Before you sign another renewal, it pays to price both options properly. Putti's SaaS replacement work for New Zealand businesses starts with the numbers most teams never put side by side: what the platform costs over five years, and what a custom replacement built in Auckland would cost and leave you owning.
Renew or replace: what does each cost over five years?
Most teams only ever see the first column.
| Cost over 5 years | Keep your current SaaS | Custom replacement |
|---|---|---|
| Licences (users x price x annual increases) | Rises with every renewal and every new user | None per user |
| Add-on modules and integration fees | Often charged on top | Built in where needed |
| Staff time lost to workarounds | Ongoing | Designed out |
| Build cost | None | One-off, scoped and priced up front |
| Hosting, support and updates | Included in the licence | Ongoing, sized to the system |
| What you own at the end | Nothing | The software and your data |
When is it time to replace, not renew?
You don't need to rip out every tool you own. Three things tend to show up together.
The first is fit. Vertical SaaS is designed for the average business in your category, and if the people doing the work have built a set of habits just to get around it, the tool is costing you more than the invoice says.
The second is price. Plenty of platforms feel cheap in year one, then get dearer as they age or as your team grows. When the renewal quote looks out of proportion to what you actually use, that's a signal.
The third is direction. Every vendor builds what's valuable to them, and their roadmap won't always follow yours. One of these is worth watching. Two or three means moving on is overdue.
How does a replacement run?
We're not talking about rebuilding Xero or Microsoft 365. We mean the narrower, more specialised tools: the platform that was the closest fit when you chose it, or a once-leading general product that's now expensive and holding you back.
Whichever path you take, the work runs in the same order. We diagnose first, mapping what you pay, what you use and what you've worked around. A proof of concept then shows what the replacement would deliver before you commit to the full build. The build itself is AI-assisted delivery by experienced developers. Data and integrations are planned up front, and the new system runs alongside the old until you switch. After launch we stay on, so you're never left holding software nobody looks after.
Who owns it and who looks after it?
You own the software and your data. Ongoing support is optional and arranged separately, so you can keep Putti on for updates and improvements, or bring it in house. Settle ownership, source-code access and hosting in writing before the build starts, as you would with any software supplier. That answers the two questions buyers worry about most: what happens if something breaks, and what happens if we part ways.
Which software is worth replacing?
This is far from a complete list. These are the categories where we most often see ageing, expensive software holding businesses back.
- Low-code platforms such as OutSystems. Licence costs that climb with usage, and apps you can't move elsewhere.
- Ageing CRMs. Heavily customised, hard to change, and priced per seat.
- ERP modules. Replace the module that doesn't fit, keep the rest of the system.
- Industry-specific software. Clinic and vet management, trades and construction job management, freight and logistics, membership and association systems.
- Spreadsheet, Access and FileMaker systems. Business-critical tools that one person understands.
- Customer and partner portals. The most common first step when replacing a core system gradually.
How does AI-assisted delivery change the maths?
Putti combines experienced human developers with the productivity of AI. This isn't vibe coding. The result is enterprise-grade software suited to mission-critical, scalable and security-conscious use.
Quality AI-assisted development isn't as fast as cutting corners, but it still reduces the total cost of designing and building custom software. That's what moves a replacement from too expensive to worth pricing. If you're paying more each year for a subscription that was never built for you, book a free discovery call and we'll put the two columns side by side. If what you need is new software rather than a replacement, see web applications.
