Off-the-shelf wins when your process is standard.
If your sales motion looks like most businesses in your category, a mainstream CRM with good integrations will get you further, faster, and cheaper than a custom build. Don't pay to reinvent a solved problem.
Custom wins when the platform fights your process.
If you're bending your actual workflow to fit a tool's assumptions, adding workarounds, or paying for modules you don't need, a system built around how you actually qualify, route, and follow up on leads can cost less over time than the licence fees and workaround labour of the wrong platform.
Data ownership is the quiet deciding factor.
Ask where your lead and customer data actually lives, what happens if you leave the platform, and how hard it is to connect other tools to it. Some platforms make this easy. Others make switching costs part of the business model.
The middle path is underused.
Many businesses don't need a fully custom CRM. They need a mainstream platform with the enrichment, routing, and reporting logic built properly around their process, not the default setup left untouched since onboarding.
Start with the decision that costs you enquiries today.
Whichever direction you lean, start with where leads are currently getting lost or delayed. That's the workflow worth fixing first, regardless of which platform it runs on.
Bring your workflow, your constraints, and the outcome you want to achieve.