Custom software or a ready-made tool? How a small business should decide

At some point a growing business hits the same problem: the spreadsheet is getting messy, the tools do not talk to each other, and someone says "we should get a proper system". The question is whether to buy a ready-made tool or have one built for you. Both are good answers in the right situation.

Start with the ready-made option

If a tool already exists that does 80% of what you need, use it. It is quicker to start, usually cheaper at the beginning, and someone else looks after it. Most businesses should try this first.

When ready-made starts to hurt

• You keep working around the tool, with extra spreadsheets and manual copying.
• You pay for many features you never use and still miss the one you need.
• Your process is unusual and the tool forces you to change how you work.
• You need several tools to share information and they will not.
• The monthly cost per user is growing faster than your income.
• You want something that customers or staff log in to with your own branding.

When custom software makes sense

Custom software is built around the way you work. It makes sense when the process is central to your business, when you do it every day, and when the time lost to workarounds is more than the cost of fixing it. Typical examples are booking and scheduling, customer portals, internal tracking, quotes and invoicing, and anything that replaces a pile of spreadsheets.

The middle path

You rarely need everything at once. A sensible approach is:

1. List the one or two tasks that waste the most time.
2. Build or buy something for just those.
3. Use it for a few weeks, then decide what to add.

Starting small keeps the cost down and means you learn what is really needed before you pay for it.

Questions to ask before you build

• Who will use it every day?
• What does it replace, and what does that cost us now?
• Who owns the code and the data when it is finished?
• What happens after launch, such as fixes, changes and backups?

Read more about how we approach custom software and web applications, or describe your problem and we will tell you honestly if you would be better off with a ready-made tool.