Cost/time of a complex app?
- Started
- Last post
- 8 Responses
- Projectile
How much time would it take to create an app like, say, Uber?
Functions:
-Location detection
-Photo uploads
-Members having a profile with description, photos etc
-Messaging system
-Rating/feedback system
-Intelligent-ish search function (based on rating, keyword relevance & location)
-Payment system where money is paid upfront but only released when both parties are happy
-Android + Apple.. could be a mobile based website if that'd reduce the cost massivelyHow much time and money would it take to create something like this? Not after offers, just ballpark minimum/maximum cost? (and yes I know it's a lot. I guess a lot of it can be found as open source?)
Thanks
- cannonball19780
You are thinking abut it wrong. It's not about building the app. It's about building the service.
- shamerokka0
- thanks this is what I needed! $200kProjectile
- you're welcome.shamerokka
- sublocked0
What's the cost of building a team capable of this? You sure you could even find the people? Who's the HR person going to do that? What about lawyers to deal with regulations and cities?
This is building a company, not just an app. Can't be estimated. Anyone who would give you a number besides what Uber raised in funding is foolish.
- Projectile0
Yes, I've factored the rest of the company in as a separate cost... how many people to run it once it has been built, gathering users/data, marketing etc.
But I wanted to get an idea of what outsourcing the creation of it would be. Outsourcing, I think, is the only way forward as I definitely don't have the expertise to manage hiring a tech team. Also, a company that has does apps for a living will have code ready from previous projects that they could piece together. All the functions already exists in so many apps, very little would need to be build from scratch. But a brand new team won't have any assets.
- No, a company that "does apps for a living" will not have "all the functions" they can "piece together".sublocked
- I cant think of any successful app-based company that farmed out the creation of their app. You've gotta continue to evolve. You need a teammonNom
- Hire someone with the expertise to hire a tech team.monNom
- In fairness a lot of companies start out with an outsource for proof-of-concept. My current company outsourced initial build.orrinward2
- And now we have a dev team, largely still building from the outsourced initial project.orrinward2
- hotroddy0
I have a friend who built one for a trucking/shipping company. The hard costs on the app are probably running close 250-400k (for developing from scratch). I could ask him about a license?
- orrinward20
This sounds like starting a company. All of the functionality could be fairly easily hacked together in Rails.
If you're in London and considering this I'd recommend taking Makers Academy and learning to do it yourself - Whether you then go on to become a programmer or not, you'll at least know how to scope out the solution correctly, and with "I HAVE AN IDEA PLZ MAKE IT" sort of arrangements a lot of cost gets added by dev agencies simply for converting your human speak into developer tasks.
My guess on your features-list for biggest problem would be the escrow.
- Projectile0
Cool thanks guys especially Orrin, my ever-trusted guru!
Yeeeah I think my plan would take far too long to break even and might never do if anyone else muscled in on the space with better resources. Was certainly worth a few days' thought and research, though.
- There's always the option of a buy out if someone does muscle in on your space, of course - 'half' of start-ups seem to start up solely to be bought up, anywaydetritus