An app like Vezeeta has three parts: a patient app to find doctors and book slots, a dashboard for doctors and clinics to manage schedules, and an admin panel to approve doctors and run the business. A web booking MVP for one city or specialty can start from about $1,500, a mobile MVP from about $2,000, and a full launch with online payments, reminders and store publishing from about $4,000; video consultations are a separate phase. Health data is sensitive under most privacy laws, so privacy rules belong in the scope from the start.
Vezeeta is a doctor booking platform that started in Egypt and now lists doctors in Saudi Arabia and several other markets. Patients search by specialty and area, compare fees and reviews, and book a slot; doctors and clinics manage their schedules; the platform earns from the bookings and the services around them.
When founders ask what "an app like Vezeeta" costs, they rarely need all of it. A directory for one city, a booking platform for one specialty such as dentistry or physiotherapy, or a network of clinics owned by one group are all smaller and more realistic first versions. This guide breaks the product into its features, shows what belongs in the first version, and explains the running costs and privacy rules that most quotes leave out.
The three products inside a doctor booking app
| Product | Who uses it | Its job |
|---|---|---|
| Patient app or website | Patients and their families | Search doctors, compare fees and reviews, book, pay, get reminders |
| Doctor and clinic dashboard (web) | Doctors, receptionists, clinic managers | Set schedules, see and manage bookings, mark attendance |
| Admin dashboard (web) | You and your team | Verify doctors, set fees or commission, handle complaints, see reports |
Clinic staff work on a desktop or tablet at reception, so the clinic side is almost always a web dashboard. The patient side can start as a website and become an app later.
Feature by feature: what it takes and when you need it
Low is ordinary screen work, Medium involves integrations, money or tricky rules, High is where most engineering time goes.
Patient side
| Feature | MVP? | Effort | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sign-up with phone number (OTP) | Yes | Low | SMS is charged per message |
| Search by specialty, area, name | Yes | Medium | Arabic search must handle spelling variations of names and areas |
| Doctor profile: fees, clinic, hours, qualifications | Yes | Low | Data entry and verification is an operations job |
| Book an available slot | Yes | High | Real availability, no double bookings |
| Booking confirmation and reminders | Yes | Medium | Push, SMS or WhatsApp; each has a different cost |
| Cancel or reschedule | Yes | Medium | With a cut-off time set by the clinic |
| Reviews after a visit | Yes | Low | Only from patients who attended |
| Online payment | Sometimes | Medium | Many patients still pay at the clinic |
| Family members on one account | Later | Low to medium | Common request for booking for children or parents |
| Video consultation | Later | High | A separate phase; see below |
Doctor and clinic side
| Feature | MVP? | Effort | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weekly schedule and exceptions | Yes | Medium | Holidays, emergencies, a doctor running late |
| Slot types | Yes | Medium | Exact times, or arrival order within a time window |
| Today's bookings and attendance | Yes | Low | Mark arrived, no-show, completed |
| Several doctors and branches | Often | Medium to high | One doctor in two clinics on different days |
| Manual bookings by reception | Yes | Low | Phone and walk-in patients go in the same calendar |
| Earnings and commission statement | Often | Medium | What the platform charged per booking |
| Visit notes and prescriptions | Later | Medium to high | This is moving into a clinic system; see below |
Admin dashboard
| Feature | MVP? | Effort | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Doctor verification | Yes | Low to medium | Store license numbers and documents; a person checks them |
| Specialties, areas and fees | Yes | Low | |
| Commission or subscription settings | Yes | Low | Change without a new app release |
| Complaints and review moderation | Yes | Low to medium | |
| Reports | Yes | Medium | Bookings, no-shows, revenue by doctor and area |
What drives the cost up
Scheduling rules. Doctors don't work like a salon. Some clinics give exact appointment times; many in Egypt and the Gulf work by arrival order within an evening window. A doctor may work in two clinics, take on extra patients, or cancel an evening at short notice. Each rule is simple on its own; together they decide most of the build time. Write them down before asking for a quote.
Money. Pay-at-clinic is the simplest. Online payment adds a gateway, refunds when a doctor cancels, and a statement for each doctor. If you also collect consultation fees on the doctor's behalf, you need payouts and a ledger, which is the same problem every marketplace faces.
Supply. The app is only as good as its doctor list. Recruiting, verifying and keeping profiles accurate is ongoing work for your team, not something code solves.
Telemedicine: a second phase, not an MVP feature
Video consultations add a video provider (usually billed per minute), a waiting room, consultation notes, and payment before the call. On the stores, Apple allows real-time one-to-one services such as medical consultations to be paid through your own payment flow rather than in-app purchase, but apps that could be used to diagnose or treat patients may be reviewed with greater scrutiny. Doctors usually need to be licensed where the patient is, and telemedicine rules differ by country, so confirm them with your health regulator first. We usually plan telemedicine as a later phase once in-person bookings work.
Health data: settle the privacy rules before any code
Medical bookings reveal health information, even when the app stores nothing more than "Ahmed booked a psychiatrist on Tuesday". Most privacy laws treat that as sensitive:
- Saudi Arabia: the Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL) classes health data as sensitive data.
- Egypt: the Personal Data Protection Law (Law No. 151 of 2020) treats health data as sensitive personal data.
- UAE: Federal Law No. 2 of 2019 on using ICT in health fields generally requires health data on services provided in the UAE to be stored and processed inside the country, with limited exceptions.
- EU: under the GDPR, health data is a special category that can only be processed under specific conditions, such as explicit consent.
- United States: HIPAA applies to healthcare providers, health plans and the companies that handle health data for them.
This is general information, not legal advice; ask a local lawyer which rules apply to your model. In practice they lead to the same design decisions: collect only what the booking needs, keep visit notes out of the booking app unless you really need them, limit each staff member to the data their role requires, keep an audit log of who viewed what, encrypt data, and choose hosting in the right region.
We designed these patterns into PharmaRiwaq, our own platform for pharmaceutical companies: customer consent records, permissions enforced in the database by role and data scope, and an audit trail that can't be edited. Its public demo runs on fictional data. We haven't published a clinic or doctor-booking system in our portfolio yet, and we say so up front.
What it costs
These are our real starting prices in USD. The final price comes from a written scope you approve before paying anything.
| Scope | What it typically covers | Starts from | Typical time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Web booking MVP | Patient booking site, clinic dashboard, admin; one city or specialty, pay at clinic, reminders | About $1,500 | About 3 weeks |
| Bigger web platform | Several branches, online payments, doctor statements, more roles | About $3,000 | About 5–6 weeks |
| Mobile MVP | Patient app for iOS and Android with backend, clinic dashboard and admin | About $2,000 | About 2–6 weeks |
| Full launch | Online payments, notifications, user roles, store publishing | About $4,000 | Depends on scope |
| Telemedicine phase | Video calls, pre-paid consultations, consultation notes | Quoted per phase | Agreed per phase |
Roughly in local currency: $1,500 is about EGP 75,000 or SAR 5,600; $2,000 is about EGP 100,000, SAR 7,500 or AED 7,340; $4,000 is about SAR 15,000.
Projects over $500 start with a 30% down payment, then 40% and 30% at milestones, each paid after you see that milestone working. The first working preview arrives within 72 hours of the down payment. For a quick estimate of your own list, use the app cost calculator.
Running costs after launch
| Item | How it is charged | Tip |
|---|---|---|
| SMS for OTP and reminders | Per message, varies by country | Usually the biggest recurring item; use push for app users |
| WhatsApp reminders | Per approved template message, set by Meta | Patients read it, but templates need approval |
| Maps for clinic locations | Free monthly allowance, then per request | A static map or a "directions" link costs little |
| Video calls | Usually per participant minute | Only once telemedicine is live |
| Hosting and database | Low at the start | Region matters where health data must stay in-country |
| Payment gateway | Per transaction | Only if you take online payments |
| Store accounts | Apple $99 a year, Google Play $25 once | Only for a mobile app |
When we're not the right fit
- You need a hospital information system, insurance claims processing or lab integrations from day one. That is a larger healthcare software project, and a specialist healthcare vendor will serve you better.
- You need a vendor with a local office and company registration for a government tender. We work remotely from Egypt and don't have one.
Where to go from here
Read how we approach booking apps and appointment systems, or the general booking app cost guide if your business is one clinic rather than a directory. A doctor platform is also a marketplace, so marketplace development covers the supply-and-demand side. When you're ready, the project planner turns your idea into a brief, and we reply with a written scope and fixed price within 24 hours.
FAQ
How much does it cost to build an app like Vezeeta?
With Q Studio, a web MVP for one city or specialty starts from about $1,500 (about 3 weeks), a mobile patient app with a clinic dashboard and admin from about $2,000 (about 2–6 weeks), and a full launch with online payments, notifications and store publishing from about $4,000. Telemedicine is quoted as its own phase. Running costs such as SMS, hosting and store accounts are paid directly to providers in your name.
How does a doctor booking app make money?
The common models are a fee per confirmed booking charged to the doctor, a monthly subscription for doctors or clinics, paid featured placement, and a share of online consultation fees. The admin dashboard can support whichever you choose; the per-booking model needs the most careful tracking of attendance and no-shows.
Can clinics use their existing system alongside the app?
Sometimes. If the clinic's system offers an API, bookings can be synced into it. If not, the clinic dashboard becomes the place reception sees online bookings, and staff enter them as they do phone bookings.
Do I need medical licenses to run a booking platform?
A pure booking directory is usually treated differently from providing care, but telemedicine and anything involving prescriptions are regulated in most countries. Check with your health authority before launch, especially before adding video consultations.
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