{"head":{"title":"CRM Build vs Buy Calculator | OceanLab","description":"Compare HubSpot or Salesforce seats with a custom CRM over up to 10 years, from their list prices. Find the break-even year and the reasons beyond cost.","canonical":"https://oceanlab.in/tools/crm-build-vs-buy"},"tool":{"slug":"crm-build-vs-buy","path":"/tools/crm-build-vs-buy","name":"CRM build vs buy","h1":"CRM build vs buy calculator","lede":"Compare CRM seats with a custom build year by year, and answer six questions on the reasons that are not about cost.","category":"industry","categoryTitle":"Health, fintech and business software","method":["Buy, per year: seats × the plan's price per seat × 12, with seats growing and the price rising each year, plus the vendor's one-time fee and your own setup in year one.","Plan prices are list prices from HubSpot's and Salesforce's own pricing pages on the date shown. Pick 'Other' to enter your vendor's price.","Build, per year: the build cost in year one, plus yearly maintenance as a share of the build cost, plus hosting. The break-even year is the first year the build's running total drops below the buy total.","The six questions lean the decision towards build or buy for reasons a spreadsheet misses. They are OceanLab's guidance, not a benchmark."],"sources":[{"label":"HubSpot pricing","url":"https://www.hubspot.com/pricing/sales","checkedAt":"2026-10-25"},{"label":"Salesforce pricing","url":"https://www.salesforce.com/sales/pricing/","checkedAt":"2026-10-25"}],"faq":[{"question":"Which CRM prices are listed?","answer":"HubSpot Sales Hub Professional and Enterprise, and Salesforce Pro Suite and Sales Cloud Core, from each vendor's pricing page. Choose 'Other' for any other CRM."},{"question":"Is a custom CRM ever cheaper?","answer":"It can be when seat counts are large and growing and the process is unusual. With few seats, a SaaS CRM usually wins on cost. Run both cases above."},{"question":"What is a hybrid?","answer":"Keeping a SaaS CRM for sales and building a small custom app on its API for the part of the process it cannot handle."},{"question":"Is anything I enter sent anywhere?","answer":"No. The tool runs in your browser and there is no sign-up. Nothing leaves the page unless you choose to email your result to OceanLab."}],"updatedAt":"2026-10-25"},"related":[{"href":"/tools/build-vs-buy","label":"Build vs buy","detail":"Compare SaaS seats with a custom build year by year, find the break-even point, and check the reasons that are not about cost."},{"href":"/tools/erp-tco","label":"ERP TCO","detail":"Put an ERP subscription and implementation next to custom software for the same processes, and see the cost each year."},{"href":"/tools/internal-tool-roi","label":"Internal tool ROI","detail":"Enter who will use the tool and how much time it saves them each day, and see the payback period and the net result."}],"studies":[{"meta":{"slug":"karanday","industry":"sales","projectType":"Custom CRM","country":"py","tags":["enterprise"],"compliances":["LGPD (Brazil)","Law 7593/2025 (Paraguay)","Law 6534/2020 (Paraguay)"],"cover":{"src":"/case-studies/karanday/01-home.png","width":1440,"height":1000}},"text":{"en":{"title":"Karanday - Custom CRM for Industrial Equipment Sales and Service Renewals","description":"Designed and built a clickable CRM for an Asunción distributor of compressors, pumps and generators selling across Paraguay and southern Brazil: a pipeline whose stages follow how capital equipment is really sold, opportunity detail with technical sizing and CPQ quote hand-offs, a service contract renewals pipeline and an installed base that flags units due for replacement.","category":"Sales & CRM / Custom CRM","client":"Arasá Equipos Industriales"}}},{"meta":{"slug":"parikrama","industry":"pharma","projectType":"Medical rep CRM","country":"in","tags":["healthcare","enterprise"],"compliances":["UCPMP 2024","IMC Professional Conduct Regulations 2002","Drugs and Cosmetics Rules 1945","PvPI pharmacovigilance","DPDP Act 2023"],"cover":{"src":"/case-studies/parikrama/01-home.png","width":1440,"height":1000}},"text":{"en":{"title":"Parikrama - Medical Rep CRM for Doctor Visits, Samples and UCPMP Compliance","description":"Designed and built a clickable head office console for the field CRM of an Indian pharmaceutical company with about 3,000 medical reps: a verified doctor master, sample caps tracked per doctor across every rep, a monthly sample reconciliation per rep and a UCPMP 2024 compliance dashboard that builds the annual self-declaration pack.","category":"Pharma / Medical Rep CRM","client":"Kesarwadi Pharmaceuticals"}}},{"meta":{"slug":"weaver","industry":"banking","projectType":"Relationship manager 360","country":"za","tags":["fintech","enterprise"],"compliances":["POPIA","FICA","FAIS Act","FSCA TCF","National Credit Act","SARB Exchange Control"],"cover":{"src":"/case-studies/weaver/01-home.png","width":1440,"height":1000}},"text":{"en":{"title":"Weaver - Relationship Manager 360 Workspace","description":"Designed and built a clickable relationship workspace for a South African bank's business and private relationship managers: every client's accounts, cards, loans, facilities, FX and investments on one screen, with alerts, next best actions and the opportunity pipeline that tell an RM what needs doing today.","category":"Banking / Relationship Banking","client":"Karoo Ridge Bank"}}},{"meta":{"slug":"jalon","industry":"sales","projectType":"Pipeline analytics","country":"ca","tags":["saas","enterprise"],"compliances":["Québec Law 25","PIPEDA","Charter of the French Language and Bill 96"],"cover":{"src":"/case-studies/jalon/01-home.png","width":1440,"height":1000}},"text":{"en":{"title":"Jalon - Pipeline Analytics and Forecast Calls Built on Nightly Snapshots","description":"Designed and built a clickable, French-first pipeline analytics product for a Montreal company selling transportation, dock scheduling and yard management software: pipeline as it stood on any past date, weekly forecast calls that roll up from rep to CRO, push and risk detection, and deal inspection for the weekly review.","category":"Sales & CRM / Pipeline Analytics","client":"Rivebrume Technologies inc."}}},{"meta":{"slug":"coulee","industry":"sales","projectType":"Commission calculator","country":"ca","tags":["saas","enterprise"],"compliances":["Alberta Employment Standards Code","California Labor Code 2751","ASC 340-40","IFRS 15","Alberta PIPA","PIPEDA","CCPA"],"cover":{"src":"/case-studies/coulee/01-home.png","width":1440,"height":1000}},"text":{"en":{"title":"Coulee - Commission Calculator with a Traceable Number on Every Payout Line","description":"Designed and built a clickable commission calculator for a Calgary SaaS company with sales staff in Canada and the US: a monthly close tracker, calculation runs with a full trace behind every payout line, one approvals inbox, and a dispute queue that ages each question a rep raises about their pay.","category":"Sales & CRM / Commission Calculator","client":"Elbow Crest Software"}}}],"more":[{"href":"/case-studies/industry/sales","label":"Sales & CRM case studies","detail":"Every OceanLab product build in Sales & CRM."},{"href":"/case-studies","label":"All case studies","detail":"Every OceanLab product build."},{"href":"/ai-automation","label":"AI automation","detail":"AI built into real business workflows, with people in charge."}],"today":"2026-10-25"}