Your own CRM, in place of Salesforce, HubSpot, or Pipedrive
We build a CRM around how your business actually sells and serves customers, move your data into it, and put it in your accounts. No per-seat fees, no forced upgrades, and no renewal that holds your customer list hostage.
Why small to medium businesses are leaving rented CRMs
- Per-seat pricing grows every time you hire, even for people who only look up a contact.
- Feature tiers put the one automation or report you need behind a much higher plan.
- Complexity: most teams use a fraction of the features and work around the rest in spreadsheets.
- Lock-in: your customer history lives on someone else's platform, at someone else's price.
What your CRM can include
| Feature | What it does for you |
|---|---|
| Contacts and companies | Every customer and lead in one place, with the fields your business actually needs. |
| Pipeline | Your stages, your rules, drag-and-drop deals, and a clear view of what is closing. |
| Email and calendar logging | Connected to Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 so history records itself. |
| Tasks and follow-ups | Reminders so no lead or customer goes quiet without someone noticing. |
| Quotes and invoices | Generated from your pricing, optionally synced to QuickBooks or Xero. |
| Reports and dashboards | The numbers you check every week, without exporting to a spreadsheet. |
| AI assistance | Draft follow-up emails, summarize call notes, and flag deals going cold. |
| Customer portal | Optional: let customers see their jobs, documents, or invoices. |
Example CRMs by industry
A CRM should track what matters in your business, not a generic list of contacts and deals:
| Industry | What the CRM is built around |
|---|---|
| Insurance agencies | An agency CRM centered on the household or business account, not just a contact. Households and business accounts with every policy, carrier, and premium; Renewal pipeline with X-dates and reminders 60, 30, and 15 days out. |
| Electrical contractors | A CRM where every customer, property, and job history lives together. Residential and commercial customers, properties, and contacts; Estimates and bids with win rate by job type. |
| HVAC companies | A CRM built around the property and the equipment installed there. Customers and properties with every unit: make, model, serial, install date; Maintenance agreement members, visits due, and renewals. |
| Plumbing companies | A CRM that remembers every property, fixture, and past call. Residential and commercial customers and properties; Service history: water heaters, sewer lines, fixtures, and photos. |
| Retail stores | A customer CRM that knows what each shopper buys. Customers, purchase history, and preferences from your POS; Loyalty points, rewards, and VIP tiers. |
| Contractors & construction | A CRM that follows a project from lead to final payment. Leads and bids with status and win rate; Projects, phases, and budgets. |
| Landscaping & lawn care | A CRM built around properties and recurring service. Properties with size, services, and gate or pet notes; Recurring service contracts and seasonal add-ons. |
| Property management | A CRM for owners, tenants, vendors, and prospects. Properties, units, owners, and tenants; Leasing prospects and showings. |
| Auto repair shops | A CRM built around customers and their vehicles. Customers and vehicles: VIN, mileage, service history; Declined work to follow up on. |
| Professional services | A CRM built around clients and their matters or engagements. Clients, related parties, and conflicts checks; Matters or engagements with status and deadlines. |
How a CRM project works
- Map your processHow leads arrive, how deals move, what the team tracks today.
- Fixed scopeFeatures, build cost, running cost, and timeline in writing.
- Build & testYour team uses it on real work every week while it is built.
- Migrate & switchData moved and checked, both systems in parallel, then cancel.
What you own at the end
- The source code, in a repository under your company account
- Your database and every customer record, exportable any time
- Hosting in your name, with a predictable monthly running cost
- Documentation and team training
- Training so your team can manage it, change it, and improve it yourselves with AI
See what your current CRM will cost over three years with the SaaS savings calculator, or read Custom CRM vs. HubSpot and Salesforce.
Common questions
Can a custom CRM really replace Salesforce or HubSpot?
For most small to medium businesses, yes. Most teams use contacts, companies, deals, a pipeline, tasks, email logging, and reports, which a custom CRM covers well. In 2026 several companies with 20 to 70 staff reported replacing Salesforce and HubSpot with CRMs they built using AI tools, including one that went from about $40,000 a year to about $1,200.
How do you move our data out of our current CRM?
We export your contacts, companies, deals, notes, and activity history, clean up duplicates, and import everything into the new CRM. Both systems run side by side until your team is comfortable, then you cancel the old subscription.
Will it work with our email and calendar?
Yes. Custom CRMs can connect to Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 to log emails and meetings, and to tools you keep, such as QuickBooks, Stripe, or your phone system.
What happens when we add more users?
Nothing changes on the bill. A CRM you own has no per-seat fee, so hiring does not raise your software costs.
Find out which software you should stop renting
Book a free 30-minute consultation. I'll look at the subscriptions you pay for and tell you honestly which ones are worth replacing with software you own, and which to keep.