Most studios answer this question with “it depends”. It does, but not by as much as they let on. Here are our prices, what moves them, and what to ask any studio that quotes you.
The short answer
- Proof of concept, from $3,500. 2 weeks, one senior engineer. It answers one question: does the hard part work?
- Web app MVP, from $9,500. 4 weeks, a senior engineer with a second engineer part-time.
- Mobile app MVP, from $11,000. 4 weeks, iOS and Android from one codebase.
- AI app MVP, from $12,000. 4 weeks, with an evaluation set so you can tell whether the AI part works.
Prices are in US dollars. We take half to start and half at handover, and bug fixes are included for 30 days after launch. The details are on the MVP pricing page.
What moves the price
- How many kinds of user. A shop owner, a customer and an admin are three products in one. Start with the one who pays.
- Integrations. Payments, messaging and third-party APIs take longer than screens do, because each one has its own rules and its own ways of failing.
- Platforms. Web only is the cheapest way to learn. A mobile app adds store review and device testing.
- Whether the design exists. If you have no designs, add a product design sprint, from $5,500. Designing while building costs more than designing first.
- AI. The model call is the easy part. Grounding answers in your data and measuring them is where the time goes.
What is not in the price
Hosting, app store fees and AI model usage are paid to the provider, at cost. You hold those accounts from day one, so the code and the bills are yours. That is also why a fixed price can stay fixed: nothing in it depends on usage you cannot predict.
How a fixed price stays fixed
The usual way fixed prices break is scope. A “small addition” in week three becomes a new week of work. Our rule is simple: if you want something added, we swap it for a feature of the same size, or we add the hours at the hourly rate. You decide, and you see the trade before it happens.
When a fixed price is the wrong choice
If your roadmap changes every week, a fixed price fights you. You want a team you can steer, which is what an hourly team is: senior engineers from $45 an hour, with a senior leading the work. Choose fixed when you can write down what done looks like. Choose hourly when you cannot yet. This post goes through the choice.
How to spend less without building less of what matters
- Pick one user and one job. Everything else waits.
- Cut features, not quality. A smaller product that works earns trust. A bigger one that is shaky loses it.
- Buy the boring parts. Sign-in, payments and email are solved problems.
- Write what “done” means for each feature before work starts.
- Put it in front of real users at the halfway point, not at the end.
Five questions to ask any studio that quotes you
- Who exactly writes the code, and who reviews it?
- Who owns the code, and when does ownership pass to me?
- What is not in the price?
- What happens when the scope changes?
- What happens after launch?