MVP Builder: launch a real product, not a mockup
Describe your idea. Totalum builds a working MVP with sign-up, a database and card payments.
Quick answer · Updated November 2026
An AI MVP builder turns a product idea into a first version that real users can sign up to, use and pay for. Totalum builds it with a database, logins, Stripe payments and hosting, so you can test demand with customers instead of a mockup. Start free; code download and GitHub come with paid plans from $29 a month.
What the dog-walking MVP includes
Data model
| Table | Key fields |
|---|---|
| users | name, email, role (owner, walker, admin) |
| dogs | owner, name, breed, size, notes for the walker |
| walk_slots | walker, date, start time, length, capacity, status |
| bookings | owner, dog, walk_slot, status, price |
| payments | booking, amount, Stripe status, paid_at |
| reviews | booking, rating, comment |
Screens (5)
- 1
Landing page: what the service is, the price, and "Book a walk".
- 2
Sign-up and dog profile: owners create an account and add each dog.
- 3
Booking and checkout: pick a free slot and pay by card through Stripe.
- 4
Walker schedule: today's and this week's walks, with each dog's notes.
- 5
Admin dashboard: bookings, revenue by week and the busiest slots.
Built-in integrations used
Sign-in: separate owner, walker and admin roles.
Stripe payments: customers pay into your Stripe account. The MVP takes payments for you; it does not pay out to walkers.
Email: booking confirmations and a reminder the evening before.
Scheduled jobs: the nightly reminder and a weekly revenue summary for you.
File storage: dog photos.
Build it in 3 steps
- 1
Paste the prompt.
Start with the smallest version that proves people want it: who signs up, what they do, and when they pay.
- 2
Refine with follow-up prompts.
For example:
- "Add a waitlist on the landing page for cities we don't serve yet, and show me sign-ups by city in the admin page."
- "Give first-time owners a discount code at checkout."
- "After each walk, ask the owner for a 1 to 5 rating and show the average on the walker's profile."
- 3
Publish and share the link.
Publish to a Totalum address for your first testers, or connect your own domain on a paid plan. Switch Stripe from test payments to real payments when you're ready to charge.
Real users, not clicks on a prototype.
A design prototype tells you people like the screens. An MVP with sign-up and a database tells you whether they come back. Every account, booking and payment is stored in the project's own SQL database, so the numbers in your admin page are real behavior you can show to customers, co-founders or investors.
Charge from day one.
Paying customers are the strongest signal an MVP can produce. Stripe checkout is built in: you connect your own Stripe account with an onboarding link, test with Stripe test payments in the preview, then switch the published app to real payments. Subscriptions, renewals and failed payments come back to the app automatically.
Change it as fast as you learn.
Early feedback changes the product every week. Describe the change ("owners want to book a recurring walk every Tuesday") and the agent updates the database, the screens and the logic together, then tests the app in a browser. Every change is a version you can roll back to.
Keep it when you hire engineers.
The MVP is a standard Next.js and React project, not a file in a proprietary format. On any paid plan you can download the full source or sync it to GitHub, so your first engineers start from working code instead of a rewrite.
MVP builder: Totalum vs Lovable, Bolt.new, Bubble, Figma and an MVP agency
| Totalum | Lovable | Bolt.new | Bubble | Figma (design) | MVP agency | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starting paid price (checked Nov 3, 2026) | Starter $29/month | Pro $25/month | Pro $25/month | Web Starter $39/month ($32 billed annually) | Professional full seat $16/month | Quoted per project |
| Free plan | 50 credits once, 2 projects | Daily build credits | 1M tokens a month | Development version only | Starter, free | No |
| Database and sign-in included | Yes, its own SQL database | Yes, Lovable Cloud | Yes, Bolt databases | Yes, Bubble database | No, design files and prototypes | Built for you |
| Code you can take | Download and GitHub on paid plans | GitHub sync on Free; download on Pro | Zip and GitHub | No code export | Design files | Usually, per contract |
| Custom domain | Paid plans | Pro | Pro | Starter | Not applicable | Yes |
| Mobile app | Android and iOS shells on paid plans | – | – | Native mobile plans from $42/month (billed annually) | Not applicable | Per contract |
Read on each vendor's pricing page on November 3, 2026: lovable.dev/pricing, bolt.new/pricing, bubble.io/pricing, figma.com/pricing, totalum.app/en. USD. UX Pilot was not included: its /pricing URL redirected to the homepage, so the price could not be checked.
Note: Design tools such as Figma are the right first step when you only need to test a concept with screens. An agency makes sense when you have budget and a spec. Lovable, Bolt.new and Bubble are capable builders. Totalum's difference is that the database, logins, payments, hosting and code download come in one account.
Everything else, included
- Own SQL database with point-in-time restore for the last 30 days
- sign-in and roles
- Stripe payments into your own account
- email delivery
- file storage
- built-in AI
- scheduled jobs
- custom domain and code download on paid plans
Who uses it
First-time founders
test a marketplace or service idea with paying users before raising money.
Operators with a side project
turn a spreadsheet workflow into a product other people can sign up to.
Startup studios
spin up several MVPs and keep the ones that get traction.
Domain experts
a physio, a lawyer or a teacher who knows the problem and wants to sell the solution.
Product teams inside companies
prove a new product line with real customers before it gets engineering time.
Frequently asked questions
Is an AI-built MVP good enough to get first customers or raise money?
It can be, because it is a real product: users sign up, data is stored, and payments go through Stripe. That lets you show actual usage and revenue instead of a demo. Whether it convinces customers or investors depends on the idea and the traction, not on how the code was written.
What happens when I outgrow it?
You can keep growing on Totalum, since hosting and the database scale with traffic and are billed in credits. Or, on any paid plan, download the full Next.js source or sync it to GitHub and let your engineers take it from there.
How much does it cost to run an MVP?
You can build on the free plan with 50 credits, once. To publish on your own domain and download the code, Starter is $29 a month with 250 credits. Hosting, database use and built-in integrations come out of the monthly credits, and you can top up at any time.
Can I take payments from day one?
Yes. Connect your own Stripe account through the Payments onboarding link, test the checkout with Stripe test payments in the preview, then switch the published app to real payments. The money goes to your Stripe account.
Can my MVP pay out to sellers or service providers?
Not out of the box. Stripe payments go into the app owner's account. Marketplace payouts to sellers or walkers are not part of the built-in payments, so plan to pay providers yourself at the start.
Can I make it a mobile app?
Yes, on a paid plan. The same project can be built as an Android app (APK or AAB) and an iOS app (simulator build or signed IPA for TestFlight). These are native shells that open your published web app, so you keep one codebase.
Do I own what I build?
The app's code and data belong to you. Viewing the code is free on every plan; downloading it and syncing it to GitHub are on paid plans.