Custom Vs Off-the-shelf Software: Which One To Choose

By Author: Nazar Kvartalnyi
Total Articles: 25
Comment this article

Let’s imagine you are a small, medium, or even a large business. And, there’s a need to optimize and automate your business processes. This is a specific need that can be met with the help of software development. But, you have a choice. Pick either off-the-shelf or custom software to meet your business goal. Which one would be better in your case? And what’s the difference between off-the-shelf and custom software? If you can’t tell right away, then this article is just for you! Get to know which applications are the best match to meet your business requirements.

What’s the difference between custom-written vs off-the-shelf software?

Here’s some information on the custom software vs off-the-shelf software difference. Let’s explore!

Custom software

Custom software is the type of software designed to meet a customer’s specific business need. This means the challenges this software has to solve are dedicated to a business-related purpose. The team will gather requirements, write documentation, and offer an app, which will encompass every issue you’d like to have settled. And, even ...
... more, software engineering experts will offer at least several ways you can make things work. In the end, the application will be a perfect solution that will fulfill your major and minor needs. This will make your business grow and scale.

There are two most common custom software examples:

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platform
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system

These have unique features and functions, the implementation of which focuses on a specific group of people and their needs.

But even though custom software development is time-consuming and will require more costs, it is, by all means, what you should invest your time and money in. This is a solution that will be 100% business-related and will strike every potential need with a great solution. Here, you risk nothing at all. And, even if you will still need extra support from the provider, that’s also great. You won’t have to worry about app crashes and malfunctions. Your provider will have it covered for you.

Off-the-shelf software

Off-the-shelf software is packaged software that can meet your business needs only to a certain extent. For example, you still can customize and automate your business processes, but only partially and not the way you’d probably want to. It’s cheaper, faster to buy or subscribe to and integrate your business with. Also, it requires less support as you mostly handle it on your own.

Some of the examples of off-the-shelf software are email suits, games, anti-viruses, editing software. These have ownership, are easily accessible, simple to install and use.

So, an off-the-shelf solution requires days to be adjusted to, cannot be modified even if your business expands. And, if might be incompatible with your operating system or with the other business software. This solution belongs to mass production, and, this way, anyone can have it and make use of it. There’s nothing innovative about it.

Major differences between off-the-shelf and custom-written software

To continue reading the full article,please visit my blog.

NAZAR KVARTALNYI has a Master’s Degree in Computer Science and Mathematics. Microsoft certified professional and .Net specialist with experience in project management and mentorship. Since 2015 co-founder and COO at Inoxoft.