I agree.Only legit question is what kind development is planned for the site I guess. Regardless of how.
Seeing the numbers in this topic, though, I do think most underestimate the price of such applications. You cant expect much for the $3-5k you mentioned earlier, even if completely made and managed in India.
...We can't outsource the db queries which are needed for the project (since it's critical to have them optimized and we don't want to give DB access), but I'd be happy to put in the work from our side. It's a valuable project and I think it's worth it. Also, that means that the overall price for the project could be substantially lower, since a lot of work would be already done.The bottom line - you have my support.