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Build vs buy calculator: custom CRM or ERP vs SaaS.

Put your seat count, its growth and the plan you pay for beside the cost of a custom build, its upkeep and hosting. See the month the build pays for itself, or how much SaaS saves you if it never does. Vendor list prices are pre-filled from their own pricing pages, with the date we read them.

1 · What would you replace?
2 · The SaaS side

Salesforce Sales Cloud Pro Suite: $100 per seat per month, USD list price. Billed annually. Checked 2026-10-18 on the vendor’s pricing page (opens in a new tab).

Opens at 0: today's list price, held flat. Enter the rise you expect at renewal.

Implementation, onboarding and consultant fees, paid once.

Extra modules, storage, integrations or an admin consultant, per year.

3 · The custom build

QalbIT's published range for Custom CRM: $10,500 to $30,000, from our cost calculator. The example opens at the top of the range, so it does not flatter a custom build.

Example: QalbIT's support retainer, from $1,400 a month on our pricing page ($16,800 a year). Your own team or vendor may cost more or less.

Example figure ($1,200 a year), not a quote: your cloud bill depends on users, data and region.

Opens at 0: our ranges move up for a legacy dataset. Add a figure if migration is quoted on its own.

4 · How far ahead?
SaaS, running totalCustom build, running total
$0$50k$100k$150k$200kY1Y2Y3Y4Y5Break-evenYear 1 SaaS: $30,000Year 1 custom: $48,000Year 2 SaaS: $63,600Year 2 custom: $66,000Year 3 SaaS: $99,600Year 3 custom: $84,000Year 4 SaaS: $139,200Year 4 custom: $102,000Year 5 SaaS: $183,600Year 5 custom: $120,000
Running totals over 5 years: SaaS $183,600, custom $120,000. Custom breaks even in year 3, month 2, and costs $63,600 less over 5 years.
Year by year, USD
YearSeatsPrice per seatSaaSSaaS to dateCustomCustom to dateCustom saving to date
125$100.00$30,000$30,000$48,000$48,000−$18,000
228$100.00$33,600$63,600$18,000$66,000−$2,400
330$100.00$36,000$99,600$18,000$84,000$15,600
433$100.00$39,600$139,200$18,000$102,000$37,200
537$100.00$44,400$183,600$18,000$120,000$63,600

Sources, checked 2026-10-18

Vendor prices change and are often discounted in a negotiated quote: use your own quote where you have one. Seats grow once a year and are rounded to whole seats. Maintenance and hosting are paid from month 1. SaaS seats you keep paying while the build is under way are not added: put them in one-time SaaS fees if they apply.

How the calculator works

Seats against a build, month by month.

  • 01

    SaaS: seats, growth and price rises

    Each year the seat count grows by your rate and the price per seat by the rise you expect. One-time fees, such as a vendor’s required onboarding, land in the first month; add-ons are spread over each year.

  • 02

    Custom: the build, then upkeep

    The build and any data migration are paid up front. Maintenance and hosting run from the first month. The build opens at the top of our published range, so the example does not flatter custom software.

  • 03

    An honest answer either way

    The result is the first month the custom running total drops to or below the SaaS one, or a plain "SaaS stays cheaper". Each input is then moved 20% up and down to show which assumption the answer hangs on.

FAQs · Build vs buy

Build vs buy · frequently asked questions

Where the prices come from, what the model leaves out, and when SaaS is the better buy.

From each vendor’s own pricing page, read on the date shown beside the preset. They are public list prices in US dollars per seat per month, with the billing basis the vendor states. A negotiated quote is often lower, so use yours where you have one.
NetSuite sells by quote and we could not read a list price on its own site, so the field opens empty. Odoo shows its price in your local currency, so it opens empty too. We never estimate a vendor’s price: enter the figure from your quote or the vendor’s page.
From the published ranges in our software development cost calculator: one row for a custom CRM, one for a custom ERP first phase and one for custom business software. The calculator opens at the top of the range so it does not flatter a custom build. A fixed quote replaces the range.
It depends on seats, growth and how long you keep the system. With few seats on a low-priced plan, SaaS often stays cheaper over five years, and the calculator says so. With many seats, fast growth or expensive tiers, a build can break even within a few years. Your own numbers decide it.
Costs are not discounted to present value and tax is not included, on either side. It does not count the seats you keep paying while the build is under way unless you add them as one-time fees, and it does not price staff time spent on training or change. Each of those can be added through the fee fields.
Each input is moved 20% down and 20% up on its own, with everything else held, and the change in the total saving is measured. The inputs with the largest swing are the assumptions worth checking first. Where a 20% change flips which option is cheaper, the result says so.
No. The calculator runs in your browser. The share link carries your inputs in the address itself, so anyone you send it to sees the same scenario, and nothing reaches us unless you contact us.

Next step

Want a fixed quote for the build?

Send us what the system must do. A senior engineer replies with a fixed-scope quote for custom CRM development or custom ERP development.

Get a fixed quote

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