“How much will my SaaS cost to build?” is the first question every founder asks me. The honest answer: it depends on three things — feature scope, integration complexity, and how fast you need it. Below is the breakdown I use when scoping a project in 2026, with real numbers from recent client work.
The three tiers of custom SaaS
Tier 1 — MVP (€8,000–€18,000)
Single user role, one or two core features, basic auth (email/password or magic link), Stripe checkout for one product, a dashboard, and a marketing landing page. Built on Next.js + Supabase or Postgres. Deployed on Vercel or a small VPS.
Timeline: 4–6 weeks. Good for: validating an idea, getting your first 10 paying users, deciding whether to keep going.
Tier 2 — Production SaaS (€18,000–€45,000)
Multi-tenant or multi-role, 5–10 features, third-party integrations (Stripe subscriptions, email provider, Slack/webhook outputs), admin panel, search, basic AI feature, mobile-friendly UI, observability (Sentry, PostHog), CI/CD.
Timeline: 8–14 weeks. Good for: launching publicly, supporting 100–1,000 active users, raising a pre-seed or seed round.
Tier 3 — Platform / Vertical SaaS (€45,000–€120,000+)
Multi-tenant with billing for multiple plans, ten-plus features, deep integrations (booking, payments, ERP, custom hardware, AI agents), B2B onboarding, role-based access, white-label option, mobile apps, dedicated infrastructure, SOC-2-readiness if needed.
Timeline: 4–9 months. Good for: agencies serving many similar SMBs, regulated industries, anything where the wrong stack now costs you €100k of rewrites in 18 months.
What actually drives the price
- User roles and permissions — one role is cheap, five roles with custom permissions doubles the auth work.
- Integrations — every external API (Stripe, HubSpot, ANAF, Twilio, custom CRMs) adds 1–3 days each, plus ongoing maintenance.
- Real-time features — live collaboration, chat, or live dashboards add WebSocket infrastructure on top of the base stack.
- AI features done right — embedding a GPT call is half a day. RAG, agents, evals, prompt versioning is weeks.
- Compliance — GDPR-compliant data handling is included by default in the EU. SOC-2, HIPAA, PCI DSS add 2–6 weeks of audit-friendly work.
Where founders waste money
- Over-scoping the MVP. Every feature you ship before product-market fit is a feature you’ll rewrite. Aim for 3 core features, not 12.
- Hiring the wrong shape of team. A single senior generalist will out-ship a team of three juniors for the first 4 months. Bring in the team only when scope demands it.
- Picking ambitious infrastructure. You don’t need Kubernetes for 100 users. Postgres on a single VPS handles 10,000 RPS if you index right.
- Building auth from scratch. Clerk, Auth.js, Supabase Auth — use one. Don’t write your own session logic, it’s where breaches happen.
How to estimate yours in 10 minutes
- List your core features in plain English. Cut by half.
- List external systems you’ll integrate with. Each one ≈ €1,000–€3,000.
- Decide your launch deadline. Halve again if it’s under 8 weeks.
- Sum up: feature count × €2,000 base + integrations + launch buffer.
That gives you a rough range. From there, the actual number depends on who you hire and how much they push back on scope — a good engineer will save you 30% by removing things you didn’t need.
Want a real quote on your project?
I scope projects for free. Drop me an email at contact@veylodev.com with a one-paragraph description of what you want to build, your rough timeline, and your budget range. You’ll get an honest yes/no and a fixed-price quote within 48 hours.