Own Your CRM. Never Rent It Again.
By Jacques M. Jean, Founder and CEO, TechFides. Last updated .
An owned CRM is built for your business, runs on hardware in your building, and belongs to you once the build is paid for. There is no per-user license. TechFides quotes one fixed price based on scope. Bought on its own, once that price is paid, monthly support is optional and the CRM keeps running without it. Your customer list never leaves your office.
Key takeaways
- Rented CRMs charge per user, every month, forever. Salesforce Pro Suite and HubSpot Sales Hub Professional both list at about $100 per user per month.
- A TechFides CRM has no per-user license. You pay one fixed price for the build, quoted from your scope before work starts.
- Once the build is paid in full, the application is yours. Drop support and it keeps running.
- For a standalone CRM build, monthly support is optional once the build is paid. Inside a Sovereign plan, the flat monthly is part of the plan: it is what keeps your whole back office matching a business that keeps changing.
- Every plan includes the CRM. Extra features are there from day one and you pay to open the ones you want.
- Your contacts, deals and notes live on hardware you own. TechFides has no remote access to them.
- It is not for everyone. If you live inside a large app marketplace, or you have two users and simple needs, a rented or free CRM may serve you better.
What does it mean to own your CRM?
Owning your CRM means the software runs on a machine you own, your customer data stays in your building, and nobody charges you for each person who logs in. Renting means all three belong to a vendor.
Most businesses never chose to rent. It is simply how CRMs are sold. You sign up, you add your team, and the invoice grows with every hire. Your customer list, the most valuable file in the company, sits on someone else's servers under someone else's terms.
TechFides builds the CRM as one part of your back office, next to the phones, the follow-ups and the reports. It runs on the same hardware, inside your network, configured around how your business actually sells.
What does a rented CRM really cost?
A mid-tier rented CRM costs about $100 per user per month. For a 10-person team that is $12,000 a year, and it rises every time you hire.
| Team size | Salesforce Pro Suite | HubSpot Sales Hub Professional | TechFides optional support |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 users | $500 a month | $500 a month | $500 a month (Sovereign S) |
| 10 users | $1,000 a month | $1,000 a month | $1,000 a month (Sovereign M) |
| 25 users at one site | $2,500 a month | $2,500 a month | $1,000 a month (Sovereign M) |
| What the monthly fee buys | Permission to log in | Permission to log in | Support, changes, fixes and updates for your whole back office |
| If you stop paying | You lose access | You lose access | The CRM keeps running. It is yours. Standalone builds can drop support; Sovereign plans keep it. |
| One-time cost | Implementation is quoted separately | $1,500 onboarding fee | One fixed build price from your scope. Sovereign plans start at $5,000 and include hardware you own. |
Read that table honestly. At 5 and 10 users the monthly number is about the same. The difference is what it buys, and what happens when you stop. A rented CRM charges for permission to log in, and the day you stop paying, you are locked out of your own customer list. TechFides support pays for people who keep your whole back office running, and the day you stop paying, nothing switches off.
The gap opens as you grow. At 25 users a rented CRM costs $30,000 a year. A flat fee does not move. List prices are as published by Salesforce and HubSpot in September 2026. HubSpot's rate is for monthly billing, and it drops to $90 with an annual contract. Check current pricing before you decide, because both vendors change it often.
What do you pay TechFides for?
You pay one fixed price for the build, quoted from your scope before any work starts. Once it is paid in full, the application is yours. The monthly fee is for service, never a license. Whether it is optional depends on what you bought.
- The build, one time. A lump sum based on scope. As part of a Sovereign plan, setup starts at $5,000 for offices of up to 5 people, $10,000 for a full team at one site, and $15,000 and up for multiple sites. The hardware is yours from day one.
- Standalone CRM build: support is optional once the build is paid. $500 a month and up, flat. When you need a field added, a pipeline stage changed or a bug chased down, this is what pays for it.
- Sovereign plan (CRM plus AI front office, automation and marketing): the flat monthly is part of the plan. A back office is not a finished object. Clients refine their workflows for months, staff need training, and the system has to keep up. That work is the plan.
- Feature unlocks. Optional. You pay to open a feature when you want it.
- Major customization. Quoted separately, with a fixed scope.
What happens if you stop paying for support?
Nothing switches off. Once the agreed build price is paid in full, the CRM is yours and it keeps running on your hardware. For a standalone CRM build, support after that point is your choice.
This is the line no rented CRM can match. Stop paying Salesforce or HubSpot and you lose access to your own customer records. Stop paying TechFides for support and you simply stop getting changes and fixes from us.
Most clients keep support anyway, for a plain reason. A business never stands still. You add a service, change a sales process, hire a manager who wants a new report. Support is how the CRM keeps up with the company.
One honest distinction. If your CRM is part of a Sovereign plan with the AI front office and automation, the monthly fee is part of that plan, not an add-on. A full back office is shaped around your team over months, with training and constant adjustment, and that work is what the plan pays for. What never changes in either case: the software is yours, and it does not stop running when a payment does.
How do the locked features work?
Every TechFides CRM ships with the full feature set already in place. Sovereign S starts with the core features switched on. You pay to unlock the others when your business is ready for them.
This keeps the starting price low for a small office. A five-person practice does not need territory rules or advanced forecasting on day one, and should not pay for them. When you do need one, nothing has to be rebuilt. We switch it on.
Sovereign M opens most features from the start. On any plan, you choose what to unlock. There is no bundle that forces ten features on you to get the one you wanted.
Where does your customer data live?
On hardware in your building, behind your firewall. It is not exposed to the internet, and TechFides has no remote access to your contacts, deals or notes.
For a law firm, a medical practice or a financial advisor, that is often the whole argument. Your client list is confidential by duty, not by preference. With a rented CRM you are trusting a vendor's security, a vendor's staff and a vendor's terms of service. With an owned CRM the list stays where your other confidential files already are.
Who should keep renting?
Keep renting if your team depends on a large marketplace of third-party apps, if you have one or two users with simple needs, or if nobody in your company wants a machine on site.
- App marketplaces. Salesforce and HubSpot connect to thousands of tools out of the box. We build the connections you need, but we do not match that catalog.
- Very small teams. Both vendors offer free plans for one or two users. If that covers you, use it.
- Hardware on site. An owned CRM lives on a machine in your office. It needs power, a safe place and a backup plan. If that is unwelcome, ask us about a hosted private setup instead.
How do you move off Salesforce or HubSpot?
We import your existing records as part of the build. Salesforce, HubSpot and most older systems let you export contacts, companies and deals as standard files, and we bring them into your new CRM. A typical system goes live in about one week.
Plan the move around your renewal date. Most paid Salesforce and HubSpot plans run on annual contracts, so the cheapest day to switch is the day the old contract ends. Start the conversation 60 days before that.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a per-user fee?
No. TechFides never charges per user, for the build or for support. Add a person to your team and nothing changes on your bill.
If there is a monthly fee, how is this not renting?
The monthly fee pays for service, not a license. A rented CRM charges for permission to use the software, multiplied by every user, and locks you out when you stop. With TechFides, once the build is paid in full the application is yours and keeps running on your hardware. For a standalone CRM build, support after that is optional. Inside a Sovereign plan, the monthly is part of the plan because the whole back office keeps being shaped around your team.
Who owns the CRM?
You do. TechFides quotes one fixed price based on your scope. Once that price is paid in full, the application belongs to you, along with the hardware it runs on and all the data inside it.
Do I have to pay to unlock features?
Only the ones you want. Every plan includes the CRM with its core features switched on. Additional features are already in place and you pay to open them when you need them. Sovereign M opens most of them from the start.
Can TechFides see my customer data?
Not when your system runs on-premise. It sits behind your firewall and is not exposed to the internet, so TechFides has no remote access to your contacts, deals or notes.
How long does it take to switch?
A typical system goes live in about one week from signed scope. We import your contacts, companies and deals from your old system as part of the build. Time the switch for your current CRM renewal date to avoid paying twice.
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