How To Decide Among POC vs MVP vs Prototype For Your Mobile Application?

Suppose you are buzzing with excitement as you have come up with a brilliant mobile app idea. How would you feel if it tops the app store charts? But the question is from where will you start? Do you have any more strategic path towards your app success?

So, here comes the role of three essential methodologies i.e. Proof of Concept (POC), Prototype, and Minimum Viable Product (MVP). Each approach offers unique advantages depending on your app’s development stage.

If you are an entrepreneur, or business owner looking to move ahead with result-driven mobile application development, in that case, you should know the difference between MVP vs Prototype, MVP vs POC, or Prototype vs POC. Understanding their differences is crucial because it significantly impacts the success of your project.

In this blog, you will get insights into the differences between POC, prototype, and MVP. This will help you to make an informed decision about which strategy is the right fit for your mobile app idea.

1. What Is Proof of Concept (POC)?

This methodology is generally used when anyone has to prove a concept or a theory, whether it is feasible or not in real-time development.

The Key difference between POC vs Prototype vs MVP lies in their objectives. So, the main objective of POC is to assess project feasibility or feature success before jumping into full-fledged development. The primary focus is not on improving the user interface or user experience but rather on evaluating technical challenges and validating the app’s core idea.

It helps the stakeholders validate their ideas and have a small working model to share with their investors and colleagues. Sometimes they are also used to spread internal knowledge among the team to share experiences and inspire innovation for emerging technologies. Even top mobile app development companies in India opt to create a POC for complex project ideas.

Apart from POC, it’s also crucial to understand the difference between MVP vs Prototype to make a more informed decision.

Features of Proof of Concept: 

• Verifying your idea: Market demand and technology should be capable of working together. With POC, you can identify if your idea can be put to reality with the available technology.
• Saves time and resources: If you directly step towards building your product, you might end up realizing your idea cannot be executed. POC will save time and resources for you.
• Checking the competition: A well-researched POC check will let you analyze the competition and how others deliver.

2. What Is Prototype?

A prototype is a working and interactive model of an idea where a user can interact with it and process an end result. It is somehow a working model of the project that helps the development team and stakeholders understand the design and navigation of the application.

Prototyping is an important part of the project lifecycle which helps you to understand how an application will look and behave at a certain user interaction. It focuses on your mobile app design and user interface. Though it is not a real application.

To understand some minor differences between MVP vs Prototype, you need to know that the main purpose of the prototype is to discover the errors at the early stage so that it will save effort and time. It also helps you to visualize the flow of your app, identify design flaws, and gather valuable feedback.

Creating a prototype rather than triggering the development first reduces the chances of miscommunication and gives a clear picture of the scope of work. Hence maximizing the efficiency of the mobile app development process.

However, to make one of the best choices between prototype vs MVP, you can connect with a leading MVP development company. They will provide you with a complete guide.

Features of Prototype:

• Attracting investors: When you can deliver your app’s prototype, you can easily opt for fundraising and attract investors.
• Optimize resources: You can explore and verify if your UI has flaws.
• Find designs: A prototype can be built multiple times until you find the right design, feel, and look for your app.

3. What is the Minimum Viable Product?

An MVP is a version of the product that includes only the features that allow you to release it to market, solving a core problem for a set of users. It helps the product owner to test the usability, viability, assumptions, and demand among real users. Moreover, it also aims to reduce the overall MVP development cost and ensure success of your app.

It is an iterative process that allows you to learn how your users will react to your product before you waste a lot of money and resources building something they don’t want or need. With every release, you learn how users are adopting the features by tracking their behaviors and making the necessary changes to launch a successful mobile app.

Hopefully, now you are familiar with the MVP vs Prototype and will choose the most suitable one according to your business requirements. Here, we have provided some major features of MVP.

Features of Minimum Viable Products:

• Eligible for User feedback: You can share an MVP with users to gather feedback on your app before actually developing it.
• Fundraising: There cannot be a better choice than MVP to present your idea to investors.
• Sufficient marketing: While comparing MVP vs Prototype, you will find that you can efficiently market your product in advance using MVP.

Key Differences Between POC vs Prototype vs MVP

For your better understanding, we have provided you with major differences between POC vs MVP vs Prototype based on several parameters:

Criteria	POC	Prototype	MVP
Purpose	The main purpose is to validate the technical feasibility of an idea or feature.	To demonstrate the look, feel, and user experience of a product.	To release a functional product with core features to the market.
Development Stage	Early stage of development	Early to mid-development stage	Mid to late development stage
Goal	Checking if the technology or concept is feasible.	For visualizing how the product will look and behave.	To gather user feedback and test market viability.
Functionality	Limited or no functionality	Interactive, but not fully functional	Fully functional, with only core features implemented.
Time to Build	Short, as it involves only the concept.	Moderate as it includes basic design and development.	Longer, as it requires a functional product with essential features.
Audience	Internal teams and stakeholders	Small group for design validation	Early adopters or the target market
Main Outcome	Confirms whether the idea is possible.	Helps visualize the design and user experience.	Determines if the product solves the problems of targeted users.

When Businesses Should Opt for POC

A POC method is widely useful in the following cases:

• If you have an innovative or untested idea that requires validation.
• To critically assess whether a particular technology or advanced feature can be incorporated into your app.
• You can choose POC to launch your app if you are working on a complex solution.
• You need to ensure that the latest technology stack you have chosen is feasible.

Therefore, by creating a POC, businesses can easily determine whether a project is worth investing in before committing valuable resources to a full-scale development process. If you still have any doubts, you can hire dedicated mobile app developers to follow the best approach for your project.

When Businesses Should Opt for Prototype

A prototype is most suitable for your business when:

• You need to present your app’s design to interested stakeholders or investors.
• If you are looking to test user interactions and workflows before the full development process.
• When you are in the process of redefining the user experience and also looking to gather valuable feedback.

Prototype is helpful for you to save time and money by identifying design flaws early in the development process. Thus, it reduces the expensive changes during the later stages of mobile app development.

When Businesses Should Opt for MVP

An MVP is one of the most suitable approaches for businesses when:

• You are looking to launch a basic version of your app and to test product-market fit.
• If you are willing to minimize your development costs and time.
• When your business aims to attract early adopters and you want to gather feedback for future updates and improvements.

One of the primary advantages of choosing MVP testing for a successful app launch is that it allows you to enter the market quickly. It is also beneficial to gather relevant data and to improve your app based on real-world feedback and suggestions. It minimizes the risk and helps you to ensure that you are building a powerful app that users want and love to use.

Read Also: Building Minimum Viable Product- An Ultimate Key To Turn Your Idea Into Reality

Conclusion

Understanding the major differences between POC vs MVP vs Prototype is crucial for the overall success of your mobile app development. Each one of these approaches has its purpose. Therefore, choosing one of the most suitable ones is crucial to meet your business objectives, budget, timeline, and the needs of targeted audiences.

If you are looking for innovative ideas, you can go for POC to validate technical feasibility. Whereas, for design and user interaction, a prototype approach will help you to visualize the overall app experience. After that, if you have decided to launch a final product and looking to test market demand, MVP is one of the ultimate choices for your business.

Still not able to identify which method is best to kick-start your idea? We will help you to clarify more according to your business needs. Let us initiate a discussion of your next big idea with us.