In 2026, a focused single-platform MVP with one core feature costs $20,000 to $40,000 (€17,000 to €35,000, £15,000 to £30,000). A complete MVP with accounts, payments, notifications and an admin panel costs $40,000 to $80,000 (€35,000 to €70,000, £30,000 to £60,000). Marketplaces, products with several integrations and regulated products cost $80,000 to $150,000 (€70,000 to €130,000, £60,000 to £110,000). The cost is driven by the number of screens and user roles, the integrations, the platforms and the amount of design, not by how ambitious the idea is. Running costs after launch are typically $300 to $1,500 (€260 to €1,500, £220 to £1,000) a month plus a maintenance budget of 15 to 20 percent of the build cost per year.
Prices are in US dollars. Euro and pound figures in parentheses are approximate, rounded conversions. Quotes are issued in the currency of your contract.
The honest answer to what an MVP costs is a range, and the range is wide because "MVP" covers everything from a four-screen web tool to a two-sided marketplace with payments. This post narrows it. It gives you the bands, what puts a product in each, where the money goes, what it costs to run afterwards, and how to get a real number for your own idea. The figures are for an experienced team that includes discovery, design and testing. How much it costs to build an app covers the wider market, and what a 20k, 50k and 150k budget buys shows what each band looks like as a product.
What are the MVP cost bands?
| Band | Cost | Timeline | What it contains | Typical products |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Focused MVP | $20,000 to $40,000 (€17,000 to €35,000, £15,000 to £30,000) | 8 to 10 weeks | One platform, one user type, three to five features, basic accounts, simple admin, analytics | An internal tool, a single-workflow B2B product, a content or booking product with manual fulfilment |
| Complete MVP | $40,000 to $80,000 (€35,000 to €70,000, £30,000 to £60,000) | 10 to 14 weeks | One or two platforms, two user roles, five to eight features, subscription billing or payments, notifications, admin panel, one integration | A SaaS product, a consumer app with payments, a B2B tool with customer admin |
| Complex MVP | $80,000 to $150,000 (€70,000 to €130,000, £60,000 to £110,000) | 14 to 20 weeks | Two user types with distinct journeys, payments with payouts, several integrations, search, real-time features, or compliance work | A marketplace, a fintech product, a healthcare product, a product with a hardware or partner dependency |
Below $15,000 (€13,000, £11,000), you are buying a prototype, a template, or a feature list with the expensive parts removed. What a fixed-price MVP package should include explains what gets cut at that price.
What moves a product between bands?
- User roles. Each role is a set of screens, permissions and tests. A second role with its own journey roughly doubles the front-end work. This is the single biggest driver.
- Platforms. Web only is the base. Adding a mobile app, even cross-platform, adds 40 to 60 percent. Native iOS and Android separately adds more.
- Payments. Taking a card is a week. Subscriptions with plan changes and invoices is two to three. Marketplace payments with split payouts and refunds is four or more.
- Integrations. A well-documented API is a few days. A partner with poor documentation or a slow approval process is weeks, and the delay is on the critical path.
- Design depth. A B2B tool can use a clean component library. A consumer product competing with polished incumbents needs custom design and more iteration, adding 15 to 30 percent.
- Compliance. Healthcare, finance and children's products need security work, documentation and sometimes external review. Building software for regulated industries covers what that adds.
- Real-time and search. Live updates, chat, and search over large data each add infrastructure and a week or more.
Where does the money go?
| Line | Share of a complete MVP | Example at $60,000 (€50,000, £44,000) |
|---|---|---|
| Discovery and scoping | 5 to 10 percent | $3,000 to $6,000 (€2,500 to €5,000, £2,000 to £4,500) |
| Design and prototype | 15 to 20 percent | $9,000 to $12,000 (€8,000 to €10,000, £6,500 to £9,000) |
| Backend development | 25 to 30 percent | $15,000 to $18,000 (€13,000 to €16,000, £11,000 to £13,000) |
| Front-end development | 25 to 30 percent | $15,000 to $18,000 (€13,000 to €16,000, £11,000 to £13,000) |
| Testing, deployment and launch | 10 percent | $6,000 (€5,000, £4,500) |
| Project management | 10 percent | $6,000 (€5,000, £4,500) |
Quotes that have no discovery or design line, or that put testing at zero, are quotes for a build without the parts that make it work. How to read a software development quote shows how to check.
What does it cost to run after launch?
Hosting, database, email, error tracking and analytics for an MVP with up to a few thousand users cost $300 to $1,500 (€260 to €1,500, £220 to £1,000) per month in total, depending on the services. Payment providers take a percentage of transactions. App store accounts are a small annual fee. Then there is maintenance: security updates, dependency upgrades, small fixes and the occasional outage, which runs 15 to 20 percent of the build cost per year if the product is stable, more if it is changing weekly. How much app maintenance costs breaks that down. Budget for version two separately, since it is development rather than maintenance.
How do agency, freelancer and in-house costs compare?
An agency delivers a complete MVP in the bands above with design, project management and process included. Freelancers cost 30 to 50 percent less per hour and you assemble and manage the team, which costs your time and carries more risk. In-house engineers cost similar in salary over the same period, plus three to six months of hiring before anything starts. For a first release, the agency route is usually the cheapest when the cost of a failed build is counted. Agency vs freelancer vs in-house has the detailed comparison, and outsourcing MVP development gives a verdict by situation.
How do you reduce the cost without weakening the MVP?
- Cut a user role. Serve the second side by hand for the first hundred users.
- Cut a platform. Web first, or one mobile platform. Not all three.
- Buy instead of build. Authentication, payments, email, file storage, search. Each has a hosted service.
- Use a component library for B2B. Custom design is for products that compete on it.
- Do integrations by hand. A monthly export to the accounting tool is a person for the first year.
- Keep the out list. Every feature that waits for version two is money that stays in the company.
What not to cut: discovery, design, testing, analytics or the support period. Those are what make the features work, and cutting them produces a cheaper product that teaches you nothing. How to scope an MVP is the method for cutting the right things.
How do you get an accurate number for your idea?
Write the scope: problem, user, core journey, the feature list with in and out, the platform. Send the same document to two or three teams. Ask each what is included and what is not. A team that has shipped MVPs will give you a number inside the bands above with a short discovery to confirm it. A number far below the bands is for a different product than the one you described. How to choose an MVP development company covers what to look for in the teams you ask.
The numbers to remember
- Focused MVP: $20,000 to $40,000 (€17,000 to €35,000, £15,000 to £30,000), 8 to 10 weeks.
- Complete MVP: $40,000 to $80,000 (€35,000 to €70,000, £30,000 to £60,000), 10 to 14 weeks.
- Complex MVP: $80,000 to $150,000 (€70,000 to €130,000, £60,000 to £110,000), 14 to 20 weeks.
- Running costs: $300 to $1,500 (€260 to €1,500, £220 to £1,000) a month plus 15 to 20 percent of build cost per year.
- Biggest drivers: user roles, platforms, payments, integrations.
How 7L prices MVPs
Our MVP quotes sit inside these bands and are fixed after a short discovery, from a written scope the founder has approved. The quote includes discovery, design with a tested prototype, development, testing, deployment to your accounts, analytics, documentation and a post-launch support period, and the change clause works in both directions. If you have an idea and want to know which band it is in, describe what it does and who uses it, and we will tell you within a day.
Frequently asked questions
Can I build an MVP for under $10,000 (€8,500, £7,500)?
A clickable prototype or a no-code version, yes. A custom-built MVP with accounts and a real backend, not from an experienced team. At that price you are buying a prototype or a template, which may be exactly what you need to validate, but it is not a product users can rely on. Our post on no-code vs custom development covers when the cheaper route is right.
Why do quotes for the same MVP vary so much?
Because the teams are quoting different products. Without a written scope, each team reads your idea differently and prices its own reading. Send every team the same one-to-three-page scope and the quotes converge. The ones that remain far apart differ in what they include.
Does the MVP cost include hosting and third-party services?
Usually not. Hosting, payment provider fees, email services and app store accounts are paid by you directly, and they are small at MVP scale, typically $300 to $1,500 (€260 to €1,500, £220 to £1,000) a month in total. Ask the team to list them so there are no surprises.
How much should I keep in reserve after the MVP?
Plan for 15 to 20 percent of the build cost for the first year's maintenance, plus a version-two budget of a third to a half of the original build, to be spent once the first 90 days have shown what version two should be. An MVP with no money left for version two cannot act on what it learns.
Is a mobile MVP more expensive than a web MVP?
Yes, by roughly 40 to 60 percent for a cross-platform app over a web app of the same scope, because of the app store cycle, device testing and the mobile-specific design work. Build web first unless the product depends on the phone. Our post on mobile app or web platform covers the decision.