They forwarded a $40,000 custom CRM quote. Pipeline, tasks, follow-ups. Should you build custom software, or buy a SaaS tool? I opened HubSpot. The pipeline already did that, so I sent the monthly price instead of a deposit.
A SaaS tool is a rented product with a monthly bill. HubSpot, Salesforce. I build SaaS and web productswhen the job isn't in one of those. I still send you to the subscription. If you haven't named whether it is a website or a web product, stop. A brochure doesn't need a CRM. What belongs in a first version and how much it costs come after you already decided to build.
How to tell a SaaS tool from custom software
Buy a SaaS tool
A stranger already sells the job
- A named product already finishes the job
- You can export the records and leave
- You don't hire someone to keep it up on Tuesday
Build custom software
The way you work is the product
- The way you work is why people pay you
- HubSpot would need a pile of zaps to fake it
- You can name who opens it in week one
The cut
They wanted a custom CRM. HubSpot already sold the pipeline. DelightLoopis the other side. A campaign has to become a gift, and that's why people pay them. No CRM does that. It's in selected work.
What a SaaS subscription is actually buying
You pay every month so someone else keeps the logins running, including the outage and the support queue. You don't hire a person to babysit HubSpot on a Tuesday. That's the purchase. It goes wrong when you're still paying for a pipeline that was never why anyone hired you.
People tell me the process is unique. I open HubSpot. Three custom fields. A stage named after the founder. That's still a buy. Unique in the email is usually a label.
You can leave if you can export the records into a file you can open without their login. If you can't, you rented a trap. Export first. Then decide. Rebuilding so the invoice says yours is how you pay a first-version price for a product HubSpot already sells.
I've opened accounts with HubSpot, a forms tool, a sheet, and a pile of zaps copying rows between them. The form wrote to the sheet. A zap posted to Slack. Another zap made the HubSpot deal. Nobody could say what done was without four tabs. That isn't a reason to buy a fifth tool. I write a brief before I quote. I don't quote a rebuild of the tape until someone can say what the person finishes without it.
When custom software is the job
Custom is when the way you work is why people pay you, and HubSpot can't do that work. The one I see most is quoting. Cost plus eighteen percent unless the paper is on the floor. HubSpot has amount, close date, stage. It does not have that sentence. That's a first version, not a HubSpot theme.
I wire Stripe. I wire HubSpot. If you already pay for HubSpot and want it rebuilt so the screens match a deck, that's still a buy. Pretty HubSpot is a theme. I don't sell that. Custom starts when the job isn't in that product, and a person you can name will open the thing in week one.
After that, what belongs in a first version is the cut, and how much a first version costsis the number. Don't send me the HubSpot bill and the custom quote and ask which one is right. They're not the same purchase. A HubSpot bill already includes someone else's Tuesday. A build doesn't. Name who owns the product after launch before anyone launches.
I take that work as what I build. I will still send you to HubSpot. Cloning it is how you spend a quarter to get a worse HubSpot.
When custom software is the wrong next spend
People ask for custom because they hate the monthly bill, or because they think a spreadsheet isn't a company. I don't build for either. If a named product finishes the job, buy it. If nobody logs in, you needed a business website, not a CRM.
The process is unique
Open the account. If the unique part fits in fields you can rename, that's the buy. Custom is a job HubSpot cannot do, not a word you like better than theirs.
You hate the monthly bill
Rent is the product. A build has a number, then someone has to own Tuesday. If HubSpot finishes the job, the bill is cheaper than a quarter of engineering plus an owner. Wait until the job is missing. An annoying invoice is not a brief.
A spreadsheet still finishes the job
Keep the sheet. Custom software for a sheet that works is a login nobody opens. Salesforce for one person is seats nobody sits in. I'll tell you to wait. The tool isn't what's stuck.
I've sent more people to HubSpot than I've billed for a CRM.
Send the custom quote and the SaaS you already pay for. I'll open both before I quote a build. Tell me which product finishes the job today.
