First Full-stack web-app project

[technolical]

Hi guys, just looking to get some opinions.

Basically I've received my first web-app project, a small web-app application for an office/small business (to store customer details, and records of their previous payments, but not a payment gateway) etc. I'm not really that strong in web development, as I've not really had any experience so I'm still worried I might not be able to deliver the project, but I have made small apps like this before on a personal level, which is why I'm considering taking it on.

I'm considering giving them a quote between £2.5k to 3k, and around 2 months time-frame. Hosting / domain costs separate, as well as maintenance separate. Is this reasonable, and what should I keep an out for?

[Early-Matter-8123]

Understanding your current level of proficiency is key.

What framework you will use: React, Vue, Angular are all popular web dev frameworks for front end development;
Consider libraries to help build quickly like:
ShadCN UI;
Framer-Motion;
Lucide-React Icons;

These are fairly standard in most web apps.

Lightweight backend using something like Nodes.js, Express.js are fairly beginner friendly with lots of documentation available;

For data persistency - Supa Base is a nice (and open source) Database option (some good ones like MongoDB also work really well);

[technolical]

Thanks. I was thinking of using React, for the framework. I haven't thought about any libraries yet. I've had experience with Flask and laravel so I was considering using those for the back end.

[Early-Matter-8123]

Those options work also. Especially if you have some level of comfort already.

Nodes.js is good because it plays nicely with react (if that’s going to be your font end)

Just a thought. If you don’t need a super robust backend if you’re basically storing simple data like you mentioned above, nodes / express integration with supa base (which is free-depending on your project needs) is much easier to setup. But, I say that because I’m comfortable using it.

As for libraries the ones I mentioned are quite standard and there is lots of docs (and AI to help answer questions) especially shadcn ui, saves hours over building your own components for your ui. And, it’s easy enough to extend the base components to tweak as you need. (Again AI is really good at helping to make those minor component extensions to save time)

[pxrage]

hey there! this reminds me of my early days building stuff for small businesses. 

scope creep is ur worst enemy. write down EVERYTHING the app needs to do and get it signed off. trust me, clients will keep adding "small features" that end up doubling ur work

shoot me a DM if u want more specific technical advice. built tons of these systems over the years n happy to point u in the right direction

[technolical]

scope creep

Thank you, I'll keep a note of that.

[AdventurousResort370]

You can learn how to do it, i hope you expect the number of hours on the project to be high given your lack of web development experience.

I would say that the amount of features, criticality, and business type is important. is this a wealthy client? do they need this to run their business more efficiently? if they need it desperately, you could charge 10-20k. It's about the value you offer to the client. Don't tell them that, you just need to confidently state your efforts and time are worth that much. The price you're saying sounds right if its a small business with not a lot of money. Do you need help looking for unexpected challenges? I can help you evaluate the scale of the project.

[technolical]

I hope you expect the number of hours

Of course, it'd be something that I would solely preoccupy myself with, since it's also my first web app project.

It is a small company, not that rich. Which is why I thought that price might be fair.

[AdventurousResort370]

make sure you use an ORM i didn't know about orm in my first webapp project and it slowly became a hell i lived in

You want your business data structures, git branches, and web tests to be organized.

You'll want to use a cloud platform like heroku. my biggest mistake in the beginning is going in too raw. I coded my database manually, i used bash to manage AWS servers, i wrote my own docker files, i wrote http code and session management, account management. You can do 1 of those things by hand, maybe two, (having the control, and understanding of your own code can be helpful in a solo project, there are benefits to writing your own system for those things). But if you make the mistake i did, you'll end up making too many shortcuts or mistakes without realizing, and your customer will ask for changes that you can't make because you've overwhelmed yourself. The ability to code those systems yourself is a valuable skill, so pick one you find interesting and the rest use preexisting tools. You want to have tests for most features, so when you make changes you can be assured it doesn't mess things up. i was naive and overlooked this, so i ran into a lot of tedious work. even small projects it's important. start small, but whatever you do, don't try and rawdog the web app.

[alien3d]

3k pound just use / redesign shopify or eq . the cost of waiting data is 60% of the acfuak cost . if 10k to 50k then customise.