In my last blog on MVP, I had discussed what it is & steps to build an effective prototype of your mobile app project. What we haven’t discussed is how much it will cost you to develop a working MVP of your mobile app development idea. That’s why I have taken up this opportunity to explain all intricacies involved in calculating the cost of MVP.

To refresh your memory, MVP or Minimum Viable Product is a launchable prototype version of your mobile app that includes only minimal core features necessary for it to function. These minimal features define the value proposition of your MVP. Through MVP development, you can validate your app development idea and learn about the target market feedback for further improvement.

Now that we know what’s MVP, let’s learn how much it costs to build one.

Cost Calculation of MVP Development of Mobile App

The first thing that affects the cost of MVP development is choosing between agencies and freelancers to work on your project. As I have rightly mentioned in my post comparing the pros and cons of both, freelancers are cheap but unreliable while outsourcing to agencies is a bit costly but reliable.

Thus, you’ll find a huge disparity between quoted prices of both the outsourcing vendors. As a start-up founder, you must go deep into analyzing the feature development requirements of MVP before getting into the pricing.

Calculating the cost of your MVP development is a bit tricky and can vary based on several factors that include the type of project, developer salary, location of the development, level of experience, etc. Let’s see factors affecting the cost of building an MVP:

Developer Salary/Hourly Rate

As mentioned above, you can go with freelancers to develop your MVP project. Based on the experience level, the cost of hiring a freelance developer, designer, and tester throughout the project would go around $5000 to $10000 a month.

If you decide to employ an in-house team for the development, you’d have to pay a salary to all the developers. Also, you’d have to set up the whole infrastructure and network for the team to develop the MVP with ease. The setup cost along with development team salaries will amount to approx. $15000 to $20000 a month.

However, if you don’t have that much budget, you can always go for outsourcing it to a reliable agency like ashutec. Through outsourcing, you can save as much as 50% on your MVP development costs. Also, if you outsource it to a region like India, the cost can go down as much as $8000 to $10000 a month depending on the project type and developer skills required.

App Feature Complexity

Since MVP only has core vital features and functions necessary to get the product on the market as soon as possible, it must cost less. Right?

Well, that’s now how the cost is calculated for the MVP’s feature complexity. This is a bit technical part where the design & development of the app is examined for the feasibility of features likely to be part of the MVP. Based on the complexity level, MVPs can be divided into 3 categories:

Simple MVP Development: This type of screen has simple features such as 3–4 screens, simple functions, a login screen, messages, etc. Developing such a type of MVP can cost around $10000 and may take up to 2–3 months in development.

Medium Complexity Product Development: Here, the complexity level is increased as they contain the development of features like data storage, payment gateway integration, in-app purchasing, location tracking, etc. The cost of developing such an MVP may cost around $10000 to $25000 or more depending on the feature complexity and developer skill requirement.

High Complexity MVP Development: MVP applications that include cab booking, food delivery, SaaS mobile apps have highly complex feature integration. Furthermore, developing such MVPs is a time-consuming process. The cost for the same can go around $25k to $50 or even more.

MVP Design

MVP design and wireframing is another essential aspect that affects the cost of MVP development. Depending on the type of user interface designs, operating systems, and what to include in the app, the price may vary. User experience design also plays a vital role in deciding the cost of MVP development.

There are two types of MVPs to be designed: one is hybrid and the second is native.

Hybrid App Design: Hybrid app design has almost similar designs for both Android and iOS mobile OS platforms. The key difference is that hybrid apps have almost all the functionalities of native apps, making the app design inexpensive. The only catch is that these types of apps are a bit slow. It costs around $5000 to $7500 for developing hybrid design apps.

Native App Design: Native apps have higher performance than hybrid apps. They are high-performance and easy to maintain. The design of the native apps won’t be the same on all the platforms. Each app is designed with a unique code that distinguishes it from the rest. The cost of developing such a type of MVP can be above $10000.

Wrapping It Up

Calculating the cost of MVP development depends on several factors. From app feature complexity to design, and the development model governs the cost. The true cost of MVP development would depend on what are your requirements and expectations from the MVP.

Another way to know the detailed costing of MVP development is by hiring an expert mobile app development partner like ashutec. Hiring the team for MVP development would be a wise choice from the start. So, are you ready to build MVP for your mobile app development idea?