How Custom Solutions can save you money — the hidden costs of using Off-the-Shelf Software

There are different approaches to creating a digital product. Nowadays, with no-code, low-code, or even SaaS, creating an online business is easier than ever. There’s still the “classic way” — building from scratch.

While using off-the-shelf software might be suitable for quickly crafting an MVP (minimum viable product) or idea validation, it’s not risk-free. Get to know why sometimes a buck saved today might turn into a thousand bucks debt in the future.

Universality

We all know that all products should be built to solve a problem, thus generating value and earning money. That’s great, but often it’s very hard to find a product that solves your problem exactly and your problem alone. It has to solve also other people’s problems which means you might be getting features you don’t need. It’s all about customer satisfaction. And the more customers, the better for the business.

That wouldn’t be a big deal in general if that’s just a feature you don’t use, but it sometimes means you’re shipping too much code, which bloats your product, or you’re paying for the features you don’t want.

There are also some integration challenges. Off-the-shelf software may not integrate seamlessly with your existing systems or each other. A typical example would be a WordPress website glued together with many plugins. It might require some extra work, with the same poor final effect.

These added costs can be avoided by developing a custom solution that is designed to work with your current infrastructure, has features you specifically need, and is optimized for your use and your team’s efficiency.

Customizations

Your business will change; that’s a fact. Something you build today, or tomorrow might be obsolete and require adaptation to the ever-changing market.

To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often

— Winston Churchill

What if every minor product change requires switching providers? That’s not ideal and certainly not cost-effective. That’s the problem with premade software, especially with a closed codebase. A closed codebase means you cannot see nor modify the source code. It’s not such a problem with open-source software like WordPress or its plugins, but those are sometimes written in a way that cannot be altered.

You need to consider the flexibility and ability to accommodate your business growth. A good software house will pay extra attention to scalability while building your product, so it doesn’t have to be refactored in the future.

Quantity over Quality

Another danger with closed code is that you cannot validate its quality. Nowadays, everyone wants to be a web developer, and with the low-level entry, it often means that the software is created by not experienced developers.

Even with some most popular products, ie. WordPress plugins, this is noticeable. The plugin can have more than a million active installs and beautiful marketing, but it’s a disaster from the developer’s perspective. That happens when business people don’t align with production people. Creating a good product needs good technical expertise.

Good software needs time to be properly planned and built, and needs QA (Quality Assessment). This is why custom software can be so expensive. We at the Department of Web, don’t cut corners, even with our free products.

We can often see projects built with some popular software, and, unfortunately, we often recommend refactoring it from scratch as it’s the most cost-effective solution.

Subscriptions, subscriptions everywhere

Off-the-shelf software, SaaS especially, comes with recurring licensing or subscription fees, which can add up over time. It’s a pure business approach. Sometimes, even with canned software, you need to keep the subscription alive to keep using the product or have access to the support.

With a custom solution, you pay for the development cost upfront, and there are no ongoing fees, saving you money in the long run. This is easier to plan

Long-term investment

As you can see, assessing the risk of using off-the-shelf software is a matter. While it’s for idea validation or the aforementioned MVP, it might be a good way of optimizing software development costs. But does it work in the long run?

If you plan for success, it might be worth spending a bit more upfront to save yourself a hassle in the future. Technical debt often backfires at the most inconvenient time, causing fires you don’t need.

If you’re interested in creating your software, we at the Department of Web are at your disposal. Get in touch to get a free quote.