Focused single-team CRM
- One team, pipeline and tasks, one or two integrations
- £8,000 – £20,000
Typically 6 to 10 weeks of build. The commonest first system for an SME replacing spreadsheets or outgrowing a starter plan.
When It Is Worth It
Build, or Keep Paying Per Seat?
We build custom CRMs and we still tell plenty of businesses to stay on HubSpot. Here is the honest version of how that decision goes.
Your process is the advantage
If the way you qualify, quote or deliver is genuinely different from your competitors, bending it to fit a template CRM throws away the thing that wins you work. That is the case for building.
The per-seat maths
Per-seat licences at £40 to £120 per user per month come to £10,000–£29,000 a year for twenty seats — every year. Over five years the crossover is usually between year two and year four.
When we say don't
If an off-the-shelf product fits your process, we will say so on the call rather than after the invoice. A CRM you build to replicate HubSpot is just a more expensive HubSpot.
GDPR and UK hosting
You control where data lives and how long it is kept. We build UK-hosted by default, with subject access request handling and retention rules included rather than bolted on — and no international transfer questions.
Budget
What a Custom CRM Actually Costs
Ranges, not quotes. Cost is driven by three things: how many distinct user roles there are, how many external systems it has to talk to, and whether you need a mobile interface alongside the desktop one.
Multi-role platform
- Several roles and several integrations, data migration priced separately
- £20,000 – £50,000
Migration is its own line because importing a decade of duplicates into a new system is how new systems lose their users in month one.
We scope first and then quote one fixed figure, rather than publishing a range that would be wrong for most projects. The scoping call is free and you keep the output whether or not you go ahead. Read the full cost guide.
How It Runs
From Brief to Live
8 to 16 weeks
Discovery and process mapping take 2 to 3 weeks, the build runs 6 to 10 weeks in sprints you can see progress in, and user testing plus training adds 2 to 3 weeks. The variable is rarely the code — it is how quickly your team agrees what the process actually is.
Migration included
We handle exports from Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho, Pipedrive and Microsoft Dynamics, plus spreadsheets and legacy databases. Cleaning and de-duplication happen during migration, not afterwards.
You own it
Code, database and hosting are transferred into your name. Maintenance is either your developer or us on a retainer — you are never locked into one answer, and the handover docs assume someone else will read them.
Based in Manchester
Our office is at 201 Slack Road, Manchester, M9 8AW. We run projects remotely as standard, but for CRM work — where we are mapping a process nobody has written down — an on-site discovery workshop often earns its keep, and we will come to you.
Reading
Before You Commit to a CRM
How Much Does a Custom CRM Cost in the UK? A 2026 Guide
Realistic UK price bands for a bespoke CRM, the four things that actually move the number, and the situations where we would tell you not to build one.
Custom CRM vs HubSpot for UK SMEs: An Honest Comparison
We build custom CRMs and we still tell a lot of businesses to use HubSpot. Here is how we decide, with the cost crossover and the questions that settle it.
HR Software for Small UK Businesses: Build, Buy, or Both?
Payroll and holiday: buy. Onboarding, compliance tracking and rota management that follow your own rules: often worth building. How to draw the line, with UK compliance in mind.
Questions
CRM Questions
How much does a custom CRM cost in the UK?
The cost is driven by three things: the number of distinct user roles, how many external systems it has to talk to, and whether you need a mobile interface alongside the desktop one. A focused single-team CRM and a multi-department platform with integrations are different orders of magnitude, so we scope first and then quote a fixed price rather than publishing a range that would be wrong for most projects. The scoping call is free and you keep the output whether or not you go ahead.
How long does it take to build a custom CRM?
Between 8 and 16 weeks for most UK SMEs. Discovery and process mapping take 2 to 3 weeks, the build runs 6 to 10 weeks in sprints you can see progress in, and user testing plus training adds 2 to 3 weeks at the end. The variable is rarely the code — it is how quickly your team can agree on what the process actually is.
Can you migrate our data from our existing CRM?
Yes. We handle exports from Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho, Pipedrive and Microsoft Dynamics, plus spreadsheet and legacy database migrations. Data cleaning and de-duplication happen as part of migration rather than as an afterthought, because importing a decade of duplicates into a new system is how new systems lose their users in the first month.
Is a custom CRM GDPR compliant?
It can be more compliant than off-the-shelf, because you control where the data is hosted and exactly how long it is kept. We build UK-hosted by default, with subject access request handling and automated retention rules included rather than bolted on. You also avoid the international transfer questions that come with US-hosted platforms.
Who maintains it after launch?
Either your own developer or us, on a support retainer. You own the code, the database and the hosting either way, so you are never locked into one answer. We write the handover documentation on the assumption that someone else will read it, because sooner or later someone else will.
Outgrown your CRM?
Tell us what your process actually does. We come back within one working day with scope, timeline and one fixed figure — or with the reason you should stay where you are.