Project management tool: rent one or have your own built?

By Mateusz Hajnysz, COO of Interactivated

For most teams, renting a project management tool is simply the better deal. It is quick to set up, someone else maintains it, and for standard project work it does the job well. Building your own starts to win when your way of working is specific to your company, and when your project data needs to flow into your CRM and your finance system. In this article we look at where that line sits, what each route costs once you look past the first invoice, and how you can test which side of the line your own team is on.

What should project management tools be able to do?

Before you compare tools, or decide to build one, it helps to agree on what the tool actually has to do. Whether you rent or build, good project management tools cover the same basics:

• Planning. The team can see phases, deadlines and who is working on what, in a view people actually open on a Monday morning.
• Tasks. Every task has a clear owner, a status and a due date, so nobody has to ask who is picking something up.
• Time. Hours are logged per project or task, in a way that finance can use for invoicing without chasing anyone.
• Reporting. Progress, budget and workload are visible without someone exporting everything to a spreadsheet first.
• Permissions. You decide who can see and edit what, including clients and freelancers who only need part of the picture.
• Integrations. The tool talks to your CRM, your invoicing and the communication tools your team already uses.

Use this list as your selection criteria, together with your team size and the price model. The real question is not which tool has the longest feature list. It is which one covers these needs with the fewest workarounds for your team.

What does a standard project management tool cost over time?

The entry price of a project management tool is often low, and some even offer a free plan. That is rarely what you end up paying. What a tool costs after a year or two depends on how the price is built, and on how your use grows:

• The seat model. Most tools charge per user per month. Some only sell seats in fixed bundles, which means you pay for more users than you actually have.
• Tiers. Time tracking, reporting, permissions and automations often sit in higher tiers. When you need just one of those features, every seat moves up a level.
• Automation and integration limits. Lower tiers cap how many automations or integration actions you can run each month. As the team leans on them more, the next tier becomes hard to avoid.
• Guest and viewer users. Clients, freelancers and managers who only need to look can still count as paid seats, depending on the tool.

To see what you really pay, multiply the price per seat by everyone who needs access, assume the tier you will need a year from now, and add the hours someone spends configuring and maintaining the tool. That number is the one to compare, not the price on the homepage.

Where standard tools get stuck

Generic project management software is built to work for every team, which also means it fits no team exactly. In practice, the gaps tend to show up in five places:

• Workarounds. Custom fields, extra boards and spreadsheets on the side start to hold the information the tool has no proper place for.
• Duplicate entry. The same project details are typed into the project tool, then again into the CRM, and once more when it is time to invoice.
• Reporting that needs exports. Management reports end up being built in a spreadsheet, because the tool cannot combine the data the way management needs to see it.
• Client access. Clients want a clear view of status and documents, but guest access is limited, expensive or confusing for them to use.
• No link to CRM and finance. A project starts with a deal and ends with an invoice, yet those three steps live in three separate systems.

That last point usually carries the most weight. Once customer, project and invoice data share one data model, most of the duplicate work simply disappears. The same reasoning applies to the CRM itself, which we cover in our article on choosing a custom CRM or HubSpot.

What your own project management tool involves

Your own tool is a custom application, built around the way your team plans and delivers its work. In most cases it is a web application that people open in their browser, just like the tools they use today. If that term is new to you, read what is a web app.

The most important rule is to keep the scope small. A good custom tool starts with the handful of workflows your team uses every single day, not with every feature of a large product. Trying to match an established tool feature for feature is the most common reason these projects run over budget and over time.

A sensible first version might cover, for example:

• the project overview your team actually looks at
• tasks and statuses that follow your own stages, not someone else's
• hours linked directly to projects and clients
• the one report that management now builds by hand every month

Everything else can wait until the team asks for it. That way the first version is in use quickly, and every next step is based on real feedback instead of guesses.

AI-assisted development helps here too. Senior engineers use AI tooling to produce working screens and integrations faster than before. What it does not replace is experience: senior engineers still review the data model, the security and the quality of the code. If you want to know how that works in practice, read how we have a custom application built and keep it maintained as a product.

Rent or build: a comparison

Most articles on Monday alternatives compare one rented tool with another. That is useful if you know you want to rent. The table below adds the option those articles leave out: building your own.

The cost comparison works the same way as it does for a CRM. On one side you put the seats multiplied by the price per seat over three years, plus tier upgrades and admin hours. On the other side you put the build cost plus three years of hosting, maintenance and product ownership. The more people need access, the sooner a one-time build cost starts to win.

Test: does your process follow the tool, or does the tool follow your process?

This is a quick test you can do with your team. Answer each question with yes or no, ideally together with the people who work in the tool every day rather than the person who bought it.

☐ Do you keep spreadsheets next to the tool for planning, hours or reporting?

☐ Is the same project data typed into more than one system?

☐ Are there custom fields that nobody trusts or keeps up to date?

☐ Do management reports require an export and manual work?

☐ Have you changed how you work to fit the tool's structure?

☐ Do clients get project updates by email because the tool cannot show them?

☐ Do you pay for seats for people who only need to look?

☐ Has the team spent months configuring the tool without it ever really fitting?

How to read the result: a few yes answers are normal, and you will find them with any standard tool. When most of your answers are yes, and especially the questions about duplicate data and reporting, your team is working for the tool instead of the other way around. That is the moment building your own deserves a serious look.

When to stay with a standard tool

We would be the first to say that renting is the right call in many cases. Stay with a standard tool when the following applies to you:

• Your projects are fairly standard. If tasks, deadlines and a board cover what you need, a rented tool already does the job.
• Your team is small. With only a few seats, the subscription costs less than building and running your own software.
• Your projects do not need to connect to CRM or finance. If nobody types the same data twice, the strongest reason to build is simply missing.
• Nobody can own the tool. Your own software needs someone who sets priorities, and a maintenance agreement behind it.

If that sounds like your team, pick a tool using the selection criteria above and keep the setup simple. You will save yourself time and money.

One platform for projects, clients and invoices

The strongest case for your own project tool is usually not the tool itself. It is the chance to put projects, clients and invoices on one shared data model. A won deal becomes a project, the project collects hours, and those hours turn into an invoice, without anyone typing the same information again.

That is a bigger step than replacing one tool, and it does not have to happen all at once. Read more about building an online platform, and about how to move from several software packages to one platform step by step in our guide on choosing a new ERP or one platform of your own.

Frequently asked questions

How we approach this at Interactivated

When a company asks us whether it should build its own project tool, we do not start with a feature list. We start with a conversation about how the team actually works. Together we follow one real project from the first deal to the final invoice, and we note every place where someone switches tools, exports data or types something twice. That walk-through usually tells both of us more than any requirements document.

If building makes sense, we scope a first version around the workflows the team uses every day, and nothing more. That first version often runs next to the current tool for a while, so the team can compare and nobody has to switch overnight.

Our senior engineers build with AI tooling, which lets us deliver working screens and integrations faster. Every part of the work is still reviewed by an experienced engineer, because the data model, the security and the code quality decide whether the tool will still be easy to maintain in five years.

After launch we do not disappear. We keep the tool hosted, updated and secure, and we keep improving it as the team's needs change. And if our honest conclusion is that a rented tool will serve you better, that is what we will advise.

Have your process reviewed

Not sure whether your team follows the tool, or the tool follows your team? We are happy to go through your process with you, look at where data is typed twice, and work out what a first version of your own tool would need to do. If renting turns out to be the better choice, we will tell you that too. Read how we have a custom application built, or plan a discovery call.