A standard package looks cheap until your process deviates. Then you pay in licences, workarounds and hours. A calculation that looks beyond the first invoice.
The first invoice says little
A standard package costs € 49 per month and you are online tomorrow. A custom solution costs a few thousand euros and takes weeks. On paper the choice is quickly made. Yet we regularly see companies that, after two years on a package, come to us anyway, with a bill that is by then higher than the custom work would have cost.
That is not because packages are bad. They are built for the average. As soon as your process deviates from that average, the bill shifts from the vendor to you.
Four costs you don’t calculate through
1. Licences that grow
Per user, per module, per integration. Those rates are on the quote, but you rarely calculate them through over three years and with a growing team. The entry rate applies to one person with basic features. With ten staff, an integration with the accounting system and an extra storage bundle you quickly reach a multiple.
2. Workarounds
The package can almost do what you want. So you export to Excel, edit there, and import back. Every workaround is an action someone performs every week, and a place where errors arise.
3. Your team’s hours
The most expensive costs are invisible: time. Calculate what an extra fifteen minutes per employee per day costs over a year. With ten people and an hourly rate of € 45 that is well over € 28,000.
4. Dependency
Your data sits in a system you don’t own. Switching means migrating, and the vendor knows that. Price increases are then hard to refuse.
The package is not expensive. The distance between the package and your process is expensive.
The calculation
Put both options side by side over three years. Not just the licence or the build sum, but everything that comes with it. A simple setup:
- Licences or build costs, per year
- Maintenance and hosting
- Hours for workarounds, estimated per week and multiplied
- Costs of errors and missed opportunities, conservatively estimated
| Package | Custom | |
|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | € 7,800 | € 13,500 |
| Year 2 | € 9,400 | € 1,500 |
| Year 3 | € 11,200 | € 1,500 |
| Workarounds (3 years) | € 28,000 | € 0 |
| Total | € 56,400 | € 16,500 |
Table 01: example calculation for a company with ten employees. Custom: € 12,000 build costs in year 1, then € 1,500 per year for maintenance and hosting. Amounts are indicative.
In this example the sum already tips in year two, even without counting the workarounds. That is not a law, but it shows why the first invoice is a poor basis for the decision.
Three questions to ask beforehand
You don’t have to make the whole calculation to know which way it is going. Three questions usually give direction. Ask them of the people who work with the package every day, not just management: they know where the time leaks away.
- How often does our process deviate from what the package expects? Once a month is manageable. Every day is a signal.
- Who does the work the package doesn’t do? If the answer is a name, count that person’s hours.
- What do we own in three years? With a package: a subscription. With custom software: an application that fits your process exactly, with your own data.
When standard is the right choice after all
When your process is simply standard. An accounting package, a mail tool, a calendar: you don’t need to have anything built for those. Custom software pays off where your way of working makes the difference, and where you work with it daily. For everything else a package is the smart choice, and we say so when you are at our table.
Conclusion
Calculate over three years, count the hours and look at what you own at the end. Want to know what custom software would cost in your situation? Request a free quote. You get an honest answer, even if that is “take a package”.
