How much does a marketplace app cost?

$2,500 fixed, agreed before anything starts, covering design, build, payments, launch and 30 days of support. There is no hourly billing and no overage — if it takes longer than I planned, that is mine to absorb.

How do payments and payouts work?

Stripe Connect, in almost every case. Buyers pay you, your cut is held back automatically, and sellers are paid out on a schedule you control. It handles the tax and compliance surface that would otherwise be a project in itself.

Do I get mobile apps or a website?

Whichever suits the market. Most marketplaces start on the web because sellers list from a laptop and buyers arrive from search, and add apps once there is repeat use. I will tell you which on the call rather than sell you both.

What about the cold-start problem?

That is a supply question, not a build question, and it is the one that actually decides whether this works. Come to the call with how you are getting the first fifty listings, and I will build around that plan rather than despite it.

Can I take commission?

Yes — a percentage cut, a flat fee per transaction, or a listing fee. It is set up in the build and you can change the number yourself afterwards without needing me.

You do, entirely. Source code and design files are handed over at launch with no lock-in, and you can take it to any developer afterwards.

Ship It Live — $1,999 flat

Design + build + deploy · kickoff in 24h · limited slots

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30 days · $2,500 · fixed

Ship It Live · marketplace sprint

Your two-sided marketplace, taking real transactions in 30 days.

Both sides of the market, a working checkout, and real money moving — in a month. Not a landing page with a waitlist, and not a three-month discovery phase.

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See the 30-day plan

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Quick answer

A two-sided marketplace can be designed, built and taking real transactions in 30 days for a fixed $2,500, provided v1 covers one category and one city. That window includes both sides of the marketplace, listings, search, checkout through Stripe, and launch. Escrow and multi-country payouts are a separate project.

The plan

Day one to day 30, written down.

You get this schedule before you commit, not after. If a phase slips, that is mine to absorb — the price and the date were agreed before anything started.

Days 1–3

Scope lock

The single category and single city v1 launches in, and which side we optimise for first. Marketplaces fail on the cold-start problem, so this conversation is about supply before it is about software.

Days 4–12

Design

Both sides, end to end: listing creation, browse, search, the booking or purchase flow, and the messages between the two. Empty states matter more here than anywhere — a marketplace on day one is mostly empty.

Days 13–24

Build

Listings, search, accounts and Stripe wired up properly, including the payout split. A staging URL goes up early so you can list real supply while I am still building.

Days 25–28

Transact and fix

Real end-to-end transactions with real cards in test mode, then live. This is where marketplace bugs surface, so the week is deliberately reserved for it.

Days 29–30

Launch

Payments switched live, admin handed over, and the first real listings published on your domain.

What $2,500 gets you

Everything needed to launch — nothing padding the invoice.

Both sides designed — the people listing and the people buying

Listings with photos, categories, availability and search

Filtering and sort that works on a phone, not just desktop

Payments through Stripe, including the split to your sellers

Accounts, profiles, reviews and in-app messaging

An admin view so you can approve, remove and refund without me

Live on the web, plus mobile apps if the scope suits it

Source code, design files and 30 days of support at handover

Who books this

Built for

Founders who have supply lined up and need somewhere to put it

Operators running a marketplace on WhatsApp and spreadsheets today

Anyone told a marketplace is a six-month, six-figure build

The honest part

When 30 days is the wrong answer.

A fixed deadline only works when the scope genuinely fits inside it. These are the cases where I will tell you so rather than take the booking.

Escrow, milestone payments or multi-country payouts — each is a regulated problem of its own and I will scope it separately rather than squeeze it into the month.

Marketplaces with no supply lined up. The software is not the hard part; a beautiful empty marketplace is still empty, and I would rather say so before you spend the money.

Dispute resolution, insurance or identity verification programmes, which are operations as much as they are features.

Questions

Before you book

Yes, for one category in one city with one way to transact. What breaks the timeline is trying to launch three categories, two countries and four payment methods at once. The scoping call exists to cut v1 down to the version that can actually go live, and everything else becomes v2.

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A 30-minute call decides whether the scope fits. If it doesn't, I'll tell you what would.

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