Parenting Apps Market: Opportunities for Startups

If you spend some time analyzing statistics and market trends, you might be surprised at how many people are using parenting apps today.

At the same time, such apps can cover different aspects, from baby care to specialized software, such as scheduling software for divorced parents who want to allocate time with their children appropriately and conveniently.

Startups in this area are already raising significant investments, and the niche shows excellent prospects for the future. I have decided to write an article on this topic, and it will be relevant to anyone interested in creating a startup in the parental app industry.

Why Build an App for Parents? Market Overview

Be it a body condition, sleep cycle, diet, or professional habits, you can monitor all these aspects through smartphone apps. Therefore, children’s health monitoring using the same technologies can be a completely natural next step.

Image source: Statista

Smart bottles, pacifiers, baby strollers, and clothes — all these novelties reduce the tension that novice parents may experience, allowing them to partially automate all the routine things done in baby care.

For instance, an “intelligent feeding monitor” attached to the bottom of a standard feeding bottle transmits data to a smartphone via Bluetooth. Using this device and a dedicated app, you can monitor feeding features previously determined intuitively — how much your baby consumes, milk temperature, and even bottle inclination angle.

Of course, these gadgets are not essential items, but the new generation of parents is happy to accept the possibilities the advancements offer in childcare.

Main Types of Parenting Apps (and List of Ideas)

We are now dealing with a new generation of parents who cannot imagine their lives without technology. Moreover, the technological advancements themselves have reached a sufficient level and can offer fascinating solutions to meet the needs of various audiences.

1. Parental control & monitoring applications. Such products are developed to assist parents in controlling their kid’s activities involving various gadgets and digital technologies. Say, they can limit screen time, block inappropriate content, and monitor kids’ online activities.

2. Health & nutrition tracking app. This parental app type helps them monitor their kids’ health, like vaccination schedules. Such apps can offer meal planning or collections of meal recipes adapted for children.

3. Development tracking apps. The software of this type allows parents to monitor kids’ physical, cognitive, and emotional development. They may be age-based or development-focused and contain advice for parents on supporting their children’s development.

4. Activity and playdate organizers. These apps can help parents find, organize, and plan children’s holidays and activities. Parents can also implement functions for group communication and various events planning using the organizers.

5. Sleep tracking. This product will help parents establish a healthy sleep pattern for their kids. In this context, features like a sleep log, white noise generation, and sleep tips will be valuable.

6. Special needs support apps. Parents of children with special needs are the target audience for such apps. That is a fairly broad audience, and such products can offer a resource or tool to help parents cope with various challenges.

7. Emergency/safety apps. They can be of use when parents need to quickly contact emergency services, access medical data, and seek safety advice. The apps can offer useful functions for parents, like real-time location tracking and emergency notifications.

8. Family management apps. Parenting apps of this type help families stay organized with tools like shared calendars, to-do lists, family events, appointments, and chore reminders.

9. Parenting advice & community. Developers can build a platform (like a small social network) where parents can share experiences, get advice, and communicate with other parents. Such apps can contain helpful educational articles and question-answer sessions with experts.

Each of these parental apps deals with different aspects of parenting and raising children and ensures numerous opportunities for startups in this area.

Building an App for Parents: Best Practices and Useful Tips

If you plan to build an app for parents and enter this market, we can provide some tips based on our own experience. Check below if they are useful to you:

• Start with the discovery phase to conduct market research and business analysis, clearly form your idea, define your target audience, select your technology stack, and describe the features you want to implement in your product.
• Assemble a team of developers with the necessary experience and expertise to develop your future app.
• Make sure you involve a UI/UX designer in the development. A well-thought-out interface logic and the product’s pleasant appearance are crucial factors that will drive your app to success.
• Never ignore the testing phase. QA engineers conduct testing at all stages of app development. This process allows you to correct potential errors before the target audience notices them.
• Make sure you know your app monetization features in advance. If you plan to monetize your product, the development team should take it into account all through the development phase, as specific functions may require special technical implementation effort. Take connecting payment gateways meant to transfer subscription payments as an example.
• Connect analytics systems to assist you in analyzing your audience and user behavior and improving your app with each subsequent version. For this purpose, it is also worth monitoring user comments in the App Store and Google Play.

Although the children’s smart technology sector is relatively new, the market is growing at a rapid pace. There is enough room for new startups, mobile apps, and other software product ideas that can gain popularity with the audience and bring income to their developers.

If you are looking for a reliable tech partner to develop a parental app or have questions about the development process, please contact us and let us discuss the details!

Andrii Sydoruk CEO, Managing Partner at SmartTek Solutions