We use Jobber. At what point does replacing it make sense?

Not while it fits, and for most field-service businesses it does. The point to look again is when your team maintains something alongside it to cover what it will not do, and that something has become load-bearing. Even then the answer is often to keep it and build the missing piece next to it rather than replace it.

Is custom software more expensive than a subscription?

Up front, almost always. The comparison that decides it is the subscription plus the staff time spent working around it, over the years you would keep both. If your workaround costs an hour a week, a platform is probably the right call and we will say so.

What about no-code tools like Airtable or Monday?

They are a good middle step and we have built on them. They stop being the right answer when the logic inside them gets complex enough that only one person understands it, or when the automations become numerous enough that nobody can say which still fire. That is a common way businesses arrive here.

Can we start with a platform and build later?

Yes, and it is often the sensible order. Starting on a platform teaches you what you actually need, which makes the eventual build cheaper and better specified. The main cost of waiting is the data, so it is worth checking now that you can export yours.

Tillr Systems ← Back to Site

Outgrowing off-the-shelf

Custom software or an off-the-shelf platform: how to tell which you need.

Most businesses should buy the platform. This page is about the smaller number who should not, and how to work out which one you are before spending anything.

Two questions decide it, and neither is about budget:

Is the way you work an advantage, or just a habit? An advantage is worth building around; a habit is worth changing
Are you paying for a platform and still paying people to work around it? That is the expensive middle
If neither applies, buy the platform. It will be cheaper and live sooner

We will tell you which of these you are on the call, including when the answer is buy.

You'll recognise this if

You subscribe to a platform and maintain a spreadsheet that fills its gaps
You have evaluated four products and each one covers a different two thirds
A vendor's roadmap has become part of your planning
Your per-seat cost has grown past what the software does for you
Onboarding a new person involves teaching them the exceptions
The thing customers compliment you on is the thing no product supports

How we'd approach it

1
We price the workaround before discussing a build
Hours per week, multiplied by who does them. Most businesses have never added it up, and the number decides the conversation. Sometimes it is small and the honest answer is to keep the platform and stop worrying about it.
2
We separate the advantage from the habit
Some of how you work is genuinely better than your competitors, and some is just how it has always been done. Building around a habit is expensive and gains you nothing. Building around an advantage is the whole reason to do this.
3
We look at what you keep either way
Almost nobody should replace everything. Accounting, calendar and phone usually stay. What gets built is the piece in the middle that no vendor covers, connected to the rest.

What changes

Paying for a platform and paying staff to work around it
Paying for the platforms that fit and owning the piece that did not
Waiting on a vendor roadmap
Changes happen when you decide they happen
Four products that each do two thirds
One path through the work, connected to the tools you kept
Your advantage is unsupported and undocumented
Your advantage is what the system is built to protect

We've done this before

Service marketplace operations

147 tangled automations, untangled

A team's business logic had ended up in 147 undocumented automations across 6 legacy databases, which is what the workaround layer looks like after a few years of growth. We audited every one, rebuilt the 22 that mattered on monitored infrastructure, and found 8 that had stopped working with no error and no alarm.

Read the case study

Common questions

We use Jobber. At what point does replacing it make sense?: Not while it fits, and for most field-service businesses it does. The point to look again is when your team maintains something alongside it to cover what it will not do, and that something has become load-bearing. Even then the answer is often to keep it and build the missing piece next to it rather than replace it.
Is custom software more expensive than a subscription?: Up front, almost always. The comparison that decides it is the subscription plus the staff time spent working around it, over the years you would keep both. If your workaround costs an hour a week, a platform is probably the right call and we will say so.
What about no-code tools like Airtable or Monday?: They are a good middle step and we have built on them. They stop being the right answer when the logic inside them gets complex enough that only one person understands it, or when the automations become numerous enough that nobody can say which still fire. That is a common way businesses arrive here.
Can we start with a platform and build later?: Yes, and it is often the sensible order. Starting on a platform teaches you what you actually need, which makes the eventual build cheaper and better specified. The main cost of waiting is the data, so it is worth checking now that you can export yours.

This is one way into the custom business software we build. Most projects start with whichever piece is costing the most and grow into the others, so it is worth seeing the whole picture before deciding where to begin.

Other places people start

Different ways into the same system. Most projects begin with whichever of these is costing the most right now.

Start with thirty minutes.

Tell us what's slowing you down and we'll tell you what we'd build. How much scoping it needs before a quote depends on the job, and we'll be straight with you about that.

Or see how pricing works →