Splinx Studio
We build custom software, so you'd expect us to argue for it every time. We don't, because a bad custom build is far more expensive than a subscription that only annoys you slightly.
Here's the way we actually think it through with clients.
Start by assuming you should buy
If an existing product covers most of what you need, buying is almost always right. Someone else has already handled the security updates, the edge cases, the mobile version and the years of small fixes you'll never have to think about. Paying monthly for that is a bargain.
Custom becomes worth considering only when one of a few specific things is true.
Sign one: the workaround has become a job
Watch what your team does at the seams. Exporting from one tool to re-key into another. Maintaining a spreadsheet next to the software because the software can't express something obvious about your business. A person whose real role is moving data between systems.
Add up those hours honestly over a year, then compare that with a one time build cost. The comparison is often less close than people expect, and it usually gets worse as you grow, because the manual work scales with volume and the software doesn't.
Sign two: the awkward part is the part that makes you money
This is the strongest signal. If the thing no tool handles properly is also the thing your customers choose you for, that's not an inconvenience, that's your business being forced to fit somebody else's idea of your industry.
Buy the software that runs the parts of your business that look like everyone else's. Build the part that does not.
Accounting looks the same everywhere, so buy it. How your school assigns sections, calculates late fees and handles mid year admissions probably doesn't, and that's where a custom system earns its cost.
Sign three: you're paying per seat for features nobody uses
Per user pricing is fine until you have forty users who each need one screen. At that point you're funding an entire product suite so that people can tick a box once a day. It's worth pricing what those specific screens would cost to own outright.
The costs people forget
If you do build, go in with your eyes open. Custom software isn't finished at launch.
- It needs hosting, backups and someone to call when it breaks
- It needs updating as browsers, phones and dependencies change
- Every new process you invent later becomes a small development job
- Someone has to train new staff, because there's no help centre on the internet
None of that is a reason to avoid building. It's a reason to budget for the year after launch rather than just the build itself.
The middle path most people miss
It's rarely all or nothing. The most cost effective setup we build is usually a small custom layer sitting on top of tools the client keeps. Keep the accounting package and the email platform, and build the one system that ties them together and handles the part that's genuinely yours.
That's a much smaller project than replacing everything, it's quicker to launch, and it leaves you free to swap out the bought pieces later without starting again.
A simple way to decide
Write down the ten things your team does most often in a week. Mark each one as either "any business in our industry does this the same way" or "this is specific to how we work". If almost everything lands in the first column, buy something. If the second column contains the things that actually make you money, it's time to talk about building.