MVP budget correctly calculate: A guide for founders

For start-ups and established companies that want to validate a new digital product idea, the minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a decisive first step.

A MVP allows a first functional version of a product to be marketed with minimal effort to collect valuable user feedback and test the product market fit.

One of the first and most important questions that founders ask is: “What are the MVP development costs?” The answer to this is complex and depends on many different factors.

This guide helps you to realistically calculate your MVP budget and understand the crucial cost factors.

What is a MVP?

A minimum Viable Product is, as the name says, a “minimum surviving” version of a product. It contains only the absolutely necessary core functions to solve the central problem of a defined target group.

The main purpose of a MVP is not to create a perfect and fully functional product, but to validate the basic business idea with real users.

This approach significantly reduces the risk of development and saves costs in the long term, as expensive misdevelopments are avoided.

Key factors affecting MVP development costs

Short: The cost of developing a MVP may vary greatly.

The cost of developing a MVP may vary greatly. The following factors have the greatest impact on the budget:

Complexity of the product

The complexity of the functions is the biggest cost driver. The more and the more demanding features your MVP should have, the more time and resources are needed for development. The functions that increase complexity and thus cost include:

• User authentication: logins, registrations and social media logins.
• ** Payment integrations:** Connection of payment providers such as Stripe or PayPal.
• Realtime functions: Chats, live notifications and data streaming.
• Admin dashboards: Surfaces for managing content and users.
• Integratations of third-party providers: Connection to external APIs and services.

The choice of platform

The platform for which you develop your MVP also has a great influence on the costs. Web application is usually the most cost-effective option.

The development of native mobile apps for iOS or Android is more expensive as it requires platform-specific knowledge. If you want to use both platforms, the costs almost double.

A more cost-effective alternative for mobile apps can be cross-platform development with frameworks such as React Native or Flutter.

Design and User Experience (UX)

A simple, functional design with standard UI components is cheaper than a completely individual and elaborate design. Unique designs, custom animations and a complex use

References and further reading

Short: The following independent references complement the topics in this article:

The following independent references complement the topics in this article:

• Bitkom – German digital industry association
• German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI)
• European Commission – Digital strategy
• MDN Web Docs (Mozilla)
• W3C – World Wide Web Consortium

> "DevOps is less about tools and more about shared ownership of quality and release discipline." > > — Björn Groenewold, Managing Director, Groenewold IT Solutions