Knowledge · Software
Custom software or an off-the-shelf package?
Almost every growing business hits this point: the standard package starts to pinch, but custom software sounds expensive and scary. The honest truth is that either route can be right, depending on your process, your growth and the maths over several years.
· 4 min read · Sonora Solutions
Choose off-the-shelf if…
Standard software (SaaS) exists for good reason: for common processes it is fast, cheap to start with and maintained for you. A standard package is usually the right choice if:
- Your process is common: invoicing, email, calendars, simple project administration.
- You can follow the package rather than the other way round, adapting your workflow is painless.
- You want to start quickly and per-user monthly costs stay manageable.
- Good integrations exist with the rest of your systems.
Choose custom if…
Custom software wins as soon as your way of working is your edge, or when you notice your business bending itself to fit someone else's software. Think of:
- You work across three or four separate systems, with Excel as the glue.
- Licence costs grow with every employee and are starting to add up seriously.
- Your process is genuinely unique, the last thing you want is to flatten it into what a package can handle.
- You want ownership: of your data, your integrations and the direction of the software.
The real maths: costs over three to five years
The comparison "custom is expensive, SaaS is cheap" only holds short-term. With SaaS you usually pay per user per month, forever, with price increases you have no say in. Custom costs more up front, but afterwards you only pay hosting and maintenance, and the system grows with you instead of against you.
So do the maths over three to five years: licences × users × months, plus the hidden cost of manual work and errors caused by systems that don't connect. Against that: build cost, hosting and a maintenance agreement. For growing teams that equation tips towards custom more often than you'd think.
The hybrid route: standard where possible, custom where it counts
It is not an all-or-nothing choice. A common and sensible route: keep standard packages for generic tasks (accounting, email) and build custom software exactly where your business makes the difference, a customer portal, a planning tool, or a CRM that follows your actual process.
Good integrations (APIs) are the key here: the custom part talks to your existing packages, so nothing gets entered twice.
Decision checklist: five questions
Still in doubt? Answer these five questions honestly:
- Does our process fit the package, or are we bending ourselves around it?
- What will licences cost over five years, at the growth we expect?
- How much time do we lose each week to retyping, exporting and double-checking?
- Is this process our edge, or just something that needs doing?
- Who owns our data if we ever want to leave?
Frequently asked questions about custom software
What does custom software cost?
That depends entirely on scope and on what it replaces. More important than an up-front number is the comparison with your current licences and manual work over three to five years, we make that concrete in a first call, and you always get a fixed price before we build.
How long does building custom software take?
A first working version of a well-scoped system typically takes a few weeks to a few months. Either way, we ship a demo every week, so you never wait months for a surprise.
Can we move from a standard package to custom later?
Yes, that is a route we see often. What matters is that your data can be exported from the package. We often start with custom software alongside the package (a portal or an integration) and grow from there.