Guide · 7 min read
How much does a custom CRM cost?
What a custom CRM costs to build and run, when HubSpot or Salesforce is the better buy, and when your own CRM pays for itself. Includes a cost calculator.
By Simple To Work ·
Short answer: a focused custom CRM typically costs $15,000 to $40,000 to build, or $40,000 to $120,000 with several user roles, a mobile app and two to four integrations. Plan on hosting of $50 to $500 a month and maintenance of about 15 to 20 percent of the build cost per year.
Most companies should start with an off-the-shelf CRM like HubSpot, Salesforce or Pipedrive. They are mature, and tracking contacts, deals and emails works much the same everywhere. A custom CRM makes sense when your “CRM” is really how you run the business: quotes, orders, jobs or accounts that no standard pipeline fits.
Typical ranges
These come from our general custom app cost ranges, for a professional US team building production software you own.
- A focused CRM: $15,000 to $40,000. Contacts and companies, a pipeline that matches your sales steps, tasks and notes, and one or two integrations such as email or QuickBooks. Usually 4 to 8 weeks.
- A CRM with connected parts: $40,000 to $120,000. Several roles (reps, managers, admins), quoting or proposals, a mobile app for field sales, reporting, and two to four integrations such as an ERP, e-commerce or accounting. Usually 2 to 5 months.
- A CRM platform: $120,000 and up. Many teams with different rules, complex territories or commissions, heavy integrations, or a CRM you sell to others. Built in phases over 6 months or more.
- Discovery first: $3,000 to $10,000. A short, fixed-price sprint that ends in a clickable prototype and a fixed quote.
What makes a CRM cost more
- Integrations. Each system the CRM reads from or writes to (email, an ERP, QuickBooks, Shopify) adds work, and messy customer data adds more. Moving years of records out of an old CRM or spreadsheets is its own task.
- Roles and permissions. Reps who see only their accounts, managers who see their team, and admins who see everything multiply the screens and the testing.
- Quoting and pricing rules. Customer-specific prices, approvals and discounts that live in people’s heads are the most common source of surprise cost.
- Mobile and offline. A phone app for reps on the road adds app store work and device testing.
Buy or build: check three years
Per-seat CRM pricing is easy to start and grows with your team. Put in your own seat count, the price from your current plan or quote, and any add-ons, and compare three years.
Calculator
Three-year cost check: buy or build?
Move the sliders to match your situation. Nothing you enter leaves this page.
Over three years, building costs about $11,200 more than the subscription. Buy, unless the work is what makes you different.
Buying (3 years)$54,000
Seats25 × $60/month × 36 months$54,000
Other tools and add-ons$0/month × 36 months$0
Building (3 years)$65,200
Price of the buildonce$40,000
Hosting$200/month × 36 months$7,200
Maintenance15% of $40,000 × 3 years$18,000
With these numbers the custom build would catch up around month 50.
If a standard CRM fits and your seat count is small, buying wins. A custom CRM pays off when you pay for many seats, when you pay for add-ons and connectors to make the CRM do what you need, or when the CRM is where your quoting, ordering or job tracking actually happens.
Signs a custom CRM is worth a look
- Your sales process is not a pipeline. Repeat B2B orders, quotes built from live inventory, or service contracts that renew don’t fit deal stages.
- The CRM is one of three tools you copy data between, with spreadsheets in the middle.
- The customer is the user too. Customers need to reorder, see their pricing or check status, which usually means a portal, not just a CRM.
- Seat fees keep climbing while most people use a small part of the features.
A middle path
You can keep HubSpot or Salesforce for marketing and the sales pipeline and build the piece that is specific to you around it: a proposal builder that logs proposals against the account, or a customer ordering portal on top of your ERP. Both standard CRMs have APIs, so the custom piece stays in sync and you avoid rebuilding what already works.
What it costs to run
- Hosting and services: usually $50 to $500 a month.
- Maintenance and support: security updates, backups, monitoring and small changes, commonly $500 to $3,000 a month, or about 15 to 20 percent of the build cost per year.
- No seat fees. You own the code, so adding a rep costs nothing in licences.
How to get a real number
List who would use the CRM, the steps from first contact to paid invoice, the systems it must connect to, and how many records you would move in. Send us that list and we will tell you plainly which range you are in and whether a standard CRM would do the job, usually within one business day.
Common questions
How much does it cost to build a custom CRM?
A focused custom CRM typically costs $15,000 to $40,000 to build. A CRM with several roles, quoting, a mobile app and two to four integrations typically costs $40,000 to $120,000, and a CRM platform $120,000 and up. Hosting usually runs $50 to $500 a month and maintenance about 15 to 20 percent of the build cost per year.
Is it cheaper to build a CRM or use HubSpot or Salesforce?
For most companies with a standard sales pipeline and a modest number of seats, an off-the-shelf CRM is cheaper. A custom CRM becomes cheaper over a few years when you pay for many seats and add-ons, or when the CRM is really your quoting, ordering or job system.
How long does it take to build a custom CRM?
A focused CRM usually takes 4 to 8 weeks. A CRM with several connected parts usually takes 2 to 5 months, and a larger platform is built in phases over 6 months or more.
Can a custom app work alongside HubSpot or Salesforce?
Yes. Both have APIs, so you can keep the CRM for marketing and the sales pipeline and build the part that is specific to your business, such as a proposal builder or a customer portal, connected to it.
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