Custom software vs ready-made software: how to decide
Custom software. By Aman Dobriyal. Updated .
Custom software vs ready-made software is usually argued by someone selling one of them. I build custom software for a living, and my honest answer for most small businesses is: start with ready-made.
Here is how to tell which side of the line you are on, what custom work really involves, and what decides the cost.
Start with ready-made if any of this is true
- Your business works the way most businesses of your type work. An app built for thousands of shops already handles a plain counter sale well.
- You are still changing how you work. Software freezes a process. Freeze it after it settles.
- You need it this week.
- One person will use it.
Signs you have outgrown ready-made
- You keep a second system beside the software: a register, an Excel sheet, a WhatsApp group. That side system is exactly the part the software doesn't fit.
- Staff type the same thing twice, into two programs that don't talk to each other.
- The way you charge is unusual. Rent plus usage from a meter reading. Metres and pieces on one bill. A stitching job attached to a sale.
- You pay for a large package and use one corner of it, and the thing you need is missing.
- You asked the vendor for a change and the answer was no, or next year.
- You can't get your own data out in a form you can use.
One of these is an irritation. Three or more is a second job somebody in your business is doing by hand.
Custom software vs ready-made software on cost
Ready-made is a small amount every month or year for as long as you use it, usually per user or per shop. Custom is a larger amount up front, or a subscription to whoever built it, plus hosting and support.
I won't print a price here, because any single number would be wrong for most readers. These are the things that move it:
- How many separate jobs it does. Billing alone is one. Billing, stock, job cards and staff logins is four.
- How much old data has to be moved in, and how clean it is.
- What it must connect to: GST portals, payment gateways, WhatsApp, printers and barcode labels.
- How many kinds of user there are, each seeing different things.
- Whether it starts from something that already runs in a similar business, or from a blank page.
Ask anyone quoting you to split the price along those lines. A quote that is one number with no breakdown can't be compared with another.
What getting software built involves
- You explain how the work flows today, including the exceptions. Expect a lot of questions. The exceptions are where both the cost and the value sit.
- A first version does the main job. You use it for real and find what was missed. Something always is.
- Your old data is moved in and checked against the old system's totals.
- For a while you run old and new side by side. It is tedious, and it is how you find out the numbers agree before you depend on them.
- Staff are trained. The software changes how some of them work, and not everyone likes it at first.
- Someone looks after it afterwards: hosting, backups, fixes, and changes when your business changes.
The risks are real. Custom software depends on the person or company that built it, and a process that was badly understood gets built badly. Ready-made has the opposite problem: it works on day one and never quite fits.
Questions to ask whoever builds it
- Who owns the data, and can I download all of it whenever I ask?
- Where does it run, and whose account is the hosting in?
- What have you built that a real business is using today? Can I see it?
- What does support cost after the first year, and what does it cover?
- What happens when the internet is down? Most web-based systems need a connection. Mine do too.
Short answers
Is custom software worth it for a small business?
Only when the way you work is something ready-made software forces you to change, or to patch with a second system kept beside it. If a standard app fits most of your day, it is the cheaper and safer choice.
What decides the cost of custom software?
The number of separate jobs it does, how much old data has to be moved, the outside systems it must connect to, the number of user roles, and whether it starts from an existing product or a blank page. Ask for the quote to be split along those lines.
Who owns custom software after it is built?
Whatever your agreement says, so settle it before work starts. At the least you should own your data and be able to download all of it at any time. Ask where it is hosted and in whose account.
My own middle path: I keep working products for retail billing, field service and helpdesk work, and shape them to a business instead of starting from zero. Not sure which side of the line you are on? Tell me how you work today and I'll say so honestly, including when a ready-made app is the better buy. See the products. Leave your number for a call back.