Honest cost breakdown for building a subscription box app — from a minimal MVP to a full-featured platform. No agency fluff, just real numbers.
MVP cost
$3,460
Full platform
up to $25,000
MVP timeline
2–4 weeks
Our delivery
21 days
Typical agency rates. Freelancers may be cheaper upfront but rarely stay within budget.
| Feature | Low | High |
|---|---|---|
| Storefront + plan selection | $400 | $2,000 |
| Stripe Billing + recurring | $600 | $3,000 |
| Subscriber portal | $500 | $2,500 |
| Shipping integration | $400 | $2,000 |
| Box curation admin | $300 | $1,500 |
| Analytics + cohorts | $300 | $1,500 |
| Dunning + retries | $200 | $800 |
| Total range | $2,700 | $13,300 |
Our fixed-price MVP bundles all core features for $3,460 — no hourly surprises.
| Option | Cost | Timeline | Risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agency (fixed price)← Us | $3,460 – $25,000 | 3–8 weeks | Low |
| Freelancer (hourly) | $4,152 – $37,500 | 2–6 months | High |
| No-code (Bubble / Webflow) | $1,384 – $4,152 | 2–6 weeks | Medium (lock-in) |
| In-house team | $125,000+/year | 6–18 months | Very high |
Next.js
Storefront and subscriber portal
Stripe Billing
Recurring payments and dunning
Supabase
Subscriber database
ShipStation / EasyPost
Shipping and label generation
Book a free 30-min call. We'll scope your MVP and give you an exact price before you commit to anything.
Use Subbly or Cratejoy if you're just starting out — they handle billing and subscriber management. Build custom once you outgrow their limitations (custom checkout, B2B gifting, complex product rules, white-label needs).
EasyPost or ShipStation integrate with your platform to generate shipping labels at $0.05–$0.15/label. You define ship dates, we build the batch-label generation, and labels are auto-generated on that date.