MVP Development in Hungary, for Local and International Founders

If you are founding in Hungary, whether you are Hungarian or an international founder based in Budapest, Easify is a local option: the people you talk to are in Budapest, and we work in English or Hungarian. A typical MVP with us costs €5,000 to €25,000 and takes four to twelve weeks, fixed after a written scope. Engineering is done by our team in India, which is why the rate is €25 to €45 an hour, and our invoices come from Easify's registered entity in India, in euros.

This page covers what is specific to building in Hungary: what we could and could not find on local prices, what the first release should prove, language, the website information rules in Hungarian law, VAT on an invoice from outside the EU, the contract points to settle, and where to look for funding. The published Hungarian data is thinner than for Germany or the UK, and we would rather say so than fill the gap.

At a glance

Prices: what is known

We looked for published Hungarian agency MVP prices and found no survey or market study we would quote. What exists:

• A regional estimate. Vamasters, a recruitment firm that places Eastern European engineers, puts a simple MVP in Eastern Europe at around $10,000 to $20,000, a mid-range one at $25,000 to $60,000, and MVP work at roughly $40 to $80 an hour. Its examples are Ukraine, Poland and Romania; it does not mention Hungary.
• A regional rate band. A rate site that does have a Hungary page gives $29 to $95 an hour for freelancers and $65 to $168 for agencies, but says itself that the band is shared with Poland, Romania, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Czechia, and it cites its data only in general terms. Use it as a sense of range, not a benchmark.
• Agencies in the region. Our comparison of MVP development companies in Central and Eastern Europe lists Hungarian and neighbouring agencies with whatever price each publishes. Few publish one.
• Our own band. €5,000 to €25,000. For how a quote is built, see how much an MVP costs in Europe, or try the MVP cost calculator, which shows the hours behind an estimate.

The honest way to compare Budapest teams is to give each the same written scope and compare what comes back line by line: design, testing, deployment, who owns the code, whether hosting is extra, and what is left out.

What the first release has to prove

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.

Language: English or Hungarian

For international founders in Budapest. You can run the whole project in English: calls, written scope, tickets, documentation. If your product serves Hungarian users, the Hungarian interface copy and legal texts still have to be right; decide early who writes them and who checks them.

For Hungarian founders. You can run the project in Hungarian. The written scope and the code documentation can be in English if you expect to raise money or hire developers internationally later; tell us which you prefer.

Either way, building the product so a second language can be added later costs little at the start and a lot afterwards.

What a Hungarian website or app must show

Section 4 of Act CVIII of 2001 on electronic commerce (Ekertv.) requires a service provider to publish, electronically, directly, continuously and in an easily accessible way, at least:

1. Its name, and its registered seat or place of business.
2. Contact details, in particular a regularly used email address.
3. The court or authority that registered it and the registration number, if registration is required.
4. The licensing authority and permit number, if the activity needs a permit.
5. Its VAT number, if it is a VAT payer.
6. For regulated professions: the chamber, the qualification and where it was obtained, and the professional rules.
7. The seat and contact details of the hosting provider, unless obvious from the service.

The last item is the one founders forget, and it ties directly to hosting: once the MVP's hosting provider and EU region are decided in the scope, the legal page can name them. We build the page and the links to it; the content is yours, and a lawyer should check it if you are unsure. Add a GDPR privacy notice that names every service the MVP sends personal data to.

VAT, invoices and forints

Who invoices you. Our invoices are in euros and are issued by Easify's registered entity in India, not by a Hungarian company. For VAT that makes us a supplier established outside the EU, even though the people you talk to are in Budapest.

The reverse charge (fordított adózás). 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. NAV's information booklet no. 29, published on 26 January 2026, explains the Hungarian rules: when the customer is a taxable person, the place of supply of a service is generally where the customer is established, and the customer pays the tax when the place of supply is Hungary but the supplier is not established in Hungary (section 12 of the booklet, citing Áfa tv. 140. §). The booklet notes the rule covers suppliers in third countries as well as other member states.

What that means in practice:

1. The invoice arrives without Hungarian áfa. That is the intended treatment.
2. You declare the áfa in your return as tax payable.
3. You normally deduct it in the same return. On a €10,000 invoice you would declare €2,700 at Hungary's 27% standard rate, converted to forints under the usual rules, and, if you are entitled to deduct, deduct the same amount. Net cost: zero.
4. Alanyi adómentes or exempt turnover: check first. If your company uses the subjective tax exemption or makes exempt supplies, ask your könyvelő whether you can deduct the reverse-charged áfa, because if you cannot, it is a real cost.
5. Show your könyvelő the contract. NAV's booklet says a supplier with a Hungarian establishment that takes part in the service charges the áfa itself. Because the people you talk to are in Budapest, let your accountant confirm the treatment from the contract and the invoice.
6. Buying before the company exists is different. The rule is written for taxable customers. If you would sign as a private person, ask your adviser first, and tell us who the contracting party will be.

Euros, not forints. If your company keeps its books in forints, the forint cost moves with the exchange rate between the proposal and each payment. Staged payments spread that; the euro figure in a fixed-price proposal does not move.

This is orientation, not tax advice. The Your Europe page warns that there are several important exceptions to the general rules.

Contract points to settle before the build

Funding: the short version

Hiventures is a Hungarian venture capital investor whose stated mission is long-term, hands-on support for Hungarian startups and innovative businesses, from prototyping to market validation. Its new fund is mainly generalist but focuses on AI, deep tech, medtech and greentech.

When we checked the official pages in October 2026, no Hungarian grant call that pays a startup to build an MVP was open. The open public money is equity:

• The Hiventures early-stage fund (GINOP Plusz-2.5.1-25), investing up to €300,000 per company. It excludes software-only startups.
• DIMOP Plusz-5.1.4-26, for ICT startups at technology readiness level 7 and above, with private co-investment required.

Our guide to startup funding in Hungary for an MVP covers the investors and programmes in detail. Whatever you apply for, the written scope and fixed price from a Scoping Sprint are the kind of project description an application usually needs. We do not write applications.

Working with us in Budapest

• People in the same city. The people you talk to are in Budapest, on CET. Most of the work runs remotely, as it does for our clients elsewhere in Europe.
• Engineering in India. We say so up front because it is the reason for the rate, and it is also where our invoices come from.
• The stack. Next.js, React and TypeScript, with Laravel and PostgreSQL behind them and Stripe for payments.
• Hosted in the EU. We deploy client products to EU data-centre regions. That is not the same as data never leaving the EU: India has no EU adequacy decision, so agree during scoping who needs production access, and document it.
• Budapest work on record. We built the Nonstop Nanny booking MVP, which connects parents in Budapest with babysitters and takes secure online payments; read what a booking platform MVP needs for the pattern. We also redesigned the website for SpaceCrop, a Budapest agritech company. For websites rather than products, see web development in Budapest.

How to start

The scope is yours to keep whoever builds it. Already have something built with Lovable, Bolt, v0 or Replit? The €99 Prototype Check sends you the top security and data risks in writing within 48 hours of payment and access, and the €99 is 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, whether the interface needs Hungarian, English or both, your deadline and what drives it, and which company will sign.

Common mistakes in Hungarian MVP projects

• Forgetting the hosting provider on the legal page. Ekertv. § 4 asks for its seat and contact details.
• Planning around a grant that is not open. In October 2026 no Hungarian call paid for an MVP build; check the official terms first.
• Writing the legal texts in one language and the product in another. Decide early which languages each part needs.
• Budgeting in forints for a euro invoice without allowing for the exchange rate.
• Building the whole product. Admin panels, settings and tiered permissions can almost always wait.

When we are not the right choice

• You want engineers in the same room every day. Ours are in India.
• Your funding requires a Hungarian contractor or a specific procurement process; check before you talk to anyone.
• You need the product's Hungarian legal texts written for you; that is a lawyer's job.
• Your budget is under €1,000, our minimum.