Most articles about MVP costs give you useless ranges like "anywhere from $5,000 to $500,000." That's not helpful.
I run a software house in Poland. We specialize in MVPs for funded startups. Over the past few years, we've shipped 30+ MVPs across fintech, healthtech, SaaS, marketplaces, and internal tools.
Here's what things actually cost — and why.
The three tiers of MVP development
After dozens of projects, MVPs cluster into three categories.
Tier 1: Validation MVP — £5,000 to £10,000
What you get: One core flow, functional but minimal. Enough to put in front of users and learn if your idea has legs.
Timeline: 2-4 weeks
Typical scope:
- Single user type (no admin panel)
- One core workflow
- Basic authentication
- Simple, clean UI (not custom design)
- Deployed and working
Real example: A founder came to us with a compliance checking tool idea. We built: user uploads document → AI extracts data → user reviews results. No dashboard, no team features, no billing. Total: £7,500, delivered in 3 weeks.
Who this is for: You have an idea but aren't sure it'll work. You want to test before committing £20K+.
Tier 2: Standard MVP — £10,000 to £20,000
What you get: A real product with core features needed to acquire and retain early users. This is what most people mean when they say "MVP."
Timeline: 4-8 weeks
Typical scope:
- User authentication (email, Google, magic links)
- 3-5 core features
- Basic admin panel
- Payment integration (Stripe)
- Responsive design
- Analytics setup
- CI/CD pipeline
Real example: B2B SaaS for recruitment. Sign up, connect CRM, dashboard with insights, paid upgrade. Admin panel for metrics. Total: £14,000, delivered in 6 weeks. They raised a seed round 4 months later.
Tier 3: Advanced MVP — £20,000 to £35,000+
What you get: Complex business logic, multiple user types, integrations.
Timeline: 8-12 weeks
Typical scope:
- Multiple user roles (customers, vendors, admins)
- Complex workflows
- Third-party integrations
- Real-time features (chat, notifications)
- Multi-tenant architecture
- More sophisticated UI/UX
Real example: Marketplace connecting freelancers with clients. Both sides had onboarding, profiles, search/matching, messaging, booking, payments with escrow, reviews, admin panel. Total: £28,000, delivered in 10 weeks.
What drives cost up (and down)
Things that increase cost
| Factor | Impact | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Multiple user types | +30-50% | Each role needs own flows, permissions, UI |
| Real-time features | +20-40% | WebSockets, state sync, edge cases |
| Third-party integrations | +10-30% each | APIs are never as clean as documented |
| Custom design | +15-25% | Off-the-shelf UI is fast; bespoke isn't |
| Regulatory compliance | +20-40% | HIPAA, GDPR, PCI-DSS add overhead |
| Native mobile apps | +50-100% | Two platforms, app store review, device testing |
Things that keep cost down
| Factor | Impact | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Clear scope upfront | -10-20% | Less back-and-forth |
| Existing wireframes | -10-15% | Not starting from scratch |
| Flexible on tech stack | -5-10% | We use what's fastest |
| Prioritized feature list | -15-25% | Build what matters, cut what doesn't |
The hidden costs nobody tells you about
1. Infrastructure — £50-500/month
Hosting, database, CDN, email service, monitoring. For an MVP, usually £50-150/month.
2. Third-party services — £0-500/month
Stripe fees (2.9% + 30p per transaction), analytics, error tracking, email marketing.
3. Post-launch iteration — £2,000-5,000
Your first version will need changes after real users touch it. Budget 2-4 weeks of iteration.
4. Your time
Even with a dev team, you'll spend 5-10 hours/week on feedback, decisions, and testing.
Poland vs. UK/US: The cost difference
| Location | Standard MVP cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| US (Bay Area) | $80,000-150,000 | High salaries, expensive everything |
| UK (London) | £40,000-80,000 | Less than SF, still expensive |
| Western Europe | €35,000-70,000 | Germany, Netherlands, France |
| Poland | £10,000-20,000 | Strong talent, lower cost of living |
| India/Pakistan | £5,000-12,000 | Lower cost, often quality/communication tradeoffs |
We're not the cheapest. We're the best value for founders who want quality, direct communication with senior devs, and EU timezone overlap.
What you should actually budget
Pre-seed / Bootstrapped: £5,000-10,000
Build a Validation MVP. Test the core assumption. Don't over-build.
Seed-funded: £15,000-25,000
Build a Standard MVP that can acquire paying customers. Include analytics to prove traction.
Series A / Well-funded: £25,000-50,000+
Build for scale from day one. Invest in architecture, testing, infrastructure.
Red flags when comparing quotes
If someone quotes you significantly below these ranges, ask:
- Who's actually doing the work? (Junior devs? Outsourced further?)
- What's included? (Design? Testing? Deployment? Post-launch support?)
- What's the revision policy?
- Who owns the code? (You should. Always.)
- What happens after launch?
Cheap quotes often become expensive projects when you're rebuilding 6 months later.
How to get an accurate quote
When you reach out to a dev shop, come prepared with:
- One paragraph describing the product — What does it do? Who is it for?
- The core user flow — What's the main thing a user does?
- A rough feature list — Even bullet points help
- Your timeline — When do you need it?
- Your budget range — They'll tell you what's realistic within it
The more clarity you provide, the more accurate the estimate.
The bottom line
Building an MVP in 2026:
- Validation MVP: £5,000-10,000 (2-4 weeks)
- Standard MVP: £10,000-20,000 (4-8 weeks)
- Advanced MVP: £20,000-35,000+ (8-12 weeks)
Add 20-30% buffer for post-launch iteration and hidden costs.
Don't pay Bay Area prices for work that can be done at equal quality in Europe. Don't pay bottom-dollar rates and get code you'll have to throw away.
I'm Paweł Reszka, CTO at Inigra — a software house in Poznań, Poland. We build MVPs for startups using AI-assisted development. If you want an honest estimate, book a free discovery call.
Top comments (4)
Good breakdown. One thing I’ve seen founders miss is that the quote changes once backend and admin work show up. A simple user flow may look cheap at first, but roles, exports, approvals, logs, and support actions can completely change the whole estimate. That is why I think screen count alone is a weak way to plan app cost.
This is one of the few MVP cost breakdowns that actually uses real numbers instead of the useless "$5K to $500K" range that every other article gives.
The Tier 1 validation MVP at 5-10K is the sweet spot most founders should be targeting. The problem is most people skip straight to Tier 2 or 3 because they want the "real product" before they even know if anyone wants it. That compliance checking tool example is perfect. One core flow, no dashboard, no billing. Just enough to learn.
The cost multipliers table is really useful too. Multiple user types adding 30-50% and native mobile adding 50-100% are the two that catch founders off guard the most. Everyone wants an app on day one when a responsive web app would cost half as much and validate just as well.
One thing I would add is that these costs assume you already know what to build. The validation step before the MVP is where most
founders waste time and money. Building the wrong thing at any tier is the most expensive mistake you can make.
The "building the wrong thing" point is spot on. We see it constantly - founders come to us with a 20-feature spec when the validation only needed one core flow. The most expensive line of code is the one that solves a problem nobody has.
The mobile trap is real too. We just audited a 600K line Lovable codebase where the founder built for desktop and mobile from day one. Half the code was responsive layout logic that could have waited six months. Ship web first, validate, then go native if the data supports it.
Happy to answer any questions about MVP costs or the development process. Been building these for 6+ years now.