Build vs buy: when does custom software actually make sense over SaaS tools?
We're juggling like 4-5 different SaaS tools right now and honestly it's getting messy and expensive per seat every month. At what point does it actually make sense to just build something custom instead of stacking more subscriptions on top of each other?
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Honestly it comes down to simple math most of the time. Add up what you're paying across all those tools every month, then ask if that beats building and owning one thing instead. If your workflow's pretty standard, SaaS usually wins, that's literally what it's built for. But the second you're bending your process to fit the tool instead of the other way around, that's usually the sign. We've had clients switch after realizing they were paying for 5 tools just to patch around the 20% that didn't fit.
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We went custom after outgrowing like 3 different tools and honestly it paid for itself in under a year. But I'll be real, that's only because our process was weird enough that nothing off the shelf actually fit us properly.
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One thing people never factor in, even if you buy, you're still paying devs to connect all your SaaS tools together anyway. Factor that into the price before you compare sticker numbers.