CRM systems
Custom CRM development, for when the standard ones do not fit
Most businesses should buy a CRM rather than build one, and we will tell you that. The exception is the business whose sales process genuinely does not look like anyone else's, or whose CRM has become four integrations and a workaround holding a standard product in a shape it was never meant to take.
- Honest buy-or-build advice
- Built around your pipeline
- You own the data
Buy first. Build only where buying genuinely fails.
The CRM market is mature and competitive, and for a business selling in a fairly conventional way there is almost certainly a product that fits at a price no build could match. Starting a custom CRM project without seriously testing that is how businesses spend twenty thousand pounds recreating something that costs thirty pounds a user.
So the first half of this conversation is always the same: what have you tried, where exactly did it fail, and was that a limitation of the product or a mismatch in how it was set up. A surprising share of CRM failures are configuration and adoption problems rather than software ones, and those are far cheaper to fix.
Where a build does earn its place is when the process is genuinely unusual. Quoting that depends on a calculation nobody else does. Records that are not simply a company and a contact. A pipeline where the stages are physical rather than commercial. Or the situation we see most: a standard CRM propped up by four integrations and a spreadsheet, where the workarounds now cost more than the licence.
How we scope and price a build is set out under custom software development.
What a custom CRM usually needs to do
- Hold the record structure your business actually has, rather than forcing sites, assets or vehicles into a contact field
- Move work through stages that mean something to your team, so the pipeline reflects reality instead of being kept up to date out of duty
- Quote using your rules, including the calculation somebody currently does in a spreadsheet and checks by eye
- Show a full history of a customer in one place: enquiries, quotes, jobs, documents and conversations
- Connect to the systems around it, so a won deal reaches accounts and scheduling without re-entry
- Report on the questions you actually ask, which is rarely the set of reports a product ships with
- Keep your data yours, exportable, and not held hostage by a per-seat price that rises every year
The subscription arithmetic nobody does
A per-user subscription looks small and behaves like rent. Ten users at forty pounds a month is four hundred and eighty pounds a month, which is nearly twenty-nine thousand pounds over five years, and at the end of it you own nothing and your data is on somebody else's terms.
That is not an argument against subscriptions, which are excellent value for plenty of businesses. It is an argument for doing the sum before assuming that buying is always the cheaper option, particularly once headcount grows.
- Count the users you will have in three years, not today
- Add the integrations and add-ons that make it usable
- Add the hours spent on the workarounds it needs
We will tell you to buy one if that is the answer
The free review covers your sales process end to end and comes with a written recommendation. Where an off-the-shelf CRM is the right call, it names one and says why, which costs us a project and saves you a great deal of money.
That is a better position for both sides than a build you regret in year two.
Get in touch
Talk to us about crm systems
A few lines is enough. We will tell you straight whether we can help, what it would cost and how quickly we can be there. No hard sell, and no follow-up sequence if you decide against it.
- We reply within one working day
- A straight answer, including when it is no
- Free process review available, before any money changes hands
Would rather just ring? 01623 354250, Mon–Fri, 9am–5:30pm.
Frequently asked questions
If the answer is not here, ask us. You will get a straight one, from someone who does the work.
Mon–Fri, 9am–5:30pm
Should we buy a CRM or build one?
Buy, unless your process is genuinely unusual or you have already outgrown a product in a specific, identifiable way. The honest test is whether you can name the exact thing an off-the-shelf CRM will not do. If you cannot, the problem is usually configuration or adoption rather than software, and both are cheaper to fix.
How much does a custom CRM cost?
A focused first version covering one pipeline properly typically lands in the low thousands to low tens of thousands depending on scope. You get a fixed price before work starts, and the cost guide sets out what moves the number.
Can you migrate our data from an existing CRM?
Yes, and it is planned before the build rather than after. Contacts, companies, history and documents all move. The part that takes the thinking is the records that never fitted the old system cleanly, which is often why you are moving.
Who owns a custom CRM once it is built?
You do, including the code and the data. There is no per-user licence and no annual increase. Hosting and support are separate and optional, and the system is yours to take elsewhere.
What if we grow and need more from it?
That is the normal path. A custom system is built to be extended, and most clients add to theirs over years rather than in one project. The advantage over a product is that the next thing you need is a quote rather than a feature request somebody else prioritises.