Imagine that Companies A and B both need custom software that aligns with their business goals and meets their customers’ needs. And there are two options available for them: design custom software from the ground up or acquire white-label software.
Company A has decided to build custom software, so they hired an entire in-house development team, from programmers to testing engineers, to develop that software. That software costs company A’s time, money, and focus.
Company B also wanted to build custom software that satisfies end-user needs and expands its business reach. So they decided to buy white-labeled software from company Z and reap all the benefits without doing a single thing.
As a business owner, you might have asked yourself a thousand times whether to build or buy the software. To make an informed decision that is best for the company, you should learn when to build and when not to build.
In this blog, we’ll walk you through the advantages and disadvantages of each to help you decide whether to build or buy software and which is better for your business.
Two Common Factors To Consider Before Deciding To Build Vs. Buy Software
Two things determine the company’s growth and the product’s longevity: cost and capabilities.
Cost
- How much does it cost to build your product from scratch? (i.e., time, money, resources, technologies, platforms, etc.)
- How much does it cost to buy an off-the-shelf product that fits your needs? (i.e., customizable, reliable, scalable, integration, etc.)
Capabilities
- What do you want your solution to do, and how does it do it? Does it work for future issues?
- Look in the market—is there software that aligns with your needs and requirements? Is it customizable?
- If no product aligns with your goals, can your development team make it happen?
It’s quite hard to come up with an exact estimate for building or buying software.
For instance, it may take a year or two to build software, but you can buy white-labeled software in a month. What if the company can’t keep up with future demands? What if the software you built lasts for 5 years with the minimum maintenance?
That means that you have to carefully evaluate the cost of building an in-house team, building your software, renewing your subscription, or buying another up-to-date software. If the cost of building a product is cheaper than buying software, I’d recommend giving it a shot.
When To Build Software From Scratch
Building your software all by yourself can be a daunting task; it requires a lot, from combining technical and creative expertise to coming up with a conception to its completion. To build successful software, you need to hire designers, developers, QA specialists, content creators, and testing engineers to produce a product that meets your exact specifications.
Developing bespoke software solutions is advantageous for a variety of reasons. If your company’s demands are unique and cannot be satisfied by current software solutions, you can create one on your own. In those circumstances, developing bespoke software is the ideal option for you. Let’s take a look at the benefits and drawbacks of bespoke software development before you make a decision.
Pros Of Building Software
- Custom software helps you stand out from the competition by offering unique features and functionalities.
- Building software with your dedicated development team gives you full control over your software development life cycle, from anticipating features to integrating user-friendly functionalities.
- You can meet the specific compliance requirements of your industry, especially in highly regulated industries such as healthcare and finance.
- Developing custom software mainly provides you with long-term benefits by allowing you to change as per the user’s demands.
- Building custom software allows you to meet your specific needs that are loved by your target audience.
- Building your software product makes it easier for you to support and maintain as time goes on. When you don’t have the bandwidth to support yourself, you can reach out to a custom software product development company to help you out.
Cons Of Building Software
- Developing software is an expensive endeavor. All of your time and money are squandered, from investment to hiring designers, developers, and testers. You’ll need a considerable amount of money for upgrades and maintenance.
- Developing custom software takes a long time, which causes you to put off implementing your software marketing plans.
- To stay up with the ever-changing business landscape and keep it working smoothly and effectively, every software product needs reliable, continuous maintenance.
- Consider the additional expense of keeping your software up-to-date.
- To remain competitive in the market, you must upgrade and improve your software in response to your consumers’ wants and requests.
- You may have produced the wrong software product after investing a significant amount of time and money in bespoke development. You should have conducted thorough market research from now until the future. Before you started the development cycle, you should have estimated everything.
When To Buy White-Label Software
Whether a new entrepreneur or a well-established business owner, you may be debating whether to create or acquire software. You eventually want to create your program. But you already know why that’s not a good option. That, however, is not the case.
White-labeled software development is an off-the-shelf software solution you can buy and leverage to grow your business. In case you don’t want to buy pre-built software, you can outsource your software project to a reliable software product development company.
You might wonder how an off-the-shelf custom software solution benefits your business. The reason why off-the-shelf software solutions are popular is their flexibility to fit your needs, their faster time to market, and the competitive advantage they give you.
For example, if your company requires a software solution for a standard process such as CRM, HR management, or accounting, do not rely solely on white-labeled software solutions. If you don’t want a pre-built solution, you can still develop a product under your banner. They’re more cost-effective than building your custom software product. Let’s look at the pros and cons of white-label custom software solutions.
Pros Of Buying White-Label Software
- White-label software solutions give you access to brand-new products and services, allowing you to step into a competitive market.
- With customers looking for fast solutions to their problems. White-label software development company helps you provide real-time solutions with pre-built solutions that are loved by your users.
- Time is everything in business growth. Rebrandable software helps you reduce your development time while expanding your offerings.
- Expanding your business using white-labeled software solutions helps your brand appear more reliable and credible to your customers.
- The best part about white-label solutions is that they’re cost-effective and save you from the development process. You can just buy a custom software product, rebrand it, and start selling it in the market.
- A white-label solution provider has a team of experts with the bandwidth to build scalable solutions tailored to your needs while keeping the software up to date with the trend.
- With white-label digital solutions, you can get your product to market faster, reach more customers, and stay ahead of the competition.
Cons Of Buying White-Label Software
- When buying software, you may have to depend on the vendor who builds it for issues such as integration issues and adding new features based on user demands.
- Buying off-the-shelf software may result in branding issues as you and your competitor might use the same software.
- Your software vendor might not align with your ideas, or there’s a chance of misunderstanding what you really need in your software.
- Since white-label software is created to be sold to multiple companies, it has limited customization, which may result in limited functionality or flexibility. But, you can reach out to a reliable custom software development company to outsource your software development project and develop a product that’s tailored to your needs.
What If You Made The Wrong Choice?
We’ve seen the factors to consider when building software versus buying it and the pros and cons of each. Let’s look at the consequences of making the wrong decision.
So you feel you’re better off buying and deciding to build software on your own, putting all your time and money at stake. As a result of this, you might fall behind in the competition.
Nevertheless, if you choose to buy off-the-shelf bespoke software when you have the power to create something unique and important, you are passing on a fantastic chance that will most likely set you apart from the crowd.
The best software product is already available on the market. So if you’re ready to roll up your sleeves, make it count. But if you’re up to buying one piece of software, then weigh all the factors and get a solution that gives you a competitive advantage.
Final Thoughts
If you’re up to building software, then consider the cost, requirements, and technical complexity of the project. If you have the resources you need and your ideas are completely different from others, then developing the software is the best option for you. On the other hand, if you have a tight timeline and high technical complexity, buying a pre-built solution is the most effective way.
Whichever option you pick, Zaigo Infotech is ready to assist you with white-labeled software solutions as well as outsourcing software development.
