Startup MVP development cost
One flow, one audience, shipped to learn something. Priced as a first version built to test a single hypothesis, at US rates and launch scope.
Planning range, not a quote. Every figure comes from the same engine the calculator runs on.
What makes it expensive
This is the cheapest honest starting point on the site, and it is deliberately here to show the floor. The point of an MVP is not a discount on a full build — it is a smaller build, with phase-two scope removed rather than compressed.
What is in scope
- One platform, one primary flow
- Managed backend, minimal infrastructure
- Basic UI on platform conventions
- Phase-two features genuinely deferred
Where the money goes
The six largest disciplines in this build. The calculator shows all 10, itemised down to individual features.
| Discipline | Hours | Share | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Backend engineering | 100 | 20% | $15,000 |
| iOS engineering | 90 | 18% | $12,500 |
| DevOps & cloud | 70 | 14% | $10,000 |
| QA & testing | 100 | 13% | $10,000 |
| UI/UX design | 70 | 11% | $7,500 |
| Integration engineering | 30 | 6% | $5,000 |
The same product at four standards of finish
Identical answers, four levels of depth. This is usually the most useful comparison on the page, because it is the decision you actually control.
MVP is highlighted because that is what this example is configured at.
What it costs to keep running
Separate from the build, because operating cost scales with usage and development cost does not.
per month at 500 monthly users
17% – 24% of build cost
2 peak concurrent users