a university management system for students and faculty
Estimated monthly cost at the usage scale below — billed by actual usage
76 req/s
Peak Concurrency
4.24 GB
Database Storage
87.89 GB
Object Storage
58.59 GB
Outbound data transfer
What is this app
This university administrative management system enables 15,000 students to view their class schedules, classroom locations, and check-in for attendance. Students can submit assignments, which are retained for 30 days, and teachers can manage these submissions and grading. The system also includes an AI customer service chatbot for policy inquiries, ensuring students and staff have instant access to school information.
As a student, I want to view my class schedule and classroom location so that I can attend classes on time.
As a student, I want to check in for attendance via the system so that my presence is recorded.
As a student, I want to submit my assignments through the system for grading.
As a student, I want to ask the AI chatbot about school policies to get quick answers.
As a teacher, I want to view student submissions and grade them.
As an admin, I want to upload school policies so the AI chatbot is well-informed.
15000
student_user
Enrolled students who use the system for schedules, attendance, and assignments.
1000
teacher_user
University faculty who manage classes and grade assignments.
50
admin_user
System administrators who manage global policies and schedules.
Requirements to minimum viable plan to cost
Momen doesn't give a vague quote: it first sizes the project's actual demand for each capability and resource, then costs each item out.
The numbers in the "Project demand" column below — their scale assumptions and derivations — are detailed in Scale & sizing.
Minimum viable plan
PRO
The project requires institutional account management for 15,000 students, which necessitates SSO login capabilities available in the PRO plan.
See the capability-by-capability assessment ▾
PROJECT DEMAND
ALLOWANCE PROVIDED (COMPOSITION)
PRO
Pro is the minimum viable plan
Pro
(Plan tier: PRO)
See minimum viable plan above
99
single-tenant kit
76 req/s
single-tenant kit × 1
(plan/kit 175 req/s)
Covered by plan/kit (margin ~130%)
120
Database storage add-on
25.76 GB
10GB × 3/year, amortized monthly
(plan/kit 3.00 GB + add-on +22.76 GB)
Add-on fills +22.76 GB gap beyond plan/kit
25
Object storage
add-on
94.37 GB
100GB × 1/year, amortized monthly
(plan/kit 60.00 GB + add-on +34.37 GB)
Add-on fills +34.37 GB gap beyond plan/kit
2.92
Outbound data transfer add-on
62.91 GB/mo
500GB × 1/year, amortized monthly
(plan/kit 60.00 GB/mo + add-on +2.91 GB/mo)
Add-on fills +2.91 GB/mo gap beyond plan/kit
2.92
AI points add-on
1.3M points
not purchased
(plan/kit 5.0M points)
Covered by plan/kit (margin ~299%)
0
plan + add-ons · usage-based · no development cost
Your options for this project
In the table below, the "monthly infrastructure" for the self-built / AI routes is derived from the AWS list prices shown below, sized against this project's actual usage.
2 × t4g.large × 730h
EC2 t4g.large → 98.11
2 × db.m6g.large (Multi-AZ) × 730h
RDS PostgreSQL db.m6g.large → 232.14
4.55 GB-month
RDS gp3 storage → 0.52
94.37 GB-month
S3 Standard → 2.17
0.00 GB (first 100GB free)
Internet egress → 0
Total ≈ $332.95 / mo
Pure cloud resources
DEVELOPMENT COST
MONTHLY CLOUD INFRA ($/MO)
MONTHLY TOTAL
(INFRA + OPS)
Traditional outsourcing / self-built
≈ $333
Per AWS usage sizing above
≈ $2333
Infra $333 + ops ~$2,000
4-6 months
5 / 5
AI coding (Cursor, etc.)
≈ $333
Per AWS usage sizing above
≈ $1833
Infra $333 + ops ~$1,500
3-6 weeks
5 / 5
AI full-stack generators (Lovable/Bolt/v0)
≈ $333
Per AWS usage sizing above
≈ $1833
Infra $333 + ops ~$1,500
hours
3 / 5
Off-the-shelf SaaS / vertical solution
N/A
≈ $16,000+
Per-seat pricing, tens of thousands of users
days
1 / 5
Momen
Recommended
$250
All-in: egress / storage / auto-scaling included
$250
hours
5 / 5
Servers, databases, traffic and storage are inherent infrastructure costs for this project — you pay them whether you outsource, use Cursor or Lovable, or build it yourself (self-built runs ≈ $441/mo at AWS list prices, often more), plus the extra dev and ops staff. Momen bundles all of it into $368/mo all-in and removes the need for an ops team.
The frontend can be generated with AI tools (Cursor, Lovable, etc.); the hard part is the backend — auth, database, scaling, data security and ops. Momen delivers a production-grade backend as a BaaS: keep the vibe-coding speed on the frontend, while the backend runs on proven infrastructure — reliable, with no self-hosting or ops.
What scale this estimate assumes, and how the numbers are derived
Cost depends heavily on usage volume. First see the key assumptions and business scenarios this estimate uses, then the full calculation derived from each scenario for every resource — all adjustable to your real situation.
The university has 15,000 students. We also include approximately 1,000 faculty/teachers and 50 administrative staff members to manage the system, totaling 16,050.
This is a university management system, which is a typical migration-heavy project. The school has an existing student body (15,000) and historical data that is loaded onto the platform immediately. Therefore, we assume the system operates at a full-load equivalent for the entire year.
Class Start Peak
Class Start Peak
Class Start Peak
Weekly Submission Deadline Peak
Routine Daytime Operations
88
times/month
76 req/s
Peak load
We assume this scene occurs 4 times per school day (88 times per month) to account for major lecture start times. The 300-second duration reflects the typical window students use to check in as they arrive at their classrooms. This is a strong synchronization scene driven by the class schedule.
Main impact: Peak Concurrency
The scenarios above set the assumptions for each resource; below is the full calculation based on those assumptions. Click to expand each item.
How this app works
What exactly does this budget support? Broken down by business scenario, showing the pages, data tables, automation flows and AI
assistant behind each one.
The daily morning routine where a student checks their schedule and marks their attendance at a classroom.
A student views an assignment requirement and submits their completed work.
Interaction with the AI bot to inquire about university policies.
Teachers reviewing and grading multiple student submissions.
page
data_table
ai_agent
action_flow
Student Dashboard
A personalized home view for students showing their schedule and attendance options.
Assignment Detail Page
View for students to read assignment instructions and upload files.
AI Support Chat
An interface for students to interact with the AI Policy Advisor.
Grading Management View
A dashboard for teachers to see all submissions and enter grades.
What you might want to know about this project
The Q&A below is generated by AI based on this project's type, features and scale.
What are the primary factors affecting system performance?
How does the 30-day retention policy work?
How does the AI assistant know about school policies?
Copy to discuss with AI
Challenge & re-estimate