How much does it cost to build an app? What the figure doesn't tell you
How much should you budget to build an app? The figure alone is not enough: aim for a goal rather than a feature list, with users from the first month.
Bespoke marketplace development
We develop your bespoke marketplace, usable within a month, on a fixed monthly budget, and keep adjusting it as your business evolves.
What a marketplace is for, and when another choice fits better
A marketplace brings sellers and buyers together on a single platform, with the listings, the search, the accounts and the alerts that go with it.
The sellers can be businesses selling to other businesses, the outlets of a single network (dealerships, franchisees) or service providers. Each of them publishes their listings there, follows their status and receives the buyer enquiries that concern them.
DEVEDANOS develops this kind of platform as bespoke software, on a fixed monthly budget.
A single seller who wants to show their offers online does not need a bespoke marketplace.
A bespoke marketplace makes sense when several sellers offer their products or services on the same platform, and you want to decide the rules of that platform yourself.
What we build for a marketplace
In March 2024, a manufacturer interviewed by the Journal de l’Automobile observed that dealers are leaving the listing portals (the “infomediaries”) for a platform of their own: “We are seeing dealers unplug their connection with the infomediaries and rely on their own platform, or on the one we offer” (our translation).
A platform of your own takes more than a showcase website. It must receive each dealership’s stock, show the status of each listing and send each buyer enquiry to the right dealership.
For Groupe Rapido, a leisure-vehicle manufacturer, we worked on the development of Week and Go, its marketplace bringing the leisure-vehicle offers of the group’s 31 associated dealerships onto a single platform.
The sellers’ back office is a business application, connecting to each seller’s software is a matter of software integration, and the marketplace can also have its own mobile app.
Each seller’s offers arrive with no re-keying.
We can connect the marketplace to the software where each seller already manages their offers; each new format needs its own connection, which we develop like the rest of the platform.
Each seller sees the status of their listings.
From their back office, each seller follows the status of each of their listings (published, in error or not published) and the details of the corrections to make.
Each seller sees only their own screens and data.
Each seller reaches only their own screens and data: the server checks their rights on every request.
Buyers are alerted when a listing interests them.
With each new listing, an email and a text message go out to the people who have set up a matching alert.
Each buyer reaches the right seller, in line with the GDPR.
The contact forms and the seller sign-up forms collect only the information the request needs, and obtain visitors’ consent, cookies included.
Your team publishes its pages without a developer.
Pages are built from reusable blocks: your editors put them together without calling on a developer.
What you see, up to release
What has been tested and signed off goes live. Every day, you see the application move forward on your acceptance environment.
The users of your application work with it from the first month of development, and how they use it determines the next feature or features.
On a marketplace, these users come in two kinds: the buyers looking for a product or a service, and the sellers who publish their offers.
In production, we monitor the system continuously: availability, response times, errors.
If an accepted and approved feature starts behaving differently after a change, we fix it at no extra cost and we lock the behaviour with an automated test so it cannot come back.
What we have built
Week and Go, a leisure-vehicle marketplace
For Groupe Rapido, a leisure-vehicle manufacturer, we worked on the development of its marketplace. The project had fallen behind with another provider. Together with the client and that provider, we refocused development on the essential features, the ones that brought the most value.
The new deadline was met with a minimal application; the other features were then added continuously.
A fixed monthly budget, and what belongs to you
The budget is built with you, from your numbers and your objectives: together we set the amount and the problem your application has to solve. Your application is usable within a month of development. From then on, the budget covers its maintenance and evolution for as long as you want, so that it keeps adapting to your business. Invoicing is monthly and fixed, with no surcharge for licences or number of users. You know your exact spend before you start.
The source code, infrastructure, deployment pipeline and documentation are your intellectual property once the first monthly invoice is paid.
Your sellers’ listings and your buyers’ enquiries stay on a platform that belongs to you.
You can terminate the contract in writing at any time, without justification. During the reversibility month, we support your team until they can build, test and deploy without us.
How much does it cost to build a marketplace?
The budget is built with you, from your numbers and your objectives: together we set the amount and the problem your application has to solve. Your application is usable within a month of development. From then on, the budget covers its maintenance and evolution for as long as you want, so that it keeps adapting to your business. Invoicing is monthly and fixed, with no surcharge for licences or number of users. You know your exact spend before you start.
Will sellers have to re-enter their listings on my marketplace?
We can connect the marketplace to the software where each seller already manages their offers; each new format needs its own connection, which we develop like the rest of the platform.
How long does it take to get my marketplace into production?
Your marketplace is usable within a month. During that first month, we develop what you judge most useful for your sellers and your buyers. What comes next is decided by how they use it.
How does a seller know whether their listings are online?
They see it in their back office: each listing is shown as published, in error or not published, with the details of the corrections to make.
Who owns the code of my marketplace?
The source code, infrastructure, deployment pipeline and documentation are your intellectual property once the first monthly invoice is paid.
How is my buyers’ data protected?
The forms collect only the data the request needs, and visitors’ consent is obtained, cookies included. Each user reaches only their own screens and data.
What happens during the trial period?
In the first month, the first 15 working days are a trial period. Delivered features are accepted as they come in, by you or by us if you delegate acceptance to us. If you do not want the deliverables and do not wish to continue, no invoice is issued and you owe nothing. If you want your application in production before the trial period ends, you can ask us in writing: we issue the invoice for the days worked, and we release to production once it is paid.
A marketplace project in mind?
Thirty minutes to understand your situation. If we can help, a second meeting takes place within 48 hours to build the quote together.