With tools like Notion, Airtable, spreadsheets, AI, and templates everywhere now, it feels like a lot of people could technically build their own CRM.

So if you ended up paying for a CRM instead of building one yourself:

What was the deciding factor?

What problem were you trying to solve?

Was it saving time, integrations, support, reliability, something else?

And looking back, was it the right decision?

Would love to hear real experiences from business owners, consultants, agencies, freelancers, or anyone who has gone through that decision.