How long to develop a website similar to quidco.com

That looks like a really involved site. Hard to give a good estimate without knowing how many pages there are, and the exact functionality on each page. And there's probably a fairly complex backend (admin) section that we can't even see.

A single developer isn't going to be able to come anywhere close to completing a site like that (from scratch) in a couple months. Maybe a very talented team working on it full-time could get it done in a couple months. Maybe.

I think it's safe to say that you're looking at a major financial outlay to have something like that built for you, from scratch. A much less expensive option would be to look for an existing script that has similar functionality, and then hire a developer to customize it to your spec.

What Brandon said, Maybe 2-4 months if you work hard.

Thanks for both replies.

The number of pages are hard to say because it will be generated dynamically from a database.

I suppose a better way for me is to set time scales to develop the basic functions (perhaps only PHP not much JavaScript). It doesn't include time spent on changes or communicates.

It always puzzles me, saying, it looks like only taking 2 hours to finish a function, but sometimes could take a day or so.

As a programmer I agree with my fellow warriors: it takes between 2-4 months and only one developer can't do it right simply because the back end is very complex. Besides, this seems to be a custom website, no available free platforms (wordpress, joomla, opencart) used.

But if you want something less fancy you can use wordpress along with a few plugins like "coupon creator" (it's just an example). Even so, the customization takes time but at least it can be done by a single developer. I'm not mentioning SEO related work which is also very important.

3 months with 10 people

The front end system is build using bootstrap for CSS structure layout:
Bootstrap

The back end seams to be a system of "you join up here, then buy your stuff via our affiliate link, then we give you back a percentage of the commissions we earn as an incentive for using our system."

So on top of just building the site, you would also need to get accepted as an affiliate of all the programs that that site is using too.

It's going to depend on the manpower as well as resources...

If you can buy off the web designer for 45 to 90 days with an agreed deadline for the job then it's doable.

I have a complete content management software that I created. I've been working on it for over 7 years. It uses PayPal's adaptive API and can connect with other company's affiliate programs.

I would assume that all the businesses this site offers has an affiliate program to track affiliate links. Because the members have to buy through the sites affiliate link to each business that the member purchases from.

The software you need to create must have a membership module, affiliate tracking module that can track on 2 tiers, product display module or at least a business display so the member just has to click on a link to that business and go shopping naturally the link they click would be your affiliate to the business.

The part that is very fuzzy and I don't know if my software will do it right out of the box is how the companies that the site promotes posts the sales back to the affiliate, which would be you. Do they list the buyer when your commission is paid so you will know who to rebate money to on each purchase.

We don't know how this site pays the members after the member makes a purchase. Do you have to figure out how much to pay each member manually and write a check or do these companies post back to you so the software can do the calculations. If that is so, then maybe PayPal's mass pay would work.

This part of the tracking would have to be figured out as you add companies into your network. This is a part that might need some extra coding done to my software.

My software is built in a modular format and very flexible and easy to work with but would need more information on the member's actual purchase process to know if my software will function the way you want right out of the box with no additional coding.

My software would need some way to get an ipn message posted back from each purchase in order to add the purchase details to the database automatically.

If these companies have ipn forwarding then my software may work just fine.

Please supply the additional information if possible.

Best regards,
Steve Yakim

My guess is 4 to 6 months if you are starting from scratch.

A programmer with experience will shorten the time a bit.

But since you asked the question I figure you are starting from scratch - try 4 to 6 months.

That's if the development team could start asap.

If possible buy a clone and try to adapt it.

Or at least buy a clone and tear it apart to see how they did it.

Yakin is correct about the affiliate tracking. That alone could take a while to get things functioning. He'd be worth a PM with further info.

The accounting system would be intricate. Plus the authentication for the different levels admins, moderators, merchants, members, etc.. Tons of work - trial and error.

You could try a post at a freelancer site to see if anybody has a working clone - then hire them to modify to.

On quidco.com, just scroll down and see all the links posted in the footer.

All those pages have to be created, tested and functioning.

Graphics take time and talent.

CSS takes time and talent.

This is a big project. One person would have to wear many hats.

Best to have a Talented three person team, then it could be ready for beta testing in 2 to 3 months.

These guys will work wonders for you > codemongoose |

Thanks for all.
It's a project for my previous employer.
At the time, I suggested to use WordPress to develop because it provides a framework (in my view) for the back end, but my supervisor concerned the loading speed when more than thousands of users visiting at the same time and decided to use a PHP framework. In my view, it will double the development time, for example, to build PHP forms to manage contents.

Anyway, it is not my project now. I move on and plan to build my own charity based cash back website.

I agree with everybody here. I think it's a little hard to create by a single person. I think you're gonna need some help from a pretty good team at this.
and it could take you 2 months long.
Good luck.

This is a huge site. It was custom built to fit their needs and when you do yours, it will have to be custom built to fit YOUR needs.

The problem with time and cost is not so much to design and code the site, but rather to figure out what it is that you want. I highly doubt that you will be able to decide even within 1 year what features you want and don't want. What visual aspects you want and don't want.

I've built several large websites before and every time they ask a tough question, you will easily lose 1 day or several days of work. For example...let's say you hire somebody in India or Eastern Europe because you can't afford an American programmer....he will come on at 2am to ask you a question like.......how much traffic should the database be designed to scale to? What aspects of the site do you want to cache? How many dropdowns do you need on this page? How many pages do you need here? Do you prefer this box on the left side or right side? Will you be using a CDN? Etc, and etc. And just to answer those questions alone, you can easily lose one day if you're not even awake to answer their question right as they ask you. Now imagine them asking 1,000 similar questions.

Even a simple..."how big is your logo?" will take you some days to figure out. In many scenarios, you won't know, and so they'll send you 3 mock-ups. And then it'll take you time to show these mock-ups to your family, friends, and business partners for a second opinion. Again...imagine repeating this process a couple hundred times. There's no way you can get this done WITH quality in 6 months.

To develop a site of similar complexity to quidco.com CUSTOMIZED TO YOUR NEEDS will probably take you $20,000 and 1 year (and that's assuming you have experience in developing websites and KNOWING WHAT YOU WANT). That's my opinion. It's possible to do it for less but then you'd be suffering somewhere. Maybe the design will suck, or the programming will be done in a way that's very ineffective, slow-loading, or hard to alter later on.

Work heard for 2 or 3 month to your improvement.
I think if you work many time you have 40 or 45 days need.