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Book a Free DemoHow to Create an App Like TikTok: 7-Step Process to Launch in 2025
Published On October 9th, 2025
How to build an app like tiktok and make money as a business owner and video content creator hitting the right notes?
TikTok’s meteoric rise has a formula. While people may find the app’s intuitiveness and user-friendly interface to be the supposed reason, we believe the X-factor is TikTok’s algorithm.
But what did it lead to?
Short-form video apps are expected to dominate 90% of internet traffic by the end of 2025, indicating a significant shift in online media consumption habits. It is quite understandable that people want to emulate TikTok’s success by building their own such app.
In this blog, we’ll address your concerns about how to make an app like TikTok, from a 7-step easy-to-implement roadmap to the key features that complete a TikTok-like app, and much more.
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Table of Contents
What is a TikTok App?
TikTok is a social media and short-form video platform owned by ByteDance. The application is an amalgamation of video creators and viewers, powered by a range of tools, filters, and effects to create short-form videos.
The unique blend of entertainment and social networking functionalities has helped TikTok become ubiquitous. The application has 1.59 billion monthly active users (MAUs) worldwide, despite being amidst the constant political turmoil.
People spend hours on the TikTok application consuming loads of short-form video content, making it a benchmark for aspiring short-form video apps trying to emulate the same.
How to Make a Short Video App like TikTok?
So, how to make an app like TikTok that half replicates the algorithmic magic? While emulating TikTok’s magic entirely isn’t possible, you can capture its essence with this 6-step roadmap:
Step 1 👉 Identify Your USP
Identifying the ultimate selling point (USP) while creating an app like TikTok helps you avoid getting lost in the crowd. Once you know the audience and their content preferences, determining the USP will be easier than you think.
You can study and analyze existing short-video applications to determine what you can do differently with your app. Your app’s USP can focus on anything, from targeting niche-focused communities to strong video monetization models, and regional focus to built-in editing tools.
Step 2 👉 Plan the Development Process
Start listing the core features that you want to see in your TikTok-like app. While video recording, video editing, and sharing constitute the must-haves, there are some features that complete a TikTok-like app (more on that in the later section of the blog!).
Another crucial decision while developing an app like TikTok is whether to launch your app on Android, iOS, or both. If you have any second thoughts, Android devices enjoy dominating share (65%) of installs of the TikTok app, as opposed to iOS devices.
Launching your TikTok-like app on both Android and iOS is beneficial, unless you have the budget to bear the development costs.
Step 3 👉 Ideate & Design the UI
‘Simple scroll, powered by a minimalist design.’ Ask a TikTok user, and they’ll say something like this to describe their experience.
The basic rule of thumb while designing the UI is that the fewer the options, the less the chaos. Focus on simplifying the video-watching experience on your TikTok-like app; do not let viewers aimlessly maneuver before they start watching the videos.
Simply put, a basic log-in page that lets users sign-in with the application, and boom, start offering the videos, as simple as that!
Step 4 👉 Choose the Solution Provider
In this stage, you’ll want to finalize on the development approach. If you want to know how to make an app like TikTok for the very first time, hiring and organizing teams is a complex and time-consuming task.
Instead, you can choose a white-label short-video app builder like VPlayed that handles everything for you.
Why VPlayed?
* Faster Time-to-market: Launch your short-video app like TikTok in just a few weeks, reducing the barriers for market entry.
* Scalability Built-in: Build your short-video app that can handle umpteen number of users as demand grows. VPlayed ensures that scalability remains within!
* Let VPlayed Handle Everything: With technical foundations and architecture taken care of, VPlayed lets you focus on user acquisition, community building, and so on.
Step 5 👉 Decide on the Monetization Strategy
Video creators and consumers (viewers) are two sides of the same coin when it comes to a short-video app like TikTok. Here’s the unfortunate truth: poor monetization strategies could drive video creators away than any policy change could.
Even though the TikTok application has a set creator rewards program, one could hear creators murmuring about unfair compensation.
It is advisable to come up with the ideal video monetization platform model for your application, keeping creators and fair compensation in mind. For example, subscriptions can be a premium monetization strategy that unlocks exclusive content, ad-free experiences, and early access to beta programs.
Step 6 👉 Invest in Application Security Measures
Security breaches have become common in the bustling digital era. We have seen the TikTok application being vulnerable to security breaches and privacy violations in the past.
While building your short-video app like TikTok, you need to invest in proper security measures. Some of them are:
* Data Encryption (AES Encryption)
* Secure Video Storage
* Digital Rights Management
* Dynamic Tokenization.
Ensure that your TikTok-like app adheres to global data regulation guidelines. To remind you, TikTok was fined nearly £13 million by the United Kingdom for violating user privacy laws. For your information, VPlayed lets you customize the application to meet region-specific compliances and regulatory requirements.
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What are the Features Needed to Create a TikTok Like App?
While learning how to make an app like TikTok, it becomes essential to know the features that help your TikTok-like app function and thrive. Let’s break down the essential feature set:
1. Video Hosting
Video Hosting becomes crucial when several thousand users upload and watch content simultaneously. You have two options for video hosting: on-premises or cloud hosting.
But here’s the catch: most TikTok-like app builders lock you into their preferred hosting infrastructure. Unlike such rigid app builders, VPlayed offers you complete flexibility. You can choose to host your videos either on cloud hosting, on-premises servers, or even a hybrid approach.
Along with video hosting, the CDN (Content Delivery Network) integration holds the key in efficient delivery of video content. CDN integration plays a crucial role, especially in on-premise hosting, because users might retrieve videos from the nearby CDN server rather than from the origin server.
2. Video Recording and Video Uploading
Ensure that your TikTok-like app offers best-in-class recording experiences with simple, one-tap recording features. Filters, AR effects, and Music integration features constitute the basic foundation of recording and editing tools.
Upon recording and editing, users should be able to seamlessly upload the videos. Ensure that videos get transcoded in various bitrates for optimal playback experience.
If you’re aiming to replicate a TikTok-like app for the web, employing an HTML5 video player is crucial. It supports adaptive playback, lightweight streaming, and mobile browser compatibility.
3. Feed and Discovery
TikTok rose to global prominence because of its well-curated feed, courtesy of an intelligent algorithm and intuitive UI. You should engineer a feed that prompts the audience to scroll endlessly. Design a separate section (something like ‘what’s trending?) on the main feed to display content based on its virality.
Allow users to discover content based on location, hashtags, categories, and topics. You can also include a category in the form of ‘creators’ that exhibits the talents of unfamiliar-yet-talented creators.
4. Analytics and Reporting
Short-video applications usually display user-generated content. When you explore how to create an app like TikTok, incorporating analytics into your application is crucial, as it helps track user response towards video categories, music, and content (in general).
Provide creators with detailed insights into their content performance while tracking metrics like average watch time, peak engagement times, and so on. But how does it help grow the app?
When creators get real-time data to comprehend, it’ll be helpful to make informed decisions. Empowering creators with such tools increases engagement on your application, thereby generating considerable revenue.
5. In-App Purchases
TikTok generates a whopping $3.5 billion in revenue from the in-app purchases alone. Virtual gifts and coins contribute to the bulk amount of in-app purchases made through the TikTok application.
In-app purchases act as the secret sauce for video monetization; so it’s a no-brainer to include these features in your application.
What is The Making Cost for Developing an App Like TikTok
Offering an exact cost for an application that has potential to scale is impossible. Generally speaking, the cost of developing an app like TikTok can start from around $10,000 and go up to $200,000 for a more advanced application with additional features.
The development cost for TikTok-like app development depends on the feasibility and complexity of the features you want to include, the experience of the development team, and the geographic location of the developers.
Conclusion: How to Build an App like TikTok
TikTok has already crossed 5 billion cumulative downloads and enjoys 1.2 billion daily active users worldwide.
But why would someone try to make another app? Here’s why: the ByteDance-owned app has revolutionized the video streaming industry.
As a result, there is room on the market and users want to try options, especially when it comes to short-video applications. Remember how Triller was successful amidst TikTok?
We hope this blog acts as the answer for your search on how to make an app like TikTok, especially with a shoestring budget. With clear market study, understanding of the features, and smart strategies, you can create an app that stands out from the rest.
If you have any second thoughts or need more information regarding this blog, feel free to drop us a comment below!
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Blogger & OTT Expert at VPlayed. Interested in digging deep into video streaming media tools, blog, discuss and share views on the legal OTT solution' & latest technologies tips, and tricks. Also passionate about photography loves to capture the pure essence of life.
