What’s Included
Validate whether users create, discover, and engage with short videos before adding monetization.
Key Features
- One algorithmically ranked For You discovery feed
- Video upload and publishing for registered users, subject to basic moderation checks
- Likes, comments, and basic creator profiles
- User reporting, an admin review queue, and basic automated moderation checks
Platforms
- Native mobile apps for Apple iOS and Android
Who It’s For
- US-based viewers
- Early-stage video creators
Out of Scope for This MVP
- US hosting, payments, and compliance requirements
- Lean MVP scope with simple defaults
- No monetization at launch
- Feed ranking will use simple engagement-based signals suitable for MVP validation
- Publishing is open to registered users rather than an invite-only creator group
Full Cost Breakdown
Every line item below is a real feature from the PRD, priced in hours and USD at our AI-accelerated delivery rate. Totals are rounded to the nearest $10.
| Feature | Category | Hours | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| The system shall provide visitors with a ranked For You feed of short vertical videos without requiring account creation. | Content Discovery | 9 | $500 |
| The system shall rank feed content using simple engagement-based signals, including video likes and other available MVP interactions. | Content Discovery | 6 | $330 |
| The system shall allow visitors and logged-in users to browse and play published short vertical videos in the mobile applications. | Video Playback | 9 | $500 |
| The system shall display basic public creator profile information associated with published videos. | Creator Profiles | 4 | $220 |
| The system shall allow visitors to register for an account through the native iOS and Android applications. | Account Management | 7 | $390 |
| The system shall allow registered users to upload and publish short vertical videos. | Video Publishing | 14 | $770 |
| The system shall perform basic automated moderation checks on uploaded videos before publication. | Content Moderation | 10 | $550 |
| The system shall require users to accept applicable terms and content policies before publishing content. | Content Policies | 5 | $280 |
| The system shall allow logged-in users to like published videos and associate each like with the signing-in account. | Engagement | 5 | $280 |
| The system shall allow logged-in users to create comments on published videos. | Engagement | 8 | $440 |
| The system shall allow logged-in users to manage essential creator profile information. | Profile Management | 7 | $390 |
| The system shall allow logged-in users to report videos, comments, or users and block other users in-app. | Safety and Controls | 11 | $610 |
| The system shall provide moderators with an administrative queue for reviewing reported videos, comments, and users. | Moderation Administration | 13 | $720 |
| The system shall allow moderators to apply enforcement actions to content or accounts in accordance with content policies. | Moderation Administration | 10 | $550 |
| The system shall allow logged-in users to initiate account deletion and request deletion of associated personal data in-app. | Privacy and Account Management | 11 | $610 |
| The system shall provide an external web-based path for users to submit account and personal-data deletion requests. | Privacy and Account Management | 7 | $390 |
| The system shall disclose personal-data retention practices and retain data only where justified for security, fraud prevention, or legal obligations. | Privacy | 6 | $330 |
| Delivery Overhead | |||
| Planning | 36 | $1,980 | |
| Project Management | 29 | $1,600 | |
| Testing | 17 | $940 | |
| DevOps | 15 | $830 | |
| Design & Frontend Build | 43 | $2,370 | |
| AI Tokens | 0 | $490 | |
| Security | 17 | $940 | |
| Risk (10% Contingency) | 31 | $1,710 | |
| Total | 330 | $18,700 | |
Estimate Assumptions
- Estimates cover base feature development only and exclude NFR overhead, project management, design, QA-only effort, and release operations.
- Video storage, transcoding, delivery, file limits, and moderation provider details are not defined and are estimated as basic integrations.
- Moderation policies, enforcement actions, appeals, retention periods, and moderator permissions will be finalized during detailed design.
- Supabase Auth, PostgreSQL, storage, REST APIs, Flutter mobile apps, and the specified Next.js administration interface are available.
- Account deletion is asynchronous where required by storage, moderation, fraud-prevention, or legal-retention processes.
Risks That Could Change This
- Undefined video processing and delivery requirements may substantially increase publishing and playback effort.
- Automated moderation provider selection and integration details may add third-party setup, asynchronous processing, and operational work.
- Privacy, app-store, and user-generated-content requirements may require additional deletion, audit, reporting, or enforcement behavior.
- Unspecified moderation policies and action types may expand the administration workflow and data model.
User Stories
The full set of user stories behind this estimate, grouped by the person using the app.
As a Visitor, I want to browse a ranked For You feed of short vertical videos so that I can discover content without creating an account.
The MVP uses one English-language feed with simple engagement-based ranking and sensible default ordering.
As a Visitor, I want to view basic creator profile information so that I can understand who published a video.
Profiles are limited to basic public information appropriate for an early MVP.
As a Visitor, I want to register for an account so that I can participate in the social video experience.
Registration supports the native iOS and Android apps and uses simple English-only account flows.
As a Logged In App User, I want to upload and publish a short vertical video so that I can share content with other users.
Publishing is open to registered users. Users must accept applicable terms and content policies before posting; basic automated moderation checks occur before publication.
As a Logged In App User, I want to like videos so that I can express engagement and influence content discovery.
Likes are associated with the signed-in account and contribute to simple MVP feed-ranking signals.
As a Logged In App User, I want to comment on videos so that I can participate in conversations with other users.
Comments are user-generated content and are subject to prohibited-content policies, reporting, moderation, and enforcement.
As a Logged In App User, I want to manage my basic creator profile so that other users can recognize my published content.
Profile management remains limited to essential MVP information and avoids advanced customization.
As a Logged In App User, I want to report videos, comments, or users and block other users so that I can control unwanted interactions and flag harmful content.
Reporting and blocking are available in-app. Reported content and users enter a moderation workflow with human or automated review.
As a Moderator, I want to review reported videos, comments, and users so that I can enforce content policies and keep the service safe.
The MVP includes an admin review queue, basic moderation signals, and enforcement actions. Moderation supports US hosting and applicable platform requirements.
As a Logged In App User, I want to delete my account and request deletion of associated personal data so that I can control my privacy.
Provide in-app deletion and an external web-based deletion request path. Retain data only where narrowly justified for security, fraud prevention, or legal obligations, with privacy disclosures.
Requirements
Functional and non-functional requirements the estimate above is priced against.
The system shall provide visitors with a ranked For You feed of short vertical videos without requiring account creation.
MVP uses one English-language feed with sensible default ordering.
The system shall rank feed content using simple engagement-based signals, including video likes and other available MVP interactions.
Advanced personalization and recommendation models are out of scope.
The system shall allow visitors and logged-in users to browse and play published short vertical videos in the mobile applications.
Only published and available content is shown in the feed.
The system shall display basic public creator profile information associated with published videos.
Profiles are limited to essential public MVP information.
The system shall allow visitors to register for an account through the native iOS and Android applications.
Registration and account flows are English-only for the MVP.
The system shall allow registered users to upload and publish short vertical videos.
Publishing requires authentication and applicable content-policy acceptance.
The system shall perform basic automated moderation checks on uploaded videos before publication.
The MVP does not require advanced AI moderation capabilities.
The system shall require users to accept applicable terms and content policies before publishing content.
Acceptance status must be recorded against the publishing action.
The system shall allow logged-in users to like published videos and associate each like with the signing-in account.
A user's like state should be represented consistently across supported clients.
The system shall allow logged-in users to create comments on published videos.
Comments are user-generated content subject to policy enforcement.
The system shall allow logged-in users to manage essential creator profile information.
Advanced profile customization is excluded from the MVP.
The system shall allow logged-in users to report videos, comments, or users and block other users in-app.
Reports and blocks must be associated with the reporting or blocking account.
The system shall provide moderators with an administrative queue for reviewing reported videos, comments, and users.
The queue supports basic moderation signals and review status tracking.
The system shall allow moderators to apply enforcement actions to content or accounts in accordance with content policies.
Specific policy rules and action types require final operational definition.
The system shall allow logged-in users to initiate account deletion and request deletion of associated personal data in-app.
Deletion must cover the user account and associated personal data subject to retention exceptions.
The system shall provide an external web-based path for users to submit account and personal-data deletion requests.
The web path supports users who cannot access the application.
The system shall disclose personal-data retention practices and retain data only where justified for security, fraud prevention, or legal obligations.
Retention exceptions must be documented in applicable privacy disclosures.
The solution shall support native iOS and Android mobile applications for the MVP.
A separate moderator administration interface is also required.
The MVP shall support English-language user-facing account, publishing, moderation, and content-discovery flows.
Additional languages are out of scope unless separately approved.
The system shall target API response times below 200 milliseconds for normal requests under expected MVP load.
Measurement excludes video transfer time and third-party network latency.
The backend shall use a managed database service based on Supabase to support MVP scalability and operational simplicity.
Capacity limits and scaling thresholds require validation during technical design.
The mobile applications shall use Firebase Performance Monitoring to capture performance telemetry and support issue diagnosis.
Crash reporting and broader analytics are not assumed unless separately specified.
The system shall enforce authenticated access for account, publishing, engagement, reporting, blocking, and deletion operations, with role-based moderator access.
Users must not access or modify another user's protected data.
The solution shall implement privacy controls and deletion behavior consistent with applicable privacy obligations and platform requirements.
Data retention, consent, and deletion evidence must be defined during detailed design.
The iOS and Android applications shall comply with applicable app-store review, user-generated-content, safety, privacy, and account-deletion requirements.
Apple requirements are treated as the minimum baseline where platform rules differ.
Moderation and operational workflows shall support US hosting requirements and applicable platform obligations.
Hosting region, data residency, and operational ownership require confirmation during architecture planning.
Requirements Assumptions
- The MVP has no monetization, advertising, subscriptions, or in-app purchases.
- No external integrations are included unless explicitly specified, including identity providers, content-delivery networks, email, SMS, or payment services.
- Video duration, file-size, format, resolution, transcoding, storage, and delivery limits will be defined during technical design.
- The feed contains only published, policy-compliant content available to the requesting user.
- A moderator administration interface and moderator roles are included in MVP scope.
- Basic automated moderation may flag or reject content but does not replace human moderation for reported items.
- Content-policy definitions, enforcement actions, appeals, and moderator permissions require detailed specification.
- Account deletion is asynchronous where required by storage, moderation, fraud-prevention, or legal-retention processes.
- Expected user volumes, traffic patterns, availability targets, backup requirements, and disaster-recovery objectives are not yet defined.
- Supabase and Firebase services are assumed to be acceptable technology choices for the MVP.
Technical Specification
The reference architecture and stack this estimate is built on.
Build native iOS and Android applications with Flutter and Dart, using Riverpod for state management and Material Design 3 for the shared UI system.
Supports the approved mobile MVP with a consistent cross-platform implementation.
Build the moderator and operational administration interface with Next.js, React, TypeScript, Shadcn/ui, and Tailwind CSS.
The interface provides authenticated moderation queues and enforcement workflows.
Use Supabase Auth with JWT tokens over HTTPS for registration, sign-in, session management, account deletion initiation, and protected application operations.
English-only account flows are required for the MVP.
Implement role-based access control for visitors, logged-in users, and moderators, with server-side authorization protecting user, content, moderation, and deletion data.
Moderators require access limited to assigned administrative capabilities.
Use a managed backend centered on Supabase PostgreSQL, exposing REST APIs with optional edge functions for transactional workflows, moderation, and asynchronous processing.
API targets exclude video transfer time and third-party network latency.
Store users, profiles, videos, likes, comments, reports, blocks, moderation records, policy acceptance, deletion requests, and retention metadata in Supabase PostgreSQL.
Video storage, transcoding, delivery, limits, and CDN decisions require detailed design.
Implement a simple engagement-based feed-ranking service and basic automated pre-publication video moderation, with reported items routed to a moderator review queue.
Advanced recommendation and AI moderation capabilities are out of scope.
Host backend data and services using Supabase managed infrastructure, with web and administration applications deployed to Vercel and hosting configured to support US requirements.
Region, residency, and operational ownership require confirmation during architecture planning.
Maintain separate development, staging, and production environments with GitHub Actions for backend and web deployment pipelines and CodeMagic for mobile app builds and store delivery.
Environment-specific secrets, approvals, migrations, and release controls are required.
Enforce TLS 1.2 or higher, encrypted data handling, secure JWT validation, least-privilege access, auditability for moderation and deletion actions, and applicable privacy and platform requirements.
Retention exceptions must be narrowly documented for security, fraud prevention, or legal obligations.
Implement structured server and moderation logs, operational error tracking, performance metrics, and mobile performance telemetry using Firebase Performance Monitoring and Crashlytics.
Analytics beyond operational diagnostics are not assumed for the MVP.
Provide unit, integration, API, authorization, moderation, deletion, and end-to-end tests for mobile and web workflows, using Flutter-compatible end-to-end tooling.
Critical privacy, access-control, and content-safety paths require automated regression coverage.
Technical Assumptions
- Flutter and Dart are approved for the iOS and Android MVP applications, with Riverpod and Material Design 3 as the standard UI approach.
- Next.js, React, TypeScript, Shadcn/ui, and Tailwind CSS are approved for the moderator administration interface.
- Supabase provides the managed PostgreSQL database and authentication foundation; REST APIs and optional edge functions are used for backend capabilities.
- Supabase Auth is the MVP authentication provider; no external identity providers, SSO, email, or SMS integrations are included.
- The MVP has no monetization, advertising, subscriptions, in-app purchases, or external payment integrations.
- Video duration, file-size, format, resolution, transcoding, storage, delivery, and CDN requirements will be defined during technical design.
- Development, staging, and production environments are required, with GitHub Actions, CodeMagic, and Vercel used for delivery automation.
- US hosting and applicable privacy, user-generated-content, account-deletion, and app-store obligations apply to the production solution.
- Expected traffic, user volumes, availability targets, backup policies, disaster-recovery objectives, and scaling thresholds are not yet defined.
- Basic automated moderation may flag or reject content but does not replace human review of reported content.
- Content-policy definitions, enforcement actions, appeals, moderator permissions, and audit requirements require detailed specification.
- Firebase Performance Monitoring and Crashlytics are used for mobile performance and crash diagnostics; broader analytics are excluded unless separately approved.
TikTok App Cost FAQs
How much does it cost to build an app like TikTok or Instagram Reels?
About $18,720 for this MVP, based on 330 hours of AI-accelerated development. A lean social-media MVP for creating, discovering, and engaging with short vertical videos. It's a custom build - you own the code and the IP, not a licensed template.
What's included in this social video app cost estimate?
One algorithmically ranked For You discovery feed, Video upload and publishing for registered users, subject to basic moderation checks, Likes, comments, and basic creator profiles, User reporting, an admin review queue, and basic automated moderation checks. Feed ranking will use simple engagement-based signals suitable for MVP validation
Does this estimate include hosting or ongoing maintenance?
No. This is the one-time cost to build the MVP. Hosting scales with your user count - see our hosting and maintenance pricing for typical ranges, or use the app cost calculator to estimate hosting and retainer costs by year.
Can I get a quote for my specific social video app idea?
Yes. This estimate assumes the scope above; a different feature set, market, or integration list changes the price. Use ChatStack for a free, structured estimate tailored to your exact requirements.
TikTok and Instagram Reels are registered trademarks of their respective owners. App Developer Studio is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by TikTok and Instagram Reels. This estimate describes the cost of building a custom, independently-owned app with a comparable feature set, not a clone, license, or use of their brand or code.
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