How Much Does It Cost to Build an MVP in 2026?
Build Your MVP
How much does it cost to build an MVP? The honest answer is that it depends far less on the platform you pick and far more on how much product you insist on shipping in version one.
This guide gives real ranges for 2026, explains what drives each number up, and shows where founders most often overspend.
## The 2026 ranges
| MVP type | Typical range | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Landing page plus waitlist validation | £1k–£4k | 1–2 weeks |
| Single-workflow tool (one job, one user type) | £8k–£18k | 3–6 weeks |
| SaaS MVP with auth, billing, dashboard | £18k–£45k | 6–12 weeks |
| Marketplace with two sides and payouts | £30k–£70k | 10–16 weeks |
| Mobile app MVP (iOS and Android) | £25k–£60k | 8–16 weeks |
Traditional custom-code teams typically sit two to three times higher across every row, mostly because they build infrastructure that no-code platforms give you on day one.
## What actually drives the price
Number of user types. Each role means its own screens, permissions, and edge cases. Two roles is roughly 1.5x the work of one.
Payments. Simple one-off Stripe checkout is cheap. Subscriptions with trials and upgrades cost more. Marketplace payouts with Stripe Connect cost most, because money movement has to be right the first time.
Integrations. Every external system is discovery, auth, error handling, and testing. Three integrations is a meaningful line item, not a detail.
Data model complexity. A flat list of records is quick. Organisations containing teams containing projects containing tasks is not.
Design expectations. A clean system-driven UI is included. Bespoke, pixel-tuned brand design is a separate workstream — see [Figma to Bubble](/figma-to-bubble-development) if you already have designs.
## Where founders overspend
- Building version two first. Admin panels, analytics, referral systems, and settings pages that no one has asked for yet.
- Perfect design before proof. Full brand systems for a product with zero users.
- Choosing custom code by default. Six figures of engineering for an idea that has not been tested with paying customers.
- Feature negotiation instead of scope discipline. Ten half-features beat two finished ones in exactly zero cases.
The cheapest MVP is the one that answers a single question — will people use and pay for this — and nothing else.
## No-code vs custom code on cost
For most MVPs, [no-code MVP development](/no-code-mvp-development) on [Bubble](/bubble-development) removes the entire backend, hosting, and DevOps line from the budget, and shortens the feedback loop from months to days. That matters more than the day rate: the real cost of an MVP is the time you spend not knowing whether you were right.
Custom code earns its premium when you have hard real-time requirements, heavy computation, strict compliance constraints, or an existing engineering team to maintain it.
## How to budget properly
Split the money in three: roughly 60% build, 20% iteration after launch, 20% reserve. Founders who spend 100% on the build have nothing left for the changes that user feedback will demand — and those changes are the reason you built an MVP.
You can see the scope and shape of real builds on our [portfolio](/portfolio), which is a better cost guide than any calculator.
## Get a real number for your idea
Ranges are useful; a quote for your actual scope is better. [Send us a short description of your product](/contact) and we will come back with a fixed scope, a fixed price, and a delivery date.