The Ultimate Guide to SaaS MVP Development

With SaaS products on the rise, launching your own solution is a promising business venture. At the same time, it’s crucial to enter the market cautiously, preferably by starting with an MVP for SaaS. While around 90% of startups fail due to a lack of product-market fit, this strategy will allow you to test your theories and pivot if necessary without a significant financial burden, addressing both market fit and funding challenges.

We don’t say an MVP is a panacea, but it can increase the probability of succeeding when done right. In fact, as a company that has been providing SaaS development services for 13+ years, we’ve seen it work for multiple projects, including Showcase and Signal Intent. In this article, we rely on our experience to guide you through SaaS MVP development step by step. Let’s get into it.

Why you should start from MVP

MVP stands for a minimum viable product. Simply put, it is the most basic version of a product released to early customers to gather feedback and verify whether the solution's core functionality is truly efficient. Building a Minimum Viable Product allows companies to validate a product idea with minimal resources. With adaptability being one of the most important SaaS MVP development factors, this strategy is often more crucial for SaaS products than for other types of digital solutions.

“SaaS products are inherently very complex. When building a SaaS, you’re creating not a one-time solution but a service that needs to integrate into users’ routines and continuously evolve to deliver value. Launching with an MVP allows you to test your core idea with real users early, helping you understand what matters to them. As a result, you can make smart decisions about what to build next without spending too much time and money on something that might not even work. With SaaS, it’s all about starting fast, keeping in sync with your users' needs, and adapting constantly.”

— Nata Shved, COO at Brights

Here's why it makes sense to build an MVP for a SaaS startup:

1. To quickly validate your assumptions and at a low cost. An MVP as a service helps you test your ideas about your target market without spending much money.

2. To save money by investing in core features first. Doing that saves you from spending too much on things users might not want. This way, you can create a SaaS product that truly meets user needs without wasting resources.

3. To easily adjust to market needs. With an MVP, you can change the product based on what users say and what the SaaS market demands. It's much easier and cheaper to tweak a smaller, simpler product than a large, complex one.

4. To reduce time to market. A SaaS MVP lets you launch your product quickly by cutting down on development time. This means you can attract users and get feedback sooner, which is especially beneficial for SaaS startups that want to stay ahead of competitors.

5. To reduce risks. Developing an MVP for SaaS and launching it quickly helps you spot potential problems early. Getting your product in front of real users allows you to identify and fix issues before you've invested too much time and money. So, if you want to optimize your SaaS development costs, this is a great way to do that.

“Important disclaimer: When we at Brights talk about a SaaS MVP, we don’t mean lower quality. We care about the design and functionality so that users have an enjoyable experience right away. It’s just that at this point, we deliver only the features that solve users’ immediate pain points. And if you find your product-market fit with the MVP, you can go further from there and add other supplementary features.”

— Nata Shved, COO at Brights

Types of MVPs you should consider

If you are ready to invest time, funds, and effort into SaaS MVP development, you need to figure out which type of MVP will work best for your needs. Currently, there are four main types of SaaS MVP, each with its pros and cons.

Wizard of OZ

This MVP for SaaS is half-automated and half-manual — humans are responsible for completing the core tasks. Since such a workload can be quite intense, this MVP type usually focuses on only 1-3 main features. It's one of the most efficient choices if you want to test how users interact with the main features of your SaaS product. 

One of the most famous examples of such an MVP is Dropbox, where the team validated demand by creating an explainer video and manually handling tasks behind the scenes before automating the process.

Concierge

The concierge type of SaaS MVP is similar to the previous one. However, in this case, humans (or “concierges”) replace most of the app's functions. They serve customers and gather their feedback. This option can be best to verify if your app meets market needs. For instance, at the beginning, HubSpot offered marketing services manually, with the founders directly working with clients to understand their marketing needs and pain points.

Piecemeal

This approach to MVP development for SaaS tests your idea using existing services and platforms to help you save resources. For instance, if you want to create a marketplace for pet goods, you could start by using current marketplaces to see if there's demand. This option can help you create a viable product for SaaS on a tight budget. A vivid example here is Zapier, which tested the concept by manually creating integrations using existing APIs before building the full automation platform.

Single-feature MVP

SaaS products of this type focus on one key feature that solves a major problem for the target audience. This feature often highlights the unique selling point of your SaaS startup. With the help of this MVP, you can verify if your app's main feature is technically feasible and valuable to users. That’s how Mailchimp started — with a single feature of ending newsletters, allowing them to validate the market before expanding their services. Another example is Buffer, which initially focused solely on allowing users to schedule tweets in advance.

MVP development stages

Over the years, we’ve developed a well-polished, time-proven development flow suitable for startups that we want to share with you. Here, we focus mostly on how to create a SaaS MVP, and for a more comprehensive dive, you can check out our article on the entire SaaS development process.

Research your users first

Though SaaS is a promising business model, a great idea alone doesn’t ensure success, so you have to validate your theories. The first of the SaaS MVP development stages is a thorough discovery that will help you understand your users and their needs. Throughout this phase, we use various methods, such as surveys, focus groups, social media analysis, user interviews, and feedback forms. 

At this stage, the focus areas will be the following:

1. Target audience. Identifying who your users are and what they need.

2. Market research. Studying the market to understand trends, demands, and gaps.

3. Competitive analysis. Analyzing your competitors to see what they are offering and where they are lacking.

4. Pricing model. Determining how you will monetize your product based on user value and market standards.

Putting effort into user research first will help you build a more successful SaaS MVP that resonates with your market.

Identify the core functionality & technical aspects

The goal of SaaS MVP development is to include only essential features that solve a specific problem for your users. This will help you to save costs and verify your theories more precisely, as the users will have fewer aspects of the product to focus on.

Here is how you can do it:

1. Start by clearly outlining what core features your SaaS product MVP might need before you start building.

2. Evaluate each feature. At this point, you need to ensure each feature is technically feasible, meets the needs of your users, aligns with your business goals, and isn't overly explored by competitors.

3. Choose the most essential features. You can do this by using methods like RICE (Reach/Impact/Confidence/Effort).

4. Define technical requirements and constraints. These can include system architecture, data security, integration capabilities, performance and scalability requirements, UX, compliance with industry standards, etc.

Outlining these things helps you build a clear roadmap for SaaS MVP development, ensuring the successful delivery of a scalable, secure, and user-friendly SaaS product.

Design the MVP

This step of the SaaS MVP development process involves designing the app's user interface and pages, as well as architectural planning. To design a highly functional product, consider the following tips:

1. Start with a clickable and interactive prototype. It will help stakeholders visualize the user flow and interactions. You can build it using prototyping tools like Figma or Adobe XD to create a dynamic representation of your SaaS MVP.

2. Move on to architectural planning. Define the system architecture, including front-end and back-end components. Keep things like scalability, performance, and security requirements in mind.

“We recommend using a multi-tenant architecture for SaaS MVP development. It allows multiple users (tenants) to share a single instance of the app while maintaining data isolation and security. Implementing such an architecture helps enhance scalability and reduce operational overhead.”

— Illya Z., software architect at Brights

Build the MVP

This is one of the most fundamental SaaS MVP development stages. To create a well-functioning MVP for a SaaS startup, you need to focus on technologies and methodologies. This will lay the groundwork for a successful MVP launch and the following iterations.

Together with the development team, choose the right tech stack for your SaaS MVP:

1. Back-end development. The Brights team recommends using Node.js for scalable SaaS solutions due to its efficiency and scalability.

2. Front-end development. Here, we generally recommend using Vue.js and React. However, you should also take your project specifics into account.

Start testing early

With SaaS development, speed is often very important. Still, it doesn't mean that you should skip the essential stages of MVP development. Testing early helps you reduce overall costs as you spot bugs and issues sooner and can fix them instantly. Fixing bugs post-launch, on the other hand, can be up to 100 times more expensive.

To make the most out of your SaaS MVP testing, consider the following tips from Brights:

1. Use various testing methods like integration, load, performance, regression, and unit testing. This approach will help you increase the efficiency of testing and create a high-quality SaaS MVP.

2. Make security and compliance testing your priority. It helps protect user data and ensure regulatory adherence.

3. Develop a detailed testing strategy to streamline the QA process.

4. Test on actual devices. This can help you discover issues that might be missed otherwise.

5. Implement automated testing tools and frameworks such as Appium and Selenium to quicken the testing processes and improve their efficiency.

How to avoid MVP development mistakes common for SaaS startups

Strictly following all the essential stages of MVP development for SaaS doesn't make you invincible to all the potential mistakes, especially when you are a startup in its early stages. The best way to protect your product from potential risks is to learn the most widespread startup mistakes. Here are the common pitfalls to watch out for — and how to avoid them.

Assuming customer needs

It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking you know exactly what your customers want, especially when you’re passionate about your idea. But without proper research, you’re just guessing, and that’s not a good foundation for any product. We always recommend starting with a discovery phase. For this, bring in an experienced business analyst along with UX/UI designers who will explore customer insights, validate your assumptions, and guide you in building a SaaS product that resonates with your audience.

Neglecting marketing launch plan

We know that at this point you’re primarily focused on getting your MVP up and running. However, even a great product can’t do without a marketing plan. You need to think how your product is going to reach the people who need it early on. So, we suggest thinking ahead and creating a strategy to get your audience's attention before your SaaS MVP goes live.

Trying to do everything yourself

Even if your in-house team is short of employees, this doesn't mean you should handle everything on your own. SaaS development is complicated, and trying to deal with every single process, from project management to marketing, can lead to burnout and a higher rate of human errors. Delegate where you can, and don’t hesitate to outsource specific tasks. Yes, it might cost extra, but you'll build a more effective product by focusing on what you do best.

Striving for perfection with too many features

No matter how tempting it might be to equip your MVP with all those amazing features you came up with, try to stick to the essentials for now. The goal of an MVP in SaaS development isn't to build a fully loaded product — it’s about solving your users’ most pressing problems as fast as possible. Once you have a lean and focused MVP, you can grow your product based on real user feedback.

Engaging individual freelancers for complex projects

It's natural for startups and small businesses to want to save costs whenever possible. That's why some of them hire individual freelancers for their MVP development. Freelancers can be a valid choice, especially for short-term tasks or when your in-house team requires team extension.

Comprehensive SaaS MVP development, however, typically requires a range of diverse professionals. Technically, you can hire multiple individual freelancers, but coordinating them can be challenging as they aren’t a unified team after all. This is why we recommend turning to outsourcing development companies when you need to build the product from the ground up and don’t have an in-house team. This way, you will get a fully formed team ready to meet tight deadlines and offer strategic insights that influence your product’s success. Besides, outsourcing companies can completely take over the entire process from the discovery phase to prototyping, design, development, testing, and release, taking full responsibility for the result.

Not moving forward after the MVP launch

Launching your MVP is just the beginning, not the finish line. It’s easy to think the hard work is over, but the real value of an MVP comes from what you do next. Don’t fall into the trap of complacency. After your MVP is live, actively gather user feedback, analyze the data, and iterate on your product. Use these insights to prioritize new features, improve existing ones, and continuously adapt to meet your users’ evolving needs. The goal is to keep moving forward, turning your MVP into a fully-fledged product that delivers long-term value.

How it works in practice: Brights’ experience

It's one thing to talk about the right approach to building an MVP and navigating common pitfalls. But how does it actually work in practice? We want to demonstrate our approach through our recent MVP project, Showcase, a website builder designed for digital art creators.

Our client, a creator himself, came to us with a straightforward task: giving artists a platform where they could share photos and videos without worrying about intellectual property rights violations. That was the primary pain point we focused on solving. The Brights team developed a website builder integrated with a reliable mechanism for safeguarding users' art. To be more specific, we integrated Showcase with IMATAG, thus implementing digital watermarking to protect each piece of artwork, making it possible to track any stolen content.

As you know, it’s crucial to test the MVP with real users. To ensure the solution's effectiveness, we tested it with a photographer with a vast archive of photos and videos. This allowed us to validate our product hypothesis in a real-world setting. The results were promising: users started to join even before the official launch.

Now, with a proven concept, we're going beyond the MVP. Together with the client, we are enhancing the product with new functionality and preparing to explore other markets. Showcase became a perfect example of how a focused, well-executed MVP can lay the foundation for future growth.

Average SaaS MVP development cost

What is the average cost of SaaS MVP development? While here's no definitive answer to this question, we can give you a general idea of the costs. The total development cost depends on the variety of factors.

The main SaaS MVP development factors that affect the cost include:

• The app's complexity. The number of features and their complexity impact development costs. A simple MVP with basic features costs less than a complex MVP with advanced functionalities.

• Infrastructure costs. You should also consider the cost of the entire app infrastructure, including servers, databases, and third-party services. Infrastructure expenses should be included in the budget.

• Tech stack and platform choice. Your choice of technologies and platforms affects development costs. Different tech stacks have varying development and maintenance costs.

On average, it comes out to:

• A simple MVP – $20,000-40,000

• A medium complexity MVP – $50,000-80,000

• A complex MVP – $100,000+

It's possible to create a basic SaaS MVP for under $20,000. However, sacrificing quality may hinder achieving product-market fit. That's because quality matters, and you should put it first.

What you can expect from working with Brights

Throughout Brights’ history, we built over 300 products, many of which were SaaS solutions. Naturally, our team has developed fundamental principles that help us keep the quality of our MVP development services consistent. Here is what you need to know about the approach of our SaaS MVP development company before partnering with us:

Honest evaluation. Building a SaaS, even an MVP 1.0 version, is a costly investment. We want you to be sure you're putting your money into a product that can succeed. Therefore, during the discovery phase, if we determine that your idea requires major adjustments or isn’t viable, we’ll provide honest feedback so that you can make an informed, sensible decision.

Functional design. Even though MVPs are often minimalistic, it’s important not to sacrifice quality. With the market saturated with amazing products, users have really high expectations, even from early-stage products. That is why our UI/UX design team invests significant effort into understanding user needs and demands from the start. While still minimalistic, the SaaS MVPs we design are thoroughly researched and highly functional to encourage adoption as early as possible.

Strategic scalability. MVP is just the beginning of your product’s development. While it might seem a bit far-fetched, we must think about how your SaaS will grow after the MVP launch now. So, we design a strong and flexible architecture, getting your MVP ready to handle new features and user growth. Speaking from experience, it will save you tons of time and costs in the long run.

If this approach resonates with you, chances are we’ll make a good team together, so reach out.

Wrapping up

So, what is MVP in SaaS development for? We view it as a way for businesses to validate their ideas, save costs, adapt to market needs, reduce risks, and accelerate time to market. However, to create a solid MVP that will potentially grow into a full-scale thriving product, you need to prioritize user research and base the development on data, not assumptions. 

The process might sound overwhelming, but you don’t have to do it alone. At Brights, we can guide you through every stage of MVP development and help ensure you build a solution that meets user demands right away and sets the foundation for your long-term success.