Education App Development Guide

In recent years, the education industry has revolutionized with the growing demand for technology. Thus, educational app development services are needed to help students, teachers, and institutions with language learning, test preparation, etc. However, education app development requires in-depth knowledge of app design, planning, and execution. In this article, we will cover everything from types of apps to their must-have features, steps, and best practices for your clarification.

Online Learning App Market in 2024

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the growth of e-learning apps as educational institutions begin facilitating remote learning. Many reports claim that the online learning platform market will reach $58.54 billion in revenue by 2024. If we conduct a global comparison, China will solely generate $40.64 billion in revenue in 2024 from education apps.

Moreover, statistics show that an education app’s average revenue per user is nearly $74.59. Experts suggest that the current e-learning app market of $267.5 billion will reach nearly $470.1 billion by 2034. Anyhow, let us clarify some facts and figures in tabular format for your clarity and easy digestion of educational app development.

Global Market Growth Rate (2024-2034)	5.8% CAGR
China Market Value	$51.6 billion
eLearning App Market Size	$267.5 billion
Projected Market Value	$470.1 billion
Canda Market Growth Rate	6.3% CAGR
North America Market Share	23.9%
East Asia Market Value	$108.6 billion

Types of Educational Apps

The education app category represents the second most popular category on Google Play and the third on the App Store. With nearly 500,000 education apps in the digital market, there are numerous types of educational apps, some of which are discussed next.

1. Science Learning Apps

In this era of science and technology, an education app development company focuses more on math, physics, chemistry, and biology apps. Furthermore, these applications reinforce learning of formulas, examples, interactive problems, and theoretical material through visual explanations, simplifying complexities.

2. Arts Learning Apps

This category includes music, photography, painting, and creative discipline practices through theoretical knowledge and master classes from professionals. It helps users develop creative skills and express themselves dynamically while focusing on career growth.

3. Language Learning Apps

One of the most popular e-learning app types is learning foreign languages such as Korean, French, German, English, Chinese, and Italian. Those apps offer adaptive courses to improve pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar rules, reading, writing, and listening practices.

4. Programming Applications

As programming becomes increasingly sought-after, many institutions launch apps for teaching different programming languages. Such popular educational apps give a basic understanding of algorithms and technologies while allocating hands-on assignments, projects, and portfolio-building opportunities.

5. Educational Game Apps

The educational game app category was introduced to facilitate kids’ learning, as research shows that children learn better through games. Thus, apps like Prodigy and Endless Alphabet are helping children learn and recall effectively while developing cognitive skills.

6. Test Preparations Apps

Educational app development services launch these apps to systematically and effectively help individuals pass crucial exams. Moreover, they provide practical exercises for self-reflection, tutorials, tips, sample tests, mistake analysis, and progress tracking, intending to help you in self-studies.

7. Dictionary Apps

With a wealth of information on diverse topics, these educational apps solely focus on providing quick facts and definitions to users. Whether you are a student, teacher, parent, or curious user, such apps can help you check statistics and other facts with a few taps.

8. Skill Developing Apps

To improve conflict resolution or communication skills, you can browse through this category of educational apps. It comes with theoretical materials, practical exercises, seminars, webinars, and tips for developing emotional intelligence or other personal/professional skills.

Must-Have Features of a Great Educational App

For some applications, content is everything to engage the maximum audience while ignoring other features that make an app interactive. Therefore, this section enlists some features of leading educational app development companies to let you know the standards.

• Offline Mode: Not everyone has the same internet connection facility, so an app must facilitate an offline learning mode. In this regard, they should allow students or learners to download or save the content to watch or read when offline.
• Push Notifications: The app should notify students with course updates, alerts, and advertisements to inform them about their favorite courses. Besides, it must let students set daily reminders and notifications to spare time for particular subject learning.
• Progress Tracking: Following the notification feature, progress tracking is essential to inform learners about their current status. Knowing their progress and current educational level, they can take steps for further exercise or practice to achieve perfection on time.
• Video-Based Content: When students can listen and view what you are trying to convey, they will quickly grasp the content rather than just reading. Thus, video-based content or live-stream tutorials are essential for quick learning and long-term data retention.
• User-friendliness: Education apps must be simple because a kindergarten student to the oldest being can use them. The more the UI/UX of the educational app would be simple the more people would enjoy using it daily.

Top 5 Education App Development Companies

If you haven’t built an education category app, you must know about leading companies in education app development services. It will allow you to create highly scalable apps while using the latest tech trends and knowing the significant opportunities. Instead of roaming around the internet, delve into this part and learn about the top 5 mobile app-making companies with their services.

1. QUYTECH

It’s a reputed market leader in mobile app development that aims to bring innovation and transformation with over 12 years of experience. Most of its clients are startups or small businesses, which is nearly 60%, followed by mid-market clients of 30%. If we analyze this company in dealing with different industries, the medical field will show more statistics, followed by retail, gaming, and eCommerce.

Services

• IT staff augmentation
• Artificial intelligence development
• Blockchain development
• AR/VR & metaverse development
• Game development services
• Custom mobile app development

Price: Average $25 per hour

2. nmg

If you are looking for an education app development partner who values long-term collaboration, this app development company is a considerable choice. It focuses on design thinking, combining strategies, and delivering game-changing solutions with over 15 years of experience. What’s valuable is its experience in the education app-making sector, which is approximately 30% and transparent development process.

Services

• SAAS app development
• eCommerce development
• DevOps
• Enterprise software development
• PHP development
• User interface designing

Price: Average $25 – $49 per hour

3. DESIGNLI

When hiring an education app development company, if you are looking for a dedicated team, DESIGNLI could be worth selecting. It has a dedicated team of designers, engineers, developers, and business minds who will help you until the launch. With a track record of dealing with 60% of the mid-market and 10% of the education industry, this company can establish a productive working relationship.

Services

• UI/UX design
• Android and iOS mobile app development
• Cross-platform app development
• Custom web app and software development

Price: Average $50 – $99 per hour

4. Mobcoder

To digitize and automate businesses, this software development company relies on cutting-edge technologies that align with your use case and deadlines. It builds user-centric and cost-effective educational apps with hands-on experience in designing, developing, and employing all types. Since its launch in 2014, more than 300 apps have been successfully delivered, and 5% were from the education industry.

Services

• Native, cross-platform, or hybrid app development
• Internet of Things (IoT)
• Web development, planning, and design
• Convert data analytics into intelligence
• SAP migration, DevOps, SaaS app development

Price: $50- $99 per hour

5. Konstant Infosolutions

With client-centric innovative web solutions, this educational app development company stands among the top five 5 makers list. It mainly deals with mid-level market clients with a 10% working record in education, medical, and entertainment niches. Notably, it also provides effective post-maintenance support to ensure a clutter-free digital experience for app owners and users.

Services

• Cloud computing
• Blockchain development
• Opensource development
• IoT development
• Quality assurance of apps
• Cross-platform app development
• Wearable app development

Price: $25 – $49 per hour

How to Create an Education App in 6 Simple Steps

When developing an app, there is a lot of groundwork to do, including selecting a development platform and feature sets. To minimize confusion, we have simplified the process of educational app development stepwise so you can focus on other aspects.

1. Come with a Creative Idea and Define Objectives

First things first, your goals must be clear, and objects are defined for creating an educational app before heading to the real process. It is better to make a flow chart or use any other way to clearly note down the ideas. Your ideas must be visualized in a way that can be easy to communicate to developers, investors, and market researchers.

In this regard, you must know what you want to achieve from the app and what courses you will offer. Additionally, one should identify and pinpoint needs and brainstorm ideas for how your app will bridge the gap. It is important to plan essential features to embed, generate revenue afterward, and attract users.

2. Conduct an In-depth Market Research

Once you finish the basic paperwork, focus on conducting a market analysis to understand competitors and customer requirements. Specifically, monitor user reviews and ratings of the existing types of apps so you can analyze user preferences. Moreover, you can interview customers to gain specific insights into their needs for planning something the market has fallen short of.

Upon collecting such data, you can create a stand-out product, make informed decisions, and alter education app development strategies. Remember that there are more than 2 million apps for Apple and 2.3 million for Android users, so pick a platform wisely.

3. Design, Plan, and Shape the Concepts

There comes the most complex stage of app development because everyone aims to create a user-friendly and engaging app. Thus, design an easy UI/UX and interactive visual elements with quick navigation to special features. Following that, make a selection between different platforms to launch the app as the development process differs on that basis.

The market research will tell you about the user base, helping you choose a cross-platform approach or a certain mobile OS platform. After choosing a platform, select a programming language, back-end tool, IDE, code editor, or other tech stacks to build the application. This selection process takes time and is based on your goals, such as choosing a programming language depending on your platform approach.

Upon crossing the interconnected designing process, you must enlist the features of your apps that earlier ones lacked. Here, you can add push notifications, video-based content, coaching sessions with teachers, and so on while considering the app’s speed and simplicity. Besides, one must plan to encrypt sensitive personal data and ensure appropriate user session authorization to prevent hacking.

4. Start the Development and Coding Process

After planning or choosing technologies, the main working stage comes, where you need developers to fulfill mobile app developer education requirements. Once you have gathered the team, it is better to develop mockups, templates, and tutorials of your app expectations.

Through this visualization, you can outline your app’s appearance by adding a cohesive color scheme, layout, typography, and images. As the mockup accepts, focus solely on front-end and back-end development through various frameworks, APIs, and SDKs that fasten the processes.

In that context, ZEGOCLOUD APIs and SDKs are widely used and suggested for embedding useful communication features in apps. They accelerate app delivery with pre-built UIKits and UI components for making an impressive and fully customizable product. Furthermore, they enable rapid app development with a lower average global latency and high scalability, driving 30% higher user engagement to apps.

Taking APIs and SDKs into account, you can use an AI-powered digital human to add video-based content to educational apps. Instead of recording lectures, one can use these APIs and benefit from AI subtitles, voice clones, AI copywriting, and material libraries for effortless video production. Despite that, one can embed voice and video calling features in educational apps to connect teachers with students for tailored learning.

To conduct international webinars and conferences, you can integrate live-streaming in your educational app with screen-sharing, whiteboard, and other interactive learning options. For online training programs, there is a super-board API that will let users collaborate and brainstorm while recording the sessions.

5. Perform Multiple Tests and Gather Feedback

When you are done with the main development, test the education app before launching it for the targeted audience. In that process, you must ensure the features work as intended, and the app is user-friendly and bug-free while meeting the standards. At this stage, you can hire quality assurance managers and conduct beta testing to check whether the app needs further adjustments.

In addition, you can employ a researcher from an education app development company to gather user feedback on the app. It will give you a better understanding of their wants and whether your app’s key features fulfill their needs.

6. Launch the App and Work on Marketing

When your app is perfectly aligned with your expectations and users’ feedback, head towards its publishing on the App Store or Google Play. However, before that, you must fulfill the requirements and guidelines of respective platforms for app publishing.

Once you launch the app on the App Store or Play Store, continue marketing or introducing it to the potential user base. Afterward, work on fixing bugs occasionally, stay updated with the latest trends, and address users’ complaints through customer support.

Education App Development Best Practices

The realm of educational app development is continually evolving, meaning developers should prioritize current trends and preferences in apps. That’s why we tried to convey the best practices of the popular e-learning app market to let you stay updated and craft incredible technology.

• Gamification: For users’ engagement, developers are adding achievements, rankings, and levels in educational apps with gamification traits. It may involve animated characters, bonuses, and performance awards for high achievers, reinforcing children and teenager users for learning.
• Use of Advanced Technology: In technical subject-related apps, advanced technologies such as AR/VR are being used to simplify complexities through visual experiences. Besides, AI-powered PDF summarization and chatbots are launching to explain difficult terms to students.
• Assessment Tools: To measure user progress, educational app development services are bringing performance trackers in apps. They also aim to provide feedback and insights into users’ strengths and weaknesses to ease their learning journey.
• User-centered Design: While making an educational category app, developers keep the ease of navigation as their priority, along with security. Here, they can consider the age range of targeted users, their educational background, and learning styles.
• Social Elements: Group discussions, peer feedback, and other group activities play important roles in learning, so developers are making social learning features compulsory. To do so, they can embed video calling, live-streaming, in-app chat, and audio-conferencing features through ZEGOCLOUD APIs and SDKs.

Leveraging ZEGOCLOUD for Cutting-Edge Education App Development

ZEGOCLOUD offers a robust suite of real-time communication and video solutions that are perfect for enhancing educational applications. With its powerful SDKs and APIs, ZEGOCLOUD enables developers to integrate high-quality audio and video features seamlessly into their apps.

Key features include:

• Real-Time Video Communication: Facilitate interactive virtual classrooms and live tutoring sessions with ZEGOCLOUD’s high-definition video and low-latency capabilities.
• Interactive Whiteboard: Enhance collaborative learning with an integrated whiteboard for real-time annotation and brainstorming.
• Screen Sharing: Allow teachers and students to share screens effortlessly for presentations and live demonstrations.
• Customizable User Experience: Tailor the interface and functionalities to suit specific educational needs and provide a personalized learning experience.
• Scalable Infrastructure: Support a growing number of users and manage high traffic efficiently with ZEGOCLOUD’s scalable cloud architecture.

By integrating ZEGOCLOUD, developers can create immersive and engaging educational apps that foster effective learning and communication.

Conclusion

In summary, the educational app development industry is generating enough revenue from the popularity and fruitfulness of remote learning. Therefore, this guide has highlighted various types of education apps, their must-have features, best practices, and stepwise processes.

If we end the discussion with expert suggestions, you must try ZEGOCLOUD APIs and SDKs that speed up the development process. Along with speedy development, it also lets you embed valuable collaboration and social learning features.

Read more:

• eCommerce App Development Ultimate Guide
• Augmented Reality App Development Guide

FAQ

Q1: What platforms should I consider when developing an education app?

Consider developing the app for iOS and Android, as they are the most popular mobile platforms. Additionally, a web-based version can provide broader accessibility. Using cross-platform frameworks like React Native or Flutter can also streamline development across multiple platforms.

Q2: How can I engage users and keep them motivated in an education app?

Engage users by incorporating gamification elements such as badges, leaderboards, and rewards. Regularly update the content, offer personalized learning paths, and provide interactive elements like quizzes and real-time feedback to keep users motivated.

Q3: What monetization strategies can I use for an education app?

Common monetization strategies include offering a freemium model where basic content is free and advanced features require a subscription, providing in-app purchases for additional resources, displaying ads, and partnering with educational institutions or brands for sponsorship.