Building Bespoke Apps for Nannies: A Custom Marketplace Guide

Are you looking to make a specific marketplace application for nannies? To help you with that we have this complete guide on how to create a babysitter marketplace application that will be loved by your potential users.

Now this means that you wish to see the new film released in theatres or visit the trendy restaurant everybody seems to talk about.

The only trouble with this idea? You have children that need minding and also wish to keep them entertained.

Finding a babysitter is not easy, it’s not just about knowing who is available in your area; one also needs information on charges as well as qualifications. Finding just the right person may take hours of hard work.

But what if there was an easier way? babysitting applications can connect parents with nannies instantly? One pen stroke away and your smartphone does the rest!

If you are dreaming about designing the perfect personalized marketplace application for nannies and parents then getting started might be tricky. So we put together this thorough guide to take you from building your “find-a-nanny” app up until it’s ready for launch. Such an app can help users create to-do lists, organize their daily tasks, and manage household chores; ensuring stickier family connections by keeping everyone in line with their responsibilities.

And therefore we would be ’app’ and running before you know it!!!

But first, let us understand what the marketplace app is like.

Before we begin though, let’s take a look at what a marketplace app is all about…

What is a custom marketplace app?

The newest custom-developed marketplace application for babysitters is a mobile application (or desktop equivalent) that one can use to either buy or sell goods and services.

A developed custom marketplace application can be likened to a traditional market that you may visit within your town or city. Just like in any real-world marketplace, you can check the different vendors and see what they offer before being able to engage them on a personal note so that you may ask them how they could help!

A custom marketplace app for nannies and parents (buying and selling) is an advantage because it makes it easier for both buyers and sellers to meet the right people who can work with them. Because there are many people grouped in one spot, you do not need to waste time looking over numerous websites or applications trying to find out what you need. Different markets are there so that you can get one that is really meant for your requirements.

Some examples of marketplaces include Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Fiverr, Just Eat, and Uber. The best babysitting apps are very important in the assessment process although they make it easy to search for qualified babysitters and showcase the most suitable options for users by 2023. Some specific ‘babysitters near me’ applications will be discussed later in this article.

Find out more about developing your very own custom marketplace app

Why would people want to use a developed custom marketplace app to hire childcare providers?

The app for babysitting has a major advantage because it simplifies life.

In the past, finding someone who can babysit would be hard as you have to ask friends to get some recommendations or look for many online directories. But nowadays, people usually find this cumbersome especially when they need someone urgently given busy schedules.

Using a custom-made marketplace app for babysitting services, prospective clients sign up and search for available babysitters according to their specific selection criteria while also tracking payments made, hours worked, and other essential details about children’s engagement benchmarks. If they locate suitable ones, their profiles would contain remarks about them from previous clients and other information before hiring them to mind their children.

Most marketplaces feature money escrow; hence the seller does not get paid until the sale is completed. Therefore if within an hour after the booking time has elapsed there was no response from the selected nanny then I would have my money returned to me or indeed an alternative wallet that I utilized another day via paying again.

Moreover, parents and babysitters can benefit from marketplace applications for nannies to the same extent. Since the players in this industry have been developed by others it does not take place at any point of time on an individual’s behalf. The major formats of such apps possess excellent SEO making them among top sites displayed by search engines when looking for something using words like ‘nanny marketplace’.

Designed nanny marketplace applications offer similar advantages to both parents and caregivers. Rather than spending time on their own self-marketing, these platforms provide the full service of promotion. Most babysitter marketplace apps rank among the first on Google thanks to a good SEO just like when someone is searching for a ‘nanny rental marketplace’.

Some examples of developed custom marketplace babysitting apps for babysitters

There are already some custom marketplaces for nannies and babysitters out there including:

• Bambino 
• Care.com
• eNannySource
• Sittercity

Urban Sitter is a modern solution for finding caregivers by leveraging social networks and community connections. It allows parents to view reviews, book sitters, and manage payments, making it a convenient option for trusted childcare.

It implies that a babysitting app cannot be launched due to a lack of opportunities, but this is false.

Identifying voids in the marketplace and understanding your audience is what matters most. There might also be some special feature of yours, that no one else has; we will cover this when the time comes.

Take a look at the marketplace apps for babysitters above and make some notes. What do you like about them? What do you not like about them? What features do you find the most interesting? What is the user experience like? This will help you with your market research.

The process of developing a custom marketplace app for nannies

In order to ensure that all the tasks and their schedules are systematically organized, it is necessary to use applications in creating to-do lists.

Here are the steps to follow:

1. Do your research

What should you do before developing your personal babysitter app? For starters, ensure that market research is extensive.

Market research enables one to know if there is any gap in the market for a childcare application. In case no favored potential user is found, then that may help save both time and money before embarking on another project.

Although parents and nannies are your target audience, other aspects such as related jobs in different parents’ homes should also be considered. For instance, nannies who work across various households can take advantage of an application that allows them to have separate listings depending on the home they are in charge of at the moment; thus ensuring better organization of their duties.

42% of failed startups do so because there is no market need. So identifying a necessity for your app means you have made reasonable progress towards achieving great success!

Things you need to do include:

• Identifying your target demographic. Certainly, parents and nannies are going to be your primary demographic. But if you want more information, you can take a closer look at the demographics. For instance, what country or region will your target market be located? Are they predominantly senior citizens or youth groups? How much money do they have to spend or expect to earn from their work?
• Examine your rivals. It is worth mentioning that there are several applications for babysitter’s marketplace online these days. Thus it is important to examine such aspects as design of these applications, their cost and who created them first. Therefore, one should try downloading these applications in order to understand them and know what needs doing to be distinct in the field
• In order to assess what is happening in the present time within this industry as well as within yourself and your rivals you have to consider risks and opportunities. For example, if there are other pandemics and consequent lockdowns how would that impact on your business? A SWOT analysis stands out as a perfect tool for determining both internal and external risks as well as opportunities.
• Determine your unique selling proposition (USP). It is the reason you are different and should be considered unique among other individuals within your industry. The USP in question would be used to promote the app for the target users of the app. You might opt to add on extra services like house sitting, pet care or taking care of aged persons in addition to babysitting services or just go ahead to charge less than what other players in this field do.

A business model canvas or lean canvas will help you plan what research you need to undertake, as well as give you something to refer back to later on.

Check out our guide to getting started with market research.

2. Find your funding

Creating a marketplace app is not cheap. Depending on its complexity and the features that you want incorporated, it can cost from $30,000 up to $300,000. A case in point is a daily nanny app that enables tracking babysitting and nannying hours quite well; this includes such things as entering hourly and overtime rates managing shifts and letting parents know payment status making it too comprehensive on the caregivers part. This means that you should know how you will develop and launch your application financially. Hence, your pockets would not run dry during the process!

Most start-ups are funded through ‘bootstrapping’- where loans or personal savings are used to fund the venture. There are some start-ups financed by investors who inject a certain amount of capital into their businesses in exchange for equity stakes. Also, there’s more with working alongside an investor since they can also help advise you.

On the other hand, grants from governments, charities, and private companies fund certain start-ups. Even though some grants are hard to come by, you receive the funds to develop your business concept without having to risk part of it. We have compiled a number of guides about Grants in UK, Grants in the USA, Grants in Canada, and Grants in Europe.

Your babysitter marketplace’s costs should be estimated first beginning from devs’ salaries down to advertisements for your application. Consequently, you’ll determine what needs to be done in order to raise funds for it, or if any save measures are needed.

Find our more info about the cost of launching a startup.

3. Get the right tech team on board

With the help of the perfect development team, your babysitter market application will be properly established and deployed.

It’s important to choose the right team for the job whether one considers hiring in-house, picking freelancers or working with web development agencies. By developing features to track hours worked, productivity and organization can be improved immensely. Their prior experience in marketplace tech would make them even better equipped as they would know what the consumers want to see!

Most at times, one may be tempted to pick a cheap development team but it’s not always right. We always recommend that when selecting your tech team, you think in terms of return on investment. When starting off, a good quality coding and development team could eventually lead to much more profits when launching than the initial amount spent on it.

We’ve created a guide to putting together a great mobile app development team.

4. Work on your MVP

Just like any other app, many new entrants are often tempted to include a plethora of attractive attributes during the first launching of their babysitting marketplace application so as to entice potential customers. However, this may not be the best approach.

In fact, an app laden with features may take longer to complete while another aspiring competitor could finish it first. Moreover, if one’s experience with marketplace fails, then all those resources and time utilized will have gone down the drain.

Thus one needs to start with the minimum viable product or MVP.

In essence, MVP is like an initial version of a market application. It could look basic but it’s functional enough for interested consumers to use right away.

There are several benefits of an MVP including cost effective launch in terms of time as well as money are significant. Additionally, user feedback can be leveraged thereby leading into further updates that allow incorporation of additional functionalities at later stages.

Indeed we estimate that this process cuts down on both building costs by 40% as well as time taken before launching into the market by 35%.

The next step is to identify the features that you want in there. A great starting point is to make a list of all the things that you ever wanted added to the marketplace app. After this inventory prioritizes on which ones to be updated first while others may need their updates postponed until later versions. Organizing them in lists or boards could also be good for clarity, organization, and tracking purposes. This method also allows parents and nannies to share all their daily activities, hence promoting proper communication and harmony.

When selecting various alternative functions, try to remain as objective as possible. Even though some specifics might sound amazing; on top of that, among other things, there are sublime surprises buried within the design of these programs but it is important not to forget what users require!

Things you will need to think about include:

• Necessity. Which features are critical to your app? For example, does your app need to include personalized profiles for family members with essential medicaGrants in Europel information? Multiple language support is nice unless you’re launching in a multi-lingual area; it’s better to focus on one language first
• Customer feedback. Which features do your customers want to see, and which are they not too bothered about? Don’t just speculate; ask your target audience for their thoughts
• Cost and time. Which features are quick wins, and which ones will take time and money to implement?
• Your competitors. Which features have your competitors implemented, or conversely, not implemented?

For a custom babysitter marketplace app, we’d advise focusing on the following features as a starting point: track hours

• A login feature. As with most marketplaces, both babysitters and parents will need to be able to log in safely and securely. If you’re creating an MVP, using social login not only saves your development team time but makes it easier for users to create an account. Leave two-factor authentication for a future update
• Reviews and ratings. While reviews and ratings are essential for all marketplaces, they’re especially important if you’re developing a nanny marketplace app. This helps you build trust and credibility
• A payment system. You will need a solid and secure system in place so parents can make payment and babysitters can receive their earnings
• Push notifications. When people need babysitters quickly, they need to know that a prospective nanny has accepted their offer as soon as possible so they can start making plans. Push notifications on smartphones will keep everyone happy
• Chat functionality. It’s only natural that customers will want to ask prospective babysitters questions, so in-app chat functionality is imperative to the success of your marketplace. While it might be tempting to let a babysitter provide their email address or mobile number to customers so they can go off the platform, this isn’t ideal for you. This is because both parties could make an arrangement without using your app, meaning you lose out on earnings
• The ability to share photos is an essential feature, allowing parents and nannies to share updates and important information seamlessly.
• Search and filters. Parents will want to be able to instantly search for prospective nannies. Search and filter functionality means they can find babysitters in their local area, who can work at a time convenient to them. Geolocation capabilities are great, but they’re not entirely essential at the MVP stage

Important note:

You don’t have to build these features from scratch. There are plugins and off-the-shelf solutions available that mean you can get up and running quickly. You can create custom features later on if there is demand for them. For example, you might add features to track medical history, allowing users to store important health information like allergies and medications.

While creating an MVP, you need to consider whether to create a web app or a native app.

A web application is any application that can be accessed through all kinds of Internet browsers, while a native app is specifically developed for either iOS or Android. In terms of performance and user experience, native apps are superior but they cost more and take longer time to develop. If you don’t want to create two distinct versions of your application for iOS and Android, then you also have to determine that one.

Since time is tight in establishing an MVP, we suggest beginning with the design of a web application. Afterward, feedback from users regarding this babysitter marketplace can guide which platforms will require native application development instead.

5. Prepare for the launch

While prepping for your ‘babysitter near me’ app development, consider whether you are looking for a ‘hard’ launch or a ‘soft’ launch.

A hard launch represents the formal, on-scheduled publicity of the application, while soft launching means to release quietly without much fuss and make gradual changes therein.

When making an MVP, we would advise on quietly launching since it saves costs and allows room for additional value through customer feedback collection over time. But sometimes going with a hard approach has more advantages; when you know that some of your competitors will be releasing similar baby-sitting apps and you want to get ahead of them by gathering media attention.

Nonetheless, there is nothing wrong with having both types of launches together in order to ensure that everybody is on board. For instance, you may initiate it as a quiet version as you continue tuning your nanny marketplace application but with time it can be upgraded enough to reach what you expect from it before launching formally.

Also, remember that marketing should be part of this plan as well. There are different ways in which marketing can be done without spending so much money or anything at all.

Moreover, these days SEO remains one of the most effective strategies for long-term success alongside monitoring which phrases people utilize while searching about baby-sitting applications. Alternatively, find out which social media platforms your target audience uses and focus on growing your customer base.

Find out more about hard and soft launches

6. Start collecting feedback

When you finally develop your custom marketplace app for nannies and parents, you might think the hard work is done. However, it’s only starting!

It’s essential to see what customers, both the parents and the childminders, think of your MVP. Tracking various aspects of childcare, including meals, naps, and even the baby’s mood, is crucial for comprehensive feedback. That way, you can see what they like and dislike about the app, and which features to roll out next.

There are different ways you can get feedback. The easiest way is to create a survey and email it out to customers. You can also give users the opportunity to provide their thoughts in the app.

Some customers may not proactively give you feedback; you might have to hunt for it. Look at your reviews in the app store, comments on social media, as well as thought pieces in magazines and news sites. We always recommend setting up an alert on Google Alerts so you can monitor when your brand name or app name is mentioned online.

As well as qualitative feedback from customers, also look at the stats. For example, monitoring the churn rate lets you see how many customers stop using your app. If this spikes after an app update, it’s likely that you have implemented a change that users don’t like.

Our top tips for developing a custom babysitter marketplace app

To this point, we’ve analyzed the advantages of having a babysitter marketplace app and the procedure for its creation. Our additional suggestions will be drawn from our years of experience in launching an array of mobile and desktop applications. For example, the ‘Baby Connect’ application serves as an all-in-one utility that assists parents and caregivers in keeping up with various activities such as feeding schedules, naps, and diaper changes.

Know your pricing model

We previously discussed how you can finance your customized marketplace app for nannies in the article. In addition to knowing the total amount required for development and launching, you also need to know how you are going to make money out of it.

Depending on the nature of your services offered, different marketplaces take different approaches toward monetization. Some examples include:

• Taking a commission for each transaction
• Charging the seller (or buyer) a fee for using the marketplace
• Offering the marketplace for free, but charging buyers and sellers for premium listings or expedited services

Including features to track medical appointments can also impact pricing, as these added functionalities may justify higher fees or premium subscriptions.

It might be that you offer early adopters a reduced fee or commission in exchange for signing up for the app and providing feedback.

It’s essential to choose the correct pricing model for your babysitting app – it’s a fine line between making money and keeping users happy. Otherwise, you may find buyers and sellers get frustrated and go elsewhere.

Effective market research and asking prospective customers how they would prefer to pay for using the app will help you here. Also, look at the costs of developing your babysitting app to see how you can most quickly recoup the money you’ve spent.spent.

Find out more about startup monetization models

Think about how you’ll vet sitters

When you’re operating a marketplace, especially one where people offer services, it’s vital to ensure that people are who they say they are.

When developing a custom marketplace app for nannies, you’ll need to vet sitters thoroughly to ensure everyone’s safety and well-being. Additionally, consider expanding your platform to include pet-sitting services, which can attract a broader pool of caregivers and enhance the user experience.

You may want to ask for:

• Proof of ID to verify their identity and age;
• References from clients they work with;
• Evidence of a criminal record check;
• Vaccine records (for example, COVID-19 vaccine status);
• Motor vehicle records if the babysitter will be driving for your family;
• Evidence of qualifications (for example, first aid certificates);
• Some countries may also have their own verification processes. For example in the UK, nannies that look after children from more than two families at a time will need to register with a childminder agency or Ofsted.

Peer recommendations can also be a helpful tool. For example, to be active on Bambino, all sitters must receive a recommendation from a community member. This shows they’re a legitimate and experienced babysitter that is already offering services in their local area.

Remember that it’s just as important to vet parents, especially if babysitters will be working in someone’s home. One of the ways you can do this is by asking for proof of ID.

Reviews are equally important on your app as they build trust. Parents can give feedback about the babysitters they hired, and likewise, babysitters can offer their thoughts on the parents.

Want to know more about developing killer apps and marketplaces?

We’re all about creating, developing, and launching awesome tech at You are launched. If you need a little extra help with your startup idea send us a message, and we’ll be happy to support you!

Alternatively, check out some of our comprehensive guides about creating mobile apps and marketplaces.

• How to develop a B2B marketplace app
• How to develop a car rental app
• How to develop a fitness app 
• How to develop a multi-vendor marketplace
• How to develop an NFT marketplace
• How to develop a restaurant reservation app
• How to develop a SaaS marketplace
• How can AI power up your Custom Marketplace App?

Develop a custom marketplace app for babysitters FAQ

Need a quick answer to your question? We’ve got you covered. Check out our ‘Create a marketplace to hire a nanny’ FAQ section.