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Case Study — Mobile App

FitCook Foodz A complete mobile app in 14 weeks

A recipe library with full nutrition data, an in-app store with reviews, a premium subscription, cooking courses and a loyalty points programme, shipped to both stores in seven two-week cycles.

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App Store
Google Play
Rating
5.0
Downloads
5K+
FitCook Foodz recipe browser with search and recipe categories
14 weeks Concept to both stores From the first analysis to a live store listing.
7 Two-week cycles The client tested a working build every second week.
2 App stores, one build Apple App Store and Google Play, from one codebase.
60 Days of warranty We covered fixes while the first real users arrived.

The brief

One app for an entire food brand

FitCook Foodz was already running four businesses at once. A recipe audience, a cooking-class product, a line of sugar-free syrups to sell, and a community that posted its plates every day. Each one lived somewhere else, and none of them shared a customer account.

The first release had to carry all four, on iOS and Android, without a six-month timeline or an open-ended budget.

  • Recipes & nutrition
  • In-app store
  • Ratings & reviews
  • Premium subscription
  • Loyalty points
  • Cooking courses
  • Community feed

What went into release 1

  • RecipesSearch, categories, nutrition numbers, ingredient checklist, step-by-step mode, favorites
  • StoreProduct catalog, options per product, cart, checkout, order history
  • ReviewsStar ratings, verified-buyer badges, photo reviews, filtering
  • PremiumMonthly and annual plans through in-app purchase, locked content
  • CoursesCooking courses in modules, with progress per module
  • LoyaltyPoints balance, ways to earn, four discount tiers, birthday reward

Six product areas, one codebase, two app stores. We agreed the whole list before the first cycle started.

What was at risk

Mobile projects rarely fail on technology

They fail when the client stops hearing anything for weeks, when the scope grows without a decision, and when the invoice moves. Those were the three things FitCook Foodz asked about first, so we built the engagement to answer each one.

The usual mobile build
How this one ran
Months of silence, then one big reveal at the end.
A working build every two weeks, in the client's hands.
Scope creeps, hours pile up, the invoice moves.
We agreed the scope cycle by cycle, and added no feature without the client's approval.
Priorities are locked the day the contract is signed.
Priorities re-ranked at the start of every cycle, as the business learned.
Launch day is the finish line, so the app stops there.
It shipped with a roadmap and 60 days of warranty.

What our team built

Six products in one app

Every screen below is in the shipped release, on both stores. The recipes, the store, the subscription and the points all run off one account.

FitCook Foodz recipe page showing calories, protein, carbs and fat with a checkable ingredient list
FitCook Foodz navigation drawer listing cooking courses, favorite recipes, recipes, store, points store and settings

Recipes & nutrition

Every recipe carries its own nutrition data

Each recipe stores its own numbers: calories, protein, carbs, fat, active time, resting time and portions. Ingredients and steps sit on separate tabs, and every ingredient is a checkbox you tick as you go, so you can follow the recipe while you cook.

  • Search across the full catalogue
  • Eight categories to browse
  • Nutrition numbers per recipe
  • Prep time, rest time and portions
  • Checkable ingredient list
  • Separate ingredients and steps tabs
  • Favorites per account
  • Push notifications for new recipes

The categories use the client's own names: Végé, Viande, Déjeuners, Poisson/Fruits de mer, Lunchs, J'te sauve la vie.

FitCook Foodz in-app store showing the sugar-free cocktail syrup product grid with prices
FitCook Foodz product page for a lime cocktail syrup with image gallery and breadcrumb navigation

In-app store

The brand's physical products, sold inside the app

FitCook Foodz sells its own line of sugar-free cocktail syrups. The app carries that catalog instead of sending people out to a browser. Each product has an image gallery and its own options, the cart and the checkout stay in the app, and breadcrumbs at the top of a product page show the way back.

  • Product catalog with prices
  • Multi-image product galleries
  • Options and variants per product
  • Cart and checkout
  • Store search
  • Breadcrumb navigation
FitCook Foodz product reviews with a 4.5 star average, verified buyer badges and a customer photo review

Ratings & reviews

Customer reviews on the brand's own product pages

Customers rate what they bought, write a short review, and attach their own photos. A review that matches a real order gets a verified-buyer badge. Two-star reviews stay on the page, because reviews people believe are worth more than a full row of five stars.

  • Star ratings and review counts
  • Verified-buyer badges
  • Customer photo reviews
  • Write-a-review flow in-app
  • Sorting and filtering
  • Per-product aggregate score
FitCook Foodz Premium paywall comparing an annual and a monthly plan with the included benefits
FitCook Foodz cooking course module with a 100 percent progress ring

Premium & courses

Subscriptions billed by Apple and Google

Premium is a real in-app purchase, monthly or annual, billed by the App Store and Google Play. The renewal and cancellation terms sit on the screen before payment, which is the part store reviewers read first. A Premium account opens the exclusive recipes, the live sessions and the cooking courses, and each course module keeps its own progress.

  • Monthly and annual plans
  • In-app purchase on both stores
  • Renewal and cancellation terms on screen
  • Locked content checks the subscription
  • Course picker with modules
  • Progress saved per module
FitCook Foodz loyalty screen showing a 450 point balance and discount rewards from 500 to 5000 points

Loyalty points

Points that turn into store discounts

Members earn points for what they already do in the app, then spend them on discounts. There are four tiers, from 10% off at 500 points to 25% off at 5,000, plus a birthday reward that arrives on its own. The recipes people read help pay for the syrups they buy.

  • Live points balance
  • Separate earn and redeem tabs
  • Four discount tiers, 10% to 25%
  • Automatic birthday reward
  • Points store with claimed rewards
  • Discount applied at checkout
FitCook Foodz community feed with a member post, photo, likes and comments

Community

The community feed, inside the brand's own app

The community used to live on a social platform the brand did not control. Now members post their plates from the app, like and comment on each other's posts, and the brand posts in the same feed, next to the recipes and the store.

  • Member posts with photos
  • Likes and comments
  • Post composer in-app
  • Brand and member posts in one feed

The path

Fourteen weeks, in the open

We ran the project as product management, not as a code delivery. Every two weeks the client saw what was built, approved what came next, and knew what it cost.

  1. Initial analysis

    Before a line of code
    • We turned each business goal into a named feature
    • We wrote down the scope and the limits
    • We agreed what the first release would contain
    • Everything else went on a roadmap

  2. Scope agreed in advance

    Every cycle
    • The client approved the features before we started
    • The client saw what was done and what came next
    • We added no feature without the client's approval
    • Every decision came back to a business goal

  3. A build every two weeks

    7 × 2 weeks
    • We delivered working features every two weeks
    • The client tested each build and sent comments
    • We re-ranked the priorities at the start of each cycle
    • The client approved the work as it arrived

  4. Quality & launch

    Through store review
    • We tested every delivery before the client saw it
    • If something was wrong, we fixed it inside the cycle
    • The client signed off on each set of features
    • The client saw the budget across all seven cycles

  5. 60-day warranty

    After launch
    • The app met its first real users
    • We covered fixes on everything we shipped
    • The client had the next set of features written down
    • The work carried on after launch day

The result

Live on both stores, with the next release already written down

A complete app, live on the Apple App Store and Google Play in 14 weeks. It holds a 5.0 rating and has passed 5,000 downloads.

For the product

Recipes with nutrition data, a store with reviews, a subscription, cooking courses, loyalty points and a community feed. One release, both stores, through real store review.

For the team

The client made the product decisions and we ran the build. They finished the project with the next set of features already written down.

For the budget

Seven cycles, each with its scope and its price agreed before it started. The client could change the plan between cycles without changing the contract.

Your turn

Every DevStudio build runs this way

FitCook Foodz is one case, but nothing in it was special to this client. We agree the intent, write the spec, build in two-week cycles, verify the result, then ship to the stores.

You pay per cycle, not per hour

You approve what a cycle contains before it starts, and you know its price before it starts. We add nothing without your approval.

A working build every two weeks

You never wait for a reveal at the end. Each cycle finishes with a build you can open and use.

Verified, then shipped to the stores

We check the build against the spec you approved. Then we take it through Apple and Google review, and cover fixes for 60 days after launch.

Your app, live on both stores

Tell us what you're building. We write down what it has to do, scope the first cycle, and give you a date and a price you can plan around.

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