MVP Development for UK Founders: Hiring a Team in the EU

A UK founder can expect a London agency to price a first MVP from about £10,000 to £25,000 for one or two core journeys, and £30,000 to £60,000 for a fuller product of the kind most funded startups commission. Easify, a team based in Budapest, typically builds MVPs for €5,000 to €25,000 over four to twelve weeks, priced and invoiced in euros, one hour ahead of UK time. We have no office in the UK; we have built for UK clients remotely, including the Renta Stay booking platform.

Since Brexit, hiring a team in the EU from the UK is not the same as hiring one inside the EU. The VAT mechanism is HMRC's, not the EU's; the data rules are UK GDPR; and one tax relief now treats overseas work differently. Our invoices also come from Easify's registered entity in India, which matters for VAT. This page covers those points, plus UK price levels, how to choose between a fixed price and time and materials, the contract points to settle, and SEIS.

At a glance

What UK agencies charge

Published UK prices are mostly agencies describing the market they compete in, so read them as directional:

• Magora, a London agency, puts a startup MVP with one or two core journeys at £10,000 to £25,000 over six to eight weeks, and lists hourly bands for the market from £45 to £90 for London product-engineering houses and £60 to £140 for boutique London agencies.
• Rocking Tech, in Milton Keynes, says most funded UK startups spend £30,000 to £60,000 on a custom MVP, over 10 to 16 weeks, and that quotes for the same brief can differ by about four to one. It cites ITJobsWatch for a median senior full-stack contractor day rate of £575, rising above £750 in London, as the most independent figure in its piece.

A worked example from published estimates

Magora's MVP page shows how it builds its ranges. Across 12 client estimates it publishes, a first release came to £11,000 to £34,000, with a median near £25,000; a discovery phase came to £1,200 to £3,600; and a developer-day cost about £520 to £570 including QA and product ownership.

Read those three numbers together and the shape of an MVP budget is clear:

Easify's equivalents: discovery is the €900 Scoping Sprint, credited in full against the build if you build with us; a first release is typically €5,000 to €25,000; and the rate is €25 to €45 an hour. The people you talk to are in Budapest and engineering is in India, which is why the rate is what it is. The comparison only means something on the same written scope, so read how to choose an MVP development agency before you line up quotes, and use the MVP cost calculator to see the hours.

Fixed price or time and materials

UK agencies offer both, and the choice matters more than the rate.

We work on a fixed price after a written scope. That is why the Scoping Sprint comes first: a fixed price without a written scope is a guess. A new idea during the build is a visible change to that scope, and a new direction is a new scope.

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.

Post-Brexit points that change the decision

VAT: the UK reverse charge

Who invoices you. Our invoices are in euros and are issued by Easify's registered entity in India. For UK VAT that makes us a supplier that belongs outside the UK.

The rule. You do not use the EU reverse charge. HMRC's VAT Notice 741A, section 5, applies the reverse charge where the place of supply is the UK, the supplier belongs outside the UK, you belong in the UK and the supply is not exempt. Under the B2B general rule in section 6, a service is supplied where the customer belongs, which for software development by an overseas supplier to a UK business is the UK.

What that means in practice:

1. The invoice arrives without UK VAT. That is the correct treatment.
2. You post both sides on your return. HMRC's paragraph 5.2: output tax in box 1, the input tax you can reclaim in box 4, and the full value of the supply in both box 6 and box 7. On a €10,000 invoice converted to sterling, the VAT is 20% of that sterling value, at the UK's 20% standard rate.
3. You normally reclaim it. If you can reclaim in full, the net cost is zero. If you make exempt supplies, the reclaim may be restricted.
4. Not registered for VAT yet? Check the threshold. HMRC's paragraph 5.7 says the value of reverse-charge general-rule services must be added to your own taxable supplies when deciding whether you must register. An early-stage company with few sales can cross the threshold through an MVP invoice alone. Ask your accountant before the first invoice, not after.

This is orientation, not tax advice; your accountant should confirm the treatment for your contract.

Currency

We quote and invoice in euros. If you are paying from a sterling account, the cost in pounds moves with the exchange rate between the proposal and each payment, and your bank or payment provider adds its own conversion cost. Staged payments spread that risk; a fixed-price proposal keeps the euro number from moving.

Data protection: UK GDPR and EU hosting

UK GDPR treats transfers to the EU as straightforward. The ICO says all countries in the European Economic Area have full adequacy under the UK's regulations, so hosting your users' data in an EU region needs no extra transfer paperwork. In the other direction, the European Commission's UK adequacy decisions were renewed in December 2025, which matters if you also have EU users.

We deploy client products to EU data-centre regions, so your MVP is hosted in the EU. That does not mean data never leaves it: our engineering team is in India, which has adequacy from neither the UK nor the EU. If engineers need access to production personal data, that access needs its own basis and belongs in your privacy notice. Raise it during scoping.

R&D tax relief: the overseas restriction

This is the point UK founders most often miss. Under the merged R&D scheme, for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 April 2024, HMRC restricts relief for overseas expenditure. Overseas activity can still qualify where it is necessary because of geographical, environmental or social conditions, but the cost of the work and the availability of workers are specifically excluded as reasons.

Two honest consequences. First, if your build is genuine R&D and you planned to claim relief on a contractor's work, hiring abroad, us included, may reduce what you can claim; ask your adviser before you choose. Second, a typical MVP that tests a market with standard technology is often not R&D for tax purposes at all, in which case the restriction does not change anything.

SEIS and other funding: the short version

The Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme lets a qualifying company raise up to £250,000 from investors who get 50% income tax relief, with conditions on the company's size, its new qualifying trade and how the money is spent. Keep the spending and compliance-statement conditions in view with your adviser; the MVP's written scope and fixed price make the spending easy to show.

Our guide to startup funding in the UK for an MVP covers SEIS in detail, along with the other routes UK founders use to pay for a first version.

Company details on the product

UK companies must disclose their registered name on their websites, under the 2015 trading disclosures regulations, alongside the other details those regulations require. We put it in the footer and the transactional emails from the first release; the wording is yours.

Contract points to settle before the build

Working with a Budapest team from the UK

• One hour apart. Budapest is one hour ahead of the UK all year, because both change their clocks on the same dates. Your working day and ours overlap almost completely.
• English. Everything is in English; there is no language question.
• Remote. No UK office and no one on site. If you need a team in the room, hire locally.
• The stack. Next.js, React and TypeScript, with Laravel and PostgreSQL behind them and Stripe for payments, deployed to EU regions.
• UK work on record. We built Renta Stay, a platform for UK serviced accommodation, on Next.js and React, with fast search and a mobile-first interface. For an MVP from first idea to launch, see the Nonstop Nanny booking platform in Budapest.

How to start

The scope is yours to keep, including for an SEIS round or another agency's quote. If you already have a prototype from Lovable, Bolt, v0 or Replit, start with the €99 Prototype Check: the top risks in writing within 48 hours, credited against the build.

What to send, to us or to any agency

1. The question. What must the first version find out? One sentence.
2. The first users. Who they are, and how you will reach the first twenty.
3. What exists. Designs, a prototype, a spreadsheet the product replaces.
4. Must-have integrations. Payments, Open Banking, calendars, an existing system.
5. The deadline and its reason. A pilot, a funding round, a trade show.
6. Tax plans. Whether you intend to claim R&D relief or raise under SEIS, because both affect who should build it.
7. The contracting company and whether it is VAT-registered.

Common mistakes UK founders make hiring abroad

• Assuming R&D relief follows the work overseas. Since April 2024 it often does not.
• Missing the VAT registration effect. Reverse-charge services count towards the threshold for an unregistered company.
• Budgeting in pounds for a euro invoice without allowing for the exchange rate.
• Comparing quotes on different scopes. A four-to-one spread usually means four different products.
• Building the whole product. Admin panels, settings and tiered permissions can almost always wait.

When we are not the right choice

• Your R&D relief claim depends on the build being done in the UK.
• You need to pay and be invoiced in pounds with no exchange-rate exposure.
• You need people on site, or a team that has built in your regulated sector before. We take work in any industry, but have no fintech or healthtech case study.
• Your budget is under €1,000, our minimum.

For price mechanics in more depth, see how much an MVP costs in Europe, or our comparison of agency, freelancer and no-code.