Software Founders & Builders
Estimate What Your MVP
Actually Costs
Answer 5 quick questions. We'll show you an estimated fixed-price range and timeline — before you get a quote.
Question 1 of 5
What's the current state of your product?
FREE · 5 QUESTIONS · NOTHING SAVED UNTIL YOU ASK
What an MVP actually costs, and why quotes vary so much
Most MVP quotes are a range with no reasoning attached, which makes them impossible to compare. This calculator shows the arithmetic instead. It starts from a $15,000 base for a deployed product with authentication, a production deployment, handoff and 30 days of bug cover, then adds for the things that genuinely move the number: how many core flows you need, whether an AI feature is part of it, and how fast you need to launch.
The biggest single variable is where you are starting from. Building from an idea is cheaper than rescuing a prototype. If you already have something generated in Lovable, Bolt, v0 or Cursor, the work is not finishing it, it is auditing what is there, replacing the parts that will not survive real users, and rebuilding the data and auth layers properly. That audit adds $8,000 to $12,000, and skipping it is how a cheap build becomes an expensive rewrite six months later.
An AI feature adds $6,000 to $10,000 because it is not a single API call. It needs prompt design, evaluation, cost guardrails and a fallback for when the model is wrong. We have shipped 30+ AI products since 2023, and the ones that work in production are the ones that budgeted for that part up front.
Questions people ask about this calculator
Is this a quote?
No. It is an estimate based on the same scoping questions we ask on an intro call, so you can sanity-check a budget before talking to anyone. A real fixed price comes after we have seen your requirements, and it is agreed before any work starts.
Why is rescuing an AI-generated prototype more expensive than starting fresh?
Because you pay for the audit on top of the build. Generated prototypes usually look finished but carry problems that only appear under load: no real auth model, client-side secrets, a database schema that cannot take a second feature. Finding and fixing that is slower than writing it correctly once.
What does the 4 to 8 week timeline actually cover?
Kickoff to a deployed product real users can pay for. It includes the build, the deployment, and handing the codebase over to you. It does not include an open-ended discovery phase, which is why the scope is agreed before the clock starts.
What happens if the scope changes halfway through?
The fixed price covers the scope we agreed. If you want something outside it, we price that separately rather than absorbing it quietly and cutting corners elsewhere to stay on schedule.
Do I own the code?
Yes. The repository, the infrastructure and the accounts are yours, handed over at the end of the engagement. There is no lock-in and no licence you have to keep paying for.