Honest cost breakdown for building a social app — from a minimal MVP to a full-featured platform. No agency fluff, just real numbers.
MVP cost
$5,000
Full platform
up to $50,000
MVP timeline
3–6 weeks
Our delivery
21 days
Typical agency rates. Freelancers may be cheaper upfront but rarely stay within budget.
| Feature | Low | High |
|---|---|---|
| Auth + profiles | $400 | $1,800 |
| Feed + posts | $800 | $4,000 |
| Follow graph | $300 | $1,500 |
| Real-time notifications | $400 | $2,000 |
| Direct messaging | $700 | $3,500 |
| Media upload and storage | $400 | $2,000 |
| Moderation tools | $300 | $1,500 |
| Total range | $3,300 | $16,300 |
Our fixed-price MVP bundles all core features for $5,000 — no hourly surprises.
| Option | Cost | Timeline | Risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agency (fixed price)← Us | $5,000 – $50,000 | 3–8 weeks | Low |
| Freelancer (hourly) | $6,000 – $75,000 | 2–6 months | High |
| No-code (Bubble / Webflow) | $2,000 – $6,000 | 2–6 weeks | Medium (lock-in) |
| In-house team | $250,000+/year | 6–18 months | Very high |
React Native / Expo
Mobile apps (iOS + Android)
Supabase Realtime
Feed, notifications, chat
Cloudflare R2 / S3
Image and video storage
Mux
Video transcoding and streaming
Book a free 30-min call. We'll scope your MVP and give you an exact price before you commit to anything.
A social app MVP with feed, profiles, follow, comments, and messaging costs $15,000–$35,000. A TikTok-style short video platform adds $30,000–$60,000 for video ingestion, transcoding, and the recommendation engine.
The main models are: premium membership (paid features), creator tips / virtual gifts, in-feed sponsored posts, and marketplace (if user-generated products or services). Don't monetize too early — growth trumps revenue in social.