Product
Custom software vs off the shelf: when building pays
Custom software vs off the shelf comes down to whether the process you need software for is the same in every business like yours. If it is, buy the product. Building pays when the software has to follow how this particular business works, keep specific data away from specific people, or connect systems that no product connects.
| Off the shelf | Custom build | |
|---|---|---|
| Choose it when | The process is the same in every business like yours | The software has to follow how this business works |
| Ready to use | ✓ The day you sign up | After a narrow first version is built |
| Your own method | A review tool built around a manager's yearly form has nowhere to put it | ✓ The method is the thing being built, as in Team Feel |
| Data with its own rules | Agency software that starts as a portfolio leaves visibility for last | ✓ Nothing is public until the agency has reviewed it, as in Kinder Kids Modeling |
| Connecting systems | Only what the product already connects | ✓ Systems that no product connects, as in Room View Insight |
| Cost | ✓ Less than rebuilding, if it already does exactly what you need | From 3,000 euros for a focused first version, plus a codebase someone has to maintain |
When off the shelf is the better buy
Invoicing, email, payroll and a shared calendar work much the same in a bakery and in a law firm. A product sold to thousands of businesses has already met the odd cases and works the day you sign up. Paying to rebuild one gets you the same features plus a codebase that someone now has to maintain.
We build products for the same reason. iButler is off the shelf from a hotel's side: a guest scans the QR code in the room and orders in their own language, and a hotel goes from nothing to a branded ordering system in under ten minutes, with no integration project. The problem it solves repeats from one small hotel to the next: requests go by phone to a desk that is not always staffed, and nothing logs them. The software that did solve it was priced and scoped for five-star chains rather than a twelve-room property.
When building pays
The off the shelf vs custom software question turns the other way when the method is the thing being built. Team Feel replaces the annual top-down review with sessions where colleagues rate the people they work beside, and the scores are computed on the server into engagement numbers and calculated bonuses. A review tool designed around a manager's yearly form has nowhere to put that. Team Feel was built as its own platform, serving many companies from the first version, with billing and referrals included.
Data with its own rules is the second case. Kinder Kids Modeling represents children. A parent registers, adds a child, uploads photographs, subscribes and applies to castings, and nothing is public until the agency has reviewed it. Subscription access is enforced from a single table, so a lapsed payment cannot leave a child's profile visible. Most modeling agency software starts as a portfolio with a login attached, which leaves visibility for last, and What modeling agency software has to protect explains why this agency needed it first.
Connecting systems is the third. A small hotel selling through Booking.com, Airbnb, Expedia and its own site has no single place to see how full it is. Room View Insight was a one-day spike to test that dashboard: two of its four tabs computed real occupancy and channel mix from live bookings, and connecting a channel stayed a toggle. As the write-up puts it, the arithmetic is easy once the bookings are in one place. Getting them there from four platforms, each with its own terms and access rules, is the real product, and it is the part to ask about first when a custom build is quoted.
When not to build
Not while the idea is still a category. The projects that go well arrive with a narrow first version in mind, and the ones that go badly arrive with a platform. Every role a first release has to serve multiplies what has to be built and tested, which is why what a business app actually needs to do starts with how many roles the first release needs.
Not while a spreadsheet still holds the operation together. The signal is usually a question the spreadsheet cannot answer safely, such as who is allowed to see which rows. An agency for children cannot run on a shared spreadsheet for exactly that reason.
And not to get a copy. If an existing product already does exactly what you need, buying it costs less than rebuilding it, and a lookalike adds legal risk on top. A brief to clone a Mac disk-cleanup app exactly, interface and look included, was declined on trademark grounds, and what got built instead was an original app under its own name.
What a build costs with us
A focused first version starts from 3,000 euros: a real front end, a database, accounts and deployment. The price moves with how much of the product is new, whether payments are involved, and whether it has to work offline or in more than one language. Every project has a written list of what version one does not do, and at the end the repository and the accounts are handed over to you. Scope, price and payment terms are agreed in writing before work starts. The products behind this post are on the product and SaaS page.
