Cast your eye over your bank statement. Somewhere in there, tucked between fuel costs and material orders, is a row of software subscriptions that quietly renews every single month. Job management. Accounting. Fleet tracking. Communications. Maybe a CRM. Possibly something you signed up for two years ago and barely use anymore.
For a five-person trades business, that stack of tools easily adds up to £400–£700 per month — and the bills are going up. SaaS prices rose 12.2% in 2024 alone, nearly five times the rate of general inflation. And there is very little you can do about it, because the software companies know switching is painful.
But what if there was another way entirely?
What You’re Actually Paying For — and What You’re Not Getting
A typical trades business paying for job management software like Tradify (from £34 per user per month) or JobLogic is also paying for Xero or QuickBooks, a vehicle tracking tool, possibly a compliance app, and something for communications. Add it up honestly and you are looking at £5,000–£8,000 per year.
That would be fine if each tool did its job perfectly. But here’s what actually happens: your job management software handles most things, but not quite everything. So your team builds workarounds. The reports don’t pull through the way you need them to, so someone exports to a spreadsheet and formats it manually. Customer sign-offs happen on paper because the app doesn’t quite work the way your process does. Engineers fill in forms on their phones that then have to be re-entered in the office.
You are not using one system. You are using one system plus six workarounds. And you’re paying for all of it. Research from Zylo, analysing over 40 million software licences, found that 52.7% of purchased SaaS licences sit idle — meaning businesses are routinely paying for software that isn’t even being used, let alone working properly. We’ve written about how to weigh up bespoke versus off-the-shelf software if you want a deeper look at the trade-offs.
The Hidden Cost: Your Team’s Time
Before CME Heating came to us, this was exactly their situation. A busy heating and plumbing company with a team of field engineers across London — and an admin team back at the office constantly chasing paperwork. Timesheets were filled in by hand. Vehicle inspections were on printed checklists. Mileage tracked in notebooks. Holiday requests managed through phone calls.
The office team wasn’t just paying for software. They were paying in time — chasing engineers, deciphering handwriting, manually entering figures, never quite knowing if a van inspection had actually been done.
This is the hidden cost that subscription software rarely talks about. The monthly bill is just the start. The real expense is the gap between what the software promises and what your business actually needs — and the hours your team spends bridging that gap every week. If you want to understand what a purpose-built system actually looks like in practice, our post on what a custom business application actually looks like walks through the specifics.
What Happens When the Price Goes Up?
Here’s the part that should concern any trades business owner: you don’t control that monthly bill. Software companies can — and regularly do — raise their prices. Ninety per cent of software vendors raised prices in 2024. Some bundled in AI features nobody asked for and charged accordingly. Others simply sent an email in October saying rates were going up.
If you’re on a contract, you’re locked in at the new rate at renewal. If you’re not, you face the choice of paying more or spending weeks migrating to a competitor — who will likely do the same thing in 18 months.
The subscription model is designed to make switching expensive. That is not a cynical observation; it is the business model. And for trades businesses, where the admin team is already stretched, the thought of moving everything to a new platform is enough to make most people just pay the increase and move on. The real maths behind business app subscriptions is worth reading before your next renewal.
There Is Another Option
When we built CME Heating’s custom application, we replaced every paper form, spreadsheet, and disconnected process with a single system built around exactly how their business works. Weekly timesheets, van inspection logs, mileage tracking, holiday requests — all generated automatically, all completed on any phone or device, all visible to the office in real time.
No more chasing. No more re-entering data. Automated reminders go out every Tuesday to engineers who haven’t submitted. The admin team went from firefighting to oversight.
The difference with a custom-built application is that you own it. There is no per-seat pricing. No price increase email in October. No “we’ve added AI features, so your bill is going up.” You pay for it to be built, and then you pay a modest monthly retainer for maintenance and ongoing development — a fraction of what a stack of SaaS subscriptions costs over the same period.
For most trades businesses spending £500 or more per month on software, a custom build pays for itself within two years. After that, the savings are yours. Our blog on when to replace your SaaS stack with a custom application sets out the decision framework clearly.
Built Around Your Business, Not Theirs
The other thing a custom app does that off-the-shelf software cannot is fit your actual workflow. Not an approximation of it. Not a close-enough version that requires workarounds. The exact process your engineers follow, the exact reports your clients expect, the exact compliance documents your industry requires.
Luelle Property Group manages multiple residential renovation projects simultaneously, coordinating teams of contractors across different trades. Before working with us, job assignments went via WhatsApp. Progress was tracked on spreadsheets. Compliance documents were scattered across email threads and shared drives.
We built them a single application that manages the entire workflow — from job assignment through to compliance sign-off — with role-based access so contractors only see their own jobs, automated notifications across email, SMS and push, and a complete audit trail for every action taken. Everything a project manager needs to oversee a portfolio of properties. Nothing they don’t.
No off-the-shelf platform would have fit that process. The platforms that came closest would have needed significant workarounds and still cost thousands per year in subscriptions — subscriptions that go up. It’s worth noting that 35% of teams have already replaced at least one SaaS tool with a custom build, according to Retool’s 2026 research — and 78% expect to build more this year. The shift is underway. You can see more examples of this kind of work on our custom business apps page and across our project portfolio.
Is a Custom App Right for Your Business?
A custom application isn’t the right answer for every business. But it is almost certainly worth a conversation if:
- You have a team of five or more people
- You’re spending £500+ per month across software subscriptions
- Your team is still relying on manual processes, spreadsheets, or WhatsApp to fill the gaps
- You’ve received at least one price increase notification in the last 12 months
- You’ve found yourself thinking “if only it could just do this one thing differently”
If that sounds familiar, the economics of a custom build are worth understanding. Our guide to hiring professionals for custom app development is a good starting point.
The conversation starts with understanding your current setup: what you’re paying, what’s working, what isn’t, and where your team is losing time. From there, we can tell you honestly whether a custom application makes sense for your business — and if it does, what it would look like.
Isn’t it nice when things just work?
Talk to Webshape Design about a custom app for your business →
Frequently Asked Questions
How Much Does a Custom App Cost to Build?
For a typical trades or field service business, a complex purpose-built application generally ranges from £10,000 upwards depending on complexity and the number of modules required. The best starting point is a discovery conversation to understand exactly what you need — and whether the investment makes sense against your current software spend. We offer a “Version 1” custom app that covers the discovery phase (a session held with you to discuss your processes) and a working version 1 of your app to show you how it works (which can then be developed to cover more functionality over time) which starts from £2,500.
How Long Does It Take to Build?
Most custom applications for trades businesses take between 4 and 6 weeks from sign-off to launch, depending on scope and complexity. We work in structured phases with clear milestones so you always know where the project stands. You need to factor in time with your team in order to test thoroughly although we are available as a helping hand and training can be provided.
Will It Replace All My Software Subscriptions?
Not always all of them, but often more than you think and the more ingenuity we can bring to the process the better able to help. The goal is to replace the tools that are causing the most friction or cost — job management, timesheets, compliance tracking, communications — with a single system that does all of it properly and saves you and your time team and manual effort. We’ll be honest with you if something is better left as a standalone tool.
Who Looks After the App Once It’s Built?
We do. All our custom applications are covered by a monthly maintenance and support retainer. This covers hosting, updates, security patches, and ongoing development as your business needs evolve. You’re never left with something that goes stale. As all the custom apps we build are based on known software languages such as PHP, Laravel, HTML, CSS anyone with understanding of the processes and coding would be able to access and update.
Is It Hard for My Engineers to Use?
Built-for-purpose apps are typically simpler to use than off-the-shelf platforms, because they only do what your team actually needs in as simple and straightforward a way as possible. CME Heating’s engineers found it easier than the paper forms it replaced — because it was designed around their workflow, not a generic one. While it can be daunting at first, especially for the guys who will say “I’m not techy”, if they can operate something like WhatsApp then they’ll have the required understanding to work your custom app.
What If My Business Changes — Can the App Change with It?
Yes, and this is one of the key advantages of owning your software. New features, new modules, new user types — all of these can be added as your business grows. You’re not waiting for a software vendor to add something to their roadmap. You decide what gets built next. A critical point is that while systems like “Loveable” and AI can get you as far as version 1 they can’t then reliably make fixes and updates. This is where you need a proper set of developers who can work to update your app and make the changes you need safely without breaking what already works.
