Should I build a custom CRM or use an off-the-shelf one?
Use an off-the-shelf CRM when your process resembles the one it was designed for and you have fewer than about ten users. Build custom when your process is genuinely unusual, when per-seat fees are becoming significant, or when your team is already working around the software rather than in it.
The honest case for off-the-shelf
It is live tomorrow, someone else maintains it, and there is a large market of people who already know how to use it. For a straightforward sales pipeline, that is hard to beat and we will tell you so.
The signals that you have outgrown it
- Staff keep a spreadsheet alongside the CRM because the CRM cannot hold something important.
- You are paying per seat for people who only need to view one screen.
- Reporting requires exporting to Excel every month.
- A core part of your process — quoting, scheduling, compliance — does not fit the data model at all.
Comparing cost over three years
Off-the-shelf looks cheaper in year one and often stops being cheaper by year three, particularly as headcount grows. A custom build is capital expenditure with low running costs; a subscription is operating expenditure that scales with your team.
Run the arithmetic over 36 months with your projected headcount before deciding. The answer is frequently not what either vendor claims.