Salesforce vs Custom Development: What’s Right For Your Business?

In this dynamic and ever-evolving technological innovation landscape, you have a choice to make – a choice that will influence your company’s efficiency, growth, and, ultimately, success.

Imagine having professional developers create a custom application tailored to your exact needs or the ease of harnessing the unparalleled capabilities of Salesforce, a renowned leader in cloud-based solutions.

The choice between Salesforce vs custom development is a pivotal decision, and it’s not just about building software; it’s about shaping the future of your enterprise.

So, are you excited to take a step ahead in your digital journey that can change how you do business?

Let’s explore the exciting terrain of custom development vs Salesforce and chart a course toward your digital future.

Understanding Custom Application Development

Custom app development encompasses the complete journey of conceptualizing, creating, launching, and sustaining an application tailored to the specific requirements of clients or individual users to address their unique business needs. For instance, Uber (a riding application) was developed from scratch to give users a seamless experience of traveling within the city or intercity.

According to a recent report by Grandview Research, the custom application development market is experiencing rapid growth, with a staggering Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 22.4% projected during the forecast period from 2023 to 2030.

This growth rate clearly states that businesses are bent toward developing custom apps to address their business challenges. But is the solution your business can make money while saving time and ensuring staggering growth? Well, the answer may confuse you, but it relies on your business requirements, budget, and other key factors.

Pros of Developing Custom Applications

Since every service/product has brought some positive and negative aspects with it. Similarly, custom app develop: ment has its pros and cons. Let’s talk about what benefits you can unlock while opting for this option.

1. Tailored solutions

Every user/client or customer wants to experience a personal interaction with a business where they feel valued and catered solely. Leveraging the expertise of developers for custom app development allows you to make your customers feel entertained exclusively.

Similarly, customers would like to opt for the company providing more personalized solutions. Anyone having low or no code practice or expertise can help you achieve this with custom app development. This is because you can personalize the app to meet customer satisfaction and their requirements. Such added value helps you win customer trust and extends customer retention.

2. Complete control

In-house developers are designing and developing an application for you, hence interacting with them 10x times easier for you. You have complete control over the development requirements and needs.

Custom applications provide you with complete control over your digital toolkit. They are the primary aspect to unlock your business’s full potential by ensuring the technology aligns with your unique vision. While off-the-shelf solutions have their place, if you’re looking for a tailored, efficient, and secure digital future, custom applications are the path to explore.

3. Unique features belong to your business only

Custom app development is a popular choice among companies that value ownership and control of their software solutions. By opting for customized software, businesses can effectively manage their systems and data, as well as modify the software functions and development methodologies as per their requirements.

Moreover, customized software solutions allow businesses to seamlessly integrate crucial data from multiple sources, which not only streamlines their business processes but also results in better decision-making. The ability to incorporate valuable customer feedback further enhances the software’s usability and functionality, ultimately leading to a more satisfied customer base.

By investing in custom software development, businesses can bolster their reputation, cultivate more robust customer loyalty, and maintain a leading position in an ever more competitive market environment.

Understanding Salesforce

Salesforce stands as a top-tier cloud-based platform within the realm of business technology worldwide. This platform provides services for Sales, marketing, customer service, collaboration, analytics, and building custom apps. As of now, more than 150,000 businesses cater to the solution and experience drastic management and growth of their business.

Since Salesforce is a one-stop solution for every industry, it become the foremost choice for all businesses. Have you thought about why one should go with Salesforce when you can develop a custom app? Let’s unlock the benefits to know the worth of leveraging Salesforce for your business.

Pros of Leveraging Salesforce

1. Rapid Development

Salesforce is renowned for its lightning-fast development capabilities, aura components, low code-no code solutions, and inbuilt templates. It provides businesses with tools to create, customize, and deploy applications quickly. So, when you have everything in place, then why wait for a lengthy development lifecycle or deal with complex coding? With Salesforce CRM, your ideas can transform into reality in a fraction of the time with a point-to-click solution.

2. Enhanced Scalability

As your business grows, Salesforce grows with you. Whether you’re a small startup or a well-established enterprise, Salesforce offers a scalable environment that adapts to your evolving needs. For instance, if you want to extend functionality like storage, extensions, productivity tools, or any other, Salesforce is the solution you need.

3. Helps Provide Better Customer Service

Since Salesforce’s capabilities are remarkable, it helps businesses in letting their customers feel valued. We can say in the age of customer-centric business, Salesforce shines. By utilizing its robust Customer Relationship Management (CRM) functionalities, you can acquire in-depth knowledge about your customers’ preferences, purchase history, interests, and behaviors. This information empowers you to provide personalized, efficient service that boosts customer satisfaction, leading to increased customer loyalty.

4. Cloud-based Tech

Say goodbye to clunky on-premises systems and hello to the cloud. Salesforce is a fully cloud-based platform that allows you the flexibility to access your data and applications from any location. This offers enhanced flexibility, as you are no longer restricted to a single location to access your data. By shifting to Salesforce, you can save on infrastructure and maintenance expenses while still enjoying a powerful and secure system that can be accessed from anywhere in the world.

5. Built-in Features

Salesforce is a powerful platform that offers a vast array of features to help you streamline your business operations. From automation tools to analytics and reporting capabilities, Salesforce has everything under one roof you need to manage your daily tasks and track performance metrics.

With Salesforce, you won’t need to spend time and resources searching for third-party solutions because everything you need is built-in. Whether you need to manage leads, automate tasks, or analyze data, Salesforce has got you covered. You won’t need to hunt for third-party solutions – it’s all here in one platform.

6. Less Time Spent on Data Entry

Time is an invaluable asset in the world of business, regardless of whether you’re operating a small startup or a large corporation. The challenge lies in finding ways to free up time from mundane and repetitive tasks, which, while essential, can be quite tedious.

Fortunately, there are multiple avenues to explore for task management optimization. One such avenue is the integration of automation software into your existing platform, or you can leverage the full potential of Salesforce.

By incorporating Salesforce into your workflow, data accessing becomes a minute task. With its robust automation capabilities, routine tasks are seamlessly managed, allowing you to redirect your focus toward strategic business initiatives. This results in enhanced productivity and, in the long run, a more robust bottom line.

Salesforce vs Custom Development: Factors to Consider

Finally, you’ve ventured into the realm of custom app development and Salesforce, and now you’re weighing the advantages of these solutions. It’s time to move from thinking to action. Still, if you’re finding it difficult to make a decision, don’t fret! We’re here to assist you. By letting you know the best practice, we can make it easier for you to decide what’s the best Salesforce vs custom development.

Let’s delve into the key considerations:

1. Budget & Cost Considerations

Salesforce, being a leading player in the CRM industry, offers a subscription-based pricing model with a monthly license cost. While this may seem costly, the value is in the convenience it brings. With Salesforce, you can handle ongoing maintenance, juggling multiple solutions, or hiring in-house or freelance developers. It’s a recurring payment that allows you to focus hassle-free on your company’s core competencies.

On the other hand, custom solutions entail higher upfront development costs. However, they can provide more cost control in the long term. With custom development, you’ll need to budget for initial development, infrastructure, and ongoing maintenance. This might seem counterintuitive, as you’ll also have to consider requirements like in-house space, resources, tool availability, or the need for freelance developers, along with associated employee benefits costs. Additionally, you’ll be responsible for operating, managing, and maintaining the app without expert assistance, which can be a demanding task.

2. Time-to-market

Salesforce enables faster deployment and reduces time-to-market due to its robust set of pre-built features and configurations, which allow businesses to rapidly implement sales, marketing, and customer service processes. With Salesforce, organizations can significantly reduce the time and effort required to build out their custom solutions, ultimately enabling them to get up and running more quickly and with less risk. This shows that being faster and more agile can give you a big edge in today’s business world.

On the other hand, custom app development solutions usually take longer to develop and implement because you’re building from scratch. It can vary in project complexity and length.

3. Security Considerations

Customers seek a trustworthy and dependable platform that leaves no room for errors. Only partners who can guarantee an impeccable level of data security can meet these demands. This is where Salesforce excels. Salesforce boasts an array of challenging security measures, including encrypted authentication information. However, the effectiveness of these security measures is contingent upon the active configuration and management of your instance. In general, Salesforce is considered a secure option, particularly for businesses that diligently adhere to best practices.

At the same time, when we talk about custom app development, security risks can be higher if not properly addressed. You’ll have to invest in security measures, code reviews, and regular updates to minimize risks with custom app development.

4. Integration with Existing Systems

Since any platform you leverage does not have all the solutions you need to bring productivity and enhance ongoing operations. That’s why integrating external apps or third-party software helps you unlock the benefits of multiple apps in one place.

Salesforce has its own marketplace called Appexchange, which has pre-built or ready-to-use applications that you can select for integration. By exploring the marketplace, you can select apps for sales, marketing, analytics, customer service, automation, and much more. You can select the app required for integration for your business.

By leveraging Salesforce’s extensive integration capabilities, it allows seamless integration with third-party apps using connectors, APIs, or Zapier tools.

On the other hand, custom solutions offer greater flexibility in terms of integration but require more development effort and expertise to connect with existing systems. Since your developers are taking care of all the tidbits and challenges, they address them while developing the app. In turn, it takes lots of your valuable time and hidden costs associated with the development process.

5. Customization Requirements

Customization is the key to agile customer engagement, conversion, and retention. So, to ensure your custom-built app helps not only in streamlining your business operational activities but also other businesses to expand their customer base.

And what’s better than developing custom apps on Salesforce CRM? It offers you diverse features and functionality to perform customization the way your business wants. By leveraging its declarative tools like Lightning App Builder, aura components, etc., you can ensure your custom app has all the features to achieve your business objectives.

Custom solutions offer complete flexibility in customization, allowing you to tailor the application to your exact needs. This is ideal if you have highly specific or complex requirements.

Salesforce vs Custom Development: Making the Right Decision

There you have it! You know all the benefits of choosing the Salesforce vs custom app solutions for your business. We can say your decision should align with your long-term business objectives and your willingness to invest in convenience or control. So, begin by assessing factors such as scalability, flexibility, and industry-specific requirements, considering your budget.

While Salesforce offers cost-effective out-of-the-box solutions, custom app development may require a higher initial investment but can lead to long-term cost savings. If this still needs to be clarified and you need assistance to make a choice, then a Salesforce consulting company like Cyntexa will help you choose the right one for your business.