Free calculator · Website and Cost
App and SaaS MVP Cost Estimator.
A web app prices by what it does, not how many screens it has. Set accounts, data model complexity, integrations, an admin panel and your industry for a build cost range with every line editable.
Sets the recommended prices below to this market's rates.
Pick your sector to start from the scope a brief like yours usually needs. Every input stays editable.
Estimated build cost
AED 20,273 - AED 32,198
One-off build in AED. Every price feeding this range was editable above.
An estimate, not a quote, reviewed August 2026. An MVP prices by what it does, not its screen count, which is why this tool asks about workflows and integrations instead of pages.
Estimate done
Want the real number for your project?
An estimate works from typical scope. A quotation works from yours. Send this breakdown over and you get a fixed price back, from the person who would do the work, within one business day.
What this tool measures
A web application is priced by what it does, not by how many screens it has. Page count is a reasonable proxy for a marketing site, where most of the work really is design and content. It falls apart the moment a product has accounts, permissions and a database that has to stay correct, because two screens that look identical can be a day apart or a month apart depending on what happens behind them.
So this asks a different set of questions: how many distinct workflows the product supports, how many kinds of user it has, and which capabilities it needs that are genuinely hard rather than merely fiddly. Authentication, payments and real-time updates are the three that most reliably surprise people, because each of them is a small feature with a large tail of edge cases.
How to use it
Start with complexity, since it sets the base. Simple means one core workflow and one type of user: everyone who logs in can do the same things. Standard means a few workflows and more than one role, which is where permissions start to matter. Complex means several modules and permissions that differ per module, which is where most of the cost lives.
Then tick the capabilities. Each one is priced as the whole job rather than the happy path, because the happy path is never what takes the time. Payments, for instance, is not a checkout form: it is failed payments, refunds, proration, tax, invoices, and the reconciliation someone has to do when a webhook does not arrive.
Pick your industry if one fits. It preselects what products in that sector almost always need and applies the complexity that comes with it, which is more useful than a generic starting point for anyone who is not building a generic product.
How to read the result
This is the cost of a first version that real users can use, not a prototype and not a finished product. The distinction matters: a prototype can skip error handling, and a finished product cannot. Most of the gap between an optimistic quote and a real one is exactly that work, which is invisible in a demo and unavoidable in production.
The monthly hosting figure covers infrastructure and keeping the thing running, not new features. Applications have a floor of ongoing cost that brochure sites do not: dependencies need updating, and an unpatched application is a liability rather than an asset.
If a quote comes in far below the range, ask two questions. Who owns the code and the infrastructure accounts, and what happens when a user hits an error. The answers separate a real estimate from a demo priced as a product.
What to do next
Write down the single workflow the product would be useless without, and treat everything else as a candidate for version two. The most common way an MVP overruns is not underestimating the build, it is building four features to a standard where one would have proved the point.
Then decide the data model before the design. In an application, the data model is the product: screens can be changed cheaply, and a schema everyone has already built against cannot.
Questions people ask
Why is authentication priced separately when every app has it?
Because sign-up, login, password reset, email verification, session handling, roles and the admin screens to manage all of it is a week of work, not an afternoon. It is priced separately precisely because it is assumed, and assumed things are the ones left out of cheap quotes.
Does using a no-code tool make this cheaper?
Usually for version one, sometimes not for version three. No-code moves cost from build to subscription and from your control to the platform's. It is a good trade when you are testing whether anyone wants the thing, and a bad one when the answer is yes and the platform's limits become yours.
Should the mobile app wrapper be in the first version?
Rarely. A responsive web application reaches everyone immediately, with no review process and no release cycle. Wrap it once you know people use it often enough to want an icon on their home screen.
What is not in this number?
Product design research, the content inside the product, third-party service fees, app store fees, and the time your own team spends on decisions. The last one is the most commonly forgotten and often the largest.
How long does a build like this take?
A simple scope is usually six to ten weeks, standard is three to five months, and complex is longer than anyone wants to hear at the start. If a timeline sounds unusually short, check whether it covers testing and deployment or only the writing of the code.
Where to go from here
- Website Cost Calculator — if what you need is really a marketing site with a form, this prices it far more accurately.
- Project Requirements Brief Generator — the questions any developer will ask before quoting an application, answered once.
- Freelancer and Agency Quote Comparator — code ownership matters more on an application than anywhere else. This checks each quote states it.
Built by GoDesign FZE, who build web applications and internal tools.
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The tool is free and stays free. If you would rather hand the work over, tell us what you are dealing with and you get a straight answer on scope, cost and timeline.
- You own everythingRepository, hosting and domain credentials sit in your name from day one, not handed over at the end.
- A written timelineMilestone dates are agreed in writing before work starts, so you always know what ships next.
- One business dayEvery enquiry gets a reply from the person who would scope the work, not a sales sequence.
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