Answer
How long does it take to build an MVP?
Short answer
Most MVPs take four to twelve weeks with a solo developer, or three to six months with an agency including a discovery phase. A tightly scoped MVP with three features can be built and deployed in 48 hours. The timeline is set almost entirely by how many features are in scope and how fast decisions get made.
The build itself is rarely the slowest part. What consumes calendar time on most projects is deciding what to build, waiting for feedback, changing direction, and the gaps between working sessions when a developer is splitting attention across clients.
Removing those three things is what makes a 48-hour build possible: scope is fixed in writing before it starts, there is one decision-maker, and the developer works on nothing else for the duration.
If you are gathering quotes, ask two questions. What is the calendar time, not the hours? And what specifically would make it slip? A developer who cannot answer the second one has not thought about it.
The numbers
- Fixed-scope sprint (3 features)
- 48 hours
- Solo developer, normal engagement
- 4–12 weeks
- Small studio
- 6–12 weeks
- Agency with discovery phase
- 3–6 months
- Non-developer learning to build it
- 3–6 months of evenings, with a high abandonment rate
- Biggest cause of overrun
- Scope added after the build started
Worth knowing
A 48-hour build delivers three features working properly, not a finished company. Anything beyond that scope is a later build, and pretending otherwise is how projects blow out.
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Fixed $3,500 AUD. Scope agreed in writing before anything is built.