Myths of custom development and the role of templates and repeatable scenarios
You can hear the phrase “our business is different, we need a unique backend” in almost every second digital project. It is usually said with confidence, sometimes even with pride, as if it were a badge of quality, a marker of seriousness and ambition. And we understand where this comes from. Behind these words is often a sincere desire to build a product professionally: reliable, scalable, ready for growth and resilient to external risks.
If you also factor in how much money has been invested and how much time has been spent, it becomes clear why entrepreneurs associate these investments so directly with the importance of the result and the fulfillment of their ambitions. The more resources poured into a project, the stronger the belief that it simply has to be “really great” and meaningful.
And indeed, back in the 2010s, custom development looked like a symbol of maturity and seriousness, almost the only “right” path. Having your own backend meant you hadn’t used a ready-made template or website builder. It meant real engineering, tailored to the nuances and actual needs of your business.
But in 2026, this logic increasingly works against businesses. Instead of the expected advantage, companies face longer launch timelines, growing budgets, and technical debt that accumulates faster than real business results. And the uniqueness they fought so hard for suddenly turns from a growth engine into a burden, with little tangible business value.
What businesses actually mean by “uniqueness”
When entrepreneurs talk about uniqueness, they most often do not mean the backend at all. In almost every case, they are referring to what the customer sees and what truly differentiates the product in the market.
- This could be a distinctive interface and a well-thought-out user experience, an unusual presentation, a unique interaction logic, or a recognizable brand style.
- Or it could be unique marketing: a non-standard sales funnel, a specific tone of communication, a particular way of attracting and retaining customers.
- Sometimes uniqueness lies in the niche itself or in a rare combination of services that no one else offers in the same way.
But if we are honest, none of these differences actually require a unique server-side architecture. Market rules can change many times a year, execution scenarios may shift, and internal business processes evolve, but the mechanics behind them remain the same. In simple terms, what is truly unique is the set of rules, not the engine that executes them. The backend, in this case, should remain a reliable, standardized, and universal tool that quietly does its job in the background.
80% backend tasks repeat from project to project
If you set industry specifics aside and look at e-commerce and digital services as a whole, the picture turns out to be surprisingly similar. The same basic building blocks migrate from one project to another, like pieces of a constructor that are simply assembled in a different order each time. Almost every product has users, roles and access levels, catalogs of products or services, attributes, filters and categories. There are orders, statuses, cancellations and returns, payments, partial charges and refunds (because you can’t avoid them), promotions, discounts and coupons. Content pages and SEO structures, integrations with CRM, ERP and payment systems are also part of this standard set.
The composition of these blocks hardly ever changes. What does change is their configuration: the rules, connections, scenarios and priorities. The foundation itself remains the same. That is why, in practice, what turns out to be truly unique is not the backend, but how these standard elements are combined and what business scenarios are built on top of them.
The main myths of custom backend development
Myth 1. “Our own backend means maximum flexibility”
It sounds logical: if the system is built specifically for you, then you can do anything. In practice, however, this “flexibility” very quickly runs into reality. It is limited by budget, by the speed of the team, and by how many changes the business is actually willing to pay for. Every new idea stops being a simple configuration task and turns into a full development job. It has to go into the backlog, be estimated, wait in line, and get a budget approved. As a result, flexibility exists only as long as there are enough resources to pay for it.
Myth 2. “Ready-made solutions will definitely limit us”
Limitations do not appear because a solution is ready-made. They arise when a platform has a rigid architecture, cannot be extended, or lacks a proper API. Modern backend platforms moved away from fixed logic a long time ago. They are built around configuration, rules, and scenarios. Not “the way developers designed it,” but “the way the business configures it.” And this is a fundamental difference.
Myth 3. “Custom is cheaper in the long run”
In reality, the opposite happens more and more often. Every year, maintenance becomes more expensive. Dependency on specific developers grows, especially on those who know the system from the inside. Any scaling requires architectural changes. After two or three years, a custom backend rarely looks “cheap.” More often, it turns into one of the biggest expense items in the budget.
Myth 4. “It’s safer this way”
Security is not about hand-written code at all. It is about processes, regular audits, updates, and reliable infrastructure. Platforms that serve hundreds or thousands of clients invest in security systematically. Not “when there is spare time,” but as a core part of the product. That is why their level of protection is often higher than in isolated custom projects.
The price of “uniqueness” that businesses usually don’t account for
When the decision is made to build everything from scratch, the focus is most often on opportunities rather than consequences. How long it will actually take to get to market is usually considered later, just like the real cost of maintenance, endless improvements, and refactoring. Few people plan in advance for the risk of team changes. Today one group of developers is working on the project, tomorrow another. Meanwhile, the system remains shaped by the decisions of the first team, their compromises, and their technical debt, which keeps growing like a snowball.
What initially seemed like a simple scaling task suddenly requires architectural redesign, new budgets, and even more time. As a result, a few years down the line, the “unique” backend stops being an advantage and turns into an anchor that holds the business back.
When a custom backend is actually justified
It is important to be honest with ourselves. Custom development is действительно needed, but far from in every case. It is justified when the product itself is built around a unique algorithm or intellectual property, when the backend is not just infrastructure but the very heart of the business. Custom solutions make sense if the system operates in real time under extreme loads, where every millisecond matters. They are also necessary when a product is based on complex financial, mathematical, or scientific logic that simply cannot be expressed through standard scenarios. Or when the backend itself is the core value of the product, the very thing customers are paying for.
But the truth is that most e-commerce and digital projects do not fall into this category. Their real value lies in the service, the product itself, and the user experience, not in a unique server-side architecture.
The modern alternative to custom development
The market has already provided an answer to this problem. Instead of endlessly building everything from scratch, backend platforms, API-first solutions, composable architectures, and systems with configurable business logic have emerged. The idea is simple and pragmatic: instead of rebuilding the foundation every time, use a ready-made one and adapt it to your specific needs.
This approach allows businesses to focus on what really matters: the product, the customers, and growth, rather than on maintaining yet another “unique” piece of infrastructure.
Where does OneEntry fit into all of this
OneEntry is an example of a platform-based approach that covers typical backend scenarios without the need to build everything from scratch. It is not a store template and not a website builder, but a full-fledged infrastructure platform.
In essence, it is a ready-made backend for e-commerce and content-driven projects, a set of modules with built-in business logic, and an API-first architecture on top of which you can build any frontend. Instead of rewriting code, businesses configure rules and processes. Instead of endless custom development, they manage logic through configurations. Developers gain full freedom on the frontend side, while the company gets a predictable and scalable growth system without unpleasant surprises.
Questions to ask before choosing custom development
Before investing in a “unique backend,” it is worth pausing and honestly answering a few questions.
- What exactly is truly unique about our product?
- Can this uniqueness be expressed through rules and configurations rather than through tons of code?
- How much will system maintenance cost in two years?
- What happens if the current development team changes?
- Can we start with a platform and refine it gradually as we grow?
Sometimes these questions turn out to be more important than any technical arguments. They help distinguish a real need for custom development from the привычка of doing things “the old way.”
Conclusion
We are convinced that most businesses do not actually need a unique backend. What they really need is a reliable, scalable, and manageable foundation that allows them to grow their product and team with confidence. True uniqueness should live in the product itself, in the customer experience, and in the speed of decision-making. That is where real competitive advantage is created, not in infrastructure that has to be rewritten every few years.
We hope this article was useful for you and helped you look at backend architecture from a different perspective. If you decide to try our product or simply want to discuss your project, we will be happy to answer your questions, share our experience, and help you figure out which approach will work best for your business.
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