Custom Software or Off-the-Shelf SaaS? What We Tell Clients in Kathmandu, Nepal

A recurring conversation with businesses in Kathmandu, Nepal starts with a request to 'build us a system' for something that an existing SaaS tool already does well, whether that is accounting, CRM, or basic project management.

Off-the-shelf SaaS makes sense when your workflow is fairly standard and the tool's built-in features cover most of what you need; you get lower upfront cost, faster setup, and ongoing maintenance handled by someone else. The tradeoff is less control and monthly costs that scale with usage or team size.

Custom software earns its cost when your process is genuinely specific to your business, when integration between multiple existing systems matters more than any single tool offers, or when a SaaS product's pricing at your scale ends up more expensive over several years than building and owning the software outright. Our honest advice is to try the SaaS option first where possible; building custom is easier to justify once you can point to exactly where an off-the-shelf tool falls short.