> The big problem with a spec like this is that the app you will get is not going to be anywhere near the level of quality of an app like Instagram. You have to

> The big problem with a spec like this is that the app you will get is not going to be anywhere near the level of quality of an app like Instagram. You have to set customer expectations or you will spend a huge amount of time litigating whether or not the app is 'done'. This. In my experience of building apps under contract, the concept of the MVP is not very well understood outside of our tech industry echo chamber. We regularly have clients who know the term and "want an MVP" but when it comes down to release act completely contrarily (mostly trying to delay releases for additional features, more polish, etc). Client education and carefully setting expectations are key in this line of work. This estimate also complete ignores billable time for project management and testing. Edit: And design, if you want your app to look even remotely different from Instagram. And devops to stand it up in a scalable way. And maintenance / service agreements to keep the thing running...