Payment App Development in 2025: A Comprehensive Guide 

Investment in the financial industry is considered one of the most promising areas. Therefore, the total amount of digital transactions is expected to reach $8.563 billion in the coming years, and if your company is thinking about ways to develop, you should pay attention to mobile payment applications. 

For many entrepreneurs, it is not just following a technological trend but an opportunity to create a competitive and innovative product that will bring a stable income for years. In our guide, we will analyze the main types of P2P apps, their functionality, and the stages of development that will provide your business with a solid foundation for scaling in the fintech market. Also, using our case study, An Intelligent Payment Ecosystem, as an example, we will consider the features of working with a payment product and real results.

P2P Payment App Classifications

Even before the actual process of payment app development, it is worth knowing their variability and the specific market segment for which such P2P payment apps are designed. In general, several main types of P2P payment apps have specific implementation features in P2P payment app development and business value.

Standalone payment apps

Apps of this type function as independent platforms. This means that their financial transactions do not depend on the banking infrastructure.App users can top up their e-wallet via a bank account or credit card and then transfer funds to other users on the same platform, for example, the Cash App platform. 

Of course, if your business does not require integration with platforms but a custom solution for mobile payment app development, you should focus on achieving your business strategies.

Features: 

Bank-centric payment app

Such P2P payment apps are developed and supported directly by financial institutions. They integrate with existing banking systems. This approach to the payment processing system guarantees customers fast transfers between accounts within one or more banks. A mobile payment app is needed to optimize bank transfers, expand existing financial services, and increase user confidence. 

A successful payment app of this type requires compliance with the following:

Social media-based payment services

Payment app development requires integrating payment gateways directly into social media platforms, allowing users to make money transfers directly through their social accounts. This is necessary for business accounts on social networks for entrepreneurs or brands, for simplified transfers on social networks, and for the creation of additional monetization channels. 

Characteristics:

Mobile OS payment services

This mobile payment system is built directly into mobile device operating systems. It is mainly implemented via an NFC chip, which makes financial transactions secure and fast. 

Specifics:

The diversity of P2P payment apps should be ensured primarily through the right technical approach to payment app development and subsequent integrations with financial systems. 

Suppose you have a question about the practical results of various fintech solutions. In that case, we recommend that you read our real cases of successful payment apps, not only in the Top 10 Projects for Fintech material. 

The development of a P2P payment app is a multi-stage process that requires full planning, high-quality development and implementation, and subsequent system support. Whether the app works autonomously or is integrated with bank accounts, its effectiveness is determined by the features it offers to app users. 

To ensure that your P2P payment app is a competitive and strong product in the market that meets the modern expectations of the target audience, the next section will discuss the main functionality that should be considered in 2025 for P2P payment app development.

What features to add to your payment app

Functionality in a P2P payment app should be primarily user-friendly regarding the payment processing system. Therefore, a successful payment app should offer basic features and additional features that will improve the user experience and become a significant advantage for the business's monetization potential. 

Depending on the type of mobile apps, the functionality may differ regarding integration with bank accounts, security mechanisms, and analytical tools. You may need not only new functionality but also the modernization of the existing one, which can be found in more detail in The Ultimate Guide to Fintech App Development and Modernization. 

Peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions

For most mobile payment apps, this is one of the fundamental functions that guarantees secure direct money transfers without intermediaries.

Business benefits: 

Technical features to consider:

Digital Wallet

The availability of a digital wallet is a mandatory component for payment app development and, ultimately, for the user. For businesses, implementing this feature in a P2P payment app has certain advantages: 

Technical requirements:

Point-of-Sale (POS) Integrations

This is an essential feature in payment app development, as it allows a company to accept payments directly using mobile devices or specialized terminals. 

Business value:

Technical implementation:

Spending Analytics

P2P payment apps provide users with information about bank accounts and financial transactions, which can be used to manage an organic budget. 

Business case:

Technical implementation:

Send Bills/Invoices

A full-fledged P2P payment app should allow users to create and send important payment documents directly through the mobile payment app. 

Business benefits:

Technical benefits:

MFA, Unique OTP, and IDs

Security is a critical aspect of payment app development. When processing sensitive information, it is worth focusing on methods of protecting user accounts. The development and subsequent user use of mechanisms such as MFA, OTP, and IDs significantly reduce the risk of unauthorized access.

Business value: 

Technical features: 

Customer Support

Prompt customer support in mobile platforms should be one of the main features to ensure that app users are provided with proper security measures. 

Business benefits:

Technical implementation:

Convert Currencies Automatically

The need for international transfers and payments has revived the importance of using automatic conversion for a large customer segment. Therefore, mobile payment application development should be ready for this from the discovery stage when starting to work with the product. 

Importance for business:

Technical side:

Thanks to the systematic development of payment app development, many companies understand that they need to develop new directions for P2P payment apps to remain competitive. 

We understand the importance of implementing innovative solutions in payment apps, so we recommend that you read additional trends in the Fintech Trends material that you should apply to your product.

To create a high-quality and full-fledged P2P payment app, you need to go through the entire development cycle, starting with the selection of a team and ending with further support and application of updates. In the next part, we will take a closer look at the fundamental stages of payment app development that will meet the requirements of the modern IT market.

Key stages of payment app development 

Only a strategic and comprehensive approach can ensure the continued success of your modernized or newly created mobile payment app. Therefore, certain mandatory stages must be followed to keep up with the financial technology landscape. 

Discovery 

This stage is the foundation, as it discusses the main ideas and selects the technical team to implement the project. In most cases, for P2P payment app development, you should pay attention to the following aspects:

Design

A clear, intuitive, and cognitively manageable design is already a big part of the success of your mobile payment app. Therefore, when choosing a technical team, paying attention to your development's product and web vision from the specialist team is essential, as the design will be different.

Critical stages of the design process include:

Architecting

This stage defines which technologies will be used to implement the payment application and its interaction with services.

Key aspects:

Development 

This step accompanies the direct development of functionality in compliance with the architecture and design. For a P2P payment app, it is essential to have fast and secure transaction processing and correct uninterrupted work during money transfers.

Front-end technologies are responsible for user interaction with the system:

The focus of back-end technologies is the server side with request processing, business process logic, and data storage. 

Depending on the specifics of your business, you can use C++, Python, and Ruby.

Therefore, the technology stack and its organic application should be the main priority in your P2P payment app. Working with sensitive financial data should first be characterized by secure payment apps that will provide your user with a full range of financial services. 

QA Testing and Audit 

A series of tests follow the successfully completed P2P payment app development stage to check stability and security. 

Deployment

It is a complex process that involves putting the application into operation, configuring the infrastructure, optimizing performance, and ensuring that integrations work correctly. 

The main parts of this process are:

Support & Maintenance 

The payment gateway app's stable and correct operation should be accompanied by constant updates and support from the technical team that developed it.

To do this, you should adhere to:

Summing up the results of the money transfer app development process, this is not the only stage that should follow the protocol. When it comes to proper promotion and building the business value of a competitive product in the market, it is worth having a feature of your business. To this end, we have created a detailed step-by-step guide to developing a high-end fintech product that will bring tangible results.

To fully understand the specifics and practicality of money transfer app development, we will consider the case of a payment application developed by the Artkai team for a client and the challenges and solutions that we managed to implement in the product. 

DNA Payments: An Intelligent Payment Ecosystem Built by Artkai 

DNA Payments is one of the largest independent financial services companies in the UK and EU, providing payment solutions to over 65,000 merchants. The DNA Payments Group comprises nine companies serving the online and brick-and-mortar market. 

The Artkai team received a request to redesign the platform, expand its functionality, and create a mobile version, allowing users to conveniently manage payments without being tied to a computer.

Challenges and tasks of the project:

In the process, our specialists managed to create new features for the platform:

The project results have yielded positive results for the customer and significantly influenced the further development of DNA Payments.

The key to the success of the project was an integrated approach to the product, which was aimed at transparency of communication and improvement of user experience and business efficiency. 

Summing up

P2P payment app development plays a significant role in the development of financial technology and provides fast, secure, and convenient transactions for users worldwide. Businesses that consider this in their business strategy become key players in the fintech industry.

If you want a reliable partner to create a fintech product that will provide a reliable solution for years, check out our fintech application development services. Our priority is your development and high results.