1. MVP development helps startups validate ideas faster while keeping costs under control.
2. The average MVP development cost in 2025 ranges from $5,000 to $50,000, depending on complexity, features, and team location.
3. Key factors influencing cost include app type, design, tech stack, third-party integrations, and developer expertise.
4. Startups can reduce costs by prioritizing core features, outsourcing to skilled offshore teams, and leveraging pre-built solutions.
5. BigOhTech offers tailored MVP development services to help businesses launch quickly, save money, and scale with confidence.
As a startup owner, you've a limited budget, and you don't want to create a product that nobody wants. Of course, you want to convince customers to pay you, but how do you know that your idea is worth creating?
That's why validating ideas through MVP is essential.
If you ask us, how much does it cost to create an MVP? The cost to build an MVP ranges between $5,000 - $50,000, as the focus is always on prioritising basic features first, gathering user feedback, and then scaling to a fully-fledged product.
In this blog, we'll break down the MVP development cost step by step, covering the pre-development stage, development stage, and post-development stage. We will also discuss some factors that affect the cost of building your MVP.
What is Minimum Viable Product (MVP)?
An MVP is the basic version of a product with the bare minimum features that solve the customer's pain points. It's like building a first version, validating and testing the idea to see whether people are willing to buy or not.
However, many startup owners follow the age-old rule like building the product first hoping that people will naturally come to you. This isn't true in any case.
Once you receive feedback from early adopters, you will see whether the feedback is positive, negative, or whether the product idea was so flawed that you need to abandon it.
Then, you will work on making that unviable product idea work based on customer feedback.
Patrick Campbell, Founder of ProfitWell, says that most entrepreneurs end up shipping a piece of crap, launching their MVP too early and then realizing there's no market need.
That's what MVP is all about – you're building products based on what customers ask you to build, delivering incremental improvements instead of building something like a novel breakthrough.
What are the Benefits of Building an MVP for a Business?
The reasons behind the development of MVPs are:
1. Analyze the Market and Consumer Demand
Through MVP, a business can enter the market, test the waters and then decide how it wants to go further. They can analyze the feasibility of their idea and its potential to generate need/desire, and revenue.
Uber, for example, introduced its MVP version in 2010 that simply just connected cab drivers with iPhone users/owners in San Francisco, allowing them to pay for the ride using a credit card. The MVP version was enough to analyze if people were ready and accepting of a completely new taxi experience.
2. Easier to take Initial Funding
Something is certainly better than nothing. MVP proves exactly the same. These products help businesses persuade potential investors and stakeholders that your product and even startup are worth investing in.
With a product already released in the market, investors can make an informed decision regarding investment based on the feedback and potential of the product.
3. Enhances the Product Usability as per Market Demand
MVP allows businesses to collect feedback and reviews on their product, carry out sentiment analysis, and enhance their products and usability as per consumer needs. It helps businesses to test and reduce factors behind product abandonment.
4. Pushes Quick Release
Due to extensive market competition, businesses often hesitate about releasing the final product, striving to make it better and adding features and functionalities every now and then, and investing so much into something they can’t be sure of.
Facebook or Meta, one of the tech giants today, in its MVP version was just developed for students, for them to create class groups and communicate there. However, the final product opened up to a larger audience and success poured in abundance.
MVP helps businesses to release their product with basic features, record the public reaction and improve the product as per user feedback. This reduces the time to market as the business gets to know what’s lacking and then adds accordingly, rather than working or wandering aimlessly.
5. Gathers Feedback from the First Few Customers
It isn’t easy to gain the first customers for your product in this dynamic, highly competitive market. MVP allows you to gather user opinion/feedback, making them feel heard and valued and hence, earning their loyalty.
What's the actual cost of building an MVP for a startup?
On average, the real cost of building an MVP for a startup range between $5,000 to $50,000.
The cost generally depends on different factors such as:
Complexity of the project and timeline for project completion
Size of the company
Whether the company is an established player in the industry
Country where you want to outsource
The technology stack you need
1. Pre-Development Costs for MVP
The MVP pre-development costs range between $1,000-$10,000. These costs include market research, identifying competitors, conducting user interviews, and creating wireframes and prototypes.
Here, the designer, developer, and project manager spend weeks doing market research such as conducting surveys, interviews, and identifying the strengths and weaknesses of competitors.
This phase is about knowing the user inside and out, understanding what the gap in the market is, and identifying their pain points to create an MVP that aligns with their demands and creates value for target audience.
In fact, an MVP is never a final product as it goes through multiple iterations.
Pre development MVP stage
Description
Estimated Cost
Estimated timeframe
Market research
Get more insights about your audience by interacting with them on 1:1 basis, sending surveys to them
$2000-5000
Simple projects: 1–2 weeks
Medium-complex projects: 2–4 weeks
Prototyping and Wireframing
Create a blueprint as to how the app will look like. A prototype is an interactive version of wireframe that lets you interact with the working app if it’s developed. This way, you can get early feedback from users.
$2000-5000
Simple projects: 1–2 weeks
Medium-complex projects: 2–3 weeks
Design the product
Involves creating an MVP that’s not only functional, but it should also have a better UI/UX design, should be easy to use and users can find anything on the fly.
$4000-6000
MVPs with minimal screens (not full-fledged products): 2–4 weeks)
2. Development Costs for MVP
The table below mentions the estimated development costs of Minimum Viable Product.
The core development expenses generally take huge pie of the overall development budget. These include front end development, backend development, API and integrations, testing and QA.
Core development stage for MVP
Description
Estimated Costs
Estimated timeline
Front end development (Per Platform)
User facing side of the app which includes screens, buttons, menus (visual elements)
$10,000-15,000
2-3 months
Backend development
Handles the serve side things of the app including servers, databases, user authentication and API development.
$20,000-25,000
2-3 months
Third party Integrations (Per Integration)
Adding third party integrations enhance the functionality of MVP such as
$500-700
1 week
Testing and QA
Testing the MVP to ensure that’s not buggy, compatible across different platforms.
10-12% of total development cost
2–3 months (covers Scrum-based testing cycles)
3. Post Development Expenses for MVP
After MVP is developed, you need to ensure that it gets right traction, and it matches the target audience expectations. In this stage, you spend some money on marketing the MVP to ensure that you get a right return on investment.
Then, you need to have a budget on maintaining the application performance such as maintenance fee which itself is a continuous investment.
Post development stage of MVP
Description
Estimated Costs
Estimated timeline
Launch and deployment
App deployment on single or multiple platforms. It involves domain registration and app submission to marketplaces.
$25 for Android
$100 For IOS
Cloud cost may vary from $400-900
1 week
Marketing and User Acquisition
Promote the app across different platforms by conducting some marketing activities such as digital marketing campaigns, creating content on social media and writing engaging and SEO friendly blogs and investing in email marketing.
For B2B: $600-1500 Higher acquisition costs, but stronger lifetime value (LTV)
For B2C: $1000-3000 Higher advertising and branding costs, but wider market reach and scale potential
Ongoing, for as long as the project remains active
Maintenance and Support
Need regular maintenance and support so that your app keeps running all the time with an ongoing customer support whenever users face any issues.
18–25% of development cost per annum (No Retainer hours)
Ongoing, for as long as the project remains active
Factors Influencing MVP Development Cost
The cost of developing MVP for any new project depends on so many variables such as technology stack, team composition, features you want, complexity of project, business goals and geographical region of development region.
The software development cost also differs on whether you’ve in-house team, hiring freelancers or working with an offshore development agency.
1. Complexity of App Development Project
The cost to develop an MVP depends on how complex the application is. The less complex the app is, the less development cost it will require.
On the other hand, creating a more complex app requires more technical expertise, more specialized resources, and hence more development cost.
Let's say you want to create a simple landing page with the objective of getting people to sign up for a newsletter to receive updates. The cost would be comparatively low in that case as it requires a smaller amount of investment from your side.
While an MVP with medium complexity requires building an app with basic functionalities such as user accounts, integration with payment systems, etc.
An MVP with advanced features and functionalities requires more features such as AI-based features and advanced user interfaces and hence requires more budget.
MVP complexity
Focus
Features
Cost Range
Simple MVP
Core validation of the idea
Create a basic landing page, subscription-based service, Simple forms
$25000-35000
Medium
Functional product with essential workflows
User account creation, payment integration option, Dashboard or basic user interactions
$35,000-45,000
High
Near-product experience with advanced features
Social media integration, Multi language support, Advanced user flows, notifications, or integrations
$45,000 and above
2) Geographical Location of Development Team
When hiring an MVP development company, consider the cost of developers in different countries. The cost varies depending on the region, the expertise of the development team, and their skill proficiency.
Hiring an MVP development team from North America or Western Europe costs higher than one that is based out of Eastern Europe.
That's why a developer from Ukraine charges $30/hr while the same developer based out of the US makes $250 on an hourly basis.
The price may even vary depending on how qualified the developer is, their skills and experience.
Country
Frontend (–$10)
Backend (~10% cheaper than FS)
Full Stack
Specialized (Upper Range)
US
$90–$150
$100–$155
$110–$170
Up to $200
UK
$90–$110
$100–$115
$100–$120
$120+
India
$15–$40
$20–$45
$20–$50
$50+
Australia
$50–$100
$60–$110
$60–$120
$120+
Ukraine
$25–$50
$35–$55
$35–$55
$60+
Poland
$25–$45
$35–$50
$35–$55
$55+
Brazil
$20–$50
$30–$55
$30–$60
$60+
From the above table, you can see that outsourcing to overseas agencies especially in Asian region is a cost-effective option for your software development project.
Expert Tips on Developer Costs
Frontend developers: usually $10 cheaper than backend.
Backend developers: usually 10% cheaper than full stack or specialized developers.
Full Stack / Specialized developers: the most expensive category.
You can get 10-15% discount on long term duration and contracts.
3) Structure of Development Team
The development team structure also affects your MVP development cost, such as in-house, outsourcing and freelance specialists.
An in-house team provides access to top talent, and it's the most expensive option. There will be smooth communication between the project manager and the development team. Plus, you can get better control over the development process.
However, it incurs additional costs, including office space, recruitment, equipment, and extra administrative expenses.
Outsourcing the work to an offshore development agency is more cost-effective than hiring in-house developers.
Best part? There will be reduced upfront expenses, plus you get access to a diverse skillset such as talented designers, developers and project managers. By relying on a third-party agency, you can focus on core areas of business.
You can add or remove specialists as needed. But if you go with a cheap option, it's like hiring a cheap dentist, which can be a painful experience.
The drawback of hiring outsourced MVP development is that choosing the wrong partner can lead to misalignment and time zone issues. A wrong technology vendor can be crap for you if they don't care about whether your project succeeds or not.
2–3 months (can be faster due to direct collaboration)
Faster pivots, direct control
Most expensive (salaries, overheads, benefits)
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Outsourcing to Development Agency
$30–$140/hr (depending on region)
2–3 months
Balanced in cost & risk, structured processes, accountability
Slightly less flexibility than in-house
Hiring Freelancers
$20–$120/hr (depending on region & skill)
Varies (depends on individual availability & commitment)
Cheapest upfront
High risk (inconsistent quality, lack of reliability, limited accountability)
Hiring a team of freelancers for MVP development can be more cost-effective compared to in-house developers or agencies. However, it also comes with significant risks, such as inconsistent quality, lack of accountability, and potential delays.
A safer alternative is to work with an agency on an hourly or project basis. Agencies generally offer better reliability, structured processes, and dedicated support — reducing the risks that often come with freelancers.
Best part? No fixed resources.
4) UI/UX Requirements
The UI/UX design accounts for the maximum cost of MVP development. The more complex the design, the higher the cost. A good MVP user interface is simple, intuitive, and easy to navigate, keeping users engaged.
Generally, the estimated cost range for MVP design services ranges between $5000 - $12,500. However, if you want to save your MVP expenses, then you can use predesign templates.
Different aspects of UI/UX design affect the MVP development cost
UI/UX design
Estimated Cost Range
Wireframes
$1000-5000
Prototypes
$3000-6000
On-Page interactions
$2000-5000
5) Choice of technology stack
The choice of technology stack, frameworks, tools and programming languages also influences the cost of developing an MVP.
For instance, some technologies are more expensive than others, such as licensing fees, server costs, and the need for specialised skills.
A React or Angular framework can speed up development costs, whereas custom solutions are more expensive due to the additional time and effort required.
It also depends on the case, such as having a technical head who is familiar with various technologies and frameworks and possesses a sound understanding of selecting the best tech stack. Then the cost to build an MVP would be lower.
But if you don't know which tech stack is suited for your project, then consulting a technical expert might add another cost to you. If you're unaware of it, consider choosing the right one; otherwise, a wrong tech stack can become an expensive option for you in the long run.
6) Timeline Required for Building MVP
The cost to develop an MVP has a direct correlation with the project timeline. If developers are paid on an hourly basis, the more time they take, the higher the development cost.
Timing plays a vital role in launching an MVP, as taking too long to develop a polished version can allow your rivals to succeed.
However, if you want to launch quickly to avoid inflated costs, you'll end up hiring more developers for project.
Let's consider a scenario: when you've 10 developers working on a development project, each billed at $25/hour. Result – They completed the work in 2 months.
Reducing the number of developers from 10 to 4 would increase the project completion tenure, resulting in higher costs. Therefore, you need to be careful about choosing when to hire and whom to hire.
How Can Startups Reduce the Development Cost of an MVP?
There's a preconceived notion that building an MVP requires more time and money.
It's expensive because most startup owners make it complex by either adding too many features that make the product overly complex or building an MVP, doing a massive launch, and now the product being developed solves a problem that doesn't exist.
It results in a waste of too much time and resources.
Here are a few ways that can help you reduce the MVP development cost -
1) Create a Simple App with the Bare Minimum Features
Startup owners typically prioritise adding more features and functionalities, assuming their product meets the market's needs.
Instead, they should focus on keeping the product minimal. However, focusing on "scope creep" (adding new product features) increases development hours and requires more budget.
Focus should be on adding 2-3 features first to validate your product assumptions and avoid building complex automation systems.
Once the MVP is tested and you receive user feedback, you can add the next set of functionalities if that's what the users demand.
Result = Launch faster, validate quickly and spend less
2) Use Open-Source Tools
Instead of building everything from scratch, consider using open-source tools or libraries, such as UI libraries, databases, and testing frameworks.
By leveraging prebuilt solutions like Material UI for building designs or utilising a free database like PostgreSQL, startups can save weeks of design and coding time.
3) Choose the Specific Tech Stack for Faster Development
Use frameworks like Next.js, React.js, and Flutter to accelerate development, as they offer prebuilt APIs, cloud hosting, and third-party integrations.
This means you can launch your MVP faster with lower billed developer hours, resulting in lower development costs.
4) You don't Need the Biggest team; You need the Right Team
Partner with a reputed offshore development agency that can provide access to highly skilled developers at affordable rates. While hiring a US-based development team costs around $80-120/hour, you can work with the same talent at lower costs ($20-$50/hr).
Although prices may vary due to standard or geographical factors, businesses can still access talented developers at a lower cost.
Note : Work with an offshore team that can understand how the startup ecosystem works and can handle end-to-end product development.
5) Always invest in a fixed price model
Once you start a project at a fixed price, it becomes clear to you to start the MVP development process with fixed rates and a well-defined scope. This means you won't need to pay for unnecessary expenses such as chargeable overruns.
What Should Be the Hidden Cost Involved in MVP Development?
Here are a few hidden costs associated with developing an MVP -
If the client requests additional features or changes that were not defined in the project scope earlier, it increases development time and resources.
Another invisible expense that founders often overlook is the cost of technical debt. If you build an MVP faster by writing messy code and not documenting things correctly, it increases technical debt.
You build an MVP, but what if the problem you're solving doesn't exist? In that case, you'll need to rework the product and recreate the strategy, which will take more time and resources.
Third-party integration costs increase the development expenses due to licensing fees and unexpected technical issues. Generally, APIs come with a charge based on usage, transaction and monthly plans.
Developing an MVP is not only about design and development, but also about the legal and compliance costs. These include registering your business entity and drafting user agreements, such as privacy policies, to ensure compliance with the Play Store or App Store guidelines.
If the MVP uses cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure or GCP, then these cloud platforms come with licensing costs.
MVP creation goes through several iterations based on the user's feedback. If the user wants new features or fewer changes in the mobile app, then it requires a few development resources.
Note: The development cycle will be longer if you implement user feedback.
How Can BigOhTech Help You With MVP Development?
By reading the above guide, you will understand that there is never a one-size-fits-all answer.
The actual cost of building a MVP depends on several factors — including the complexity of the product, the geographical location of the development team, and the team’s composition.
The purpose of an MVP is to validate your idea in the real world, not to spend resources on unnecessary features.
As an experienced MVP development company, we help you launch quickly — from ideation and design to development and release.
Our team of business analysts, UI/UX designers, and front-end and back-end developers follows a structured process that saves time, reduces risk, and keeps the focus on what matters most: proving your idea with real users.
With over 15 years of experience in MVP development services, we’ve guided clients through the entire product journey, helping them move closer to their business goals with confidence.
FAQs:
What is MVP in product development?
A minimum Viable Product or MVP is the version of the product that is released with basic features in the market to record the reaction, feedback, and opinions of the users. Thereafter, the feedback is used to make changes to the product to make it a good fit for the market.
The reasons behind an MVP being released in the market could be:
The product team wants to release the product in the market as quickly as possible
The business wants to test the idea/product among real users before investing huge amounts in the product development
Lastly, the business wants to learn what works with its target market/audience and what doesn’t
An MVP should be aligned with the business objectives and the bigger idea it wants to test. Strategically determine which limited functionality you would want to add to your MVP so that it gives you an idea of how usable and relevant the final product would be for your users.
Lastly, build a product that can be marketed to users and solves your purpose as well. An MVP must not be just a UI with many half-built tools and features. This would not benefit the business at all. The product must be viable, allowing users to completely experience the product and form an opinion.
How much time does it take to build an MVP?
It usually takes 3-4 months' time to build an MVP. However, it also depends on the complexity of the product, the tools and software used, and the industry it is being built for.
Why MVP is important?
MVP helps a business in the following ways:
It helps a business to test the idea in the market before committing to the entire product development cycle
Fundraising for a product or a start-up becomes easier when you have something to show to your investors. The latter could invest after learning the potential of the product in the market.
Polishes the product, making it more consumer-oriented and a good fit for the market.
It pushes quick release of the final product and helps the business earn its first users.
What are MVP development stages?
The MVP development stages are:
Begin with market research; conduct surveys and competitive analysis to uncover the market needs
Identify what value you would want to add in the marketplace with your product
Mapping out user flow; Lock on a design that is user-friendly and follow the user flow for clarity and accuracy in the entire development process
MVP features and functionalities are limited so choose them to keep user usability and utility in mind
Lastly, launch your MVP and wait for the feedback
What are some of the examples of MVP development?
Here are a few examples of MVP development, as given below -
Instagram started as a platform where people could connect, engage in networking and see their current location. Later, the founders realised that users were more inclined towards photo-sharing features. They added basic features and functionalities, including photo uploading with various editing tools.
Uber created an MVP first to allow users to book and pay for rides. They started targeting one specific location (San Francisco) and black car types. Later, they rolled out more features in the app and turned the venture into a billion-dollar business.
Twitter, which started as a microblogging platform, has now emerged as a popular social media platform. The founder added basic features such as posting short messages known as tweets and following other people. They received feedback from users and later refined the version.
