On this page · 7 sections
- SaaS goes live in days; an agency build typically takes 2–4 months.
- With SaaS, price and option changes are self-serve and same day.
- An agency build gives code ownership but also every future change request.
- Choose an agency build only if the configurator is your core differentiator.
A SaaS configurator is software you subscribe to and set up yourself; an agency build is bespoke software a studio builds for you and bills you to change. For most outdoor-structure sellers SaaS wins on time to live and the cost of changes, while an agency build makes sense when the configurator itself is your core differentiator. This guide compares the two side by side on time, ownership, changes and risk, and says plainly where each one wins.
Side by side
| SaaS configurator | Agency build | |
|---|---|---|
| Time to live | Minutes to assemble, days to price and launch | 2–4 months typical |
| Upfront cost | None, or a small setup fee | €10,000–€40,000 |
| Ongoing cost | A few hundred €/month, all-in | Hosting + retainer for changes |
| Ownership | You own your data; vendor owns the platform code | You (often) own the code, if contracted that way |
| Making a change | Self-serve settings, same day | Change request, billed, queued |
| New product/option | Pick from a parametric template, set your sizes | New modelling job, billed separately |
| Updates (new features) | Shipped to all customers automatically | You pay again for new capability |
| Risk if the builder disappears | None: platform keeps running | Code you own still runs, but no one maintains it without a new contract |
| Best fit | Pergolas, verandas, carports, garden rooms and similar outdoor structures sold direct or via dealers | A configurator that’s your core IP and sole differentiator, with a dev team budgeted long-term |
Time to live
This is the most visible difference and often the most consequential. A SaaS configurator comes with the hard part (the parametric 3D engine, the pricing logic, the request form, the quote system) already built. Your job is to set your sizes, name your options, enter your prices and go live. That’s an afternoon of work for most product ranges, not a development project.
An agency build starts from close to zero: discovery, 3D modelling of your specific products, building the pricing logic, building (or integrating) a request/quote flow, testing, and launch. Two to four months is realistic for a first working version covering one or two product lines; wider ranges take longer. If you need to be live for a season (spring for pergolas and verandas, for instance) that timeline can mean missing it.
Ownership
An agency build, contracted correctly, can mean you own the code outright. That’s a real asset if the configurator is central to your competitive position and you plan to invest in it for years. It also means you own every future obligation: hosting, security patches, browser compatibility, and anyone who built it eventually moving on to another project or firm.
A SaaS configurator means you don’t own the platform code. You’re renting it, same as any other SaaS tool. What you keep is your data (your products, prices, customer requests, quotes) and the ability to export or walk away on a monthly contract. For most businesses, not owning the underlying 3D engine is a non-issue, in the same way most businesses don’t own their email or accounting software’s codebase.
Changes
This is where the gap compounds over time. In a SaaS product, adding a RAL colour, adjusting a price per metre, renaming an option, or switching a product from live pricing to “from” pricing is a settings change you make yourself, same day, at no extra cost. In an agency build, each of these typically goes through a change-request process. A ticket, a quote for the hours, a place in the development queue. Individually small; cumulatively, over a year of normal trading (supplier price changes, seasonal option additions, wording fixes after customer feedback), this is often where an agency build’s true cost shows up. Our guide to what a product configurator costs has the worked numbers.
Risk
A SaaS vendor going out of business or discontinuing the product is a real risk, worth asking about (how long has the vendor operated the product, what’s the data export path). An agency build has a mirrored risk: the agency or freelancer who built it moves on, and “you own the code” doesn’t mean you can maintain or extend it without hiring someone new to learn an unfamiliar codebase. Often at a premium over what the original build cost.
Neither path is risk-free. The practical question is which risk you’re better placed to manage: a vendor relationship you can end on a monthly contract, or a codebase you own but may need to re-staff.
Where an agency build genuinely wins
If the configurator experience itself is your product’s entire differentiator, not “we sell pergolas and also have a configurator” but “our configurator is the reason customers choose us over anyone else”, and you have the budget and in-house or retained development capacity to keep extending it indefinitely, a bespoke build gives you things a shared SaaS platform can’t: pixel-level custom interaction design, integration with a proprietary ERP or pricing system no SaaS vendor will build for, or a 3D experience with a mechanic no existing template covers.
That’s a narrow case. For most pergola, veranda, carport, garden-room, fence and gate, awning and terrace-cover sellers, the configurator is one part of the sales process, not the whole business, and a parametric SaaS platform covering sizing, pricing, requests, quotes, follow-ups and production sheets solves that part faster and cheaper than building it from scratch.
Where SaaS wins
Everywhere the comparison table above says it does: time to live, cost of changes, no modelling backlog for new products, automatic updates as the vendor ships new features, and a flat, predictable monthly cost instead of an open-ended development relationship. You can build your configurator yourself and see; the questions to ask any vendor are in the 3D configurator buyer’s guide.
nextconfiguratorNext Configurator is one plan: €499 a month or €4,999 a year (excl. VAT), every feature included, 14-day free trial, no setup fee. See pricing.
