I am in contact with several freelancers and I was wondering about the frame of the entire hiring / selection process of a freelancer and the amount of hours a project would take :
The project I have, in a few word, involves the very basics features of a forum like reddit, with a bit more gamification and a point system that resets every week.
And so my first question is :
Is 160 hours a lot for that kind of project ? this is the amount of time it would apparently take one of them.
* Knowing that he will also handle the front end / design as he has experience with it
Is 1.3k a lot for that project ? If the 160 hours are justified, it is definitely not a lot, I realize that. I guess my main doubt is about the amount of hours he said it would take.
Thanks in advance for your various answers and feedbacks, I’m still in the process of figuring out if I want to start learning Bubble, or if I can have an MVP with decent design for less than 1.5k/2k. Do you think it’s realistic ? if not what would be the realistic amount you have in mind ?
If you have any concrete advices regarding my process, please feel free to enlighten me
It’s very difficult to judge how many hours a project is going to take from scratch, honestly I’d do away with trying to guess that in my experience. Your best bet is to build out a wireframe or figma file ideally, alongside a detailed project scope doc, and then offer a fixed rate budget that you’re happy to pay.
It’s difficult to ask freelancers how long something is going to take, as it’s often unknowable. Scopes change, bugs pop up etc. You’ll end up with some overshooting it to be safe, and then some giving you crazy lowball timescales to try and win the job, who will inevitably take longer.
For a 2k budget you’ll probably be looking more at a beginner-ish developer. I don’t see 160 hours as a bad estimate but I haven’t seen the full scope of the site, some sites take months to build and are constantly being improved. Hope this helps.
Without knowing the exact scope of your project it’s impossible to say how many hours it will take….
But if 160 hours is accurate, any decent freelancer is likely to charge anything from $6k to $20k (or more) for such a project, depending on their skill and expertise, and the complexity of the project…
So I’d be very suspicious of anyone who says they can do it for $1.3k… (either they are massively over quoting the hours involved, or they don’t believe they have the experience or skill required for the project)…
You generally get what you pay for…
$1.3k for 160 hours of work is well below the legal minimum wage here in the UK (and many other European countries)… and even in other countries is still pretty low… so you’re not likely to find a skilled or experienced developer for that…
It’s not impossible that you might find someone with no experience but a decent understanding of how to build an app, who is willing to take on a project and work for almost nothing… so if you’re willing to take that risk then you might get lucky and end up with a great app for under $2k…
Just remember that Bubble makes it very easy for anyone to build an app… a bi-product of that is that it’s especially easy to build a really bad app… (inefficient, slow, un-secure, etc)…
So when you hire a good developer, you’re paying for the experience and knowledge for them to develop an app that actually works… not just one that looks good…
So it’s up to you to do your due diligence and assess the financial risks (can you afford to lose $2k on a terrible app)… but if your lucky and you do find a great developer willing to work for $8 per hour, then great…
I understand how vague the strict radius of work a project can and will actually take, and so according to you a thorough wireframe and project scope doc is essential.
I’ve thought about displaying my doc to several freelancers and get a better idea of a realistic price range, but I am also afraid at the same time about displaying my ideas everywhere. It’s probably very not humble and original of me though to think that my ideas are great, and it is probably the only logical way to have better representations of the project’s scope and so, its pricing
For my money (somewhat literally in such an example), it is all about that statement right there.
I don’t care how experienced/reputable someone is or what they can show you. If you proceed with caution when it comes to money leaving your pocket (meaning you pay based on small, well-defined deliverables that you personally test from end-to-end to make sure they meet your requirements), you really can’t go wrong. If the freelancer won’t agree to that approach or can’t deliver on the first milestone, well, run.
