Paid app for MVP

First off, congrats! Even getting to a stage where you can launch an MVP can be tough. In regards to your question. There are no cut-and-dry rules when it comes to launching or launching free vs. paid MVPs. The most important thing to understand is "What are your goals for this MVP?" If you're trying to get user feedback it may not be the best option. If you're trying to test the question "Will users pay an insignificant amount of money for the value I claim to be providing?" then charging makes a lot of sense. So first ask yourself what your goals are, and then you'll understand if a paid MVP is in-line with those goals. Best of luck!

Building an app is time consuming and expensive to keep up so I think charging is 100% necessary. If there is a way to build your product not as an app I would go that route first.

I think it depends on what you want to validate. If you want to test the value a MVP produces, you have to charge.

Going straight to paid as an MVP will be a challange. i suggest you make certain features free to drive traffic and potential customers to your site. Then you can upsell to what i call your loyal base.

Not sure what you'd get from $1 payments. IMO, that $1 payment is just an extra, unnecessary barrier which doesn't even prove people are willing to pay for the product, sure it shows they're interested in a solution for the problem you claim to be solving but not much more than that. I'd either don't charge at all, or charge a meaningful amount of money. Anyway your product doesn't do whatever you're planning for it say in 2 years time, so charge them just for what you're offering not what you thing it should cost when it's complete with all the features you've planned.

I think it is a good option, but at the same time is really hard to make people pay even 1$. A good way to do so is to find someone leader in the market you are focused in to publicly recommend to use your app.