CRM build vs buy calculator
Compare CRM seats with a custom build year by year, and answer six questions on the reasons that are not about cost.
Free, runs in your browser, no sign-up. Updated 2026-10-25.
Result
Over 5 years: HubSpot Sales Hub Professional $195,400, custom build $204,000. Buy is cheaper. Questions: leans buy.
- Buy, 5 years
- $195,400
- Build, 5 years
- $204,000
- Difference
- $8,600
- Break-even year
- None
| Year | Buy | Build | Buy total | Build total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $38,500 | $112,800 | $38,500 | $112,800 |
| 2 | $31,200 | $22,800 | $69,700 | $135,600 |
| 3 | $36,000 | $22,800 | $105,700 | $158,400 |
| 4 | $41,600 | $22,800 | $147,300 | $181,200 |
| 5 | $48,000 | $22,800 | $195,400 | $204,000 |
Beyond cost: six CRM questions
Each yes leans towards a custom build. Guidance, not a benchmark.
- 1. Is your sales process unusual (several parties, long approvals, regulated steps) and a core part of how you win?
- 2. Must customer data stay in your own cloud or country for legal or client reasons?
- 3. Does the CRM need to read and write your own systems (ERP, billing, product) in real time?
- 4. Will most users be outside sales (ops, field staff, partners) who need a simpler, task-specific app?
- 5. Will seat numbers grow faster than revenue per seat?
- 6. Can you fund someone to own and maintain it after launch?
Leans buy (0 of 6 yes). Few of the reasons to build apply; an off-the-shelf CRM is likely to fit.
Assumptions
Every number the result depends on, and where it comes from. Change any value and the result updates.
| Assumption | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| HubSpot Sales Hub Professional, per seat per month | 90 USD | HubSpot Sales Hub Professional pricingChecked 2026-10-25 |
| HubSpot Sales Hub Professional, one-time onboarding | 1500 USD | HubSpot Sales Hub Professional pricingChecked 2026-10-25 |
| Yearly maintenance as a share of build cost | % | OceanLab assumption. No primary source. Covers bug fixes, dependency and security updates, small changes. Raise it for fast-changing products.Reviewed 2026-10-25 |
| Yearly CRM price increase | % | OceanLab assumption. Placeholder. Check the vendor's renewal terms.Reviewed 2026-10-25 |
Send this comparison to OceanLab
Opens an email to OceanLab with this result and a link to your inputs. Nothing is sent until you press send, and there is no sign-up.
How this is calculated
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
- HubSpot pricing · checked 2026-10-25
- Salesforce pricing · checked 2026-10-25
Questions about this tool
Which CRM prices are listed?
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.
Is a custom CRM ever cheaper?
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.
What is a hybrid?
Keeping a SaaS CRM for sales and building a small custom app on its API for the part of the process it cannot handle.
Is anything I enter sent anywhere?
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.
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