MVP development cost: A startup’s guide to budgeting

An MVP is the first version of a product that a startup or business utilizes to launch a new offering in the market. It is a strategic maneuver to test ideas before investing serious resources in a full build. 

However, what is the real cost of building one? The concept of releasing a minimally viable product may sound like a great way to save money, but let’s face it, things are a little more complicated. 

In this article, we’re going to analyze the costs, delve into what makes up the overall MVP development cost, and share all the necessary details with you that some people tend to overlook.

What is an MVP and why invest in one?

The most basic iteration of a product, known as a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), offers early adopters only enough features to address a particular issue. It must be the first stage of development for any firm, especially in software development for startups.

An MVP is designed to test and validate your product hypotheses with minimal effort, so you aren’t throwing resources away on unproven ideas. 

It’s all about function, not form, and makes it easy for developers to validate and iterate with users quickly.

Having an MVP will enable you to:

• Reduce risk by checking the product-market fit before you scale.
• Getting only essential features will help you save some money.
• Receive good feedback from users on what to do next and when to launch.

Typical MVP development cost range in 2025

There is no definitive answer for how much MVP development costs in 2025. Costs vary from around $5,000 to over $150,000+, depending on its complexity, the startup team’s location, and the technologies it is based on. 

Another factor influencing cost is custom MVP development, where the product is tailored to specific business needs instead of using pre-built modules or templates.

Here’s a pricing breakdown for possible MVPs when it comes to complexity:

• Simple app or MVP- Starts from $20,000
• Moderate MVP: Starts from $40,000
• Complex MVP: Starts from $60,000

The kind of MVP you want to develop and the amount of assets needed to make it will influence the overall cost.

Key factors influencing MVP development cost

Numerous factors affect the overall MVP development. Every project is different, of course, but keeping some of these key components in mind will guide where and how you decide to spend money and energy.

1. Market research and validation

You should validate your product idea with your target audience before you actually begin development. Market validation and research help confirm that the idea you are working on is a real problem and has market demand. 

This is where you research competitors, perform surveys, and take user feedback. The insights gathered from market research dictate the direction of your MVP and save you from expensive mistakes down the road.

2. Prototyping and wireframing

Prototypes and wireframes let you see how the product works before any code is generated. These are an architectural guide to development that helps you refine your idea, so that it satisfies your users’ needs. 

Prototyping and wireframing will arm you with the knowledge you need to make a solid foundation of design and user experience decisions, meaning expensive design revisions need not be done during development.

3. Product design (UI/UX)

UI/UX design is crucial to creating an MVP that is both aesthetically pleasing and easy to use. A well-thought-out MVP could result in high engagement and usage by users, while a badly designed one can result in frustrated users leading to an abandoned product. 

UI/UX design is about creating an intuitive, simple, and appealing design for your product that meets the purpose of your product. The investment upfront in good design is far less than the cost of re-designing large portions of your product later.

4. Core development

The actual coding and creation of the MVP are referred to as core development. This is the most difficult and expensive phase of your project, where you turn your different types of prototypes into a working MVP. 

The cost of developing your MVP will be directly impacted by its complexity (such as the number of functions, integrations, or platforms). Your developers’ skillset and experience, the software development life cycle you follow, also factor into how long it will take to develop the MVP, as well as its cost.

5. Testing and quality assurance

Testing is an integral part of MVP development, to make sure the product is working the way it should and creating a good user experience. This is called the testing phase, which involves the validation of functionality, bug finding, and performance optimization. 

Rigorous testing finds any faults long before a product may be released and the embarrassment it may suffer because of it. It also helps highlight what needs to change before scaling, saving time and money down the line.

Post-launch costs to consider

There are also ongoing costs once your MVP is live, which are commonly dismissed but are critical to ongoing success

Quality Assurance & Testing

• Runs the last stages of manual and automated testing post-launch.
• Guarantees consistent performance and detects problems that may occur in actual workloads.

Deployment & App Store Submission

• Gets the product ready to launch.
• This includes setting up backends and compliance with platform-specific publishing requirements.

Bug Fixes & Updates

• Includes regular updates to patch technical bugs after launch.
• keeps the application compatible with evolving device standards and new OS versions.

Hosting & Infrastructure

• Includes management of servers, cloud storage, and bandwidth
• Scale infrastructure to the number of users and performance requirements.

Ongoing Maintenance & Feature Enhancements

• Refines existing functionalities based on analytics and user feedback.
• Rolls out new features to enhance user experience and product-market fit.

User Support & Feedback Handling

• Offers support and help for early adopters and general users.
• Gathers information from real user behavior to enhance your product.

Hidden costs involved in MVP development

Creating an MVP is beyond just coding and design; sometimes, entrepreneurs fail to consider some of the hidden costs. Here are some hidden costs:

Expansion of project requirements

• As you advance, new capabilities will likely appear essential. You could also incur additional costs when you try to grow the project.
• Scope creep is when you want more things and your project gets bigger than planned, leading to more time and money being spent.

Development shortcuts consequences

• As appealing as time and cost-saving shortcuts may seem, they usually amount to the technical debt that you’ll have to repay in the future anyway.
• Cutting corners in the MVP can end up being a bad foundation that has to be refactored at high costs.

Challenges in third-party integration

• Lots of MVPs are based on a cloud service that offers features like payment service, social network connectivity, or analytic data. These integrations can be time-consuming and costly.
• Integrating third-party services can also create dependency risks.

Legal and industry standards adherence

• It is difficult and costly for an MVP to maintain compliance with industry norms and local laws.
• Inspection of compliance and legal support could really skyrocket the total budget of developing an MVP.

Testing efficiency and bug detection

• While testing is crucial, inefficient testing processes can lead to undetected bugs and a higher cost to fix issues later on.
• Rushed or incomplete testing leads to post-launch bugs, increasing time and resource allocation.

User feedback iterations

• Iterating based on user feedback often involves more design tweaks, feature adjustments, and testing.
• Incorporating feedback can add extra rounds of design or development, increasing the overall budget.

Different approaches to MVP development and their costs

There are several different methodologies for developing an MVP, and depending on the one you choose, the cost will vary drastically.

1. Traditional development: Full coding from scratch, usually at a higher price, as well as more flexibility with possibilities for customization.

Cost: Starts from $20,000

2. No-code/low-code platforms: Employ available tools and platforms to quickly create an MVP with little or no code.

Cost: depends on the platform

3. Outsourcing: Save money by working with outside agencies or developers in other nations. This type of outsourcing is called offshore outsourcing.

Cost: Varies by location and skill set.

4. Freelancers: Hiring independent developers who don’t belong to any organization. Provides savings, but doesn’t involve a lot of hands-on coordination and quality control.

Cost: Starts from $4,000

5. In-House Team: Building a team in-house offers alignment to your work culture, but incurs heavy expenses for operation and recruitment.

Cost: Starts from $20,000/month

If you’re considering a traditional approach or outsourcing, it’s vital to know how to choose a software development company for your MVP that aligns with your vision to save on costs and get quality output.

Why do you need to plan your MVP software development budget?

Budgeting for your MVP development is important to keep your project running and successful from a financial perspective. 

If you don’t factor every cost into the equation, you risk encountering unforeseen expenses that could hamper progress on the MVP or result in aborting it completely. 

You estimate low, and then you’ll end up spending in places you shouldn’t, or forget to include something critical; you estimate high, and you’ll end up spending more than you should, thus not being able to invest in another vital part of your business.

A realistic budget will enable you and the team to focus on what’s truly needed and keep the MVP lean.

This serves as an excellent way to prevent you from spending too much time on optional add-ons to your product, but also makes sure that some of your core systems are developed well.

Case studies of famous startup MVPs

There are countless successful businesses that began as nothing more than a baseline MVP to test their idea before scaling. These are a few of the minimum viable product examples that reached tremendous success:

• Airbnb: The founders started by renting out some air mattresses with a basic website. It was a simple MVP that eventually turned into a global platform as we see it today. The MVP enabled them to test out the concept and get early feedback without much effort.
• Dropbox: The first Dropbox MVP was just a video showing how the product worked; they didn’t invest in the development of the software up front. The video was well-received, confirming the idea and enabling the founding team to make investments in the ongoing development.
• Uber: Uber’s minimum viable product was a straightforward ride-sharing application that helped passengers find drivers within a certain geographic area. The company’s founders were able to use the MVP to validate user demand and tweak their service model before scaling it into the global ride-hailing service we know today.
• Twitter: At first, Twitter was just an ordinary messaging system called “Twttr.” The MVP facilitated sending short messages to small groups of people, and it grew according to user suggestions. And that MVP logic allowed them to figure out what users wanted before layering on features like hashtags and trending topics, which were instrumental to the platform’s success.

These are instances of when an MVP can provide an effective way to test the market without investing huge sums of money.

Conclusion

Knowing what it costs to develop an MVP is just the first step towards succeeding in the product development journey. 

Whether you go with a classic approach to development, use no-code platforms, or outsource work, you have to mind the budget to avoid risking everything. 

The MVP is not about creating the perfect product; it’s about testing, validating, and iterating on real customer feedback. 

Take advantage of your MVP development and build a sturdy platform for the further growth of your startup