When to Build Custom Software Vs. When to Buy an Existing Solution
Buy when a mature product already supports the workflow. Build when a business-critical workflow is specific enough that the value of a tailored system exceeds the total cost of ownership. Often, the best answer is to keep the core system and add integrations, portals, reporting, or workflow software around it.
The short answer
The decision comes down to fit, business value, and ownership. Buy the commodity. Build the workflow that makes the business different. Build around the systems that already do their job well.
Buy software
Choose a proven product when the workflow is common, the requirements are well understood, and a mature tool already covers what matters most.
- Best for established categories and standard business functions.
- A strong fit when the product already supports the workflow well.
- Especially useful when speed and simplicity matter most.
Build custom software
Build when the workflow is important, business-specific, and worth designing around because the way the organization operates creates meaningful value.
- Best for rules-heavy or multi-step workflows.
- Useful when software needs to reflect how the business actually runs.
- A strong fit when the value of improving the workflow justifies ownership.
Build around existing systems
Add capability around systems that remain in place by connecting data, improving workflows, and creating better visibility across the tools the organization already uses.
- Best when important core systems are staying.
- Useful for integrations, portals, reporting, and workflow layers.
- Often appropriate around ERP, CRM, practice management, and core banking systems.
Proof from Buildable projects
Schedufi: orthodontic scheduling application
70 hours → 2 hours
Published total turnaround time, reported as around 70 hours before the new process.
Buildable created a web application for orthodontic practices. A rules engine replaced calculations the client had been running in an Excel spreadsheet, with practice and administrative portals and an integration with Dolphin, the practice management system the practices already use.
NLC Mutual: reinsurance claims and underwriting system
10 days → 2 days
Published month-end and quarter-end processing time, reported as about 10 days before the new system.
For NLC Mutual, a member-owned reinsurance organization, Buildable created software supporting claims, underwriting, reporting, and validation, built around its reinsurance model. The system launched in July 2023 on time and within the approved budget.
Signals that custom software can add value
The clearest signal is that you are molding the software to your process instead of the software supporting it. Max de Lavenne, Buildable’s CEO, describes the test as whether the product you need is a commodity, “something that’s widely known or accepted or a standard in the industry,” or something that has to fit an existing process. In his words: “Whenever you start having to mold a software into a process that you have, that’s usually when you need to start considering building it.”
In practice, that shows up as a few recognizable signals:
- An important workflow is coordinated through spreadsheets, email, and manual steps because the business process is more specific than the available products.
- People enter the same data into more than one system or routinely move information between systems.
- Important products do not connect in a way that supports the workflow cleanly.
- The opportunity can be measured through turnaround time, capacity, accuracy, customer service, reporting speed, or another meaningful business outcome.
- Multiple tools are in use, but there is still clear value in creating one better operating flow around the work.
One signal on its own is an ordinary software tradeoff. Several of them around a business-critical workflow justify a serious build-versus-buy evaluation: what the current way of working costs each year against the total cost of building and owning software designed around the work.
When buying software is the right move
A software engineering firm should be able to say this plainly: buying software is often the right answer, and Buildable should say so directly when that is the best fit. Max put it this way in our build-versus-buy webinar: “If there is a tool that exists that solves your problem and it’s been fine-tuned and does a 99% hit on your target, then you should be using it.” Buy when:
- The workflow is common and well understood, and mature products already support it well.
- A proven product covers the requirements that matter, even if it is not perfectly tailored.
- What is missing is a preference rather than a meaningful operational constraint.
- The economics favor buying because the additional value of a custom build would be modest. Max calls this marginal benefit: a small advantage whose savings do not justify the outlay.
- The organization would benefit more from using a strong existing product well than from owning a custom application.
Build around systems that already matter
Core systems are usually products you buy: a bank’s core banking system, a practice management system, an ERP, a CRM. They are assets, and the most valuable custom work often sits around them rather than in place of them. Four capabilities cover most of that work:
- Integrations that allow important systems to exchange data. See software integrations.
- Workflow software that guides teams through a business-specific process.
- Portals that give internal or external users the right access and actions.
- Reporting and validation layers that improve operational visibility.
The goal is not custom software everywhere. It is the right combination of bought software, connected systems, and custom capability where it creates the most value.
Five questions to guide the decision
Use these five questions to clarify whether the best fit is buying software, building custom software, or adding capability around systems that stay.
Which workflow is this about?
Name one workflow and how much it matters to the business. If you cannot name one, you are probably not at a build decision yet.
What is the measurable value of improving it?
Hours per week, error rates, delays, missed capacity, or reporting speed. A rough number is enough to start.
Is the workflow common or specific to how the business operates?
Commodity work is usually bought. Business-specific work is built, or built around a product you keep.
Which systems should stay in place?
List the systems you will keep, such as the core, the practice management system, the ERP, or the CRM. Custom software usually connects to them.
Who will own the result over time?
A custom system needs a decision maker, people who test releases, and a maintenance plan. If nobody can own it, buy.
Those five answers are also what to bring to a conversation with a software engineering firm. Max’s advice in the webinar was to talk with more than one vendor and to run at least a yearly assessment of your software landscape.
Map the right approach
Bring one workflow, the systems involved, and the outcomes you want to improve. Buildable can help you evaluate whether buying, integration, or custom software creates the best fit.
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Email: connect@buildableworks.com
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