By T0N7 on

I'm trying to get an idea of what it would cost and if it would be better to pay a Drupal developer rather than a standard web developer for a website I am working on.

I don't have much programming background but I started putting together a website on WordPress and another simple site with HTML, CSS, and some javascript that I just copied off the web for a slider and a lightbox. I am quickly reaching the end of my web developing abilities as I want to add more and more functionality. I think I'd like to break up the project into stages, perhaps you could give me an idea of what to expect as far as timeline as well as cost for each stage:

  1. Just put together a nice-looking basic site where I could add content like a blog with images (lightbox feature preferred but not absolutely critical. I wouldn't expect this to take long or cost much since it's pretty basic and stuff I can already do, maybe just a little help making it look nice and arranging the different articles into different categories.
  2. Have a user login and be able to submit large files, up to several hundred MBs, securely via a form that will contain various information about the customer and the case they are submitting. (I already have a php script that submits files securely directly to my Ubuntu server. A friend helped me set up a server and I am running one of the sites on it).
  3. Set up a payment method linked to the submit form so when these files are submitted and paid for, an email goes out to me or another employee, specified in the submit form
  4. A method of tracking these job requests that have been submitted with reminders at different time intervals, so they aren't waiting long and send email reminders to complete them
  5. An area unique to each site user, where he can view previous case reports with selected images

I'm pretty sure Drupal can do everything I want with the site, just curious about what the cost would be in comparison to paying some web developer company to do it all from scratch and what the time frame would be.

I welcome your suggestions and questions and appreciate any feedback. If anyone is interested in taking this on, let me know.

Thank you,
Tony

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