Item — HN Reader

I was looking for a tool for building a cross platform app for my established business, I was quoted £100K+ for an app + needing a full time senior mobile software engineer.

Seems over excessive, so I found Rork which basically is all I need at close to zero cost of a senior.

Not affiliated, but just thought I'd share if Rork will help others.

2 comments

What's the app you created and published with Rork?

I don’t want to burst your bubble but be careful how much money you decide to set on fire with Rork. In vibe coding, the solution is always 1 prompt away, it can feel like “one more and everything will slot into place”, unless you are actively coding and steering you will not be able to produce and iterate on an app with AI alone.

If your app is simple enough (1-10 prompts) you might be able to pull it off but only as an MVP (maybe that’s all you need), you won’t be able to actually launch, or rather you might launch but the app will collapse under its own weight after more prompt iterations.

And yes, if you want a good app, £100K with a full time senior dev seems completely reasonable (knowing nothing more about your app). That number doesn’t shock me. If your app is very simple then that’s high but that number is not out of them question for an app (and backend?).