This is the question every founder asks and nobody gives a straight answer to. "It depends" is technically true but completely useless.

So here's the honest version, including actual ranges.

The Honest Answer: $15k–$250k+ for an MVP

That's a wide range. Here's what puts you at each end of it.

$15,000–$40,000 — Simple SaaS with a narrow scope

• One core workflow
• One user type
• No complex integrations
• Basic Stripe payments
• A development studio in a lower-cost market, or a small local freelance team

This is achievable if the scope is genuinely tight and the project is well-managed. Most products that come in at this range started with a very clear idea of what the MVP was not going to include.

$40,000–$100,000 — Mid-complexity SaaS

• Multiple user types (e.g., admin and end-user)
• Third-party integrations (accounting software, CRMs, external APIs)
• Custom onboarding flow
• Role-based permissions
• A small-to-mid studio with solid product experience

This is where most well-scoped SaaS MVPs end up. If you have a real business idea that's not trivially simple, budget in this range.

$100,000–$250,000+ — Complex SaaS

• Multiple user types with complex permission structures
• Real-time features (live data, websockets)
• Mobile apps in addition to web
• Heavy integrations or custom data pipelines
• AI/ML features that aren't just API calls
• Marketplaces with two-sided dynamics

If someone is quoting you $250k+ for an MVP and the scope doesn't warrant it, get a second opinion.

What Drives Cost

Scope. The biggest driver by a long way. Every feature adds time. Every integration adds time. Every user type adds complexity. Most projects are over-scoped by 30–50% at the point of initial planning.

Team location. Developers in Australia and the US typically cost $100–$200/hour. Eastern Europe: $50–$100/hour. South/Southeast Asia: $25–$60/hour. A 1,000-hour project has very different costs depending on where the team is. Quality varies at every price point — you can get excellent work cheaply and terrible work expensively.

Project management overhead. Studios charge for PM, QA, design, and DevOps — not just development. A rough rule: add 30–40% to raw development cost for a well-managed project with a proper team.

Design. A lot of founders underestimate this. A functional but badly designed product won't retain users. Budget for UX and UI properly — at minimum 10–15% of total build cost, ideally more.

Decisions made late. Every decision that hasn't been made before development starts costs money during development. Architecture choices, feature priorities, edge case handling — these eat hours if they're resolved during build rather than before it.

What's Not Worth Spending On in v1

A perfect tech stack. The tech stack that's right for 100,000 users is often overkill for your first 100. Don't over-engineer early. Ship something that works, validate it, then scale the infrastructure.

Every integration on your list. Most SaaS products have a list of 10 integrations they want. You need 1–2 at launch. The rest can wait until users are actually asking for them.

Admin dashboards for you. Internal tools and admin panels are expensive to build and not user-facing. Use spreadsheets, Retool, or manual processes for your own operations in v1. Build proper tooling later.

Mobile apps (usually). If your product works on mobile web, you probably don't need a native app for v1. Native apps add significant cost and complexity. Validate the product on web first.

"Nice to have" features. You know what they are. They're the features that didn't make it through the ruthless prioritisation test but somehow ended up back in scope anyway. Cut them.

Why Studios Give Vague Estimates

There are two reasons a studio won't give you numbers upfront.

The first is legitimate: they genuinely don't know enough about what you're building to give you a meaningful estimate. The right answer here is a paid discovery phase (typically $5,000–$15,000) that produces a proper spec, after which they can quote accurately.

The second is not: they're worried a real number will scare you off before they've had time to sell you. This is a red flag. A studio that won't give you ranges based on similar projects they've built is either inexperienced or not being honest with you.

Ask: "Can you give me a rough range for a project of this scope, based on similar work you've done?" A good studio can answer this.

How to Get a Real Estimate

To get a meaningful number, you need to give a meaningful brief. At minimum:

• Who is the user? One specific type of person with a specific problem.
• What is the core workflow? The one thing the product does that makes it worth paying for.
• What integrations are required for v1? (Not the full list — the required ones.)
• What platforms? Web only? iOS? Android?
• What's the timeline? Launch in 3 months vs 6 months changes how a team staffs it.
• What's your budget range? Don't hide this. A good studio will tell you honestly what's achievable in that range. A bad studio will just tell you what you want to hear.

The Discovery Phase: Worth It

If you're investing $50k+ in a build, spending $5,000–$15,000 on a proper discovery phase is almost always worth it.

Discovery produces:

• A validated feature list for v1
• User flows and wireframes
• Architecture decisions documented
• A detailed quote with less guesswork baked in
• Confidence that what you're building is actually what your users need

Without it, the quote is based on assumptions. Some of those assumptions will be wrong. Discovery is how you find that out before it costs you.

The Question Behind the Question

Founders usually ask "how much does it cost to build a SaaS?" when what they really want to know is: "Is my idea worth building, and can I afford to find out?"

Sometimes the honest answer is: not yet. The idea needs more validation before it's worth the build investment. A well-run MVP process should help you figure that out quickly and cheaply — before you spend $80,000.

If you want to talk through your idea, what it would cost to build, and whether it makes sense to build it now — book a free 30-minute SaaS Build Assessment. No pitch, just a real conversation.