Build vs Buy
12 posts in this category.
5 Signs Your Business Has Outgrown SaaS
Your SaaS bill is climbing faster than headcount. You're stitching four tools together with spreadsheets. The reports you need don't exist. Here are five concrete signals your business has crossed the line — and the math for what to do about it.
Build vs Buy: 4 Questions to Ask Before Deciding
The build-vs-buy debate gets stuck because the question is framed as binary when the real decision rarely is. Replace it with these four questions — competitive advantage, 5-year cost, workaround tax, exit story — and the answer becomes obvious.
Custom POS Systems: When Retail Outgrows Square and Shopify
For most retailers in their first five years, Square or Shopify POS is the right answer. Then growth changes the math. Multi-location operations, custom inventory workflows, specialised promotions — eventually generic POS shapes how you do business instead of the other way around. Here are five signs.
5 Workflows in Healthcare That Off-the-Shelf EHRs Cannot Handle
Most clinics aren't bottlenecked on clinical software anymore. The bottleneck is operational: scheduling, billing, patient communication, supply chain, staff coordination. EHRs weren't designed for this. Here are five workflows where custom software augments — not replaces — your EHR.
Custom Software vs Salesforce: When Building Beats Buying
Salesforce starts cheap. At scale, a 50-person Enterprise team is $99k/year in licensing alone, often more once you add what you actually need. Here is when custom CRM beats Salesforce, when it doesn't, and the hybrid path most enterprises eventually take.
Custom CRM for Real Estate: 5 Workflows Generic CRMs Cannot Handle
Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive — all built on a sales funnel that assumes 'lead → opportunity → close.' Real estate doesn't work that way. Transactions involve buyers and sellers, often the same person at different times. Listings have their own lifecycle. Commissions split across parties. Here are five workflows where custom beats generic.
The Real Cost of SaaS Customisation: When You Are Already Building Custom Software
There is a moment when companies realise their 'SaaS subscription' actually involves $80k/year of custom consulting on top of $40k/year of licensing — and they think this is different from building custom software. It isn't. It's custom software, built on someone else's platform, paid for at premium rates, with vendor lock-in attached.
Custom Software for Logistics: 5 Workflows Generic TMS Cannot Handle
For most logistics operators above 50 vehicles or 500 daily shipments, generic TMS software starts becoming a constraint rather than an asset. Here are five workflows where custom beats generic — and what it costs to build at three different scopes.
Custom Software for E-commerce: When Shopify Isnt Enough
Shopify Plus + apps can easily exceed $7-12k/month at mid-market scale. Add a constrained checkout, limited B2B pricing, and inventory that doesn't fit — and the platform that helped you get started becomes the constraint. Here are five signs you've outgrown Shopify and what custom alternatives cost.
Custom Software for Manufacturing: Where ERP-Plus-Excel Stops Working
Most mid-market manufacturers run on ERP plus 5-15 Excel spreadsheets that fill the gaps. The Excel layer is where the real operational intelligence lives — and where most mistakes happen. Here are five workflows where custom software replaces the Excel layer without replacing the ERP, and what it costs.
Custom Software vs No-Code Platforms (Bubble, Webflow, Retool): A 2026 Comparison
No-code platforms have matured significantly. They're also genuinely limited in ways that matter once you scale. Here's an honest comparison of when no-code wins and when it doesn't — for internal tools, MVP SaaS, and production-scale apps — with the cost math at each scope.
Custom Software for Financial Services: Beyond the Banking Stack
Most mid-market FIs run on core banking + 5-15 vendor SaaS + custom integration code. The integration layer is where the inefficiency lives. Five workflows where custom financial services software pays back, what it costs, and the compliance overhead baked into every build.