Custom software or off the shelf?

Not every problem needs its own software. Often the most honest recommendation is: take the ready made tool, it is enough. Just as often, though, a business squeezes itself for years into a program that never quite fits. The question is not custom versus standard, it is: what fits your workflow?

When standard is enough

Standard software and SaaS are great when your need is common. Accounting, email, a shop system, a CRM: there are mature products used by millions. The upsides:

• Available immediately, no development effort.
• Cheap to start, the cost is shared across many customers.
• Maintained and updated, without you having to care.

If a ready made product covers 90 percent of your need and the remaining 10 percent does not hurt, the case is clear.

When custom pays off

Custom software pays off when the workflow is your edge, or when no standard fits. Typical signs:

• You retype data by hand between systems.
• You pay for features you never use, and the one you need is missing.
• Your process is so specific that every ready made tool only works with contortions.
• You want to own the solution instead of being tied to a vendor forever.

Then your own software adds up, because it adapts to you, not the other way round.

The most common path: standard plus an integration

In practice it is rarely either or. Most of the time the proven standard system stays, and an integration or a plugin closes exactly the gap. You keep the upsides of the ready made product and still get the part that fits you. That is often the cheapest solution with the fastest payback.

Questions to ask yourself

• Is there a ready made product that covers the core?
• What do the contortions cost if I adapt, instead of the software?
• Is the process a competitive advantage, or just admin?

In short

Standard where it is enough. Custom where it counts. And often a middle path of both. What custom software roughly costs is covered in What does custom software cost?

Unsure what fits your case? Describe the problem, not the solution, and we sort out the rest in a conversation. Web applications belong here too.