Off the shelf vs custom software: should a small business buy or build?
Buy off-the-shelf software for anything most businesses do the same way: email, accounts, project management, payroll. Build custom software only where the way your firm works is different, or where your people lose hours moving information between the apps you already pay for. Most small firms need mostly bought tools, with a few custom pieces in between.
| Off-the-shelf software (SaaS) | Custom software from an agency or freelancer | Custom software on a Forge monthly plan | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Typical cost, US | Per seat; for example Asana Advanced at $24.99 a user a month, billed annually | $8,000-18,000 for a portal, dashboard or onboarding system, plus $1,500-7,500 a month to look after it | $2,000 / $3,500 / $7,500 a month, first build included |
| Typical cost, UK | Per seat, priced in local currency | £6,000-14,000 for a portal, dashboard or onboarding system, plus £1,200-6,000 a month to look after it | £1,600 / £2,800 / £6,000 a month |
| Speed to start | Same day | 2-6 weeks for a portal-sized build, after scoping | Two-week ops audit, first build live in 2-6 weeks |
| Who maintains it | The vendor | You, or whoever you pay for support | We do, on the plan |
| Best for | Standard jobs most firms do the same way | One defined build with an owner afterwards | Several tools shaped to how you work, kept running |
| Worst for | Work that is specific to how your firm serves clients | Ongoing change with nobody to look after it | Standard jobs a $25-a-seat tool already does well |
The Asana price is from Asana, October 2026. Custom build and upkeep ranges are typical, compiled from published rate guides, from our custom software cost guide. Our prices are from our pricing page.
The honest starting point: buy most things
We build custom software for a living, and we still tell most small firms to buy most of their tools. A people business - a business that sells its people's expertise and time, such as an agency, accountant, law firm or consultancy - does not need custom email, custom accounting or a custom project management app. Thousands of firms do those things the same way, and the products are mature, cheap per person and looked after by someone else.
Off-the-shelf software (also called SaaS, for "software as a service") wins on three things:
Speed.
You can sign up today.
Upkeep.
The vendor fixes bugs, handles security and adds features.
Cost per person at small sizes.
$10-45 a seat a month is hard to beat for a standard job.
The problems start in two places. First, when the way your firm works is genuinely different from the template - your stages, your clients, your sign-offs - and your people bend their work to fit the tool. Second, in the gaps between tools, where nobody's product reaches. That is where people rekey numbers, chase files and rebuild the same report every Friday.
A 3-year cost comparison, with the arithmetic shown
Here is a worked total cost of ownership for a single job, project management, at a 20-person firm that grows to 30 over three years. We picked Asana because it publishes per-seat prices.
Assumptions:
- Off the shelf: Asana Advanced at $24.99 a user a month, billed annually (Asana, October 2026). Every person needs a seat. Price held flat for three years (it may rise).
- Headcount: 20 in year one, 25 in year two, 30 in year three.
- Custom route A: a one-off build at the middle of the typical range for a portal, dashboard or onboarding system ($8,000-18,000, so $13,000), plus upkeep at the bottom of the typical range ($1,500 a month), from our custom software cost guide.
- Custom route B: a Forge monthly plan at $2,000 a month, with the ops audit credited to the first month. The plan doesn't stop at one tool: over three years the same plan builds, looks after and improves around 10 tools at a typical pace. That's a typical pace, not a guarantee - your number depends on what you build.
- US dollars throughout. We have not shown a UK version because we have not verified Asana's UK per-seat price.
| Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | 3-year total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asana Advanced seats | 20 x $24.99 x 12 = $5,997.60 | 25 x $24.99 x 12 = $7,497.00 | 30 x $24.99 x 12 = $8,996.40 | $22,491.00 |
| Custom route A (build + upkeep) | $13,000 + ($1,500 x 12) = $31,000 | $1,500 x 12 = $18,000 | $1,500 x 12 = $18,000 | $67,000 |
| Custom route B (Forge plan) | $2,000 x 12 = $24,000 | $24,000 | $24,000 | $72,000 |
| Route B per tool (about 10 tools in 3 years) | $72,000 / 10 = about $7,200 |
What this tells you: for project management, buy Asana or something like it. Even at 30 people, the seats cost about a third of a one-off custom build. Building your own project tool to save seat fees does not add up for a firm this size, and we would not take that job. The $72,000 plan total looks like the most expensive line, but it is not the price of one tool: spread across around 10 tools, it is about $7,200 each. That only helps if you have several things worth building. If you need one standard tool and a product fits, buy the product.
What it does not tell you: custom software is rarely a straight swap for a SaaS product. The cases where it pays are where it does something no seat licence does - joining up the apps you already pay for, or giving clients a view of their work - and the return comes from hours your people get back, not from seats you stop buying. A Forge plan also covers more than one tool: the first build is included, and we keep building what you ask for next on the same monthly price. So the fair comparison is not "Asana vs a build". It is "the hours lost between all your apps vs what it costs to give them back".
When a 20-person firm should keep buying SaaS
The job is standard.
Email, calendars, accounting, payroll, e-signatures, video calls, project management. Buy.
A tool fits at least 80% of how you work.
Bending a little is cheaper than building.
Nobody is losing real time around the tool.
If people use it and move on, leave it alone.
You have no one to look after custom software, and no budget for someone who will.
Unmaintained custom tools fail quietly, usually at a bad moment.
You are about to change how you work.
Build after the dust settles, not before.
When custom starts to pay
Your people run a spreadsheet alongside the "real" system
because the system does not fit.
Two apps refuse to talk,
and someone copies data between them every day.
Clients keep asking where things are,
and the answer lives in five places.
Every client gets the same manual set-up
folders, briefs, invites - done by hand.
The Friday report is rebuilt from scratch
every week.
None of those are reasons to stop buying SaaS. They are reasons to build the small piece that sits between the tools you keep.
Pick off-the-shelf software if...
- A mature product does the job and fits most of how you work.
- The cost is per seat and your team is small.
- You want the vendor to own upkeep, security and new features.
Pick a custom build from an agency or freelancer if...
- You have one clear piece of work, like a client portal, with a stable scope.
- Someone on your team, or a developer you trust, will look after it.
- You are happy to pay for changes as they come.
Pick custom software on a monthly plan if...
- You have several pieces of manual work between apps, not just one.
- Nobody on the team can look after custom tools, and you do not want to hire someone to.
- You want tools rolled out properly, with your team trained, so people actually use them.
That is our model. It works in four steps: scope, build, roll out, improve. A two-week ops audit ($2,500 / £2,000) maps your apps and counts the hours your team loses, and it is credited to your first month. Monthly plans are $2,000, $3,500 or $7,500 (£1,600 / £2,800 / £6,000) with your first build included and a 3-month minimum. The software runs on your own accounts, so you own it, and you pay those tool costs directly. More on our custom software for small business page.
Our recommendation: how we'd decide for a 20-person firm
- List every app you pay for. Most 20-person firms have eight to twelve.
- Keep every one that does a standard job well. That is usually most of them.
- Ask your team where they lose time. Not "what software do we need?" but "what do you copy, chase or rebuild by hand?"
- Price the gaps, not the tools. For each answer, ask whether a setting, a no-code automation or a better-configured app would fix it. Many will.
- Build only what is left. If two or three pieces of manual work survive that test, custom tools are worth pricing. If none do, keep buying - and do not let anyone, including us, talk you into a build.
Worked example: a team hub, bought or built
Take one real job: a team hub, the single place SOPs, checklists and the new-starter walkthrough live, linked from the work itself. Our custom software cost guide puts the typical market cost of a portal-sized tool like this at $8,000-18,000 in the US or £6,000-14,000 in the UK, taking 2-6 weeks (typical, compiled from published rate guides). At Fame, new starters find answers in the hub instead of asking the same questions in Slack, and the founder is no longer the only person who knows how things are done.
Off the shelf
A wiki or docs product, or the docs features in a tool you already pay for, will hold SOPs well. If your team will look there, this is the right answer and costs a few dollars a seat. The weakness is the link to the work: the SOP lives in one app, the task in another, and people do not go looking.
Custom, from an agency or freelancer
Expect something in the $8,000-18,000 (£6,000-14,000) range for a hub linked into your project tool, built in 2-6 weeks. Then budget for upkeep when the project tool changes.
Custom, on a Forge plan
The ops audit is credited to month one, and the hub can be your first build, included. On the $2,000 / £1,600 plan, the 3-month minimum is $6,000 / £4,800 in total, and we roll it out with your team and keep it linked to the work after that. If the off-the-shelf wiki works for your people, choose it. Build only if people will not use a separate app.
Across all of Fame's tools, the team got back 5,460 hours as of 14 October 2026.
Questions, answered plainly
What is the difference between custom and off-the-shelf software?
Off-the-shelf software is built once for many businesses and sold per seat or per month; the vendor looks after it. Custom software is built for one business's way of working; someone you pay looks after it.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of off-the-shelf software?
Advantages: fast to start, cheap per person at small sizes, and upkeep is the vendor's job. Disadvantages: it fits how most firms work, not yours, and it does not connect the gaps between your other apps.
Is it cheaper to build rather than buy?
Rarely, for a standard job. Our 3-year example shows Asana seats for a firm growing from 20 to 30 people cost about $22,500, against $67,000 for a one-off custom build with upkeep. A $2,000 monthly plan is $72,000 over three years, but that covers around 10 tools at a typical pace, about $7,200 each. Building pays where you have several workflows to fix and it gives people hours back, not where it swaps out seat fees.
Which is better for me, to build or buy software?
Buy for standard jobs that a mature product does well. Build only for the work specific to how your firm serves clients, or the manual work between apps that no product covers.
What is an example of off-the-shelf software?
Project management tools like Asana, accounting software like Xero or QuickBooks, and email and calendar suites. Anything you sign up for and use as-is, paying per seat or per month.