Development
Custom CRM vs off-the-shelf for franchises and multi-site businesses
Off-the-shelf CRMs win for small teams. For franchises and multi-site businesses with dozens of users, a custom or hybrid CRM can cost less over…
· 8 min read
Most UK businesses we talk to run on four or five subscriptions stitched together with spreadsheets, copy-and-paste and one person who knows where everything lives. It works until it doesn’t. The spreadsheet gets too big to open, that person goes on holiday, or a new client asks for a report your tools simply can’t produce. Custom software development means building the system around the way you work, connecting it to the tools you already pay for, and leaving out everything you don’t need.
We build web-based software for companies across the UK: internal systems, customer portals and software products. Our developers are based in London, but most projects run remotely, so it makes little difference if you’re in Leeds, Bristol or Glasgow, and we’re happy to come to you for the workshops that matter.
When custom software is worth it (and when it isn’t)
We turn down a fair amount of custom work, because buying is often the better answer. If a well-known SaaS product covers 90 % of what you need, pay the subscription and adapt the last 10 % of your process. A £40-a-month tool beats a £20,000 build that does the same job.
Bespoke software earns its cost when one of these is true:
- Your process is how you win work, and a generic tool would force you to work like your competitors.
- You pay for several subscriptions and still fill the gaps by hand every week. Add up the hours: ten hours a week of retyping at £15 an hour is £7,800 a year, before mistakes.
- Customers, suppliers or franchisees need their own login to see quotes, orders, documents or reports.
- The software is the product. You want to sell it, license it or bundle it into your service.
KDMasterKey is a good example of the last case. We built a web-based keyword-analysis tool and companion app for self-publishers: a product with its own users, accounts and data, not an internal spreadsheet replacement.
What we build
- Internal systems: job management, quoting, scheduling, stock control and approval workflows.
- Customer and partner portals: secure logins, document sharing, order tracking and self-service account changes.
- Dashboards and data tools that pull figures from your accounting package, CRM and shop into one place, so the Monday meeting stops starting with an argument about which number is right.
- SaaS products with user accounts, subscriptions through Stripe, team permissions and an admin area.
- Legacy replacements for Access databases, old desktop software or unsupported systems, with the data moved across and checked.
How a project runs
1. Discovery
We sit with the people who will use the system and walk through the process step by step, on site or on a video call with screen sharing. The interesting detail is always in the exceptions: the order that gets split, the customer on special terms, the approval that happens by text message. The output is a short written specification and a feature list ranked by value, with an hour estimate against each item.
2. A first useful version
We build the smallest version that removes real manual work, usually in four to eight weeks, and put it in front of your team. Real use teaches more than any amount of upfront planning, and it is much cheaper to change course after six weeks than after six months.
3. Short cycles
After launch we work in one- or two-week cycles. You prioritise, we build, you review on a staging site. Every cycle ends with working software you can click through, not a status report.
4. Test, document and hand over
Each release goes through our QA checklist: permissions, edge cases, mobile, accessibility and a restore from backup. You own the code, the database and the documentation, and you can host it wherever you like.
Technology we use, and why
We choose tools that another competent developer could pick up after us. That matters more than novelty. For most business systems that means Laravel (PHP) or Node.js on the server, React or Vue in the browser, and MySQL or PostgreSQL for data. If the system needs a mobile app as well, we use Flutter so one codebase serves iOS and Android, with Firebase where real-time updates or push notifications are needed.
Integrations with Xero, QuickBooks, HubSpot, Stripe, GoCardless or your courier go through their REST APIs. If integration is most of the job, see our API development and integration service.
One opinion we hold firmly: avoid building on a no-code platform if the system will hold your core business data for years. They are excellent for prototypes, but pricing changes and export limits can trap you later.
What custom software costs in the UK
We price custom software by time, because you shape the scope. You can book custom development hours at £60 an hour excluding VAT. The hours never expire and the discount is applied automatically:
| Hours | List price | Discount | Price excl. VAT | Inc. VAT |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | £1,200 | 15 % | £1,020 | £1,224 |
| 50 | £3,000 | 20 % | £2,400 | £2,880 |
| 100 | £6,000 | 25 % | £4,500 | £5,400 |
As a rough guide from our own projects:
- A focused internal tool that replaces one spreadsheet process (say, job sheets for a field team in Manchester): 50 to 100 hours, so roughly £2,400 to £4,500 plus VAT.
- A customer portal with logins, documents and notifications: 100 to 250 hours, built in stages.
- A SaaS product with subscriptions, teams and an admin area: several hundred hours, usually starting with an MVP of 150 to 250 hours.
Those are ranges, not quotes. After discovery you get a written estimate per feature, so you can decide what goes in version one. Agencies charging £90 to £150 an hour are common in London; our rate is lower because we’re a small team without a West End office, not because we cut corners on testing.
Working with us from anywhere in the UK
Most of our custom software clients are not local. We run projects with weekly video reviews, a shared task board and a staging site you can log into at any time. For the discovery workshop and major decisions, we’ll travel, or you can meet us in London.
Start with the process that hurts most
Tell us which process costs you the most time and which tools you use today. We’ll tell you straight whether custom software makes sense or whether an existing product would do the job. Contact us to book a discovery call, or read how we approach custom CRM development if your problem is mainly about customers and sales.
