How much does it cost to build a custom CRM
A custom CRM runs A$25,000 to A$70,000, and roughly half the people who ask for one should configure an existing tool instead. The cost is worth paying when your process is genuinely not a pipeline, and almost never otherwise.
Most custom CRM requests start the same way. You tried a big one, spent three months configuring it, and it still does not match how you work. So you decide to build your own.
What it costs
| Typical range | A$25,000 to A$70,000 |
| Our six-week version | A$28,000 fixed, 6 weeks |
| What you get first | Your records, your fields, your actual stages, one automation that removes real admin, and an export that means you are never trapped. |
The low end is a single team, your own field structure, and one integration. The high end is multiple teams with different processes, email sync both directions, and reporting that finance will accept.
The three things that move the number
1. Email sync. Reading email into a record is fine. Two-way sync, threading, and not showing a salesperson someone else's private mail is where the time goes. This is the most common reason a CRM build doubles.
2. Permissions. Who can see whose deals, who can change a closed record, what a manager sees that a rep does not. Every one of these is a rule, and rules multiply. It is the same permissions problem that inflates every internal tool.
3. Reporting people trust. A number on a dashboard is easy. A number the finance team will accept, that reconciles with the accounting system, and that does not change when someone edits an old record, is a different build.
What to cut for a first version
- Email sync in version one. Log activity manually for a month and see whether anyone misses it.
- Mobile apps. A responsive web page covers the actual use, which is checking something in a car park.
- Custom dashboards. Export to a spreadsheet until you know which three numbers matter.
- Anything a second team needs. Build for one team's real process and resist generalising it.
If that list makes the build sound too small to be useful, that is worth sitting with. A CRM that does four things your team actually does beats one that does forty things they work around.
The line item to read twice
Integrations listed as a bundle. Each integration is its own build with its own failure modes, and quoting them as a group is how a number ends up wrong by a factor of two.
Common questions
Should I build a CRM or configure HubSpot or Pipedrive
Configure, unless your process genuinely is not a pipeline. If your work is stages with deals moving through them, an existing tool will beat anything you build. If your work has a shape those tools cannot express, and you have already tried, then building is reasonable.
Why do custom CRM projects fail
They are usually built to replace everything at once, so nothing is finished, and the team keeps using the old system. The ones that work replace one painful part first and earn the right to take the next.
What is the cheapest way to test whether I need one
Run your real process in a spreadsheet for a fortnight and note every time it is annoying. The list you end up with is a better specification than anything a discovery workshop will produce, and it costs nothing.
If you want the whole method rather than one answer, it is written up in the book. Five dollars, and it takes an evening: Turn Your Expertise Into a Real Tech Product. If you would rather just ask, book a call and you will get a straight answer on the call, including if the answer is do not build it.