Cost Analysis

Marketplace From-Scratch Development Cost

A detailed look at the team, budget, and planning required to build a full-featured marketplace like Trendyol or N11 from the ground up.

16+ Person Team
12+ Months Timeline
3M+ TRY Investment

The Reality of Building From Scratch

Building a marketplace with the depth of Trendyol or N11 from scratch requires at minimum a software team with the knowledge and structure outlined below.

Required Software Team

Key Role

1 × Planning / Delivery Lead

This person must deeply understand marketplace features and requirements and have solid software expertise.

  • Stack selection (PHP, Laravel, ASP.NET, Java, etc.)
  • Building the engineering team
  • Job postings on HR platforms
  • Interviewing candidates
Team ramp-up: 2–3 months

Engineering Roles Needed

Backend Development

2x Senior Backend Developer Senior
2x Mid Backend Developer Mid

Frontend Development

2x Senior Frontend Developer Senior
1x Mid Frontend Developer Mid

Mobile Apps

2x Senior iOS Developer Senior
2x Senior Android Developer Senior

Infrastructure & QA

1x Senior Database Specialist Senior
1x Mid Database Specialist Mid
1x Senior DevOps / Server Specialist Senior
1x Mid QA Engineer Mid
10 Senior Level
5 Mid Level
1 Project Lead
16 Total Headcount

Monthly Payroll Cost

Figures are based on January 2021 benchmarks. Expect roughly 50–100% higher costs today.

Senior Developer

Net salary: 10.000 TL
+ Social security / payroll taxes: 7.872 TL
Total employer cost: 17.872 TL

Mid Developer

Net salary: 7.500 TL
+ Social security / payroll taxes: 5.610 TL
Total employer cost: 13.110 TL

Project Lead

Net salary: 15.000 TL
+ Social security / payroll taxes: 13.180 TL
Total employer cost: 28.180 TL
Total Monthly Payroll 272,450 TRY

Total Investment Cost

One Year of Payroll

If the team spends a full year building the product:

3.2 Million TRY

Optimized Hiring Timeline

If iOS/Android, server, and QA specialists join from months 4–5:

~2 Million TRY

Other Costs

  • Office rent
  • Hardware and furniture
  • Development tools and licenses
  • Server and hosting
  • Utilities, internet, phones
  • General overhead

Minimum Total Investment

3+ Million TRY

The real cost of a Trendyol-class build can far exceed initial estimates.

Testing and Hardening

Before go-live, the following flows must be exercised for several months in a production-like environment:

40–50 sellers uploading inventory
Hundreds of real orders
Shipping and returns
Payments and commission logic
Payout and settlement flows
Membership and ad packages
Reporting modules
Caching and performance

Risks and Challenges

Critical Warning

Even founders who budget 5 million TRY or more often abandon the project before the build is finished.

Planning Drift

Weak planning leads to endless scope change and lost time.

Engineer Turnover

Churn destroys institutional knowledge and forces rework.

Severance Exposure

After one year, severance can equal roughly a gross salary per employee—sometimes 7–8 payouts at once.

Bench / Backup Staff

You may need redundant capacity and backups who know every subsystem.

A Smarter Alternative

Instead of multi-million budgets and multi-year builds, you can launch on Softomi’s marketplace platform—17 years in production.

From Scratch

  • 3+ million TRY
  • 12+ months of development
  • Managing a 16-person team
  • High failure risk
  • Severance and hidden costs

Softomi

  • Predictable packages
  • Ready to launch
  • Battle-tested over 17 years
  • Ongoing updates
  • Professional support
Demo