Codexlava helps startups and founders build minimum viable products to validate an idea with real users — a working product instead of a specification nobody has tested.
Scoped to the one thing it has to prove, signed off as a prototype before anything is built, and built on foundations you keep — Next.js, React Native and Django, not a throwaway.
Small enough to ship and learn from. Solid enough that you never have to start again once it works.
The real screens, wired together so you and your first users can react to them. Nothing is built until you sign it off — changing a wireframe costs minutes, changing built software costs days.
The first version is not a throwaway. The product you validate is the product you keep building on.
Infrastructure sized for where you are, not where a pitch deck says you will be in three years.
Ready for the payment providers, CRMs and internal tools you will need next.
Real user behaviour fed back into the next version, rather than a launch and a guess.
Most MVP budgets are won or lost on one decision: what stays out of version one. We draw that line with you during discovery. These are the usual suspects.
The UK starts hundreds of thousands of businesses a year, and most do not reach year five. Among failed startups, the root problem is rarely the technology: it is building something too few people want, then running out of money finding out.
Sources: ONS, Business demography, UK: 2024 (November 2025); CB Insights, top reasons startups fail (March 2026, 431 VC-backed shutdowns since 2023, not UK-only). Market context, not Codexlava results.
Three different questions, three different costs. Start with the one that answers your riskiest assumption — the longer version is here.
| PrototypeWill people get it? | Proof of conceptCan it be built? | MVPWill people use and pay? | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Clickable screens, no working code | A narrow technical test | Working software, with real users |
| Answers | Whether people understand and want it | Whether the hard technical part works | Whether people will use it and pay |
| Relative cost | Lowest | Low to medium | Highest of the three |
| Who sees it | You and a handful of test users | Your team | Real customers |
| Kept afterwards? | As the design reference | Usually not | Yes — it is version one |
Mainstream tools from our full stack, so the developers you hire later already know them.
Fast, server-rendered web front ends that can grow into the full product.
iOS and Android from one codebase, when the idea genuinely needs to live on a phone.
Django when an MVP needs accounts and an admin on day one; FastAPI for lean APIs.
A relational database that will still suit the product at version five.
Taking money and capturing leads from the first release, so the MVP can test willingness to pay.
Sized for real usage, containerised so moving up later is a deployment, not a rebuild.
Errors reported from real users, key journeys tested, and AI coding agents for the routine work — every change read by an engineer.
You always know which stage you are in and what comes out of it.
We map what already exists: the systems you run, the data you hold, who needs access and what the constraints are. We use AI where it speeds the groundwork up, but the scope is read, questioned and agreed with you — never generated and handed over.
You approve the written scope before any design starts.
Wireframes first, then a prototype you can click through and react to. This is the cheapest point at which to change your mind, so it is where we ask you to.
Nothing is built until you sign off the prototype. Changing a wireframe costs minutes; changing built software costs days.
Delivered in increments you can see working, not one hand-off at the end. We use AI where it is genuinely faster, and every line is reviewed by the engineer who owns it. Nothing reaches you that a human has not read.
Working software on a staging URL throughout, not a status report.
Automated and manual testing, then deployment. The documentation ships with the build, so your own team can run it — and ongoing support is there if you would rather we did.
You accept the build before it goes live, and you own what you paid for.
If you are in the second column, we will say so on the first call rather than sell you something you do not need.
You approve each stage before the next one starts, and you own everything you paid for.
What the MVP must prove, what is in and what waits for later. You approve it before design starts.
The real screens, wired together so you and your users can react to them. Nothing is built until you sign it off.
Delivered in increments you can see working throughout the build, not one hand-off at the end.
Tested, deployed and accepted by you before it goes in front of users.
Software requirement specifications, API documentation, and user manuals and guides.
What UK MVPs cost in 2026, from published agency guides: by product type, by who builds it, and the running costs after launch.
A prototype, a proof of concept and an MVP answer three different questions. Which one you need first, and what each costs you.
UK web application costs in 2026 by type, from internal tools to SaaS, with developer day rates and the running costs most quotes leave out.
Tell us what you want to prove and who it is for. We will come back to you on scope, approach and cost — and on whether a prototype would answer it more cheaply.
One call, no obligation. We will tell you what the work involves, roughly what it costs, and whether we are the right people to do it.