Building a client portal or CRM: cost, timeline and what to look for

What is a client portal, and what is a CRM?

A client portal is a secure space where your customers log in to see and manage their own information: project status, documents, invoices, appointments or requests.

A CRM is your side of it: customer details, contact history, quotes, invoices and scheduling in one place. The two often go together: you work in the CRM, your customer sees their part in the portal. Together they replace the emails, loose links and spreadsheets you send back and forth today.

What drives the price?

1. Roles and permissions. Just customers and an admin is simpler than customers, staff, managers and external partners who each see something different.
2. Integrations. We connect accounting, calendars, email and payments whenever those systems offer an API or webhooks. Each integration is extra work, but it removes retyping.
3. Workflows and documents. Quotes customers accept online, invoices generated from an accepted quote, notifications when a status changes: that takes more logic than a place to store documents.
4. Security and data. At Vorteca, authorisation is enforced at row level in the database, not just in the interface, and data is hosted in the EU by default. Every project goes through a security review before launch.

How does the project run?

It starts with an intake where we map your goals, scope and processes. You then receive a proposal with a price and a schedule with fixed milestones. We build in iterations, so you can test along the way instead of seeing everything only at launch. A security review comes before go-live, and after that we keep developing together.

Custom or off-the-shelf?

Off-the-shelf software charges per user per month, for as long as you use it. Custom software is a one-off investment with a fixed monthly fee underneath. So custom costs more up front, but usually less per month: with a growing team the numbers often tip within two years.

Off-the-shelf is the smarter choice when your process works exactly the way the package does. Custom pays off when you are working around your tools today, or when the system is part of what sets you apart.

Real-world examples

• Beauty Salon by Maxime's: a booking portal where customers schedule their own appointments online, backed by an admin portal for the calendar, treatments and customer records. Confirmations, change and cancellation emails and a reminder 24 hours ahead go out automatically.
• An operations portal for an aviation company: flight handling, end-of-day reporting, rosters and procedures in one place, replacing spreadsheets and email. Duty managers, operations staff and management each have their own view and permissions.

Both systems install as an app straight from the browser, no app store needed. Read more in PWA or native app.