What does an MVP cost? What drives the number, and how to bring it down.

Founders usually ask what an MVP costs before they ask what it needs to do. The honest answer is that the price follows the scope. Two products built on the same idea can differ by a factor of five, depending on what goes into the first version.

What an MVP is for

A minimum viable product is the smallest version that lets real people do the one thing you are betting on, so you can learn whether they want it. It is not a cheap copy of the full product. It is a narrow one.

What moves the price

• The number of user types. A product for one kind of user is far simpler than one for buyers, sellers and an admin team.
• Logins and permissions. Who can see what is often the biggest hidden cost.
• Payments. Taking money adds checkout, receipts, refunds and the accounting that follows.
• Integrations. Every outside system, from a CRM to a shipping provider, adds work and adds risk.
• Native mobile apps. A web app that installs on a phone covers most first versions. Two app store builds roughly double the work.
• Content and data. Someone has to write, collect or move it, and that time is real.

Where founders overspend

The common mistake is building the second year's product in the first month. Admin screens nobody uses yet, settings for rare cases, and features added because a competitor has them. Each one is small. Together they double the build and delay the moment you learn anything.

How to keep it small

• Write down the one action that proves the idea, such as a booking made or a report opened.
• Cut every screen that does not lead to that action.
• Do things by hand behind the scenes until volume makes it painful.
• Start with a web app, and wrap it for the app stores later if usage justifies it.
• Agree a fixed scope in writing, and keep a list of what comes next instead of adding it now.

A real example

InkSaid, the lab's own Mac app, went from a name to working software with a live website in days, because the first version did one job well: turn a voice note into clean, private text. Everything else waited.

Getting a real number

Send us the one thing your product must do. We reply within two working days with what the first version should include, what it should leave out, and roughly what it takes to build.