How to estimate the approximate MVP development cost
So, you have a cool idea. And haven’t even started looking for MVP development cost, being scared of failure.
Most likely, you’ve covered a lot of ground to come up with it. Months or years? Sounds impressive. What you need now is not to fuck up it, and it isn’t so easy.
You’ve heard about hundreds of startups like Buffer or Grammarly whose projects popped. But how many of them left in the silence? Unknown, misunderstood, devalued. You definitely don’t want to become one of them.
Before you start, you should be prepared to fail. An Analysis of 101 Startup Postmortems says there are several particular reasons why startups do this all the time. Almost half of them spend their time developing products with no market need. One-third of them just run out of cash. A lot of startups bet on the wrong team, get outcompeted, or have some financial issues.
Such problems as lack of appropriate business model, poor marketing, and wrong focus are also worth considering. You have everything to succeed sometimes, but running a startup is like going through a minefield: you never know where you meet the next mine.
What if we say that there is a working decision? Yes, it is a Minimum Viable Product you might have heard of from Dropbox and Spotify. Sounds perfect, but it may assume costs from zero to infinity. Let’s see how you can define the budget.
Why do you need to turn to React Native MVP development at all
Start with a definition. An MVP is a product that consists of a set of minimum essential features that help you test an idea.
Groupon, Zappos, ZeroCater started like that, and you can see where they are now. But each of these companies had their background, budget, and mistakes. And you also need to find your way before you reach the top. You may fail, but you shouldn’t be afraid. Failure is just a lesson you need to learn before you try again. At least you’ll not waste too much money. Just find the right approach and dare!
How to estimate the cost of MVP?
It is impossible to predict the cost of building MVP from the early beginning. There are a lot of factors to consider, including your geographical location. But we can highlight the most important ones that you should take into account.
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Product Type
We’re sure you have huge ambitions for React Native MVP development of your product. You want to blow up Apple Store and Google Play.
But what do you know about your target audience now? What do you know about developing apps for iOS and Android? This knowledge comes with experience.
React Native is a solution that allows you to kill two birds with one stone. It is a cross-platform framework with which you can reuse almost all your code. The entire product building time takes much less time because there is no need to develop separate app versions for iOS and Android. Plus, such an approach drastically simplifies further support and React Native MVP development of the app.
UI/UX Design
The final cost depends on the complexity of the UI/UX design. On the one hand, you need a minimal set of features. On the other hand, your users want an attractive, simple, easy to understand, and navigate interface.
- Preparation. This is where product creation begins. Schedule a meeting with a designer or team and discuss all aspects that interest you. You can bet on minimalism or ask for a super customized interface — regardless of what your expectations are, share them all with your team from day one.
- Prototyping. It is the skeleton of your application that describes its core functions and user flows. At Purrweb, the average time required for building prototypes is 2 weeks.
- Visual design creation. It is a time to work out the skeleton that was created initially. At this stage, designers play with colors, fonts, animations. They are trying to make your product outstanding, to show off among competitors. Purrweb designers use Figma and Principle to attract the users’ attention once and forever and to make the best React Native MVP development.
Number of features of your React Native MVP development
When planning a future app, your brain is full of creative ideas. Each brainstorming session gives you a considerable number of new features that you definitely want to implement. But it’s worth the wait.
The cost of developing the first version of the application mainly depends on its features. It is logical, the more features, the more money. But a dilemma arises here: unuseful features may not interest customers, and the product will fail.
Use the MoSCoW Method to prioritize correctly:
- Must-haves: features that bring the highest possible value to users and your business;
- Should-haves: sweet features your user can live without.
- Could-haves: everything that adds additional value, however, if left out the product still functions.
- Won’t-haves: elements that you can introduce in later versions or even get rid of.
This choice is often difficult, but you still need to make it. Remember that at the MVP stage, the main thing is to validate the idea, not to create a product filled with tons of various features.
Hiring
There are two main approaches to software MVP development. It is in-house and outsourcing.
Each of them has its advantages and disadvantages.
For example, when working with your own team, you’re likely to know what to expect from these people. In-house teammates tend to be more interested in the final result and easy to coordinate. It all sounds perfect but there’s one flaw.
Budget
If you came up with your first idea and are on a tight budget, the hiring of full-blown developers sounds like a totally crazy idea. Just imagine:
You also have to provide them with an office and various additional perks like vacation pay, sick leave, bonuses, etc. And every mistake you make when hiring hurts your wallet.
That’s why a lot of companies all around the world are choosing the outsource model. Especially when it comes to MVP development, you get all the benefits of a full-fledged team for significantly less money. For example, when hiring a company from another country, you shouldn’t worry about a time zone difference. To conduct meetings, your project manager will pick the time when you’re available. And you can definitely expect a fantastic result! The rates for outsourcing specialists are also much lower. The average price of the React Native MVP development by Purrweb is just about $30 000.
Launch Stage
The good thing about React Native MVP development is that it’s throwing you in right away. You haven’t too much time for thinking, rethinking, or procrastinating. None of the famous startups have succeeded from the very first try. The first version of your product may not be perfect. Honestly, it won’t be perfect for sure. But what you can do is reduce the price for mistakes you will make.
The final aspect that affects the approximate cost of MVP development is the launch stage.
There are two ways to go:
- Just launch it. You have a product, and you present it. Now you have something to work with further: new insights to make it better and better.
- Create a whole product and realize all of your ideas at once. You should be ready to increasing criticism, long and costly alterations. In the worst case scenario, your product is simply not in demand. The choice is up to you.
Working with Purrweb, you will get a working functional product. The next steps are up to you: release it, test on users. You can even present the result of MVP development to investors. You’ll definitely steal the show.
