One of the most common questions I get from founders: "How much will it cost to build my SaaS?" The honest answer is: it depends on scope. But here's how to think about the cost categories.

Development Cost

Development is typically 60–80% of the initial SaaS cost. Three ways to hire:

  • Offshore developer — $15–50/hour. Lower cost, higher management overhead, variable quality.
  • Freelancer (Fiverr/Upwork) — $30–100/hour. Mid-range cost, good for defined projects, look for specialists.
  • Agency — $150–300/hour. High cost, good project management, slow-moving, rarely specialized in SaaS.
  • Full-time hire — $80–150K/year. Only makes sense at scale with consistent development needs.

A well-scoped SaaS MVP (8–10 core features, Stripe billing, auth) takes an experienced developer 2–4 weeks. Budget accordingly.

Infrastructure Cost

Monthly recurring infrastructure costs for an early-stage SaaS:

  • Replit hosting: ~$25/month
  • Supabase: Free to $25/month
  • Clerk: Free to $25/month
  • Email (Resend): Free to $20/month
  • Monitoring (Sentry): Free to $26/month

Total early-stage infrastructure: $0–120/month. Far lower than most founders expect.

Hidden Costs Founders Miss

  • Design (landing page, UI): $500–3,000 if using a designer
  • Stripe fees: 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction
  • Customer support tools: $0–50/month
  • Analytics: $0–50/month
  • Bug fixes and improvements after launch: plan for 20% of initial dev cost monthly

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A Realistic Budget

A well-executed SaaS MVP with an experienced specialist: $3,000–8,000 development cost, $50–100/month infrastructure, $500–2,000 for design. Total launch budget: $4,000–12,000. After launch, budget $500–1,500/month for ongoing maintenance and improvements.

Hidden Costs Founders Forget

Beyond development, first-year SaaS costs typically include: domain and SSL ($15–50/year), hosting ($25–200/month depending on scale), authentication provider ($25–100/month), transactional email ($10–50/month), payment processing (2.9% + 30¢ per transaction), customer support tooling ($50–200/month), and analytics platforms ($0–150/month). These operational costs often total $200–500/month before you generate a dollar of revenue. Factor them into your runway calculations early — many founders underestimate ongoing infrastructure costs by 3–5x when planning their first SaaS budget.