Should you build it or buy it?
Quick, data-driven guidance on whether to build a feature in-house or buy an existing solution. See cost and timeline tradeoffs.
Describe the feature you are thinking about building.
Examples: "payment processing", "email notifications", "user search", "analytics dashboard"
The Build-vs-Buy Framework
Core to your product?
YES - If it is central to what you do, build it. You need full control.
NO - If it is a commodity feature, buy it. Focus on your magic.
Hiring + Training Cost
Cost = (dev cost) + (time to hire) + (time to train)
Cost = (tool cost/month) × (months until profit)
Time to production
Months to build, test, and deploy (and debug)
Days to integrate and go live
Maintenance burden
Your team owns all bugs, updates, and scaling
Vendor owns it, you focus on your product
Competitive advantage
YES if it differentiate you. NO if it is table stakes.
Yes if the tool you buy is better than what you would build.
Common Examples
Payment processing
Stripe or Razorpay. Compliance and fraud are expensive.
Email sending
SendGrid or Resend. Deliverability is critical.
Analytics
Mixpanel or PostHog. Focus on your product, not tracking.
Search functionality
Algolia or MeiliSearch. Relevance matters.
User authentication
Auth0 if you need SSO. Self-host if you need control.
File storage
S3 or Cloudinary. Handling scale is hard.
Evaluating a tool?
Use StackPick to scope what you would build. Compare that cost to the tool cost.
[ Get your free scope → ]