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FREE CALCULATOR · 6 BUSINESS TYPES · 2026 FEES

Start up costs calculator: what your business needs before day one

Start up costs are the money you spend to open your business plus the months of bills you pay before sales cover them. This calculator adds both: pick one of 6 business types, edit the cost lines, enter your cash and the month you expect first sales, and you get your total start-up costs, monthly burn, runway and funding gap. Below it you will find official 2026 company registration fees for 7 EU countries and the UK, the costs first-time founders forget and a worked example. Nothing you type leaves your browser.

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How it works

Start-up cost calculator

Pick a business type, edit the cost lines and add your cash. You get your start-up costs, monthly burn, runway and funding gap, plus the 3 lines to question first.

Step 1

Pick your business type

Currency symbol

Step 2

One-off costs (paid once, before or at launch)

Step 3

Monthly costs (paid every month)

Step 4

You, your cash and your first sales

Your monthly living costs (if the business pays you nothing yet)

€

Cash you have for the business today

€

Expected monthly revenue once sales run fully

€

First sales arrive in month

Months to reach full revenue

Months of monthly costs in your start-up budget

Your start-up costs

Want a second pair of eyes on this budget? Paste the table into a chat with Elona, your AI co-founder, or test the idea quest by quest in the Fe/male Switch startup game before you spend.

Ask Elona about my budget Play the startup game

Sources and date: KVK, Business.gov.nl, Squarespace, Shopify and Google Workspace pricing pages, Xero's start-up cost guide; checked 3 November 2026. Preset prices are in euros and the currency button only changes the symbol. Empty fields count as 0. Nothing you type leaves your browser.

What are start up costs, and how do they differ from operating costs?

Start-up costs (also written startup costs or start up costs) are everything you pay before your business earns enough to cover its own bills. They fall into two buckets. One-off costs are paid once, around launch: company registration, a notary, a laptop, a logo, first stock, a rent deposit. Recurring costs come back every month: software, hosting, insurance, bookkeeping, marketing, rent.

The US Small Business Administration (SBA) draws the same line in its start-up cost guide: "One-time expenses are the initial costs needed to start the business." Monthly expenses, in the SBA's words, cover things like salaries, rent and utility bills. Operating costs are those same recurring bills once the business runs. The overlap matters: the first months of operating costs belong in your start-up budget, because no customer pays them for you yet.

1. One-off costs

Paid once, before or at launch. Registration, notary, equipment, website set-up, first stock, branding, deposits. Easy to list, easy to get quotes for.

2. Recurring costs

Paid every month until revenue covers them. Tools, hosting, insurance, accounting, marketing, rent. Small per month, large once you multiply by 6 or 12.

3. Your own living costs

The line most calculators skip. If the business pays you nothing yet, your rent, food and bills are a start-up cost, and for a solo founder they are the biggest one.

Still choosing what to start? Our list of 22 low cost businesses with real costs puts a price tag on each idea, so you can compare budgets before you fall in love with one.

How do you estimate start up costs in 6 steps?

The cleanest formula comes from the accounting software company Xero. Its guide on start-up costs (Jotika Teli, April 2026) puts it like this: total start-up costs = one-time costs + (recurring costs × three to six months). The extra months are runway: most new businesses need time before sales pay the bills. This calculator uses Xero's method with a choice of 3, 6, 9 or 12 months, and 6 as the default. The SBA is stricter and tells founders to count at least one year of monthly expenses. Let's break it down.

List every one-off cost. What must exist before the first customer pays?
Price each line with a real quote. A pricing page, a notary's quote, a supplier's price list. Leave a line empty until you have a number.
List every monthly cost. Software, hosting, insurance, bookkeeping, marketing, rent. Write the price you will pay after any intro offer ends.
Add your own living costs. If you quit your job, the business has to fund your rent and groceries until it pays you a salary.
Pick your buffer. 3 months if you already have paying customers, 6 by default, 12 if sales depend on a long build or a slow sales cycle.
Compare the total with your cash, then set the month you expect first sales. The gap between the two numbers is what you need to save, cut, borrow or raise.

Here is why step 4 deserves its own line. The Federal Reserve Banks' 2024 Report on Startup Firms found that both solo and employer startups were more likely than older firms to have received funds from their owners. Read: your savings fund the start, so your savings need a plan. If you like paper, print a printable start-up cost worksheet and fill it in before you open the calculator.

How does this startup cost calculator work out your runway and funding gap?

One-off costs: the sum of every one-off line.
Monthly burn: your monthly business costs plus your living costs. This is what leaves your account each month before revenue.
Start-up costs: one-off costs + monthly burn × the months you chose. This is Xero's formula, and the number to put in a business plan or a grant application.
Funding gap: start-up costs minus the cash you have. Zero means you can pay for the whole buffer today.
Runway: a month-by-month cash simulation over 36 months. It pays the one-off costs on day one, takes off your burn each month and adds revenue from the month you chose, rising in a straight line to full revenue over 1, 3 or 6 months.
The 3 biggest lines to question: every line ranked by its cost over your buffer period, so a €50 monthly tool counts as €300 over 6 months.

The funding gap and the runway can disagree, and that is on purpose. The gap ignores revenue, so it is the cautious number. The runway counts on your sales plan, so it is the hopeful one. When the gap says you are short and the runway says you survive, the verdict tells you that you are covered only if sales arrive on time. The worked example below shows how one late month changes everything.

Preset amounts come from pages we opened on 3 November 2026. Every line without a published price stays empty with the hint "your quote", and empty fields count as 0. The currency button changes the symbol only, so a £ or $ user should replace the euro presets with local prices.

Preset line	Amount loaded	Where the number comes from
Business register fee	€85.15 one-off	KVK (Netherlands Chamber of Commerce) 2026 registration fee
Notary for a Dutch BV (SaaS preset)	€1,500 one-off, top of the €500 to €1,500 range	KVK and Business.gov.nl
Website builder	€20.57 a month, incl. estimated VAT	Squarespace pricing page, cheapest plan
Online store plan (shop preset)	€32 a month billed monthly, €24 billed yearly	Shopify pricing page for Ireland
Email and documents	€6.80 per user a month, yearly plan, excl. tax	Google Workspace Starter pricing
Bookkeeping and accounting	€50 or €150 a month (€600 to €1,800 a year)	Business.gov.nl estimate for a BV's bookkeeping
Every other line	Empty, "your quote"	Ask a supplier, insurer or landlord

Prices as shown on each page on 3 November 2026. Shopify runs an intro offer of €1 a month for 3 months and Google Workspace shows 50% off Starter from 16 November 2026 to 16 February 2027: budget at the full price.

How much does it cost to register a company in Europe and the UK in 2026?

Company registration is the one start-up cost every founder pays, and it ranges from free to a five-figure capital requirement. The table lists the official fee and the minimum share capital (the money owners must put into a limited company at founding) for 8 countries, taken from each country's registry or government portal.

Country	Limited company	Official registration fee	Minimum share capital	Sole trader option
United Kingdom	Private limited company (Ltd)	£100 online, £124 by post (Companies House)	No amount stated on GOV.UK; at least 1 shareholder	Sole trader: register for Self Assessment once you earn more than £1,000 in a tax year
Netherlands	BV	€85.15 KVK fee, plus notary €500 to €1,500 (KVK estimate)	1 euro cent	Eenmanszaak, registered with KVK for the same €85.15
Germany	GmbH or UG (haftungsbeschränkt)	Notary and register court fees, set by share capital and contract value; the sample protocol is the cheaper option (IHK)	GmbH €25,000; UG below that, paid in full, a quarter of each year's surplus kept as a reserve	Einzelunternehmen, no share capital
France	SAS	€22.14 excl. VAT court registry fee; BODACC notice free (tariff from 1 March 2026)	€1; at least half of cash contributions paid in at creation	Micro-entreprise: creation formalities free, €23.21 for commercial agents
Estonia	OÜ	€265 state fee online	1 euro cent per shareholder, paid in full before you apply	FIE (sole proprietor)
Portugal	Sociedade (unipessoal) por quotas	€220 online with pre-approved articles, €360 with your own; €440 or €720 urgent	€1 per quota	Empresário em nome individual
Sweden	Aktiebolag (AB)	SEK 2,400 by e-service, SEK 2,700 on paper, no VAT	SEK 25,000	Enskild firma
Denmark	ApS	DKK 670	DKK 20,000	Personligt ejet virksomhed: no registration fee

Sources: Companies House and GOV.UK, KVK and Business.gov.nl, German GmbH Act (sections 5 and 5a) and IHK Rhein-Neckar, Guichet unique and Service-Public.fr, RIK e-Business Register, Justiça.gov.pt, Bolagsverket, Erhvervsstyrelsen. Opened 3 November 2026. Bank, translation, legal notice and adviser costs are extra.

Three things jump out. First, the registry fee is rarely the big number: France charges €22.14 excl. VAT at the court registry and Denmark DKK 670, while a Dutch BV adds a notary at €500 to €1,500. Second, share capital is the real hurdle in three countries: a German GmbH needs €25,000, a Swedish AB SEK 25,000 and a Danish ApS DKK 20,000, against €1 or 1 euro cent in France, Portugal, Estonia and the Netherlands. Share capital is cash you can spend on the business later, yet you need it in the bank on day one, so it belongs in the "cash you have" field.

Third, a sole trader start costs almost nothing in several countries. French micro-entreprise formalities are free for commercial, artisan and liberal activities, a Danish personally owned business pays no registration fee, and a UK sole trader only has to register for Self Assessment above £1,000 of income in a tax year. KVK warns that a BV has higher annual costs and taxes than a sole proprietorship. Compare the forms in our guide to legal structures for startups, then work through the startup legal checklist for European founders.

Which start-up costs do first-time founders forget?

Most budgets fail on the lines nobody wrote down. Add these to the calculator before you trust the total.

Your own salary. Months without income are the largest start-up cost for a solo founder. Put them in the living costs field.
Intro prices that end. Shopify's €1 a month lasts 3 months and the Google Workspace discount ends on 16 February 2027. Budget the full price from month 4.
The free domain that renews. Squarespace includes a free domain for one year on annual plans, then it renews at the standard rate.
Bookkeeping and tax advice. Business.gov.nl puts BV bookkeeping at €600 to €1,800 a year. See how much a CPA costs for a small business before you pick one.
Insurance. Professional liability, product liability, contents. Read what coverage a new founder needs and get two quotes.
Share capital and notary. €25,000 for a German GmbH and up to €1,500 of notary fees for a Dutch BV, both before the first sale.
Payment and card fees. Every card sale costs a percentage. Check your payment provider's page and add a monthly line.
Terms, privacy policy and contracts. An online business needs them from the first sign-up.
Subscriptions that pile up. Five €15 tools are €75 a month and €900 a year. The "3 biggest lines" list in the calculator shows which ones hurt most.
Marketing tests. Your first ads teach you what does not sell. Plan a small test budget with the free marketing budget calculator.

Once you are trading, keep the same discipline every month. Our guide on managing business expenses while growing your brand shows how to review spend without slowing down.

How can you cut start up costs before you spend?

The cheapest start-up cost is the one you never pay because a customer told you no first. Order matters: test demand, then build, then register the expensive company form. Next steps:

Sell before you build. Take pre-orders or deposits, using our guide to getting paid before you build. Paid pre-sales shrink your funding gap and prove demand at the same time.
Run a smoke test. A landing page with a price and a buy button tells you if anyone clicks. Pick one of 5 smoke tests to validate demand, or follow the €100 landing page validation plan.
Build with no-code. A website builder at €20.57 a month and a no-code app replace a developer for the first version. See no-code product development from idea to launch in 30 days.
Start as a sole trader where it is cheaper. In the Netherlands, France, Denmark and the UK a sole trader start skips notary fees and share capital. Switch to a limited company when the risk or the revenue asks for it.
Pay monthly while you test, yearly once it works. Shopify costs €32 billed monthly and €24 billed yearly: the yearly plan saves money only if you keep the shop for the year.
Use free tools for planning. Map the business on the free lean canvas tool and turn it into a plan with the business plan creator before you buy anything.

For the full playbook, read Bootstrapping 101: launching a startup on a shoestring budget, then keep the runway alive with our guide to managing cash flow in an early-stage startup.

How do Elona and the Fe/male Switch game help you plan a start-up budget?

A calculator gives you numbers. A co-founder asks why a line is there at all. Fe/male Switch is a startup game for first-time founders, and its AI co-founder Elona works with you on the plan.

Ask Elona about your budget

Tell Elona, your AI co-founder what you are building. In about ten seconds you get an honest first take and a 7-day plan, free and without sign-up. Paste your copied cost table and ask which 3 lines to cut.

Play the startup game

In the Fe/male Switch startup game you build a real business quest by quest, with free idea, name and business model canvas tools. More than 1,500 entrepreneurs use the AI co-founder tools.

Check yourself first

Money is half of the start. The free entrepreneurial mindset test shows how you react to a zero budget and a flat launch, in about 4 minutes.

Worked example: how much does a freelance designer need before launch?

This is an example, not a real company. Mila is a fictional UX designer in the Netherlands who leaves her job to freelance as a sole trader. Sourced prices are marked; every other number is an assumption we picked to show the maths. Run it yourself: choose "Online service or freelance" in the calculator and type the same numbers.

Line	Type	Amount	Where the number comes from
KVK registration	One-off	€85.15	KVK 2026 fee
Laptop	One-off	€0	Assumption: she already owns one
Website builder	Monthly	€20.57	Squarespace cheapest plan, incl. estimated VAT
Email and documents	Monthly	€6.80	Google Workspace Starter, excl. tax
Bookkeeping	Monthly	€50	Low end of €600 to €1,800 a year (Business.gov.nl)
Professional liability insurance	Monthly	€40	Assumption
Marketing	Monthly	€100	Assumption
Living costs	Monthly	€1,800	Assumption
Cash today		€8,000	Assumption
Revenue		€2,500 a month from month 4, full after 3 months	Assumption

Fictional example with stated assumptions. Results come from the calculator on this page.

The result. One-off costs are €85 and the monthly burn is €2,017, of which only €217 is the business. With Xero's 6-month buffer, Mila's start-up costs come to €12,189, so the funding gap is €4,189. With the SBA's one-year rule the budget doubles to €24,294.

Now add her sales plan. Revenue starts at €833 in month 4, reaches €1,667 in month 5 and €2,500 from month 6. Her cash falls to its lowest point, €328 in month 5, and from month 6 sales cover her burn. She survives, with almost nothing to spare.

Move the first sale one month later, to month 5, and the picture flips: cash runs out in month 4 and the lowest point is €1,689 below zero. One late client turns a tight plan into a funding gap. For a solo founder the risk sits in the start date of revenue, far more than in the price of any tool. Mila's best moves are a deposit from her first client, 2 months of extra savings, or a part-time contract for the first quarter.

Start up costs FAQ

What are typical start up costs for a small business?

There is no single typical number, because a freelancer and a café live in different worlds. Registration is free for a French micro-entreprise, £100 for a UK company and €265 for an Estonian OÜ, while a German GmbH needs €25,000 of share capital. For a solo founder the biggest start-up cost is the months of living costs before sales arrive. Use the calculator above with your own quotes.

What is included in start-up costs?

One-off costs such as registration, a notary, equipment and first stock, plus the recurring costs of your first months, plus your own living costs if the business pays you nothing yet.

How many months of expenses should a startup budget cover?

Xero's method adds 3 to 6 months of recurring costs to your one-time costs. The US Small Business Administration asks for at least one year of monthly expenses and calls five years ideal. This calculator defaults to 6 months and lets you pick 3, 6, 9 or 12.

What is the difference between start-up costs and operating costs?

Operating costs are the recurring bills of a running business: rent, tools, salaries, marketing. Start-up costs are the one-off costs of opening plus the operating costs you pay before revenue covers them. The first months of operating costs belong in both.

How much does it cost to register a business in the UK?

Registering a limited company with Companies House costs £100 online and £124 by post, according to GOV.UK. A sole trader registers for Self Assessment with HMRC once income passes £1,000 in a tax year.

Which European country is cheapest to register a company in?

Among the 8 countries in our table, France has the lowest registry fee for a company, €22.14 excl. VAT for an SAS with €1 of share capital. Estonia charges €265 with 1 euro cent of capital. Germany, Sweden and Denmark ask for €25,000, SEK 25,000 and DKK 20,000 of share capital.

How do I calculate my startup runway?

Subtract your one-off costs from your cash, then divide what is left by your monthly burn (business costs plus living costs, minus revenue). The calculator does this month by month for 36 months, so a revenue ramp is counted correctly.

Can I start a business with no money?

You can start some businesses with almost no start-up costs: sole trader formalities are free in France and Denmark, and pre-sales can fund the first costs. You still need money to live on, so put your living costs in the calculator and read Bootstrapping 101 for the tactics.

Is this start-up cost calculator free and private?

Yes. It is free, needs no sign-up and runs in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere; your last budget is saved only in this browser so you can come back to it.