How much does a marketplace app cost?

The supply side

Suppliers are the hosts, drivers, tutors, sellers, or professionals who list what they offer. Their side needs onboarding, a profile or listing editor, availability or inventory, a way to accept or decline requests, earnings and payout history, and notifications. Supply onboarding often includes identity checks or document review, which your team approves in the admin panel.

The demand side

Buyers need search and filters, listing pages, a booking or checkout flow, messaging, order history, and reviews. Search quality matters more than anything: if buyers cannot find a match in the first minute, they leave. For a first version we build search on filters and location rather than complex ranking, and improve it once there is real data.

Payments and payouts

Marketplace money is harder than simple checkout. You collect from the buyer, hold funds, take a commission, and pay the supplier, while handling refunds, disputes, and tax forms. We build this on Stripe Connect, which handles supplier identity checks and payouts and keeps card data off your servers, so PCI compliance stays with Stripe. This work is the $2,500 payments extra, and on marketplaces it is never optional.

Trust and safety

• Verified profiles and supplier approval.
• Ratings and reviews after each completed transaction.
• In-app messaging, so contact details and payments stay on the platform.
• Reporting and blocking, with a moderation queue in the admin panel.
• Clear cancellation and refund rules applied automatically.

The admin panel ($3,500) is where your team runs all of this. Marketplaces without one end up managed by hand in the database, which does not scale past the first few hundred transactions.

How to launch smaller

The cheapest marketplace is often one side at a time. Onboard suppliers by hand, build only the buyer experience, and manage supply through the admin panel. That can bring a first version down toward $9,000 plus payments. Once demand is proven, add the supplier app.

We built rider and driver apps for WePlus, a ride-hailing platform, which is the two-sided pattern in its most demanding form: real-time matching, live location, and payouts.

How you pay

Every fixed-price build is paid in four equal milestones, each tied to something you can see and use:

1. Plan signed. Scope, screens, and the delivery calendar are agreed in writing. The first payment starts design.
2. Design approved. You click through the full design on your phone before a line of production code is written.
3. Working build. The app runs on your devices with real data, and you test it against the agreed scope.
4. Launch. The app is live in the stores or on your domain, the code is in your repository, and handover is done.

If a milestone slips because of us, the next payment waits. You never pay ahead of the work.

Before your first call

You get a firmer number faster if you bring three things: who the first users are, the one job they must be able to do on day one, and any outside system the app has to talk to. Sketches, screenshots of apps you like, or a spreadsheet you want to replace all help. On the call we place your idea in the table above, name the extras it needs, and tell you what we would leave out. You leave with a written range the same day and a fixed quote within two business days.

Questions founders ask