QuestIL — micro‑jobs, paid safely
An app where strangers get small local jobs done and the money moves safely.
Illustration: a small job is posted, a verified helper takes it, payment is secured before work starts and released on completion, an attempt to share a phone number outside the app is hidden, and the job owner leaves a fair review.
The product
QuestIL is a trust-and-payment layer for local micro-jobs: moving help, carrying furniture, assembly, cleaning, small repairs, errands. An iOS and Android app for the person who needs a hand and the person who does the work. It's my own product, in development, and I'm building it alone.
The design question
Between strangers, a small job is mostly a trust problem: will the person show up, will the work get paid, and what happens if it goes wrong. A classifieds board leaves all of that to the two people. QuestIL exists so the job gets done and the money ends up where it should, even between people who have never met.
What was built
- Four guarantees as product rules
- Identity: a verified, accountable person. Payment: money secured before work starts. Containment: chat and money stay inside. Reputation: behaviour recorded fairly.
- Payments without holding the money
- A regulated marketplace payment provider holds the funds; QuestIL never takes custody. Holds with manual capture, separate checks for identity and payout.
- Event-driven backend and ops dashboard
- A NestJS API and a queue-driven worker on Postgres and Redis, with a Next.js admin dashboard for day-to-day operations.
- The app
- Expo React Native app for iOS and Android: post a job, pick a verified helper, chat, pay and review, without leaving it.
- Docs, CI/CD, four environments
- Documentation in English and Hebrew, GitHub Actions and EAS pipelines, and four environments, so changes ship in small, verified steps.
My part
I designed QuestIL and I'm building it end to end: the product rules, the payments flow, the backend and worker, the admin dashboard, the app and the documentation. It also carries an anti-bypass backstop: attempts to move contact details or payment off the app, including in Hebrew or disguised, are redacted. It's unreleased; everything here describes the design, not results.
Supported outcomes
- Design goal: money is secured before any work starts
- Design goal: conversations and payments stay inside the app
- Design goal: one unfair review cannot destroy a livelihood
- Design goal: the platform never holds the money itself
Tools
NestJS, Prisma, PostgreSQL, Redis / BullMQ, Next.js, Expo / React Native, GitHub Actions, Render