The verdict in three sentences
A serious B2B SaaS MVP in Berlin takes 10 to 16 weeks and EUR 25,000 to 60,000 excl. VAT, provided you ship one core feature your first customers will pay for. Public prototyping grants of up to EUR 30,000 (EXIST, regional programmes such as Berlin's Pro FIT, or the French Tech grant for French-registered founders) plus a seed loan can fund most of that budget before your seed round. Hiring a CTO at EUR 70,000 to 95,000 gross per year before validating the market is almost always the most expensive decision.
What a B2B SaaS MVP really costs in 2026
Price depends less on technology than on scope. A non-technical founder arriving with 25 "must-have" features ends up at EUR 120,000 and 9 months. One arriving with a precise customer problem and a single promise ships for EUR 35,000 in 12 weeks. The 2026 ballpark figures below assume an agency or studio team (project lead, designer, 2 developers).
| Delivery option | Initial budget | Timeline | Annual recurring cost | Main risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Solo freelancer | EUR 15,000 to 35,000 | 12 to 24 weeks | EUR 0 to 6,000 | Unavailability, undocumented code |
| MVP agency / studio | EUR 25,000 to 60,000 | 10 to 16 weeks | EUR 6,000 to 18,000 (maintenance) | Poorly scoped features |
| Salaried CTO + 1 developer | EUR 150,000 to 210,000 loaded / year | 16 to 28 weeks | Full payroll | Slow hiring (3 to 5 months) |
| No-code (Bubble, Softr) | EUR 5,000 to 20,000 | 4 to 8 weeks | EUR 2,000 to 8,000 | Technical ceiling, hard takeover |
| Cloud infrastructure (first 12 months) | EUR 100 to 400 / month | Immediate | EUR 1,200 to 4,800 | Needless over-provisioning |
| Third-party SaaS tools (auth, email, analytics) | EUR 50 to 250 / month | Immediate | EUR 600 to 3,000 | Subscription sprawl |
Public funding changes the equation. Prototyping grants of up to EUR 30,000 typically cover external development services. A seed loan or honour loan adds EUR 30,000 to 100,000 depending on equity. Expect 6 to 10 weeks of review: file the application before you sign the quote.
Features to keep or postpone
The MVP exists to prove that a B2B customer pays to solve a problem. Anything that does not serve that proof goes to V2.
| Feature | MVP decision | Estimated cost if included | Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core feature (e.g. automatic invoice matching) | Keep | EUR 12,000 to 30,000 | It is what the customer buys |
| Email login + Google SSO | Keep (email), postpone SAML | EUR 1,500 to 3,000 (SAML: +EUR 6,000) | Enterprise SSO comes with large accounts |
| Stripe subscription billing | Keep | EUR 2,000 to 4,000 | Validates willingness to pay |
| Multi-user and roles | Simple version (admin / member) | EUR 2,500 to 5,000 | Fine-grained roles can wait for 10 customers |
| Analytics dashboard | Postpone | EUR 6,000 to 15,000 | A CSV export is enough at first |
| Native mobile app | Postpone | EUR 20,000 to 45,000 | B2B is used at the desk |
| ERP integrations (SAP, DATEV) | 1 integration max | EUR 5,000 to 12,000 each | Pick the one your first 3 customers use |
| Multilingual | Postpone unless exporting | EUR 3,000 to 6,000 | Home market first |
Each extra week of an MVP team costs on average EUR 3,500 to 5,500 excl. VAT. Adding "just" a dashboard and a mobile app means 6 to 10 more weeks, so EUR 20,000 to 55,000 and a quarter's delay on your round.
The typical 12-week schedule
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Weeks 1 and 2: workshops, user journeys, clickable mockups tested with 5 prospects. Weeks 3 to 10: development in 2-week sprints, with a demo at the end of each sprint. Weeks 11 and 12: testing, go-live, first pilot accounts. Require code ownership in the contract, plus access to the Git repository and cloud accounts in your name.
Mini case study
Lena, non-technical founder of a Berlin startup automating expense tracking for accounting firms, targets a EUR 1.2M seed round in 9 months. Agency quote: EUR 42,000 for 12 weeks (core feature, Stripe billing, simple roles). Infrastructure: EUR 180 per month, so EUR 2,160 in year one. Funding: EUR 30,000 prototyping grant and a EUR 20,000 honour loan. Her remaining cost: 42,000 + 2,160 - 30,000 = EUR 14,160, covered by the loan. With 8 pilot firms at EUR 290 per month, she enters her round with EUR 2,320 of monthly recurring revenue, whereas a CTO would have cost about EUR 115,000 loaded over the same period.
FAQ
How much does a B2B SaaS MVP cost in 2026? Between EUR 25,000 and 60,000 excl. VAT for a single core feature with a specialised agency. Above EUR 80,000, scope usually exceeds what an MVP needs to prove.
Can a public grant pay for an agency? Yes, external prototyping services are generally eligible, up to around EUR 30,000 of grant. File before committing spend, and allow 6 to 10 weeks for review.
Should I hire a CTO before the MVP? Rarely: a CTO costs EUR 70,000 to 95,000 gross per year and hiring takes 3 to 5 months. A technical co-founder with equity or an agency with knowledge transfer validates the market faster.
What does infrastructure cost in year one? Budget EUR 100 to 400 per month for hosting, database and backups, plus EUR 50 to 250 of third-party tools. Startup cloud credits (AWS, Google, Hetzner partners) often cover 12 months.
Can an MVP grow into a real product? Yes if the code is structured and tested from day one: about 70 % of a well-built MVP's code survives into V2. A no-code MVP is often rewritten past 50 customers.
Let's scope your project. We define the core feature with you, an indicative budget of EUR 25,000 to 60,000 excl. VAT and a schedule aligned with your grant application and your round. Detailed quote within 48 h. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.
