How much does it cost to create a social network website like Facebook?
Often customers want to create a social network website similar to FB and ask us about the cost to create a website like Facebook.
This is not surprising since social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, and others have so entered our daily lives that it seems like they always have been there. They are already part of our future.
They allow you to communicate, post, and search for information, that is, reduce the need each time to meet someone in real life or buy a newspaper to find out something.
There are social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest that reach a global audience and are widely known. In contrast to such titans, there are local social networks that unite a smaller number of users of a certain territory (for example, Meemi in Italy, AttendingDr - a Professional Medical Network that we created). Regardless of the size of the social network, they change our life.
Today Drupal development firm will try to answer the question of how much does it costs to create such a social network website as Facebook. There is an interesting idea - contact DruDesk, because we are ready to implement it fast and at an affordable price.
“I wanna create something like Facebook”
In short, Facebook is not in vain occupying the first positions of the most popular social networks. It provides more than just the ability to chat with friends.
According to Our world in data, Facebook confidently holds leadership among all social networks.
It’s like a box full of treasures. We can post photos and search for information, find old friends, and make new ones, make video calls, have fun, and more.
That is why there are often requests to create a website with similar features as on Facebook.
What are Facebook advantages compared to its competitors?
FB was able to overtake them of its main competitors (Twitter, LinkedIn) through special features and opportunities that it opens before its users, such as:
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user-friendly site
Facebook was created so that everyone can quickly learn how to use it. Both the young generation and the oldest are able to use it. All functions work like clockwork and on an intuitive level. A big plus is a correct operation as the main site and the mobile version.
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extended capabilities
As we mentioned, Facebook gives us more than just communication. He also takes care of the users interface, allowing you to add friends, follow people, texting messages, or doing video calls. It is this diverse set of features that makes it attractive and popular.
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systemic updates
Facebook has remained so popular for a long time thanks to continuous improvements and updates. From the launch of the social network, many new features have changed and added.
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high-security level
More than 2.6 billion people trust Facebook, so it does everything possible and impossible to be the most secure site and prevent the leak of confidential information of its users.
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possibility to see and creates events
Events on Facebook allow users to receive reminders of important events and dates. You can create events yourself and display them both for all users and for individual users.
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the ability to share information
Facebook gives its users a great opportunity to distribute information, photos, videos, and tags. Sharing is the best way to exchange information with friends.
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best marketplace
Facebook opens up opportunities not only for communication but also for doing business. Digital marketing is thriving in the FB. Advertising algorithms are thought out to the details, so it is so popular and really works.
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"poke" other users
Facebook has such a great feature as "poke" other users. That is, you can tag specific persons in order to attract their attention. Isn't that a great feature?
Users' and Administrators' features on Facebook
Facebook is a great site because it has a separation of users' and administrators' features. The different opportunities are available, depending on the role that the user performs.
User features include those that are available to all users, those that we see with you when we use Facebook day by day.
User features include:
- News feed
- Profiles
- Groups
- Pages
- Messages
- Live chat
- Search
- Notifications
- Connect
- Filter the content we see
- Friends
- Wall
- Likes and reactions
- Places
- Games
Admin features include all those features that users with administrator status can use.
Admin features are:
- Dashboard
- Site settings
- Themes
- Plugins
- Languages
- Manage users
- Manage groups
- Manage pages
- Manage reports
- Scheduled Posts
- Site statistics
- Advertisement
How to keep user data secure on a website like FB?
Social networks are a place to find more information about people of interest to you, but it also happens that hackers steal private information and creates the threat of leakage of personal information. Therefore, the first point when creating a social network website that you need to take care of is security and protect your website!
A good example of securing private information is the Facebook multilevel security model:
- The first level is the use of the Secure Socket Layer. This helps to encrypt all the data that you transfer through the FB and therefore protect against hacker theft.
- The second level is the built-in anti-intrusion systems and antivirus & anti-spyware programs to get rid of any suspicious actions that could cause information leakage.
- The third level of security is creating a strong password and linking it to an email. The FB sends a one-time-use code notification to your mail as soon as it detects suspicious activity.
8 steps to creating a website similar to Facebook
1. Come up with your own unique idea
Creating a website for a new social network begins with an idea. In order for it to be interesting to many people, the idea must be fresh and unique.
2. Define your audience
Think about who will be your future target audience to know what they want. This will facilitate the future process of creating and developing the site.
3. Create a list with the desired site features
Determine what features should be in your site. This is best done as a list.
4. Choose a proper domain name
Make sure to choose the right name of the social network website and choose the domain name. The best way out of the situation is to buy a name.
5. Take care of hosting
If you want to have a large website with serious traffic (more than 500,000 users), then select a server that can handle your traffic.
6. Choose the appropriate site design
We have repeatedly said that responsive website design plays an important role. Consider all the details of the design of your future site, so that it attracts users and identifies your social network site.
7. Test your social network website
Before the launching of a social networking website, a mandatory step is to test the created product. Why do this? Testing the social network website allows you to identify problems and errors in its work. Before launching the finished site, improve your site as best as possible so that users get only pleasant user experience.
8. Launching a social network
The final stage is the launch of a social networking website. At that moment you can finally see for what you worked all this time. The launches of the site do not mean that this is the end of the work. This is how to build a house, but there is still design ahead, and so on. This is certainly a joyful stage, but this is only the beginning of an interesting path of development and improvement.
What kind of team do you need to have in order to create a similar site like Facebook
In order to start creating a website of this type, you need to have a minimum team set. Of course, the quantity can vary since it all depends on the volumes and ideas that you want to implement on this website of a social networking website.
The basic team should include:
- 2 or 3 developers
- 1 frontend engineer
- 1 UX Expert / Interaction Expert
- 1 Test Engineer
- 2 Cloud Engineers content
- 1 Visual Designer / Creative
- 1 Project Lead / Scrum Master.
The creation of a social network website is a serious matter where a whole team of professionals should be involved. Therefore, it is impossible to name a clear cost. Facebook is a huge site that has been going to this level for more than 15 years and has been staffed by a large team of not 10 developers, it is unrealistic to reach the Facebook level in 2-3 years of development.
Bits of Advice on how to start such project like FB
Below we will give you some tips to help you start a project like FB using similar models.
1. Start the development of social network websites at the local level
So you'll see how people react to your product, whether it satisfies their needs, what needs to be changed, what needs to be added, and everything will be without big losses. After you improve your product, you can enter a wide market.
2. Security and security again
The first indicator of a successful social network website is the security of its users. Your future social network website may not have an ideal design, but it should be safe, only then people will be registered there. Use as many levels of security as possible to protect users and your reputation.
3. Use API
The social network should be all-accused, one of the options that will help expand it will be integration with the API. For example, Facebook uses the top 9 API, allowing users to work conveniently on the site, be safe, and more.
4. Provide support for your users
Allow your website users to communicate with you. It happens that there are different problems or questions when using your product, so create online chats, chats bots, or email support.
How much does it cost to create website like Facebook?
Social networks website is a serious project that combines a lot of features in one place that is why the cost to create a website like Facebook varies from many factors. Accordingly, to create a similar site, it needs a lot of effort and skills.
The cost of such a site varies from many factors. At a minimum, it all depends on:
- the size of your future site
- features that will be available on it
- type of hosting
- time spent on development
To create a competitive and popular website similar to Facebook you need to have an idea, a desire to implement it, and a team of developers from DruDesk.
We implement your project professionally, quickly, and at an affordable price.
If you have questions about creation of a social network website, or you already have an idea that you want to realize, then do not waste time - get in touch with Drupal help.