How much does it cost to create a freelance marketplace similar to Upwork?

You appear to have a very broad concept. The more features you add in the more expensive it will be. I'd recommend figuring out the key feature you think will appeal to potential users and build a MVP based off that. If that feature doesn't attract users, having the other features wouldn't have helped. I'd be happy to talk through your idea and make some recommendations building a test platform.

I do a lot of business with people on Elance (which is now being merged into Upwork and is going away, so stick with Upwork). The real challenge for US-based workers (which you may or may not be) is the price competitive nature of jobs when competing against an international workforce. There are always going to be great workers in every country and sometimes in certain areas you just can't compete on price. For example, I do a lot of business with great people in the Philippines and their work is excellent, they speak perfect English, and they are very affordable. What I usually tell people who are first getting into the space is to be honest about that in your profile and do some jobs for near-free with private pricing so you can build up your profile with good ratings. There are some disadvantages to this approach, but I find it helps to get some jobs under your belt with employers. One of the keys is going to be differentiation. You have your industry listed but skills, language, specific experience, and other niche items are really going to help here. I'm a consumer of a lot of Upwork contractors so I'm happy to do a call and discuss my experience with you. I work with people all over the world on a regular basis and I've built my business around these assets.

The best technology is whatever gets you up and running the quickest. You'll throw away the first iteration (and possibly the second and third...) anyway. What you need most in the beginning is to test your idea and get feedback, and you need it fast.

I agree it really depends on what you are trying to achieve. It can take sometime to source the right person to do the job. I disagree that you should only outsource to a freelancer if you have a one off project. My designer is a freelancer and I have been using her for several years because I like her style and she is very fast and efficient so I end up paying a lot less for the work and there is usually very few edits. I think that for any business it is worthwhile investing in creating a good relationship with any member of your team. If the work you required isn't a full time role, then hiring a freelancer makes a lot of sense because you can build a loyal and trusting relationship with them and therefore depend on them to deliver.

I consult with clients who are looking for the right outsourcing situation all the time, and the best way to get started is to figure out what kind of outsourcing partner will be the best 'fit' for your needs. After that, it's easy to find out where that type of outsourcing partner/contractor/freelance hangs out and pick a winner. Try writing up some notes about things like: 1) You mentioned you had a small budget - how small? If your budget is $1500 your options are going to be very different than if it's $25,000. Both of those could be considered 'small budgets' in the right context, so try to put a number out there. 2) You also mentioned that you wanted 'good quality, clean code'. What does this mean and are you willing to pay for that? If you are building an MVP and are really short on funds, you might have to use a less senior developer/team and take the risk of getting sloppier code - but sometimes with an MVP that's ok! If you are building a production app, that's a different story. 3) What is your technical and management expertise? Can you create specifications and manage a developer on your own (not easy to do)? If so, you can save money by using a freelancer, etc. If you are very non-technical and will need PM support, you might consider a small group or agency. 4) What does 'website development' involve, in your vision? Design? Copywriting? QA? Server migration and admin? ui/ux? 5) What is your tolerance for going offshore? You will hear lots of people saying that offshore teams all suck, and lots of people saying that they did it and it went fine. Like most software projects, there is a high failure rate but lots of success with offshore. You can save a ton of money, but you can also take a bath so you need to consider whether you are up to the challenge or not - going offshore takes much more patience, attention, documentation, etc. but it can work. 6) What are the skills/tech that you will need? It's best to get a team that is great at the skills you need. If you want a ruby site, hire a ruby shop. If you want a augmented reality site, find a team that is great at that. Watch out for the generalists :) By thinking through questions like the above, you can change your statement from "Where do you go for outsourcing website development" to something like this: "I am looking for an outsourcing partner who would be interested in a 15k-20k project that will be build in python. This application will be evolved into our production app so the quality must be good. I am a good project manager and will work with the developer on the requirements/spec side, and help test. We will need application/db design and development, server administration, and technical support but all design, content, copy, ui/ux will be provided. We will consider offshore teams but you must have excellent spoken english." When you expand your 'what we're looking for' paragraph, the whole search for outsourcing partner gets much easier! If you like, feel free to give me a call and share your 'vendor profile' with me and I can help point you in the right direction.