Start with the market
An existing solution has strengths that are hard to beat. It is available right away, its price is known in advance and other companies have already put it to the test. For email or project management, custom development is rarely worth it.
When custom software makes sense
- The way you work is what sets you apart and no product can follow it without bending it out of shape.
- You juggle several tools and spend hours copying data from one to another.
- Licences are paid per user and the number of users keeps growing.
- You have specific requirements about where your data is stored or how confidential it stays.
- The off-the-shelf product forces useless features on you and leaves out the one you cannot do without.
The costs people forget
On the off-the-shelf side: licences that go up every year, paid add-ons that pile up over time, the hours spent working around what the tool cannot do and the dependence on a vendor who can change the terms.
On the custom side: maintenance, security updates and the software’s evolution. Software is never finished. A serious budget plans for maintenance from day one.
The middle way
There is often a more modest option: keep an off-the-shelf product and only build what is missing around it. An automation that connects two tools. An interface that simplifies a repetitive task. That is often where the ratio between cost and benefit is best.
Ask the right questions
- 01Which specific task do we want to improve and how much time does it cost us today?
- 02Does an existing product cover 80% of it?
- 03Who will maintain the software three years from now?
- 04Who will own the code?
If you are torn between the two, tell us what you need: we will tell you frankly whether an existing product is enough. You can also browse our work to see what we build.