Custom software vs SaaS
Date Published
SaaS is a lease. Custom software is a system you can change.
What you are actually buying
SaaS sells a shared product plus their roadmap. You move faster on day one and slower when your case is not on that roadmap.
Where SaaS fits
Use it for problems many companies share and where you can accept their model of the world.
Where it binds
Exports, seat prices, and missing fields become the architecture. Integrations pile up to paper over the gaps.
Custom is not all or nothing
Keep SaaS at the edges. Build the system that holds your data and rules. Integrate out, do not invert that.
Decide with a constraint, not a preference
Write down the rule you cannot violate. If SaaS cannot store or enforce it, you are already building — just in spreadsheets.