Bespoke CRM development,
built around your process.
A custom CRM for UK companies whose sales, service or partner process does not fit Salesforce, HubSpot or Dynamics: designed with your team, integrated with the systems you already run, and owned by you. Free working prototype in 5–10 days.
A CRM that fits,
rather than one you fit.
Most companies should buy a CRM. A bespoke CRM makes sense when your sales or service process is what sets you apart, when your data has to live in a particular place, or when a licensed platform would need so much customisation that you would be building one anyway. Magora designs and builds custom CRMs for UK companies from its London office.
Free working prototype
A coded prototype of your core CRM workflow in 5–10 working days, before any paid work.
First release in 6–8 weeks
After a two-week Discovery from £3,000, one team works in the new CRM within 6–8 weeks.
Your CRM, your data
No per-seat licence. Code in your repository, data in hosting you control, IP transferred on payment.
CRM software,
end to end.
Every CRM is different, but most combine some of these. We start from the process that hurts most and add the rest in phases.
Sales pipeline & deals
Leads, deals and stages that match how your team actually sells, with tasks, reminders and forecasts managers trust.
One customer view
Every contact, order, ticket and conversation in one record — across offices, channels and brands.
Field sales apps
Mobile and tablet apps for reps on the road: visit plans, assortment, orders and targets, working offline.
Service & support
Cases, SLAs and service history alongside the sales record, so nobody calls a customer blind.
Partner & dealer CRM
Portals where distributors, dealers or agents register leads and see their own pipeline. See customer portals.
Integrations & reporting
Accounting, e-commerce, telephony and marketing tools connected, with dashboards built on your own numbers.
What a custom CRM
usually includes.
The core every CRM needs, plus the parts that make it yours. Discovery decides which belong in the first release and which can wait.
Contacts, companies & deals
Records, relationships, stages and owners, with duplicate detection and a full history of every change.
Tasks, reminders & activity
Calls, emails and meetings logged against the record, with reminders so follow-ups do not slip.
Roles & permissions
Who sees which customers, regions or brands — and an audit trail of who changed what.
Your own stages and rules
Approval steps, pricing rules, territories and hand-offs exactly as your business runs them.
Reports on your numbers
Dashboards for pipeline, conversion and service levels, built on the metrics your board actually asks for.
Connected to everything
Accounting, shop, telephony, email and marketing tools synced through APIs, so nobody types data twice.
Custom CRM vs
Salesforce vs HubSpot.
Short answer: choose Salesforce or HubSpot if your sales process is close to a standard pipeline and you want to be live quickly. Choose a custom-built CRM if the process is your competitive advantage, if you need many integrations, or if licence cost would grow with every hire. The table compares the three on the points buyers ask about most. Updated: 13 October 2026.
| Custom CRM (Magora) | Salesforce (Sales Cloud) | HubSpot (Sales Hub, Smart CRM) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Licence model | No licence fee and no per-user charge. You pay to build it, then for hosting and, if you want it, ongoing support. | Per user per month. UK list prices: Starter Suite £20, Pro Suite £80, Core £156, Advanced £316, Max £440. Core and above are billed annually. | Per seat per month. A free CRM tier exists. Sales Hub list prices are in US dollars: Starter from $20, Professional from $100, Enterprise from $150 per seat. |
| Typical cost structure | Discovery from £3,000, a first release from £10,000, a full multi-team CRM £40,000–£120,000. Running it: hosting plus optional support from £1,000 a month. | Licences grow with headcount. Add-ons are priced separately (for example Agentforce for Sales from £100 per user per month). Premier Support is 30% of net licence fees. | Seats grow with headcount. Professional needs a one-off onboarding fee of $1,500 and Enterprise $3,500. Add-ons and extra products are priced separately. |
| Example: 40 users, one year of licences | No per-seat charge. Cost follows the scope you build, not the number of users. | Core: 40 × £156 × 12 = £74,880 a year at list price. Pro Suite: £38,400. Starter Suite: £9,600. Before add-ons, support and any discount. | Professional: 40 × $100 × 12 = $48,000 a year at list price, plus the $1,500 onboarding fee. Before add-ons and any discount. |
| Time to launch | Free working prototype in 5–10 working days, Discovery in two weeks, then a first release in about 6–8 weeks. | Fastest to start: Salesforce offers a 30-day free trial of Sales Cloud. A standard pipeline can usually be configured in days or weeks; heavier customisation takes longer. | Fastest to start: the free CRM needs no contract. A standard pipeline can usually be configured in days or weeks; Professional and Enterprise include required onboarding. |
| Customisation limits | Set by your specification, not by a vendor. Any screen, workflow, data model or rule can be built. | Highly configurable and extendable with code, but inside platform limits such as Apex governor limits, which cap what one transaction may consume. | Custom properties and custom objects are configured inside the product. HubSpot publishes numeric limits per edition, for example up to 50 association labels per object pair. |
| Data ownership and hosting | You own the code, the data and the IP. Hosting in the UK or EU, in an account you control. | Data is held in Salesforce's cloud. Salesforce lists Hyperforce regions including the UK and Germany. Confirm the region for your edition and contract. | Data is held in HubSpot's cloud on AWS. Regions listed: US, Canada, Australia and the EU (Germany). No UK region is listed as of October 2026. |
| Integrations | Built to your systems through their APIs: accounting, e-commerce, telephony, email and your own databases. See API integration. | A large ecosystem of ready-made apps and connectors, including the AgentExchange marketplace named on its pricing page. | Ready-made integrations, including a built-in sync with Salesforce, plus its own custom objects and properties for imported data. |
| Who it suits | A process that is your competitive advantage, many systems to connect, many users, or specific hosting and audit needs. | Mid-size and large sales organisations that want depth, a big ecosystem and have, or can hire, Salesforce administrators. | Small and mid-size teams that want to start quickly, keep marketing and sales in one tool and begin on a free tier. |
| When it is the wrong choice | If your pipeline is standard, your team is small, or you need to be live this month, an off-the-shelf CRM is the better choice. | A small team with a simple pipeline may pay for more platform than it uses, and per-user cost rises with every hire. | If your process needs a data model, workflow or UK hosting that the editions do not allow, or per-seat cost at your headcount outweighs the fit. |
Prices as of October 2026, list prices before discounts. Salesforce: UK pricing page, salesforce.com/uk/sales/pricing, checked 13 October 2026. HubSpot: product and services catalogue, checked 13 October 2026; HubSpot publishes Sales Hub prices in US dollars. Hosting: Salesforce Hyperforce and HubSpot data hosting, checked 13 October 2026. Platform limits: Salesforce Apex governor limits. Vendor prices and editions change; confirm with the vendor before you buy. Our own figures are from our pricing page and CRM cost guide.
Build on top of
HubSpot or Salesforce.
Replacing your CRM is not the only option. If your team is happy in HubSpot or Salesforce and the gap is one process, one report or one connection to another system, keep the CRM and extend it. We build integrations that use the CRM's own APIs. A paid integration discovery starts from £1,000.
Deals to accounting and e-commerce
Deals, invoices and orders kept in step between the CRM and your accounting or e-commerce system.
Product data into the CRM
Usage and account data from your own product, so sales and support see what customers actually do.
A customer portal next to it
A portal or internal tool alongside the CRM. Replacing the CRM makes sense when you would be building more around it than inside it.
Use our cost calculator for a quick figure, or read how a fixed price is set after Discovery. Discovery ends with a written recommendation, including “buy, don't build” when that is the right answer.
What a custom CRM
costs.
Our 2026 prices in GBP. Our rates start from £49/hour per developer, and £65–£70/hour for a full team with QA and product ownership. Across 12 real 2026 project estimates the median MVP came to about £25,000 (range £11,000–£34,000). For a quick figure, try the cost calculator.
Two weeks: your process mapped, data model, integrations, migration plan, estimate and roadmap.
One team's workflow live in 6–8 weeks, with data migrated from spreadsheets or the old tool.
Several teams or offices, integrations and reporting, delivered in phases.
Hosting, monitoring, security updates and a steady roadmap of new features.
From spreadsheets
to a CRM people use.
A CRM succeeds when the team uses it every day, so the people who will use it are in the room from the first workshop.
Discovery
2 weeksWorkshops with sales, service and finance; the process mapped as it really runs; data model, integrations and migration plan; a costed roadmap.
Prototype & UX
Within discoveryThe screens your team will use most, clicked through by real users before the build starts.
Build in sprints
6–8 weeksTwo-week sprints with a working release at the end of each, on a staging CRM your team can log in to.
Migrate & launch
Cut-overTrial imports checked by your team, then live data moved at cut-over, with training for each team.
Support & grow
OngoingNew teams, integrations and reports added on a retainer by the team that built it.
CRM and sales
software we've built.
Four systems that manage customers, cases and sales: freelancer and project management, field sales, B2B ordering and client case workflow. Each card gives the problem, what we built and how it is used.
Casual Films
- Problem
- Producers and financiers switched between separate tools to run video projects, track expenses and revenue, and work with freelancers worldwide.
- Built
- A platform built from the ground up: freelancer accounts and invoicing, availability requests, rate cards, project management and a redesigned interface.
- Outcome
- External services consolidated in one place, with a clear view of project progress and less switching between tools and manual error.
Pharm Card (EGIS)
- Problem
- Each medical rep filled in hundreds of Excel files on pharmacy visits, and management had no live view of sales and contract performance.
- Built
- A native iOS app for iPad and a web application for senior staff, with a database of pharmaceutical products, GPS pharmacy lookup and an offline mode that syncs automatically.
- Outcome
- In daily use by the client's staff, and we continue to add features as the company's needs change.
Vileda Sales Tool
- Problem
- Vileda wanted corporate buyers such as hotels and restaurants to order cleaning supplies directly, without a middleman.
- Built
- An Android tablet app and web solution where a buyer picks a room and surface from real photos, sees matching products from a catalogue of several thousand SKUs and orders through an online store.
- Outcome
- Wholesalers see buyers' needs more clearly, Vileda has an integrated web and mobile channel to its buyers, and the collaboration continues.
Grant Thornton
- Problem
- EMI scheme documents were produced by hand: slow, with no automation and no easy way to manage complex cases.
- Built
- A self-service platform that generates tailored EMI documentation from client-supplied information, with workflow, case management and notifications.
- Outcome
- Clients and the firm handle complex cases through one guided, automated process, from document creation to closeout.
Also: custom CRM for a luxury goods brand (cost and scope). All projects →
What clients
say.
Verified reviews from our Clutch profile — 75+ verified client reviews.
“They're accessible, and it doesn't feel like I'm working with a faceless team.”
“Broader than just the code itself, the team strived to understand the entire project.”
“Their flexibility and ability to move through processes quickly were impressive.”
Before you build
a custom CRM.
Six questions to answer first — we go through them with you in Discovery.
Is the process really unusual?
If your pipeline looks like everyone else's, configure a licensed CRM instead.
Who will use it daily?
Design for the people entering data, not only for the managers reading reports.
What must it connect to?
List every system that holds customer data today: accounting, shop, phones, email.
Where must the data live?
UK or EU hosting, access control and audit trails decided up front.
How will you migrate?
Clean the spreadsheets and old tools before cut-over, not after.
Who owns it afterwards?
Code, data and IP should be yours, with support from a team that knows the system.
Custom CRM
questions.
It is building a customer relationship management system around the way your business actually sells and serves customers, instead of adapting your process to a licensed platform. The CRM holds your customer records, deals, tasks and history, and connects to the systems you already use — accounting, e-commerce, telephony, email and marketing tools.
A focused first release that replaces spreadsheets for one team usually starts from £10,000 as an MVP. A full CRM that replaces a licensed platform across several teams or offices typically costs £40,000–£120,000 to build. Running it costs hosting plus, if you want ongoing development and support, a retainer from £1,000 a month. Discovery, the two-week step that produces the estimate, starts from £3,000. See our pricing, the custom CRM development cost guide and the cost calculator. Our rates start from £49/hour per developer, and £65–£70/hour for a full team with QA and product ownership.
On day one, no — a licence is cheaper to start. Over several years it can be, because licences are charged per user. At list prices a 40-person team pays about £74,880 a year for Salesforce Core (40 × £156 × 12) or about $48,000 a year for HubSpot Sales Hub Professional (40 × $100 × 12), before add-ons and discounts; prices as of October 2026. A custom CRM has no per-user fee but has a build cost and a hosting and support cost. Cost is rarely the best reason to build, though. Build when your process is a competitive advantage, when you need data held in a specific place, or when a licensed CRM would need so much customisation that you are building anyway.
If your process is close to the standard sales pipeline, a licensed CRM such as HubSpot or Salesforce is usually faster and cheaper, and we say so in Discovery. HubSpot suits small and mid-size teams that want to start quickly; Salesforce suits larger organisations that need depth and have administrators. A custom CRM suits you when the process is unusual, when many systems must feed it, or when per-user licences would grow faster than the value. See the side-by-side comparison.
Yes. If the CRM works for most of your team and the gap is one process or one connection, we build integrations through its APIs rather than replace it. A CRM can be connected to anything with an API: accounting packages such as Xero, Sage and QuickBooks, e-commerce and point-of-sale platforms, email and calendars (Microsoft 365, Google Workspace), telephony, marketing tools and your own databases. A paid integration discovery starts from £1,000. See API integration.
A free working prototype takes 5–10 working days and Discovery two weeks. A first release that one team can use every day typically takes 6–8 weeks after that; further teams, integrations and reporting follow in phases.
Yes, after Discovery. At Magora the price is fixed once the scope is written down line by line, not before. The free prototype and the two-week Discovery turn your brief into a feature list priced line by line, and you can take that output to another agency for a comparable quote. Work that keeps changing can instead be billed as a dedicated team at a day rate. See fixed-price software development.
Yes. Data migration is planned in Discovery: we map your current fields, from spreadsheets or from a Salesforce or HubSpot export, to the new data model, clean up duplicates, run a trial import your team checks, and move the live data at cut-over so nobody works in two systems for long.
You do. We sign an NDA on day one, the code lives in your repository as it is written, and source code, designs and IP transfer to you on payment. The data sits in hosting you control in the UK or EU, with access control and audit trails agreed up front, which makes UK GDPR obligations such as access, retention and deletion easier to meet. Your own data protection adviser signs off the compliance position for your business.
Ongoing support and development is a monthly retainer from £1,000. It covers hosting, monitoring, security updates and a steady roadmap of new features. You can also take the system in-house, because the code is yours.
Yes, where it saves time: call and email summaries, suggested next steps, lead scoring from your own history, and search across customer notes. See AI development.
Alexander leads product at Magora. He reviews the scope, product approach and user experience advice on this page.
Thinking about
a custom CRM?
30-minute call with a senior Solution Architect. Bring your current tools and the process that hurts most — we will tell you honestly whether to build, buy or extend.