Every small business reaches a point where they need a CRM. The question is: buy an off-the-shelf solution or build one that fits your exact workflow?
The Case for Buying
HubSpot, Salesforce and Zoho are proven platforms with years of development, integrations, mobile apps and support teams.
The Case for Building
- You only pay once: No per-user monthly fees. HubSpot’s paid plans start at £15/user/month. With 10 staff, that’s £1,800/year — every year.
- It fits your workflow: Off-the-shelf CRMs force you to adapt. Custom CRMs adapt to you.
- No feature bloat: You get exactly what you need.
- Data ownership: Your data lives in your database, not on someone else’s platform.
If your sales process is unique, if you have specific compliance requirements, or if you’re tired of paying monthly fees for features you don’t use — a custom CRM could be the smarter investment.
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