Buy Salesforce or another packaged CRM when your process is standard and you need it fast; Sales Cloud listed $25 to $550 per user per month, billed annually. Build a custom CRM when your process is unusual, seat costs outgrow a build, or you need full control. Compare five-year totals and plan for maintenance either way.
When Salesforce, or another packaged CRM, fits
Buying fits when:
- Your sales process follows common stages: lead, opportunity, quote, close.
- You need the CRM working in weeks.
- You want the vendor to maintain, secure and update the software.
- You expect to use its ecosystem of integrations and add-ons.
- You can staff an administrator, or train one through Salesforce's free Trailhead learning platform.
When a custom CRM fits
Building fits when:
- Your process is unusual: complex quoting, multi-step approvals, field service, or industry rules a packaged CRM handles only with heavy workarounds.
- Seat costs across a large or growing team outgrow a build plus running costs over several years.
- You need full control of data, features and roadmap.
- The CRM is part of your product or service to customers.
Published costs
Salesforce's Sales Cloud pricing, read on 12 November 2026, listed per user per month, billed annually: Starter Suite $25, Pro Suite $100, Core $195, Advanced $395 and Max $550, with AI and other add-ons priced separately and prices subject to change.
For a custom build, Clutch's software developers pricing guide (updated 21 September 2026) puts the average custom software project at $132,480.29 over about 13 months, with US developers at $50 to $99 an hour and Indian developers at $25 to $49. In-house, the Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median software developer salary at $134,040 a year in 2025.
Comparing five-year cost
Compare totals over five years, not the first year. Packaged: seats times price times 60 months, plus add-ons, implementation and administration. Custom: the build, plus hosting, maintenance and changes each year.
A worked example, using illustrative figures and our own arithmetic: 50 users on a $195 edition cost $9,750 a month, about $585,000 over five years before add-ons and administration. A custom CRM costing $150,000 to build and $40,000 a year to host and maintain costs about $350,000 over five years. With 10 users, the packaged CRM costs about $117,000 over five years and buying wins. The crossover depends on your seats, edition and build scope.
Speed, control and risk
Beyond cost:
- Speed: a packaged CRM can run in weeks; a custom CRM takes months.
- Fit: custom fits your process exactly; packaged fits the common case.
- Control: with packaged, the vendor sets features, prices and changes; with custom, you do.
- Risk: a packaged vendor can change prices or products; a custom CRM depends on your ability to maintain it.
- Data: check how you export data from a packaged CRM; with custom, data sits where you put it.
The middle path
Many businesses do both: a packaged CRM for standard sales work, with custom tools around it for the unusual parts, such as a quoting engine or a customer portal connected by API. Our guide to SaaS vs custom software covers this pattern more widely.
Conclusion
Buy Salesforce or another packaged CRM when your process is standard, speed matters and you want a vendor to maintain it; Sales Cloud listed $25 to $550 per user per month, billed annually. Build a custom CRM when your process is unusual, seat costs outgrow a build over several years, or you need full control; Clutch's 2026 average custom software project was about $132,500. Compare five-year totals, and consider a packaged CRM with custom tools around it.
PromotEdge International is an international strategy, technology, marketing and design company, and our delivery team is in India. We are not a Salesforce partner. Our custom CRM builds are made around how you sell and serve, and our CRM setup team configures packaged CRMs when they fit.
Facts we rely on: see our company facts for what we state about ourselves and where each fact comes from.