MVP Development for Founders in Austria

Few Austrian agencies publish an MVP price. The two Tyrol studios that do start at €8,000 for a validation MVP and €15,000 to €40,000 for a lean AI feature, and freelance software developers in Austria ask a median of about €90 an hour. Easify, based in Budapest, typically builds MVPs for €5,000 to €25,000 over four to twelve weeks, in English, on the same time zone as Vienna. We have no office in Austria and no published Austrian client; we work with founders there remotely.

What follows is specific to Austria: the price data that exists, what the first release should prove, which public funding fits an MVP, the overlapping disclosure rules for websites and apps, VAT on an invoice from outside the EU, and the contract points to settle.

At a glance

What the Austrian market charges

Published Austrian MVP prices are scarce. What we could verify:

• Freelancers. freelancermap's profile data from September 2026 gives the same median of about €90 an hour net for freelance software developers in Austria as in Germany. These are asked rates, not final invoices.
• Fixed-price packages. alloq.digital, a studio in Tyrol working across the DACH region, publishes three MVP packages, all net of VAT, each fixed after a discovery phase:

• AI MVP ranges. Wavect, also in Tyrol, publishes planning estimates for AI MVPs: €15,000 to €40,000 for a lean AI feature in an existing product, €35,000 to €80,000 for a RAG assistant or internal copilot, and €70,000 to €120,000 or more for an AI-native product. It describes them as early estimates, not market averages, and offers a discovery phase for €3,500 before a fixed-price build.

Easify's rate, €25 to €45 an hour, is lower because the people you talk to are in Budapest and the engineering team is in India. Our paid discovery step, the Scoping Sprint, is €900 and credited in full against the build if you build with us. For how a quote is built from hours and scope, see how much an MVP costs in Europe, or try the MVP cost calculator.

How to compare. Austrian packages are usually net of 20% VAT and fixed after discovery, as ours is. Line up the same things in each quote: what discovery delivers in writing, what the package leaves out, whether hosting and third-party services are extra (with us they are), and when the code becomes yours.

What the first release has to prove

Decide the milestone first; the scope and price follow from it.

A proof of concept tests whether something can be built. A prototype tests whether people understand it, usually without real data or payments. An MVP is working software people can sign up to and pay for, so it tests whether they want it. Most Austrian founders who come to an agency need the third.

Funding: the short version

aws Preseed from Austria Wirtschaftsservice comes in two variants:

• aws Preseed – Deep Tech is a non-repayable grant for proof-of-concept or prototype work based on applied research and development, expecting an exceptional technological challenge and large growth potential.
• aws Preseed Innovative Solutions is for start-ups in all sectors except deep tech whose project has social or ecological added value as a core component, in areas such as health and care, education, mobility or climate protection. The grant is up to €89,000 at 80% of eligible costs, or up to €100,000 at 90% with the gender bonus, and the project must be located in Austria.

So the question is not only "is it deep tech?" but "is impact the core of it?" A booking platform or SaaS tool that tests whether people will pay, with no social or ecological core, fits neither variant. An MVP for, say, a care or climate service might fit the second, and aws has its own rules on which costs are eligible, so talk to aws before you choose a build partner.

The Forschungsprämie is a tax premium of 14% of a year's research expenditure, assessed by the FFG. For commissioned research, § 108c Abs. 2 Z 2 EStG only counts work by an institution or company whose seat is in the EU or the EEA. Easify invoices from its registered entity in India, so work we do for you does not qualify for the Forschungsprämie. If the premium matters to your plan, use an EU or EEA contractor for the research part.

Our guide to startup funding in Austria for an MVP covers all three in detail, with eligibility and the other options. We do not write funding applications, but the written scope and fixed price from a Scoping Sprint are the kind of document that makes either conversation easier.

Austria's disclosure rules, built in from the start

Austrian websites and apps can fall under more than one information duty. The Wirtschaftskammer summarises it this way: § 5 ECG applies to all commercial websites, UGB § 14 only to companies entered in the Firmenbuch, GewO § 63 to traders who are not, and the Mediengesetz disclosure under § 25 depends on the site's content. The same duties reach social media profiles and apps.

What § 5 ECG itself requires, permanently and easily accessible:

1. Name or company name, and the geographic address.
2. Contact details for fast, direct communication, including email.
3. Register number and court, if registered.
4. The supervisory authority, if the activity is supervised.
5. For regulated trades and professions: the chamber, professional title and applicable rules.
6. The VAT ID, if you have one.

It also says displayed prices must be clear, and must show whether VAT and other charges, and shipping, are included. If your MVP shows prices, that is a design requirement as well as a legal one.

In practice: we build the Impressum page, the links to it from the app and from any profiles, and price displays that state what is included. The content comes from you, and the WKO's sample texts by legal form are the place to start. Add a GDPR privacy notice that names every service the MVP sends data to.

VAT, invoices and currency

Who invoices you. Our invoices are in euros and are issued by Easify's registered entity in India. For VAT that makes us a supplier established outside the EU, even though the people you talk to are in Budapest.

The reverse charge. The EU's Your Europe guidance on buying services from outside the EU says a business receiving services from a supplier based outside the EU should usually pay VAT at its own country's rate, as if it had supplied the service itself, and can usually deduct it later in its VAT return. In Austrian law this is § 19 Abs. 1 UStG 1994: for services of a supplier that neither runs its business in Austria nor has an Austrian establishment involved in the service, the tax is owed by the recipient, where the recipient is a business. The supplier remains liable alongside.

What that means in practice:

1. The invoice arrives without Austrian VAT. That is the correct treatment.
2. You declare the VAT. Under § 19 Abs. 2, for reverse-charge services the tax arises at the end of the calendar month in which the service was performed, and the usual one-month postponement for late invoices does not apply. A payment made before the service is taxed in the period it was paid.
3. You normally deduct it again. On a €10,000 invoice you would declare €2,000 at Austria's 20% standard rate and, if you are entitled to deduct input tax, deduct the same €2,000. Net cost: zero.
4. Small businesses: check first. If your company uses the small-business exemption or has mostly exempt turnover, ask your Steuerberater whether you can deduct the reverse-charged VAT, because if you cannot, it is a real cost.
5. Buying before the company exists is different. The rule is written for business recipients. If you would sign as a private person, ask your adviser first, and tell us who the contracting party will be.

Currency. Our quotes and invoices are in euros, so there is no exchange-rate question for an Austrian company.

This is orientation, not tax advice. The Your Europe page warns that there are several important exceptions to the general rules, and your Steuerberater should confirm the treatment for your contract.

Contract points to settle before the build

Working with a Budapest team from Austria

• Neighbours on the same clock. Budapest and Vienna share CET and change clocks together.
• English, not German. Calls, scope and documentation are in English. If your users need a German interface, you supply the copy.
• Remote. No office in Austria; if you need someone in your office every week, hire locally.
• Where the work happens. The people you talk to are in Budapest; engineering is in India.
• Hosted in the EU. We deploy to EU data-centre regions. That is not the same as data never leaving the EU, because the engineers who may need production access are in India, a country without an EU adequacy decision. Settle access during scoping and document it.

Getting started

The scope is yours to keep whoever builds it. If you already have a prototype from Lovable, Bolt, v0 or a similar tool, the €99 Prototype Check is the better first step: the top risks in writing within 48 hours, credited against the build.

What to put in your first message: the question the MVP must answer, who the first users are, what already exists, the integrations you cannot do without, which languages the interface needs, your deadline and what drives it, and which company will sign.

Common mistakes in Austrian MVP projects

• Picking the wrong aws variant, or none. Deep Tech is for applied research, Innovative Solutions for impact-led projects; a plain market experiment fits neither.
• Counting on the Forschungsprämie for a non-EU contractor. Commissioned research only counts if the contractor's seat is in the EU or EEA.
• Forgetting the price display rule. § 5 ECG wants prices that say whether VAT and shipping are included, which touches every pricing page and checkout.
• Treating the Impressum as one page. The same duties reach your app and your social profiles.
• Comparing a net package with a gross quote. Austrian studios usually quote net of VAT; check every number on the same basis.
• Building the whole product. Admin panels, settings and tiered permissions can almost always wait.

When we are not the right choice

• You need workshops or user research run in German.
• Your aws grant conditions dictate the contractor, or your plan relies on the Forschungsprämie for the build, which our work does not qualify for.
• You want someone on site.
• Your budget is under €1,000, our minimum.

Comparing us with other agencies in the region? See MVP development companies in Central and Eastern Europe, or the page for founders in Germany, MVP development in Germany.