Buy a CRM when your sales process is close to standard, and the product that is hardest for a build to beat on five-year cost is Zoho CRM, whose Enterprise edition carries a low per-user price. Build a custom CRM, which ranks second here, when your quoting and approval rules are specific enough that you would pay consultants to bend a product toward them year after year.
The ranking, entry by entry
1 Zoho CRM
Best for standard sales processes where seat cost decides the question
On a build or buy list the first question is what the product costs per seat over five years, and Zoho CRM makes the case for buying on price. The Enterprise edition is billed per user at a low price and lists a developer sandbox, an approval process and field-level encryption. If your sales process is ordinary, a build will not pay for itself against that. It ranks first because it is the lowest-cost full edition on this list.
Watch for. The pricing page shows no storage or workflow rule caps. Confirm both with Zoho before you treat the seat price as the whole cost.
- How it charges
- Per user, by edition, with a free edition for 3 users
- Main limit
- Free is capped at 3 users and 5,000 API calls a day. Sandbox is Enterprise.
2 Custom build by Black Badger
Best for sales processes that products fit only through consultants
We build custom CRMs and we publish this guide, which you should factor in. Building ranks second because the CRM decision usually depends on fit more than on seat price. When your stages, quoting math and approval chain are your own, the full cost of buying is the license plus the people who keep reshaping the product. A CRM built by Black Badger carries no per-seat fee, you own the code, and it is written so another developer can maintain it.
Watch for. If your process changes every quarter it is too early to build. Configure a product first, and build once the process has settled enough to write down.
- How it charges
- One-time build scoped in writing, then running costs such as hosting
- Main limit
- Needs a scoping call first, and suits companies of 50 or more employees
What a custom build involves, and how to ask about one
3 Salesforce Sales Cloud
Best for companies that will buy and staff a full admin function
Salesforce ranks third here, lower than it would on a general CRM list, because this page weighs cost and upkeep. It suits a company that wants a heavily configurable CRM and has admin staff or a partner to run it, which answers the question of who maintains it. The five-year seat cost is the highest on this list. Core and Advanced are billed per user, annually, and Advanced costs more than Core, with tools such as Revenue Intelligence priced as add-ons.
Watch for. Heavy configuration of Salesforce is a build inside a rented product. Price the admin or partner time for five years as well as the seats.
- How it charges
- Per user, by edition, with paid add-ons
- Main limit
- Pro Suite caps flows at 5 per org. Core and above bring Flex Credits.
4 Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales
Best for microsoft companies that would otherwise build on Power Apps
Dynamics 365 Sales ranks fourth. For a Microsoft company it changes the build or buy math, because the product and the build platform come from the same vendor. Sales Enterprise is billed per user, paid yearly, and lists advanced customization and custom apps. The page also says custom apps require Power Apps and additional licenses, so shaping it to your process adds a second fee on top of the first.
Watch for. Microsoft describes Sales Professional as limited in customization and automation. If fit is why you are buying, price Sales Enterprise.
- How it charges
- Per user, paid yearly, by edition
- Main limit
- Professional is limited in customization. Custom apps need Power Apps licenses.
5 Creatio CRM
Best for teams that want to build their process inside a product
Creatio ranks fifth and is the middle answer to the question on this page. You buy a low-code platform, add the Sales app for a separate per-user fee and model your own processes on it. That gives you much of the fit of a build while a vendor maintains the platform. You still pay per user for the platform plan, and the processes you design exist only inside Creatio.
Watch for. New customers face a minimum yearly purchase on a standard 3-year term, so this is not a route to try lightly.
- How it charges
- Per user for the platform, plus a per-user fee for each CRM app
- Main limit
- New customers have a minimum yearly purchase on a standard 3-year term.
6 HubSpot Sales Hub
Best for companies that put ease of use ahead of fit
HubSpot ranks sixth on this list. It answers the maintenance question well for a team that wants sales, marketing and service on one platform without a specialist behind every change. It answers the fit question less well. Workflows and custom reports are capped by plan, at 300 and 100 on Professional and 1,000 and 500 on Enterprise, so a company with an unusual process will reach those limits. Pricing is per seat, by plan.
Watch for. Professional and Enterprise add a required one-time onboarding fee, higher on Enterprise, and AI features draw on credits that reset monthly.
- How it charges
- Per seat, by plan, plus a one-time onboarding fee on higher plans
- Main limit
- Starter has no sequences or custom reports. Onboarding fee on Professional.
7 SugarCRM (Sugar Sell)
Best for sales teams that want guided selling without building it
SugarCRM ranks seventh. It is a reasonable buy for a mid-size sales team that wants guided selling and forecasting from a vendor that focuses on that. On a build or buy view it ranks last because it neither wins on seat cost nor offers unusual room to shape. Forecasting starts at the Advanced+ package, billed per user and annually, and Sugar Predict is in packages with no published price.
Watch for. The vendor now sells under the SugarAI name. Confirm which package and product name your contract will carry.
- How it charges
- Per user, billed annually, with quoted Precision packages
- Main limit
- Forecasting and mail and calendar sync start at Advanced+, not Standard+.
Questions buyers ask
When is building a CRM the wrong decision?
Building a CRM is the wrong decision when your sales process looks like most sales processes. Leads, deals, stages, a forecast and some reports are standard, and several products provide them for a modest fee per seat. Building those again spends money on what a subscription already provides.
How do I compare five years of CRM licenses with a build?
To compare five years of CRM licenses with a build, multiply the per-user price of the edition you need by your seats and by sixty months. Then add onboarding fees, add-ons and what you pay admins or consultants for changes. Set that beside a written scope for a build plus its running costs. Compare the totals for the whole period and not the first-year figures.
Who maintains a custom CRM after it is built?
A custom CRM is maintained by whoever you choose. Black Badger writes the code to be read by another developer and sets up every account in your name, so you can keep us, hire someone or bring it in-house. With a product, the vendor maintains the platform and you maintain the configuration.
Is a low-code CRM platform a fair compromise between building and buying?
A low-code CRM platform is often a fair compromise. A platform such as Creatio lets your own people design processes without owning code. You keep paying per user and you work inside its limits, so it is closer to buying than to building.