Hey everyone! I'm really looking to get some insights from developers on the costs associated with building a custom authentication system for a production environment targeting under 10,000 users. I'd love your thoughts on what you would charge or expect to pay for the following components:
- Development and deployment of an Auth API server
- Database setup and data models for user credentials
- Compliance with WebAuthn standards and regulations for fintech and healthcare (like HIPAA)
- Ensuring it's set up for single-tenant infrastructure
- A user-friendly UI/UX for login, registration, and account recovery
If you think the timeframe impacts costs, please share that too! Additionally, I'm curious about what the ongoing monthly maintenance costs might look like. I'm really grateful for any and all feedback!
4 Answers
I've built similar systems quite a bit for organizations wanting to manage their own data, but it really varies on requirements. Here's a rough breakdown based on my approach:
- 75 hours total for everything (API server, database, basic UI, integration, and QA)
- I'd estimate around $10k - $15k based on my rates.
I don’t usually charge for ongoing maintenance since it's a one-off project, so they’d just need to handle hosting costs afterward. If their needs change, I’d offer a standard hourly rate for any future enhancements.
Honestly, I'm curious why you'd want to build something from scratch. There are plenty of proven solutions out there. Rolling your own can be really costly and prone to errors. But if you must, I'd say for a compliant system, start looking at high five-digit numbers for bespoke code.
Could you share what you think the cost would drop to if compliance wasn't an issue?
I wouldn't personally invest money into that since my setup integrates with a Fed IDP for SSO. You avoid a lot of hassle with managing users that way. Why not leverage existing solutions instead of reinventing the wheel?
I might not have been clear enough. Just imagine a company maintaining its own user data or using a service like Clerk. What would be a reasonable budget for developing an auth solution for them?
If you’re creating a system, I'd estimate somewhere between $10k - $20k, depending on specifics. A 2-4 month timeframe could work for planning and execution, considering factors like team size and project clarity. Maintenance costs could vary too, are you thinking about ongoing updates or just the infrastructure costs? That could significantly change things.
Thanks! I’m trying to understand how developers evaluate custom auth solutions. When I refer to maintenance costs, I'm thinking about the static costs like server hosting and database management, not staffing costs for development.
Amazing insights! What do you think the ongoing costs for hosting and storage might be for the client after implementation?