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Custom software or SaaS for SMEs in Colombia
An SME in Colombia is not choosing between modern and old-fashioned. It is choosing where the day's process lives: in a tool that already brings standard screens, or in software built around how that shop works. Both paths can be serious. This guide does not quote third-party prices or rank anyone's products. It compares decisions you can check: who owns the code, what happens if the process does not fit the template, and which references Krats.tech publishes when the path is custom.
When a generic tool is enough
A ready-made tool is enough when the process is the one that tool assumes. Invoices with ordinary fields, a simple appointment calendar, or a shop whose catalogue fits the model that comes from the factory. The team accepts the names on the screens and does not need a rule the product lacks. The cost, in that case, is usually a fee that continues while you use the service, plus the limits of the plan you buy. Each vendor publishes those amounts on its own site: we do not repeat them here, because they change and they are not ours. If the fit is good, building from scratch only to have something of your own adds a project the day did not ask for.
Signs the template has run out
The template runs out when the order is not a standard cart. It happens if the price depends on a combination the shop invented, if stock moves at the counter with a scanner and a printer, if there are roles the product does not have, or if the operation mixes a site, delivery and a chat where the sale is closed today. It also runs out when exporting your data or changing a rule requires a plan you do not control. At that point, keeping up the fees does not close the gap: it only rents a screen the team is already walking around with notebooks.
If the process belongs to the shop and not to a template, the starting point is custom software in Medellín, with the MVP from €500 and the web application from €4,500 as references, not as a ranking against other products.
What changes when the software is yours
In a custom build the scope is written with the business. Screens come from the real flow: who creates the order, who takes payment, who sees the report. The code belongs to the client when the payments are complete. The domain and the hosting should be in your name from the start. The cost does not vanish: it shows up as a project, with milestones near 40, 30 and 30 percent, instead of a fee whose detail someone else sets. The public reference stays in euros. A usable MVP starts at €500 and is deducted if you continue. A web application with users and data starts at €4,500. Support, if you want it afterwards, is €150 a month with no lock-in.
Data, leaving, and the working day
With your own software the base is yours in the operational sense: the data model was designed for your process and the delivered code does not switch off because someone else's plan changed. That does not mean you can ignore backups, or that hosting is free. It means the business rule does not depend on a screen editor allowing it. The team learns a few screens, the ones it uses, instead of a long menu built for another sector. If another language or a new role is needed later, that slice is quoted. You do not renegotiate a subscription contract written by another company.
When the gap is a panel for orders, inventory or customers, the concrete page is web applications. There that work is separated from a landing, which only presents the business.
A decision in three questions
First: does this week's process fit screens we are not going to change? If the answer is yes, a generic tool can be the honest path and there is nothing to build. Second: is the exception the heart of the business or a rare case? If it is the heart — delivery, the till, the way the order is assembled — the template will push the team back to chat. Third: do you want to pay to keep using, or to have the code when the milestones close? Neither answer is a moral prize. It is a way not to buy a build for a problem a fee already solves, and not to buy an endless fee for a process the fee does not model.
Start small without marrying the tool
If the doubt is real, the €500 MVP builds one flow and is deducted if the project continues. It does not replace the whole operation and it does not promise to beat any product on the market. It shows whether the team uses that screen. A €1,500 landing is still enough when the problem is being found, not managing stock. Mixing both needs into one commission inflates the first milestone and teaches nothing.
If you already know the template cannot hold the rule, you can describe the flow on the contact form. From that we propose a scope, not a comparison with another vendor's fee.
What we will not tell you
We will not name a SaaS product as the winner or as the mistake. We will not invent what someone else charges, or say that custom software is always cheaper over twelve months: that depends on the fee you already pay and on the scope we sign, and that sum is done with your numbers, not with someone else's table. What you can use from this page is the criterion and our own references: €500, €1,500, €2,500, from €4,500, and optional support at €150. If your process fits the standard, say so. If it does not, the next step is to describe the exception, not to ask for a ranking.
Short questions
Can we leave a tool and bring the data?
Sometimes there is a usable export and sometimes there is not. The product you use today defines that. In the new build the model is designed for the process. We do not promise a magic migration without seeing the file.
Does custom software remove the fee?
It removes that product's fee. Hosting, the domain and, if you hire it, support at €150 a month remain. You can stop the support.
Should we copy the screens of a well-known tool?
No. Screens are designed for your shop's flow. Copying another product only moves menus your team does not need.