- How much does it cost to build an MVP with Shipkit?
- A Production MVP starts at $14,900 and ships in 4-6 weeks. A Custom Platform — multi-role access, advanced automations, integrations — starts at $24,900 and takes 6-9 weeks. If you already have a codebase, a Production Readiness Audit is $490 fixed and takes 2 days. Every figure is fixed after scoping rather than billed hourly.
- What is the difference between the Production MVP and the Custom Platform plan?
- The Custom Platform plan is everything in the Production MVP plus advanced AI and automation scenarios, a knowledge base or document assistant, multi-level roles and permissions, SMS notifications, an advanced reporting dashboard, API documentation, and 30 days of post-launch support instead of 14. It is scope, not quality: the same build standard, applied to a larger surface.
- When do I pay, and what happens if the scope changes?
- Payment is split 30% at kickoff, 30% on approved UX and architecture, 30% on staging acceptance and 10% at production handoff. The price is agreed after scoping and does not move afterwards. Work that falls outside the agreed scope is quoted separately rather than absorbed silently or billed by the hour.
- Is there anything cheaper than $14,900?
- For a build, no — $14,900 is the entry price and the Production MVP is the smallest complete product Shipkit ships. The one engagement below it is the $490 Production Readiness Audit, which reviews an existing codebase and returns a keep, refactor or rebuild plan plus a fixed proposal. It is a review, not a build.
- What does the price not include?
- Third-party running costs go to your own accounts rather than through us: hosting, domain, and any paid APIs the product uses. The audit explicitly excludes code changes, penetration testing and compliance certification. Ongoing maintenance past the post-launch bug support window is the separate Care & Reliability plan, from $950 per month.
- How long does the whole process take, from first call to launch?
- The build itself is 4-6 weeks for a Production MVP and 6-9 weeks for a Custom Platform, starting after scope, timeline, milestones and stack are locked. An audit of an existing codebase takes 2 days from repository access, which is often the fastest way to find out which of the two ranges applies to you.