2026 Pricing Guide
Real numbers, not vague ranges. Based on actual projects — what each component costs, what drives the total up, and what you can cut without hurting the launch.
Short answer: A focused SaaS MVP costs $6,000–$18,000 and takes 6–12 weeks with one senior developer. The range depends almost entirely on how many features you put in v1.
Every SaaS product is assembled from the same building blocks. Here's what each one costs and what drives the number up or down.
Email/password + Google OAuth is the baseline. Magic links, multi-factor auth, and SSO/SAML (enterprise) each add cost. This is non-negotiable — every SaaS product needs it.
Flat subscription plans (cheapest) → metered/usage-based billing → complex plans with add-ons and proration. Most MVPs need flat subscriptions. Metered billing doubles the complexity.
This is the largest variable. A dashboard with CRUD and basic filtering is $2,000–$4,000. AI-powered features, real-time collaboration, or complex data pipelines push this higher.
Basic admin (list users, view subscriptions, manual upgrades) is cheap. Add impersonation, analytics, or churn reporting and it grows. Worth doing properly — you will use this every day.
Team invites, workspace isolation, role-based permissions. If your SaaS sells to businesses (not individuals), you almost certainly need this. It is a significant scope addition — build it in from the start.
A simple GPT or Claude API call is cheap. Full RAG pipelines, vector search, fine-tuned models, or AI agents cost significantly more. Most SaaS products start with a simple completion and expand later.
What a typical MVP adds up to
Auth + flat billing + one core feature + basic admin = $6,000–$10,000. Add team accounts and one AI feature and you're at $12,000–$18,000. Anything beyond that belongs in v2 — launch first, extend after you have paying users.
The most common mistake: scoping too much into the MVP. These are things that feel important but kill timelines and budgets before you have a single paying customer.
Public-facing marketing website
Build a quick landing page, not a content site. Ship the product first.
Advanced analytics dashboard for users
Start with basic usage stats. Users tell you what metrics actually matter.
White-label or multi-brand support
Almost no MVP needs this. Add it when a customer asks for it and offers to pay.
Mobile app
A responsive web app works on mobile. Build native when retention justifies it.
Marketplace or two-sided features
Start with one side of the market. Serving both in v1 is 3x the scope.
SSO / SAML (enterprise auth)
One paying enterprise customer who needs it justifies the build. Not before.
The cheapest option upfront is rarely the cheapest option overall.
A simple SaaS MVP with auth, Stripe billing, and one core feature set typically costs $6,000–$10,000 and takes 6–8 weeks. A more complete MVP with multiple modules, AI features, and team/role support costs $10,000–$18,000 and takes 8–12 weeks.
The main cost drivers are: number of user-facing features, complexity of the billing model (usage-based billing costs more than flat subscriptions), multi-tenancy or team accounts, AI integrations, and the number of user roles. Auth and basic Stripe subscriptions are a baseline cost in almost every project.
No-code tools like Bubble can start cheaper ($2,000–$5,000 with an agency) but hit hard limits when your product needs custom logic, performance, or specific integrations. Bubble's monthly costs also compound, and migrating off later is expensive. Custom code costs more upfront but has no platform fees, no vendor lock-in, and no scaling ceiling.
A focused MVP takes 6–10 weeks with one developer working full-time on it. Agencies often quote longer timelines because of handoff overhead, meetings, and resource sharing. Working directly with one developer removes that overhead.
A production-ready SaaS MVP needs: user authentication (email, OAuth), a subscription billing system (Stripe), the core feature your users pay for, and an admin panel to manage users and subscriptions. Landing page and marketing pages are typically separate.