What is an MVP in software development? Scope, cost, and examples

An MVP, or minimum viable product, is the first working version of a software product: real users can sign up and finish one core task, and the team can learn whether the idea is worth building further. At Ronas IT, a basic MVP for one platform starts at $5,000 and takes at least two weeks.

What MVP means in software development

MVP stands for minimum viable product, one of the key techniques of the lean startup method. In 2009, Eric Ries defined the minimum viable product as “that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort.” He also warns that the MVP, despite the name, “is not about creating minimal products.” The goal is learning, and the small size only gets you there faster.

In software development, each of the three words has a practical meaning:

• Minimum: one core task for each type of user, and nothing that does not help test it.
• Viable: people can finish that task without help from the team. They sign up, do the task, get the result, and can come back tomorrow. That takes working code on a server, which a clickable mockup does not have.
• Product: it is released where users can find it, at a web address or in App Store and Google Play, and it usually records what they do, so the team can measure the result.

Because it is a real product, a software MVP also carries the costs of one: hosting, user data that has to be protected, and, for a mobile app, store review. That is why it costs more than a set of design screens and less than the full product.

What a software MVP includes

A working software MVP usually has five parts: the core user flow for each role, one platform, a backend with a database, an admin panel for the people who run the product, and analytics that show whether users finish the core task. Everything else waits for a later version, when real usage shows which features matter.

• Core flow for each role: sign-up, the main task, and its result. A booking app has two roles, clients and providers, so it needs a flow for each from the first day.
• One platform: the web or mobile, depending on where your users already are. When mobile is the answer, we usually build one React Native app that runs on both iOS and Android from a shared codebase.
• Backend and database: the server part that keeps accounts and data, sends emails and notifications, and connects to services such as payments.
• Admin panel: a web interface where your team manages users and content without asking a developer.
• Analytics: events for each step of the core flow, so you can see where users stop.

What usually stays out: extra user roles, detailed settings, social sharing, a second platform, complex reports, and automation of work that is still rare. In the first version, each of them delays the answer the MVP exists to get.

For OddsCrowd, a web app for a community of sports bettors, the client and our team chose the first-version features together: registration with two-factor authentication, forecasts with success ratings, profiles and a dashboard, paid forecasts through a payment gateway, email notifications, and a chat, plus an admin panel for content and user profiles. After the first iteration, two features were dropped from the first version to keep the four-month deadline: images with statistics for social media and more detail in user ratings.

“When a founder brings us a long feature list, the useful conversation is about the few things a user cannot do without, and the things someone on your team can do by hand while the user base is small.”

Roman Surikov, CEO at Ronas IT

MVP vs prototype vs full product

A prototype shows how the product will look and flow, an MVP shows whether people will use it, and the full product is built for growth after the MVP answers that question. A proof of concept sits before all three: it checks whether a risky technical part can work at all.

With us, a proof of concept that needs working code is built as a basic MVP, from $5,000, and a clickable prototype is design work that starts at $1,000 for the key screens. You rarely need every stage. Our comparison of PoC vs prototype vs MVP explains how to pick the first one for your idea.

An app made in an AI builder such as Lovable or Bolt sits between a prototype and an MVP: it runs, but it may lack reliable sign-in, rules for who sees which data, and tests. Our MVP building guide covers when such a tool is enough, and our AI-built app rescue takes over an app that has outgrown it.

How much an MVP costs and how long it takes

At Ronas IT, a basic MVP development project starts at $5,000 and two weeks. It covers the core features and user flows of one type of user. An extended MVP starts at $10,000 and five weeks and adds more features, user roles, and integrations, while it is still a first release meant to test the market.

Each price covers one platform: a web app, one cross-platform app for iOS and Android, or one native app, and the choice does not change the price. The design, the backend the app talks to, the admin panel, testing, and project management are part of it. Each extra platform adds from 50% of the first one, so a basic MVP with a web app and a cross-platform mobile app starts at $7,500.

A few costs sit outside these starting prices, and some kinds of product start higher:

• Analysis phase, optional: $1,000-$2,000 and at least one week, if you want a written scope before development. It ends with user stories, flow maps, a feasibility check, and a scope document with a budget and a timeline.
• Regulated and two-sided markets: a full marketplace that runs payments and moderation for buyers and sellers is complex product development, from $20,000 and eight weeks for one platform; a narrow first release with a cut feature set, like Lainappi below, can fit an MVP. Banking, lending, insurance, and healthcare products under HIPAA start from $30,000 and ten weeks, because they carry compliance work from the first user.
• After launch: technical support for the whole system, such as a web app with its mobile apps, starts at $2,000 per month, and maintenance of a single app at $1,000 per month. It covers monitoring, fixes, and updates. New features after launch get their own development estimate, and hosting is paid to the cloud provider from your own account.

Two weeks is the minimum for a narrow scope. A first version that adds a second platform and a larger feature set takes longer: our team designed and developed the mobile and web apps of Waku Waku, an anime community platform, within five months.

How we build an MVP

We build an MVP in four stages: analysis, design, development in sprints, and release. A sprint usually lasts one to three weeks and ends in something you can open, such as an update on the development server, an interface ready to test, or new screens in the mockups.

1. Analysis. You and the project manager agree on the goals and the metrics that will count as success, and the tech lead checks them for feasibility. Analysis can be a separate paid phase that ends in a written scope, or it can run inside design and development, where it is included in the MVP price. Either way, a free rough estimate comes first, and if you already have a scope, we estimate from your document.
2. Design. A designer settles the visual concept on a few key screens and maps the features, then draws the screens of the core flow with their states. Another designer reviews each part before you see it, and the prototype is built to the level the flow needs, so you can walk through the product before any code.
3. Development. The team sets up the environment in your own cloud account and builds the backend and the app sprint by sprint, plus the admin panel when the estimate includes one.
4. Release. A web app goes live on your domain; a mobile app goes to App Store and Google Play. Apple's App Review Guidelines expect submissions to be final versions with placeholder text removed (rule 2.1) and apps to offer more than a repackaged website (rule 4.2). A mobile MVP therefore needs finished screens for everything it shows.

Our engineers work with AI agents on every one of these stages. With the agents, they write and test code, assemble screens, and review each commit; they also propose the architecture, agree it with you, and review everything before accepting it, and the engineer who runs an agent is responsible for its output.

For a step-by-step view of scoping and building, see our guide to building an MVP.

MVP examples from our projects

Each of these three projects started with a narrow first version.

• Lainappi, a peer-to-peer rental app in Finland: the client wanted to test the idea quickly without extra costs, and the tight budget kept the first version to the core features. The whole rental process runs through a chat that shows messages, system notifications, and the next action, instead of separate status screens.
• 365daysbooking.com, an accommodation booking service: the client started with an MVP of the control panel for accommodation providers only, to secure investment, and planned more user roles for later versions.
• Buke, a dating app: the work began with a secure MVP and later scaled up to a full mobile app. When App Store approval took six months, our team built a web version in React so that iOS users could join while they waited.

What happens after the MVP launches

After launch, watch whether users finish the core task and come back, talk to the people who stop, and then decide: add the features that usage asks for, change the product or the audience, or stop before spending more.

“When users drop off at one step, look at the error reports and the logs for that step before you change the product. In the first weeks after launch, a bug or a slow screen can look like a lack of interest, and fixing it costs far less than a new direction.”

Evgeny Leonov, CTO at Ronas IT

A live product also needs care: monitoring, updates for new versions of iOS and Android, security patches, and fixes. Plan that budget before launch, so a good result does not stall while you look for money to keep the product running.

When an MVP is the wrong first step

An MVP tests one thing: whether people will use a working product and come back. In the cases below, the question changes, or a minimal release cannot answer it, so another first step or a larger first version fits better.

• The technology is the risk: if you do not know whether a key part can work, such as an AI model on your data or a connection to a device, start with a proof of concept for that part.
• You only need to know whether people care: a landing page with a sign-up form, from $1,000 and at least one week, or a clickable prototype shown to potential users can answer that before any product code.
• Users have no choice: an internal tool that replaces the system your staff use every day has to cover their whole process on day one, so plan a phased rollout instead of a minimal release.
• Rules apply from the first user: regulated products, such as banking with KYC and AML checks or medical records under HIPAA, set requirements that a small scope does not remove, so the first version has to be larger. Our price for fintech and healthcare products starts at $30,000. The analysis phase can note those requirements in the scope document, next to the budget and timeline, before development starts.

What to do next

1. Write down the one question your MVP must answer and the number that will count as an answer.
2. List the core task for each type of user and mark everything else as “later”.
3. Choose one platform, the one your users already use.
4. Plan a budget from $5,000 for a basic MVP on that platform, with its design, backend, and admin panel included, and from 50% more for each platform you add. Add support after launch, and the optional analysis phase if you want a written scope first.
5. If the biggest risk is technical, start with a proof of concept instead.

First published 2023-03-29 by Dmitry Lauretsky, Former COO at Ronas IT. Rewritten by Alexander Storozhevsky.

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