MVP software development for NZ startups

A minimum viable product (MVP) is the smallest version of your idea that real customers can use, and that tells you whether to keep going. We build MVPs for New Zealand startups: web apps, mobile apps and SaaS products, priced in fixed stages so you know what each part costs before it starts.

What an MVP includes, and what it leaves out

The hard part of an MVP isn't building it. It's deciding what to leave out. A good first version usually has:

• the one core job your customers will pay for, done properly
• sign-up and login
• enough of an admin area for you to run it without a developer
• payments, if you're charging from day one
• basic analytics, so you can see what people actually do

And it usually leaves out, for now:

• features that customers haven't asked for yet
• separate native apps for every platform, when a web app or one cross-platform app will do
• automating back-office tasks you can still do by hand at your current size
• polish on screens customers rarely see

Everything on the second list can come later, once real customers have told you what matters.

MVP development: how we build yours

1. We start with your requirements: what the product has to do, who it's for and what it needs to connect to.
2. We propose a solution, with a fixed price and a time frame.
3. We work through it in stages, each with its own fixed price.
4. If something unexpected comes up, we come back to you for input before we go further.
5. After launch, we host and look after it if you want us to.

Our MVP and custom software projects typically cost between NZ$8,000 and NZ$50,000, depending on their size. We work out where yours sits once we understand your requirements.

Web app, mobile app or both?

For many MVPs, a web app is the fastest way to get in front of customers, and it works on any device. If you need to be in the App Store and Google Play, we build cross-platform apps with Flutter or React Native, native apps when the product depends heavily on the phone, and desktop apps with Electron. We publish under your own store accounts, so the app is yours from day one. Our app development page covers the choice in more detail.

SaaS development

We build software-as-a-service products: sign-up and accounts, subscriptions and billing, a dashboard for each customer, and many customers sharing one system. We've also built a SaaS product of our own: a subscription service that gives home and office servers their own public IP addresses.

MVPs and SaaS products we've built

Hosting and support after launch

You choose where your product runs: on-site, in a cloud account or in a data centre you pick. We set up hosting and deployment through our DevOps service, so you can ship updates without downtime. After launch, we fix issues and make changes as they come up, or you can keep us on a retainer.

When you don't need an MVP built yet

If you haven't talked to potential customers yet, do that first. If a spreadsheet, a form or an existing tool can test whether people want your idea, start there. It costs far less than writing code, and an MVP built after those conversations is a better one.

MVP development questions we get asked