Types of MVP: 11 Kinds, Real Examples and What Each Costs

What an MVP Is (and Is Not)

Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup, defines the minimum viable product as the "version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort." The two words that matter are learning and least. An MVP is an experiment with a question attached, not a cheap first draft of the final product.

That is why so many famous MVPs were not software at all. A video, a web page with a phone number, a founder buying shoes at full price: each one answered a question faster than code could. For the longer definition and its history, read our guide to what an MVP is.

An MVP is also not a prototype. A prototype shows how something might look or work, usually to a few people in a test session. An MVP goes to real customers who make real decisions: they sign up, pay, or come back next week.

The types fall into three groups:

• Demand tests. Nothing works yet. You measure whether people raise their hand: an email, a click, a deposit.
• Manual MVPs. The service works, but people do the work behind it.
• Built MVPs. Software does the work, cut down to the core.

Which Type of MVP Should You Use?

Start from the riskiest thing you believe about your business, then pick the cheapest test that could prove it wrong. Each row links to its section below.

Most products use two or three of these in sequence. See how to combine them.

1. Landing Page MVP (Smoke Test)

A single page that describes the product as if it exists and asks for one action: an email, a call booking or a waitlist sign-up. You send people to it from your network, communities or a small ad test, and count how many take the action. Nothing behind the page works yet.

• Best for: checking whether a problem and a promise get attention at all, and which wording, audience or price gets the most response.
• Avoid when: your buyers are few and reached through relationships, as in enterprise or regulated sales. Twenty visitors tell you little; twenty conversations tell you a lot. Remember that an email address is free to give, so a sign-up is a weak signal on its own.
• Real example: Buffer. Joel Gascoigne tested the idea with a two-page site, one page explaining the product and one asking for an email, then tweeted the link and asked for feedback. In his words, the aim was to check "whether people would even consider using the app."
• What it costs: mostly time: a day or two to write and publish the page. Cash costs are a domain, a page builder or simple hosting, and whatever ad budget you choose to test with.

2. Fake Door MVP

A button, menu item or pricing plan for something that does not exist yet. When someone clicks, they see a short, honest message ("Not built yet. Want early access?") and you record the click. It is a landing page test placed inside a real product or sign-up flow, so it measures intent from people who are already in the middle of doing something.

• Best for: deciding which feature or plan to build next, testing price points, and ranking several ideas against each other with real clicks instead of opinions.
• Avoid when: you have almost no traffic, or the dead end would annoy paying customers enough to cost you trust. Never take payment behind a fake door, and always tell people what happened.
• Real example: Buffer again. After the two-page test, Gascoigne added a page between the two that showed pricing plans, so visitors had to choose a plan before leaving their email. People kept signing up and a small number clicked paid plans. He then built a rough first version over 7 weeks of evenings and weekends, launched it on November 30, and had his first paying customer within 4 days.
• What it costs: hours, if you already have a product or landing page: one button, one message and one analytics event.

3. Explainer Video MVP

A short video that shows how the product will work, published before the product is ready for the public. Viewers judge the experience instead of a feature list, which makes this type useful when the product is hard to describe in words or expensive to build.

• Best for: technical products with an obvious moment of "oh, that is useful": syncing, automation, anything where watching it beats reading about it.
• Avoid when: the value is in something people only feel by using it, such as speed on their own data or trust over time, or when your audience does not watch video where you can reach them.
• Real example: Dropbox. In a 2011 TechCrunch piece, Eric Ries reported that Drew Houston made a demo video aimed at the Digg community. Houston said: "Our beta waiting list went from 5,000 people to 75,000 people literally overnight."
• What it costs: a screen recording with a voice-over takes about a day of your time. You still need something real enough to record: a clickable design or a demo that works on your own machine.

4. Concierge MVP

You deliver the service by hand, and the customer knows a person is doing it. There is no product yet: you are the product. Working this closely with the first customers shows you which steps matter, which you can drop and which are worth automating.

• Best for: services and workflow products where you do not yet know the exact steps, such as planning, bookkeeping, recruiting, logistics or operations work. It is at its best for the first 5 to 20 customers.
• Avoid when: the value is the automation itself (instant results, real-time data, huge volume), or when you might mistake customers' liking for you for demand for the product.
• Real example: Food on the Table, a meal planning startup. Manuel Rosso's slides describe meeting the first users face to face, sending recipes and grocery lists by email, using Google Apps as a stand-in for web pages, and focusing "on the experience, not code" for users #2 to #20. DoorDash started in a similar spirit: the Stanford Daily reported that the founders put up a prototype called PaloAltoDelivery.com in one afternoon, got an order straight away, and that the company did its deliveries itself.
• What it costs: your time, plus whatever the service costs to deliver. If you want a thin layer of software around the manual work, the test version in our Airbnb cost breakdown is a concierge build: $6,000 on our price list, with host payouts done by hand.

5. Wizard of Oz MVP

The customer sees what looks like a finished, automated product. Behind the curtain, people do the work. It tests the whole experience, from first click to delivery, without building the expensive part first. Be careful with honesty: hiding a manual step is fine; misleading people about how their data is handled is not.

• Best for: testing whether customers use and trust the full experience, especially for matching, recommendation or AI products where the automation is the costly part to build.
• Avoid when: answers must be instant, volume would swamp you, or the hidden step involves sensitive data that customers would not expect a person to see. In health, finance or legal products, say plainly that people review the work.
• Real example: Zappos. Founder Nick Swinmurn told Fortune that he offered a local shoe store this deal: "I'll take some pictures, put your shoes online, and if people buy them, I'll buy them from you at full price." The store agreed and he got a few orders. To a shopper it looked like an online shoe shop; behind it, every order was bought by hand. Fortune places this in 1999, when the company was called Shoesite.com.
• What it costs: a front end that looks real, plus your time behind it. Many teams start on a no-code tool. A custom web front end with sign-up, one workflow, a database and an admin view is the $5,000 base on our price list.

6. Piecemeal MVP

You stitch existing tools together (a blog, a form, a spreadsheet, a payment link, an email tool) so the product works end to end, without writing a custom app. Unlike a concierge MVP, the customer gets a working product. Unlike a no-code MVP, you are not building an app at all, just connecting parts that already exist.

• Best for: deals, newsletters, booking flows and simple marketplaces: anything where the steps are known and an existing tool covers each step.
• Avoid when: the core value is a step no tool does, such as your own matching logic or data model, or when the glue work grows faster than your customer count.
• Real example: Groupon, which launched in November 2008 out of an earlier site called The Point. At Y Combinator's Startup School in 2014, Andrew Mason described the first version: a custom WordPress template, vouchers generated by a FileMaker app, and a script that opened individual emails in Apple's Mail app, pausing every 30 emails so the computer did not crash.
• What it costs: subscriptions to the tools you use plus your time to connect them. Cheap to start; the cost shows up later as manual work on every order.

7. No-Code MVP

A working app built on a no-code platform such as Bubble, Softr, Glide or Airtable, or on an existing tool used in a new way. Real users and real data, with no developer. The trade-off is control: the platform runs your app, and on some platforms the logic cannot leave it.

• Best for: internal tools, directories, simple marketplaces and standard workflow apps, and founders who want real usage before paying for development.
• Avoid when: the value is custom logic, deep integrations or sensitive data, you need to own the code for investors or buyers, or usage-based platform fees would grow with every user. Our no-code vs custom MVP guide covers the switching cost.
• Real example: Product Hunt. Ryan Hoover started it in November 2013 as a collaborative email list on the link-sharing tool Linkydink, invited a couple dozen people, and told First Round Review that he soon had a couple hundred subscribers. The custom web app was built after the list had shown people cared.
• What it costs: a platform subscription plus your time or a no-code freelancer's. Platform prices change often and usually rise with usage, so check the pricing page for your expected user count before you commit.

8. Single-Feature MVP

Real software that does one thing: the core action, and nothing around it. No settings pages, no second user type, no dashboard beyond what you need to run it. If that one action is valuable, people come back for it; if not, nothing else would have saved it.

• Best for: products with one obvious core action (order a ride, schedule a post, leave feedback on a web page) where the question is whether that action is worth repeating.
• Avoid when: the value only appears when several parts work together. A marketplace needs both sides; a team tool needs sharing.
• Real example: Uber. In Fortune's 2015 oral history, early team member Conrad Whelan dates the launch to "June 1st, 2010" and says of the first product: "It was just a way to order the car." San Francisco was its first market.
• What it costs: this is where our price list starts: $5,000 fixed for sign-up, one core workflow, a database, Stripe checkout or a waitlist, a basic admin view, a landing page, deployment and 30 days of support, in 30 days or less.

9. Pre-Order MVP

You ask customers to pay, or put down a deposit, before the product exists. Money is much harder to give than an email address, so this is the strongest demand signal short of real sales. For B2B software, the same idea is a paid pilot or a signed letter of intent.

• Best for: physical products, events, courses, and B2B software with a clear buyer and budget.
• Avoid when: you cannot give a believable delivery date, or could not refund everyone if you do not ship. State the refund terms and timing before anyone pays.
• Real example: Tesla Model 3. CNN Money reported in April 2016 that, a week after the car was unveiled, 325,000 people had reserved one with deposits of about $1,000, fully refundable until the final sale. The car had a $35,000 starting price and first deliveries were not due until the end of 2017.
• What it costs: a page with a checkout or deposit link, card processing fees on each payment, and the cost of refunds if you cancel. When you build the product with us, Stripe checkout is part of the $5,000 base.

10. Crowdfunding MVP

A public pre-order on a platform such as Kickstarter. Backers pledge toward a goal, and you only collect if you reach it. A successful campaign proves demand and pays for the first production run at the same time.

• Best for: consumer hardware, games and design products, and anything with a community that enjoys backing new things.
• Avoid when: you sell B2B software (buyers do not shop on crowdfunding sites), you cannot afford a convincing prototype and video, or your manufacturing costs are still a guess.
• Real example: Pebble. Its "Pebble: E-Paper Watch for iPhone and Android" campaign raised $10,266,845 from 68,929 backers and was fully funded on 19 May 2012. Guinness World Records lists it as the most money pledged for a Kickstarter design project.
• What it costs: Kickstarter takes 5% of the funds from successful projects, and its payment processor, Stripe, charges roughly 3 to 5% more. Projects that miss their goal pay no fees. The real cost is the prototype and the campaign video you need before launch.

11. Software MVP (the "Real" MVP)

A working product with the smallest set of features that delivers the core value without you in the loop: sign-up, one core workflow, payments and enough admin to run it. This is what most people picture when they hear "MVP", and it is the right step once cheaper tests have told you what to build. Our step-by-step guide to building an MVP covers the process.

• Best for: proving that people keep using and paying when you are not doing the work by hand, raising money on real usage, and products whose value is the software itself.
• Avoid when: you have not spoken to customers yet, or one of the cheaper types above can answer your question. Building first and asking later is the most expensive way to learn.
• Real example: FeedbackFlow is our own product: point-and-click website feedback with an embeddable widget, pinned comments, threads and Stripe billing, built on our 30-day MVP model and still running. Schedullr is a client build for a founder in India: ghostwriters write LinkedIn posts in Notion, clients approve them, and posts publish on schedule. It is live at schedullr.com, and the client kept us on after the MVP.
• What it costs: see the table below. These are minidev.pro's own published prices; other studios and freelancers price differently.

From our published price list, the Airbnb cost breakdown and our offer for solo founders. The delivery date goes into the agreement; if we miss it, and the delay was not caused by scope changes you asked for, you get a full refund plus $2,000 (terms). Price your own scope with the MVP cost calculator.

Concierge vs Wizard of Oz MVP

These two are the most often confused. Both use people instead of software. The difference is what the customer sees, and that changes what you learn.

Famous MVP Examples at a Glance

Every row below is checked against the company's own pages, the founder's own words or major press; see Sources. Many popular MVP stories online add numbers we could not verify, so we left those out.

The Airbnb MVP, in more detail. Airbnb says it was born in 2007 when two hosts welcomed three guests to their San Francisco home. Its own timeline has Brian and Joe hosting Airbed & Breakfast's first guests in October 2007, an official launch at SXSW in March 2008 that "receives just two bookings", and the name change to Airbnb in March 2009. Growth after that was manual: in "Do Things That Don't Scale" (July 2013), Paul Graham describes the founders going door to door in New York, recruiting users, helping hosts improve their listings and taking "professional" photos of their first hosts' apartments. Today Airbnb reports more than 5.5 million hosts and over 9 million live listings (figures last updated May 2026). If you are building something similar, our cost to build an app like Airbnb prices a $6,000 test version and an $11,750 lean marketplace line by line.

How to Combine Them

The types are not rivals. Most good products climb through them, spending more only after the cheaper step has answered its question:

1. Talk to 10 to 20 people with the problem. Free, and it tells you which assumption is riskiest.
2. Run a demand test. A landing page, fake door or video. If nobody raises a hand, change the promise or the audience before you build anything.
3. Ask for money. A pre-order, deposit, paid pilot or crowdfunding goal. Clicks are cheap; payments are evidence.
4. Deliver by hand. Concierge for the first customers, then Wizard of Oz or piecemeal once you know the steps. Write down every step you repeat: that list becomes the spec.
5. Build the software MVP. Automate the steps you repeated most, and nothing else. This is when a fixed-scope build makes sense, because the scope is already known. Our MVP development service is built for this step.

Buffer is a clean example of the ladder: a landing page, then a pricing page acting as a fake door, then a rough product in 7 weeks, then a paying customer within 4 days of launch.

When a Software MVP Is the Wrong First Step

We build software MVPs for a living, and we still tell some founders not to hire us yet. Skip the build for now if:

• You have not spoken to customers. A $5,000 build is cheap next to agency quotes, but expensive next to a week of conversations.
• A person could do the job for the first 10 customers. Run a concierge MVP first and build what you learn.
• Your question is about demand, not the product. A landing page or pre-order answers it in days.
• The workflow is standard and you have no budget. A no-code tool will get you real usage first.

Build first when the value is the software itself (developer tools, real-time products, anything that must be instant), when you already have paying pilots or a waitlist that converts, or when investors need to see a working product on real data.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the main types of MVP?

The common types are the landing page (smoke test), fake door, explainer video, concierge, Wizard of Oz, piecemeal, no-code, single-feature, pre-order, crowdfunding and the software MVP. They fall into three groups: demand tests where nothing is built yet, manual MVPs where people do the work behind the scenes, and built MVPs where software does the work. Pick the cheapest type that answers your riskiest question.

What is a concierge MVP?

A concierge MVP is one where you deliver the service by hand and the customer knows a person is doing it. You act as the product for your first few customers, learn the exact steps they need, and only automate what proves valuable. Food on the Table, a meal planning startup, began this way, emailing recipes and grocery lists to its first users.

What is the difference between a concierge MVP and a Wizard of Oz MVP?

In a concierge MVP the customer knows a person is doing the work. In a Wizard of Oz MVP the customer sees what looks like an automated product, and people do the work out of sight. Concierge tests whether your solution helps; Wizard of Oz tests whether customers use and trust the finished experience. Zappos is the classic Wizard of Oz example.

What was Airbnb's MVP?

Airbnb started as Airbed & Breakfast. According to Airbnb, its founders hosted their first guests in October 2007, and the site officially launched at SXSW in March 2008 with just two bookings. Early growth was manual: Paul Graham describes the founders going door to door in New York and taking photos of their first hosts' apartments themselves.

What is the difference between an MVP and a prototype?

A prototype shows how a product might look or work, usually to a few people in a test session. An MVP goes to real customers who make real decisions: signing up, paying or coming back. A clickable design is a prototype; the same design behind a page that asks for a deposit is an MVP.

How much does an MVP cost?

It depends on the type. Landing pages, fake doors and concierge tests cost mostly your time. A custom software MVP at minidev.pro is $5,000 fixed for sign-up, one core workflow, a database, Stripe checkout or a waitlist, a basic admin view, a landing page and deployment, delivered in 30 days or less. Add-ons such as a marketplace (+$3,000) or native mobile apps (+$6,000) have fixed prices.

Sources

All sources checked November 2026. Quotes are as published; where a popular retelling added numbers the original source does not contain, we left them out.

• Lean Startup Co., "What is an MVP?" (Eric Ries's MVP definition, republished from his Startup Lessons Learned blog): leanstartup.co/what-is-an-mvp
• Eric Ries, guest post on Dropbox as a minimum viable product, TechCrunch, October 19, 2011 (Dropbox video, waiting list from 5,000 to 75,000): techcrunch.com/2011/10/19/dropbox-minimal-viable-product
• Joel Gascoigne, "Idea to Paying Customers in 7 Weeks: How We Did It", Buffer, February 16, 2011 (two-page MVP, pricing page, 7 weeks, first paying customer within 4 days): buffer.com/resources/idea-to-paying-customers-in-7-weeks-how-we-did-it
• Manuel Rosso, "Concierge MVP: Learning from early adopters at Food on the Table" (slides): slideshare.net/slideshow/manuel-rosso-food-on-the-table/7239850
• The Stanford Daily, "Alumni-founded startup delivers local eatery goods to campus", September 23, 2013 (PaloAltoDelivery.com prototype, deliveries done by the company): stanforddaily.com/?p=1078716
• Dinah Eng, profile of Zappos founder Nick Swinmurn, Fortune, September 5, 2012 (shoe store photos, buying at full price, Shoesite.com, 1999): fortune.com/2012/09/05/nick-swinmurn-zappos-silent-founder
• Y Combinator, "Andrew Mason at Startup School SV 2014" (transcript: WordPress template, FileMaker vouchers, Mail app script): rosetta.to/u/ycombinator/andrew-mason-at-startup-school-sv-2014
• Wikipedia, "Groupon" (launch in November 2008 out of The Point, citing Forbes and Groupon): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupon
• First Round Review, on how Product Hunt started, January 27, 2015 (Linkydink list, November 2013, early subscribers): review.firstround.com/product-hunt-is-everywhere-this-is-how-it-got-there
• "The Origin of Product Hunt", Medium (the web app built after the email list): medium.com/p/7acb09e2593a
• Adam Lashinsky, "Uber: An oral history", Fortune, June 3, 2015 (launch date, "just a way to order the car", San Francisco first): fortune.com/2015/06/03/uber-an-oral-history
• CNN Money, "Tesla Model 3's first week: 325,000 orders", April 2016 (reservations, deposits, refunds, starting price, delivery date): money.cnn.com/2016/04/07/autos/tesla-model-3-orders
• Guinness World Records, "Most money pledged for a Kickstarter design project" (Pebble total, backers, funding date): guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/114328-most-money-pledged-for-a-kickstarter-design-project
• Kickstarter Help Center, "What are the fees?" (5% platform fee, roughly 3 to 5% processing, no fees if unfunded): help.kickstarter.com/en-us/articles/16236674-what-are-the-fees
• Airbnb Newsroom, "About us" (born in 2007, timeline, host and listing counts updated May 2026): news.airbnb.com/about-us
• Paul Graham, "Do Things That Don't Scale", July 2013 (Airbnb founders recruiting door to door and photographing listings): paulgraham.com/ds.html
• minidev.pro, MVP cost calculator price list: minidev.pro/mvp-cost-calculator
• minidev.pro, terms (delivery guarantee): minidev.pro/terms

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