How Much Does a Real-Time App Cost?
Live dashboards, collaborative editing, chat, and instant notifications — powered by WebSockets and event-driven architecture.
Project type: Real-Time Application
Feature Breakdown
| Feature | Hours | Description |
|---|---|---|
| WebSocket Infrastructure | 16 | Persistent WebSocket connections with auto-reconnect, heartbeat, and horizontal scaling via Redis pub/sub. |
| Live Data Feeds & Updates | 20 | Real-time data streams pushing updates to connected clients with optimistic UI rendering. |
| Collaborative Features | 18 | Multi-user presence indicators, cursor tracking, and conflict-free concurrent editing (CRDT-based). |
| Notification & Alert System | 14 | Instant in-app notifications, browser push, and configurable alert rules and thresholds. |
| Event Logging & Replay | 14 | Event store for audit trails, activity feeds, and the ability to replay past state. |
| Connection Management & Fallbacks | 10 | Graceful degradation to long-polling, offline queuing, and connection status indicators. |
| Real-Time UI Components | 18 | Live-updating charts, activity streams, toast notifications, and synchronized scroll positions. |
Total estimated hours: 110
Pricing Tiers
- AI PM: $2/hr — Total: $220
- AI-managed project execution
- Automated milestone tracking
- Daily progress reports
- Quality assurance checks
- Live PM: $3/hr — Total: $330
- Dedicated human project manager
- Weekly strategy calls
- Priority support channel
- Architecture review for scale
- Latency benchmarking
- Live PM + Dev: $5/hr — Total: $550
- Dedicated PM and senior developer
- Real-time pair programming sessions
- Code review on every pull request
- Concurrency & load stress testing
- Post-launch support included
Agency Comparison
| Approach | Typical Cost | Typical Timeline | Bookuvai Cost | Bookuvai Timeline |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Agency | $25,000 – $80,000 | 3 – 6 months | $220 – $550 | 3 – 5 weeks |
| Freelancer | $8,000 – $25,000 | 2 – 5 months | $220 – $550 | 3 – 5 weeks |
| In-House Team | $50,000 – $150,000 | 3 – 6 months | $220 – $550 | 3 – 5 weeks |
| No-Code Platform | $200 – $800/mo ongoing | 2 – 6 weeks | $220 – $550 one-time | 3 – 5 weeks |
Frequently Asked Questions
- What technology powers the real-time layer?
- We use WebSockets (via Socket.io or native WS) backed by Redis pub/sub for horizontal scaling. The stack is proven at thousands of concurrent connections.
- Does it work on mobile browsers?
- Yes. WebSocket support is universal across modern mobile browsers. We also include fallback to long-polling for edge cases.
- How does pricing compare to Firebase or Pusher?
- Third-party real-time services charge per connection per month, which scales linearly with users. A custom build is a one-time cost with infrastructure you own.
- Can it handle thousands of simultaneous users?
- Yes. The architecture uses stateless servers behind a load balancer with Redis for message fan-out. We include load test results with the Live PM + Dev tier.