A friend of mine approached me about creating a video sharing website similar to popular platforms out there. They want all the main features like video uploads, user accounts, comments, and social sharing. The catch is they only have a budget of maybe $5,000 to $10,000 max.
I need help explaining why this isn’t realistic without crushing their dreams. They don’t understand tech costs and I’m worried they might try hiring someone online who will just take their money and deliver something broken.
How do you handle situations like this when non-technical people have unrealistic expectations about development costs and timelines? I want to be supportive but also honest about what’s actually possible with their budget.
totally agree! remind them about ongoing costs like hosting & bandwidth. maybe start small with a basic setup to see if people actually use it. saves $ and helps avoid a flop. support their idea, but keep it real about the budget!
Been there with a colleague who wanted to build a marketplace app on $3,000. I broke down the real costs for them - just video streaming infrastructure would blow their entire budget in a few months with moderate usage. Video storage costs are brutal, we’re talking thousands monthly once you get decent traffic. I told them to start with a simple proof of concept using Vimeo’s API or YouTube embeds to test their idea first. Let them validate the concept without burning their savings on a custom solution that might flop. Sometimes being supportive means helping them take a smart first step instead of diving into an expensive mistake.
Totally get where you’re coming from it’s a tough spot to be in when you want to support a friend’s dream but also need to keep things grounded. Building a full-featured video sharing platform with uploads, user logins, comments, and social sharing isn’t a small project—it involves complex backend systems, storage, transcoding, security, and ongoing maintenance. With a $5K–$10K budget, it’s really hard to create a video streaming app that’s stable, scalable, and secure.
What I usually do in these cases is suggest starting small—like using a white-label platform such as VPlayed. It lets you launch a ready-made, fully customizable video streaming app without starting from scratch. That way, they can focus on content and audience-building while staying within budget. It’s a great stepping stone without the risk of ending up with a half-baked product.