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CustomSoftware.aiThe independent tool for smarter software & automation decisions.

Decide what to build, buy, or configure.
A free tool that sells you nothing.

Describe your situation in your own words. Ten minutes later you have a written recommendation with costs, timeline, risks, and the options worth ruling out.

Optional: if you’d like to talk it through with someone, you’ll be able to book a call after the chat.

A guided AI assessment, not a form. Type or use the mic, no email needed to start.

What you describe stays private. It is never published or sold, and the examples on this page are composites, not real clients.

Click one to start:

  • Independent & vendor-neutral
  • No sales call unless you ask
  • The summary is yours to keep

What a recommendation looks like

Most people arrive with a mess: competing opinions from their own team, systems that don’t talk to each other, and no clear ask. The work is organizing that into one picture and saying what to do about it.

Two illustrative examples below. They are composites written to show the format and the level of detail, not accounts of specific clients.

Enterprise SaaS company, 180 employees, $50M ARR

What you describe

“Our customer data is scattered across five systems: the CRM, marketing automation, the help desk, billing, and a data warehouse nobody trusts. Marketing sends campaigns without knowing what support is seeing. Sales closes deals and success finds out weeks later. Our CTO wants to build everything custom, our CFO says buy a customer data platform, our VP wants everything consolidated into the CRM. We have $800K and need this done by Q3.”

What you get back

A unified customer data layer, then CRM modernization, phased

  1. Months 1 to 6: stand up a customer data platform and move billing onto it, so all five systems write to one data layer.
  2. Months 7 to 12: build churn prediction and automated lifecycle triggers on top of that layer.
  3. Months 13 to 18: modernize the warehouse and retire the legacy reporting stack.
Cost band
$700K to $950K
Annual run rate
$170K to $230K
Timeline band
15 to 20 months
Why this path
  • Fits the budget you already have, against $2M+ for a custom build.
  • Phased, so you get something measurable every six months instead of one big-bang cutover.
  • Solves the actual problem, fragmented customer data, without over-engineering around it.
What was ruled out, and why
  • Building it custom: $2M to $3M, 24 to 36 months, and 3 to 4 permanent engineers you would have to hire and keep.
  • A data platform on its own: Leaves the CRM and help desk disconnected. You still have silos, just newer ones.
  • Consolidating everything into the CRM: Does not solve the billing problem, and adds a per-seat cost to every future change.

Mid-market services company, 120 employees

What you describe

“Our sales team tracks deals in spreadsheets. They break constantly. Our CTO thinks we should build custom software. Our CFO wants a proper CRM but thinks it is too expensive. We also want it connected to our accounting system. Budget is $50K and we are not sure that is realistic.”

What you get back

A mainstream CRM plus a narrow integration to your accounting system

  1. Configure an off-the-shelf CRM for the sales team and migrate the spreadsheet pipeline.
  2. Build lightweight middleware to sync opportunities and invoices with the accounting system.
  3. Add alerting and workflow rules so deal stages update without manual entry.
Cost band
$20K to $30K
Ongoing
$1,100 to $1,500 a month
Timeline band
10 to 16 weeks
Why this path
  • Lands inside your $50K budget with room left for adoption support.
  • A mainstream CRM handles a team this size with configuration alone, no customization.
  • The accounting integration is narrow enough that your finance team can own it.
What was ruled out, and why
  • Building a custom CRM: $60K to $100K+ to build, plus a maintenance burden you have no one to carry.
  • Entry-tier CRM tools: Cheaper licenses, but the accounting integration becomes the expensive part.
  • Keeping the spreadsheets: The failure rate rises with headcount, and you carry real data-loss risk.

Your executive summary will include

Recommended approach
One direction, with the reasoning behind it. Not a menu of options to choose between.
Cost and timeline bands
Budgeting ranges with the assumptions that produce them printed underneath, and what would push the number higher.
Who you need
The roles the work requires, and whether to use your existing team, hire, retrain, or outsource each one.
The kind of firm to look for
Specialization, size, and engagement model that fit this project, what to verify before signing, and what should rule a firm out.
What would change this answer
The specific facts that would flip the recommendation, so you know exactly where the analysis is load-bearing.
Why the alternatives were ruled out
The paths considered and set aside for your situation, each with the reason it does not fit.

What it helps you decide

The five paths a vendor-neutral consultant weighs for you — including what to rule out, and why.

Custom Software

A tailored build, recommended only when nothing you can buy or configure will do the job.

AI Automation

Automating the manual, repetitive work your team shouldn’t be doing by hand.

Systems Integration

Connecting the tools you already run so data flows without manual re-entry.

Configure Existing Software

Getting more out of what you already own before spending on anything new.

Off-the-shelf

When a proven product already solves it, we point you to the faster, cheaper path.

How we choose the firm

Most free software advice is a lead broker in disguise: describe your problem, get sold to whoever pays the most for your contact details. This works the other way around.

  1. We start from your requirements, not from a list of firms.

    The analysis happens before anyone is introduced, and it is the same analysis whether you engage a partner or walk away with the summary.

  2. We don’t work from a fixed panel.

    Custom software varies enormously. A firm that is excellent at data integration is often the wrong choice for a field-service app, and a consultant with three firms on retainer has every reason to make your project look like something those three can do. If the right firm is not already in our network, we go and find them.

  3. We choose the firm first, then agree terms. Never the other way round.

    That sequence is the reason our fee cannot influence which firm you hear about.

How we’re paid

  • The recommendation never names a brand. By design, the tool recommends categories and capabilities, never a specific product or vendor. There is nothing here for anyone to buy their way into.
  • The firm pays us, not you. This costs you nothing to use. We have referral agreements with the firms we work with, so if you engage one we introduced you to, they pay us a fee. You never receive an invoice from us for the recommendation.
  • Fees don’t decide who you’re matched with. Partners are matched on fit against what you told us: your requirements, budget, and timeline.

The summary is yours either way. Take it to any firm you like, including one we’ve never heard of.

No sales call unless you ask for one.

Peretz Toiv, Founder

CustomSoftware.ai was founded by Peretz Toiv, a technology operator who has built and run software-dependent businesses. The assessment applies the same discipline those decisions required: define the requirement, exhaust what you already own, and treat a custom build as the last option rather than the first.