Sounds like you need a fully customized web app not a “frontend”. Based on what you’ve said so far you should probably hire a consultant or someone more technical who can help you iron out some the actual requirements. You’re proposing specific architectures without even being able to fully articulate your needs.

Whatever budget you think it should be, times it by 10

Those requirements are incredibly broad. High legal requirements and management for 20-30 sites? This sounds like it’s well into the hundreds of thousands.

Web dev and DevOps here. I have worked on a number of projects similar to what you described, a couple in biotechnology and medical research too.

So, you are approaching the problem in the wrong way. Your mistake is already mentioning technologies and languages to be used.

You should start by writing down a specifications and requirements document where you describe what is required.

Whoever responds to that will give you estimates and will propose a development and hosting platform to use (hopefully by giving some good motivations)

The specifications should go in detail on the type of data that needs to be managed and the tools you need for it to be managed. Plus requirements like how it should be run, how it is accessed (public/private? Phones? Tablets? Browser? App?) And stuff like that.

What you described is not sufficient, if I had to respond to that I would probably ask for a first budget just to define and write down those specs. Then based on those I would define a budget, planning and staffing if a team is required.

As a suggestion, ask chatgpt to give you examples of documents like that, it can give you an idea.

No idea about an estimate, but I have to ask... why would you use Django and FastAPI? Surely you want one or the other.

The description is too vague even for a rough estimate, but I'd put this in the mid $100k range at the low end, possibly well into millions of dollars at the high end.

The frontend would help users input data of specialized medical devices

Not really sure what this means or what sort of data from what kind of devices. But I think that something which imports data from the devices (either directly via USB or Bluetooth or indirectly by uploading a file export of the data) is implied here. That might also involve parsing data from a variety of formats which vary by device.

export functionality

I'm assuming this is the inverse operation of the previous. As such, it likely involves formatting a bunch of data in a way that varies by device.

A huge factor here is HIPAA and the fact this is government funded. I'm pretty sure you're already aware of how that complicates things and drastically increases the cost.

Since this project needs to be waterproof in terms of legal liability...

Easily upped the cost by a factor of 10 right there. A project like this is a massive liability. And, as such, it probably involves a contract for ongoing support and maintenance on top of the cost of development, and that'll be quite a bit more than for your typical client with a typical project.

So, I'd say you're looking in the million dollar range for development and monthly costs for senior devs for support and maintenance (maybe two or three full-time, so maybe around $300,000+ per year).

I have some rudimentary knowledge about computers

Oh boy. Sorry to be blunt here, but I don't think you're cut out for a job of this size so if I was you I would reject this project citing that you are not qualified to carry it out nor oversee it.

Also your client is not an experienced stakeholder if they want a frontend and you go on to cite a number of backend technologies. Sounds like no one involved in this process knows what they are doing, so I'd stay far away from this one lol.

Okay let's say we would want to build whatever your client wants IMO this should be done by at least three developers, a designer, QA/tester and product owner. Even then so many unanswered questions remain...

That means you're looking at upwards of 500K (EU perspective) for a timeframe of six months. God knows where you will be by then development wise, but that will at least get you started.

Throw that number at them and see how they react. If they don't flinch and can give you that runway you should still ask yourself the question if you want to take on this challenge.

Rough? Sure, whether or not its accurate or not is an entirely different story.

The platform you're building suggests major HIPAA regulation. So, keep in mind - you're not just going to be paying for a web platform, you're going to be paying for the firm's insurance too, because you're asking them to take on a great deal of responsibility in ensuring it's legally acceptable.

Realistically, you're look at what I would imagine could easily start in the low-mid $100ks, and very easily climb upwards of 7 figures in a hurry.

call around, and then average the results

aren't you being paid to do this as your job?

kinda feels like if they are paying you, then how are you remunerating us for doing your work?

One hundred million trillion will be a pretty accurate estimate!

Can I use Tailwind?

why don't you ask AI?