"How much does an MVP cost?" is the wrong question. I know that's annoying to hear when you're trying to build a budget, but stay with me.
The right question is: "What's the least I can spend to learn whether this idea has legs?" Because an MVP isn't a product. It's an experiment. And the moment you treat it like a product launch, your costs triple and your timeline explodes.
We've helped founders build MVPs that cost $15K and MVPs that cost $150K. The price difference wasn't about complexity...it was about discipline. Here's how to think about it without getting fleeced.
Why "It Depends" Is the Only Honest Answer
Anyone who quotes you without understanding your product is guessing. That said, here are some real ranges based on complexity:
- Simple MVP (landing page + core flow + auth): $15K–$40K
- Medium MVP (multiple user types, integrations, dashboards): $40K–$100K
- Complex MVP (real-time features, marketplace mechanics, compliance): $100K–$200K+
These ranges only mean something once you define scope ruthlessly.
What's Actually in That Price Tag
Discovery & Strategy
10-15% of your budget. This is where you define what you're building and why. Founders who skip discovery pay for it later in rewrites. Every single time.
Design vs. UX
15-20% of budget at a minimum. Most founders get confused between design and UX. They're not the same.
Design is how the thing looks. UX is how it works. For an MVP, you can ship with a clean, minimal visual design. There are a ton of great UI Kits out there that will get you a long way. What you cannot skip is the user experience. The flows, the logic, the friction points between "I signed up" and "I see value in this".
A beautiful interface that confuses users is worse than an ugly one that gets them to the finish line. We've seen startups burn months polishing visuals while the core signup-to-value flow had three unnecessary steps and a dead end.
Your MVP design budget should go toward mapping and testing the critical user journey, not pixel-perfecting a dashboard nobody's seen yet. Get the experience right first. The polish comes in v2, when you know what users actually do.
Development
50-60% of budget. Frontend, backend, infrastructure, integrations, and testing. The primary cost driver: how many integrations you need and how custom the business logic is.
QA & Launch
10-15% — and founders always underbudget this. A broken MVP is a wasted experiment. If users can't complete the core flow without hitting a wall, you haven't validated anything.
The Hidden Costs That Blow Up Budgets
Scope Creep
"While we're at it, can we also..." are the five most expensive words in product development. Mitigation is simple: frozen scope for v1, parking lot for v2. Discipline here saves tens of thousands.
Third-Party Integrations
Every API, payment processor, and auth provider adds time. Budget 20-30% more than you think for integration work. Stripe is easy until it isn't and auth providers are "plug and play" until you need custom roles. These are the things that discovery and strategy help define early in the process to avoid those surprises later.
The Feedback Loop You Didn't Plan For
Build → show users → they want changes → more dev time. This is actually good! It means the experiment is working. But budget for iteration. Your MVP budget is not your total budget.
How to Get the Most Out of a Limited Budget
Ruthless Prioritization
If everything is a priority, nothing is. Wise words that have spanned generations. Pick three features. Ship those. Use the "would you bet $10K on this feature?" test. If the answer is no, it's not in v1.
Use Existing Solutions Where Possible
Auth (Clerk, Auth0), payments (Stripe), hosting (Vercel, Railway). Don't custom-build what you can buy for $50/month. Your engineering budget should go toward the thing that makes your product different and gets you to market faster.
Invest in the Core, Shortcut the Rest
Your differentiator gets custom development. Everything else gets off-the-shelf solutions. Nobody ever won a market because they had a bespoke login page or a custom payment system.
Hourly vs. Fixed Price vs. Retainer
Hourly: Transparent but unpredictable total. You see every line item but can't forecast the final number. This is a bad option for MVPs because you don't know what you're getting into until you're already in it.
Fixed price: Predictable on paper. But software doesn't work on paper. Requirements shift, edge cases emerge, and someone absorbs the difference. Fixed price creates a tension between protecting the budget and building the right thing. When those two goals conflict, the product usually loses.
Sprint-based retainer: Best balance. Pay for capacity, adjust scope as you learn. This is how we structure engagements because it aligns incentives. We ship value every sprint instead of racing toward a fixed deliverable.
When to Spend More, and When to Spend Less
Spend More When:
- The core UX IS the product (consumer apps, marketplaces)
- Regulatory or compliance requirements exist
- You have validation and need to scale fast post-launch
Spend Less When:
- You're still validating the idea (use no-code or ultra-lean builds)
- The MVP is an internal tool
- You have a technical co-founder who can supplement the team
The Real Cost of Going Cheap
Rebuilds cost 2-3x the original build. Technical debt compounds like financial debt. It accrues interest and eventually the costs come due.
The cheapest agency bid is almost never the cheapest outcome. We've inherited enough half-built codebases to know: you either pay for quality upfront or you pay double to fix it later. Choosing the right partner matters more than finding the lowest price.
What to Ask Before You Sign
Before you commit to anyone, ask these:
- "What project went wrong recently and how did you handle it?"
- "Who specifically will work on my project?"
- "What does your process look like when requirements change mid-sprint?"
- "Can I talk to a current client?"
If any of those questions make them uncomfortable, that tells you everything.
The Bottom Line
An MVP is an experiment, not a product launch. Budget accordingly. Protect your scope ruthlessly. Invest in the parts that make your product different and shortcut everything else.
If you've got a number in your head and want a reality check, we'll tell you straight whether it's enough or not. No pitch, just math.