Guide
How much does an MVP cost in 2026?
What a first version of an app costs in Australia, the US, the UK and Singapore, local agency against offshore, what drives the price, and the running costs people forget.
The honest answer is anywhere from about US$5,000 to well over US$100,000. Where a first version lands depends on three things: what it has to do, who builds it, and where they are. This guide puts real numbers on each, in Australian dollars, US dollars, pounds and Singapore dollars.
The short answer, by country
These are the ranges published in 2026 by agencies in each country for a simple first version: sign-up, one core journey, an admin area. Most come from agencies pricing their own work, so treat them as benchmarks rather than quotes.
| Country | Local agency, simple MVP | Local senior rate |
|---|---|---|
| Australia | A$20,000 to A$50,000 | A$150 to A$250 an hour |
| United Kingdom | £20,000 to £60,000 | London costs more than regional studios |
| United States | $30,000 to $80,000 | $100 to $200 an hour |
| Singapore | S$20,000 to S$50,000 | S$80 to S$150 an hour |
An offshore studio with senior engineers builds the same scope for a fraction of those figures. Ours start at $4,500 USD for a web app, which is about A$6,500, £3,400 or S$5,800 at October 2026 exchange rates. The rest of this guide explains where the money goes, so you can tell a fair quote from a cheap one.
What you are actually paying for
Almost every quote is hours multiplied by a rate. A simple MVP is a few hundred hours of design, engineering and testing; a production app with payments and integrations is closer to five hundred or more. The rate depends mostly on where the team is and how senior it is.
That is why the same app can be quoted at A$45,000 in Sydney and a third of that offshore. The difference is rarely the work itself. It is local salaries, office costs and, often, layers of account management between you and the people building it.
Cheap quotes cut hours, not rates. If one quote is half the others, look for what is missing: testing, an admin area, app store submission, or the time to fix what users find in the first month.
What drives the price
Platforms. A web app is the cheapest place to start. iPhone and Android apps from one shared codebase (React Native or Flutter) cost more, and both web and mobile together cost the most. Building iPhone and Android separately in native code costs more again.
Features. Each one adds a known amount. In our own estimator, online payments add $600 to $1,100 USD, an admin dashboard $750 to $1,400, in-app messaging $750 to $1,500, and an AI assistant or document reading $1,000 to $2,500. Other studios’ numbers differ, but the shape is the same: features, not screens, drive cost.
Design. A clean design built on a proven component library is part of any good build. A fully custom visual identity, illustration and animation is a separate cost, and rarely the right spend for a first version.
Integrations. Connecting to accounting software, delivery services, a CRM or a government portal is often where estimates go wrong, because the other system sets the pace. Ask how each one is priced.
Regulated data. Health records, payments data and children’s data bring their own rules: HIPAA in the US, and privacy law everywhere. They change the hosting, the contracts and the testing, and they add real cost. Mention them before you get a quote, not after.
The costs people forget
The build is not the whole bill. Budget for these from the start:
- Hosting. Tens of dollars a month for a small app, more as it grows. It should be in your own account.
- App store fees. Apple charges US$99 a year; Google charges a one-off US$25.
- Paid services. SMS messages, email sending, maps, and AI usage are billed per use.
- Maintenance. Plan for 15 to 25 percent of the build cost each year for operating system updates, security fixes and small changes.
- Tax on local quotes. Australian agencies add 10% GST and UK agencies 20% VAT on top of their prices; Singapore GST is 9%. Registered businesses can usually claim it back, but it still affects cash flow.
How to spend less without getting a worse product
- Cut to one journey. The first version should do the one thing that makes your idea worth using, end to end. Everything else goes on a list for later.
- Start on the web unless the product truly needs the phone. You can add the apps once the idea is proven.
- Buy what is not your product. Use Stripe for payments, a proven login system and an off-the-shelf admin framework. Spend the build on what is unique.
- Get a fixed price for a written scope, with payments tied to finished stages. If the scope is clear, the price should be too.
- Own your accounts from day one. Code, hosting, domain and app store accounts in your name mean you can change teams without paying to rebuild.
How to compare quotes
Send every studio the same written description, then ask each one:
- What exactly is included, and what is not?
- Who will build it, and will I speak to them?
- How are payments staged, and what happens if I stop after a stage?
- Who owns the code and the accounts?
- What happens in the first month after launch, when users find the bugs?
The cheapest quote that answers all five well is usually the right one.
What a first version costs with us
With InvokerLabs, a first version that runs in the browser usually costs $4,500 to $7,000 USD and takes 6 to 9 weeks. iPhone and Android apps are $6,000 to $9,000 over 8 to 12 weeks, and both together $9,000 to $13,000 over 10 to 16 weeks. The smallest project we take on is $3,000 USD.
For a range on your own idea in a minute, without giving us an email address, try the cost estimator. For a fixed quote, book a free scoping call.