Free tool · Custom software
Build vs Buy Software Calculator
Every software decision is the same argument: pay per seat forever for something that almost fits, or pay once for something that actually does. This calculator scores your situation on the factors that decide it — coverage, uniqueness, ownership, compliance, integrations — and puts real totals on both paths over your time horizon.
API call limits, premium tiers, per-message fees — the line items that appear after you commit.
Be honest — the last 25% is why people call us.
Accounting, phones, e-commerce, the shop floor — anything data has to flow to or from.
Owning your data and the system
How much it matters that you control the software and can take the data with you.
Compliance and audit requirements
HIPAA, SOC 2 evidence, retention rules — anything an auditor will ask about.
How unusual is the process
If three competitors run the same workflow, it's common. If it's your edge, it isn't.
If you're guessing, run our software cost calculator first — focused builds typically land between $30k and $80k.
Verdict
Buy now, build later
SaaS wins today. Watch two things: the add-on line on your invoice and the workarounds your team invents for the uncovered 25%. When either starts eating hours, run this again.
SaaS total, 5 years
$65,558
$11,400 in year one, growing 7% each year.
Custom build, 5 years
$87,500
$50,000 build plus 15%/yr upkeep ($7,500/yr).
SaaS is cheaper by
$21,942
Total cost gap at your horizon. Cost is one input to the score, not the whole answer.
Build score
36 / 100
Bands: under 35 buy, 35–55 buy now, 56–70 lean build, over 70 build.
What's driving the score
- Process uniqueness+12 pts
- Coverage gap+10 pts
- Ownership requirement+6 pts
How the math works
Every weight on the table, so you can check it by hand.
The build score is a sum out of 100. Process uniqueness scores 0 points for a common process, 12 for some unusual parts, and 25 for genuinely unusual. The coverage gap earns 0.4 points for every percent the SaaS doesn't cover, capped at 28 — so 75% coverage adds 10 points. Ownership scores 0, 6, or 12 for nice-to-have, important, or required. Compliance scores 0, 5, or 10 for none, some, or strict. Each integration adds 1.5 points, capped at eight systems (12 points). More than 25 seats adds 8, and a horizon of five years or longer adds 5. The buy score is simply 100 minus the build score.
The cost side: SaaS year one = seats × per-seat price × 12, plus add-ons × 12, and each following year costs 7% more than the last — price increases and tier creep are close to universal. The build side = your estimate plus upkeep of 15% of the build cost per year, not inflated. The model ignores three real costs — migration effort in either direction, training, and the exit cost of leaving a SaaS after years of lock-in. These are directional estimates, not quotes; real projects get a fixed price only after we map the workflow.
What to do with the number
The score is a direction. Here's how to pressure-test it.
Landed on build?
Read how we scope and price custom software before you talk to anyone — fixed-price projects, phase one kept deliberately small, built in New Jersey.
Custom software developmentEstimate the build side properly
A guessed build number skews the whole comparison. Our software cost calculator turns scope, integrations, and complexity into a defensible estimate.
Software cost calculatorCRM is the system in question?
That's the most common build-vs-buy fight we see. The CRM cost comparison runs Salesforce-style per-seat pricing against a custom build head to head.
CRM cost comparisonFrequently asked questions
Asked before the calculator, usually.
How does the calculator decide between build and buy?
It scores your answers out of 100 points toward building: process uniqueness is worth up to 25, the coverage gap up to 28, ownership up to 12, compliance up to 10, integrations up to 12, a team over 25 people adds 8, and a horizon of five-plus years adds 5. Every weight is listed in the methodology so you can recompute it by hand. It is a directional estimate, not a quote.
The score says build but SaaS is cheaper at my horizon. Which wins?
Neither automatically — that tension is the real decision. A cheaper SaaS with a big coverage gap means your team pays the difference in workarounds and re-keying, which never shows up on an invoice. If the gap is small, take the cheaper SaaS; if the gap is where your competitive edge lives, the score is telling you something the invoice can't.
Is a custom build really $30k to $80k?
For a focused system, yes — our custom CRM builds typically land between $30k and $80k, fixed-price, and every project we take is fixed-price. The number climbs when scope does, which is why phase one should cover only the parts no SaaS handles. Enterprise platforms cost far more, but most small businesses don't need one.
What does this model leave out?
Three real costs it ignores: migration effort in either direction, training time for whichever system you pick, and the exit cost of leaving a SaaS after years of lock-in. It also can't judge vendor quality on either side. Treat the output as a starting point for the conversation, not the conversation itself.
Go deeper: custom CRM vs Salesforce, argued properly, the signs you've outgrown spreadsheets, how to prepare for an ERP implementation, and all free tools.
Want a straight answer instead of a score?
Describe the process in a sentence. If SaaS genuinely covers it, we'll say so and point you at the product — and if it doesn't, we'll quote a fixed price for phase one.