Build vs buy: the question we get asked the most

The honest answer

Most of the time, you should buy. We say this even though we make our living building bespoke software, because telling you the truth is the only way we get the next conversation.

Off-the-shelf software has had thousands of customers shape it. It's tested, documented, and someone else maintains it. If 80% of what you need is solved by a £40/month SaaS, that's almost always the right answer.

When buying stops working

The conversation changes when one of three things is true:

1. Your business has a real edge in how it operates — and the off-the-shelf software is forcing you to operate like everyone else
2. You've outgrown the SaaS — you're paying for 12 seats but using it like an enterprise system, and it's starting to creak
3. The integration tax has become unbearable — you have eight tools that almost talk to each other, and your team spends more time copying data than using it

If two of those three apply, bespoke usually pays for itself within 18 months.

The framework we actually use

When a prospect asks us "should we build this?", we walk through five questions:

1. What does this process do for the business?

If it's just a thing the business has to do (payroll, statutory filing, expense reports), buy. There's no edge to be gained.

If it's how the business actually competes (your unique fulfilment workflow, your particular pricing model, the thing customers come to you for), bespoke becomes a serious option.

2. How well does the off-the-shelf option fit?

Not "could we make it fit", but "does it fit". If you're already three plug-ins, two custom fields and a Zapier integration deep into a SaaS, that SaaS isn't really fitting anymore.

3. What's the cost of the workarounds?

Add up the spreadsheets, the email chains, the "Sarah just knows how to do that" institutional knowledge, the re-keying. In hours per week, then in salary cost per year. Most businesses are quietly paying £50k-£200k a year in workaround tax without realising it.

4. How long do you expect the process to last?

Bespoke software pays back over years, not months. If the process you're automating might not exist in 18 months, don't build it. If it's been the shape of the business for the last decade and isn't going anywhere, building it properly compounds in value.

5. Do you actually want to own it?

This is the question nobody asks first, but it matters. Bespoke software is yours. You can change it. You can sell the business with it. You're not beholden to a vendor's roadmap. For some businesses that's a feature, for others it's a burden.

How to decide

You don't need a 40-page evaluation matrix. You need:

• An honest read on the cost of doing nothing (the workaround tax)
• A clear-eyed view of what off-the-shelf can and can't do for your specific shape
• A right-sized estimate of what bespoke would actually cost (not the consultant's-eye view)

That last one is what a discovery sprint is for. Two weeks, a fixed price, and at the end of it you have enough information to make the call confidently — even if the call is "let's stick with what we have".

We've talked plenty of clients out of building software. It's the only way to have the conversation honestly.