ToolsProgram cost & timeline
Free tool · cost & timeline
Hardware program cost & timeline
How many months and how much cash from prototype to your first production shipment: a build-by-build timeline with tooling and certification where they really fall, cost ranges by line, and the three schedule risks to fix first.
- build phase (likely)
- low–high finish
- waiting
Phases: prototype · EVT · DVT · PVT · first run. Low and high assume every phase at that end of its range at once.
| Row | Starts (likely) | Ends low / likely / high |
|---|
Want an engineer’s read on this plan? Ask about any phase, lane, or number.
Schedule risks
The three to fix first
Picked for your inputs and ranked by how much schedule they usually cost. Each comes with the next action.
free review
Want an engineer to check this plan?
Send the timeline and budget to yourself, and get a free 15-minute review with an engineer who has taken products through EVT, DVT, and PVT. No sales sequence.
How this is calculated
- Phase weeks = a sourced base range (low, likely, high) × a product-type factor × a team factor. Prototype also stretches with firmware scope and 8% per extra board; the first run scales with volume.
- Sequence: prototype → EVT → DVT → PVT → first run. Phases don’t overlap; tooling and certification run in their own lanes.
- Tooling kicks off 60% of the way through EVT, after the first test results [2]. DVT starts when EVT is done and the first tools have made parts [3]; any gap is drawn as waiting.
- Certification: EMC and battery tests start mid-DVT on production-intent units, the safety review at DVT start; items run in parallel. First shipment = the later of the first run’s end and certification’s end.
- Low / likely / high are three complete passes with every duration at that end of its range. The high case assumes everything runs long at once.
- Cash to first shipment = engineering NRE + tooling & fixtures + certification + prototype & pilot builds + first-run inventory. Each line is a low–high range; the total adds the lows and the highs.
- Risks: each has a base weight plus boosts for matching inputs; the three highest are shown. Weights are srvo’s judgment of schedule impact, open in the data file.
Every assumption behind this result
All of it lives in one open data file, program-model.json, with a source on every range. Model v1.0, updated 2026-10-21; engineer review pending.
How srvo helps
Turn this estimate into a plan you can fund.
We take physical products from prototype to production: mechanical, electronics, and firmware under one roof, DFM before tooling is cut, pre-compliance before the lab, and contract-manufacturer selection at your real volume.
The usual first step is a production readiness sprint: a fixed-fee look at your design and plan that ends in a phase-by-phase roadmap with the risks above already worked. If you want something smaller first, send your schematic, BOM, or CAD for a 48-hour written teardown.
FAQ
Questions founders ask
How long does it take to take a hardware product from prototype to production?+
For a connected device, plan on roughly a year. One design firm publishes nine to fourteen months end to end [6], and founders who have done it say to expect around 18 months even for a simple product [19].
The validation builds themselves are short: EVT about 5 weeks, DVT 6–8, PVT about 3 [1]. What stretches a program is the waiting between them: production molds quoted at 8–12 weeks that become 14–16 [4], a failed EMC test that adds 4–12 weeks [8], a long-lead chip.
How much does it cost to develop a hardware product?+
Published ranges for a connected product run $120k–400k of development, before inventory: electronics $40k–120k, firmware $25k–90k, an app $25k–120k, tooling $15k–80k, and certification $12k–40k [6]. Altium’s example budget for an embedded product totals $141,500 [7].
On top of that, the first production run is paid for before customers pay you [19], which is why this tool reports cash to first shipment, not just engineering.
What are EVT, DVT, and PVT?+
The three validation builds between a working prototype and mass production. EVT proves the design works on your own boards; DVT proves it on production-intent parts, usually from the first hard tools, and is where certification testing happens; PVT proves the factory line can build it at yield [1] [3].
Why is the range so wide?+
Because the high case is honest about what happens when several things run long at once: every phase at the top of its range, one EMC retest, a slow tool. Most programs land between the likely and high columns, which is why only about a third of funded crowdfunding hardware ships on time [20].
Plan your raise near the middle of the cash range and keep a contingency. As quotes come in, replace the defaults: the link in your address bar keeps your inputs.
Who made this, and has an engineer reviewed it?+
srvo built it from the public sources listed below, and every range is in an open data file you can read. The model is an estimate (ranges, not quotes), and engineer review of the defaults is still pending: treat it as a planning aid, then get real quotes. If you want an engineer to check it against your product, send the result or ask in the chat.
Sources & assumptions
Defaults are starting points drawn from these sources, not quotes for your product. Every number above is editable; replace them with your own quotes as soon as you have them.
- OpenBOM — EVT vs DVT vs PVT: understanding the stages of product development — EVT 10–40 units over about 5 weeks; DVT 50–100 units over 6–8 weeks; PVT 10–20% of the first purchase order over about 3 weeks.
- Instrumental — Why hardware products get delayed: EVT, DVT, PVT decoded (part 2) — EVT assembly “may only take a week or two”, reliability testing up to three more; a critical EVT finding costs a “6 to 9 week additional build + 2 to 4 week additional tool revision”; “the typical 12 week tool fabrication time”; normal practice kicks off production tooling “in parallel with or just before DVT”; delays “of up to 15 weeks”.
- Instrumental Build Better Handbook — EVT, DVT, PVT — DVT is meant to “qualify the first hard tool for every part in the assembly”. Its build quantities (EVT 100–1,000, DVT 300–2,000) describe large consumer-electronics programs, so this tool uses the startup-scale OpenBOM figures instead.
- QualityInspection.org — Why injection mold tooling often takes longer than you were quoted — the common quote is “about 8 to 12 weeks”, reasonable for simple molds; otherwise it “may quietly become 14 to 16 weeks, or longer”. The clock usually starts after DFM review, not at the deposit.
- Formlabs — How much does injection molding cost? — aluminum molds for ~1,000–5,000 units $2,000–5,000, about 3–4 weeks to parts; steel molds for 10,000+ units $5,000–100,000, about 4–8 weeks to parts; a $3,000 aluminum mold adds $30 a part at 100 units.
- LA New Product Development Team — What it costs to develop a connected hardware product (Aug 2026) — electronics $40k–120k (2 board revisions); firmware $25k–90k; iOS + Android app $25k–120k; cloud $10k–60k; mechanical $20k–60k; industrial design $8k–30k; tooling $15k–80k; certification $12k–40k; total $120k–400k over nine to fourteen months. A design firm’s published ranges.
- Altium Resources — Manufacturing startup costs: budget for tests and success — a $141,500 example budget: PCB design $30k, front-end engineering $10k, prototyping and components $30k, embedded software $25k, UL & EMC testing $20k, contingencies $15k. “Budget for multiple prototype runs (more than 2).”
- MarkReady — FCC certification cost — simple digital device $1,500–5,000 in 2–4 weeks; IoT with a pre-certified module $3,000–10,000 in 3–6 weeks; a first-pass failure typically adds $5,000–30,000 and 4–12 weeks; roughly half of consumer electronics reportedly fail EMC first time; pre-compliance $3,000–8,000; an EMI-driven board respin $1,000–15,000.
- SparkFun — Getting a module FCC certified — an itemized quote: FCC Part 15C $4,000; ISED $3,000 + $600 agency fee; CE RED $2,800; CE LVD $1,800; $12,200 total, about two and a half months end to end.
- Hardware Compliance — UL certification for consumer electronics: a step-by-step breakdown — lab testing fees for consumer electronics “typically start around $10,000”; 4–12 weeks from samples to decision; 3–6 months for the whole process. A compliance-software vendor’s figures.
- Sheridan Technologies — UL certification costs for hardware product leaders (Mar 2026) — a simple device about $15,000; a sensor-product scenario $39,000–67,000 in the first year, including factory inspection and one or two rounds of corrective action. An engineering firm’s estimates.
- JJR Lab — How much does UN38.3 testing cost? — UN38.3 about $1,700 per model, about 30 days; rechargeable packs need 20 packs plus 30 cells as samples.
- AA Portable Power — UN38.3 testing — 6–8 weeks on average from receipt of samples at the lab (about 1 week for a single-cell pack whose cell already has UN38.3); samples are not returned.
- Predictable Designs — Certification costs: what it really takes — simpler products usually $3,000–8,000; complex products “well over fifty thousand”; mains-powered products face “significant safety certification costs”; a custom battery pack means “much more testing and much higher costs”.
- Accuris — The slow burn becomes a flash point (Apr 2026) — semiconductor lead times reached 40 weeks in March 2026, against 20–25 weeks through most of 2025; passives 20 weeks.
- NextPCB — How long is the lead time for PCB assembly orders? — about 7 business days when parts are in stock, about 20 when they must be imported; procurement alone around 17 business days.
- ALLPCB — Flying probe vs fixture testing cost — a custom in-circuit test fixture costs $10,000–20,000 per PCB design and takes 2–4 weeks; flying probe (no fixture) wins below ~1,000 units.
- Protolabs — Sheet metal fabrication service — a five-day standard lead time for one part to 500 parts; laser cutting and bending need no part-specific mold.
- Hacker News — Ask HN: How does one go about bringing a hardware product to market? (2022) — “Be prepared to spend 18 months bringing even the most trivial product to market”; “plan to make 1,000 units and pay for them before you receive any customer money”; a turnkey quote of $125,000; ~1,600 engineering hours for a 120-unit kiosk. Founder anecdotes, not data.
- Design Science (Cambridge) — Identifying challenges in crowdfunded product development: a review of Kickstarter projects — “no more than 32% of the campaigns managed to deliver the crowdfunded products on time”; manufacturing quality issues were the most frequent failure mode; management challenges were significantly more common among campaigns that had not delivered.
- Make: — Maker Pro file: Ben Einstein (Bolt) — “If you want to build any product in China that’s fully assembled, it’s hard to do that with fewer than 5,000 units.”
- Lockheed Martin Aeronautics — Quality clause Q2A: First Article Inspection (AS9102) — first article inspection documents that the first production items conform to the design and that the processes making them are in control; the aerospace standard many contract manufacturers borrow for consumer hardware.