The short answer
A custom CRM ranges, in 2026, from a tight MVP at €1,500 to a complete first version of €8,000 to €25,000, then €30,000 to €100,000-plus to fully replace an off-the-shelf CRM with migration, integrations and training. Annual maintenance then adds 15-20% of the build cost. But the real comparison is not about the entry price: for a team of 50 people, staying on a high-end Salesforce or HubSpot means €270,000 to €300,000 in licenses over three years, whereas a custom CRM, once built, no longer bills per user. Every figure in this article is in euros excluding tax (HT), and the off-the-shelf prices were verified on July 23, 2026 on the vendors' official pages.
Key takeaways:
- A custom CRM ranges from a tight MVP (from €1,500) to a complete first version (€8,000 to €25,000 HT), up to €100,000-plus for a full replacement, per cross-checked French sources (Tellao, Codeur, in French).
- Off-the-shelf CRM prices: from €14 (Pipedrive, Zoho) to €165 (Salesforce Enterprise) per user per month, HT, on annual billing, per their official pages.
- License cost over 3 years for 50 users: about €297,000 on Salesforce Enterprise (€165 x 50 x 36), before any setup or integration.
- A freelance developer charges a median day rate of €530 to €575 HT, roughly half an agency's: that is what pulls a custom project toward the lower end of the range.
- Below about ten users, or on a standard process, a well-configured off-the-shelf CRM is almost always the better choice.
What does a custom CRM cost, line by line?
The price of a custom CRM breaks down into three blocks: initial development, migrating what already exists, then maintenance. On development, the ranges diverge mostly according to who is quoting, and that spread deserves to be stated plainly. An agency that sells custom builds, such as Tellao, prices a first scope at €1,500 to €5,000 and an intermediate project at €5,000 to €30,000. A market CRM vendor, who has an interest in making custom look expensive, quotes more like €25,000 to €40,000 for the same thing. The reality of a project run by an independent developer sits in between: a tight MVP can start around €1,500, and budget roughly €8,000 to €25,000 HT for a complete first version.
Data migration weighs more than people expect. Moving records from an old CRM, de-duplicating, cleaning fields and rebuilding access rights is often a project in its own right, especially when the history is old or scattered across several tools. This item, together with integrations to billing, support or telephony, is what pushes a replacement project toward €30,000 to €100,000 and beyond for a wide scope.
Maintenance, finally, is recurring: French sources converge around 15-20% of the build cost per year, a ratio confirmed by the independent consultancy Cartelis. It covers fixes, changes and hosting. A custom CRM is not a frozen deliverable; it lives with your business, and that running cost belongs in the budget from day one.
And an off-the-shelf CRM, what does it cost?
An online CRM is billed per user per month. Here are the public prices recorded on July 23, 2026 from the official pages of the four most common tools, excluding tax and on annual billing (month-to-month billing runs 10-42% higher depending on the vendor).
| Off-the-shelf CRM | Price per user / month (HT, annual) | Top edition |
|---|---|---|
| Zoho CRM | €14 to €52 | Ultimate, €52 |
| Pipedrive | €14 to €79 | Ultimate, €79 |
| HubSpot Sales Hub | €7 to €150 | Enterprise, €150 |
| Salesforce Sales Cloud | €25 to €165 | Enterprise, €165 (up to €330-€550 on the AI tiers) |
Two caveats matter. First, these floor prices are "starting at" rates: on HubSpot, the Professional and Enterprise tiers add mandatory onboarding fees (€1,470 and €3,420 one-off). Second, the per-seat price is misleading at scale: it looks modest for five people, it gets heavy for fifty.
Custom or off-the-shelf: when is it worth it?
The most telling calculation is the license cost over time, and it checks out on a calculator. A Salesforce Enterprise edition at €165 HT per user per month, for 50 people over 36 months, is €297,000 in licenses; a HubSpot Enterprise at €150 reaches €270,000 on the same basis. These amounts cover subscriptions only, before setup and integration, which often add €20,000 to €80,000 according to Cartelis. A custom CRM, by contrast, is paid once then maintained, with no per-user billing.
| Over 3 years, team of 50 | Off-the-shelf CRM (high end) | Custom CRM |
|---|---|---|
| Licenses or development | Salesforce Enterprise: ~€297,000 (€165 x 50 x 36) | €30,000 to €100,000 (one-off) |
| Maintenance and hosting | included in the subscription | ~15-20%/year of the build |
| Order of magnitude, 3 years | €270,000 to €300,000 (licenses only) | €60,000 to €150,000 |
The break-even point therefore depends mostly on team size: the bigger it grows, the more the absence of per-seat licensing widens the gap in favour of custom. But cost is not the only judge, and sometimes the right answer stays "keep your tool". Three cases where the off-the-shelf CRM wins: your process fits a generic tool's boxes without constant workarounds; your team is small and will stay small; your budget would be better spent elsewhere, for instance on solid automations around the CRM you already have. Custom software is only truly justified when the workarounds pile up: processes impossible to model, a missing channel, sensitive data, per-seat licenses that swell with the team.
What a custom CRM costs with me
My principle is to start with the cheapest option that actually solves the problem. A short, scoped intervention, the Sprint, starts from €400: it is often the right entry point to fix an off-the-shelf CRM, connect two tools or test a scope before investing. A first custom CRM, as a tight MVP focused on the most critical pathway, starts at €1,500. A fully custom CRM is set by quote, depending on the channels, the processes and the demands on data. The quote is fixed after the scoping call. My day rate starts at €450 depending on needs, below an agency that bills more like €500 to €700 a day per the Malt 2026 barometer: a custom project therefore lands at the lower end of the market ranges, not the top. In every case, you own the code and its documentation, and you can bring maintenance in-house whenever you want.
The best public example is the CRM built for the French nonprofit e-Enfance / 3018, which runs the national helpline against digital violence toward young people. We first improved their off-the-shelf CRM, without dogma. Replacement was only proposed once the settings were exhausted, in the face of structural limits: no multichannel handling, listening pathways impossible to model, highly sensitive data. The result is a sovereign CRM, multichannel and real-time, hosted where the nonprofit decided. That is exactly the kind of situation where custom pays for itself and is justified; it is not the majority of cases.
If your need looks more like "my Pipedrive is slow and nobody opens it" than "my business fits no tool", I will tell you, and we will go for a fix rather than a build. The 30-minute scoping call exists precisely to settle that, with numbers, before any commitment.
Frequently asked questions
What is the minimum budget for a custom CRM?
For a genuine custom CRM, a tight MVP starts at €1,500, and a complete first version sits closer to €8,000 to €25,000 HT per cross-checked French sources (Tellao, Codeur). Below that, you are talking about a simple fix or an automation around an existing CRM: that kind of scoped intervention starts at €400 with the Sprint. The budget for a complete CRM that replaces an off-the-shelf tool is set by quote, after a 30-minute scoping call.
Is a custom CRM cheaper than a subscription?
Over time and above a certain size, yes. For 50 users over 3 years, the licenses alone of a high-end Salesforce or HubSpot reach €270,000 to €300,000 HT, before setup, whereas a custom CRM sits closer to €60,000 to €150,000 including build and maintenance. The gap widens with every new user, given the absence of per-seat licensing. For a small team on a standard process, the market subscription remains the more economical choice.
How long does it take to build a custom CRM?
A prototype or first version ships in a few weeks, a complete CRM with integrations in two to four months, and a full replacement with data migration in several months. The right method is to ship a working product on the most critical pathway first, put it in the team's hands, then iterate. The exact timeline is set during scoping, depending on scope.
Do I need to add a maintenance cost every year?
Yes, and it should be planned from the start. Annual maintenance for a custom CRM represents 15-20% of the build cost, a ratio confirmed by several French sources. It covers fixes, changes and hosting. Because you own the code, you can also bring this maintenance in-house or hand it to another team at any time.
The real price of a CRM is not read off a rate card, but in the gap between what it costs you and what it saves you in avoided data entry, reliable data and a team that actually opens it. The only way to get an accurate figure for your situation is to lay your process out flat. Book a 30-minute scoping call: I will tell you, with arguments and ranges, whether you need a custom CRM or whether a well-configured off-the-shelf tool is enough. Offer details on Custom CRM.