What does an MVP app cost in the UK?

What an MVP is

MVP stands for minimum viable product. In plain terms, it’s the smallest useful version of your app: the one thing it must do well, and nothing else yet. The point is to get a working app in front of users, learn what they want, and grow from there instead of guessing up front.

It isn’t a rough draft. A good MVP does less than the finished product, but what it does, it does properly.

What the price covers

• Design. The screens, and how someone moves through them.
• Build and testing. A working app, with versions you can tap through as we go.
• Launch. We ship it live, under your own Apple and Google accounts wherever possible.
• 30 days of bug fixes. Anything that breaks in the first month after launch, we fix at no charge.

What to leave out of a first version

Most of the saving in an MVP comes from what you decide not to build yet. These are the usual candidates.

• The second platform. Launch on iPhone or Android, whichever most of your customers use, and add the other once people are using it.
• Features for later. If the app is useful without it, it can wait. A short list that works beats a long list that’s late.
• Connections to other tools. Plugging into maps, messaging or a booking system adds work. Keep the ones the app can’t run without.
• Extra polish on rarely seen screens. Spend the care on the screens people use every day.

Three ways to spend less

• Start from a foundation. A launch-ready foundation is an app base we’ve already built and tested, customised for you. From £4,500, because you’re not paying to rebuild common features.
• Cut the scope, not the quality. The biggest lever on cost is how much the app does on day one. Fewer features, done well.
• Test the idea first. If you’re not sure people want it, an Idea Sprint from £1,500 gets you user research and a clickable prototype. If you go ahead, we take that cost off the build.

What it costs after launch

An app has running costs once it’s live. Apple and Google each charge a fee for a developer account, paid to them, not to us. The services an app runs on, such as hosting, cost more as more people use it. And apps need looking after: our optional care plan covers fixes, updates and small improvements from £150 a month for apps, and you can cancel it anytime.

How you pay

You pay in three parts as the work lands, not all up front. The code and designs are yours once the final payment is made.