App For Business: Build vs Buy? Choosing the Right Solution for you

When looking to get a mobile app for your business, one of the first questions you should ask is whether to build or buy. In the second post in this series, we’re going to address the pros and cons to both approaches and when each is the appropriate.

What does build vs buy mean?

Building vs buying refers to the decision on whether to look for and buy or rent an off-the-shelf app for business solution or to commission a team (like ourselves!) to build a custom app solution.

For example, if you are looking for a booking keeping app solution for your business that is easy for you to work with from a mobile app, it might be worth considering paying for something like Quickbooks. However, if you needed that book keeping app to be able to work with your custom Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), then building a bespoke app would likely be the best approach.

Let’s explore the advantages of both approaches.

Advantages of developing a custom mobile app for business

Customisations

The ability to customise the app to your company’s specific needs or direct specification is the number one reason we find our customers chose to build a custom app. Often there are similar existing apps out there but they fall short in a few specific areas or there are missing features that our customers need.

Ongoing Cost

While building a custom mobile app can come with it’s own costs, these are usually upfront one off payments and the ongoing costs can be very low. On the contrary, most off-the-shelf app solutions have a large monthly fee that can ramp up significantly with very little warning or increased users or usage. Building a custom mobile app can ensure you are in-charge of your monthly overheads.

Retained ownership

Another key advantage of building a custom app solution is that your company is in control of the ownership of the app. This means that you are protected from having the cost ramp up on you and have protection if the selling company was to go out of business.

This is a real concern and has actually happened to us before. When in the middle of using Parse for a few years (a software as a service building tool), it was surprisingly bought over by Facebook. This usually would be a seen as a good thing, but sadly Facebook decided to strip Parse of its personnel and wind down the service very quickly leaving us exposed and looking to have to rebuild an alternative solution (link to more info).

The dependancy on the vendor for updates, bug fixes, continued support and costs can leave the business exposed, especially if the app forms part of your core business.

Integration

As discussed earlier, usually custom integrations are easier to do from a custom built app as you have direct control over them. Off-the-shelf app solutions can be complicated and costly to integrate with other systems in your stack, unless the supplier has a prior integration ready and regardless if those other systems are off-the-shelf or custom.

Competitive Advantages

Sometimes it’s just the need to take get a competitive advantage over your competition. If you and your competitors are using the same app (especially if it’s part of your core business) then you’ll likely find it hard to differentiate your services. Building a custom app for business can ensure you always have that sharp competitive edge and can adapt quickly and uniquely to an ever evolving landscape (as we had to do during covid, for example).

Advantages of buying an off-the-shelf app for business

Upfront Costs

Buying from a supplier with a ready made mobile app for business solution usually comes with a low upfront cost at the sacrifice of larger ongoing costs. Usually these costs come in the form of seat licences or enterprise licences.

Regardless, the lack of an upfront cost can be useful for startups or others with low resources and ensures that the return on investment (ROI) is quicker in the short term.

Faster Deployment

Where an off the shelf solution exists, it can be straightforward to get that solution trialed quickly to decide if that solution will work for the business.

Additionally, sometimes speed to market can be a good stop gap while a custom solution is being prepared. Buying in an off-the-shelf mobile app can lead to a faster initial deployment and get a solution in place quickly, even if that solution isn’t perfect in the short term.

Support and Updates

Usually off the shelf apps will come with embedded support and upgrade packages. In the popular Software as a Service (SaaS) model, monthly payments are made which cover automatic updates to the system that are used for all of the SaaS company’s vendors.

While these fixes and updates are rarely as quick as working directly with an app supplier, they are likely to have significant resources behind them as the SaaS company can pull the resources from all involved.

Well known

Of course, buying an off-the-shelf solution is usually made possible because these companies have big marketing budgets and your relationship will be with a larger organisation who will have more resources available to them to focus on this singular particular app for business.

This, of course, is a double edged sword; When working with a larger company, you are less important to them and less likely to get a direct relationship with them, than you would from building an app directly from a supplier like Cog Mobile.

Conclusion

The conundrum of whether to build or buy is a distinctly unique decision for your own use case, but hopefully this guide will give you an idea of the types of questions you should ask yourself before jumping in.

In short, building a custom solution is ideal for businesses with unique needs, long-term goals and when considering it as part of your core business – whereas buying an off the shelf solution is best for startups with limited budgets, time constraints or where an off-the-shelf solution meets the needs of the organisation quickly.

Ultimately, we would suggest that if the app is going to form part of your core business then we highly suggest you consider building a custom solution. Of course, a company like us, Cog Mobile, can help with that, if and when you’re ready!

Contact

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At Cog Mobile, we specialise in building high-quality apps and websites for our partners. With over 12 years of industry experience, we cater to organisations of all sizes.