Instagram estimations
How much would it cost to make an app like Instagram?
On the first sight, Instagram is a straightforward app, which allows users to upload photos, view friends' feed, like and comment on interesting posts.
However, Instagram is waaaay more complicated than this. Think of Stories, Explore section, all the Filters, Insights data, complex Settings, Business features, and way more.
In fact, we thought that Instagram would have the same difficulty level, and would have similar estimations as Tinder, but we were very wrong (almost twice!)
Obviously, you might not need all those additional features, so feel free to check features that you would like to be included in the estimation.
hourly rate
let's select an hourly rate first:
$55 per hour
Senior developers. There is nothing they can't do. Expensive, but the result will be top notch: pixel perfect design, great performance, and best user experience possible.
platforms
select what you target
login and registration
login and registration estimates
select only features you need
| Interface | Logic | Backend | Total (h.) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | 4 | 0 | 12 | |
| 12 | 8 | 4 | 24 | |
| 4 | 8 | 4 | 16 | |
| 12 | 8 | 4 | 24 | |
| 8 | 8 | 2 | 18 | |
| 4 | 8 | 2 | 14 | |
| 8 | 8 | 2 | 18 | |
| Estimated time (hours) | 126 | |||
| Estimated costs (USD) | $6,930 |
Main Features
Core features of Instagram: view friends' feeds, upload new photos, and add some filters!
Technically, the feed is one of the most complicated parts here. It includes likes, comments. It allows a user to report, block, or unfollow another user.
Making a new post is easier, however, includes many steps. The most time-consuming one is Filters. Multimedia processing is a complicated process and usually needs more experienced developers.
Additional info is an interesting one - it will allow a user to select a location of a photo (we would get current location, and would show some places around), tag a friend on a picture, and more.
Remember that you can lower cost to build an app like Instagram by selecting only features that you really need.
Main Features estimates
select only features you need
| Interface | Logic | Backend | Total (h.) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 | 28 | 12 | 56 | |
| 16 | 12 | 0 | 28 | |
| 8 | 12 | 0 | 20 | |
| 16 | 32 | 0 | 48 | |
| 12 | 16 | 8 | 36 | |
| 4 | 16 | 6 | 26 | |
| Estimated time (hours) | 214 | |||
| Estimated costs (USD) | $11,770 |
Stories
Stories is a relatively new feature. It was never a core feature of Instagram, but it is even more popular than photos amongst some users!
Instagram Stories editor allows you to add gifs, polls, different effects to a story, and much more. Those customization features are always updated, so we decided to estimate only Story creation, and adding text to it.
Here we try to find out cost of making an app like Instagram. If you don't need Stories in your project - just deselect them. It will lower the price, and development time will be shorter as well.
Stories estimates
select only features you need
| Interface | Logic | Backend | Total (h.) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 | 12 | 0 | 28 | |
| 12 | 12 | 0 | 24 | |
| 16 | 32 | 0 | 48 | |
| 12 | 8 | 6 | 26 | |
| 16 | 24 | 8 | 48 | |
| Estimated time (hours) | 174 | |||
| Estimated costs (USD) | $9,570 |
messaging
messaging estimates
select only features you need
| Interface | Logic | Backend | Total (h.) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | 16 | 6 | 34 | |
| 8 | 8 | 2 | 18 | |
| 12 | 24 | 16 | 52 | |
| Estimated time (hours) | 104 | |||
| Estimated costs (USD) | $5,720 |
explore and activities
Explore is a fun feature that allows a user to find new exciting photos or stories. It has a sophisticated algorithm that shows not some random images, but something that user might like. It includes pictures from hashtags user follows, photos liked by user's friends, and mode.
Activities show new likes and comments on user's photos or recent activity of people whom user follows.
explore and activities estimates
select only features you need
| Interface | Logic | Backend | Total (h.) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 | 24 | 8 | 48 | |
| 8 | 12 | 6 | 26 | |
| 16 | 24 | 6 | 46 | |
| 12 | 16 | 4 | 32 | |
| 16 | 16 | 6 | 38 | |
| Estimated time (hours) | 190 | |||
| Estimated costs (USD) | $10,450 |
user profile
User's profile is more complicated then it looks on the first sight.
Except for all user's photos and his personal info, it displays photos that are visible only to close friends and pictures where a user has been tagged
In addition, there are Insights, which help a user to understand how many people were checking his account, his audience detailed info, stories archive, and so on.
user profile estimates
select only features you need
| Interface | Logic | Backend | Total (h.) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 | 32 | 8 | 64 | |
| 12 | 12 | 2 | 26 | |
| 12 | 8 | 4 | 24 | |
| 16 | 16 | 6 | 38 | |
| 8 | 8 | 2 | 18 | |
| 12 | 8 | 2 | 22 | |
| Estimated time (hours) | 192 | |||
| Estimated costs (USD) | $10,560 |
settings
Instagram has very sophisticated settings. Almost every part of the app can be configured.
The average user can change his Profile info, view posts that he liked, edit Close Friends list, or select people from whom he would want to hide Stories.
Business users can add payment info, start promotions, and more.
Of course, there are also necessary settings, like Privacy or Notification settings, which would allow choosing which notifications user would like to receive, and in which format.
Cost to develop an app like Instagram can be really high, but you can select only the features you really need to fit in the budget.
settings estimates
select only features you need
| Interface | Logic | Backend | Total (h.) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | 12 | 4 | 28 | |
| 12 | 16 | 8 | 36 | |
| 12 | 24 | 8 | 44 | |
| 8 | 12 | 4 | 24 | |
| 8 | 8 | 2 | 18 | |
| 8 | 8 | 2 | 18 | |
| Estimated time (hours) | 168 | |||
| Estimated costs (USD) | $9,240 |
Selected platformsiOS and Android
Summary:
Total price for an app similar to Instagram (for both iOS and Android) with a selected set of features would be around $64,240.
Development itself would take 1168 hours (or around 36 weeks).
Total Costs
Hourly rate: $55 per 1h.$64,240
Total Time
1168 hours~36 weeks