For most Indian SMEs with 5-50 person teams, custom CRM beats SaaS on TCO and fit. Here's the head-to-head with real INR numbers.
| Option | Year 1 cost | Year 2+ annual | 18-mo total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salesforce Sales Cloud Pro | ₹11.7L | ₹11.7L | ₹17.5L |
| HubSpot Pro | ₹8L | ₹8L | ₹12L |
| Zoho CRM Plus | ₹6.3L | ₹6.3L | ₹9.5L |
| Custom CRM (Big Helpers) | ₹2.4L | ₹0.36L | ₹2.6L |
| Custom + retainer ₹30K/mo | ₹5.6L | ₹3.6L | ₹9.2L |
Custom CRM wins on cost at any team size past ~5. But cost isn't the only dimension. Workflow fit and integration depth matter equally.
| Use case | Pick |
|---|---|
| Standard sales workflow, <5 users | Zoho CRM Plus |
| Standard workflow, 5-25 users, low budget | Zoho or HubSpot Free |
| Non-standard workflow, 5-25 users | Custom CRM |
| Need deep Tally / WhatsApp / IndiaMART integration | Custom CRM |
| Standard workflow, 25+ users, enterprise budget | Salesforce |
| Multi-branch India SME with custom workflow | Custom CRM |