What you're choosing between
Most owner-operators I meet think they have three options: keep what they have, hire a freelancer, or hire someone in-house. There are six. Here's an honest map.
Hurrah.dev
$250 to $500/mo
A custom app and the developer who maintains it. One subscription. Code is yours.
Stay on what you have
$0 (visible)
Keep the spreadsheet, Access DB, paper, aging app. Free. And rotting. 20 to 30% of B2B deals are lost to "do nothing" per April Dunford.
Industry SaaS that almost-fits
$50 to $500/user/mo
Kareo, Mitchell, BuilderTrend, ServiceTitan, Jobber, Procore, Toast, Square. Mature products. Your business bends to fit the template.
Freelance developer
$2k to $15k project
One-time project. Direct access while they're around. Then they disappear and you're on your own when something breaks.
In-house developer
$80k to $150k/yr fully loaded
Full control. Hard to hire, harder to keep. Most small businesses under $5M revenue can't justify the cost or the management overhead.
Agency
$20k to $50k+ project
Diverse team, polish. Account managers, change orders, scope creep. 4 to 12 month timelines, then a maintenance retainer.
(No-code platforms like Bubble, Retool, and Airtable are a distant 7th option. When they make sense, in a moment.)
Detailed Comparison
Recommended
Hurrah.dev$250 to $500/mo |
Do nothing$0 (visible) |
Industry SaaS$50 to $500/user/mo |
Freelancer$2k to $15k |
In-house dev$80k to $150k/yr |
Agency$20k to $50k+ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing & Costs | ||||||
| Setup / Implementation | $0 | $0 | $0 to $10k | $2k to $15k upfront | $10k to $30k hiring | $20k to $50k+ |
| Monthly cost (10 users) | $250 to $500 flat | $0 visible | $500 to $5,000 | $0 (unless ongoing) | $8k to $13k payroll | $1k to $5k retainer |
| First year total | $3k to $6k | $0 visible (5 to 20 hrs/wk burned) | $5k to $50k | $2k to $15k | $90k to $180k | $30k to $100k+ |
| Hidden costs | None | 5 to 20 hrs/wk of duct tape; system rots | Plugins, custom modules, side spreadsheets | Maintenance after handoff, scope creep | Recruiting, benefits, management, attrition | Change orders, hosting, ongoing maintenance |
| Ownership & Control | ||||||
| Own your source code | Yes | N/A | No | Usually | Yes | Yes |
| Own your data | Your Azure/SQL | Yes (it's already yours) | Their servers | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Vendor lock-in risk | None | Locked into status quo | High; rebuild to leave | Low | Low | Low (in code) |
| Customization flexibility | Unlimited | None | Template limits | Full | Full | Full |
| Timeline & Process | ||||||
| Time to launch | 4 to 6 weeks | Instant; the system stays where it is | 2 to 8 weeks (configuration) | 2 to 8 weeks | 3 to 6 months hire + ramp | 4 to 12 months |
| Who does the work | Mike (done-for-you) | Your team, manually | You configure; their support | Freelancer (then nobody) | Your hire (you manage them) | Agency team (account-managed) |
| Learning curve for you | None | None (you already know it) | Weeks of admin training | None | You manage the developer | None |
| Support & Relationship | ||||||
| Direct developer access | Always | No developer | Support tickets | While they're around | Yes | Through account managers |
| Ongoing maintenance included | Yes | N/A | Bugfixes only | Project-based | Yes (it's their job) | Retainer or hourly |
| Small changes included | Yes | N/A | Not customizable | New SOW | Yes | Change orders |
| Technical Considerations | ||||||
| Technology stack | .NET, Azure, SQL Server | Whatever you have today | Proprietary | Varies | Whatever they pick | Varies |
| Any developer can maintain | Yes (.NET) | N/A | Locked in | Depends on stack | Depends on stack | Usually |
Hurrah.dev
$250 to $500/mo flat
Do nothing
$0 visible
Industry SaaS that almost-fits
$50 to $500 per user/mo
Freelance developer
$2k to $15k project
In-house developer
$80k to $150k/yr fully loaded
Agency
$20k to $50k+ project
If you do nothing
The most common option, and the one most owner-operators don't realize they're choosing.
Here's what your next 12 months look like:
- 5 to 20 hours a week, every week, on the duct tape that holds your current setup together.
- One person who fully understands the spreadsheet, the Access database, the aging app. They go on vacation; the business slows down.
- A customer gets charged twice, or an order gets dropped, or a compliance deadline slips. Four hours figuring out what happened.
- The system rots a little. Next year's migration is harder than this year's. The year after that, harder still.
- A senior developer or an industry-SaaS vendor eventually charges you twice what it would have cost to build the right thing now.
Doing nothing is the right choice if your current pain is under 5 hours a week and you don't see the workload growing. For everyone else, it's the most expensive option in this comparison; the costs are just hidden in calendar time and stress.
Which option is right for you?
Choose Hurrah.dev if
- You can name the system that runs your business AND the pain it causes
- You want a custom app without a $20k upfront commitment
- You value direct access to the developer who builds and maintains it
- You can't justify hiring an in-house developer (yet)
- You want one phone number, one subscription, no surprise invoices
Stay where you are if
- Your current pain is under 5 hours a week
- The workload isn't growing
- The person who knows the system isn't a single point of failure
- You don't lose customers or compliance deadlines because of it
Pick industry SaaS if
- Your business genuinely fits the template (not "almost-fits")
- You're willing to bend a few workflows to match what the SaaS does
- You don't need integrations beyond what they ship
- You can swallow per-user pricing as you grow
Hire a freelancer if
- You have a one-time, well-scoped project
- You don't need ongoing maintenance after delivery
- You're comfortable being on your own when it breaks
- Your budget is fixed and small
Hire in-house if
- You're past $5M revenue and your software is core to the business
- You can manage a developer (different skill from running your business)
- You can offer competitive pay, benefits, and an interesting roadmap
- You're prepared to recruit again in 18 to 36 months when they leave
Hire an agency if
- You have $20k to $50k+ budget and can wait 4 to 12 months
- You need a large team with diverse specialties
- You're comfortable working through account managers
- You're building something complex enough to warrant the overhead
Try a no-code platform (Bubble, Retool, Airtable) if
A distant 7th option for the kind of business we serve, but legitimate in the right context.
- You want to build it yourself and have time to learn
- You're prototyping an idea and the production version will be different
- Your needs genuinely fit their templates
- You don't mind being locked into the platform
The bottom line
Every option on this page has its place. Industry SaaS works when your business actually fits the template. Agencies are right for $50k+ projects with hard requirements. Freelancers are fine for one-shot work. In-house developers are the right call once you're big enough to manage them.
For most small businesses with one fragile thing that's holding them back, Hurrah.dev is built around the gap the other six options leave: a custom app and the developer who maintains it, billed monthly, on a stack any .NET developer could pick up tomorrow. Built. Hosted. Monitored. Updated. Integrated. Fixed. Supported. One phone number.
Are you an agency or MSP looking for a development partner? Learn about our partnership program
30 minutes. You show me your current setup. I tell you what I'd build first. You walk away with a one-page plan whether or not we work together.