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If you only need a general budget for an MVP, start with MVP development cost in 2026. This guide covers what is specific to money: the parts of a fintech build that a normal app does not have, and which of them you can rent instead of build.
Fintech app cost by product type
| Product type | What it is | Published market price | Typical timeline | 99 Francs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Consumer MVP (budgeting, expense tracking, rewards) | One core money-tracking flow, sign-up, bank data in | US$30,000–70,000 | 12–18 weeks | Web app MVP from US$5,000, in fixed-price phases |
| P2P payments | Balances, transfers, a payment processor, statements | US$40,000–80,000 for an MVP | Not stated per product | Scoped after a call |
| Payment platform | Split payments, payouts, escrow rules on a ledger | US$55,000–130,000 | Not stated per product | Scoped after a call |
| Cross-border remittance | 2–3 corridors, FX, payout partners | US$35,000–70,000 for an MVP | Not stated per product | Scoped after a call |
| Lending | Applications, scoring inputs, repayments | US$40,000–160,000 | 16–30 weeks for compliance-heavy products | Scoped after a call |
| Investment or trading | Orders, positions, market data, reporting | US$55,000–130,000 | 16–30 weeks | Scoped after a call |
| Multi-product, multi-market platform | Several products, several jurisdictions | US$140,000–240,000+ | 24–52 weeks | Scoped after a call |
Market figures come from RaftLabs, an agency that publishes its own ranges by product type (page updated 12 October 2026, checked 9 November 2026). They are one vendor's figures, not a market average, and regulated products vary a lot by country and by how much you buy instead of build. We left out "average fintech app cost" numbers from articles that do not say whose prices they are.
What fintech adds to a normal app budget
| Line item | What it is | Published figure |
|---|---|---|
| KYC integration | Connecting an identity-verification provider to sign-up | US$8,000–15,000 to integrate (RaftLabs), plus per-check fees |
| KYC checks, per user | Document and selfie check at onboarding | Sumsub lists US$1.35 per verification (Basic, US$149 monthly minimum) and US$1.85 (Compliance, US$299 monthly minimum) |
| AML and KYC tooling built in-house | Screening, monitoring, case review | US$25,000–80,000 (RaftLabs) |
| Double-entry ledger | The record of who owns what, which always balances | US$25,000–35,000 (RaftLabs) |
| PCI DSS | Only if card data touches your systems | US$20,000–60,000 to build, US$10,000–25,000 a year in audits (RaftLabs) |
| SOC 2 Type II | The security audit enterprise buyers ask for | US$30,000–90,000 for readiness (RaftLabs) |
| Bank connections | Linking users' bank accounts | US$0.15–0.50 per connected account per month for Plaid (RaftLabs) |
| Licence | The right to hold or move customer money | An EU electronic money institution needs at least EUR 350,000 of initial capital (Directive 2009/110/EC, Article 4); RaftLabs puts licensing at US$50,000–500,000 depending on jurisdiction, separate from the build |
Treat these as the questions to ask any agency, not as a shopping list. A quote that does not mention identity checks, card-data scope or the ledger has either left them for you or priced them at zero.
Build or buy: how to keep the compliance bill small
- Never touch raw card numbers. Stripe's security guide says a business that handles sensitive card data directly may need to meet more than 300 security controls in PCI DSS, and that its low-risk integrations send card details straight to Stripe without passing through your servers, which reduces your PCI obligations. A hosted payment page is the cheapest single decision in a payments build. You still attest to PCI compliance every year.
- Rent identity checks. A per-verification provider costs a few dollars per user and a few days of integration, against months of building screening yourself.
- Launch on a regulated partner before applying for your own licence. Many early products launch on a partner's licence or a banking-as-a-service provider (RaftLabs puts the integration at 4–8 weeks and US$0.10–1.00 per transaction) and decide on a licence once the product has users. Which route is allowed depends on your product and country: ask a fintech lawyer before you design the flow, not after.
- Build the ledger properly from day one. It is the one piece that is expensive to retrofit, because every balance and report is built on it.
- Start with one market and one product. A second country brings a second set of rules, a second payout partner and a second round of legal review.
What drives the rest of the budget
- Platforms. A web app is one codebase; iOS and Android add store review and a second surface to test. Our mobile app development starts from US$8,000 for a cross-platform build.
- Trust surfaces. Balances, pending states, failed payments and verification steps need plain labels and clear confirmations; this is design work, and it is where users drop off. See our fintech design and development approach.
- Back end and speed. Payments, trading and data pipelines are server work. Our Python development starts from US$4,000 and Rust execution cores from US$6,000.
- Security review and monitoring. Budget for a penetration test before launch and for logging you can audit afterwards.
What fintech work looks like at 99 Francs
We have worked on money products from both ends. We designed the product for Sends, a messenger with a built-in crypto wallet (2 designers, 3 months, 2023; it is in our mobile app design work), and the dashboard and analytics screens for StakerTaker, a crypto staking platform. On the engineering side, we built an automated trading and market-making system for a client on Polymarket: a Python quant engine with a low-latency Rust execution core, a React dashboard and a safe virtual-to-real rollout, about four months of work (the Polymarket trading system). We do not hold a financial licence, and this guide is not legal advice: your lawyer and your licensed partner decide what the product may do; we make it clear, fast and buildable.
How you pay 99 Francs for a fintech build
A simple marketing site or landing page for a fintech brand is paid once, when it is done (landing pages from US$1,500, marketing sites from US$3,000). A product build is split into fixed-price phases: the scope and price of each phase are agreed before it starts, you pay at the end of the phase once you have seen it working, and there is no deposit. Either side can stop between phases and you keep what has been produced. The terms are on how we work, and the model is explained in how we build an MVP with no upfront payment.
Costs that come after launch
- Verification fees. Per-check charges grow with every new user.
- Payment and bank-data fees. Per-transaction and per-account costs from your providers (see the table above).
- Compliance upkeep. Annual PCI attestation and, if you pursue it, a SOC 2 audit.
- Monitoring and incident response. Money products need someone watching them.
- Third-party running costs. RaftLabs puts identity verification, banking APIs and fraud screening at roughly US$2,000–5,000 a month at 10,000 users, before infrastructure.
