21 articles tagged with "Build Vs Buy"
The talent question for growing businesses: hire AI specialists, train existing team, or partner with experts? Real salary data, role definitions, and when each approach makes sense.
Your existing employees can learn AI effectively without becoming prompt engineers. Practical training approaches, tools for non-technical backgrounds, and building an AI-capable culture.
Framework for making build/buy decisions without technical expertise. Questions to answer, factors to weigh, when speed beats ownership, and when ownership beats convenience.
Real case study of custom development economics. Initial investment, ongoing maintenance costs, feature evolution, and 5-year comparison showing custom pays for itself in 24 months.
Understanding AWS cost structure for business owners without technical backgrounds. Data egress fees, idle resources, and why cloud costs spiral without constant vigilance.
Monday.com's pricing looks simple until you need actual features. Understanding per-seat costs, feature gatekeeping, and why companies often switch after year one.
The real cost of automation at scale. How Zapier grows from $30 to $500 per month, why task limits bite, and when custom integration pays for itself in 6 months.
Actual spreadsheet analysis comparing custom development vs. SaaS platforms. Development costs, maintenance, opportunity cost, platform pricing escalation, and break-even points for different scenarios.
Growing e-commerce business outgrowing Shopify limitations. When migration made sense, custom platform architecture, maintaining sales during transition, and 3.2x revenue growth enabled. $340K investment, 14-month timeline, transformational results.
Failed outsourced development project that burned $180K and delivered nothing usable. Warning signs missed, communication breakdowns, technical debt accumulated, and the expensive do-over.
Side-by-side comparison of two similar companies: one built custom, one bought SaaS. Real costs, capabilities, and total investment over 36 months. The numbers tell the real story.
SOC 2 is expensive and time-consuming. When customers actually require it vs. when alternatives work, what\s involved in the process, real costs and timelines, and lighter-weight security certifications.'
Complete financial analysis of a SaaS audit and consolidation project for a 75-person company. Eliminated 23 tools, renegotiated 12 contracts, saved $67K annually with 8-month payback period.
Complete technical architecture of microservices implementation for 100-person SaaS company. Real service boundaries, inter-service communication patterns, data management strategies, $310K build cost, operational overhead, and when monoliths are actually better.
Stop guessing whether to build custom software or buy SaaS. This structured framework with 15 critical questions gives you an objective answer based on your business reality, not vendor promises.
Sometimes your business genuinely doesn't fit the template. Learn when "industry standard" software won't work, how to recognize legitimate uniqueness vs. special snowflake syndrome, and when to build custom.
Before spending $50K+ on custom software, validate your assumptions with a prototype. Learn how to test business logic cheaply, prove value before investing, and de-risk custom development decisions.
Use headless CMS for content management infrastructure, build custom frontend for unique experiences. Learn when this approach works, how to choose headless CMS, and execution best practices.
Building custom software is just the beginning. Ownership means maintenance, updates, security, and evolution. Learn the real ongoing costs and responsibilities of owning custom code.
Start with SaaS to get to market fast, then migrate to custom when you hit scale. Learn how to execute this hybrid strategy without getting trapped, when to make the switch, and avoiding technical debt.
You have Salesforce, QuickBooks, Shopify, email marketing, and project management tools. None of them sync properly. Learn integration patterns in plain English and when Zapier is enough versus when you need something better.