Question for Website / App developers

I have had an idea but have no idea of the logistics or cost of getting a website or app created. I thought some folks here might have ballpark ideas before I continue with my big idea or give up! Unless STW is no longer 50% employed in IT….

I actually think its quite a good idea so don’t want to give it away online, it is not linked to bikes, however lets imagine people are offering “puncture repairs.”

I want to create a website and App where people could look up

• who is currently offering puncture repairs in their area
• where exactly they are
• what time they are there
• you could search any area in the country and see who, where and when the puncture repair people are there

The people offering the puncture repair would pay an monthly / annual subscription to be on the website/app to encourage people to use their service.

Subscribers would update their location and opening times, including maybe new services.

Users would give reviews.

Questions.

I assume there are web design companies that would create the website?

Companies that would offer continued tech support?

Does anyone have any concept of the costs to build a website and App like this? I can appreciate that there is probably a wide range based on local designer vs huge corporation, but it would be interesting to have a vague idea.

Subscribers would update their location and opening times, including maybe new services.

Users would give reviews.

Don’t want to be a downer but is this not what Google does?

Don’t want to be a downer but is this not what Google does?

Was thinking the same. I hope it is just an analogy otherwise there is zero chance of anyone paying for that.

From similar styles of projects on Dragons Den you are looking and tens of thousands to get something working, and that is only to a stage where you might be able to attract investors to pay the actual big bucks that the real development and marketing will cost to make an actual success of it

Sounds like an Treatwell or similar for punctures.

Personally I wouldn’t bother building it.

Go and speak to 20 potential customers and try to sell it as if you have it already at full price. Give a launch date 6 months in the future and a 20% discount to anyone that signs up pre launch.

If 20% or more sign up, sell to 100. If you retain 20% conversion go and search for a technical co-founder. Give them 50% and get it built.

Or, build on existing platform and focus on marketing, brand and sales. If you achieve any kind of scale, build it yourself.

Sell to 1000, close 20%.

Then raise some investment.

MVP: £50-200k.

Good luck.

Costs £0 to close your first 100 customers.so many build first and lose too much money.

Obviously we don’t know the actual service they are providing but is it something that people regularly need/want (e.g. a cup of coffee, nearest toilet etc) that people may download an app for as it solves a regular problem, or is it like puncture repair where a person might only need it in rare emergencies, and won’t think ahead until there’s actually an issue?

If it’s the latter, then I imagine most people will search Google, so SEO or PPC will be your best shot, rather than an app?

While I agree with much of the sentiment about it not being a great idea, don’t let that put you off. Try to describe the business model for lots of existing apps and they don’t seem to make sense. the trick seems to be mostly to get enough users that you make money selling their data.

Why has noone else thought of this

the trick seems to be mostly to get enough users that you make money selling their data.

or just get enough users that someone wants to buy you out, then let them figure out how to make money from it! 😂

who is currently offering puncture repairs in their area

Don’t people just repair their own punctures?

Not going to comment on the idea. But I think you need to have an idea of how much data you are wanting to store, how many users, and how often they’ll be accessing.

The above estimates are probably realistic for a ‘proper’ job but it is possible to do these things on the cheap.  If you know someone who is prepared to chuck a bit of time at it in their spare time, if it’s simply enough, if you can host it cheaply, and IF it doesn’t really demand a high level of service you could do it, but this can be really difficult.

That is true and would probably be fine if you making say a candy crush copy. For a business like the one the OP wants you need a critical mass of users before it becomes viable and you will struggle to do that on a shoestring.

I got quite a long way into developing an App with someone before Covid killed it but they were keen to have minimal up front costs with a higher monthly management fee. Something to chat about if you get a developer, might cost more in the long run but if it means it happens because you don’t need to find £££ upfront then it can work out better.

Yes.  If you can get anything done in the spare-time model then you’ll get spare-time levels of interest and return.  If it’s a niche application for a small community then maybe; if you’re trying to re-make Just Eat then you’ve got a bigger challenge.

The above estimates are probably realistic for a ‘proper’ job but it is possible to do these things on the cheap.  If you know someone who is prepared to chuck a bit of time at it in their spare time, if it’s simply enough, if you can host it cheaply, and IF it doesn’t really demand a high level of service you could do it, but this can be really difficult.

Whilst that may be possible it can also lead you down a load of rabbit holes.  Some of them might exist anyway but beware:

– devs will often want to build using what they know rather than the best solution for the job
– OR devs will want to use this as a way of learning something new/cool that they want to do, and probably be a bit prototypey
– devs get bored and will want to do something else not fix you broken button etc
– broken buttons etc lose you customers
– a friend might offer to do it for a share in the product – but can then be a PITA if after a year you want to rewrite/scale up
– them adding features or tools that are “free”, but then get expensive if you use commercially or at large scale
– that whatever you build will require ongoing maintenance = cost
– good devs and good UI/UX designers are usually not the same person

You need to decide if you are building a mobile app or a website.  Will anyone ever want to use it without an internet connection?  Will you need access to any phone hardware?  Will you be trying to do anything fancy with push notificiations etc?  If not – then I’d say just build a website.

I want to create a website and App where people could look up

who is currently offering puncture repairs in their area
where exactly they are
what time they are there
you could search any area in the country and see who, where and when the puncture repair people are there
The people offering the puncture repair would pay an monthly / annual subscription to be on the website/app to encourage people to use their service.

Subscribers would update their location and opening times, including maybe new services.

Users would give reviews.

So you need:
– payment integration (Stripe or similar)
– account management (login, email passwords etc).
– a database of providers
– reviews/ratings service
– a geographic search

I think you could shop around and get that for not too much more than £20K.  But a good company with a solid track record of similar stuff etc might cost you double that.  Then you’ll come back with new ideas/features (that’s not maintenence that’s scope creep) and pay the same again!

If you’ve got a head for semi reasonable graphic design I’d say your best bet is to start teaching yourself to code.  If you have the right mindset you could easily build the core of that yourself with enough spare time.  Then once you have customers engaged worry about scale / robustness etc that a beginner coder will likely have missed.  IME the biggest challenges are user adoption and getting someone to pay money not the coding.

Sounds like an Treatwell or similar for punctures.

Personally I wouldn’t bother building it.

Go and speak to 20 potential customers and try to sell it as if you have it already at full price. Give a launch date 6 months in the future and a 20% discount to anyone that signs up pre launch.

If 20% or more sign up, sell to 100. If you retain 20% conversion go and search for a technical co-founder. Give them 50% and get it built.

Or, build on existing platform and focus on marketing, brand and sales. If you achieve any kind of scale, build it yourself.

Sell to 1000, close 20%.

Then raise some investment.

MVP: £50-200k.

Good luck.

Costs £0 to close your first 100 customers.so many build first and lose too much money.

This.

Also share your idea as broadly as possible, nobody’s going to steal it.

Getting a prototype up and running £20-50k or many years

Having an app with the functionality that you specced – £20 million maybe? A lot of that spent on marketing etc because unless you already have a data source, you’re going to need network effects.

Always ask yourself why nobody’s done this before you, because I can almost guarantee that the idea will have been had many many times.

“puncture repairs” is a euphemism isn’t it 🙂

grinder has been done

Map-based search for services with user reviews is already basically a commodity with many incumbent providers amongst the major tech companies. I don’t think there’s any niche here that they won’t just take from you with their established user bases and established branding and trust.

Sounds like https://www.homehero.co.uk/

?

EDIT: looks like they’ve changed the proposition. Used to be an app to manage anything that needed doing in your home

If you’ve got a head for semi reasonable graphic design I’d say your best bet is to start teaching yourself to code.  If you have the right mindset you could easily build the core of that yourself with enough spare time

I really don’t think you could learn to code on this job. As has been said there is an absolute shit-ton of extra work required for all sorts of things. I learned to ‘code’ when I was about 10 and continued to do so, learning all the time, then I got a job doing it, then some 15 years later I tried to do a few projects along these lines (for other people) and still screwed it up through naivety, and hitting some of the pitfalls mentioned above.  Code is only the very first part of this. It’d be like learning to lay bricks then starting to build a house.

I’d agree with molgrips. I’m a lead dev having worked a lot of companies and organisations : Ineos, gov.uk, honda, national trust, banks and airports etc. Currently building an app for a major organisation in the uk. I’d say it migth be easy to pick up some things here adn there but to make it production ready, inline with gdpr, mitigating security risks, deployment steps, automation, integration with services and QA. There’s a lot to it.

Thanks so much everyone.

Just to clarify, Google doesn’t do it but I’m amazed it doesn’t exist already.

However, as suspected we are talking significant sums of money. I suspected as much but needed people who know stuff to tell me. I am far to risk adverse to plough those sorts or sums in.

Really helpful advice, thanks so much .