In short: in 2026, on the French market, a serious MVP most often sits between €20,000 and €60,000, depending on the product type and scope. Below that, you're usually talking about a prototype or no-code; above it, a full platform. The right move isn't to find the cheapest, it's to cut the scope.
First: what is an MVP?
An MVP (Minimum Viable Product) is the smallest usable version of your product that lets you test a real hypothesis with real users. It's neither a mockup nor your final product: it's just enough features to learn something useful. The whole cost question plays out here: a well-scoped MVP costs what it takes to learn fast, not to build everything at once.
Ranges by product type (2026)
| MVP type | Indicative budget | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| B2B SaaS (web) | €20,000 – €35,000 | 2 – 3 months |
| Mobile app | €30,000 – €50,000 | 3 – 4 months |
| Marketplace | €35,000 – €60,000 | 3 – 5 months |
| Fuller SaaS platform | €50,000 – €150,000 | 5 months and up |
Indicative ranges for the French market in 2026, for quality custom development. Your real figure depends on scope: these are orders of magnitude, not a quote.
What makes the bill move
- The feature scope. By far the biggest lever. Every extra little feature means design, development, testing and maintenance.
- Web, mobile, or both. A native or cross-platform mobile app usually costs more than a simple web app, especially with offline constraints.
- Integrations. Payment, ERP, third-party APIs, SSO: each connection to an external system adds time.
- Compliance requirements. Health, finance, public sector: security and traceability have a real cost, but a non-negotiable one.
- The team's level. A senior day rate (often €500 to €700 freelance) costs more per day than a junior, but usually delivers faster and with less debt.
How to spend less without sabotaging the product
- Start with a framing phase. A few days of workshop (often 3 to 5 days) to define the minimal scope saves weeks of pointless dev. It's the most profitable investment of an MVP.
- Cut, don't postpone. For each feature, ask: if we remove it, can we still test the hypothesis? Often, yes.
- Beware of too cheap. A €5,000 MVP shipped by a bargain offshore team often ends up costing more in technical-debt cleanup. The cheapest up front is rarely the cheapest in the end.
- Require that you own the code. Code, access and documentation must be yours. That's what keeps you free to carry on, with or without the original provider.
And at Neodev?
We design and build MVPs and custom apps: from framing to deployment, fast and with no hidden technical debt. We almost always start with a short framing phase to trim the scope to what truly matters, then deliver in increments. You get a reply within 24h and a detailed quote within 48h, and the code stays entirely yours.
To go further: our MVP & custom app development offer, our case studies, or the article what is a fractional CTO.