Web app development
Custom software for the one process nobody else runs your way, and that you are currently holding together with spreadsheets.
Read more →Off-the-shelf software or custom for your process?
There is almost always a package that handles eighty per cent of your process. The question is what the last twenty per cent costs you.
The short version
Start with off-the-shelf. There is an enormous market of packages for planning, invoicing, stock, CRM and nearly everything between, and they are cheaper than anything you have built. If an existing package handles your process, that is almost always the right answer — even when the fit is not perfect.
Custom comes into play when the package forces you to work differently from what suits your business, and you compensate with spreadsheets, side lists and manual work. That moment is recognisable: there is one file nobody is allowed to lose, and one person who knows how it works.
Take a package if
- Your process resembles that of other firms in your trade.
- The package covers eighty per cent and the rest does not hurt.
- You want to start quickly and the budget is limited.
- You do not want to maintain software — with a package that is their problem.
Have custom built if
- There is a spreadsheet the business depends on.
- People retype data daily from one system into another.
- Your way of working is the difference between you and your competitor — then you do not want to give it up for a package.
- You pay for three packages that each do part of it and none of which talk to each other.
- Licence costs at your number of users exceed the cost of building.
What gets overlooked here
The most common mistake is building too early. Custom feels like the answer to a messy process, but software does not tidy a messy process — it sets it in concrete. If nobody can write down precisely how it works now, fixing that first is cheaper than having it built.
The second most common mistake is building too late. A spreadsheet holding the business up is no longer a temporary fix after three years, it is a risk: one wrong formula, one badly copied row, one person leaving. That is what custom actually solves, and it is rarely budgeted in those terms.
Once you have decided
WordPress vs custom
WordPress runs roughly four in ten websites. That is neither coincidence nor recommendation — it depends entirely on what the site has to do.
Read more →Spreadsheet or web app
Every company runs on at least one spreadsheet that has become too important. The question is not whether that matters, but when.
Read more →Marketplace or own shop
A marketplace gives you customers you would never have reached, and then keeps them. That is the whole trade-off in one sentence.
Read more →Frequently asked questions
Can custom run alongside my existing package?
Often, through an integration. That is usually the cheapest route: the package keeps what it does well, and custom only does the part that does not fit.
What if my process changes in two years?
Then the software is changed — that is precisely the advantage. With a package you wait until the vendor happens to agree it matters.
How do I know it is worth the investment?
Count the hours currently going into manual work. If that costs more per year than the build, the answer is clear. We do that sum together before anything is built.
Not sure which way to go?
Send a short brief with what you have now and what needs to be better. You get an honest answer, including if that answer is that you do not need us for it.