What does it cost to build a SaaS MVP?
A realistic look at SaaS MVP costs, what you are paying for beyond the screens, and the ranges to plan around.
SaaS looks simple from the outside: a login, some screens, a subscription. The cost question trips people up because most of what makes SaaS work sits behind those screens. Here is a realistic look at what a SaaS MVP costs and what you are actually paying for.
The part you see is the smaller part
A SaaS product is more than its interface. Even a first version usually needs:
- Accounts and access: sign-up, login, roles, and permissions for different kinds of users.
- Billing: subscriptions, plans, invoices, and the handling for failed payments and upgrades.
- An admin side: the screens you use to run the business, support customers, and see what is happening.
- Infrastructure: hosting, backups, and a deployment setup that does not fall over on launch day.
None of these are visible to your users, but skipping them is what turns a cheap MVP into an expensive rebuild six months in.
Realistic ranges
For a custom SaaS MVP built to grow, expect somewhere around 12,000 to 35,000 USD, depending on how much of the above your product needs. These ranges match our SaaS and MVP work and our packages. A heavier product with deep integrations or complex billing goes up from there.
For a concrete example, the platform running this site is one we built end to end: requests, proposals, contracts, Stripe billing, projects, and an admin panel. You can see it in our portfolio.
What drives the number
- How many user roles and permission levels you need.
- How complex the billing is: flat subscriptions are cheap, usage-based or installment plans are more work.
- Integrations with other tools and services.
- How much admin and reporting you need to operate from day one.
How to spend less without regret
The trick is the same as any MVP: build the one workflow that proves demand, connect just enough billing and admin to run it as a real business, and leave the rest for when you have paying customers asking for it. We cover that approach in turning an idea into a real product.
If you want a real figure for your SaaS rather than a range, tell us what you are building and you will get a scoped proposal with a clear plan and price.