Developing software with focused business needs and requirements while aiming for increased client satisfaction is the prime goal of custom software development. There are plenty of ready-made softwares or as they call “Commercial-off-the-shelf software” (COTS) to resolve the problem. However, custom software development can address the issue in depth, and the solution can be imbibed right in the planning and designing phase of the software.
The above graph shows the custom software development scenario in the U.S. market. The graph indicates a future growth of 19.4% CAGR by 2030, which is a significant growth.
Custom software development is an evolving process that improves with customer and business requirements. Undoubtedly no-code, low-code requires less time, less cost, and expertise since it involves no prior programming language experience. Though it reduces the cost, time, and skills required, it has some loopholes.
In contrast, custom software development offers to build software from scratch. It involves the client’s needs, extensive functionalities, and other features to solve customer problems and stand out in the market.
Table of Contents
What is Custom Software Development
Software developed and tailored according to any business requirements help them gain revenues and resolve challenges for any business problem. The process of developing a software with particular business needs is custom software development.
For instance, iff you are a growing e-commerce business and want to improve the CRM, then custom software development can help design custom software to promote your business with enhanced CRM better.
How Custom Innovations Propel Businesses to Competitive Edge?
Businesses today understand the need for unique solutions because personalized solutions yield solve problems specific to an organization. Every customer faces a different problem, and only one solution can not suffice for different problems.
Unique and tailored solutions keep you ahead of the crowd. Personalized answers to customer issues give them a sense of belief and endow trust in the brand making it more competitive.
Benefits of Custom Software Development
There are multiple benefits of custom software development. Let us understand the benefits through an example of a swiftly growing e-commerce business facing customer interaction challenges. To improve business interaction, they are on a search to switch to custom software development.
Customization – Building the software from scratch will give the liberty to customize it according to the needs. The custom service interaction panel will help the business resolve the issues while interacting with the customers.
Flexibility – Custom software development process is agile. The flexible process enables the client and the developer to add any feature the client wants at any stage of the software quickly.
Scalability -An already growing business needs software that can expand rapidly. It becomes effortless to scale while using a custom software development process.
Security – A big loophole in no-code and low-code is they come prepackaged with security measures, and the client can not alter them. In custom software development, the developer writes the source code from scratch. Financial frauds are the most common security vulnerability a growing e-commerce business faces. Information like customer details and PII are at risk, and these can be safeguarded by implementing strong security measures in the source code itself.
Complete Control – Writing a source code gives the developer complete control over the functionalities incorporated in custom software development. E-commerce businesses or clients can get it tailored to their specific business needs.
The Custom Software Development Process
The said process involves five crucial steps:
Requirement Gathering and Analysis
It is the “What” phase for the client and customer. This phase requires information gathering from the customer end. All the features and functions are decided when the client and the developer have a clear picture of the client’s vision and goals for the software. Then comes analyzing the information to process and work on the details of the software to initiate the next phase of planning and design.
Once the “what” and “Why” are answered, the “how” is focused.
Planning and Design
Now comes the “How” phase of the project. How to plan and design the project? It generally includes wireframes, designing, tech architecture, database designing, and other requirements.
Development and Implementation
This is the core part where the actual software development process starts by developing the source code. The next step in this phase involves implementing the source code, rectifying the results, and reimplementing the code to check for bugs.
Deployment and Testing
The phase just before the “to be released” part is deployment and testing. IT involves deploying and testing the source code repetitively to ensure it is bug-free. A Quality Assurance (QA) check is also done in this phase to test what issues could occur at the user end.
Maintenance and Updates
Once the product is launched, it requires maintenance and updates to keep it in the game. Post-launch support and updates help upgrade the software.
How Much Does Custom Software Development Cost
The cost of a custom software development project depends on various factors:
Type of project – A healthcare app needs different functionalities than a hospitality app. A food-based app has different requirements than a social media app. So the cost depends on the features and functions included.
Complexity level – Simpler projects are relatively low as they include simple functions. But as the complexity levels increase, the functions included become more complex, and the cost increases proportionately.
Technology stack – The programming language, tools, frameworks, or functions used also affect the cost. As some components require excellent skills and expertise from the developers, experts are hired for such projects.
Development team – Cost is heavily influenced by the number of developers included in the team to complete a project. A development team with more experienced developers costs higher than a team having moderately experienced developers.
Timeline – Usually, the cost is given in a range, but it is calculated by multiplying the developer’s cost per hour and others. All these parameters combine to give the final cost of the project. The general range starts from $ 25-30 USD per hour.
Location – The various places have different pay scales, reflected in the project’s cost. Generally, the United States, the UK, and Eastern Europe have higher pay scales than Asia and Southeast Asia.
Conclusion
With rising numbers, custom software development is undoubtedly making its mark in the software development market. Its custom feature enables it to resolve client problems and offer unique solutions to gain better revenues and achieve landmarks.
Compared with no-cost and low-cost development, it offers better source code control to produce better quality and flexibility. Hence, it offers scalability to businesses to grow and multiply.
Good research never hurts anyone. Understand more about the pros and cons of no-code, low-code, and custom development in a comparative manner to better comprehend the appropriate fit for your project. Moon Technolabs offer seamless custom software development solutions that are a right fit for your specific organization. Hire developers to skyrocket your operations and brand visibility.
