A founder with an idea for a software product usually asks two questions first: how much will the first version cost, and how long will it take. The answer is a range. Where a product lands in it depends on decisions the founder can make before anyone writes code, and an estimate is built from those decisions.
What an MVP is#
A minimum viable product is the smallest version of a product that tests whether people need it. Eric Ries, who made the term popular, defined it as "that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort."1
Sometimes that is not software at all. A landing page that takes preorders, or the service delivered by hand to the first customers, can show whether people will pay. When the idea needs working software to be tested, the MVP is the smallest version that real users can use, and ideally pay for: people log in, enter real data and get a real result. It covers the fewest kinds of users and tasks that test the core idea. A marketplace needs a buyer and a seller from the start; most extras can wait.
What agencies charge for an MVP#
Published prices give a sense of scale. One development agency, whose team works in India, breaks an MVP down into three kinds at its own rates of $25 to $45 an hour:2
| Kind of MVP | Price | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | $18,000 to $28,000 | 4 to 6 weeks |
| Standard | $30,000 to $45,000 | 6 to 10 weeks |
| Enhanced | $50,000 to over $70,000 | 10 to 14 weeks or more |
The same breakdown puts a typical MVP from a team in the US or Canada, at $80 to $150 an hour, at $60,000 to $150,000. Another agency puts a well-scoped B2B SaaS MVP at 10 to 14 weeks with a senior team.3
These are individual agencies' own figures, not market averages, and none of them is a quote. Two agencies can price the same idea differently because they assume different features, team sizes, testing and readiness for real users.
How an MVP estimate is put together#
An estimate for custom software is mostly hours:
Development cost = hours for each role × that role's hourly rate + outside services
The roles are usually design, development, testing and project management. Outside services are what the product pays others for: hosting, a payment provider, an AI provider, email and text messages.
An illustration, not a quote: a booking app where customers pick a time and pay online, with one kind of user and a plain admin screen for the owner. The hours are assumptions for the example.
| Part | Hours |
|---|---|
| Design of the main screens | 60 |
| Sign-in, booking and payment | 300 |
| Admin screen for the owner | 80 |
| Testing | 90 |
| Project management | 70 |
| Total | 600 |
At $80 to $150 an hour, the range for teams in the US and Canada in the breakdown above, 600 hours come to $48,000 to $90,000, plus hosting and the payment provider's fees each month. A second kind of user, such as staff with their own schedules, or a connection to the calendar the business already uses, adds hours to almost every line.
In this example, the hours also give the timeline. At 40 hours a week, 600 hours are 15 weeks of one person's work. With two developers sharing the 380 development hours, design done first and testing alongside, the build takes about seven or eight weeks.
Calendar time alone does not set the cost. At the same rate, five months of one developer costs less than two months of a team of four, although the team launches sooner. Scope, team size and total hours say more about the budget than the launch date.
A quote you can compare with another one lists:
- the features and kinds of users it covers, and what it leaves out;
- the hours by role, or at least by part of the product;
- whether design, testing, project management and the launch are included;
- outside services, on a separate line;
- how a change to the scope is priced;
- support after launch, if any.
A discovery phase produces the written scope that such a quote is priced from.
What makes an MVP cost more#
The same idea can land at either end of the range. These are the decisions that move it:
- How many kinds of users there are. A product with one role is much smaller than one with admins, managers and customers, each with their own screens and permissions.
- Platforms. A web app that also works in a phone's browser is one product. Separate iPhone and Android apps add work on top of it: testing on each platform, app store review, and often screens of their own.
- Payments and subscriptions. Taking money once is simple; plans, upgrades, limits and invoices are not.
- Connections to other systems: a payment provider, a messenger, a CRM, an outside data source. Each one adds work and its own ways to fail.
- AI features. A model has to be given instructions, checked on real examples and watched for cost per run.
- Sensitive data. Medical, financial or personal data means encryption, separating one customer's data from another's, and roles checked on the server.
- Languages, admin tools, reports and exports. Each is small alone; together they add up.
What an MVP costs after launch#
The build is not the last bill. Once real users arrive, the product pays every month for hosting, the payment provider's fees and AI usage. Someone has to watch it, fix what users find and make the changes their feedback asks for. A budget for an MVP covers its first months of running, as well as the build.
AI usage is worth tracking from the first day, because it is paid per run and grows with use. The medical coding service below stores the AI cost of every chart it analyzes. Zen Tests, our own product, deducts AI credits before the work runs and records the spend per test and per user.
Two first versions we built, and what set their size#
The case pages give calendar time, not hours, team size or price, so the two cannot be compared on cost. Each shows what set the size of one first version.
A narrow scope: AI Skills Space#
AI Skills Space is a paid community of AI practitioners with a private Telegram group. Its founders did not want to take payments, get to know each newcomer and send the group link by hand. A visitor pays on one screen, with an email and card details and no sign-up. A voice agent then talks with them and fills in their profile. A Telegram bot checks the subscription and sends a single-use invite to the group. The scope was one path and three jobs, and it went from the first line of code to a live site in 19 days.
AI and medical data: a medical coding service#
For an attorney who defends doctors in disputes with insurers, we built his idea as the first version of an online service. It carries two of the cost drivers above. The AI analyzes each medical chart in four steps and returns the insurer's rule with a link to the official source. Each step has its own written instructions and is measured on its own. The attorney checks the result and decides. The data is medical: the chart file is never stored, only its text, which is kept encrypted, and one organization cannot see another's cases. It took five months.
Three things were left for the next phase, and the case says so: a queue that retries a failed analysis, enforcing the monthly limit on analyses, and a compliance program for HIPAA, the US law on protecting medical data. The safeguards are real, but the service is not HIPAA-certified, and we have never described it as such.
How to keep an MVP small#
Start from the question the MVP has to answer. If the question is whether customers will pay, preorders or a paid pilot done by hand may answer it without an application. If it is whether an integration works reliably, a technical prototype may be enough. If a simple workflow is the whole product at first, a no-code tool can sometimes carry the first users. Build custom software for the question that needs it.
Then:
- Pick the fewest kinds of users and the one task that tests the idea. Everything else waits for the second version.
- Use what already exists for payments, sign-in and email instead of building them.
- Leave the admin panel plain. Only your own team uses it.
- Write down what is left for later, and say so openly, as the medical coding case does.
- Decide what you will measure after launch, so the next version is built on what users did.
Who builds the MVP: a freelancer, your own team or an agency#
We are an agency ourselves, so this is not a neutral view.
- A freelancer usually costs less per hour. We recommend one only when the budget is tight and the founder is ready to manage the work and carry the risk: setting the priorities, checking what is built, and finding someone else if the freelancer leaves.
- A team of your own is a long-term commitment. It fits once the product has users and needs continuous work.
- An agency puts design, development, testing and project management under one contract, at a higher hourly rate than a freelancer. It fits when the founder wants one party responsible for the result.
Fixed price or hourly for an MVP#
A fixed price works for an MVP whose scope is written down and stable, with acceptance criteria for each part. Without that document, a fixed quote usually includes a margin for what nobody knows yet. If the product is still changing with what the first users say, hourly work with an agreed budget ceiling leaves room to change course without a new contract. Discovery also shows which parts can be priced in advance and which should stay flexible. More on the trade-off in time and materials vs fixed price.
Where to start#
If you have an idea for a product, start with a free 30-minute call. We will say what belongs in the first version, what can wait, and what will set its cost and timeline. An estimate firm enough to budget on comes once the scope is written down, usually in a discovery phase.
Sources
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Eric Ries, "Minimum Viable Product: a guide", Startup Lessons Learned, August 3, 2009. https://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2009/08/minimum-viable-product-guide.html ↩
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Metizsoft Solutions, "How Much Does Building an MVP Cost in 2026? A Complete Budget Breakdown", updated June 15, 2026. https://metizsoft.com/blog/mvp-development-cost-guide-2026 ↩
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Teamseven, "How Much Does It Cost to Build a SaaS MVP in 2026? (Real Numbers From 600+ Projects)", updated September 30, 2026. https://teamseven.ltd/blog/saas-mvp-cost-2026 ↩
