通用软件开发：
通用软件开发是由开发软件产品的开发人员执行的过程。通常，该产品适用于在一段时间内市场有积极需求的所有类型的业务需求。软件开发公司自行开发通用软件，并将其处理给具有类似需求的一组客户。
定制软件开发：
客户软件开发是公司为个人客户开发产品的一种机制。个人客户可以是一家公司或一群人。该产品大多在有限的时间内在市场上有明显的需求，并且是针对专门的业务需求。软件开发公司以特定客户的成本开发定制软件。
让我们看看通用软件开发和自定义软件开发之间的区别：
| S.No. | Generic software product development | Custom software development |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | The generic software development is done for developing a general purpose software. | Customer software development is done to develop a software product as per the needs of particular customer. |
| 2. | In this development process, the software developers have to depict the end-users specifications. | In this development process, the the end-user requirements can be aggregated by communicating by them. |
| 3. | From designing and marketing perspective, this type of development is very difficult. | This development does not require marketing, because it is developed for appropriate group of users. |
| 4. | Large number of users may be using this kind of software. | This type of software is used by limited number of users. |
| 5. | Quality of the product is not a preference for generic software. | Quality is the main criterion in customer software product.Best quality of the product is focused for customer or company. |
| 6. | Development team controls the process of generic software development. | Customer determines the process of software development in this type of product. |
| 7. | Generally the software developed is economical.There may be some hidden costs such as installation and implementation cost. | Software product is of high cost as the particular product for customer is developed. |
| 8. | Example of generic software product development is Word-editing software. | Inventory control and management system are examples of customer software development. |