SaaS MVP Cost Calculator
Get an instant, honest estimate for your SaaS MVP. No email required, no sales pitch — just hours, multiplied by a rate I publish openly.
13+ years · 100+ SaaS products built · Toptal Top 3%
What it costs to build a SaaS MVP in 2026
The short answer for the cost to build a SaaS MVP is $6,600 to $18,000 working with me directly, and roughly three to four times that through a US agency. The reason the spread is so wide has nothing to do with pricing tiers. It is scope. A SaaS MVP is between 165 and 450 hours of work depending on how much you build, and every path below is that same work at a different hourly rate.
| Build shape | Hours | AI-assisted solo | Marketplace | US agency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lean MVPTwo core features, user accounts, no integrations.4–7 weeks | 165 | $6,600 | $8,250 | $24,750 |
| Typical MVPFour features, accounts and payments, a couple of integrations, two user roles.8–12 weeks | 305 | $12,200 | $15,250 | $45,750 |
| Fuller first releaseSix features, an admin dashboard, several integrations.12–18 weeks | 450 | $18,000 | $22,500 | $67,500 |
AI-assisted solo is my own rate of $40/hr. Marketplace at $50/hr and agency at $150/hr are illustrative middle-of-band rates you can change in the calculator above.
What AI actually changed, and what it didn't
The honest version of the cost to build an AI SaaS MVP in 2026 is that AI has compressed the hours, not removed them. Scaffolding, boilerplate, CRUD screens, test stubs and first-draft integrations are genuinely faster now, and that is already priced into the hours above. It is why a solo developer with AI can deliver in weeks what used to need a small team.
What has not moved is everything that requires judgement. Data modelling you will still be living with in two years. Multi-tenancy and permissions. Payment edge cases, refunds, proration, failed renewals. Deciding what not to build. AI produces something that demos well and hides the parts that matter, so the work shifts from typing to reviewing. Founders who budget as though AI removed the whole cost tend to pay for the same MVP twice.
A note on scope, since the two numbers get conflated: this page prices a first release, not a mature product. A full SaaS build with a real team, a bespoke design system and a year of iteration runs well beyond the figures here. The full written cost breakdown covers where those larger numbers come from and how agency quotes are actually assembled.
What this does not include
These are the costs that usually turn up late. Better to see them now.
- Custom UI/UX designWithout designs, the estimate assumes a component library, not a bespoke design system.
- Third-party feesStripe charges, hosting, email, SMS, AI API usage.
- App store fees and reviewApple and Google charge, and review takes calendar time.
- Long-term maintenanceBug fixes for 6 weeks after launch are included. Support and new features beyond that are hourly or a retainer.
- Content, copy and legalTerms, privacy policy, and the words in your product.
How this estimate is built
Every constant is listed. Check the arithmetic if you like.
Base build: 80 hrs
Architecture, database design, environments, deployment pipeline, security hardening and launch. Every project needs this whether it has two features or ten.
Each core feature: 24 hrs
A distinct thing a user can do, end to end — the screens, the API, the data model, the tests, the edge cases. Not a page.
Capabilities are priced individually
Authentication 20 hrs, payments and subscriptions 32 hrs, an admin dashboard 40 hrs, a mobile app 100 hrs, real-time features 40 hrs, data migration 32 hrs, compliance work 60 hrs. They are shown on each toggle so you can see the cost before you pick it.
Designs and user roles scale the whole build
These are multipliers, not line items, because they affect every screen rather than sitting beside them. No designs adds 20%. Three or more user roles adds 25%, because permissions have to be enforced everywhere.
Price is hours × $40
There is no pricing tier and no project minimum. My rate is $40/hr, published everywhere on this site, and the estimate is simply the hours multiplied by it.
Timeline comes from the same hours
Weeks are hours divided by roughly 32 hours a week at full focus. Because both numbers come from one estimate, the price and the schedule always agree — and choosing part-time availability stretches the calendar without changing what you pay.
Beyond ~400 hrs, I suggest phasing instead
At that size the useful answer is not a longer date, it is a smaller first release. The calculator will say so and propose a Phase 1 rather than quote you a year.
These hour figures are my own estimates of what each piece of work involves, drawn from building this kind of product. They are not an average of past invoices, and I would rather say so than dress a judgement up as a dataset.
Common questions
For most MVPs, somewhere between $6,000 and $16,000. The calculator works it out from hours rather than a flat price: it estimates how long your scope takes to build, then multiplies by my rate of $40/hour. A typical first version — three or four core features, user accounts, and payments — lands around 200 to 300 hours. Scope is what moves the number, not a pricing tier.
Most MVPs take 8 weeks or less at full focus. The timeline here is not a separate guess — it is the same hour estimate divided by how many hours a week go into the project, so the cost and the schedule always agree with each other. If your scope comes out well beyond that, the calculator says so and suggests a Phase 1 instead of quoting you an unrealistic date.
The hours barely change; the rate does. The same build quoted at agency rates typically costs three to four times what it costs direct, because you are also paying for account management, sales, and overhead. Marketplace freelancers are cheaper per hour but the total often lands higher, since scope gets rebuilt or handed between people. The comparison in the calculator holds the hours constant and lets you drag the rates, so you can put in whatever quote you have actually been given.
Custom UI/UX design work, third-party subscription fees such as Stripe charges, hosting, email, SMS and AI API usage, Apple and Google app store fees and review time, long-term maintenance, and content, copywriting and legal. Those are the costs founders most often discover late, so they are listed on the page rather than buried. Bug fixes for the first 6 weeks after launch are included in the price.
It is a ballpark, not a quote. The hour figures come from my judgement of what each piece of work involves, and the range around the headline number is a contingency band rather than a measured error rate. It is accurate enough to tell you whether your idea is a $8,000 project or a $40,000 one, which is usually the decision you actually need to make. Exact pricing comes after a discovery call, once the scope is properly understood.
Yes. Every estimate has its own link — configure your scope, copy the link, and whoever opens it sees exactly the same numbers. The calculator can also be embedded on another site as an iframe, free, as long as the attribution link stays in place.
Put this calculator on your site
Free to embed, no permission needed and no sign-up. If you write for founders, run an accelerator resource page, or publish a startup newsletter, paste this wherever a cost question comes up. The only condition is that the small attribution link at the bottom stays in place.
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</script>The iframe works without the script; the script just stops it clipping on mobile. Questions, or want a version tuned to your audience? Ask me.