How Much Does a CRM Cost in 2026? SaaS vs. Custom-Built
Straight to the point: an off-the-shelf CRM costs CZK 300 – 1,500 per user per month. A custom CRM from a Czech agency costs CZK 300,000 – 1,000,000 as a one-time project. We build CRMs tailored to your processes for a monthly subscription from CZK 4,900 — with no upfront investment.
The short answer isn't enough, though, because with CRMs the real costs hide somewhere other than the price list. In this article we'll calculate what a CRM really costs as your company grows, when it pays to stay on SaaS, and when your own system starts to make sense.
Three paths to a CRM and their prices
| Solution | Price | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Off-the-shelf SaaS (Pipedrive, HubSpot, Raynet) | CZK 300 – 1,500 / user / month | Small teams with a standard sales process |
| Custom CRM — one-time agency project | CZK 300,000 – 1,000,000 + maintenance | Companies with specific processes and budget |
| Custom CRM — monthly subscription | from CZK 4,900 / month (whole team) | Companies that want a tailored system without upfront investment |
Note the fundamental difference: with SaaS you pay per user, with a custom solution you pay for the system. That exact difference decides which option pays off for you.
Comparison: Pipedrive, HubSpot, Raynet and a custom CRM
| Pipedrive | HubSpot | Raynet | Custom CRM | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price (10 users) | from ~CZK 3,500/mo | CZK 0 – 25,000+/mo | from ~CZK 2,500/mo | from CZK 4,900/mo |
| Price (30 users) | from ~CZK 10,500/mo | significantly higher tiers | from ~CZK 7,500/mo | still from CZK 4,900/mo |
| Fit to your processes | limited | medium (in expensive tiers) | medium | complete |
| Czech accounting integrations | via connectors | via connectors | yes | direct, custom-built |
| Data ownership | with the provider | with the provider | with the provider | yours |
| New features | no | in pricier tiers | limited | included in the subscription |
HubSpot is the typical example of "free to start, expensive as you grow": the free tier looks tempting, but the key features (automation, reporting, multiple pipelines) sit in tiers costing tens of thousands of crowns per month.
When a custom CRM pays off: simple maths
Take a company with 15 sales reps on Pipedrive's Professional tier (~CZK 1,200/user/month):
- SaaS: 15 × 1,200 = CZK 18,000 per month, i.e. CZK 216,000 per year. And every new rep adds CZK 14,400 per year.
- Custom CRM on subscription: CZK 4,900 to 9,900 per month for the whole company, regardless of user count.
At 10–15 users, a custom CRM subscription already beats SaaS — and you get a system that mirrors your processes, not the processes of the "average company" the SaaS was designed for. We broke down the feature comparison in detail in Custom CRM vs. off-the-shelf.
What makes up the price of a custom CRM
When we build a CRM to measure, the price consists of these parts:
- Process analysis (10–15%) — mapping the sales process, roles and data flows. The most important phase; a bad analysis means an expensive system nobody uses.
- Design and UX (10–15%) — screens your sales reps actually use daily. A CRM lives or dies by how easily data gets entered.
- Core development (40–50%) — contacts, companies, deals, pipeline, activities, tasks, reports.
- Integrations (15–25%) — accounting (Pohoda, Money, Fakturoid), e-mail, calendar, telephony, web.
- Testing and rollout (10%) — migrating data from the old system, training the team.
With the subscription model you don't pay for all of this upfront — the costs spread across monthly payments and we develop the system continuously based on what proves itself in practice.
Hidden SaaS CRM costs you won't find in the price list
- Per-user pricing as you grow. The price scales linearly with your team. A company that doubles its sales team in 3 years doubles its CRM costs — for the same features.
- Paid integrations. Accounting connectors, advanced e-mail sync or telephony usually cost extra (Zapier, Make, marketplace add-ons). Typically another CZK 1,000 – 5,000 per month.
- Higher tiers for a single feature. You need one advanced report or automation — and the whole team has to move to a pricier tier.
- Extra work around the limits. When the CRM can't handle your process, reps keep a "shadow record" in Excel. That's a cost you'll never see on an invoice, but it's the biggest one.
- Leaving = losing history. Data export is possible, but activity history, automations and settings migrate poorly. Vendor lock-in is stronger with CRMs than anywhere else.
When to stay on an off-the-shelf CRM
Let's be fair — SaaS CRM makes sense when:
- you have up to ~10 users and a standard sales process (lead → quote → deal),
- you're still trying CRM out and don't know exactly what you need,
- you don't need specific integrations with Czech systems.
In that case, start with Pipedrive or Raynet and come back to a custom solution once you hit the limits. You'll recognise the moment easily: the team starts keeping data outside the CRM.
How we do it
We build custom CRMs for a monthly subscription — from CZK 4,900 per month for a simpler system, from CZK 9,900 per month for a CRM with accounting integrations and automations. Development, hosting, support and continuous improvements are all included. See the custom CRM page and our pricing for details.
Want to know what a CRM would cost exactly for you? Get an estimate in two minutes with our configurator, or book a consultation — we'll go through your processes and tell you honestly whether a custom CRM pays off for you, or whether you should stay on SaaS.
