a university administration & attendance system with AI policy support
Estimated monthly cost at the usage scale below — billed by actual usage
160 req/s
Peak Concurrency
5.08 GB
Database Storage
357.91 GB
Object Storage
219.73 GB
Outbound data transfer
What is this app
A comprehensive university management platform designed for 15,000 students to track class schedules, classroom locations, and check into classes for attendance. The system enables students to submit assignments—with a 30-day file retention policy—and features an AI-powered customer service chatbot to handle inquiries regarding school policies and administrative matters. Teachers and administrators can efficiently manage course tasks and monitor student participation.
As a student, I want to view my class schedule and classroom locations so that I can attend classes on time.
As a student, I want to check-in for attendance via the system so that my participation is recorded.
As a student, I want to submit my assignments digitally so that my teacher can grade them.
As a student, I want to ask an AI chatbot about school policies so that I get instant answers without visiting the registrar.
As a teacher, I want to create and manage assignments for my courses so that students know what to work on.
As a teacher, I want to view and download student assignment submissions so that I can grade their work.
As a teacher, I want to monitor class attendance logs so that I can track student engagement.
As an administrator, I want to manage the master schedule and classroom availability so that academic operations run smoothly.
15000
student_user
The primary user base consisting of all enrolled university students.
1000
teacher_user
University faculty members who manage courses and grade assignments.
50
admin_user
Staff responsible for system maintenance, policy updates, and master schedule management.
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 SSO for managing 15,000 university student accounts and is a permanent institutional system.
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
160 req/s
single-tenant kit × 1
(plan/kit 175 req/s)
Covered by plan/kit (margin ~9%)
120
Database storage add-on
5.92 GB
10GB × 1/year, amortized monthly
(plan/kit 3.00 GB + add-on +2.92 GB)
Add-on fills +2.92 GB gap beyond plan/kit
8.33
Object storage
add-on
384.30 GB
100GB × 4/year, amortized monthly
(plan/kit 60.00 GB + add-on +324.30 GB)
Add-on fills +324.30 GB gap beyond plan/kit
11.67
Outbound data transfer add-on
235.93 GB/mo
500GB × 5/year, amortized monthly
(plan/kit 60.00 GB/mo + add-on +175.93 GB/mo)
Add-on fills +175.93 GB/mo gap beyond plan/kit
14.58
AI points add-on
0 points
not purchased
(plan/kit 5.0M points)
No requirement
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.
4 × t4g.large × 730h
EC2 t4g.large → 196.22
2 × db.m6g.large (Multi-AZ) × 730h
RDS PostgreSQL db.m6g.large → 232.14
5.45 GB-month
RDS gp3 storage → 0.63
384.30 GB-month
S3 Standard → 8.84
119.73 GB (first 100GB free)
Internet egress → 10.78
Total ≈ $448.61 / mo
Pure cloud resources
DEVELOPMENT COST
MONTHLY CLOUD INFRA ($/MO)
MONTHLY TOTAL
(INFRA + OPS)
Traditional outsourcing / build in-house
about $80,000 - $150,000+
≈ $449
Based on the AWS estimate above
≈ $2,449
Infra $449 + ops ~$2,000
3-6 months
5 / 5
Vibe Coding
about $15,000 - $35,000
≈ $449
Based on the AWS estimate above
≈ $1,949
Infra $449 + ops ~$1,500
1-2 months
4 / 5
AI full-stack generation
about $5,000 - $12,000
≈ $449
Based on the AWS estimate above
≈ $1,949
Infra $449 + ops ~$1,500
2-4 weeks
3 / 5
Off-the-shelf SaaS / vertical solution
about $25,000 - $60,000+
N/A
Priced per seat, not by cloud infra
≈ $16,000+
Per-seat pricing, tens of thousands of users
1-3 months
2 / 5
Momen
Recommended
$0
$254
All-in: egress / storage / auto-scaling included
$254
2-4 weeks
4 / 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 as the core population. We also account for approximately 1,000 faculty/teachers and 50 administrative staff members who manage the system and academic records, bringing the total to 16,050.
This is a university administrative system, which functions as a stock migration / brownfield launch. The academic data (students, courses, classrooms) is typically loaded at full capacity from day one and remains active throughout the school year. Therefore, we set the value to 365 days to reflect a full year of continuous operational data.
Morning/Afternoon Class Peak
Morning/Afternoon Class Peak
Morning/Afternoon Class Peak
Daily Administrative Routine
88
times/month
160 req/s
Peak load
We assume this scenario occurs during the transition between classes. The 300-second window represents the typical arrival time where students are physically walking into classrooms and checking in simultaneously. With 4 major time slots per day over 22 weekdays, the monthly frequency is 88.
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 routine of a student checking their schedule and marking attendance before class.
A student browsing pending tasks and submitting a completed assignment file.
A student interacting with the AI bot to ask policy-related questions.
A teacher creating a task and then reviewing multiple student submissions.
An administrator setting up or updating the university-wide class schedule.
page
data_table
ai_agent
action_flow
Student Dashboard
Personalized home page for students showing their daily schedule.
Attendance Check-in Page
Interface for students to mark themselves present for scheduled classes.
Assignment List View
Interface for viewing assignment details and uploading files.
AI Policy Support Page
AI chatbot interface for inquiring about university policies.
Teacher Management Portal
Dashboard for teachers to create tasks and grade student submissions.
System Admin Dashboard
High-level management interface for university administrators.
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 drives the most resource consumption in this system?
How does the 30-day retention policy affect my costs?
Is the AI policy assistant available to all users?
Copy to discuss with AI
Challenge & re-estimate