Why most businesses don’t actually need a “unique” backend
Source: Dev.to
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. 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.
- A distinctive interface and a well‑thought‑out user experience.
- An unusual presentation, a unique interaction logic, or a recognizable brand style.
- 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.
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 % of 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, with attributes, filters, and categories.
- 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.
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.” 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 fo… (the original text cuts off here; continue as needed).
Custom Backend: When Is It Really Needed?
Why Custom Back‑ends Often Become a Burden
- Teams focus on opportunities rather than on consequences.
- Time‑to‑market, maintenance costs, continuous improvements, and refactoring are usually considered later.
- Few plan for the risk of team turnover – today one group builds the system, tomorrow another inherits it.
- The original team’s compromises and technical debt keep growing like a snowball.
What starts as a simple scaling task can quickly require:
- Architectural redesign
- New budgets
- Additional time
A few years later, the “unique” backend stops being an advantage and becomes an anchor that holds the business back.
When a Custom Backend Is Actually Justified
It’s important to be honest with ourselves: custom development is действительно needed, but far from every case. It makes sense when:
- The product revolves around a unique algorithm or intellectual property.
- The backend is the heart of the business, not just infrastructure.
- Real‑time operation under extreme loads makes every millisecond critical.
- The solution relies on complex financial, mathematical, or scientific logic that can’t be expressed with standard tools.
- The backend itself is the core value customers are paying for.
Reality check: most e‑commerce and digital projects don’t fall into this category. Their true value lies in the service, product, and user experience, not in a unique server‑side architecture.
The Modern Alternative to Custom Development
The market already offers a solution: backend platforms, API‑first solutions, composable architectures, and configurable business‑logic systems.
- Idea: instead of rebuilding the foundation each time, use a ready‑made one and adapt it to your needs.
- Benefit: businesses can focus on what really matters – the product, customers, and growth – rather than maintaining another “unique” piece of infrastructure.
Where Does OneEntry Fit Into All of This?
OneEntry exemplifies a platform‑based approach that covers typical backend scenarios without building everything from scratch.
- Not a store template or website builder – it’s a full‑fledged infrastructure platform.
- Provides 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 for any frontend.
- Configuration‑driven: instead of rewriting code, businesses configure rules and processes.
- Developer freedom: full control on the frontend side.
- Business advantage: predictable, scalable growth without unpleasant surprises.
Questions to Ask Before Choosing Custom Development
Before investing in a “unique backend,” pause and answer these honestly:
- What exactly is truly unique about our product?
- Can this uniqueness be expressed through rules and configurations rather than 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?
These questions often prove more important than any technical argument, helping you distinguish a real need for custom development from the привычка of doing things “the old way.”
Conclusion
We’re convinced that most businesses do not need a unique backend. What they truly need is a reliable, scalable, and manageable foundation that lets them grow their product and team with confidence.
- Uniqueness should live in the product, customer experience, and speed of decision‑making.
- Real competitive advantage comes from those areas, not from infrastructure that must be rewritten every few years.
We hope this article was useful and helped you view backend architecture from a different perspective. If you’d like to try our product or simply discuss your project, we’re happy to answer your questions, share our experience, and help you determine the best approach for your business.