CRM guide
Should we build a custom CRM or buy and configure a product?
Buy and configure a CRM product such as Salesforce Sales Cloud when most of your process matches what the product already does and the changes you need are few. Build a custom CRM when the changes outnumber the defaults, because you will pay for that work on either route and only the custom route leaves you owning the result with no per-seat fee.
| What you are comparing | A product | A custom build |
|---|---|---|
| Cost over five years | A subscription for every user in every year, plus onboarding fees, add-ons and the admin or consulting time spent on configuration. The total rises with each hire. | A one-time build with the price set in a written scope, then running costs such as hosting, database and email. The total does not rise when you hire. |
| Per-seat fees | Yes, on every product on our lists. The plans with room to customize are the upper ones, so the seat price a customizing company pays is not the entry price. | None. Sales staff, managers, estimators and occasional users are all added without a fee. |
| Fit to your process | The product sets the starting shape and you move it as far as your plan allows. Whatever it cannot hold stays in spreadsheets and email. | The process sets the shape. Stages, quoting rules, approvals and handoffs are built the way your team already runs them. |
| Time to launch | An account can be opened the same day. A configured rollout for a company of 50 or more is a project, with setup, migration and training before it is in daily use. | Nothing is available immediately. Discovery and a written scope come first, the schedule is set in that scope, and working screens are shown as the build goes on. |
| Who owns it | The vendor owns the software and you own your data. If you stop paying, the configuration you paid for stays behind. | You own the code, the database and every account the system runs on. Black Badger sets those accounts up in your name. |
| Changes after launch | Whatever your plan and the vendor allow. Larger changes wait for an admin, a consultant or a higher plan. | Anything, since the code is yours. Each change is scoped and built when you need it. |
| Who can maintain it | Admins and consultants who know that product. The pool is largest for Salesforce and Microsoft. | Any capable developer, including your own. We write the code to be read and extended by someone other than us. |
When buying an off-the-shelf CRM is the right answer
Buy when your process is close to the way most companies sell. A product gives you pipelines, activity tracking, reporting and a mobile app on the first day, and a few configured changes cover the rest.
Buy as well when the process is still moving. A company that is changing how it sells every quarter should not fix that process in software yet. Configure a product, let the process settle, and look again.
When a custom CRM is the right answer
Build when you are already paying for custom work inside a product. The signs are a long backlog of change requests, a consultant on retainer, add-ons bought to cover gaps, and a spreadsheet that still does the part the CRM cannot.
Build when the seat count is the cost. A company with many occasional users, such as estimators, field staff or managers who only read, pays a license for each of them on a product and pays nothing extra for them on a system it owns.
The middle route, building on a platform
Low-code and internal tool platforms sit between the two. Your own staff build the CRM, and the platform supplies the hosting, the sign-in and the building blocks. You keep the knowledge in-house and you still pay per user.
This route works when you have people with the time and the skill to own a business system. It works badly when one person builds it alone and then changes jobs.
How to compare the two numbers
Add up five years of the product. Use the plan you would need, your seat count, the onboarding fees, the add-ons and what you spend on admins and consultants. Vendors publish most of those figures.
Put that beside a one-time build plus running costs. Black Badger does not publish a build price, because it depends on what the system must do and what it must connect to. A written scope gives you the figure to compare.
What a custom build involves, and how to ask about one
Questions buyers ask
Is a custom CRM more expensive than buying one?
Custom is often more expensive in the first year. Over several years the answer usually changes, because a subscription repeats for every user and a build does not. The size of your team and how much you customize decide when the totals meet.
Are we too small for a custom CRM?
Black Badger works mainly with companies of 50 or more employees. Below that size a product is usually the better buy, since the license bill is small and the process is still forming.
What happens to our data if we move from a product to a custom CRM?
Your data moves with you. Contacts, companies, deals and activity history are exported from the product, loaded into the new system and checked before cutover. Automations and reports are rebuilt.
Can a custom CRM connect to our accounting or ERP system?
Yes, a custom system can connect to them. Reading customers, prices, orders and invoices from the systems you already run is part of most builds, and the connections are named in the scope.