How much does an MVP like Revolut cost? An expert analysis

*updated September 2025

Do you want to build an app like Revolut but don’t know how much it will cost you?

Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

In this article, we’ll give you an in-depth breakdown of how much it costs to build a similar MVP and why you should build it.

Let’s dive in!

Why make an app like Revolut?

So, why should you make an app like Revolut?

There’s an easy answer – neobanking is a rapidly developing market with very strong growth potential.

Neobanking is a digital-first take on banking and financial services and as such, neobanks usually don’t have physical office bank offices.

Here’s a few other differences between traditional banks and neobanks:

source: FinFan

Neobanks have exploded in popularity in recent years and will only continue to grow in the coming years.

The neobanking market, valued at $143.29 billion in 2024, is projected to grow to a staggering $3.4 trillion in value by 2032 with an incredible compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 48.6%.

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So, the market itself is exciting – but why did we single out Revolut for analysis?

It’s because Revolut is the market leader in the neobanking sector.

In 2024, it was valued at $25.7 billion and reached over 40 million customers globally.

And it all started with a (relatively) simple MVP back in 2015 – here’s what it looked like:

source: The Unicorn’s Playbook

Revolut quickly blew up, reaching 100,000 users in just a few months after launch.

But, their success isn’t the only reason why we picked them.

Revolut is also a great example of how you can build on a simple MVP to grow and expand your business.

After launch, they iterated and expanded the range of digital financial services they offer, including digital insurance and business-focused products.

Here’s how Revolut’s product stack evolved over the years:

source: Thought and Function

So, if you build a similar MVP, it’s a great starting point for your app’s further development and a solid foundation you can build on.

And that’s why building an app like Revolut is a good idea.

How much does it really cost to build an MVP like Revolut?

We mapped every feature to man-days across mobile, web, and backend. Here’s the full breakdown.

But, there’s a caveat – these are just estimates for a minimum viable product (MVP) with only the core features that Revolut’s MVP had.

It doesn’t include other services like product discovery or product design, which will cost you extra.

So, why did we choose this approach? And what would the team like?

There’s a simple reason – it’s a great way to validate your idea and get to a product-market fit.

And once development’s done, you have a working product you can present to investors to get funding.

As for the team that will build your MVP, at a minimum it should include:

• 1 Android engineer
• 1 iOS engineer
• 1 web app front-end engineer
• 1 back-end engineer

This is because you’ll need native Android and iOS apps plus a web app.

And all 3 apps need a back-end to function, which is the most important (and expensive!) part of the app to build.

It handles the business logic and data processing across all 3 apps – in layman’s terms, it powers your app and all of its features.

Our Solution Architect on timeline & budgeting

Watch our Solution Architect, Kristina Roskar, break down the key factors that shape timelines and budgets for building complex software products.

Now, let’s get into our detailed cost breakdown.

Detailed cost breakdown

Here’s how we broke down the cost – first, we divided our estimation into Agile epics:

• Onboarding
• Home screen
• Cards
• Currency exchange
• Payments
• Spending analytics
• Profile

Then, we broke each epic down into individual features and estimated how many work days each feature would take to build.

But, there’s something you should keep in mind – we gave a range of man-days because some features take longer than others to build, depending on the platform.

Getting back on track, each epic forms the basis of a sprint during development.

There’s a good reason why we’ve taken this approach.

Agile methodologies like Scrum, which we use here at DECODE, are the gold standard in modern software product development.

And they’re a perfect fit if you’re building an MVP you want to get to market quickly.

How we estimated the cost and effort

To estimate how much it would take to build a Revolut MVP, we first broke down the features into epics and estimated the number of man-days needed for each platform – mobile, web, and backend.

Each platform has its own scope of work. Mobile and web require separate UI development, while backend is shared across all platforms.

We then summed up the man-days for each epic. All the epics together add up to about 3 months of development time and $250k total cost for an MVP.

So, without further ado, let’s dive in!

Onboarding

To start off, here’s how much Revolut’s onboarding features take to build:

Why?

• KYC is always messy and takes time
• Biometric and passcode setup is platform-specific
• SMS verification needs retries, error handling

Cards

Here’s how much the cards screen takes to build:

Why?

• Card operations are tied to 3rd-party APIs (e.g., processor or issuer)
• Freeze/unfreeze, PIN changes all need backend logic and confirmation

Currency exchange

Here’s how much Revolut’s currency exchange features take to build:

Why?

• Exchange requires real-time API integration (e.g., FX rates from 3rd-party)
• Conversions affect balances, so you need strong backend validation

Payments

Here’s how much Revolut’s payment features take to build:

Why?

• P2P logic requires balances, user lookup, ledger-like structure
• History and status tracking requires pagination, filters, states

Spending analytics

Here’s how much the spending analytics features take to build:

Why?

• P2P logic requires balances, user lookup, ledger-like structure
• History and status tracking requires pagination, filters, states

Profile

Here’s how much the profile settings take to build:

Why?

• Chat requires real-time updates (or integration with Zendesk-type system)
• Notification & settings management adds detail work on all platforms

Home screen

And here’s how long the home screen takes to build:

Why?

• Chat requires real-time updates (or integration with Zendesk-type system)
• Notification & settings management adds detail work on all platforms

Just to reiterate, this is just how much MVP development for an app like Revolut costs.

It doesn’t include other costs and services like:

• Product discovery
• Product design
• Compliance costs
• Partnership costs w/ financial service providers

So, if you want to make an app like this, you’ll need a bigger budget to make it a full-fledged product.

Want an app like Revolut?

If you’re looking to build an app like Revolut, you’re in the right place.

We can help you build it from the ground up, from validating your idea all the way to post-launch maintenance and future iterations.

If you want to make it a reality, feel free to reach out to us and we’ll set up a quick call to discuss how we can help you do just that.