# Seriously, how much time does it take to develop a rails pro **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [November 7, 2006, 11:08am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/seriously-how-much-time-does-it-take-to-develop-a-rails-pro/75051 "2006-11-07T11:08:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Heri\_R](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/58956e/32.png) [@Heri\_R](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Heri_R)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2006, 11:08am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/seriously-how-much-time-does-it-take-to-develop-a-rails-pro/75051/1 "2006-11-07T11:08:10Z")
hi all, if you have to develop an app like digg with all its current features, starting from scratch, how much time would you take, doing it alone? also if someone wants to create something like cragslist, how much hours would that take. note: i dont want at all to make a copycat of digg or craiglists, i just want to compare how fast i develop comparing to other people, taking examples of well known websites thanks everyone – Heri R. [http://sprinj.com](http://sprinj.com) ---
**Author:** ![Heri\_R](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/58956e/32.png) [@Heri\_R](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Heri_R)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2006, 11:08am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/seriously-how-much-time-does-it-take-to-develop-a-rails-pro/75051/2 "2006-11-07T11:08:26Z")
seriously, can there be a _real_ answer to this? it depends on who is writing the code, how many are writing the code, how familiar they are with ruby and rails, how quickly they can learn on their own etc… what i can tell you is that i have worked 5+ years with classic ASP, PHP, Java/Servlets, and now python and rails. I like rails the most and find it to have the shortest development time. recreating digg or craigslist would be a week or two for me, and i’m still a rails noob. ---
**Author:** ![Heri\_R](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/58956e/32.png) [@Heri\_R](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Heri_R)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2006, 3:53pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/seriously-how-much-time-does-it-take-to-develop-a-rails-pro/75051/3 "2006-11-07T15:53:09Z")
I think it’s also important to distinguish between creating an app that copies the features of digg or craiglist, and actually deploying the app successfully. The features might not take a while, but testing, deploying, and keeping the site going with a sizeable user base I would imagine are a huge time sink. ---
**Author:** ![Heri\_R](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/58956e/32.png) [@Heri\_R](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Heri_R)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2006, 7:13pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/seriously-how-much-time-does-it-take-to-develop-a-rails-pro/75051/4 "2006-11-07T19:13:05Z")
to develop from scratch, a week or 2 being a noob(just backend no pretty interface). afterwards, any other site that is similiar, a day or so. once you get the hang of controller, model, view and learning to use/understand user documentation/api things start to get easy. ive been in the RoR environment for about 2 months now. ---
**Author:** ![Heri\_R](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/58956e/32.png) [@Heri\_R](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Heri_R)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 5:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/seriously-how-much-time-does-it-take-to-develop-a-rails-pro/75051/5 "2006-11-16T17:16:36Z")
> From my point of view, after all this you get a working “prototype” of > the application. The optimization can take a while (the numbers of > queries to the database, …) > You can have something “overnight”, but the final product much later. ZON [http://www.ZONator.com](http://www.ZONator.com) ---
**Author:** ![Heri\_R](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/58956e/32.png) [@Heri\_R](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Heri_R)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 5:23pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/seriously-how-much-time-does-it-take-to-develop-a-rails-pro/75051/6 "2006-11-16T17:23:35Z")
rosoft2001 wrote: > You can have something “overnight”, but the final product much later. I’d agree with this. I could have a non-ajax, non-styled (ie, very simple UI) Digg-esque prototype in around a day. Two days if I used continuous integration to test everything as I went (great way to eliminate problems later). For a fully polished UI and total stability, I’d reckon on about two weeks of work. As for Craigslist, I’ve never really looked at it, so couldn’t tell you how long that would take. Rails just makes it all so much easier, I find myself prototyping apps for clients while they sit there telling me what they want. Dougal. ---
**Author:** ![Heri\_R](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/58956e/32.png) [@Heri\_R](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Heri_R)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 4:50pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/seriously-how-much-time-does-it-take-to-develop-a-rails-pro/75051/7 "2006-11-16T16:50:31Z")
mixplate wrote: > Maybe I’m just bit crap, but I do tend to think this underestimates the length of time it takes by quite some way, and is in danger of making us slowcoaches feel totally useless. If you’ve got the app clearly thought through, understand the architecture and UI, and have a good understanding of not just Rails but Ruby too, and aren’t thoroughly developing test case prior to coding, then these sort of timescales are possible. However, there’s probably a day or two – at least, and that assumes no diversions, checking RSS feeds, other flow-reducing activities etc – working out how to structure the app if there’s any depth to it (though it won’t necessarily be all at the beginning). Add in a good dose of TDD, which will probably take 2-3 times as long as writing the code itself (quit looking at the browser), and you’re talking weeks not days. However, at the end, it will still have been an order of magnitude less than most other languages, and will probably be far more robust code with a stronger, more elegant structure (particularly if, like me, you come from PHP), and will have a good test suite that will make refactoring a cinch. Just my $0.02 Chris T