How much does a custom CRM cost? Start with the hours.

Why I talk about hours and weeks

Every software quote is hours multiplied by a rate. The rate is the easy number to compare and the least useful one. Two studios can quote the same screens with very different hours, and the gap is usually in what was left out or guessed. So on this page I stay with hours and weeks, because those are the part you can hold up against your own list of needs.

The ranges below are the ones my quote builder uses. They come from work I have delivered, and I plan on about 30 build hours a week. How I turn hours into a fixed quote is explained on the pricing page.

The groundwork every system needs

Before your CRM has a single customer screen, every system needs the same plumbing: logins, roles and permissions, an admin area, hosting and backups. I count that as 30 to 50 hours, once per system, however many modules sit on top of it.

That is also why building on one system is usually cheaper in hours than building two separate tools. Add invoicing to the CRM later and the groundwork is already there.

What the CRM itself adds

Customer records are the core module: 40 to 80 hours. That is one record per client with their history, notes, files and search. The choices you make then move the number:

• Where enquiries come from: a website form adds 4–8 hours, WhatsApp 6–12, email 6–12 and social media 4–8. Phone calls and walk-ins are logged by hand and add nothing.
• What the CRM does with them: a sales pipeline adds 10–20 hours, follow-up reminders 6–12, email templates 5–10 and duplicate clean-up 4–10.
• How many records you have: under 500 is the base. 500 to 5,000 multiplies the module by 1.1, and over 5,000 by 1.25.
• Reports and dashboards for the numbers you want live: 25–60 hours.
• Quotes and invoicing: a separate module at 50–100 hours, because VAT-ready documents and numbering take real care.

Three worked examples

These come straight from the quote builder’s arithmetic, for a small group of users and no extras unless stated. They are build weeks at about 30 hours a week, not calendar weeks.

• A focused CRM: customer records only. The module plus the groundwork is about 70–130 hours, roughly 3–5 weeks. One job done properly, easy to grow later.
• A CRM that talks to your inbox: customer records and reports, Gmail and WhatsApp connected, and your spreadsheet imported. About 140–285 hours, roughly 5–10 weeks. The integrations (20–40 hours for Gmail or Outlook, 17–30 for WhatsApp) and the spreadsheet import (10–25) are what lift it.
• CRM, invoicing, a client portal and reports, in two phases: the whole system is about 200–420 hours, or 7–14 weeks. Put the CRM and invoicing first and phase one is about 120–230 hours, 4–8 weeks, so you are using it while the portal and reports are still being built.

What pushes the number up or down

Waiting for your feedback, your data or a decision adds calendar time on your side of the table. The ranges are wide on purpose: until I have seen how your business really runs, I would rather give an honest range than a precise figure I would have to defend later. These are the things that move it:

• More people using it: 4–10 users multiplies the whole estimate by 1.05, 11–30 by 1.1 and over 30 by 1.2. Separate roles and permissions add 12% on top.
• A native phone app: an iPhone and Android app on the same backend adds 130–270 hours. A browser version that works well on a phone is already included.
• Another language: each extra language adds about 8%.
• Moving data: from spreadsheets is 10–25 hours, from another system 25–60.
• Starting with the must-haves brings the first release down. Storex started as a client and invoice tracker synced with Wix and grew, phase by phase, into the platform the office and crew now run on.

When a custom CRM is not worth the hours

If you have a couple of people, a simple pipeline and no integrations, an off-the-shelf CRM will cost you fewer hours of anyone’s time, and I will tell you so. Even a modest custom build is dozens of hours.

Custom starts to pay off when the CRM also has to run invoicing, WhatsApp or bookings, or when per-user subscriptions keep growing with the team. The custom versus off-the-shelf comparison sets out both sides.

Get the number for your own business

The fastest route is the quote builder. It takes about five minutes and shows hours and weeks for your own mix of modules as you pick them. I then reply with a fixed quote in phases.

If you are in Malta and thinking about the Digitalise Your SME grant, read the Malta page first, because the order of events matters.