The question “How much does it cost to build an MVP?” is common among modern digital startups. Companies from various spheres may pursue different end goals, yet each is interested in building their product in an accelerating and effective way. As a result, the MVP becomes an object of instant attention with its ability to test the initial idea and gather the user’s feedback with minimal financial investments. As for the initial question, unfortunately, there is no alternative answer to it.
The price tag of any MVP creation is an individual cost determined by various factors such as the size and complexity of the project, available features, technology choice, expertise, and team location. However, the good news is that correctly understanding the mentioned factors can significantly boost the development process and help you leverage the finance question with increased effectiveness.
Therefore, this article is for you if you want to develop an exclusive and effective product with the available resources. Today, we will examine each factor influencing the MVP development cost and how to use that knowledge effectively.
When it comes to the cost of MVP, several key factors can significantly contribute to the final price tag of your project. Understanding and successful management of those factors will help the company fit into the budget that the company planned for itself. In the following sections, we would like to present some basic and hidden factors that can cause your MVP creation price fluctuations.
The number and complexity of the available features play a crucial role in determining your MVP cost. If we are talking about simple applications with a limited number of simple features, the final price tag might surprise you with the accessibility. On the other hand, the development of complex applications with sophisticated functions like payment systems, integrations, or various interactions can drive up the costs drastically.
Also, let’s not forget about the essentials of complex development like machine learning, AI, or real-time data processing since those require advanced knowledge, significant experience, and additional financial injections.
The choice of the future platform for your MVP is another factor that can influence the price tag of your project. For instance, web development can surprise you with much cheaper rates due to the cross-platform accessibility and the absence of additional costs for the separate efforts required for pure app development.
However, cross-platform technologies like Flutter or React Native can decrease the price tag for mobile developments since those environments offer a single codebase for Android and IOS projects. On the other hand, implementing native technologies like Kotlin for Android or Swift for IOS can cause a significant decrease in possible expenses due to the additional development and testing needs.
The complexity of the UI/UX design can create additional expenses for the project’s development. Talking about the appearance of your MVP, straightforward designs can be pretty affordable due to the limited number of features and overall simplicity of the program’s interface. However, the intricate design with complex animations or sophisticated features will require additional expertise and finance.
As for the user testing, even though this stage may become quite pricey, it’s irreplaceable for the overall refinement of the product look. By investing enough time and finance into the few cycles of testing and revising, in the end, you will receive a fully polished product that will bring enough profit to fully cover the MVP development price.
The structure and experience of your team can also significantly influence the final price tag for your MVP version. On one hand, you can hire the in-house team for much closer collaboration and more space for controlling the team. However, the in-house team can drastically expand the budget due to the higher upfront costs caused by salaries, social packages, and benefits. On the other hand, hiring the outsource team may reduce the financial load but challenge communication and process control.
Let’s also remember that the larger and more experienced teams may require higher rates for their professional expertise. However, that investment can be recouped if looking for fast and effective solutions. Therefore, the final decision should be considered carefully, based on your financial, professional, and time resources.
Licensing fees and API integrations are other factors that can increase your budgetary limits. When you connect your MVP with a third-party API, you can expect the added costs based on the transferred data, the number of requests, and the specific accessed features. Let’s also not forget that many modern development tools require specific licensing fees to access their premium features, which can not be available in the basic version of the app.
Therefore, all those expenses should be carefully factored into your minimum viable product cost before the initiation of the development. It will help you carefully calculate the expenses and avoid unpleasant surprises.
Even though the basic development cost might be often precise, let’s uncover some additional expenses that can hide beneath the MVP development costs. The charges we will mention below may not be so obvious, yet they often appear throughout the project progression. So, let’s look at the hidden expenses that can influence the MVP app development.
To help you track your budgetary expenses effectively, let’s break down the cost to build an MVP. In this section, we would like to outline the key components across the development and maintenance stages to give you a clear understanding of your expense directions.
Design and prototyping account for a significant amount of the company’s expenses. This is not surprising since, during these stages, corresponding specialists create a visually appealing product cover that contributes to creating your unique brand and perception by the end customers. Below, we would like to provide you with separate development stages that lie at the foundation of the average design price tag.
Developing your MVP is one of the most challenging phases of product creation. It will require not only significant expertise output but great financial injections from you as well. Below, we would like to provide you with the approximate breakdown of the leading development’s costs.
From the active development, we are moving to the next stage of your MVP cycle creation. The finished results must be transferred to the live environment during deployment. This stage involves setting up the proper server, acquiring the domain name, and allowing the team to start the maintenance with a further scale for the full-scale project.
Estimating the final price tag for the MVP creation requires considering the many unique factors since it greatly depends on the complexity and scale of your product. However, let’s put the talks aside and calculate the approximate building costs for MVPs of various sizes.
If talking about the basic MVPs with simple features, the company has to be ready to receive a cost range from $10,000 to $30,000. Middle-sized MVPs with more advanced features will be developed for $50,000 and more. The most sophisticated MVPs with a range of unique and custom solutions will cost you a pretty penny, from $50,000 to $100,000.
However, those numbers are approximate, and your personal MVP cost may vary significantly from the named expenses. To receive an individual calculation, it’s necessary to consider factors such as the team’s size and development stack in combination with the API integrations, post-launches, and maintenance costs.
To wrap up, the cost of building a fully customized MVP that will reflect the outlines of your actual product is purely individual. The final rate will depend on the design of your project, available feature set, front and backend infrastructures, and the stack of the used technologies. To the previous set, we can add up the bills hidden beneath the obvious expenses, such as the legal, marketing, and management costs, which can also add a difference to the final amount.
Therefore, in the creation of an effective product, it’s crucial to keep up the balance between the available financial opportunities and the necessary technologies. Balance in the expenses and your abilities will help your team bring your idea to life with the available technological and financial resources without overcomplicating or underdelivering the necessary features.
If you want to receive individual assistance calculating your MVP development, give it a shot to our team. Our seasoned experts have significant experience leading projects from the MVP stages to the top market positions. Contact us today and receive a precise calculation of your expenses with a detailed plan of practical usage of available financial resources.
Yes, building a great MVP within the set budget range is possible. But to succeed in this task, you must make your priorities correctly. First, we advise you to choose the range of the most valuable and essential features that will form the basis of your project, which should be followed up on by the limitation of the scope creep.
Opting for simple design solutions and pre-build templates can also help reduce expenses. Even though the creation of the MVP on a limited budget is a complex task, it remains one of the best ways to test your idea without risking your fortune.
The typical price tag for the finished MVP may fluctuate significantly when the lowest point is around $10,000, and the highest rate will reach hundreds of thousands. The truth is that there is no limit to the MVP creation since the actual price can only be restricted by your developers’ imagination and the budget you are willing to spend.
However, when taking the average cost for creating an MVP, we will receive the range from $20,000 to $40,000, which can be changed to a cheaper or higher rate based on the functional set you want to fill your app with.
On average, it takes 3 to 6 months to develop your minimal viable product. The timeline for the project’s creation will greatly depend on the overall complexity of your idea, the desired features, the number of people on the team, and the percentage of seasoned specialists who can lead the development process.
In case of successful сollection of all mentioned factors, you can expect a pretty accelerated development paсe that will bring your brainchild into the world in a few months. Otherwise, the development may expand for 6+ months or more.
It is a widespread myth that well-thought design should be implemented only when the product is finished. But how do you know if customers will like your interface, navigation, and features? Design is an integral part of the MVP as it turns ideas into life and, more importantly, helps get valuable feedback from real users. You can provide a more simplified version of the design project, as your main goal is to test it. But don’t consider building an MVP without design, as you won’t receive comprehensive results.
Post-launch expenses are as necessary as any other factors that form the basis of your MVP creation. The post-launch expenses, such as the hosting, ongoing maintenance costs, or essential updates, should be carefully factored into your development budget.
These ongoing spendings guarantee the proper ongoing functioning of your MVP solution and the ability to make the necessary adjustments to your project over time. Therefore, the post-launch expenses are not a privilege but a responsibility, negligence of which can cause a сhain of expanding problems.
If you want to keep your costs low, it’s necessary to focus on creating the features essential to your project’s idea. For a time, you can forget about the additional staff and focus on your ability to solve the customers’ main pains with your software’s core functionality.
And no one forbids you from using off-the-shelf solutions or pre-build templates to accelerate development and reduce costs. Ensure you use everything available effectively, and the results will not take long to appear.
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