Outgrown Softr? When custom beats Softr for a 10-60 person firm
Softr is a good, affordable way to put a portal or simple app on top of Airtable, Google Sheets or HubSpot without writing code. Plenty of firms run happily on it. This page is about the point where it stops fitting - and when it doesn't.
Forge is the embedded engineer for people businesses - businesses that sell their people’s expertise and time: agencies, accountants, lawyers, consultants. We audit how your team works, decide what to build, build and test it, train your team and manage the change so people use it, then run it on your own accounts.
When you should stay on Softr
- Someone on your team enjoys building and has a few hours a week to maintain the portal.
- Your client portal is mostly showing data that already lives neatly in one Airtable base or sheet.
- Your process is fairly stable, so you rarely need to rebuild screens.
- The Softr subscription is a small cost next to the time it saves you today.
If that sounds like you, keep Softr. You don’t need us yet.
When custom starts to make sense
Your ops lead has become the part-time Softr admin, and everyone waits on them for changes.
The portal only stays current if someone copies updates over from your project tool by hand.
Clients need things the builder makes awkward: per-client logic, approvals, files from Drive, status from several apps.
You're paying for Softr plus the base underneath plus whatever connects them, and still copying data between them by hand.
What a custom build looks like, and what it costs
- One branded login per client, showing their deliverables, briefs, files and sign-offs.
- Updates pulled from the apps your team already works in, so nobody keeps the portal current by hand.
- Shaped to your stages and your terminology, not a template you bend around.
- Running on your own accounts, monitored and fixed by us, and changed when your process changes.
The typical market price. Building a client portal usually costs $8,000-18,000 (£6,000-14,000) and takes 2-6 weeks, plus $1,500-7,500 a month if you want someone to keep it working. Those are typical ranges from our custom software cost guide, not a quote.
What it costs with Forge. We start with an ops audit ($2,500 / £2,000, credited to your first month). Then a monthly plan - $2,000, $3,500 or $7,500 (£1,600, £2,800 or £6,000) - with your first build, training and change management included. It runs on your own accounts, so you own it; we monitor it, fix it and keep improving it. See pricing, or see the client portal we built and run at Fame.
The only numbers we quote are our own: the tools Forge built for Fame have given the Fame team back 5,460 hours (as of 14 Oct 2026). How Fame uses Forge.
Questions, answered plainly
Is Forge a Softr competitor?
Not really. Softr is a builder you operate yourself. Forge is an embedded engineer: we audit how your firm works, build the tools you need and run them on your own accounts. Some firms keep Softr for simple pages and have us build the parts that need connecting.
Should we leave Softr?
Only if it's costing your team more time than it saves. If someone enjoys maintaining it and your portal is simple, stay. The ops audit will tell you honestly either way.
What does a custom client portal cost?
Typically $8,000-18,000 (£6,000-14,000) and 2-6 weeks to build, plus ongoing upkeep. With Forge it's a $2,500 (£2,000) ops audit credited to month one, then a monthly plan from $2,000 (£1,600) with your first build included.
Who owns the portal?
You do. It runs on your own accounts and you pay those tool costs directly. We monitor it, fix it and keep improving it on your monthly plan.
Not sure if you’ve outgrown Softr? The audit will tell you.
We map where your team’s hours go and put a number on it. If Softr is still the right answer, we’ll say so. The $2,500 (£2,000) audit is credited to your first month.