How Much Does an App MVP Cost in 2026?
The honest answer: anywhere from €3k to €150k — and the spread comes down to who builds it and how disciplined the scope is. Here's how to think about it before you talk to anyone (including us).
Your three realistic options
Marketplace freelancer
Upside: Cheapest entry point.
Trade-off: Quality lottery. High risk of disappearing mid-project, no design, no store submission help, and code a future team may have to rewrite.
Traditional agency
Upside: Full service, big team, account managers.
Trade-off: You pay for that overhead. Discovery phases and change requests stretch timelines, and the meter runs whether you've launched or not.
Small senior studio (us)
Upside: Senior engineers only, fixed price, fixed date, store submission included, you own all the code.
Trade-off: Scope must be genuinely MVP-sized — we say no to kitchen-sink feature lists (that’s a feature, not a bug).
What actually drives the price
When quotes differ by 10×, it's rarely the hourly rate — it's these five things. Control them and you control the budget.
Number of screens and flows
Every screen needs design, logic, and testing. An MVP with 8–12 screens costs a fraction of one with 30. Cut anything a user doesn’t need in week one.
Backend: existing vs. from scratch
Connecting to your existing API is cheap. Building auth, database, and a server from zero adds real cost — though modern backends keep this far below what it used to be.
Third-party integrations
Payments (Stripe/RevenueCat), maps, chat, push notifications — each is well-trodden but adds days. Five integrations cost more than one killer feature.
Custom design vs. clean standard UI
A polished app using platform conventions ships fast. Bespoke animations and custom design systems can double the design budget — usually not worth it pre-launch.
One platform or two
This is where Flutter earns its keep: one codebase compiles to native iOS and Android, so you get both platforms for roughly the cost of one.
How to keep your MVP actually minimal
Use this list with whoever you hire — it will save you money even if it's not us.
- ✓Write down the ONE thing a user must be able to do. Everything else is version two.
- ✓Use standard UI patterns — your users already know how apps work. Save custom design for after product-market fit.
- ✓Ship with one payment provider, one login method, one language.
- ✓A waitlist or concierge flow can replace an expensive feature for launch. Validate first, automate later.
- ✓Ask every vendor for a fixed price against a written scope. If they won’t give one, the risk is priced into your side.
Our answer: from €6,500, fixed, in 4–6 weeks
Send us your idea and you'll get a written scope and an exact fixed price within 48 hours — a real number you can compare against every other quote you collect.