Automation guide
Should we buy a workflow automation platform or build a custom workflow system?
Buy a workflow automation platform such as Kissflow when your requests and approvals follow common patterns and you want business teams building their own processes soon. Build a custom workflow system when one process matters more than the rest and keeps moving out of the tool, because over five years the platform keeps charging by user or by plan and the system you own does not.
| What you are comparing | A product | A custom build |
|---|---|---|
| Cost over five years | A subscription or annual agreement every year, sized by users, automation volume or package, plus the time your people spend building and maintaining workflows. The total grows as more staff take part. | A one-time build scoped in writing, then running costs such as hosting. No licenses, so the total does not grow when more employees use it. |
| Per-seat fees | Common. Power Automate Premium is charged per user and paid yearly, and Pipefy bills its Business plan per user. Others quote an annual figure, such as Nintex, which publishes only a yearly starting price. | None. Every employee can submit, approve and view without a license, and adding a department adds no fee. |
| Fit to your process | You model the process with the forms, stages and routing the platform provides. Exceptions it cannot model move to email or a spreadsheet beside it. | Built from the process as you run it, including the exceptions, stand-in approvers and data from other systems. |
| Time to launch | A simple request form can be live quickly on a self-serve plan. A company-wide rollout with security review, training and many processes is a separate project. | Starts with discovery and a written scope. You see working screens during the build, and the schedule is set in that scope. |
| Who can change it | Business users on the self-serve tools, and administrators or a central team on the larger platforms, within what the plan allows. | A developer, working from a change you describe. Black Badger writes the code so that any competent developer can maintain it. |
| Limits and caps | Set by plan. Pipefy caps automation jobs at 300 a month on Business, and Power Automate Premium allows 40,000 Power Platform requests a day for each user. | No plan caps. Capacity is a matter of the hosting you choose, which you control and pay for directly. |
| Vendor risk | Prices, packages and limits are the vendor's to change, and several vendors here sell fixed annual agreements. | No vendor to renew with. You own the code and every account, so the remaining risk is keeping a maintainer, which that ownership is meant to cover. |
When a workflow automation platform is the right answer
Buy a platform when you have many ordinary processes. Leave requests, equipment orders and simple sign-offs look much the same in every company, and a platform handles them well for a known fee.
Buy when you want business teams to own their workflows. A tool that operations can change on its own is worth more to them than a perfect system that needs a developer for every tweak.
When building a custom workflow system is the right answer
Build when one process matters more than the rest and no tool has held it. The signs are a spreadsheet that tracks what the tool cannot, approvals that happen by email anyway, and a new hire who needs long coaching to learn the workarounds.
Build when the process sets your company apart. If the way you take in work, approve it and hand it off is part of why customers choose you, renting a generic version of it removes that difference.
Build when per-user pricing meets a process everyone touches. A license for every employee who might submit one request a year is a poor use of money.
How to compare the cost of a workflow automation platform with a custom build
Count everyone the process touches as well as the builders. Price the platform for that headcount at the plan with the features you need, over five years, and add the hours spent maintaining workflows.
The custom number is a one-time build plus running costs. Black Badger does not publish a price, because the figure depends on how many steps, roles and connected systems the process has. A written scope gives you the number to set beside the platform total.
What a custom build involves, and how to ask about one
Questions buyers ask
Is a custom workflow system cheaper than a workflow automation platform?
No, a custom workflow system is not cheaper than a platform for a few simple processes, and a platform is the sensible choice. For one important process used by most of the company, the comparison often reverses over several years. The platform fee repeats and grows with headcount, while a build is paid for once.
Can a custom workflow system and a workflow platform run side by side?
Yes, a custom workflow system and a platform can run side by side. A company can keep a platform for everyday requests and own the one or two processes that set it apart. The systems can pass work to each other.
What if our workflow changes after a custom workflow system is built?
A custom workflow system changes when your workflow changes. You own the code, so nothing stops a change except the work of making it. Changes are scoped and built as you need them.