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The True Cost of Building an MVP: What Founders Don't Expect

The True Cost of Building an MVP: What Founders Don’t Expect

“How much does an MVP cost?”

It’s the first question every founder asks. And almost every answer they get is wrong.

The honest answer: it depends. But that’s not helpful. So let’s break down the real numbers, the hidden costs, and why “cheap” often becomes the most expensive option.

The Visible Costs: What You Budget For

Here’s what most founders include in their initial estimates:

Development Costs

MVP Type DIY (No-Code) Freelancer Agency
Landing Page €0-100 €300-800 €500-1,500
Simple App (CRUD) €100-500 €2,000-5,000 €5,000-15,000
Complex App Not feasible €8,000-20,000 €15,000-50,000+

These numbers look manageable. The problem? They’re only 40-60% of your actual costs.

The Hidden Costs: What Actually Kills Budgets

1. Iteration Costs (Add 30-50%)

Your first version won’t be right. It never is.

After showing your MVP to real users, you’ll discover:

  • The main feature nobody uses
  • The “nice-to-have” that’s actually essential
  • The user flow that confuses everyone

Real example: A client budgeted €8,000 for their MVP. After user testing, they needed:

  • Complete redesign of the onboarding flow (€1,500)
  • New notification system users expected (€2,000)
  • Mobile responsiveness they thought was optional (€1,200)

Actual cost: €12,700 — 59% over budget.

Our approach: We build in two-week sprints with user feedback loops. This catches issues early when they’re cheap to fix, not late when they’re expensive.

2. The “Quick Fix” Trap

Small changes aren’t small.

Request Sounds Like Actually Is
“Add a filter” 2 hours 8-16 hours (UI, logic, testing, edge cases)
“Make it faster” Quick optimization Database restructuring, caching layer
“Add social login” Drop-in feature OAuth setup, account linking, security audit
“Support mobile” CSS tweaks Responsive redesign, touch interactions

Every “small” feature has:

  • Design time
  • Development time
  • Testing time
  • Documentation
  • Future maintenance

Budget rule: Take your developer’s estimate and multiply by 2. If they’re junior, multiply by 3.

3. Infrastructure & Tools (€50-500/month)

The costs that start small and grow:

Essentials:

  • Hosting: €5-50/month (scales with users)
  • Domain: €10-20/year
  • SSL: Free with Let’s Encrypt (paid EV certificates exist but unnecessary for MVPs)
  • Email service: €0-30/month

Often forgotten:

  • Error tracking (Sentry): €0-26/month
  • Analytics (if not self-hosted): €0-100/month
  • Backups: €5-20/month
  • CDN for assets: €0-50/month
  • Third-party APIs: €0-200/month

Development tools:

  • Version control (GitHub/GitLab): €0-20/month
  • CI/CD: €0-50/month
  • Staging environment: Same as production

A basic MVP typically runs €50-150/month. A growing one: €200-500/month.

4. The Opportunity Cost

The biggest cost isn’t money — it’s time.

Every month spent building is a month not:

  • Talking to customers
  • Generating revenue
  • Learning from the market
  • Iterating on feedback

The math that matters:

If your MVP takes 6 months instead of 2:

  • 4 months of delayed learning
  • 4 months of runway burned
  • 4 months for competitors to move

Sometimes paying more for faster delivery is the cheaper option.

5. Technical Debt Interest

Cheap code is expensive code — you just pay later.

Common shortcuts that backfire:

Shortcut Immediate Savings Future Cost
No automated tests 20% less dev time 3x debugging time, fear of changes
Hardcoded values Faster initial build Hours of changes for simple updates
No documentation Saved days New developers take 2-3x longer to onboard
“Quick” architecture Faster to market Rewrite needed at scale

Real scenario: A client saved €3,000 by skipping tests. Six months later, every new feature broke something else. The rewrite cost €12,000.

Our policy: We don’t skip tests. The “savings” always cost more in the end.

6. Legal & Compliance

Often completely forgotten:

  • Privacy policy / Terms of Service: €200-1,000 (template vs. lawyer)
  • GDPR compliance: €0 (if built-in) to €2,000+ (retrofit)
  • Cookie consent: €0-100
  • Accessibility audit: €500-2,000

If you’re in fintech, healthtech, or handling sensitive data — multiply these by 5-10x.

When “Cheap” Becomes Expensive

The €500 Developer

You found someone on Fiverr offering your app for €500. Amazing deal, right?

What usually happens:

  1. Week 1-2: Great progress, exciting updates
  2. Week 3-4: Delays, excuses, scope questions
  3. Week 5-8: Buggy delivery, missing features
  4. Week 9+: Developer ghosts, you’re stuck with broken code

The real cost:

  • €500 paid to first developer
  • €0 of usable code
  • 2 months wasted
  • €4,000 to rebuild properly
  • Emotional exhaustion

Total: €4,500 + 2 months — vs. €3,000 and 1 month if done right initially.

The “I’ll Build It Myself” Trap

Learning to code to build your MVP seems economical. Consider:

  • 3-6 months learning enough to build
  • Building takes 3x longer than experienced developer
  • Code quality issues you won’t recognize until later
  • Your time is worth €X/hour — is this the best use?

When DIY makes sense:

  • Very simple landing pages
  • You genuinely enjoy coding
  • You have 6+ months runway and no urgency
  • The learning itself is valuable for your role

When DIY doesn’t make sense:

  • Time-sensitive market opportunity
  • Complex functionality
  • You should be doing sales/marketing
  • You need to impress investors

A Realistic Budget Framework

Here’s how to actually budget for an MVP:

Step 1: Define Your True Minimum

Not “nice to have minimum” — the absolute minimum to test your hypothesis.

Questions to ask:

  1. What’s the ONE thing users must be able to do?
  2. What can be manual instead of automated?
  3. What can wait for v1.1?

Step 2: Get Three Quotes

Never go with just one. Get quotes from:

  1. A freelancer
  2. An agency
  3. A no-code specialist (if applicable)

The range will reveal your options.

Step 3: Apply the Multipliers

Take the middle quote and add:

Cost Type Multiplier
Development quote 1.0x
Iteration buffer +0.3x
Infrastructure (year 1) +0.1x
Unexpected issues +0.2x
Total 1.6x

Example: If the quote is €5,000, budget €8,000.

Step 4: Plan for Phases

Don’t budget for everything at once:

Phase 1: Validation (€500-2,000)

  • Landing page
  • Waitlist
  • Smoke tests

Phase 2: POC (€1,000-3,000)

  • Clickable prototype
  • Core user flow
  • Investor/user demos

Phase 3: MVP (€3,000-15,000)

  • Working product
  • Essential features only
  • Real users, real data

Phase 4: Iteration (€2,000-10,000)

  • User feedback implementation
  • Performance optimization
  • Additional features

Our Transparent Pricing

We believe in honest pricing. Here’s what we charge:

Service Price Range What’s Included
Landing Page €500-1,200 Design, development, analytics, hosting setup
Clickable POC €700-1,500 Interactive prototype, user testing ready
Simple MVP €3,000-8,000 Full application, essential features, deployment
Complex MVP €8,000-20,000 Advanced features, integrations, scalable architecture

What’s always included:

  • Source code ownership
  • 30 days of bug fixes
  • Deployment documentation
  • Analytics setup (Umami)

What affects price:

  • Number of user roles
  • Third-party integrations
  • Design complexity
  • Timeline urgency

The Bottom Line

The true cost of an MVP isn’t just the development invoice. It’s:

Development + Iterations + Infrastructure + Time + Mistakes

Budget 1.5-2x what you think you’ll need. Build in phases. And remember: the goal isn’t to spend less — it’s to learn faster.

The cheapest MVP is the one that validates (or invalidates) your idea quickly, so you can move forward with confidence.

Planning Your MVP Budget?

We offer free 30-minute consultations to help you understand realistic costs for your specific idea. No obligation, no sales pressure — just honest advice.

Book a free consultation

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