The short answer
Most production-grade MVPs cost between £24,000 and £90,000 to build in 2026, with a typical sharp v1 landing around £30,000–£45,000. The range is wide because "MVP" means wildly different things — a focused tool is not a two-sided marketplace.
The real version: the price is set by scope, not by a day rate. The question that moves the number isn't "how much do you charge?" — it's "what's the smallest version that proves your idea?"
What actually drives the cost
A handful of factors explain most of the spread:
- Number of core features. Every screen, flow and edge case is real engineering. The fastest way to spend less is to ship fewer, sharper features.
- Integrations. Payments, auth, third-party APIs and data imports each add real work — and each adds value, so it's about choosing the ones that earn their place in v1.
- AI features. Agents, copilots and RAG add cost, but done right they're often the whole reason the product is worth building.
- Design polish. A premium, trustworthy interface costs more than a bare-bones one — and for most products it's the difference between converting users and losing them.
- Platforms. Web is the cheapest place to start; adding native iOS and Android multiplies the surface area.
Where the money goes
A well-run MVP budget is mostly senior engineering time, with design and a little project leadership. It is not mostly meetings, account management or licence fees. If a quote is heavy on overhead and light on building, that's a flag.
Cheaper isn't always cheaper
The temptation is to build the cheapest possible prototype. Sometimes that's right — if you only need to test a single risky assumption. But a throwaway build you bin in three months is usually more expensive than a clean MVP that becomes v2. The goal isn't the lowest invoice; it's the lowest total cost to a product that works.
How to spend less without building junk
- Cut scope, not quality. Ship three features that work beautifully, not ten that half-work.
- Start with a paid discovery. A week or two of scoping turns a vague idea into a fixed plan, price and date — and kills expensive surprises.
- Build on a foundation that scales. Clean architecture costs little extra now and saves a rebuild later.
- Launch early. The point of an MVP is to learn. Get it in front of real users and let them tell you what to build next.
What it costs at Softgen
We build production-grade MVPs from £24,000, and we start nearly every engagement with a short Discovery Sprint so you get a fixed price and date before any build begins — no open-ended day rates, no surprises. If you'd like a rough number for your idea today, try our cost estimator or send us a brief.