it lasts up to two weeks, after which customers should pay for using the app permanently.

 

In-app purchases. Users may pay for add-ons like guided meditation packs or specialized therapy sessions.

 

In-app ads. Advertising banners or widgets are acceptable in self-improvement apps if they are relevant and can benefit users by promoting valuable services and goods.

Related services. An app can also advertise and sell through internal links to products like books, podcasts, workshops, etc.

Learn more: 12 Mobile App Monetization Strategies to Use in 2025

Paid app. If your company is directly providing mental health services, has an established reputation and can convert clients to app users, or has celebrities on board, users may be willing to pay for it.

 

Think about the benefits that are most relevant for your business. Mental health app development, like any other, begins with identifying the critical problems it should solve and the business needs it should meet. 

 

Types of Popular Mental Health Applications

These apps can be classified by the issues they address, e.g., depression, anxiety, or co-occurring disorders, and further subdivided by their core methodology or the type of assistance they provide.

 

1. Mental disorder apps

Apps of this kind are designed specifically for users tackling diagnosed illnesses and disorders or their combinations, such as

 

• Anxiety and depression
• Post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD)
• Bipolar disorder
• Eating disorders
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
• Paranoia
• Psychosis
• Dissociation and dissociative disorders
• Schizophrenia
• Behavioral and emotional disorders in children, etc.

 

These apps normally use proven treatment methods, such as CBT, acceptance commitment therapy (ACT), positive psychology techniques, etc., and focus on tracking patients’ mental well-being in as much detail as possible.

An app can help patients and their counselors monitor and analyze their mood ups and downs over some period, detect exacerbation stages, keep a journal, practice mindfulness and cognitive skills training, etc.

The functionalities largely depend on the specifics of the disorder. For example, persons with PTSD are likely to need constant support and help with anger management, so the specialized apps may offer breathing exercises and integrate the user’s contacts for immediate assistance.

Notable examples of such specialized apps are ACT Coach, MindShift CBT, and PTSD Coach.

ACT Coach is an example of mental health applications.

Apps for people with eating disorders help set eating goals and meals calendar and keep records of the meals, thoughts, and feelings. They offer coping methods, educational content, recommendations, daily affirmations, and connect with the user’s treatment team. Some references include Brighter Bite and RR: Eating Disorder Management. 

 

Learn more: Diet Planner App Development – Onix’s Guide

 

If you intend to help people with OCD, you might drive inspiration from NOCD or OCD App. The app may include exposure-response techniques, tools for patient-therapist cooperation, clinically supported guidance, motivational help, recognition of anxiety triggers, feelings tracker, mindfulness activities, etc.

 

When developing a mental health symptom tracker app, it may help to explore CBT Thought Record Diary, eMoods Bipolar, and iMoodJournal; these apps target primarily bipolar patients. 

Read also: How to Create a Mood Tracker App: Features, Tips & Cost

 

2. Meditation, mindfulness, and self-improvement

These apps aim at checking general psychological health and preventing major issues by reducing stress, anxiety, and frustration, improving sleep, increasing self-awareness, patience, concentration, and self-confidence, and coping with fears, negative thoughts, cravings, and bad habits like smoking, drinking, using drugs, or caffeine consumption.

 

They primarily bet on relaxation and meditation techniques but may also track users’ emotions, sleep patterns, habits, and symptoms and connect users with psychologists to facilitate proper self-care.

 

The features of these apps also differ based on the app’s narrower specialization. For example, stress and anxiety apps offer meditations, mini-games, relaxation techniques, music for relaxation and sleep improvement, the user’s meditations and happiness score tracking, reminders of scheduled sessions, motivational plans, journals, coping cards, educational content, and so on.  

 

Learn more: How to Create a Meditation App: Features, Development Process & Cost

 

Apps helping overcome stress seem to be most numerous and varied. Happify, Headspace, and Calm seem to be the most well-known examples, but there are also Buddhify, Insight Timer, and What’s Up.

 

Onix also has experience in such well-being app development. For example, we helped Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin create a mental health management app for people affected by Russia’s war on Ukraine and others who deal with stress, anxiety, PTSD, or insomnia.

Solomiya mobile app, which Onix helped develop, facilitates relaxation, stress reduction, sleep improvement, and emotional resilience through science-backed techniques.

 

The app offers evidence-based stress relief strategies developed by clinical psychologists and psychiatrists. These include:
 

• breathing and other relaxation exercises
• guided meditations
• videos on overcoming stress, coping with negative thoughts, and building resilience
• self-help tips on improving sleep quality and managing insomnia
• tools for monitoring users’ progress and emotional health over time 
   

Apps supporting addiction recovery, such as Twenty-Four Hours a Day, may provide trackers, daily reminders, meditations, educational materials, uploading drug or alcohol blood tests, communication with professionals and a community of supporters, and even graphs showing how much quitting the habit has saved.

 

3. Multipurpose apps

The first type of app in this category that comes to mind is telemedicine platforms.

 

Patients can find a suitable mental health specialist in online marketplaces, order individual therapy, couple sessions, psychiatry consultation, etc., and get professional help through messaging and audio or video consultations. For this purpose, the app must amass, maintain and manage a big network of mental health specialists.

 

For example, BetterHelp and Talkspace provide direct access to a specialist 24/7 via messaging, chat room, or phone or video sessions.

 

7 Cups enables users to receive anonymous emotional support and counseling from trained listeners 24/7.

 

People with mental disorders may feel lonely and isolated. A mental health app can help by providing a social network or forum where people can share their stories and connect with others through anonymized forums, group chats, and messages. 

 

An app can also aggregate resources about specific disorders, therapy, and mental health, in general, to educate the public and various groups of patients.

 

Anxiety, depression, and other conditions must be clinically diagnosed, but assessment tests can help determine whether an individual has any symptoms. Mental health testing and self-assessment apps can help identify mental problems and urge individuals to seek help with a corresponding specialist.

 

These are only the most typical use cases. If your idea for a new mental health solution isn’t on the list, please feel free to contact Onix. Our specialists will help you formulate your product’s unique value proposition and prioritize its features.

 

For instance, how about enriching your app experience through meditation sessions in beautiful virtual spaces? 

InnerVR, developed by Onix, combines immersive technology with guided relaxation techniques. 

 

It’s more practical to develop a mental health app covering multiple mental issues and offering various solutions to the end-users’ problems. Alternatively, you may launch a minimum viable product (MVP) addressing one issue first. Once it gains traction and builds trust among patients and mental health professionals, you may expand its scope and service catalog.

 

Whether you develop an app to track mental health of teenagers or a meal planner for people with anorexia, you are most likely to include in your mobile app some of the following.

 

Mental Health App Features Essential for Patients 

Sign-up and sign-in

The sign-up process should be easy, short, and secure, lest people with mental health issues should get frustrated and abandon it. The app needs to get critical information (full name, phone number, and email) and limit the length of forms and onboarding steps. 

 

Patient profile 

Patient profiles are essential both for the users and mental health professionals. After registration, users may need to upload a photo, indicate their age and gender, enter their health details, such as disorders, allergies, intolerances, chronic illnesses, etc., and even attach blood tests, specialists’ reports, prescriptions, etc.

You may also obtain some user details that will help you provide a more personalized app experience, e.g., their sleeping/awake times. 

Offer shortcuts to user data, progress, most-used features, and favorite content in the user profile. In the settings, users should be able to customize their experience, e.g., by configuring the types and frequency of notifications, selecting interface colors, etc.

The onboarding screens of Solomiya, built by Onix, instruct new users and help build trust.

 

Content

Content related to meditations, breathing exercises, stretching and yoga workouts, sleep, etc., and information on specific mental issues and well-being can be provided in various formats: texts, images, audio recordings, videos, radio podcasts, live streams, etc. The app may also produce on-demand content, such as educational guides, lectures, webinars, etc.

 

Read also: Your Ultimate Guide to Yoga Mobile App Development  

 

Develop a smart classification and search for users to find desired information or content quickly and easily, without scrolling through long lists.

 

It’s important to rotate the content regularly and make it as diverse, personalized, and customizable as possible, e.g., offering meditations of various durations, including ‘like/dislike’ and ‘save’ buttons, suggesting content similar to what users like, etc.

 

Artificial intelligence (AI) opens up new opportunities. For example, Onix helped the InnerVR company create another wellness app — InnerAI. 

Onix built a mindfulness app generating unique meditations for each user instead of generic stress-relief sessions with pre-recorded guidance.

 

The client envisioned leveraging AI to tailor meditation sessions to each user’s unique needs and preferences. Within a month, Onix’s team built an iOS app that enabled users to generate custom meditations by entering several parameters:

 

• their problem (e.g., stress, anxiety, difficulty falling asleep, etc.)
• preferred meditation type (e.g., breath, visualization, sleep stories, Zen, relaxation, energizing, etc.)
• meditation duration
• preferred guide’s voice

 

Learning from past interactions, InnerAI would suggest meditation styles and specialized modules and offer personalized daily health insights and advice with increasing precision. 

 

Mental health monitoring

Self-monitoring tools help track users’ mood patterns, stress levels, sleep, triggers, etc.

 

For example, a user can track their activities, evaluate their moods throughout the day, and examine how diet, workouts, or external factors affect their feelings. A trigger checker enables the analysis of stressful situations that trigger inappropriate actions.

 

Psychiatrists often “prescribe” journaling, and many people enjoy writing a diary to splash out or analyze emotions and thoughts. App journals can be textual and in video and audio formats; users might also draw in the app. Enable sharing these materials with a specialist or caregiver.

 

It may be reasonable to establish daily check-ups with general questions, questions specific to each disorder, symptoms, or goal, and a section for comments. The app can store these check-ups over time to track the dynamics and even predict changes in a patient’s well-being.

 

Mental health monitoring usually implies manual data entry but can be synchronized with a sleep analyzing device, emotion recognition applications, step counter, wearables, etc., to get accurate metrics to analyze patterns and customize the treatment plans.

Read also: Wearable App Development: How to Build Next-Gen Smart Solutions

Mental health monitoring apps can also offer regular surveys, short video calls with specialists, daily/weekly/monthly to-do lists, and reminders to facilitate self-monitoring awareness. 

Dashboards 

For example, mental health tracking app UX (user experience) often features a monthly calendar that shows the user’s mood changes summarized in color code, with the ability to export this data for therapists to improve patient care.

Progress bars will motivate users to continue a planned activity and celebrate achievements. For example, a day counter can show how long a patient remains sober. A mood chart should demonstrate the efficiency of specific medicines or therapy.

 

Professional help and support

Many apps connect users with psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists, and other certified specialists. Patients may look for them in the app’s database using criteria like specialization, qualifications, fees, location, schedules, etc. Alternatively, the app’s algorithm can automatically match a user’s condition and requirements with an appropriate specialist.

 

Read also: How to Develop a Doctor Appointment Booking System

 

Ideally, a patient must be able to chat, send audio messages, exchange files, call, or video-call with their counselor or at least with a consultant 24/7. A chatbot may prove effective at answering frequently asked questions, offering instructions, scheduling appointments, and other tasks. 

 

Apart from the basic functionality of video calls, you might need a real-time chat during sessions and screen recording so that patients and specialists can rewatch their sessions.

 

Online support groups and forums allow users to share their experiences and achievements with peers, seek advice, encourage each other, etc. Let users be anonymous on these forums or audio chats if they want.

 

It’s advisable to add a ‘bad word filter’ to preclude bullying, provocative phrases, swear words, etc., and a censoring engine to prevent the publication of nudity, violence, and other inappropriate images.

Push notifications and reminders

Notifications, reminders, and alerts are essential for keeping up with appointments, taking medicines, establishing a regular schedule, self-monitoring, and journaling.

 

Push notifications can also motivate and cheer up users with reports of their achievements, inspiring quotes, and affirmative messages, and promote special offers, goods, services, discounts, etc.

 

Emergency help

Patients who have anxiety or panic attacks, suicidal thoughts, and other problems that require immediate solutions should be able to make an emergency call or send a message to their counselor and caregivers with one click.

 

For example, it may be a quick emergency call to 911, someone from a pre-saved list of contacts, or the 24/7 support of your mental health service.

 

Mental Health App Interface for Professionals

When you create a psychological therapy app, you must also enable mental health professionals and healthcare providers to interact with patients. There are two ways to do that:

 

• to develop a separate web and/or mobile solution for professionals and providers with a back-end that connects to the patient app;
• to build two versions of an app so a user can choose their role when signing up.

 

In any case, a professional users’ app should mirror the patients’ interface, including the following:

 

Sign-up and sing-in 

Sign-up shall also be quick, secure, and preferably connected to a social account.

 

User profile

The minimum necessary information can include:

 

• name
• photo
• specialization
• contact details
• rating and reviews
• pricing (hourly fee, for example)
• available hours for appointments and other communication

 

Scheduling tool

Specialists need to manage their workload and timetable conveniently. This feature should be integrated with a calendar where they can manage appointments, leave notes, etc.

It’s also possible to integrate this feature with 3rd-party platforms, for example, to transfer new users’ data to your existing customer relationship management software automatically.

 

Read also: Healthcare CRM Development: Key Features & Cost

 

Patient profile

Treatment management requires access to an extended patient profile with their medical history, current diagnosis, prescriptions, lab results, documents, photos, etc.

 

Mental health professionals should also instantly receive reports, assessments by other doctors, and other information necessary for monitoring a patient’s condition and managing their therapy.

 

It’s recommended to divide patients into three categories:

 

• new (before their first appointment)
• current patients
• “closed” cases

 

It’s good to make these lists customizable for each specialist to manage them according to their preferences and create more patient lists.

 

Communication with patients

A specialist should be able to talk to their patient via audio/video call or live chat. It is helpful to share files within chats.

Many healthcare apps use a chatbot to ask users about their symptoms and concerns first, so doctors can better understand the problem before a direct conversation. 

 

Professionals may need an extended version of the communication feature because they can have many patient chats active simultaneously, talk with other doctors, etc. As with patient profiles, chats can be new, current, and inactive.

 

Additionally, you might add a bar for notes: during calls, counselors would write down important information that can be added to the patient’s profile on the specialist’s app.

 

Analytics and dashboards

Dashboards are usually web apps where professionals collect various information from the patients’ smartphones to monitor their progress, generate reports, adjust the therapy, etc.

Specialists also need the right metrics to track, manage, and optimize various aspects of their practice, such as:

 

• daily/weekly/monthly number of patients
• number of patients over a certain period
• new requests
• total revenue over a certain period
• revenue per customer, etc.

 

Read also: How AI Can Transform Your Business in 2025

 

Allow professionals to customize their dashboard according to their practice area and personal preferences. 

 

Content management system

A simple web page will enable mental health professionals to upload, update, and delete various content.

 

The app’s administrators will also need a web application to manage the users’ roles and individual profiles, manage the app’s content, monitor activities, moderate chats, run reports and analytics, etc.

 

Key Steps to Create a Mental Health App

The essential phases of behavioral health app development are the same as for any m-health appt. Below, we will focus on those aspects that are specific to mental wellness apps.

 

1. Conduct product discovery

You need a clear vision of the type of app you want to make. Determine the problems your product should solve, what specific groups it will cater to, whether it will supplement in-person therapy, etc.

It’s generally recommended to launch a minimum viable product first to cut costs, speed up the time to market, and test the application at acquiring users and earning money.

It’s crucial to understand your target audience. Specific mental health concerns may prevail in certain demographics, such as children, teenagers, seniors, LGBTQ+ persons, and others. For a youngster, heartbreak is shattering; for adults, stress and anxiety are persistent problems. 

The audience’s age, financial standing, and cultural peculiarities will likely impact your mental health app design and content, the choice of platforms and monetization methods, etc. Alternatively, you may try to target an audience as broad as possible.

Try to figure out the best solution to their needs and pain points and how to keep the user’s interest to make them use the app on a regular basis.

Research the market and the competition. Competitor analysis can help you identify the best and worst practices in wellness app development in your niche.

It’s beneficial to involve professional mental health app developers during the research and planning. For example, Onix offers help with project discovery as a separate service.

You ought to end up with a list of your mental health app features and project requirements.

 

2. Engage the right mental health app developers

If you’re building an app from scratch, your development team is likely to include:

 

• Android developer
• iOS developer
• Web developer
• Server-side developer
• UX/UI designer
• 2-3 quality assurance (QA) specialists
• Project manager

 

If you do not have a qualified in-house team, it is most reasonable to hire external developers. 

 

It’s best to engage specialists who have worked on similar projects. For instance, Onix’s experts know how to make a mental health app effective, user-friendly, and competitive, as well as all ins and outs of GDPR or HIPAA compliance and other technicalities. 

3. Create wellness app UX/UI design

Prototyping allows verifying app design ideas and helps ensure that the features will work as intended. A clickable prototype can simulate an app’s actual functioning without coding. Simultaneously, your apps’ color scheme, style, and distinct brand elements will be created.

 

The look-and-feel of mental health applications has to appeal primarily to patients and establish credibility and trust through every element. 

 

UX/UI standards for mental health app design require minimalism and simplicity. A clean and intuitive interface should make it easy to navigate all app’s features and to access the resources and services quickly, with minimal scrolling and clicks.

 

Consider using the language, voice, or animated “assistants” to facilitate a smooth onboarding and navigation throughout the app in a way that establishes an emotional connection with particular types of users.

The interface should not contain elaborate elements or bright colors that can potentially trigger disorder aggravation. Pay additional attention to audial effects: make sure to avoid sharp, loud sounds and include mild tones or sounds of nature instead.

Onix’s UX/UI experts were responsible for designing a mental health app interface and brand identity for Solomiya
 
For example, the Solomiya mental health app features:

 

• A soft color palette dominated by blue and green pastels that evoke a sense of tranquility, peace, and hope
• Clear icons and labels helping users identify app sections and activities quickly and easily
• Large easily legible fonts for a more comfortable app use
• Images of landscapes and abstract visualizations of emotion that create a positive mood
• Video animations, such as flowing water or animals, that help catch the users’ attention and calm them down

 

4. Have the product built and tested

The app has to be coded to meet all applicable user-friendliness and safety requirements.  All types of testing are essential to well-being app development:

 

• Functional testing: This testing validates the product against the approved mental health software requirements.
• Usability testing: This testing involves participants from the target audience. Usability tests should be detailed and precise, as end-users may face attention problems, surplus sensitivity, and other issues.
• Interface testing: This process checks the connection between the web server and the app server.
• Compatibility testing: This allows checking on whether your software is capable of running on different hardware, operating systems (OS), network environments, and mobile devices.
• Performance testing: Load tests and stress tests help ensure future stable work.
• Security testing: This process checks the entire network’s security measures and verifies the SSL certification.

 

Learn more: Main UI/UX Design Metrics and KPIs to Measure

 

Once your application has been thoroughly tested and polished accordingly, submit it to an app store — et voila!

 

Minimum Tech Stack Required to Develop a Mental Health App

Mental health app developers can use a variety of programming languages, frameworks, libraries, and integrations. The list of options includes, but is not limited to:

 

• Hosting: AWS, GoogleCloud, Microsoft Azure
• Services: Jitsi (for streaming), MySQL (database), LoadNinja (testing)
• Back-end: Django (Python), Laravel (PHP), Node.js, Spring Java 
• Web front-end: React.JS, Vue.js
• Mobile app front-end: Flutter, React Native, Kotlin (Android native app), Swift (iOS)

 

3rd party integrations:

 

• Payment gateway: Platform-specific SDK
• Geolocation: Google Maps or Core Location API
• Calendar: Google Calendar, Nylas, Zoho
• Social sign-ups: OpenID or SAML
• Chats: Sendbird, Stream, Vonage
• Video sessions: Agora, Twilio
• Push notifications: Firebase Cloud Messaging, OneSignal, Pusher
• Wearables integration: HealthKit from Apple
• AI integration: Dialogflow, Microsoft Bot Framework, PyTorch, RASA

 

Best Practices of Mental Health App Development

 

Involve domain experts early on

Entrepreneurs and product developers need to approach mental health app design and development with extreme caution and precision. It’s essential to explore and assess the methods of dealing with certain disorders that have undergone medical testing by practicing doctors and were proven effective.

An app must use only evidence-based psychotherapy techniques and supply only relevant, reliable, and up-to-date information and content. App owners must constantly keep the content fresh and prevent tampering by unauthorized persons.

Healthcare services within the app must be provided exclusively by professionals with valid licenses.

Hiring consultants among qualified medical specialists and experts in the legal aspects of healthcare in the target market will increase your app’s efficiency and help you avoid civil or even criminal penalties associated with violations.

 

Consider your business model and monetization methods in advance

• If you plan to rely on subscriptions, it’s important to find a balance between upselling a subscription and offering value to users.
• Freemium is the second most common monetization option for mental health app developers. 
• If you opt for mobile advertising or sales, it’s essential to choose trustworthy ad providers, display relevant materials, and ensure they don’t have an adverse effect on users.
• If you plan paid downloads, you need to analyze the competition first: you must provide a better app experience while keeping your price close. Also, paid downloads provide more money upfront but not over time. 

Most often, wellness app developers start with a free MVP with basic features. Once it gains traction, you can develop more advanced features that users would wish to pay for.

 

Focus on security and regulations compliance from day 1

Health data security is one of the top priorities during mental health app development: users and professionals are going to share sensitive information through your app. Moreover, patients with PTSD, anxiety, paranoia, etc., are extremely sensitive to privacy.

 

App developers must understand all privacy and data sharing concerns of the users. Every little detail, including privacy policy, bio authentication, or built-in knowledge base, should be addressed as early in the mental health app development project as possible.

 

 

Particularly, mental health software developers must prevent the risk of exposing personal data by following certain regulatory guidelines:

 

• the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in the USA;
• the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) in Canada;
• the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the EU;
• in the UK, the GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA), and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 (PECR)...

 

… and so forth, depending on where your business is based and in what countries your app will be used.

 

Interoperability

Mental health data should be able to flow freely from your application to healthcare providers’ systems, e.g., EHR/EMR. Patient data should be readily available for secure sharing.

 

Learn more: How to Achieve Interoperability in Healthcare IT

 

Ensure multi-platform support

Modern users typically switch between at least two devices throughout the day: laptops and smartphones. There may also be a tablet or a smartwatch. For the maximum convenience and efficiency of the therapy, your app should work consistently and synchronize seamlessly on all these platforms, OSs, and all screen sizes.

 

The Cost of Mental Health App Development

The following formula can be used to roughly calculate a mobile app development cost: app development time X app developers’ hourly rate.

 

However, an accurate calculation of these variables is tricky because each application and situation is unique. The factors that directly influence the costs include, but are not limited to:

 

• the app’s type
• the number and complexity of the desired features
• the number of platforms you are planning to support
• the chosen technology stack
• 3rd-party integrations
• where the development team is located
• its line-up and qualifications, etc.

 

An application for patients will take longer to code due to a greater number of features that can possibly be available to them. For example, it takes around 3 months to develop a mental health tracker app. A simple self-assessment app can be constructed in 2-5 months.

 

App owners will likely need a database and admin panels to manage content, users, payments, analytics, etc.

 

All three components of a mental health app MVP can total up to 1,000 hours of work.

 

The final price depends on where the developers are located. If an American, EU, or Australian company chooses offshore outsourcing, they can save up to a half of the initial budget. For example, with Onix’s hourly rate of $37, this MVP project time estimate translates into $37K.

Source: Accelerance

 

If you think of designing a mental health app for other service providers or growing your current mental health consultation business with a unique digital solution, please feel free to share your ideas with Onix’s specialists. From a proof of concept to a full-blown marketable product, we can realize your idea on time and within budget!

 

FAQ

 

What are the benefits of mental health app development for businesses and consumers?

For the patients, such applications offer

 

• greater convenience and efficiency of the therapy they undergo;
• improved mood and overall mental condition;
• accessibility of support 24/7 from anywhere;
• confidentiality and greater confidence;
• reduced risks associated with going out;
• money-saving due to the lower cost of services online, no need to travel, etc. 

 

The benefits for healthcare providers include most of the above with the addition of:

 

• broader audiences they can reach out to;
• improved abilities to diagnose, monitor, and treat the mental conditions of their customers;
• increased efficiency and cost reduction promoted by automation;
• multiple monetization opportunities.

 

What are the essential features of a mental health mobile app?

A patients’ app is likely to provide:

 

• sign-up and sign-in
• patient profile 
• content
• mental health monitoring
• dashboards 
• professional help and support
• push notifications and reminders
• emergency help

 

A mental health professionals’ app may include:

 

• sign-up and sing-in 
• user profile
• scheduling tool
• patient profile
• communication with patients
• notifications and reminders
• content management system
• analytics and dashboards

 

How to create a mental health app from scratch?

Here are the basic recommended steps of custom mental health app development:

 

1. Research and identify the patients,’ healthcare professionals,’ and business needs, conduct competitor research, compile your mental health software requirements into a specification, and plan the budget and timeline for the implementation.
2. If you do not have an in-house team with the necessary expertise, engage external help, such as consultants, mobile developers, and designers, to do the job.
3. Create a proof of concept to validate each idea that raises concerns technology-wise.
4. Design visually appealing and easy-to-navigate interfaces for the patients, healthcare professionals, and administrators.
5. Program and test the app, ensuring that it is user-friendly and secure.

 

What mental health apps have to be HIPAA-compliant?

Any app designed for mental health professionals or any app that collects, stores, and shares any protected health information should be HIPAA-compliant.

 

How much does it cost to develop a mental health app?

The final price largely depends on the specifics that determine a project development timeline and on the development team’s salaries or hourly rates. For instance, an average mental health tracker may take around three months to build and a mental health test app some 2-5 months.

 

With the average rate of $45-$66, the optimal price-quality ratio offered in Eastern European countries, such a mental health app MVP can cost around $45K-$66K.