Short answer · a SaaS web MVP
$32,000 built AI-native, $53,000 at typical agency effort
Our SaaS web MVP example (logins, card subscriptions, an admin view) comes to about $32,000 built with AI coding tools and $53,000 at typical agency effort. An internal dashboard on an API you already run is $23,000 to $39,000. Web apps skip store review, so less of the budget sits in categories AI cannot compress.
Code is one line of seven on this estimate.
Hours by category: AI-native / agency-quoted
Accent bar: AI-native hours. Grey bar: agency-quoted hours. Both are this site's published hour models, priced at Clutch's US development company band midpoint. Testing and store release come from one shared table, so those lines match; project time is a share of each column's other hours. Methodology
Web app examples at three rates
| Scenario | Built AI-native | Agency quote, US agency | Agency quote, Latin America | Agency quote, US in-house |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Internal web dashboardBrowser-based tool on an API you already run, with logins and search. | $23,000305 h | $39,000521 h | $28,000521 h | $45,000521 h |
| SaaS web MVPWeb app with logins, card subscriptions, an admin view and analytics. | $32,000423 h | $53,000710 h | $38,000710 h | $61,000710 h |
Web vs mobile for the same scope
| Build | Hours | Mid |
|---|---|---|
| Web app only | 883 h | $66,000 |
| iOS + Android, cross-platform | 1,158 h | $86,000 |
| Web + iOS + Android | 1,679 h | $125,000 |
What web developers are paid
BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, national, May 2025:
| Occupation | 25th pct | Median | 75th pct | Median annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Web developers (15-1254) | $30.88/hr | $44.54/hr | $60.69/hr | $92,650 |
| Software developers (15-1252) | $50.58/hr | $65.38/hr | $82.68/hr | $135,980 |
What makes web apps expensive
- Admin and reporting. Our allowance for an admin dashboard is 120 hours of backend and web work on its own.
- Integrations. Each third-party integration is 48 hours in our model; B2B tools often need several.
- Permissions. Roles, teams and audit trails sit inside the sign-up and admin allowances; complex rules push an app into the complex tier.
See cost by feature for every allowance.
Questions
Is a web app cheaper than a mobile app?+
Usually, for the same features. There is one codebase, no store review and no store fees. Our booking app example costs $66,000 as a web app against $86,000 as a cross-platform mobile app at the US agency midpoint. The trade-off is reach and capability: no store listing, and more limited access to device features and notifications on some phones.
How much does a SaaS web app cost to build?+
Our SaaS web MVP example (logins, card subscriptions, an admin view, analytics, one integration, managed backend, custom design) comes to about 710 hours, or $53,000 at the midpoint of Clutch's $50 to $99 US band. The range is $30,000 to $95,000. The hours are this site's published assumptions.
What do web developers earn in the US?+
The BLS reports a median wage of $44.54 an hour for web developers in May 2025 (median annual $92,650), against $65.38 for software developers. Those are wages before employer costs; BLS ECEC puts wages at 70.0% of private-industry employer compensation costs.
Do I need a web app and a mobile app?+
Not at first, for most products. Building both from day one in our booking example comes to $125,000 against $86,000 for mobile alone. Many teams launch on one surface, learn, and add the second on the same backend later, which is how our model treats it: shared backend hours, extra client hours.
Sources for this page
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS. Web Developers (SOC 15-1254), national, May 2025 estimates. www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes151254.htm (read 2026-10-02)
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS). Software Developers (SOC 15-1252), national, May 2025 estimates. www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes151252.htm (read 2026-10-02)
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC). Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026. www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.nr0.htm (read 2026-10-02)
- Clutch (Software Development Pricing Guide). Software Development Company Pricing Guide, updated September 21, 2026. clutch.co/developers/pricing (read 2026-10-02)
- Accelerance (blog post by Peter Griffin, November 24, 2025, summarising the Accelerance 2026 Global Software Development Rates & Trends Guide). Price Pressure and Performance: The New Equation for Global Dev Rates. www.accelerance.com/blog/2026-outsourcing-rate-trends-asia-europe-latam (read 2026-10-02)
Hours are this site's own planning assumptions, set out line by line on the methodology page. Full quotes for every figure are on the sources page.