PROJECT ESTIMATION & MILESTONE PLAN

Everest Learning Platform

A fully custom, owned platform build. Estimation, milestones and payment schedule at a blended rate of $22 / hour.

Billing rate
$22/hr
Total effort
948 hrs
Total cost
$20,856
Delivery
~6 wks

1. Summary

Custom stack: Next.js front end, Node/Postgres back end, custom admin/CMS for no-developer content editing, Stripe + WiPay payments, and interactive lesson activities. The approved interactive demo is the design reference, which lowers design hours.

ScopeHoursCost @ $22/hr
v1 MVP (base)948$20,856
Contingency (12%, billed against actuals)114$2,508
Recommended v1 budget (with contingency)~1,062~$23,364
Supersedes the WordPress recommendation. The client has chosen a fully custom, owned platform, so this plan reflects bespoke development rather than an off-the-shelf CMS.

2. Milestones & payment schedule

Four milestones, each invoiced on acceptance. A 15–20% deposit against Milestone 1 begins the work.

#Milestone & deliverablesHoursCost
M1 Foundation & public platform
Discovery, tech spec & data model, environments & CI, design system. App scaffold, database, authentication & roles, family + per-child accounts. Full public marketing site + contact form. Learning Library with taxonomy, filters and search.
 360$7,920
M2 Learning experience & commerce
Lesson template + pathway sequencing, interactive activity embeds, quiz engine, worksheets & differentiation. Stripe + WiPay payments, per-child entitlements, protected content, previews, billing. Admin CMS for no-developer content editing.
 402$8,844
M3 Dashboard, QA & security
Parent dashboard + per-child progress. Cross-browser & mobile QA, security and accessibility review, performance and Core Web Vitals.
 130$2,860
M4 Delivery — launch & handover
Production deploy, monitoring & backups, admin training, documentation, and post-launch stabilization.
 56$1,232
Total — v1 MVP948$20,856

3. Timeline

The total effort (948 hours) and cost are fixed. Delivery speed depends on how many developers run in parallel on an intensive schedule; a focused team ships this in about six weeks.

Focused team, parallel build
~5–6 weeks
948 hrs total · about 1.5 months
Recommended
Compressed sprint (larger team)
~4 weeks
948 hrs total · about 1 month

4. Optional & Phase 2 add-ons

Kept out of v1 so the MVP stays lean. Priced at the same $22/hr.

ADD-ON

Professional services booking

$1,32060 hrs · scheduling + payment
ADD-ON

Workshops & product commerce

$88040 hrs
ADD-ON

Certificates & badges

$52824 hrs
ADD-ON

Teacher dashboards

$1,10050 hrs
ADD-ON

Advanced analytics

$66030 hrs
ADD-ON

Native mobile app (MVP)

$4,400200 hrs · React Native

5. Inclusions & exclusions

Included

  • Development, code-level testing & QA
  • Security & accessibility passes
  • Deployment & environment setup
  • Admin training & handover documentation

Not included

  • Content production (lessons, worksheets, activities) — client-provided; the main launch-date driver
  • Branding, logo, licensed photography, copywriting
  • Third-party fees: hosting, domain, Stripe/WiPay, email
  • Terms of Service / Privacy Policy legal drafting
  • Ongoing maintenance (monthly retainer, quoted separately)
Plan content production in parallel from day one. The platform can be ready before the lessons are; a structured system is only as good as the sequenced content loaded into it. This is the single biggest risk to the launch date and it sits outside development.

6. Assumptions