Benefits of Custom Software Design and Development

It is hard to imagine a modern business without custom software design.

Most modern companies, starting with small startups, and ending with global giants from different industries have used a custom software development approach. Apart from developing standalone applications, or web-based platforms, custom-developed software also helps to:

• Develop unique custom features
• Custom design brand identity
• Automate different processes
• Provide businesses with advanced custom functionality and tools

The preceding is just a basic feature list, common for any custom software application, third-party SaaS, and other ready-made software solutions. Hence, you may ask yourself: “What are the benefits of custom software development, if they share the most essential functionality?”

To answer this question, we must learn more about software development, particularly custom software design and development.

Custom Software Development Process Explained

Custom software development as a general conception suggests the process of designing IT infrastructure for future software products and developing it on the code level, using app developers for hire.

It is possible to define a few most common types of custom software development:

• Frontend development. It aims at developing user interfaces(UI), designing, developing, and optimizing all aspects of the user side and user experience(UX). To make it simple, front-end development is about creating user-friendly interfaces for using the app.
• Backend development. Its main purpose is to create internal linkage of the application on the server side so that the software “knows” what to do and how to respond to user interactions and requests from the front end.
• Full-stack development. It is a combination of both front- and back-end development, used for building full-fledged applications.

Apart from these types, we can also name mobile app development, APIs, Data Science, and many others. Yet, Front-end, back-end, and full-stack are the most basic and general conceptions, common for almost any other example of custom software development.

Each of them has its specifics and suitable technologies.

Types of Custom Software Design and Development

Apart from the previously mentioned types of custom software development like front-end and back-end white-label software development, it is also important to distinguish other custom software design approaches.

Each custom software design and development project is unique and has software requirement specifications. To simplify it, each custom software application development requires planning and estimation. Mostly, these custom software projects are developed from scratch.

So, apart from ensuring that custom software is designed to meet the unique needs of an organization or business, you will also have to define the technologies to develop, the scale of work, hire a dedicated software development team, etc. Usually, business companies have only the idea or concept for future custom development. The rest is defined and chosen during the discovery phase of the project.

For example, each category or industry has its approach, requirements, and must-haves. So, in addition to types of custom software development, IT outsourcing vendors commonly divide and categorize them into:

• Industry-specific custom development, tailored to the needs and basics of the industry market: eCommerce apps should have payment gateways, FinTech - ID, user profile, login options, etc.
• Custom management software needs must-have features for planning, management, task tracking, and other similar functionalities.
• Technology-based custom development is created around a certain tech stack and programming languages, or other technology-specific aspects.
• Custom-developed software for certain platforms like iOS and Android, macOS, Windows, web browsers, etc.

Each of the foregoing creates extra complexity and gives many custom development options to choose from. Thus, it is also important to consider all the specifics of custom software design and development during the project's discovery phase.

Benefits of Custom Software Development Approach

One of the most obvious advantages of custom software development is that it results in software, designed to meet the unique needs of an organization or business. This is a short answer.

Yet, this general idea also has numerous less obvious or common benefits. So, let’s briefly discuss them.

Unique Custom Development Solutions

Custom software design and development is the only way to create a new, creative, and unique software product.

If you have an idea, that has the potential to change the industry, or even the world, you can’t embody it, using ready-made SaaS solutions.

Thus, the first benefit of custom development - is to create a distinctive and unique product. Each modern tech giant started with custom software application development: starting with Facebook or Apple and ending with Google, Microsoft, or IBM. Each of these companies become so powerful thanks to:

• New ideas
• Courage to take the risk
• Custom design and development

Choosing custom software product development is a challenging task. However, such an approach to software development gives you the freedom to choose and act. In terms of custom development, you can use any custom development tools and methods, implement and test the ideas, and experiment as much as you want.

This possibility is impossible in terms of using SaaS solutions or other third-party applications and software.

Customized Software Development and Cost Efficiency

But what if you don’t need a unique and revolutionizing idea, but a simple and common project management tool for the construction industry?

Custom development can offer another solution - cost efficiency. Each Management SaaS software, proposed by Monday.com, ClickUp, or similar applications has its terms. Most SaaS solutions have two main monetization types:

• package upgrade, that proposes advanced features and systems for a higher price,
• payment for an employee, who will have access to the chosen system.

Moreover, these solutions are subscription-based. In other words, your organization will have to pay monthly or once a year for the subscription. So, in the long term, or if you scale fast, the service price will also increase.

Judging from our experience, ready-made SaaS of any type is not as expensive in short-term agreements, and even are the only hope for many small businesses, that can’t afford custom application development from scratch. Yet, the longer you use such software services - the easier it will be to notice the expenses.

Nevertheless, even the smallest companies nowadays can choose custom development to meet their needs. For instance, some management systems can be developed in Spreadsheets as templates.

So, custom development can generate not only distinctive software designed to meet the unique needs of an organization or business but also produce a more common and general management tool, which will be more cost-efficient, than a SaaS.

Flexibility of Custom Software Design and Development

Another important benefit of custom software development is that it is more flexible and can be changed on demand.

To simplify it, as a business owner, you will have full control over custom software applications, designed on demand.

Therefore, if you will need to scale it, or to integrate new features and functionality, you can do it as soon as possible. In fact, you can make any rearrangements within the custom application, if you want.

At the same time, various ready-made SaaS solutions are not as flexible. So, if the new feature or process appears and you need it - you will have to wait at least, at most - to wait and pay extra money for advanced functionality.

Not to mention that third parties won’t change UI/UX patterns and elements on your demand, while a dedicated development team will do it on demand during custom development.

All of those mentioned above seem just pleasant yet small benefits. However, take into account the importance of being capable of adjusting the app to your needs.

For instance, we were using several SaaS solutions in the past and faced a crucial pitfall: many types of data were not supported or satisfying enough for us. As a result, it impacted the performance and clarity of many undergoing processes and departments. To deal with it, we chose custom software design and development of a project management system for our needs.

Custom Software Design and Development for MVP

Finally, one of the major benefits of custom software development - is MVP development.

Custom MVP Explained

Minimum viable products are, by nature, custom software development. To cut a long story short, MVP software products are applications, which offer only the most crucial features and functionality. It is a popular type of custom development, that allows you to create a software app from scratch when you are limited in time and resources.

As a result, by hiring a dedicated software development team, business owners can get the software, designed to meet the unique needs of an organization or business, fastly and cheaply.

So, businesses will have a basic app, that proposes the most crucial features, yet can be upscaled in the future.

MVP Custom Development vs SaaS Software

So, one of the major advantages of MVP custom development over software-as-a-service solutions is that you will pay only for the features, you need.

MVP custom development requires SRS and clarification of what you want from your hired dedicated development team. Alternatively, SaaS software offers you various packages to choose from so you can adapt your needs to the software. Feel the difference?

In terms of custom software application development, it is adjusted following your needs, while in the second option, you are the one, who has to change to meet the offer from the SaaS company. This is the true price of choosing software-as-a-service, instead of software development-as-a-service.

Custom Software Design and Development with Incora

Frankly, we haven’t mentioned all the benefits of custom software development. Nor did we mention the drawbacks of custom development, which are:

• Development time. Custom software product development takes much more time, compared to integrating a ready-made solution.
• High price and investment requirements. Once again, in terms of short or even mid-term projects, custom development is too expensive. It is easier and smarter to choose a SaaS instead. Nevertheless, from a long-term perspective, you should count all the pros and cons of custom software development.

One of the major challenges of custom software design and development is to find an experienced dedicated software development team. The easiest way to do so - is to choose IT outsourcing and white-label software development from IT vendors like Incora.

Such approaches cover a few custom development pitfalls at once:

• it is faster to find outsourced developers than to gather in-house app developers for hire.
• it is cheaper to work with outsourced app developers for hire from Ukraine.
• it is simple to find an outsourced dedicated development team of niche-experienced developers.

For more details, you can contact us, and we will gladly discuss your ideas for custom software application development, or offer possible solutions and how to do it right.