We are not going to pretend subscribing is always wrong. For a lot of operators it is exactly right, and we say so on the first call. But the comparison is usually presented by someone selling a subscription, so here is the other side of it.
What a subscription actually costs
Compliance software is normally priced per site, per user, or both. The number that matters is not the monthly figure, it is the monthly figure multiplied by however long you intend to stay in business.
Run the arithmetic on your own quote. Take the monthly cost, multiply by your number of sites, multiply by thirty six. That is your three year number, and it is the one to compare against a build. Then add the thing nobody quotes: the hours your team spends working in a second system alongside the one they already use.
Subscriptions also tend to rise, and they rise at the point where switching is hardest, which is after your compliance history lives inside them.
What an integration actually costs
A one-off build, then very little. The build does not care how many movements you put through it, and it does not grow when you hire someone or open another site.
Be honest about the ongoing part though. Defra will change the specification, especially between Phase 1 and Phase 2, and something has to keep pace with that. Either you have someone internal who can, or you keep a small care retainer. Anyone quoting you an integration with no ongoing cost at all is not telling you the whole story.
The questions that actually decide it
- Do you already have software your team works in every day? If no, subscribe. You are not buying compliance, you are buying the system you were missing anyway.
- How many sites? One site makes subscriptions look cheap. Four makes them look very different.
- Who owns your compliance history? If it sits in a vendor's platform, leaving later means leaving it behind or paying to export it.
- Is your current system worth keeping for the next five years? If you were going to replace it anyway, integrating into it is money spent twice.
The honest summary
If you have no system, buy one. If you have a system you are committed to, and more than one site, integrating is usually cheaper inside two years and always cheaper by year three. If you have one site and a system you half like, it is genuinely a close call, and we will tell you that rather than talk you into a build.
Want the numbers for your setup? Send us your quote and how many sites you run. We will put both routes side by side over three years and tell you which we would pick. No charge, and no obligation to build anything with us. Send it over