{ "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "count": 54, "tools": [ { "name": "1Password", "slug": "1password", "category": "Passwords & security", "verdict": "BUY", "headline": "Buy it. You should not build a password manager, and the Teams Starter Pack is $24.95 a month for 10 people.", "from_price": "$24.95/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": null, "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/1password/", "summary": "A 5-person team pays about $900 over 3 years on the Teams Starter Pack, which covers 10 people for a flat $24.95 a month on yearly billing. Bitwarden Teams at $4 a user saves about $5 a month at 5 people and costs more past 6. Building a team vault would cost about $7,700 over 3 years and puts your company’s passwords in code you wrote yourself.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "official", "plans": [ { "name": "Teams Starter Pack (10 people included)", "monthly_annual_billing": 24.95, "monthly_monthly_billing": 29.9, "per_seat": false } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "Bitwarden", "kind": "open-source", "price": "Free plan; Teams $4/user/mo billed yearly", "note": "Cheaper than the Starter Pack up to 6 people, with code you can audit; the apps are plainer than 1Password’s.", "url": "https://bitwarden.com/pricing/business/" }, { "name": "KeePassXC", "kind": "open-source", "price": "Free", "note": "Free and offline, but it has no built-in sync or team sharing, so you pass a database file around yourself.", "url": "https://keepassxc.org/" } ], "downgrade_tip": "A solo user can take 1Password Individual from $2.99 a month on yearly billing, which is the new-customer price.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 898, "build": 7705, "assumptions": "typical plan, 5 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 100, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 4, "scope": [ "An encrypted vault for each person, with keys that never leave the browser", "Shared vaults with role-based access", "A browser extension for autofill", "A password generator and breach alerts", "An invite flow and admin recovery" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Years of security audits and bug fixes", "Autofill that works on every site and app", "Mobile apps with biometric unlock", "Single sign-on, recovery and activity logs for admins" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Encryption design", "level": "high", "note": "A mistake in key handling can expose every password you store." }, { "label": "Account recovery", "level": "high", "note": "Lose the master key and the data is gone, while weak recovery lets attackers in." }, { "label": "Autofill coverage", "level": "medium", "note": "Filling logins on every site and app takes years of fixes." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "There is no realistic flip to BUILD. Bitwarden Teams is cheaper only up to 6 people, so switch to it if you want open-source code you can audit or you have a very small team.", "sources": [ { "label": "1Password business pricing", "url": "https://1password.com/pricing/business" } ] }, { "name": "Adobe Creative Cloud", "slug": "adobe-creative-cloud", "category": "Design & creative", "verdict": "SWITCH", "headline": "Switch to Affinity. It is free for photo, vector and layout work, against $69.99 a month for Creative Cloud Pro.", "from_price": "$19.99/seat/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": null, "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/adobe-creative-cloud/", "summary": "Creative Cloud Pro costs $69.99 a month on an annual plan, about $2,520 over 3 years for one person. It includes 20-plus apps, 4,000 monthly generative credits and 100 GB of storage, and you pay for all of it even if you use two apps. Affinity is free for individuals and covers photo editing, vector art and page layout, and Canva Pro adds templates for $12 a month. If you need Photoshop itself, a single-app plan costs $22.99.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "official", "plans": [ { "name": "Photography plan (1 TB)", "monthly_annual_billing": 19.99, "monthly_monthly_billing": null, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Photoshop (single app)", "monthly_annual_billing": 22.99, "monthly_monthly_billing": null, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Creative Cloud Pro", "monthly_annual_billing": 69.99, "monthly_monthly_billing": 104.99, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Creative Cloud Pro for teams", "monthly_annual_billing": 99.99, "monthly_monthly_billing": null, "per_seat": true } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "Affinity", "kind": "free", "price": "Free for individuals", "note": "Covers photo editing, vector art and page layout in one free app, but it may not open every client PSD or AI file cleanly.", "url": "https://www.affinity.studio/" }, { "name": "Canva Pro", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "$12/mo billed yearly ($18 monthly)", "note": "Templates, social graphics and quick video edits for far less, but not Photoshop-level retouching or print layout.", "url": "https://www.canva.com/pricing/" }, { "name": "DaVinci Resolve", "kind": "free", "price": "Free version; Studio is a one-time purchase", "note": "A pro video editor, color grader and audio tool with a free version, but it replaces Premiere Pro, not Photoshop.", "url": "https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve" }, { "name": "GIMP and Inkscape", "kind": "open-source", "price": "Free (open source)", "note": "Open-source photo and vector editors that cover everyday work, but with a steeper learning curve.", "url": "https://www.gimp.org/" } ], "downgrade_tip": "If you only use one app, Photoshop alone is $22.99 and the Photography plan with Lightroom and 1 TB is $19.99, both far below Creative Cloud Pro at $69.99.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 2520, "build": 3925, "assumptions": "typical plan, 1 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 40, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 2, "scope": [ "A batch tool that resizes, crops and converts images", "Background removal using an open-source model", "Logo and watermark overlays from templates", "PDF merge, split and compress" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Photoshop-grade retouching and layers", "Illustrator and InDesign for print-ready layouts", "Premiere Pro and After Effects for video", "Adobe Fonts, Stock and generative credits" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Feature depth", "level": "high", "note": "Pro image editing took Adobe decades. A homemade tool covers a few routine jobs at best." }, { "label": "File formats", "level": "medium", "note": "PSD, AI and INDD files from clients will not open in your own tool." }, { "label": "Upkeep", "level": "medium", "note": "Image libraries and models need regular updates." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Switch to BUY if you use Photoshop, Premiere or After Effects every day, or clients send you PSD and AI files to edit. Then a single-app plan usually beats Creative Cloud Pro.", "sources": [ { "label": "Creative Cloud plans (Adobe US checkout)", "url": "https://commerce.adobe.com/store/segmentation?cli=adobe_com&co=US&ctx=acom&lang=en&ms=COM&ot=BASE&pa=phsp_direct_individual" }, { "label": "Creative Cloud Pro", "url": "https://www.adobe.com/cis_en/creativecloud/pro.html" }, { "label": "Creative Cloud plans", "url": "https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/plans.html" } ] }, { "name": "Ahrefs", "slug": "ahrefs", "category": "SEO, social & analytics", "verdict": "SWITCH", "headline": "Switch to Mangools, and use Ahrefs Free for audits. You’d pay $26 a month instead of $108.", "from_price": "$29/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "Ahrefs Free: site audit, backlinks and keywords for sites you verify", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/ahrefs/", "summary": "Ahrefs Lite is $108 a month on annual billing ($129 monthly), about $3,900 over three years for one user. Most small teams use it for keyword research, rank tracking and their own site’s backlinks and audits. Mangools covers research and tracking for $26.35 a month, and Ahrefs Free audits the sites you verify for $0. You can’t build the backlink index yourself, so a homemade version isn’t a real option.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "official", "plans": [ { "name": "Starter", "monthly_annual_billing": 29, "monthly_monthly_billing": null, "per_seat": false }, { "name": "Lite", "monthly_annual_billing": 108, "monthly_monthly_billing": 129, "per_seat": false }, { "name": "Standard", "monthly_annual_billing": 208, "monthly_monthly_billing": 249, "per_seat": false }, { "name": "Advanced", "monthly_annual_billing": 374, "monthly_monthly_billing": 449, "per_seat": false } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "Mangools", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Premium: $26.35/mo billed yearly ($40.50 monthly); Basic $18.85", "note": "Keyword research, rank tracking and a backlink checker at a quarter of Lite’s price, with a smaller backlink index.", "url": "https://mangools.com/plans-and-pricing" }, { "name": "Ahrefs Free", "kind": "free", "price": "Free for sites you verify", "note": "A site audit plus backlink and keyword data for your own sites, but no competitor research.", "url": "https://ahrefs.com/webmaster-tools" }, { "name": "Google Search Console", "kind": "free", "price": "Free", "note": "Shows the queries, clicks and indexing problems for your own site, with no competitor data.", "url": "https://search.google.com/search-console/about" } ], "downgrade_tip": "Starter at $29 a month is enough for basic keyword and competitor lookups, and Ahrefs Free covers your own site’s audit, backlinks and keywords at no cost.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 3888, "build": 8005, "assumptions": "typical plan, 1 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 50, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 4, "scope": [ "A rank tracker for your keywords using a SERP data API", "A crawler that flags broken links, missing titles and slow pages", "Backlink and keyword lookups from a paid data API", "Search Console data pulled into one dashboard" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Ahrefs’s own web crawler and backlink index", "Site Explorer and competitor research", "Keyword difficulty scores and clustering", "Brand Radar for AI search" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Backlink data", "level": "high", "note": "Ahrefs runs its own web crawler, and you’d rent a thinner copy of that data through an API." }, { "label": "API costs", "level": "medium", "note": "Per-query fees grow with the keywords and domains you track." }, { "label": "Upkeep", "level": "medium", "note": "Crawlers and rank trackers need constant tuning as search results change." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Switch to BUY if backlink research drives your work, such as link building or competitor analysis. The index behind Ahrefs is what you pay for, and cheaper tools have smaller ones.", "sources": [ { "label": "Ahrefs pricing", "url": "https://ahrefs.com/pricing" } ] }, { "name": "Airtable", "slug": "airtable", "category": "Automation & databases", "verdict": "BUILD", "headline": "Build it for one stable workflow. Five editors on Team cost about $3,600 over 3 years.", "from_price": "$20/seat/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "1,000 records per base, 1 GB of attachments and 100 automation runs a month", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/airtable/", "summary": "Many teams run one core workflow in Airtable: a lightweight CRM, an inventory list, a content calendar. Once the fields stop changing, a small internal app on Postgres does the same job with proper permissions and no per-seat bill.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "official", "plans": [ { "name": "Team", "monthly_annual_billing": 20, "monthly_monthly_billing": 24, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Business", "monthly_annual_billing": 45, "monthly_monthly_billing": 54, "per_seat": true } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "Baserow", "kind": "open-source", "price": "Free to self-host (MIT); cloud free plan with 3,000 rows; Premium $10/user/mo billed yearly", "note": "The closest open-source match to Airtable’s tables and views, though it has fewer apps and extensions.", "url": "https://baserow.io/pricing" }, { "name": "NocoDB", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Free for up to 3 users; Plus $12/seat/mo billed yearly; self-hosted Community is free (fair-code)", "note": "Puts an Airtable-style grid on a database you control, but Plus caps you at 50,000 records and 20 GB.", "url": "https://nocodb.com/pricing" }, { "name": "Google Sheets", "kind": "included", "price": "Free with a Google account; included in Google Workspace", "note": "Enough for simple lists and tracking, but it has no linked records or form-to-record views.", "url": "https://workspace.google.com/products/sheets/" } ], "downgrade_tip": "If each base stays under 1,000 records, the free plan is enough. Team raises the limit to 50,000 records per base.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 3600, "build": 2485, "assumptions": "typical plan, 5 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 16, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 1, "scope": [ "Your workflow’s tables in Postgres (Supabase)", "The forms and list or board views your team actually uses", "Roles and row-level security", "CSV import from your Airtable base" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Changing fields and views on the fly without a developer", "Interfaces, automations and extensions", "Thousands of integrations", "Free read-only seats (Airtable only bills editors)" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Schema changes", "level": "medium", "note": "New fields now need a developer (or a prompt)." }, { "label": "Migration", "level": "medium", "note": "Check the imported data carefully before switching off Airtable." }, { "label": "Permissions", "level": "medium", "note": "Get row-level security right before inviting the team." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Switch to BUY if your team still changes the structure every week, or if only one or two people edit.", "sources": [ { "label": "Airtable pricing", "url": "https://www.airtable.com/pricing" }, { "label": "Airtable plans (support article)", "url": "https://support.airtable.com/docs/airtable-plans" } ] }, { "name": "Asana", "slug": "asana", "category": "Project management", "verdict": "SWITCH", "headline": "Switch to ClickUp or Trello. ClickUp’s free plan has no member cap, and Trello costs $5 a user against Asana’s $10.99.", "from_price": "$10.99/seat/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "2 users, unlimited tasks and projects, and list, board and calendar views", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/asana/", "summary": "Asana Starter costs $10.99 per user per month, about $1,980 over 3 years for five people. Trello Standard is $5 a user, about $900 for the same team, and ClickUp’s free plan has no cap on members. ClickUp imports Asana projects directly. Building your own task manager would cost about $2,700 over 3 years, so building loses.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "official", "plans": [ { "name": "Starter", "monthly_annual_billing": 10.99, "monthly_monthly_billing": 13.49, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Advanced", "monthly_annual_billing": 24.99, "monthly_monthly_billing": 30.49, "per_seat": true } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "ClickUp", "kind": "free", "price": "Free Forever plan has unlimited members; paid plans from $7/user/mo billed yearly", "note": "Imports Asana projects directly, but the free plan has only 60 MB of storage and limited automations.", "url": "https://clickup.com/pricing" }, { "name": "Trello", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Free for up to 10 collaborators; Standard $5/user/mo billed yearly", "note": "Simpler boards and cards, and the Calendar and Timeline views need Premium at $10.", "url": "https://trello.com/pricing" }, { "name": "Microsoft Planner", "kind": "included", "price": "Included in Microsoft 365 business plans, from $7/user/mo billed yearly", "note": "A good fit if you already pay for Microsoft 365, but it is much lighter than Asana.", "url": "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/business/microsoft-365-business-basic" } ], "downgrade_tip": "A team of one or two can stay on the free plan, which keeps unlimited tasks and projects.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 1978, "build": 2725, "assumptions": "typical plan, 5 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 30, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 1.5, "scope": [ "Projects with list and board views", "Tasks with assignees, due dates, subtasks and comments", "Email and in-app notifications", "A My Tasks view and simple team permissions" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Timeline and Gantt views, reporting dashboards and forms", "Unlimited automations and custom templates", "Slack, Google Drive and 100+ other integrations", "Mobile apps with push notifications" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Real-time sync", "level": "medium", "note": "Two people editing the same task is where homemade boards break." }, { "label": "Notifications", "level": "medium", "note": "Email and push alerts need a sending service and care to stay out of spam folders." }, { "label": "Mobile", "level": "medium", "note": "A good phone experience is real extra work." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Switch to BUY if you rely on Advanced features such as Portfolios, Goals and workload views, which cheaper tools handle less well. Switch to BUILD only if tasks are part of your own product.", "sources": [ { "label": "Asana pricing", "url": "https://asana.com/pricing" } ] }, { "name": "beehiiv", "slug": "beehiiv", "category": "Email marketing", "verdict": "BUY", "headline": "Buy it, but stay on the free plan until you need paid subscriptions or automations.", "from_price": "$49/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "Up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited email sends", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/beehiiv/", "summary": "beehiiv is free up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends. Lite costs $49 a month at 1,000 subscribers on yearly billing, about $1,760 over three years, and adds automations, paid subscriptions at a 0% take rate and the ad network. A homemade newsletter platform would cost about $4,600 over the same period, and deliverability and payments stay your problem. Ghost (41% less) and Kit (33% less) are worth a look if you don’t use the ad network.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "official", "plans": [ { "name": "Lite, 1,000 subscribers", "monthly_annual_billing": 49, "monthly_monthly_billing": 59, "per_seat": false }, { "name": "Lite, 2,500 subscribers", "monthly_annual_billing": 69, "monthly_monthly_billing": 79, "per_seat": false }, { "name": "Pro, 1,000 subscribers", "monthly_annual_billing": 95, "monthly_monthly_billing": 109, "per_seat": false }, { "name": "Pro, 2,500 subscribers", "monthly_annual_billing": 129, "monthly_monthly_billing": 149, "per_seat": false } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "Ghost", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Ghost(Pro) Publisher: $29/mo billed yearly for 1,000 members; free to self-host", "note": "Paid subscriptions with 0% fees on your own site, but you give up beehiiv’s ad network.", "url": "https://ghost.org/pricing/" }, { "name": "Substack", "kind": "free", "price": "Free to publish; Substack keeps 10% of paid subscription revenue", "note": "Costs nothing until you charge readers, but you give up beehiiv’s automations and ad network.", "url": "https://substack.com/" }, { "name": "Kit", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Creator, 1,000 subscribers: $33/mo billed yearly; free up to 10,000", "note": "Built around automations and selling to your audience, but it has no ad network like beehiiv’s.", "url": "https://kit.com/pricing" }, { "name": "MailerLite", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Comfort, 1,000 subscribers: $17.10/mo billed yearly; free up to 250", "note": "Best if you send a plain newsletter with automations, since it has no ad network.", "url": "https://www.mailerlite.com/pricing" } ], "downgrade_tip": "The Free plan covers up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends, so stay there until you need automations, paid subscriptions at a 0% take rate or the ad network.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 1764, "build": 4645, "assumptions": "typical plan, 1 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 40, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 2.5, "scope": [ "A newsletter editor and public archive on your own domain", "Signup forms that write to your own subscribers table", "Sending through an email API with unsubscribe and bounce handling", "Paid subscriptions through Stripe Checkout", "A basic stats page for opens and clicks" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "beehiiv’s ad network and recommendation network", "Built-in growth tools such as polls and referrals", "A podcast host and website builder in the same plan", "Sending infrastructure with an established reputation" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Deliverability", "level": "high", "note": "A new sending setup lands in spam easily, and a fresh domain takes weeks to warm up." }, { "label": "Paid subscriptions", "level": "high", "note": "Billing means failed cards, refunds, tax and disputes, and every one lands on you." }, { "label": "Growth network", "level": "medium", "note": "Recommendations and ads are why many creators pick beehiiv, and you can’t copy a network." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Switch to Ghost or Kit if you don’t use the ad network or automations. Either would save $580 to $720 over three years.", "sources": [ { "label": "beehiiv pricing", "url": "https://www.beehiiv.com/pricing" } ] }, { "name": "Buffer", "slug": "buffer", "category": "SEO, social & analytics", "verdict": "BUY", "headline": "Buy it. At $25 a month for five channels, Buffer costs less than the API breakage you’d chase.", "from_price": "$15/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "3 channels with 10 scheduled posts each", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/buffer/", "summary": "Buffer charges $5 per channel a month on yearly billing, so five channels cost $25, about $900 over three years. The Free plan covers three channels with 10 scheduled posts each. A scheduler is easy to draw, but posting to Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok and X means API approvals and rule changes on every platform, and a build would cost about $4,800 over the same period.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "official", "plans": [ { "name": "Essentials, 3 channels", "monthly_annual_billing": 15, "monthly_monthly_billing": 18, "per_seat": false }, { "name": "Essentials, 5 channels", "monthly_annual_billing": 25, "monthly_monthly_billing": 30, "per_seat": false }, { "name": "Essentials, 10 channels", "monthly_annual_billing": 50, "monthly_monthly_billing": 60, "per_seat": false }, { "name": "Team, 5 channels", "monthly_annual_billing": 50, "monthly_monthly_billing": 60, "per_seat": false } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "Meta Business Suite", "kind": "free", "price": "Free for Facebook and Instagram", "note": "Enough if you only post to Facebook and Instagram, but it doesn’t cover LinkedIn, TikTok or X.", "url": "https://business.facebook.com/" }, { "name": "SocialPilot", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Essentials: $17/mo billed yearly for 5 accounts ($20 monthly)", "note": "About a third cheaper at five accounts, though the saving is only $8 a month.", "url": "https://www.socialpilot.co/pricing" }, { "name": "Metricool", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Free: 1 brand and 20 posts a month; Starter from $20/mo billed yearly", "note": "Adds analytics and reports, but the free plan leaves out LinkedIn and X.", "url": "https://metricool.com/pricing/" }, { "name": "Postiz", "kind": "open-source", "price": "Free to self-host; hosted from $23/mo billed yearly for 5 channels", "note": "An open-source scheduler, but self-hosting means you handle each network’s app approval yourself.", "url": "https://postiz.com/pricing" } ], "downgrade_tip": "The Free plan is enough if you post a few times a week on up to three channels, since it allows 10 scheduled posts per channel at a time.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 900, "build": 4825, "assumptions": "typical plan, 1 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 40, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 3, "scope": [ "Connect accounts with OAuth for two or three networks", "A calendar and queue that publishes at set times", "Image and link uploads with a preview per network", "A simple list of results pulled from each network" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Support for every network and every post type", "Mobile apps and the browser extension", "Analytics, hashtag manager and first-comment scheduling", "Team approvals and a shared community inbox" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Platform APIs", "level": "high", "note": "Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok and X each need app approval and change their rules often." }, { "label": "Silent failures", "level": "medium", "note": "A missed post is public, and you won’t notice without monitoring." }, { "label": "Expired logins", "level": "medium", "note": "Each network’s login expires, and someone has to reconnect it." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Switch to SocialPilot or Postiz once you manage ten or more channels: SocialPilot’s Standard plan covers 10 accounts for $34 a month, against $50 on Buffer Essentials.", "sources": [ { "label": "Buffer pricing", "url": "https://buffer.com/pricing" } ] }, { "name": "Calendly", "slug": "calendly", "category": "Scheduling", "verdict": "BUY", "headline": "Buy it. At $10 a month, Calendly costs less than fixing the bugs you’d ship.", "from_price": "$10/seat/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "1 event type and 1 calendar connection", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/calendly/", "summary": "A booking page looks simple until you have to handle two-way calendar sync, time zones, daylight-saving changes, rescheduling and reminder emails. For one person, 3 years of Calendly costs about $360. That’s less than one weekend of your time plus upkeep.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "official", "plans": [ { "name": "Standard", "monthly_annual_billing": 10, "monthly_monthly_billing": 12, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Teams", "monthly_annual_billing": 16, "monthly_monthly_billing": 20, "per_seat": true } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "Cal.com", "kind": "free", "price": "Free for individuals; Teams $12/user/mo billed yearly", "note": "Unlimited event types on the free plan; its main code went closed source in April 2026, and only the thinner Cal.diy edition stays open.", "url": "https://cal.com/pricing" }, { "name": "Google Calendar appointment schedules", "kind": "included", "price": "Free with a Google account; paid bookings and reminders need a paid plan such as Business Standard", "note": "A booking page inside the calendar you already use; it has fewer routing, reminder and CRM options than Calendly.", "url": "https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/11608416" }, { "name": "Microsoft Bookings", "kind": "included", "price": "Included in Microsoft 365 Business Basic and up (from $7/user/mo)", "note": "Booking pages that work with your Microsoft 365 calendar and add Teams links; they suit Outlook calendars better than Google ones.", "url": "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/business/scheduling-and-booking-app" }, { "name": "TidyCal", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "$29 one-time lifetime plan (about $0.81/mo over 3 years); free plan available", "note": "Syncs with Google, Microsoft and Apple calendars and takes Stripe or PayPal payments; it has fewer integrations than Calendly.", "url": "https://tidycal.com/" } ], "downgrade_tip": "The Free plan is enough if you only need one meeting type and one connected calendar.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 360, "build": 1705, "assumptions": "typical plan, 1 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 20, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 1, "scope": [ "A booking page with your availability rules", "Google and Outlook calendar connection with two-way sync", "Time-zone-aware slots, including daylight-saving changes", "Confirmation, reminder and reschedule emails", "Buffer times and daily limits" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Polished reschedule and cancel flows", "Round-robin and team routing", "HubSpot, Salesforce and Stripe integrations", "Mobile app and browser extension" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Calendar sync", "level": "high", "note": "Calendar logins expire and must refresh silently. When they don’t, people get double-booked." }, { "label": "Time zones", "level": "high", "note": "Daylight-saving and time-zone bugs show up as missed meetings." }, { "label": "Email delivery", "level": "medium", "note": "Reminder emails that land in spam defeat the point." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Switch to BUILD if booking is part of your own product, for example customers booking appointments inside your app. Even then, start from an open-source base such as Cal.diy (MIT, the community edition of Cal.com, which closed its main code in April 2026) or Easy Appointments (GPL) instead of from scratch.", "sources": [ { "label": "Calendly pricing", "url": "https://calendly.com/pricing" } ] }, { "name": "Canny", "slug": "canny", "category": "Customer support & feedback", "verdict": "BUILD", "headline": "Build it. Posts, votes and a status column are basic database work, and Pro starts at $79 a month.", "from_price": "$79/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "Up to 25 tracked users, with unlimited boards and feedback", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/canny/", "summary": "A feedback board is posts, upvotes, comments and a status field, shown as a roadmap. That’s a classic Supabase + Lovable app. Canny Pro starts at $79 a month and grows with tracked users, so the bill rises exactly when your product does.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "official", "plans": [ { "name": "Pro (starting tier)", "monthly_annual_billing": 79, "monthly_monthly_billing": 99, "per_seat": false } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "UserJot", "kind": "free", "price": "Free plan: 2 boards, 3 team members, unlimited posts and users; paid from $29/mo", "note": "A free board with voting and unlimited end users, but the free plan stops at 2 boards and 3 team members.", "url": "https://userjot.com/pricing" }, { "name": "Fider", "kind": "open-source", "price": "Free to self-host (AGPL-3.0); hosted Pro $25/mo", "note": "A plain feedback portal with posts and votes, where you run the server yourself or pay for hosting.", "url": "https://fider.io/pricing" }, { "name": "Upvoty", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Power $15/mo and Super $25/mo billed monthly; unlimited tracked users", "note": "Unlimited tracked users at a flat price, so the bill does not grow with your audience.", "url": "https://upvoty.com/pricing" } ], "downgrade_tip": "If fewer than 25 people will post, vote or comment, the free plan is enough.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 2844, "build": 865, "assumptions": "typical plan, 1 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 10, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 0.5, "scope": [ "A board with posts, upvotes and comments", "Magic-link login so each person votes once", "Statuses (Planned, In progress, Done) and a public roadmap", "Admin tools to merge or close posts, plus a simple changelog" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Autopilot: AI that pulls feedback out of support chats and calls", "Jira, Linear, HubSpot and Salesforce integrations", "Ranking requests by customer revenue", "SSO on the Business plan" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Spam", "level": "medium", "note": "Public boards need rate limits and moderation." }, { "label": "Permissions", "level": "medium", "note": "Row-level security so people can only edit their own posts." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Switch to BUY if you rely on Canny’s CRM integrations to tie feedback to revenue, or if the free tier (up to 25 tracked users) already covers you.", "sources": [ { "label": "Canny pricing", "url": "https://canny.io/pricing" }, { "label": "Canny pricing, Aug 2026 (Formbricks)", "url": "https://formbricks.com/blog/canny-pricing" } ] }, { "name": "Canva", "slug": "canva", "category": "Design & creative", "verdict": "BUY", "headline": "Buy it. Canva Pro is $12 a month, and a homemade design tool costs nearly 9 times that over 3 years.", "from_price": "$12/seat/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "Free templates and photos, with a small monthly allowance of AI uses", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/canva/", "summary": "Canva Pro costs $12 a month on annual billing, or $432 over 3 years for one person. Building a template-based design tool takes about 40 hours and costs roughly $3,700 over the same time once you add upkeep. What you would miss most is the template and stock library, which you can’t rebuild. The Free plan covers occasional posts and slides.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "third-party", "plans": [ { "name": "Pro (1 person)", "monthly_annual_billing": 12, "monthly_monthly_billing": 18, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Business (per person)", "monthly_annual_billing": 20.83, "monthly_monthly_billing": 25, "per_seat": true } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "Adobe Express", "kind": "free", "price": "Free plan; Premium about $10/mo", "note": "A close rival for social posts with a real free plan, though many of its templates and assets need the paid Premium plan.", "url": "https://www.adobe.com/express/pricing" }, { "name": "Affinity", "kind": "free", "price": "Free for individuals", "note": "Pro-grade photo, vector and layout tools at no cost, but it is a design app, not a template library.", "url": "https://www.affinity.studio/" }, { "name": "Google Slides and Vids", "kind": "included", "price": "Included in Google Workspace (plans from $7/user/mo)", "note": "Fine for slides and short videos if you already pay for Workspace, but it is not a social-graphics tool.", "url": "https://workspace.google.com/pricing" } ], "downgrade_tip": "The Free plan covers occasional posts and slides. Pro adds Brand Kits, more storage and a larger AI allowance.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 432, "build": 3745, "assumptions": "typical plan, 1 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 40, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 2, "scope": [ "A web form that fills your brand templates for posts, banners and slides", "Your logo, colors and fonts saved as a brand kit", "Export to PNG, JPG and PDF", "Stock-photo search through a free image API", "A shared folder of finished designs" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Thousands of ready-made templates", "Drag-and-drop editing with comments from teammates", "Licensed stock photos, video and music", "AI tools such as background removal and image generation" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Editor complexity", "level": "high", "note": "A true drag-and-drop editor is a large project. A form that fills templates is the realistic scope." }, { "label": "Licensing", "level": "medium", "note": "Fonts, photos and music need licenses that you now have to track." }, { "label": "Upkeep", "level": "medium", "note": "Every new format or template means more code." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Move to a SWITCH if you make only a few graphics a month and Canva Free or Adobe Express Free covers them. Switch to BUILD only if your designs are a few fixed templates that a developer on your team can fill from a form.", "sources": [ { "label": "Canva pricing", "url": "https://www.canva.com/pricing/" }, { "label": "Canva pricing 2026 (Designrr)", "url": "https://designrr.io/canva-pricing/" }, { "label": "Canva pricing, June 2026 (Presentations.ai)", "url": "https://www.presentations.ai/blog/canva-pricing" } ] }, { "name": "ChatGPT", "slug": "chatgpt", "category": "AI tools", "verdict": "BUY", "headline": "Buy it. At $20 a seat, ChatGPT Business costs less than running your own chat app on the API.", "from_price": "$8/seat/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "Limited daily messages, file uploads and image creation", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/chatgpt/", "summary": "ChatGPT Business costs $20 per seat a month on annual billing, so five people pay $3,600 over 3 years. A chat app of your own on the OpenAI API would cost about $5,200 over the same time, counting 30 hours to build, 2 hours a month to maintain and about $60 a month in hosting and API fees. It would also lack voice, deep research and connectors to your work apps. Light users can drop to the Free plan or Go at $8 a month.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "official", "plans": [ { "name": "Go", "monthly_annual_billing": 8, "monthly_monthly_billing": null, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Plus", "monthly_annual_billing": 20, "monthly_monthly_billing": null, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Business (2+ seats)", "monthly_annual_billing": 20, "monthly_monthly_billing": 25, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Pro (entry tier)", "monthly_annual_billing": 100, "monthly_monthly_billing": null, "per_seat": true } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "Gemini in Google Workspace", "kind": "included", "price": "Included in Google Workspace (plans from $7/user/mo)", "note": "Costs nothing extra if you already pay for Workspace and mostly draft and summarize, but you give up custom GPTs and Codex.", "url": "https://workspace.google.com/pricing" }, { "name": "Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat", "kind": "included", "price": "Included with Microsoft 365 business plans (from $7/user/mo)", "note": "Good if your team lives in Microsoft 365, since chat is included with business plans, though the full Microsoft 365 Copilot add-on costs $30 per user a month.", "url": "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/copilot/pricing/business" }, { "name": "LibreChat", "kind": "open-source", "price": "Free to self-host (MIT license); you pay model API fees", "note": "One chat app for OpenAI, Anthropic and Google models on your own API keys, but someone has to run the server.", "url": "https://github.com/danny-avila/LibreChat" } ], "downgrade_tip": "Give light users the Free plan or Go at $8 a month, and keep paid Business seats for the few people who use ChatGPT every day.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 3600, "build": 5245, "assumptions": "typical plan, 5 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 30, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 2, "scope": [ "Team sign-in and a chat screen with saved history", "A model picker over OpenAI, Anthropic and Google API keys", "File upload and chat with your documents", "Per-person spend limits and a monthly usage report" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Flagship models with voice, agent mode and deep research", "Connectors to Google Drive, Slack and other work apps", "Codex and custom GPTs", "A vendor that handles admin controls and data protection" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Security", "level": "high", "note": "A homemade chat app stores your team’s prompts, files and API keys." }, { "label": "Model upkeep", "level": "medium", "note": "New models, prices and API rules arrive every few months, and someone has to keep up." }, { "label": "Feature gap", "level": "medium", "note": "Voice, agents and deep research are each a project of their own." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Move to a SWITCH if your team already pays for Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 and mostly drafts and summarizes: Gemini and Copilot Chat come included, so test them for a month before you renew.", "sources": [ { "label": "ChatGPT pricing (OpenAI)", "url": "https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/pricing" }, { "label": "ChatGPT plans", "url": "https://chatgpt.com/pricing" } ] }, { "name": "Claude", "slug": "claude", "category": "AI tools", "verdict": "BUY", "headline": "Buy it. A $20 Team seat includes Claude Code, and a homemade setup on the API costs more.", "from_price": "$17/seat/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "Sonnet and Haiku models with web search and file creation, and limits that reset every 5 hours", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/claude/", "summary": "Claude Team seats cost $20 each a month on annual billing, so five people pay $3,600 over 3 years. Claude Code is included in every paid plan and shares one usage pool with chat. A front end of your own on the Anthropic API would cost about $5,200 over the same time and bill Claude Code by the token. One or two heavy users can take Pro at $17 a month instead.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "official", "plans": [ { "name": "Pro", "monthly_annual_billing": 17, "monthly_monthly_billing": 20, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Team standard seat (2+ seats)", "monthly_annual_billing": 20, "monthly_monthly_billing": 25, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Team premium seat", "monthly_annual_billing": 100, "monthly_monthly_billing": 125, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Max (5x Pro usage)", "monthly_annual_billing": 100, "monthly_monthly_billing": null, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Max (20x Pro usage)", "monthly_annual_billing": 200, "monthly_monthly_billing": null, "per_seat": true } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "Gemini in Google Workspace", "kind": "included", "price": "Included in Google Workspace (plans from $7/user/mo)", "note": "Costs nothing extra if you already pay for Workspace and mostly chat, but you give up Claude Code and Projects.", "url": "https://workspace.google.com/pricing" }, { "name": "GitHub Copilot Pro", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "$10/user/mo; Business is $19", "note": "Cheaper if you mainly use Claude for coding, but you give up Claude’s chat, Projects and writing tools.", "url": "https://github.com/features/copilot/plans" }, { "name": "LibreChat", "kind": "open-source", "price": "Free to self-host (MIT license); you pay Anthropic API fees", "note": "Runs Claude on your own API key, but someone has to run the server and Claude Code then bills by the token.", "url": "https://github.com/danny-avila/LibreChat" } ], "downgrade_tip": "Claude Free is enough for a few questions a day. Pro at $17 a month covers one heavy user, and Team only makes sense once you want central billing and SSO.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 3600, "build": 5245, "assumptions": "typical plan, 5 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 30, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 2, "scope": [ "Team sign-in and a chat screen with saved history", "Shared projects: a system prompt plus files for each project", "File upload and chat with your documents", "Per-person spend limits on one Anthropic API key" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Claude Code on a flat plan instead of per-token billing", "Projects, Artifacts and file creation built into the chat", "Connectors such as Microsoft 365 and Claude in Chrome", "A vendor that runs the security and data protection" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Security", "level": "high", "note": "A homemade app holds your team’s prompts, files and API key." }, { "label": "Cost surprises", "level": "medium", "note": "Per-token billing can pass the price of a seat for heavy users, especially with coding agents." }, { "label": "Model upkeep", "level": "medium", "note": "Models and API rules change every few months." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Move to a SWITCH if you mostly need chat and already pay for Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, since Gemini and Copilot Chat are included. It is also a SWITCH for coding if GitHub Copilot at $10 to $19 a seat covers your developers.", "sources": [ { "label": "Claude pricing", "url": "https://claude.com/pricing" } ] }, { "name": "ClickUp", "slug": "clickup", "category": "Project management", "verdict": "BUY", "headline": "Buy it, or start on the free plan. At $7 a user, ClickUp costs far less than building even a slice of it.", "from_price": "$7/seat/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "Unlimited members and tasks, 60 MB of storage and 5 active automations", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/clickup/", "summary": "ClickUp Unlimited is $7 per user per month, about $1,260 over 3 years for five people. Building your own version of its tasks, docs and time tracking would cost about $4,400 over the same period. The free plan has unlimited members and tasks, so you can start there and pay only when you need Gantt charts, goals or more than 60 MB of storage.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "official", "plans": [ { "name": "Unlimited", "monthly_annual_billing": 7, "monthly_monthly_billing": 10, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Business", "monthly_annual_billing": 12, "monthly_monthly_billing": 19, "per_seat": true } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "Trello", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Free for up to 10 collaborators; Standard $5/user/mo billed yearly", "note": "Boards and cards only, with no built-in docs, goals or time tracking.", "url": "https://trello.com/pricing" }, { "name": "Plane", "kind": "open-source", "price": "Free for up to 12 users; Pro $6/user/mo billed yearly; open source", "note": "Cycles, modules and pages for software-style teams, but integrations need Pro and it covers less than ClickUp.", "url": "https://plane.so/pricing" }, { "name": "Microsoft Planner", "kind": "included", "price": "Included in Microsoft 365 business plans, from $7/user/mo billed yearly", "note": "No extra cost if you already pay for Microsoft 365, but it is much lighter than ClickUp.", "url": "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/business/microsoft-365-business-basic" } ], "downgrade_tip": "The free plan keeps unlimited members and tasks, boards, docs and sprints, so many teams of five can start there. Unlimited adds Gantt charts, goals, time tracking and unlimited storage.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 1260, "build": 4363, "assumptions": "typical plan, 5 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 45, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 2.5, "scope": [ "Tasks with list, board and calendar views", "Custom fields and statuses", "Simple docs linked to tasks", "Time tracking and due-date reminders", "Email notifications" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Gantt charts, goals and dashboards", "Whiteboards, chat and forms in one place", "Integrations such as Slack, Google Drive and Dropbox", "Mobile apps and AI features" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Breadth", "level": "medium", "note": "ClickUp spans tasks, docs, chat and whiteboards, so a clone covers only a slice." }, { "label": "Real-time sync", "level": "medium", "note": "Several people editing a task or doc at once is where homemade tools break." }, { "label": "Permissions", "level": "medium", "note": "Guests, private lists and roles take careful testing." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Move to a SWITCH (Trello at $5) if all you use are lists and boards. Switch to BUILD only if tasks need to live inside your own product.", "sources": [ { "label": "ClickUp pricing", "url": "https://clickup.com/pricing" } ] }, { "name": "Cursor", "slug": "cursor", "category": "AI tools", "verdict": "SWITCH", "headline": "Switch to GitHub Copilot Business. At $19 a seat it costs 37% less than Cursor Teams at $30.", "from_price": "$6.67/seat/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "Limited agent and chat requests", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/cursor/", "summary": "Cursor now sells its plans inside the X Subscription, a bundle with Grok and X that launched in October 2026. Teams seats cost $30, $100 or $200 a month, and models from other vendors are billed on top at API list price. Five $30 seats cost $5,400 over 3 years, against $3,420 for five Copilot Business seats at $19. Building your own setup with an open-source agent and API keys costs about $8,800 once you add the API fees.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "official", "plans": [ { "name": "Plus", "monthly_annual_billing": 6.67, "monthly_monthly_billing": 8, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Premium", "monthly_annual_billing": 25, "monthly_monthly_billing": 30, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Teams (Premium seat)", "monthly_annual_billing": 30, "monthly_monthly_billing": null, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Super", "monthly_annual_billing": 83.33, "monthly_monthly_billing": 100, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Ultra", "monthly_annual_billing": 166.67, "monthly_monthly_billing": 200, "per_seat": true } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "GitHub Copilot Business", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "$19/user/mo; Pro is $10 for one person", "note": "Agent mode in VS Code, JetBrains and other editors with $19 of AI credits per seat, but you give up Cursor’s own editor.", "url": "https://github.com/features/copilot/plans" }, { "name": "Claude Code (in Claude Pro)", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Included in Claude Pro ($17/mo billed yearly) and Team seats ($20)", "note": "Runs in your terminal and editor on a flat plan shared with Claude chat, but you give up Cursor’s tab completions and editor.", "url": "https://claude.com/pricing" }, { "name": "Cline", "kind": "open-source", "price": "Free (Apache 2.0); you pay model API fees", "note": "A free VS Code agent that runs on your own API keys, but heavy agent use can cost more than a seat.", "url": "https://github.com/cline/cline" } ], "downgrade_tip": "The Free plan is enough to try it. Plus at $8 a month ($80 a year) covers light use, but models from other vendors need Premium or higher.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 5400, "build": 8845, "assumptions": "typical plan, 5 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 12, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 2, "scope": [ "VS Code with the Cline or Continue extension", "A shared proxy (such as LiteLLM) so one API key serves the team", "Per-developer budgets and a usage report", "A shared settings file for rules and approved models" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Cursor’s tab completions inside the editor", "Cloud agents that work on tasks in the background", "One flat seat price instead of per-token bills", "Team controls: SSO, privacy settings and usage analytics" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Security", "level": "high", "note": "Your proxy holds the team’s API keys and sees all your code." }, { "label": "Cost surprises", "level": "medium", "note": "Agent loops can burn through an API budget in a day without limits." }, { "label": "Upkeep", "level": "medium", "note": "Editor extensions and model names change often." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Switch to BUY if your developers use Cursor’s agents all day and its usage pool beats Copilot’s credits plus overage for them. Track a month of real usage on both before you decide.", "sources": [ { "label": "Cursor pricing", "url": "https://cursor.com/pricing" }, { "label": "Cursor plans and usage (docs)", "url": "https://cursor.com/docs/account/pricing" } ] }, { "name": "DocuSign", "slug": "docusign", "category": "Documents & e-signatures", "verdict": "SWITCH", "headline": "Switch to SignWell or Dropbox Sign. Both do the signing for about $10 a month, against $25 for DocuSign Standard. Do not build your own.", "from_price": "$10/seat/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": null, "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/docusign/", "summary": "To hold up under laws like the US ESIGN Act and the EU’s eIDAS, e-signatures need identity checks, tamper-evident documents and a full audit trail. Rebuilding that takes weeks, plus a legal review, so building your own is not worth it. DocuSign Standard costs $25 per user a month, or $900 over 3 years for one seat. SignWell and Dropbox Sign do the same core job for about $10 a month, so switch to one of them if the price is the issue.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "official", "plans": [ { "name": "Personal (5 envelopes/mo)", "monthly_annual_billing": 10, "monthly_monthly_billing": null, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Standard", "monthly_annual_billing": 25, "monthly_monthly_billing": null, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Business Pro", "monthly_annual_billing": 40, "monthly_monthly_billing": null, "per_seat": true } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "SignWell", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Free: 3 documents a month; Light $10/mo billed yearly ($12 monthly)", "note": "Unlimited documents and an API on paid plans, though it has far fewer integrations than DocuSign.", "url": "https://www.signwell.com/pricing/" }, { "name": "Dropbox Sign", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Essentials $10.05/mo billed yearly ($15 monthly)", "note": "Unlimited signature requests with audit trails and tamper-proof documents on every plan, but only 5 templates on Essentials.", "url": "https://sign.dropbox.com/products/dropbox-sign/pricing" }, { "name": "Documenso", "kind": "open-source", "price": "Free to self-host; hosted Free plan has 5 documents a month, paid from $25/mo billed yearly", "note": "An open-source e-signature app you can host yourself, but you handle hosting, backups and security.", "url": "https://documenso.com/pricing" }, { "name": "Google Workspace eSignature", "kind": "included", "price": "Included in Workspace Business Standard ($14/user/mo billed yearly) and up", "note": "Sign inside Google Docs and PDFs at no extra cost, but it suits simple agreements, not complex workflows.", "url": "https://workspace.google.com/pricing" } ], "downgrade_tip": "Personal at $10 a month is enough if you send fewer than 5 envelopes a month. Standard gives 100 envelopes per user per year, shared templates and custom branding.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 900, "build": 2005, "assumptions": "typical plan, 1 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 30, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 1, "scope": [ "PDF upload and signature-field placement", "Email signing links with signer identity checks", "An audit trail (who, when, IP address) and document hashing", "A completion certificate PDF" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Legal standing the other side already trusts", "Audit trails and certificates that hold up in court", "Templates, bulk send and reminders", "Salesforce, Google Drive and other integrations" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Legal validity", "level": "high", "note": "One weak spot can make a contract hard to enforce." }, { "label": "Tampering", "level": "high", "note": "Documents need to be provably unchanged after signing." }, { "label": "Security", "level": "high", "note": "Contracts are some of your most sensitive files." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Switch to BUY if your clients or legal team insist on DocuSign, or you rely on its Salesforce and bulk-send tools. Switch to HYBRID if all you need is click-to-accept on your own terms or quotes: that’s a checkbox and a timestamp in your app, not an e-signature platform.", "sources": [ { "label": "DocuSign eSignature pricing (US)", "url": "https://www.docusign.com/products/electronic-signature" }, { "label": "DocuSign plans and pricing", "url": "https://ecom.docusign.com/plans-and-pricing/esignature" } ] }, { "name": "Dropbox", "slug": "dropbox", "category": "Files & storage", "verdict": "SWITCH", "headline": "Switch to Google Drive or OneDrive. Both come in a suite that costs less than Dropbox alone.", "from_price": "$15/seat/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "Free Basic plan: 2 GB of storage", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/dropbox/", "summary": "Five people on Dropbox Standard pay about $2,700 over 3 years. Microsoft 365 Business Basic gives each person 1 TB of OneDrive for $7, and Google Workspace Standard gives each person 2 TB of Drive for $14. Both also include email and meetings. Building a file-sharing site is easy, but the desktop sync app your team relies on is not.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "official", "plans": [ { "name": "Standard", "monthly_annual_billing": 15, "monthly_monthly_billing": 18, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Advanced", "monthly_annual_billing": 24, "monthly_monthly_billing": 30, "per_seat": true } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "Google Drive", "kind": "included", "price": "Included in Google Workspace (from $7/user/mo)", "note": "A good swap if you already rent Workspace: 2 TB a user on Standard, but only 30 GB on Starter.", "url": "https://workspace.google.com/pricing" }, { "name": "OneDrive", "kind": "included", "price": "Included in Microsoft 365 (Business Basic $7/user/mo, 1 TB per user)", "note": "A good swap if your team works in Office files: 1 TB a user, with file sync built into Windows.", "url": "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/business/microsoft-365-plans-and-pricing" }, { "name": "Nextcloud", "kind": "open-source", "price": "Free to self-host; you pay for a server", "note": "Full control of your files under an open-source licence, but you run the updates and backups yourself.", "url": "https://nextcloud.com/pricing/" } ], "downgrade_tip": "Dropbox Plus is $9.99 a month on yearly billing for one person with 2 TB, and the free Basic plan gives 2 GB.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 2700, "build": 4225, "assumptions": "typical plan, 5 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 50, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 2, "scope": [ "Upload, download and folders in the browser", "Share links with passwords and expiry dates", "Version history for each file", "Team folders with simple permissions", "Search by file name" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "The desktop sync app that keeps folders up to date", "180-day recovery of deleted files", "Offline access on phones and laptops", "Built-in PDF editing and signatures" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Desktop sync", "level": "high", "note": "Keeping folders in sync across Windows and Mac without conflicts or lost files is the hardest part." }, { "label": "Data loss and backups", "level": "high", "note": "A bug or a deleted bucket can lose company files, so you need tested backups." }, { "label": "Large files and permissions", "level": "medium", "note": "Multi-gigabyte uploads and per-folder access rules need careful handling." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Stay on Dropbox if your team depends on its desktop sync for huge folders or shares files with clients who only use Dropbox links. Switch to BUILD only if you need file sharing inside your own app.", "sources": [ { "label": "Dropbox plans for teams", "url": "https://www.dropbox.com/business/plans-comparison" } ] }, { "name": "Figma", "slug": "figma", "category": "Design & creative", "verdict": "BUY", "headline": "Buy it. A shared design canvas is one of the hardest things to build, and the Starter plan is free to try.", "from_price": "$16/seat/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "Starter plan: free, with one team folder, 3 files and unlimited drafts", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/figma/", "summary": "Figma Professional is $16 per Full seat per month, about $1,730 over 3 years for three designers, and anyone can view and comment for free. A lite design canvas with live multi-user editing would take about 160 hours and cost about $12,000 to build and maintain over 3 years. Penpot is a free, open-source alternative, but it can’t open Figma files directly.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "official", "plans": [ { "name": "Professional (Full seat)", "monthly_annual_billing": 16, "monthly_monthly_billing": 20, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Organization (Full seat)", "monthly_annual_billing": 55, "monthly_monthly_billing": null, "per_seat": true } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "Penpot", "kind": "open-source", "price": "Professional plan on Penpot Cloud is free; Unlimited $7/editor/mo; open source", "note": "Free and open source, but Figma files need converting with a plugin and its layouts follow flexbox rules.", "url": "https://penpot.app/pricing" }, { "name": "Sketch", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Standard $12/editor/mo billed yearly; viewers are free", "note": "A native Mac editor with shared Workspaces, but there is no free plan and a smaller plugin library.", "url": "https://www.sketch.com/pricing/" } ], "downgrade_tip": "Starter is free but limited to one team folder with 3 files, which works for a solo designer or a first prototype.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 1728, "build": 12025, "assumptions": "typical plan, 3 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 160, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 6, "scope": [ "A browser canvas for frames, shapes, text and images", "Live multi-user editing with cursors and comments", "Reusable components and basic auto layout", "Export to PNG and SVG, plus share links" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Figma’s plugin library and community files", "Dev Mode handoff and prototyping", "FigJam whiteboards and Slides", "Reliable font handling, large files and export fidelity" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Real-time collaboration", "level": "high", "note": "Merging edits from several people on one canvas without losing work is hard." }, { "label": "Canvas performance", "level": "high", "note": "Smooth zooming and panning on large files needs specialist rendering work." }, { "label": "File formats and fonts", "level": "medium", "note": "Importing, exporting and font licensing all add edge cases." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Move to a SWITCH (Penpot) if you can live without Figma’s plugins and outside collaborators, and you are happy to redo existing files by hand. Switch to BUILD only if the canvas itself is your product.", "sources": [ { "label": "Figma pricing", "url": "https://www.figma.com/pricing/" } ] }, { "name": "GitHub", "slug": "github", "category": "Developer tools & hosting", "verdict": "BUY", "headline": "Buy it, or stay on Free. GitHub costs $4 a user, and hosting your own code server costs more in your time.", "from_price": "$4/seat/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "Unlimited private repos, 2,000 Actions minutes a month, and Issues and Projects", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/github/", "summary": "GitHub Team is $4 per user per month, about $720 over 3 years for five people. The Free plan already gives you unlimited private repos and 2,000 Actions minutes a month, so you pay only for branch protection and required reviews on private repos. Running your own Forgejo or Gitea server would cost about $2,600 over 3 years once you count updates and backups, and it puts your source code on a server you must keep secure.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "official", "plans": [ { "name": "Team", "monthly_annual_billing": 4, "monthly_monthly_billing": null, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Enterprise", "monthly_annual_billing": 21, "monthly_monthly_billing": null, "per_seat": true } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "GitLab", "kind": "free", "price": "Free for up to 5 users per private group; Premium $29/user/mo billed yearly", "note": "Built-in CI and issue boards, but the free plan caps you at 5 users and 400 compute minutes.", "url": "https://about.gitlab.com/pricing/" }, { "name": "Bitbucket", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Free for up to 5 users; Standard $3.65/user/mo", "note": "Pairs well with Jira and Trello, but the free plan has only 50 build minutes and a smaller integration ecosystem.", "url": "https://www.atlassian.com/software/bitbucket/pricing" }, { "name": "Forgejo", "kind": "open-source", "price": "Free and open source; you host it, or use a hosted instance such as Codeberg", "note": "A self-hosted forge for teams that want full control, but you handle updates, backups and uptime.", "url": "https://forgejo.org/" } ], "downgrade_tip": "GitHub Free is enough until you need required reviews, branch protection rules or code owners on private repos. Those come with Team.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 720, "build": 2641, "assumptions": "typical plan, 5 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 8, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 2, "scope": [ "Forgejo or Gitea installed on a small VPS", "Git over SSH and HTTPS with user accounts", "Pull requests and code review", "A CI runner for builds and tests", "Nightly backups and updates" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "3,000 free Actions minutes and ready-made workflows", "Dependabot security updates and Copilot", "Codespaces and GitHub Pages", "Where contributors, hires and integrations already live" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Security", "level": "high", "note": "Your source code sits on a server you must patch and lock down." }, { "label": "Uptime and backups", "level": "high", "note": "If the server dies, your team loses access until you restore it." }, { "label": "CI runners", "level": "medium", "note": "Builds need their own machines and upkeep." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Switch to HYBRID if Actions minutes or Codespaces start driving your bill: keep GitHub for code and run builds on your own runners. Move to a SWITCH (GitLab or Bitbucket Free) only if you will never pass 5 people.", "sources": [ { "label": "GitHub pricing", "url": "https://github.com/pricing" } ] }, { "name": "GitHub Copilot", "slug": "github-copilot", "category": "AI tools", "verdict": "BUY", "headline": "Buy it. Copilot Business is $19 a seat, and a homemade assistant costs about twice that once you pay for the API.", "from_price": "$10/seat/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "2,000 code completions a month, plus limited chat and agent use", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/github-copilot/", "summary": "Copilot Business costs $19 per seat a month, so five developers pay $3,420 over 3 years. Each seat includes $19 of AI credits that pool across your organization, and code completions never use credits. A setup of your own with Cline and API keys costs about $6,900 over 3 years once you add API fees and upkeep. Solo developers can take Pro at $10 a month.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "official", "plans": [ { "name": "Pro", "monthly_annual_billing": 10, "monthly_monthly_billing": null, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Business", "monthly_annual_billing": 19, "monthly_monthly_billing": null, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Pro+", "monthly_annual_billing": 39, "monthly_monthly_billing": null, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Enterprise", "monthly_annual_billing": 39, "monthly_monthly_billing": null, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Max", "monthly_annual_billing": 100, "monthly_monthly_billing": null, "per_seat": true } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "Cline", "kind": "open-source", "price": "Free (Apache 2.0); you pay model API fees", "note": "A free VS Code agent that runs on your own API keys, but heavy agent use can cost more than a seat.", "url": "https://github.com/cline/cline" }, { "name": "Cursor Plus", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "$80 a year ($8 monthly)", "note": "Cheaper than Copilot Pro, but models from other vendors need Premium or higher and are billed at API list price.", "url": "https://cursor.com/pricing" }, { "name": "OpenAI Codex (in ChatGPT)", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Included in ChatGPT Go ($8/mo) and Plus ($20/mo)", "note": "A coding agent for the web, terminal and editor that comes with ChatGPT, but Go covers light tasks only.", "url": "https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/pricing" } ], "downgrade_tip": "Copilot Free gives 2,000 completions a month and limited chat, which is enough for occasional use. A solo developer can take Pro at $10 a month instead of Business.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 3420, "build": 6865, "assumptions": "typical plan, 5 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 12, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 2, "scope": [ "VS Code with the Cline or Continue extension", "A shared proxy (such as LiteLLM) so one API key serves the team", "Per-developer budgets and a usage report", "A shared settings file for rules and approved models" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Inline completions and Next Edit suggestions that never use credits", "Code review and the cloud agent inside GitHub pull requests", "Central management and policy control for your team", "Included usage that pools across the whole organization" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Security", "level": "high", "note": "Your proxy holds the team’s API keys and sees all your code." }, { "label": "Cost surprises", "level": "medium", "note": "Without per-person limits, one runaway agent can spend a month’s budget in a day." }, { "label": "Upkeep", "level": "medium", "note": "Extensions, models and API prices change often." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Move to a SWITCH if your developers already have Claude Team or ChatGPT Business, which include Claude Code and Codex. You may not need a third AI subscription.", "sources": [ { "label": "GitHub Copilot plans", "url": "https://github.com/features/copilot/plans" }, { "label": "Copilot plans (GitHub Docs)", "url": "https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/get-started/plans" }, { "label": "Copilot usage-based billing (GitHub blog)", "url": "https://github.blog/changelog/2026/04/27/github-copilot-is-moving-to-usage-based-billing/" } ] }, { "name": "Google Workspace", "slug": "google-workspace", "category": "Docs & productivity", "verdict": "BUY", "headline": "Buy it. Email, docs, storage and video calls for $14 a user is hard to beat, and none of it is worth building.", "from_price": "$7/seat/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": null, "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/google-workspace/", "summary": "Five people on Business Standard pay about $2,520 over 3 years. That also covers Meet, Chat, Drive, Forms, booking pages and eSignature, so it can replace several tools you pay for today. A thin home-built version would cost about $22,000 over the same period and still could not host real mailboxes. Cheaper suites exist, but moving mail and files costs days of work.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "third-party", "plans": [ { "name": "Business Starter", "monthly_annual_billing": 7, "monthly_monthly_billing": 8.4, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Business Standard", "monthly_annual_billing": 14, "monthly_monthly_billing": 16.8, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Business Plus", "monthly_annual_billing": 22, "monthly_monthly_billing": 26.4, "per_seat": true } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "Microsoft 365 Business Basic", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "$7/user/mo billed yearly", "note": "Half the price of Business Standard, with email, Teams and 1 TB of OneDrive per user; Office apps are web and mobile only, and you must migrate mail and files.", "url": "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/business/microsoft-365-plans-and-pricing" }, { "name": "Zoho Workplace", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Standard from $3/user/mo billed yearly", "note": "The cheapest full suite, with custom-domain email, docs, chat and meetings; file storage is small (100 GB shared for 3 to 10 users) and the apps are less polished.", "url": "https://www.zoho.com/workplace/pricing.html" }, { "name": "Fastmail", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Standard $5/user/mo billed yearly", "note": "Good for teams that only need email, calendar and contacts; there are no docs, chat or video apps.", "url": "https://www.fastmail.com/pricing/" } ], "downgrade_tip": "Business Starter ($7 a user) is enough if you mainly need email, Drive and Meet for up to 100 people. You lose call recording, booking pages and eSignature, and storage drops to 30 GB a user.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 2520, "build": 22045, "assumptions": "typical plan, 5 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 320, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 10, "scope": [ "A shared docs and notes editor with comments", "File storage with share links on cheap object storage", "A team calendar with a booking page", "Team chat and a video room built on hosted services", "Email forwarding into a rented mailbox" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Gmail spam filtering and inbox placement", "Live co-editing in Docs, Sheets and Slides", "Meet calls with recording for 100 or more people", "Admin controls, 2-step verification and file recovery" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Email delivery", "level": "high", "note": "Mail from a new server lands in spam until it builds a reputation, and one blocklist entry can stop all your email." }, { "label": "Security and data loss", "level": "high", "note": "You own patching, backups and account takeovers, and one mistake can lose company files." }, { "label": "Live co-editing", "level": "high", "note": "Merging edits from several people at once without corrupting a document is hard to get right." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "There is no realistic flip to BUILD. Switch to Microsoft 365 or Zoho only if your team already works in Office files, or the bill matters more than a few days of migration.", "sources": [ { "label": "Google Workspace pricing", "url": "https://workspace.google.com/pricing" }, { "label": "Google Workspace pricing 2026 (Dupple, October 2026)", "url": "https://dupple.com/learn/google-workspace-pricing" }, { "label": "Google Workspace pricing 2026 (eesel AI, September 2026)", "url": "https://www.eesel.ai/blog/google-workspace-pricing" } ] }, { "name": "Grammarly", "slug": "grammarly", "category": "Docs & productivity", "verdict": "SWITCH", "headline": "Switch to LanguageTool if spelling and grammar are what you use. It costs about half as much as Grammarly Pro.", "from_price": "$12/seat/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "Spelling, grammar and tone checks, plus 100 AI prompts a month", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/grammarly/", "summary": "One person on Grammarly Pro pays about $432 over 3 years. LanguageTool Premium costs about $5.70 (4.90 euros) a month on yearly billing, and its free plan, Microsoft Editor and Harper handle basic spelling and grammar at no cost. You give up Grammarly’s tone rewrites and plagiarism checks. Building your own checker would cost about $3,300 over 3 years and needs a browser extension that survives Gmail and Docs updates.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "third-party", "plans": [ { "name": "Pro", "monthly_annual_billing": 12, "monthly_monthly_billing": 30, "per_seat": true } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "LanguageTool", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Free plan (2,000 characters per text); Premium 4.90 euros/mo billed yearly (about $5.70)", "note": "Checks grammar, spelling and style in many languages for about half the price; you give up Grammarly’s plagiarism and AI-text checks.", "url": "https://languagetool.org/premium" }, { "name": "Microsoft Editor", "kind": "included", "price": "Free browser checker; fuller checks included in Microsoft 365 (from $7/user/mo)", "note": "Checks spelling, grammar and clarity in Word, Outlook and the browser at no extra cost; it covers fewer apps than Grammarly.", "url": "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/microsoft-editor" }, { "name": "Harper", "kind": "open-source", "price": "Free", "note": "A fast, private checker that runs on your device; it covers English only and has no AI rewriting.", "url": "https://writewithharper.com/" } ], "downgrade_tip": "The Free plan is enough for spelling, grammar and tone checks, with 100 AI prompts a month.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 432, "build": 3265, "assumptions": "typical plan, 1 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 30, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 2, "scope": [ "A browser extension that checks text boxes as you type", "A web editor for longer documents", "Grammar, spelling and clarity fixes from an AI model", "Tone and rewrite buttons", "A shared word list for brand terms" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Suggestions that work inside Google Docs, Gmail and Slack", "Plagiarism and AI-text checks", "Years of tuning on grammar edge cases", "Apps for Word, Outlook and phone keyboards" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Works in every text box", "level": "high", "note": "Browser extensions break whenever Gmail, Docs or LinkedIn change their pages." }, { "label": "Accuracy", "level": "medium", "note": "An AI model sometimes rewrites correct sentences, which annoys people." }, { "label": "Privacy", "level": "medium", "note": "Your text goes to a model provider, so you need a clear data policy." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Stay on Grammarly if you rely on tone rewrites, plagiarism checks or its brand style guide. For writing in languages other than English, LanguageTool covers more.", "sources": [ { "label": "Grammarly plans", "url": "https://www.grammarly.com/plans" }, { "label": "Grammarly pricing capture (Usage Pricing, October 25, 2026)", "url": "https://www.usagepricing.com/blueprint/grammarly" }, { "label": "Is Grammarly worth it (Layer3 Labs, July 2026)", "url": "https://www.layer3labs.io/guides/is-grammarly-worth-it" } ] }, { "name": "Hootsuite", "slug": "hootsuite", "category": "SEO, social & analytics", "verdict": "SWITCH", "headline": "Switch to Buffer. Ten channels cost $50 a month there, against $99 for Hootsuite Standard.", "from_price": "$99/seat/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": null, "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/hootsuite/", "summary": "Hootsuite Standard is $99 per user a month on annual billing for up to 10 social accounts, or $3,564 over three years for one user. Buffer covers 10 channels for $50 a month, and SocialPilot covers 10 accounts and three users for $34. Building your own scheduler costs about $5,800 over three years and means handling every platform’s API approvals. Hootsuite earns its price when you need social listening, approval flows or a shared inbox.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "official", "plans": [ { "name": "Standard, 10 social accounts", "monthly_annual_billing": 99, "monthly_monthly_billing": null, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Professional, unlimited accounts", "monthly_annual_billing": 199, "monthly_monthly_billing": null, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Advanced, with approvals and routing", "monthly_annual_billing": 399, "monthly_monthly_billing": null, "per_seat": true } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "Buffer", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Essentials: $5 per channel a month billed yearly, so $50 for 10 channels", "note": "A simpler scheduler for about half the price, but there is no social listening and extra team members need the $100 Team plan.", "url": "https://buffer.com/pricing" }, { "name": "SocialPilot", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Standard: $34/mo billed yearly for 10 accounts and 3 users ($40 monthly)", "note": "The cheapest like-for-like swap, so check that it supports every network you post to.", "url": "https://www.socialpilot.co/pricing" }, { "name": "Postiz", "kind": "open-source", "price": "Team: $31/mo billed yearly for 10 channels; free to self-host", "note": "An open-source scheduler at about a third of Hootsuite Standard, with a smaller feature set.", "url": "https://postiz.com/pricing" }, { "name": "Meta Business Suite", "kind": "free", "price": "Free for Facebook and Instagram", "note": "Enough if you only post to Facebook and Instagram, but it doesn’t cover LinkedIn, TikTok or X.", "url": "https://business.facebook.com/" } ], "downgrade_tip": "Standard at $99 is enough for one person managing up to 10 accounts. Professional only adds unlimited accounts, inbox automation and custom reports.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 3564, "build": 5845, "assumptions": "typical plan, 1 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 50, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 3.5, "scope": [ "Connect accounts with OAuth for three or four networks", "A shared calendar and publishing queue", "Draft, review and approve steps for a small team", "Basic reach and engagement numbers per post" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Social listening and brand monitoring", "A unified inbox for comments and messages", "Bulk scheduling and AI post drafts", "Reports across every account" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Platform APIs", "level": "high", "note": "Each network needs app approval and changes its rules without warning." }, { "label": "Inbox access", "level": "medium", "note": "Comment and message APIs differ per network, and some are restricted." }, { "label": "Upkeep", "level": "medium", "note": "Every API change lands on you, and posts fail until you fix it." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Switch to BUY if you need social listening, approval flows or an inbox shared across a team. That’s where Hootsuite’s higher plans earn their price.", "sources": [ { "label": "Hootsuite plans", "url": "https://www.hootsuite.com/plans" } ] }, { "name": "Hotjar", "slug": "hotjar", "category": "SEO, social & analytics", "verdict": "SWITCH", "headline": "Switch to Microsoft Clarity. It records sessions and draws heatmaps for $0, with no traffic cap.", "from_price": "$39/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "200,000 sessions a month, 1 project and 1 month of data", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/hotjar/", "summary": "Hotjar’s pricing now sits on Contentsquare. The Free plan covers up to 200,000 sessions a month, and Growth starts at $39 a month for 7,000 sessions on yearly billing ($49 monthly). Microsoft Clarity records sessions and draws heatmaps for $0 with no traffic cap. A homemade recorder would cost about $5,200 over three years, and the recordings carry privacy risk you’d own.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "official", "plans": [ { "name": "Growth, 7k sessions a month", "monthly_annual_billing": 39, "monthly_monthly_billing": 49, "per_seat": false } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "Microsoft Clarity", "kind": "free", "price": "Free, with no traffic limits", "note": "Heatmaps and session recordings with no session cap, but you give up Hotjar’s survey and feedback tools.", "url": "https://clarity.microsoft.com/" }, { "name": "PostHog", "kind": "free", "price": "Free every month: 5,000 recordings and 1 million events; pay as you go after", "note": "Session replay plus product analytics in one open-source tool, though it is built for developers and takes more setup.", "url": "https://posthog.com/pricing" }, { "name": "OpenReplay", "kind": "open-source", "price": "Free to self-host; managed cloud from $199/mo", "note": "Session replay you run yourself, so you pay in server upkeep and handle privacy settings.", "url": "https://openreplay.com/pricing.html" } ], "downgrade_tip": "Hotjar’s Free plan already covers up to 200,000 sessions a month with replays, heatmaps and funnels. Growth adds 13 months of data, three projects, zone-based heatmaps and journey analysis.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 1404, "build": 5185, "assumptions": "typical plan, 1 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 40, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 3, "scope": [ "A tracking script that records clicks, scrolls and page changes (e.g. rrweb)", "A session replay player", "Click and scroll heatmaps per page", "Storage with a 30-day retention rule" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Surveys and feedback widgets", "Rage-click and error detection", "Funnels, journeys and AI summaries", "Privacy masking tuned for every kind of site" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Privacy", "level": "high", "note": "Recordings can capture personal data, so consent and masking (GDPR) are your problem." }, { "label": "Storage", "level": "medium", "note": "Recordings are large, and storage and bandwidth costs grow quickly." }, { "label": "Performance", "level": "medium", "note": "The script must not slow your site or break on unusual pages." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Switch to BUY if you need 13 months of data, journey analysis or a vendor contract for a regulated site. That’s what Growth adds over the free plan.", "sources": [ { "label": "Hotjar pricing (now on Contentsquare)", "url": "https://contentsquare.com/pricing/" }, { "label": "Contentsquare plan changes", "url": "https://contentsquare.com/blog/enhanced-contentsquare-plans/" } ] }, { "name": "HubSpot", "slug": "hubspot", "category": "Sales & CRM", "verdict": "BUY", "headline": "Buy it. At $20 a seat, HubSpot Starter costs about the same as keeping a homemade CRM running.", "from_price": "$20/seat/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "Free CRM: up to 2 users", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/hubspot/", "summary": "HubSpot Starter is $20 a seat a month at list price, and new customers see $7 for a limited time. Five seats cost $3,600 over three years, and the free plan covers two users. A basic CRM takes about 30 hours to build and costs about $3,400 over three years once you count upkeep, and it won’t include email marketing, forms, a meeting link or live chat. At this price, buying wins.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "official", "plans": [ { "name": "Starter Customer Platform", "monthly_annual_billing": 20, "monthly_monthly_billing": null, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Sales Hub Professional", "monthly_annual_billing": 90, "monthly_monthly_billing": 100, "per_seat": true } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "Zoho CRM", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Free for 3 users; Standard $14/user/mo billed yearly", "note": "Contacts, deals and tasks for 30% less per seat, but marketing tools come as separate Zoho products.", "url": "https://www.zoho.com/crm/zohocrm-pricing.html" }, { "name": "Twenty", "kind": "open-source", "price": "Free to self-host; Cloud Pro $9/user/mo billed yearly", "note": "A modern open-source CRM at less than half the price, though it is younger with fewer integrations.", "url": "https://twenty.com/pricing" }, { "name": "Pipedrive Lite", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Lite: $14/seat/mo billed yearly", "note": "A focused sales pipeline for 30% less per seat, with marketing and support tools sold as add-ons.", "url": "https://www.pipedrive.com/en/pricing" } ], "downgrade_tip": "The free CRM is enough for up to two users. Starter adds the removal of HubSpot branding, email automation and higher email send limits.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 3600, "build": 3445, "assumptions": "typical plan, 5 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 30, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 2, "scope": [ "Contacts, companies and a deals pipeline board", "Notes, tasks and reminders", "Signup and contact forms that create contacts", "An email address you BCC to log messages, instead of two-way sync" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Marketing email, landing pages and forms in one place", "Live chat, tickets and a help center", "Two-way email sync, call tracking and meeting links", "Reports, integrations and a mobile app" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Email sync", "level": "medium", "note": "Two-way Gmail and Outlook sync is a project of its own, so log emails with a BCC address instead." }, { "label": "Customer data", "level": "medium", "note": "A CRM holds names, emails and deal values, and permissions and backups are on you." }, { "label": "Upkeep", "level": "low", "note": "A simple pipeline app changes rarely, so the upkeep stays light." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Switch to BUILD if your CRM is only contacts and a deal board for three people or fewer. Stay on the free plan while two users are enough.", "sources": [ { "label": "HubSpot Customer Platform pricing", "url": "https://www.hubspot.com/pricing/suite" }, { "label": "HubSpot Sales Hub pricing", "url": "https://www.hubspot.com/pricing/sales" } ] }, { "name": "Intercom", "slug": "intercom", "category": "Customer support & feedback", "verdict": "HYBRID", "headline": "Hybrid. Build your help center and AI answers, and keep a small inbox for live chat.", "from_price": "$29/seat/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": null, "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/intercom/", "summary": "Intercom charges per seat, plus $0.99 every time its Fin AI agent resolves an issue, and that adds up fast. Answering questions from your own docs with an AI model is a well-known build. Live chat for a team, with routing, presence and mobile apps, is where buying still makes sense.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "official", "plans": [ { "name": "Essential", "monthly_annual_billing": 29, "monthly_monthly_billing": 39, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Advanced", "monthly_annual_billing": 85, "monthly_monthly_billing": 99, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Expert", "monthly_annual_billing": 132, "monthly_monthly_billing": 139, "per_seat": true } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "Chatwoot", "kind": "open-source", "price": "Free to self-host; cloud free for 2 agents, then $19/agent/mo", "note": "Open-source live chat and shared inbox, but the free cloud plan is live chat only and capped at 500 conversations a month.", "url": "https://www.chatwoot.com/pricing" }, { "name": "Crisp", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Free for 2 agents; Mini $45/mo per workspace for 4 agents", "note": "A flat price per workspace instead of per seat, though the free plan has no AI credits.", "url": "https://crisp.chat/en/pricing/" }, { "name": "Tawk.to", "kind": "free", "price": "Free live chat, ticketing and help center; removing branding is $29/mo", "note": "Enough for a very small team that wants live chat at no cost, with an AI assistant from $29 a month.", "url": "https://www.tawk.to/pricing/" }, { "name": "Freshdesk", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Growth: $19/agent/mo billed yearly", "note": "A ticketing-first help desk for about a third less per seat than Essential, so check its live chat limits.", "url": "https://www.freshworks.com/freshdesk/pricing/" } ], "downgrade_tip": "Essential is enough for a small team, since it includes the Messenger, shared inbox, help center and Fin. Eligible early-stage startups can apply to Intercom’s Early Stage program, which the pricing page advertises at 93% off.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 3870, "build": 2755, "assumptions": "typical plan, 2 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 25, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 1.5, "scope": [ "A help center on your own domain (good for SEO)", "AI answers grounded in your docs, handing off to email when unsure", "A contact form feeding a shared email inbox", "A simple ticket list with statuses" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Real-time Messenger with team presence and routing", "Mobile apps and alerts for agents", "Workflows, SLAs and reporting", "Email, WhatsApp and social in one inbox" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Wrong AI answers", "level": "high", "note": "Ground answers in your docs and always offer a human." }, { "label": "Live chat", "level": "medium", "note": "Real-time chat with presence is hard to make reliable." }, { "label": "Privacy", "level": "medium", "note": "Support threads hold customer data. Secure them like it." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Switch to BUY if your support team is three or more people working in the inbox all day. That’s where Intercom earns its price.", "sources": [ { "label": "Intercom pricing", "url": "https://www.intercom.com/pricing" } ] }, { "name": "Jira", "slug": "jira", "category": "Project management", "verdict": "BUY", "headline": "Buy it, and start free. Jira costs nothing for up to 10 users, and Standard runs about $8 a user beyond that.", "from_price": "$7.92/seat/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "Up to 10 users, unlimited projects and work items, and 2 GB of storage", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/jira/", "summary": "Jira Standard is $7.92 per user per month on annual billing, about $2,850 over 3 years for ten people. Jira Free already covers up to 10 users with boards, backlog and timeline views, so many teams that size don’t need to pay yet. A homemade tracker with custom workflows, permissions and sprints would cost about $5,400 to build and maintain over 3 years.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "official", "plans": [ { "name": "Standard", "monthly_annual_billing": 7.92, "monthly_monthly_billing": 9.7, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Premium", "monthly_annual_billing": 16.25, "monthly_monthly_billing": 19.6, "per_seat": true } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "Plane", "kind": "open-source", "price": "Free for up to 12 users; Pro $6/user/mo billed yearly; open source", "note": "Imports Jira Cloud and Server issues, though work item types only come across on Pro.", "url": "https://plane.so/pricing" }, { "name": "GitHub Projects", "kind": "free", "price": "Included in GitHub Free and Team", "note": "Boards, tables and roadmaps for teams that already live in GitHub, with far fewer workflow controls than Jira.", "url": "https://github.com/pricing" }, { "name": "Shortcut", "kind": "free", "price": "Free for up to 10 users; paid plans from $8.50/user/mo", "note": "Iterations, roadmaps and GitHub integration in a simpler tool, but the free plan has one team and one workflow.", "url": "https://www.shortcut.com/pricing" } ], "downgrade_tip": "Jira Free covers up to 10 users, so a team that size rarely needs Standard unless it wants user roles and permissions, 250 GB of storage or business-hours support.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 2851, "build": 5425, "assumptions": "typical plan, 10 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 60, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 3, "scope": [ "Issues with custom statuses and workflow transitions", "Scrum and kanban boards with a backlog and sprints", "Custom fields, labels and saved filters", "Role-based permissions per project", "Email notifications and simple reports" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "3,000+ marketplace apps and integrations", "Advanced roadmaps and cross-project planning on Premium", "Connections to Confluence, Bitbucket and Trello", "SSO, audit logs and compliance options" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Workflow engine", "level": "medium", "note": "Configurable statuses and transitions are the heart of Jira and easy to get subtly wrong." }, { "label": "Permissions", "level": "medium", "note": "Per-project roles and issue-level security need careful testing." }, { "label": "Reporting", "level": "low", "note": "Burndown and velocity charts are simple once the data is clean." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Move to a SWITCH if you don’t use Atlassian’s other tools: Plane’s free plan imports Jira issues and costs nothing for up to 12 users. Switch to BUILD only if issue tracking is part of your own product.", "sources": [ { "label": "Jira pricing", "url": "https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/pricing" } ] }, { "name": "Jotform", "slug": "jotform", "category": "Forms & surveys", "verdict": "SWITCH", "headline": "Switch to Tally. Its free plan covers what most small teams use Jotform’s $34 plan for.", "from_price": "$34/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "Free plan (Starter): 5 forms, 100 submissions a month and Jotform branding", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/jotform/", "summary": "Jotform Bronze costs $34 a month on yearly billing and caps you at 25 forms and 1,000 submissions a month. Tally’s free plan has no form or submission cap under fair use, and it includes payments, file uploads and conditional logic. Building your own costs about $1,500 over 3 years, more than the $1,224 Jotform costs, because you would own payments, file storage and spam. Switching takes an afternoon for a handful of forms.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "official", "plans": [ { "name": "Bronze (25 forms, 1,000 submissions/mo)", "monthly_annual_billing": 34, "monthly_monthly_billing": 39, "per_seat": false }, { "name": "Silver (50 forms, 2,500 submissions/mo)", "monthly_annual_billing": 39, "monthly_monthly_billing": 49, "per_seat": false }, { "name": "Gold (100 forms, 10,000 submissions/mo)", "monthly_annual_billing": 99, "monthly_monthly_billing": 129, "per_seat": false } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "Tally", "kind": "free", "price": "Free for unlimited forms and submissions; Pro from $24/mo billed yearly", "note": "Payments, signatures, file uploads and logic are on the free plan, but you give up Jotform’s PDF editor, approvals and template library.", "url": "https://tally.so/pricing" }, { "name": "Fillout", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Free plan: 1,000 responses/mo; Starter $15/mo billed yearly for 2,000", "note": "A builder with unlimited forms and seats at less than half Bronze’s price, though a Fillout badge stays on the free plan.", "url": "https://www.fillout.com/pricing" }, { "name": "Google Forms", "kind": "included", "price": "Free with a Google account; included in Google Workspace", "note": "Enough for contact, sign-up and feedback forms, but it has no built-in payments or PDF output.", "url": "https://workspace.google.com/products/forms/" } ], "downgrade_tip": "If you run 5 forms or fewer with under 100 submissions a month, the free Starter plan is enough.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 1224, "build": 1525, "assumptions": "typical plan, 1 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 14, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 1, "scope": [ "Your 5 to 10 real forms as pages, with the conditional logic you already use", "Responses in your own Postgres (Supabase) table, plus a simple admin view", "File uploads to storage and an email alert for each response", "Stripe Checkout links for forms that take payments", "CSV export and a PDF copy of each submission" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "A drag-and-drop builder and ready-made templates for non-technical teammates", "E-signatures, a PDF editor and approval flows", "Ready-made integrations with payment gateways, CRMs and storage apps", "Submission reports and form analytics" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Payments", "level": "high", "note": "Forms that take cards bring refunds, failed webhooks and tax questions. Use Stripe Checkout and never touch card data." }, { "label": "Spam", "level": "medium", "note": "Public forms attract bots. Add a honeypot field or a captcha." }, { "label": "Personal data", "level": "medium", "note": "Responses and uploads hold personal data. Lock the table and the storage bucket down with row-level security." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Switch to BUY if your team relies on Jotform’s e-signatures, PDF workflows or approval flows. Switch to BUILD only if you run a few fixed forms and want the responses in your own database.", "sources": [ { "label": "Jotform pricing", "url": "https://www.jotform.com/pricing/" } ] }, { "name": "Kit", "slug": "kit", "category": "Email marketing", "verdict": "SWITCH", "headline": "Switch to MailerLite. At 1,000 subscribers it costs $17.10 a month against Kit’s $33.", "from_price": "$33/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "Up to 10,000 subscribers with one basic automation and sequence", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/kit/", "summary": "Kit’s Creator plan is $33 a month at 1,000 subscribers on yearly billing ($39 monthly), about $1,200 over three years. MailerLite sells forms, landing pages and 50 automations at the same list size for $17.10, so you’d save about $570. Building your own costs about $3,100 over the same period, because deliverability, bounces and unsubscribe handling stay your problem. Kit’s free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers if one automation is enough.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "third-party", "plans": [ { "name": "Creator, 1,000 subscribers", "monthly_annual_billing": 33, "monthly_monthly_billing": 39, "per_seat": false }, { "name": "Creator Pro, 1,000 subscribers", "monthly_annual_billing": 66, "monthly_monthly_billing": 79, "per_seat": false } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "MailerLite", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Comfort, 1,000 subscribers: $17.10/mo billed yearly ($19 monthly); free up to 250", "note": "Landing pages, forms and 50 automations for about half of Kit’s price, but its tools for selling digital products are lighter.", "url": "https://www.mailerlite.com/pricing" }, { "name": "beehiiv", "kind": "free", "price": "Free up to 2,500 subscribers; paid plans from $49/mo at 1,000", "note": "A good fit for a newsletter-only creator, since automations need the paid Lite plan.", "url": "https://www.beehiiv.com/pricing" }, { "name": "Ghost", "kind": "open-source", "price": "Free to self-host; Ghost(Pro) from $15/mo, or $29/mo with paid subscriptions", "note": "Strong for a newsletter plus website, but you run a server if you self-host.", "url": "https://ghost.org/pricing/" }, { "name": "Substack", "kind": "free", "price": "Free to publish; Substack keeps 10% of paid subscription revenue", "note": "Costs nothing until you charge readers, but you give up automations and most design control.", "url": "https://substack.com/" } ], "downgrade_tip": "Kit’s free plan is enough if you mostly send broadcasts, since it covers up to 10,000 subscribers but allows only one basic automation and sequence.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 1188, "build": 3085, "assumptions": "typical plan, 1 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 30, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 1.5, "scope": [ "Signup forms and landing pages that write to your own subscribers table", "Broadcasts sent through an email API such as Amazon SES or Resend", "Tags, segments and a timed welcome sequence", "Unsubscribe links, a suppression list, and bounce and complaint webhooks" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Sending infrastructure with an established reputation", "Unlimited visual automations and sequences", "Tools for selling digital products and paid newsletters", "A template library and open and click reports" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Deliverability", "level": "high", "note": "A new sending setup lands in spam easily, and a fresh domain takes weeks to warm up." }, { "label": "Compliance", "level": "high", "note": "Unsubscribes and consent records are legal requirements (CAN-SPAM, GDPR)." }, { "label": "Sequences", "level": "medium", "note": "Timed sequences need a reliable job queue, and a missed send fails quietly." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Switch to BUY if you use Kit’s unlimited automations and selling tools every week. The $16 a month you’d save isn’t worth rebuilding them elsewhere.", "sources": [ { "label": "Kit pricing", "url": "https://kit.com/pricing" }, { "label": "Kit help center: the Newsletter plan", "url": "https://help.kit.com/en/articles/9053602-the-kit-newsletter-plan" }, { "label": "Kit pricing 2026 (SendX)", "url": "https://www.sendx.io/blog/convertkit-pricing" }, { "label": "Kit pricing 2026 (Email Vendor Selection)", "url": "https://www.emailvendorselection.com/kit-pricing/" } ] }, { "name": "Linear", "slug": "linear", "category": "Project management", "verdict": "SWITCH", "headline": "Switch to Plane. It imports Linear issues and cycles, is free for up to 12 people, and Pro costs $6 a user against Linear’s $10.", "from_price": "$10/seat/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "Unlimited members, 2 teams and 250 issues", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/linear/", "summary": "Linear Basic costs $10 per user per month, about $1,800 over 3 years for five people, because the free plan stops at 250 issues. Plane is an open-source tracker with cycles, modules and a Linear importer. Its free plan covers up to 12 users, and Pro is about $1,080 over 3 years for the same team. Building your own would cost about $5,100 over 3 years, so building loses.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "official", "plans": [ { "name": "Basic", "monthly_annual_billing": 10, "monthly_monthly_billing": null, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Business", "monthly_annual_billing": 16, "monthly_monthly_billing": null, "per_seat": true } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "Plane", "kind": "open-source", "price": "Free for up to 12 users; Pro $6/user/mo billed yearly; open source", "note": "Imports Linear issues, cycles and comments, but it is younger and integrations need Pro.", "url": "https://plane.so/pricing" }, { "name": "GitHub Projects", "kind": "free", "price": "Included in GitHub Free and Team", "note": "Boards, tables and roadmaps next to your code, but plainer than Linear.", "url": "https://github.com/pricing" }, { "name": "Jira", "kind": "free", "price": "Free for up to 10 users; Standard from $7.92/user/mo billed yearly", "note": "Free boards, backlog and timeline views for small teams, but heavier to set up and use than Linear.", "url": "https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/pricing" } ], "downgrade_tip": "The free plan is enough while you have fewer than 250 issues and two teams. Basic removes the issue cap and adds admin roles and up to 5 teams.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 1800, "build": 5053, "assumptions": "typical plan, 5 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 50, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 3, "scope": [ "Issues with statuses, priorities, labels and assignees", "Cycles (sprints) and projects", "A fast, keyboard-first interface with instant updates", "GitHub pull request linking through webhooks", "Slack and email notifications" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Linear’s speed and sync engine", "Insights, Asks and triage automation on Business", "Polished GitHub, GitLab and Slack workflows", "Roadmaps and initiatives across teams" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Live sync", "level": "medium", "note": "Instant updates are easy to start and hard to make reliable offline." }, { "label": "GitHub linking", "level": "medium", "note": "Webhooks, auth and retries take real care." }, { "label": "Search and filters", "level": "low", "note": "Fast filtering over thousands of issues needs indexes, but it is a solved problem." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Switch to BUY if your team values Linear’s speed and polish more than the $720 a move to Plane Pro saves over 3 years. Switch to BUILD only if issue tracking is part of your own product.", "sources": [ { "label": "Linear pricing", "url": "https://linear.app/pricing" } ] }, { "name": "Linktree", "slug": "linktree", "category": "Websites & link pages", "verdict": "BUILD", "headline": "Build it. It’s one static page, and the real win is your own domain, not the $12.", "from_price": "$6/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "Unlimited links, basic themes and basic analytics, with Linktree branding", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/linktree/", "summary": "A link-in-bio page is a single page of links. You can vibe-code it in an afternoon and host it for free. The money you save is small (about $180 over 3 years). You also lose the Linktree branding, keep the SEO on your own domain, and skip the commerce fees on lower plans.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "third-party", "plans": [ { "name": "Starter", "monthly_annual_billing": 6, "monthly_monthly_billing": 8, "per_seat": false }, { "name": "Pro", "monthly_annual_billing": 12, "monthly_monthly_billing": 15, "per_seat": false }, { "name": "Premium", "monthly_annual_billing": 30, "monthly_monthly_billing": 35, "per_seat": false } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "Bio.link", "kind": "free", "price": "Free plan on a bio.link address; the paid plan adds a custom domain", "note": "A hosted free swap that keeps Bio.link branding, with fewer commerce and analytics tools than Linktree.", "url": "https://bio.link" }, { "name": "LinkStack", "kind": "open-source", "price": "Free to self-host (AGPL-3.0); you pay for your own hosting", "note": "An open-source link page you run on your own server, so you handle the updates and the uptime.", "url": "https://github.com/LinkStackOrg/LinkStack" }, { "name": "Carrd", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Free plan; Pro Standard $19 a year", "note": "A one-page builder with a custom domain and a form, though click tracking needs a Google Analytics embed.", "url": "https://carrd.com/pro" } ], "downgrade_tip": "The free plan covers a simple list of links. Pay for Pro only to hide the Linktree logo or to sell through your page.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 432, "build": 253, "assumptions": "typical plan, 1 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 4, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 0.1, "scope": [ "One responsive page on your own domain", "Links, social icons and an embedded video", "Privacy-friendly click tracking", "Optional email capture" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Built-in analytics dashboards", "Link scheduling and priority links", "Commerce and storefront features", "Editing from a phone app" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Breakage", "level": "low", "note": "It’s a static page, so there is almost nothing to break." }, { "label": "Editing", "level": "low", "note": "Changing a link means a quick code edit, or a tiny admin page if you add one." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Switch to BUY if you sell through it and use Linktree’s commerce features. Check their current seller fees first.", "sources": [ { "label": "Linktree pricing", "url": "https://linktr.ee/s/pricing" }, { "label": "Linktree pricing, Oct 2026 (Replug)", "url": "https://replug.io/blog/linktree-pricing" }, { "label": "Linktree pricing 2026 (u2l.ai)", "url": "https://u2l.ai/blog/linktree-pricing" } ] }, { "name": "Loom", "slug": "loom", "category": "Chat & meetings", "verdict": "SWITCH", "headline": "Switch to Cap or ScreenPal. Both cost about half of Loom Business for the same screen recordings and share links.", "from_price": "$15/seat/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "25 videos per person and 5-minute screen recordings", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/loom/", "summary": "Five creators on Loom Business pay about $2,700 over 3 years. Cap Pro costs $8.16 a user and ScreenPal Team Business costs $8 on yearly billing, so the same team pays about $1,450. Cap is open source and can be self-hosted. Building your own recorder would cost about $3,700 over 3 years, which is more than buying one.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "official", "plans": [ { "name": "Business", "monthly_annual_billing": 15, "monthly_monthly_billing": 18, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Business + AI", "monthly_annual_billing": 20, "monthly_monthly_billing": 24, "per_seat": true } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "Cap", "kind": "open-source", "price": "Free (5-minute share links); Pro $8.16/user/mo billed yearly; free to self-host", "note": "Instant share links and team workspaces for about half the price; it is a younger product with fewer integrations.", "url": "https://cap.so/pricing" }, { "name": "ScreenPal", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Team Business $8/user/mo billed yearly (listed with 20% off); free plan caps recordings at 15 minutes", "note": "Recorder, editor and video hosting in one plan; the team plan needs 3 or more users.", "url": "https://screenpal.com/plans" } ], "downgrade_tip": "Loom Starter is free and is enough if each person records fewer than 25 videos of 5 minutes or less.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 2700, "build": 3745, "assumptions": "typical plan, 5 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 40, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 2, "scope": [ "Record screen and camera in the browser", "Upload to cheap object storage and share by link", "A player page with views, comments and reactions", "Automatic transcript and summary", "Trim the start and end" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Loom’s one-click previews in Slack, Notion and Jira", "Recording that works in every browser and OS", "Auto chapters and filler-word removal", "A desktop app that records in the background" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Large uploads", "level": "medium", "note": "Long recordings need resumable, chunked uploads or they fail on slow connections." }, { "label": "Browser quirks", "level": "medium", "note": "System audio and permissions behave differently in Chrome, Safari and on Windows." }, { "label": "Playback", "level": "medium", "note": "Smooth playback on slow connections needs the video converted into smaller versions." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Stay on Loom if your team uses its Slack, Notion and Jira previews every day, or you need the AI summaries in Business + AI. Switch to BUILD only if a basic recorder on your own domain is enough.", "sources": [ { "label": "Loom pricing", "url": "https://www.loom.com/pricing" } ] }, { "name": "Lovable", "slug": "lovable", "category": "AI tools", "verdict": "BUY", "headline": "Buy it, one month at a time. Lovable Pro starts at $25, and you can cancel when the build is done.", "from_price": "$20.83/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "5 build credits a day, capped at 30 a month", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/lovable/", "summary": "Lovable Pro starts at $25 a month ($21 on annual billing) for 100 credits. Plans are priced by credits, not seats, so a whole team can share one workspace. A prompt-to-app builder of your own would take about 80 hours and cost roughly $8,900 over 3 years. Use the Free plan’s 5 daily credits for small tweaks and pay for Pro only in the months you build.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "official", "plans": [ { "name": "Pro (100 credits/mo)", "monthly_annual_billing": 20.83, "monthly_monthly_billing": 25, "per_seat": false }, { "name": "Pro (200 credits/mo)", "monthly_annual_billing": 41.67, "monthly_monthly_billing": 50, "per_seat": false }, { "name": "Business (100 credits/mo)", "monthly_annual_billing": 41.67, "monthly_monthly_billing": 50, "per_seat": false } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "Dyad", "kind": "open-source", "price": "Free (Apache 2.0); you pay model API fees", "note": "A free app builder that runs on your computer with your own API keys, but you manage the keys and hosting yourself.", "url": "https://dyad.sh" }, { "name": "Bolt.new", "kind": "free", "price": "Free plan: 1M tokens/mo; Pro $25/mo", "note": "The same prompt-to-app idea, with a free plan capped at 300K tokens a day.", "url": "https://bolt.new/pricing" }, { "name": "Replit Core", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Core $18/mo billed yearly ($20 monthly)", "note": "Builds and hosts apps in one place for a little less, with $20 of credits toward stronger models.", "url": "https://replit.com/pricing" }, { "name": "Claude Code (in Claude Pro)", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Included in Claude Pro ($17/mo billed yearly)", "note": "Builds in your own code repo on a flat plan, but you work in a terminal or editor, not a visual builder.", "url": "https://claude.com/pricing" } ], "downgrade_tip": "The Free plan gives 5 build credits a day (up to 30 a month), enough to prototype a small app. Move to Pro for the months you build in earnest, and cancel after.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 750, "build": 8905, "assumptions": "typical plan, 1 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 80, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 4, "scope": [ "A prompt box that sends your project files to an LLM API", "A live preview in a browser sandbox", "Save to GitHub and deploy to a static host", "Version history with one-click undo" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Database, GitHub and payment set-ups in a few clicks", "Visual edits, one-click publish and custom domains", "Credit tracking that shows what each build costs", "A team that adapts the builder to every new model" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Output quality", "level": "high", "note": "Prompt tuning, error repair and model changes are a research project of their own." }, { "label": "Security", "level": "medium", "note": "Generated apps need a review of sign-in and data access before they go live." }, { "label": "Cost creep", "level": "medium", "note": "API bills grow with every rebuild loop." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Move to a SWITCH if you already pay for Claude Pro or Cursor and are comfortable in a code editor: a coding agent does the same work without a second subscription.", "sources": [ { "label": "Lovable plans (docs)", "url": "https://docs.lovable.dev/introduction/subscription-plans" }, { "label": "Lovable pricing", "url": "https://lovable.dev/pricing" } ] }, { "name": "Mailchimp", "slug": "mailchimp", "category": "Email marketing", "verdict": "BUY", "headline": "Buy it. Sending email is easy. Getting it into the inbox isn’t.", "from_price": "$13/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "Up to 250 contacts and 500 emails a month", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/mailchimp/", "summary": "You can build signup forms and send through an email API. But then deliverability, bounce and complaint handling, unsubscribe compliance (CAN-SPAM, GDPR) and list hygiene are all on you. At 500 contacts, Mailchimp is about $13 a month. If price is the problem, switch to a cheaper email tool instead of building one.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "official", "plans": [ { "name": "Essentials, up to 500 contacts", "monthly_annual_billing": 13, "monthly_monthly_billing": null, "per_seat": false }, { "name": "Standard, up to 500 contacts", "monthly_annual_billing": 20, "monthly_monthly_billing": null, "per_seat": false }, { "name": "Standard, up to 2,500 contacts", "monthly_annual_billing": 60, "monthly_monthly_billing": null, "per_seat": false }, { "name": "Standard, up to 5,000 contacts", "monthly_annual_billing": 100, "monthly_monthly_billing": null, "per_seat": false } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "Sender", "kind": "free", "price": "Free for up to 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails a month", "note": "A free home for a small list, but check its automation limits before you move.", "url": "https://www.sender.net/pricing/" }, { "name": "MailerLite", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Free up to 250 subscribers; Comfort from $12/mo for 500, $33 for 2,500", "note": "A similar editor and automations for about the same price at 500 contacts, and 45% less than Mailchimp Standard at 2,500.", "url": "https://www.mailerlite.com/pricing" }, { "name": "Brevo", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Free: 300 emails a day; Starter from $9/mo", "note": "Priced by emails sent rather than contacts, so a large list you rarely email stays cheap.", "url": "https://www.brevo.com/pricing/" }, { "name": "Listmonk", "kind": "open-source", "price": "Free to self-host; Amazon SES sends cost $0.10 per 1,000 emails", "note": "A newsletter manager you host yourself, which hands deliverability and server upkeep back to you.", "url": "https://listmonk.app/" } ], "downgrade_tip": "The Free plan covers a list under 250 contacts. Essentials at $13 is enough if you send newsletters without long automations, since Standard adds longer automation flows and AI features.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 468, "build": 2095, "assumptions": "typical plan, 1 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 15, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 1, "scope": [ "Signup forms that write to your own contacts table", "Sending through an email API (e.g. Amazon SES or Resend)", "Unsubscribe links, a suppression list, and bounce and complaint webhooks", "Templates and a basic send scheduler" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Sending infrastructure with an established reputation", "A drag-and-drop editor and template library", "Automations, segments and A/B tests", "Open and click reports" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Deliverability", "level": "high", "note": "A new sending setup lands in spam easily." }, { "label": "Compliance", "level": "high", "note": "Unsubscribes and consent records are legal requirements." }, { "label": "Bounces", "level": "medium", "note": "Ignoring bounces and complaints gets your domain blocked." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Switch to HYBRID if you only send transactional email (receipts, password resets). That belongs in your app through an email API anyway.", "sources": [ { "label": "Mailchimp pricing", "url": "https://mailchimp.com/pricing/marketing/" } ] }, { "name": "Make", "slug": "make", "category": "Automation & databases", "verdict": "BUY", "headline": "Buy it. At $9 a month for 10,000 credits, Make is the cheap end of automation.", "from_price": "$9/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "1,000 credits a month, 2 active scenarios and runs every 15 minutes at most", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/make/", "summary": "Make runs visual automations between apps. The 10,000-credit Core plan costs $9 a month on yearly billing, about $324 over 3 years. Rebuilding even a few scenarios as code costs about $1,300 once you count upkeep, because every API you call can change or fail without warning. Credits rise with every module that runs, so check your usage first, but at this price there is little to save.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "third-party", "plans": [ { "name": "Core (10,000 credits/mo)", "monthly_annual_billing": 9, "monthly_monthly_billing": 10.59, "per_seat": false }, { "name": "Pro (10,000 credits/mo)", "monthly_annual_billing": 16, "monthly_monthly_billing": 18.82, "per_seat": false }, { "name": "Teams (10,000 credits/mo)", "monthly_annual_billing": 29, "monthly_monthly_billing": 34.12, "per_seat": false } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "n8n", "kind": "free", "price": "Free to self-host under a fair-code license; paid hosted plans also available", "note": "A visual editor you control, but you run the server and the updates, and the license is source-available rather than open source.", "url": "https://n8n.io/pricing/" }, { "name": "Activepieces", "kind": "open-source", "price": "Free to self-host (MIT); cloud free plan with 1,000 credits/mo; Plus $20/mo flat", "note": "An open-source builder with a smaller app library than Make’s, so check your key apps first.", "url": "https://www.activepieces.com/pricing" }, { "name": "Power Automate", "kind": "included", "price": "Included in Microsoft 365 business plans for standard connectors; Premium $15/user/mo", "note": "Best if your team lives in Microsoft 365, since premium connectors and many non-Microsoft apps need the paid license.", "url": "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/products/power-automate/pricing" } ], "downgrade_tip": "If you run under 1,000 credits a month with two scenarios, the free plan is enough. Core covers most small teams until you need Pro’s priority execution and full-text log search.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 324, "build": 1345, "assumptions": "typical plan, 1 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 8, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 1, "scope": [ "Webhooks or scheduled jobs (e.g. Supabase Edge Functions + cron) for your busiest scenarios", "Retries and a failure log", "An email or Slack alert when a job fails" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Thousands of ready-made app modules", "A visual scenario editor non-developers can change", "Execution history with replay", "Login handling for every connected app" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Third-party APIs", "level": "high", "note": "Every API you call can change or rate-limit you." }, { "label": "Silent failures", "level": "high", "note": "Without monitoring, a broken job fails quietly for weeks." }, { "label": "Ownership", "level": "medium", "note": "Non-developers can no longer change the automation." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Switch to HYBRID if one or two scenarios use most of your credits: move those into code and keep Make for the rest. Self-host n8n or Activepieces only if someone on your team will run the server and apply updates.", "sources": [ { "label": "Make pricing", "url": "https://www.make.com/en/pricing" }, { "label": "Make pricing, Sept 2026 (Jet Admin)", "url": "https://www.jetadmin.io/blog/make-pricing/" }, { "label": "Make pricing, Oct 2026 (Latenode)", "url": "https://latenode.com/blog/make-com-pricing" } ] }, { "name": "Microsoft 365", "slug": "microsoft-365", "category": "Docs & productivity", "verdict": "BUY", "headline": "Buy it. At $14 a user you get email, Teams, desktop Office apps and 1 TB each, and nothing home-built comes close.", "from_price": "$7/seat/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": null, "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/microsoft-365/", "summary": "Five people on Business Standard pay about $2,520 over 3 years. That covers Exchange email, Teams chat and meetings, desktop Word and Excel, 1 TB of OneDrive per person, plus Bookings and Forms. Microsoft raised Business Basic from $6 to $7 and Standard from $12.50 to $14 on July 1, 2026, so it now matches Google Workspace on price. A home-built stand-in would cost over $22,000 over 3 years and still lack real mailboxes and Office apps.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "official", "plans": [ { "name": "Business Basic", "monthly_annual_billing": 7, "monthly_monthly_billing": 8.4, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Business Standard", "monthly_annual_billing": 14, "monthly_monthly_billing": 16.8, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Business Premium", "monthly_annual_billing": 22, "monthly_monthly_billing": 26.4, "per_seat": true } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "Google Workspace Business Starter", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "$7/user/mo billed yearly", "note": "Half the price of Business Standard, with Gmail, Meet and Drive; you move from Office files to Google Docs and lose call recording and booking pages.", "url": "https://workspace.google.com/pricing" }, { "name": "Zoho Workplace", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Standard from $3/user/mo billed yearly", "note": "The cheapest full suite, with custom-domain email, docs, chat and meetings; file storage is small and it has no desktop Office apps.", "url": "https://www.zoho.com/workplace/pricing.html" }, { "name": "LibreOffice", "kind": "open-source", "price": "Free", "note": "Free desktop word processor, spreadsheet and slides; it has no email, cloud storage or Teams, and complex Office files can look different.", "url": "https://www.libreoffice.org/" } ], "downgrade_tip": "Business Basic ($7 a user) is enough if web and mobile Office apps work for you. You keep email, Teams and 1 TB of OneDrive, and lose the desktop apps and Loop.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 2520, "build": 22645, "assumptions": "typical plan, 5 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 340, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 10, "scope": [ "Browser editors for documents and spreadsheets, without full Office compatibility", "File storage with share links on cheap object storage", "A team calendar with a booking page", "Team chat and a video room built on hosted services", "Email forwarding into a rented mailbox" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Desktop Word, Excel and PowerPoint with full file compatibility", "Exchange mailboxes with spam and malware filtering", "Teams meetings with recordings and transcripts", "Admin controls, device management and file recovery" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Email delivery", "level": "high", "note": "Mail from a new server lands in spam until it builds a reputation, and one blocklist entry can stop all your email." }, { "label": "Office file compatibility", "level": "high", "note": "Opening and saving .docx and .xlsx files without breaking layout and formulas is a long list of edge cases." }, { "label": "Security and data loss", "level": "high", "note": "You own patching, backups and account takeovers, and one mistake can lose company files." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "There is no realistic flip to BUILD. Switch to Google Workspace or Zoho if you do not need desktop Office apps and the bill matters more than a migration.", "sources": [ { "label": "Microsoft 365 business plans and pricing", "url": "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/business/microsoft-365-plans-and-pricing" }, { "label": "Office Watch on the July 2026 price rise", "url": "https://office-watch.com/2026/microsoft-365-business-price-increase-2026/" } ] }, { "name": "Miro", "slug": "miro", "category": "Design & creative", "verdict": "SWITCH", "headline": "Switch to Microsoft Whiteboard, FigJam or Excalidraw. Each is free or a fraction of Miro’s price for everyday whiteboarding.", "from_price": "$8/seat/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "3 editable boards, with unlimited boards you can view and share", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/miro/", "summary": "Five people on Miro Starter pay about $1,440 over 3 years. Microsoft Whiteboard comes with Microsoft 365, Excalidraw is free and open source, and a FigJam Collab seat is $3 a month. You give up Miro’s 7,000+ templates, voting and timers for big workshops. Building your own board would cost about $3,700 over 3 years.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "official", "plans": [ { "name": "Starter", "monthly_annual_billing": 8, "monthly_monthly_billing": 10, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Business", "monthly_annual_billing": 20, "monthly_monthly_billing": 25, "per_seat": true } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "Microsoft Whiteboard", "kind": "included", "price": "Included in Microsoft 365 (from $7/user/mo)", "note": "Sticky notes, inking and templates inside Teams meetings; it is thinner than Miro for large workshops.", "url": "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/microsoft-whiteboard/digital-whiteboard-app" }, { "name": "FigJam", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Collab seat $3/user/mo billed yearly on Figma Professional; the free Starter plan is limited to 3 team files", "note": "Sticky notes, voting and templates in a tool designers already use; the free plan’s 3-file limit suits only light use.", "url": "https://www.figma.com/pricing/" }, { "name": "Excalidraw", "kind": "open-source", "price": "Free at excalidraw.com; Excalidraw+ from $6/user/mo", "note": "Free live sketching with unlimited collaborators; you give up Miro’s templates, voting and timers.", "url": "https://plus.excalidraw.com/pricing" } ], "downgrade_tip": "The Free plan is enough if you only work on 3 boards at a time.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 1440, "build": 3745, "assumptions": "typical plan, 5 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 40, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 2, "scope": [ "The open-source Excalidraw canvas embedded in your app", "Live cursors and shared editing through a small sync server", "A board list with login and share links", "Image and PDF export", "A few templates for retros and brainstorms" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Miro’s 7,000+ templates and facilitation tools", "Voting, timers and private mode for workshops", "Smooth performance on very large boards", "Integrations with Jira, Slack and Google Drive" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Live sync", "level": "high", "note": "Several people drawing at once means merging edits without losing strokes." }, { "label": "Large boards", "level": "medium", "note": "Boards with hundreds of images get slow unless you tune rendering." }, { "label": "Board storage and sharing", "level": "medium", "note": "Saved boards need versioning, access rules and clean-up of old files." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Stay on Miro if you run workshops with voting, timers or hundreds of templates. Switch to BUILD only if you want whiteboards inside your own product.", "sources": [ { "label": "Miro pricing", "url": "https://miro.com/pricing/" } ] }, { "name": "monday.com", "slug": "monday", "category": "Project management", "verdict": "SWITCH", "headline": "Switch to Trello or ClickUp. Five seats on monday.com Standard cost $60 a month; Trello is $25 and ClickUp has a free plan.", "from_price": "$9/seat/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "Up to 2 seats, 3 boards and 3 docs", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/monday/", "summary": "monday.com Standard is $12 per seat per month, about $2,160 over 3 years for five people, and paid plans start at 3 seats. Trello Standard costs about $900 for the same team, and ClickUp’s free plan costs nothing and imports monday.com boards. Building your own boards-and-automations tool would cost about $3,600 over 3 years, so building loses.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "official", "plans": [ { "name": "Basic", "monthly_annual_billing": 9, "monthly_monthly_billing": 12, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Standard", "monthly_annual_billing": 12, "monthly_monthly_billing": 14, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Pro", "monthly_annual_billing": 19, "monthly_monthly_billing": 24, "per_seat": true } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "ClickUp", "kind": "free", "price": "Free Forever plan has unlimited members; paid plans from $7/user/mo billed yearly", "note": "Imports monday.com boards directly, but the free plan has only 60 MB of storage and limited automations.", "url": "https://clickup.com/pricing" }, { "name": "Trello", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Free for up to 10 collaborators; Standard $5/user/mo billed yearly", "note": "Simpler boards and cards, so you give up custom columns and dashboards.", "url": "https://trello.com/pricing" }, { "name": "Microsoft Planner", "kind": "included", "price": "Included in Microsoft 365 business plans, from $7/user/mo billed yearly", "note": "Worth a look if you already pay for Microsoft 365, but it is much lighter than monday.com.", "url": "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/business/microsoft-365-business-basic" } ], "downgrade_tip": "Basic at $9 is enough if you only need boards and unlimited items. Timeline and Gantt views, automations and guest access start at Standard.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 2160, "build": 3565, "assumptions": "typical plan, 5 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 40, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 2, "scope": [ "Boards with custom columns for status, person, date and numbers", "Table, kanban and timeline views", "Simple automations, such as notify when a status changes", "Comments, file uploads and email notifications", "A basic dashboard of counts by status" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "200+ templates and ready-made workflows", "Timeline, Gantt and calendar views that work together", "Automations and integrations (250 actions a month on Standard, 25,000 on Pro)", "Mobile apps and guest access" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Custom columns and views", "level": "medium", "note": "Filters, sorting and grouping across many column types take longer than they look." }, { "label": "Automations", "level": "medium", "note": "A rules engine that never double-fires or drops an event needs careful testing." }, { "label": "Real-time sync", "level": "medium", "note": "Several people editing one board at once is where homemade tools break." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Switch to BUY if your team already runs dashboards, CRM boards or heavy automations on monday.com that you can’t rebuild elsewhere. Switch to BUILD only if boards are part of your own product.", "sources": [ { "label": "monday.com pricing", "url": "https://monday.com/pricing" }, { "label": "monday.com pricing, June 2026 (Automation Atlas)", "url": "https://automationatlas.io/answers/monday-com-pricing-explained-2026/" }, { "label": "monday.com pricing, Sept 2026 (PM World 360)", "url": "https://www.pmworld360.com/monday-com-pricing-breakdown-2026/" } ] }, { "name": "Notion", "slug": "notion", "category": "Docs & productivity", "verdict": "BUY", "headline": "Buy it. A shared editor with databases is hard to build, and Notion Plus is only $10 a user.", "from_price": "$10/seat/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "5 MB uploads, 7 days of page history and 10 guests; pages and blocks are limited for teams of 2 or more", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/notion/", "summary": "Five people on Notion Plus pay about $1,800 over 3 years. Rebuilding a live block editor, page permissions and database views would cost about $9,000 over the same period, plus months of upkeep. Google Docs or Microsoft Loop can replace plain documents if you already pay for the suite, but neither matches Notion’s databases.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "official", "plans": [ { "name": "Plus", "monthly_annual_billing": 10, "monthly_monthly_billing": 12, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Business", "monthly_annual_billing": 20, "monthly_monthly_billing": 24, "per_seat": true } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "Google Docs and Drive", "kind": "included", "price": "Included in Google Workspace (from $7/user/mo)", "note": "Fine for plain documents and shared folders; it has no linked databases.", "url": "https://workspace.google.com/pricing" }, { "name": "Microsoft Loop and OneNote", "kind": "included", "price": "Included in Microsoft 365 Business Standard ($14/user/mo)", "note": "Loop workspaces and OneNote notebooks cover shared notes and planning; they are less polished than Notion.", "url": "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/business/microsoft-365-plans-and-pricing" }, { "name": "AFFiNE", "kind": "open-source", "price": "Free to self-host; cloud free for up to 3 members, Team $10/seat/mo billed yearly", "note": "A Notion-style docs and whiteboard app you can host yourself; the project is younger and has fewer integrations.", "url": "https://affine.pro/pricing" } ], "downgrade_tip": "The Free plan is enough for one person. A team will hit its limits on pages and blocks, 5 MB uploads and 7 days of page history.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 1800, "build": 9025, "assumptions": "typical plan, 5 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 120, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 4, "scope": [ "Pages in a nested tree with a block editor (BlockNote or Tiptap)", "Live co-editing with Yjs", "Simple table views with filters and sorting", "Search and links between pages", "Team and guest permissions" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Linked databases, relations and rollups", "Notion AI and meeting notes", "Hundreds of ready-made templates", "Offline apps and a web clipper" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Live co-editing", "level": "high", "note": "Merging edits from several people without losing text takes careful use of a CRDT library." }, { "label": "Permissions", "level": "medium", "note": "A page shared with a guest must never expose its parent or sibling pages." }, { "label": "Search and history", "level": "medium", "note": "Page history and fast search across thousands of pages take real work." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "The verdict flips to SWITCH if you only write plain documents and already pay for Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, since Docs or Loop cost nothing extra. Notion Free covers a solo user.", "sources": [ { "label": "Notion pricing", "url": "https://www.notion.com/pricing" } ] }, { "name": "Otter.ai", "slug": "otter", "category": "AI tools", "verdict": "SWITCH", "headline": "Switch to Fathom. Its free plan records and transcribes without a cap, which saves about $1,500 over 3 years for five people.", "from_price": "$8.33/seat/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "Basic plan: 300 transcription minutes a month, 30 minutes per meeting", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/otter/", "summary": "Otter Pro costs $8.33 per user a month on annual billing, or $16.99 if you pay monthly, so five people pay about $1,500 over 3 years. Fathom’s free plan has no cap on recordings or transcripts, and Zoom and Google Meet include AI notes on their paid plans. Building your own notetaker needs a meeting bot, transcription and summaries, and costs about $8,100 over 3 years. Otter earns its price when you need Business features such as 4-hour meetings and admin logs.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "official", "plans": [ { "name": "Pro", "monthly_annual_billing": 8.33, "monthly_monthly_billing": 16.99, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Business", "monthly_annual_billing": 19.99, "monthly_monthly_billing": 30, "per_seat": true } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "Fathom", "kind": "free", "price": "Free plan; Premium $16/user/mo billed yearly", "note": "Records and transcribes without a cap on the free plan, though some AI features are limited.", "url": "https://fathom.ai/pricing" }, { "name": "Google Meet notes", "kind": "included", "price": "Included in Workspace Business Standard ($14/user/mo billed yearly) and up", "note": "Takes notes for you inside Google Meet at no extra cost, but only in Meet and only on Standard and above.", "url": "https://workspace.google.com/pricing" }, { "name": "Zoom AI Companion", "kind": "included", "price": "Included with paid Zoom plans (Workplace Pro $13.33/user/mo billed yearly)", "note": "Writes summaries for Zoom meetings at no extra cost on paid plans, but only inside Zoom.", "url": "https://explore.zoom.us/en/collaboration-tools/zoom-one-pro" }, { "name": "Fireflies.ai", "kind": "free", "price": "Free plan; Pro $10/seat/mo billed yearly", "note": "Joins Zoom, Meet and Teams, though the free plan limits storage and AI credits.", "url": "https://fireflies.ai/pricing" } ], "downgrade_tip": "The Basic plan is free and gives 300 minutes a month, which covers a few short calls a week.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 1499, "build": 8065, "assumptions": "typical plan, 5 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 40, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 3, "scope": [ "A bot that joins Zoom, Google Meet and Teams calls through a meeting-bot API", "Speech-to-text with a hosted model", "AI summaries and action items sent to Slack or email", "A searchable archive of transcripts" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Reliable joining of every meeting app", "Speaker names and live captions", "iOS and Android apps", "Integrations with Slack, HubSpot and Salesforce" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Meeting bots", "level": "high", "note": "Zoom, Meet and Teams change their rules often, and bots get blocked." }, { "label": "Recording consent", "level": "high", "note": "Recording laws and consent rules vary by state and country." }, { "label": "Accuracy", "level": "medium", "note": "Accents, crosstalk and poor audio hurt transcripts, and your team will notice." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Switch to BUY if you need Otter’s Business features, such as meetings up to 4 hours, custom AI workflows and admin logs, or if your compliance rules block free tools like Fathom.", "sources": [ { "label": "Otter pricing", "url": "https://otter.ai/pricing" } ] }, { "name": "PandaDoc", "slug": "pandadoc", "category": "Documents & e-signatures", "verdict": "BUY", "headline": "Buy it. Starter is $19 a seat, and the legally valid signature is the part you should not build.", "from_price": "$19/seat/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "Free eSign plan: send uploaded documents for signature, with a low document limit and no advanced templates", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/pandadoc/", "summary": "PandaDoc Starter costs $19 per seat a month on annual billing, so five sellers pay $3,420 over 3 years. You could build the quote pages and templates yourself in about 30 hours, but the legally valid signature and audit trail are the hard part. A hybrid of your own pages plus a signature service costs about $3,100 over 3 years, only 10% less than buying. If you only need documents signed, SignWell starts at $10 a month and Documenso is open source.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "third-party", "plans": [ { "name": "Starter", "monthly_annual_billing": 19, "monthly_monthly_billing": 35, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Business", "monthly_annual_billing": 49, "monthly_monthly_billing": 65, "per_seat": true } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "SignWell", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Light $10/mo for 1 sender; Business $30/mo for 3 senders (billed yearly)", "note": "Templates and signing with unlimited documents on paid plans, but it has no proposal or quote builder.", "url": "https://www.signwell.com/pricing/" }, { "name": "Documenso", "kind": "open-source", "price": "Free to self-host; hosted Teams $40/mo for 5 users (billed yearly)", "note": "Open-source signing you can host yourself, but it is a signing tool, not a proposal builder.", "url": "https://documenso.com/pricing" }, { "name": "Google Workspace eSignature", "kind": "included", "price": "Included in Workspace Business Standard ($14/user/mo billed yearly) and up", "note": "Write the proposal in Google Docs and send it for signature at no extra cost, but it has no quote tables, payments or CRM sync.", "url": "https://workspace.google.com/pricing" } ], "downgrade_tip": "The Free eSign plan covers basic signing. Starter at $19 adds templates, real-time tracking and basic analytics.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 3420, "build": 3085, "assumptions": "typical plan, 5 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 30, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 1.5, "scope": [ "Quote and proposal templates with a pricing table", "A share link with view tracking", "PDF export", "A hand-off to a signature service (SignWell or Documenso) for the signing step" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "A legally valid signature and audit trail built into the document", "A content library, approval steps and CRM sync", "Payments collected inside the document", "Document analytics and automatic reminders" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Legal validity", "level": "high", "note": "The signing step carries the legal weight. Use a signature service, not your own code." }, { "label": "Integrations", "level": "medium", "note": "CRM sync, payments and approvals each take extra work to match." }, { "label": "Polish", "level": "low", "note": "Making quotes look professional takes design time, but it is not risky." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Switch to HYBRID if you pay for five or more Business seats at $49 mainly for proposals and signatures: build the proposal pages and send them for signature through SignWell or Documenso. Move to SignWell outright if all you need is documents signed.", "sources": [ { "label": "PandaDoc pricing", "url": "https://www.pandadoc.com/pricing/" }, { "label": "PandaDoc pricing 2026 (Bind Legal)", "url": "https://bindlegal.com/resources/comparisons/pandadoc-pricing-2026/" }, { "label": "PandaDoc pricing, June 2026 (Hackceleration)", "url": "https://hackceleration.com/labs/pandadoc-pricing" } ] }, { "name": "Pipedrive", "slug": "pipedrive", "category": "Sales & CRM", "verdict": "SWITCH", "headline": "Switch to HubSpot Starter. At $20 a seat it costs about half of Pipedrive Growth’s $39.", "from_price": "$14/seat/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": null, "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/pipedrive/", "summary": "Pipedrive Growth is $39 a seat a month on annual billing, so five seats cost $7,020 over three years. HubSpot Starter is $20 a seat at list price (new customers see $7 for a limited time) and covers pipelines, email tracking and tasks for a small team. A homemade CRM would cost about $3,400 over the same period, close to HubSpot’s $3,600, but you’d own the upkeep and lose email sync. Zoho CRM at $14 a seat is cheaper still.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "third-party", "plans": [ { "name": "Lite", "monthly_annual_billing": 14, "monthly_monthly_billing": 24, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Growth", "monthly_annual_billing": 39, "monthly_monthly_billing": 49, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Premium", "monthly_annual_billing": 59, "monthly_monthly_billing": 79, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Ultimate", "monthly_annual_billing": 79, "monthly_monthly_billing": 99, "per_seat": true } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "HubSpot Starter", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Starter: $20/seat/mo list price; $7 for new customers for a limited time", "note": "About half the price of Growth with marketing and service tools bundled in, so you retrain the team and move your data.", "url": "https://www.hubspot.com/pricing/suite" }, { "name": "HubSpot Free CRM", "kind": "free", "price": "Free for up to 2 users", "note": "Enough for a two-person pipeline, and you start paying when you add a third user.", "url": "https://www.hubspot.com/pricing/crm" }, { "name": "Zoho CRM", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Free for 3 users; Standard $14/user/mo billed yearly", "note": "A free plan for three users, then $14 a seat, though you should expect more setup than Pipedrive.", "url": "https://www.zoho.com/crm/zohocrm-pricing.html" }, { "name": "Twenty", "kind": "open-source", "price": "Free to self-host; Cloud Pro $9/user/mo billed yearly", "note": "A modern open-source CRM at less than a quarter of Growth’s price, though it is younger with fewer integrations.", "url": "https://twenty.com/pricing" } ], "downgrade_tip": "Lite at $14 is enough if you don’t need email sync, automations or sequences, since it keeps pipeline management, reports and 500+ integrations.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 7020, "build": 3445, "assumptions": "typical plan, 5 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 30, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 2, "scope": [ "Contacts, organizations and a deals board with stages", "Activities, notes and reminders", "CSV import and export", "Email logging through a BCC address", "Basic win-rate and pipeline reports" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Two-way email sync with open and click tracking", "Automations and email sequences", "Mobile apps and call tracking", "500+ integrations and the app marketplace" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Email sync", "level": "medium", "note": "Two-way Gmail and Outlook sync is a project of its own, so log emails with a BCC address instead." }, { "label": "Customer data", "level": "medium", "note": "A CRM holds names, emails and deal values, and permissions and backups are on you." }, { "label": "Adoption", "level": "medium", "note": "Reps drop a clunky CRM fast, and a pipeline nobody updates is worse than none." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Switch to BUILD if your process is just contacts, a deal board and reminders, and you don’t need email sync. Switch to BUY if your reps use Growth’s email sync and sequences every day.", "sources": [ { "label": "Pipedrive pricing", "url": "https://www.pipedrive.com/en/pricing" }, { "label": "Pipedrive pricing 2026 (SpotSaaS)", "url": "https://www.spotsaas.com/blog/pipedrive-pricing" }, { "label": "Pipedrive pricing 2026 (Activepieces)", "url": "https://www.activepieces.com/blog/pipedrive-pricing-plans-and-total-costs-for-2026" } ] }, { "name": "Semrush", "slug": "semrush", "category": "SEO, social & analytics", "verdict": "SWITCH", "headline": "Switch to Mangools. It costs $26 a month against Semrush’s $117, and Google Search Console is free.", "from_price": "$117.33/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "1 demo project and 10 reports a day", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/semrush/", "summary": "Semrush’s SEO plan is $117.33 a month on annual billing ($139.95 monthly), about $4,200 over three years for one user. Mangools gives you keyword research, rank tracking and backlink checks for $26.35 a month. Ahrefs Free and Google Search Console audit your own site for $0. You can’t realistically build this yourself, because search volumes and rankings come from paid data providers.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "third-party", "plans": [ { "name": "SEO", "monthly_annual_billing": 117.33, "monthly_monthly_billing": 139.95, "per_seat": false }, { "name": "Starter, SEO and AI Search", "monthly_annual_billing": 165.17, "monthly_monthly_billing": 199, "per_seat": false }, { "name": "Pro+, SEO and AI Search", "monthly_annual_billing": 248.17, "monthly_monthly_billing": 299, "per_seat": false } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "Mangools", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Premium: $26.35/mo billed yearly ($40.50 monthly); Basic $18.85", "note": "Keyword research, rank tracking and backlinks at about a quarter of the price, with smaller data and no site audit.", "url": "https://mangools.com/plans-and-pricing" }, { "name": "Ahrefs Free", "kind": "free", "price": "Free for sites you verify", "note": "A site audit plus backlink and keyword data for your own site, but no competitor research.", "url": "https://ahrefs.com/webmaster-tools" }, { "name": "Google Search Console", "kind": "free", "price": "Free", "note": "Shows the queries, clicks and indexing problems for your own site, with no competitor data.", "url": "https://search.google.com/search-console/about" }, { "name": "Ahrefs Starter", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Starter: $29/mo", "note": "Keyword and competitor lookups from Ahrefs’s data at a quarter of the price, with fewer tools than its Lite plan.", "url": "https://ahrefs.com/pricing" } ], "downgrade_tip": "The Free plan (1 project, 10 reports a day) covers occasional checks. The SEO plan is the cheapest paid tier and already includes 5 websites and 500 tracked keywords.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 4224, "build": 8005, "assumptions": "typical plan, 1 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 50, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 4, "scope": [ "A rank tracker for your keywords using a SERP data API", "A crawler that flags broken links, missing titles and slow pages", "Search Console data pulled into one dashboard", "A keyword list with search volumes from a data provider" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Large keyword and backlink databases", "Competitor traffic and ad research", "Site audits at scale and content tools", "AI search and brand visibility tracking" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Search data", "level": "high", "note": "Search volumes, rankings and backlinks come from paid data providers, so you rent the data." }, { "label": "Scraping limits", "level": "medium", "note": "Scraping Google breaks its terms and gets blocked, and APIs charge per query." }, { "label": "Upkeep", "level": "medium", "note": "Crawlers and rank trackers need constant tuning as search results change." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Switch to BUY if you run SEO for several clients or need deep competitor and backlink research. That’s where Semrush’s databases earn their price.", "sources": [ { "label": "Semrush pricing", "url": "https://www.semrush.com/prices/" }, { "label": "Semrush pricing 2026 (Contextbolt)", "url": "https://contextbolt.com/blog/semrush-pricing/" }, { "label": "Semrush pricing 2026 (eesel)", "url": "https://www.eesel.ai/blog/semrush-seo-pricing" } ] }, { "name": "Slack", "slug": "slack", "category": "Chat & meetings", "verdict": "BUY", "headline": "Buy it, unless you already pay for Google Workspace or Microsoft 365. Then Google Chat or Teams is included.", "from_price": "$7.25/seat/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "90 days of message history, up to 10 apps and 1:1 huddles only", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/slack/", "summary": "Five people on Slack Pro pay about $1,305 over 3 years. If your team already rents Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, Google Chat or Microsoft Teams costs nothing extra, though you give up Slack’s app directory and polish and must move your channels and habits. Building your own would cost about $6,300 over 3 years and still needs push notifications that work.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "third-party", "plans": [ { "name": "Pro", "monthly_annual_billing": 7.25, "monthly_monthly_billing": 8.75, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Business+", "monthly_annual_billing": 15, "monthly_monthly_billing": 18, "per_seat": true } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "Google Chat", "kind": "included", "price": "Included in Google Workspace (from $7/user/mo)", "note": "Spaces, threads and calls come with the Workspace you already pay for; it has far fewer app integrations than Slack.", "url": "https://workspace.google.com/products/chat/" }, { "name": "Microsoft Teams", "kind": "included", "price": "Included in Microsoft 365 (from $7/user/mo); Teams Essentials $4/user/mo", "note": "Chat, channels and meetings come in the suite you may already rent; you give up Slack’s channel-first layout and its app directory.", "url": "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/compare-microsoft-teams-business-options" }, { "name": "Zulip", "kind": "open-source", "price": "Free to self-host; Cloud Standard $6.67/user/mo billed yearly", "note": "Topic-based threads keep busy channels readable; the Cloud Free plan searches only the last 10,000 messages.", "url": "https://zulip.com/plans/" } ], "downgrade_tip": "Slack Free is enough if you can live without messages older than 90 days and with 10 apps.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 1305, "build": 6265, "assumptions": "typical plan, 5 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 70, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 3, "scope": [ "Channels, direct messages and threads", "File and image uploads", "Search across messages", "Login with Google and invite links", "Web push notifications for mentions" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Slack’s app directory and one-click integrations", "Reliable mobile push notifications", "Huddles and screen sharing", "Shared channels with other companies" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Push notifications", "level": "high", "note": "Notifications that arrive on time on phones and browsers are hard, and missed messages kill trust in the tool." }, { "label": "Realtime delivery", "level": "medium", "note": "Dropped connections and out-of-order messages look like lost conversations." }, { "label": "Search and retention", "level": "medium", "note": "Search gets slow and storage gets costly as the history grows." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Switch to Google Chat or Teams if you already pay for their suite and don’t lean on Slack’s integrations or shared client channels. Switch to BUILD only if chat is part of your own product.", "sources": [ { "label": "Slack pricing", "url": "https://slack.com/pricing" }, { "label": "Slack pricing guide (G2, March 2026)", "url": "https://learn.g2.com/slack-pricing" }, { "label": "Slack plans and prices (Costbench, verified September 2026)", "url": "https://www.costbench.com/software/communication/slack/" } ] }, { "name": "Squarespace", "slug": "squarespace", "category": "Websites & link pages", "verdict": "SWITCH", "headline": "Switch to Framer or WordPress.com. For a site without a store they cost $8 to $10 a month, not $29.", "from_price": "$19/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": null, "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/squarespace/", "summary": "Squarespace Core costs $29 a month on yearly billing, about $1,000 over 3 years, after a July 2026 price rise. Framer and WordPress.com give you visual editors and custom domains for $8 to $10 a month, which saves about $700 over 3 years if you don’t sell through the site. Building from scratch costs more than staying put, about $1,650, mostly in upkeep, because every text change then needs a developer or a prompt.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "third-party", "plans": [ { "name": "Basic", "monthly_annual_billing": 19, "monthly_monthly_billing": 25, "per_seat": false }, { "name": "Core", "monthly_annual_billing": 29, "monthly_monthly_billing": 39, "per_seat": false }, { "name": "Plus", "monthly_annual_billing": 49, "monthly_monthly_billing": 65, "per_seat": false }, { "name": "Advanced", "monthly_annual_billing": 99, "monthly_monthly_billing": 139, "per_seat": false } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "Framer", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Free plan; Basic $10/mo on yearly billing", "note": "A visual editor with templates and hosting included, but extra editors cost $20 a month each and there is no built-in store.", "url": "https://www.framer.com/pricing" }, { "name": "WordPress.com", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Free plan; Personal $4/mo and Premium $8/mo billed yearly", "note": "The cheapest paid route with a custom domain and no ads, but the editor takes more learning and a store needs the $45 Commerce plan.", "url": "https://wordpress.com/pricing/" }, { "name": "Google Sites", "kind": "included", "price": "Free with a Google account; included in Google Workspace", "note": "Fine for a simple site you edit yourself, but it has no store or blog and little design control.", "url": "https://workspace.google.com/products/sites/" }, { "name": "Carrd", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Free plan; Pro Standard $19 a year", "note": "Best for a one-page site with a form and a custom domain, because it is not a multi-page builder.", "url": "https://carrd.com/pro" } ], "downgrade_tip": "If one or two people edit a simple site without a store, Basic at $19 a month is enough.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 1044, "build": 1657, "assumptions": "typical plan, 1 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 16, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 1, "scope": [ "A 5 to 8 page marketing site on free static hosting", "A blog or news list written in Markdown", "A contact form with spam protection", "Meta tags, a sitemap and privacy-friendly analytics" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Drag-and-drop editing that anyone on the team can use", "A built-in store, bookings and email campaigns", "Hosting, SSL and uptime handled for you", "Templates and 24/7 support" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Editing", "level": "medium", "note": "Every text change needs a code edit or a prompt unless you add a CMS." }, { "label": "SEO and speed", "level": "medium", "note": "Squarespace sets up redirects, sitemaps and SSL for you. You would set up and test each one." }, { "label": "Forms and email", "level": "medium", "note": "A contact form needs spam protection and reliable email delivery." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Switch to BUY if you sell products or take bookings through the site, because the store, tax and payment tools are the part you should not rebuild. Switch to BUILD only if the site is a few static pages that a developer on your team edits.", "sources": [ { "label": "Squarespace pricing", "url": "https://www.squarespace.com/pricing" }, { "label": "Squarespace price rise, July 2026 (PetaPixel)", "url": "https://petapixel.com/2026/07/17/squarespace-is-increasing-prices-by-up-to-26/" }, { "label": "Squarespace pricing, Sept 2026 (Style Factory)", "url": "https://www.stylefactoryproductions.com/squarespace-pricing" }, { "label": "Squarespace pricing change tracker, July 2026 (PricingSaaS)", "url": "https://pricingsaas.com/companies/squarespace/diffs/2026W29" } ] }, { "name": "SurveyMonkey", "slug": "surveymonkey", "category": "Forms & surveys", "verdict": "SWITCH", "headline": "Switch to Google Forms or Tally. Both are free, and both handle a typical team survey.", "from_price": "$39/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "Free plan (Basic): 10 questions per survey and a limited number of viewable responses", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/surveymonkey/", "summary": "SurveyMonkey’s Advantage plan costs $39 a month, about $1,400 over 3 years. Google Forms and Tally cost $0 and handle the usual small-team survey: a few question types, a share link, a results summary and an export. Building your own costs about $1,800, because the survey builder and the results screens are real work. SurveyMonkey earns its price when you need cross-tabs, a paid respondent panel or CRM syncing.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "third-party", "plans": [ { "name": "Advantage (individual, annual only)", "monthly_annual_billing": 39, "monthly_monthly_billing": null, "per_seat": false }, { "name": "Premier (individual, annual only)", "monthly_annual_billing": 139, "monthly_monthly_billing": null, "per_seat": false } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "Google Forms", "kind": "included", "price": "Free with a Google account; included in Google Workspace", "note": "Covers choice, rating and text questions with summary charts and a Sheets export, but has no benchmarks or respondent panel.", "url": "https://workspace.google.com/products/forms/" }, { "name": "Tally", "kind": "free", "price": "Free for unlimited forms and submissions; Pro from $24/mo billed yearly", "note": "Free under fair use with conditional logic and Google Sheets sync, though its reporting is lighter than SurveyMonkey’s.", "url": "https://tally.so/pricing" }, { "name": "Microsoft Forms", "kind": "included", "price": "Free with a Microsoft account; included in Microsoft 365 business plans", "note": "Good for quick polls and quizzes if your team lives in Microsoft 365, but light on analysis.", "url": "https://forms.cloud.microsoft/" } ], "downgrade_tip": "If you only send a few short polls, the free Basic plan may be enough. If just one person builds surveys, the individual Advantage plan at $39 a month beats a 3-seat team plan.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 1404, "build": 1825, "assumptions": "typical plan, 1 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 24, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 1, "scope": [ "A survey builder with the question types you use: choice, rating, scale and text", "Public links with one response per person and a thank-you page", "A results page with counts and a chart for each question", "CSV export and an email alert for new responses", "Saved templates for the surveys you repeat" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Expert-written templates, question banks and benchmarks", "Filters, cross-tabs and text analysis for the results", "A paid respondent panel (SurveyMonkey Audience)", "Ready-made links to CRMs, Slack and spreadsheets" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Analysis", "level": "medium", "note": "Summary charts are easy. Filters and cross-tabs take real work." }, { "label": "Spam and duplicates", "level": "medium", "note": "Public links attract bots and repeat answers. Limit by invite code, email or cookie." }, { "label": "Personal data", "level": "medium", "note": "Responses can hold personal data. Use row-level security and delete old data." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Switch to BUY if you run research surveys that need cross-tabs, benchmarks or paid respondents from SurveyMonkey Audience. Switch to BUILD only if surveys are part of your own product.", "sources": [ { "label": "SurveyMonkey pricing", "url": "https://www.surveymonkey.com/pricing/" }, { "label": "SurveyMonkey pricing, checked Oct 2026 (CostBench)", "url": "https://costbench.com/software/survey-software/surveymonkey/" }, { "label": "SurveyMonkey pricing, June 2026 (Hackceleration)", "url": "https://www.hackceleration.com/labs/surveymonkey-pricing" } ] }, { "name": "Tally", "slug": "tally", "category": "Forms & surveys", "verdict": "BUY", "headline": "Buy it, or stay on the free plan. Tally Pro costs $24 a month and mostly removes branding and adds a custom domain.", "from_price": "$24.17/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "Unlimited forms and submissions under fair use, with payments, file uploads and conditional logic", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/tally/", "summary": "Tally’s free plan gives you unlimited forms and submissions under its fair use policy, with payments, file uploads and conditional logic. Pro costs $24 a month on yearly billing and adds a custom domain, no Tally branding and shared team workspaces. Over 3 years that is $870, and rebuilding the same thing would cost about $1,500. Start free and pay only when you need those extras.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "third-party", "plans": [ { "name": "Pro", "monthly_annual_billing": 24.17, "monthly_monthly_billing": 29, "per_seat": false }, { "name": "Business", "monthly_annual_billing": 74.17, "monthly_monthly_billing": 89, "per_seat": false } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "Google Forms", "kind": "included", "price": "Free with a Google account; included in Google Workspace", "note": "Plenty for plain surveys and sign-ups, but you can’t remove Google’s look or use your own domain for the form.", "url": "https://workspace.google.com/products/forms/" }, { "name": "Fillout", "kind": "free", "price": "Free plan: 1,000 responses/mo; Starter $15/mo billed yearly", "note": "A comparable builder with unlimited forms and seats, though a Fillout badge stays on the free plan and responses are capped.", "url": "https://www.fillout.com/pricing" }, { "name": "Formbricks", "kind": "open-source", "price": "Free to self-host (AGPL-3.0); hosted free plan with 250 responses/mo", "note": "Built for surveys and in-product feedback rather than general forms, and you run the server yourself or use the hosted plan.", "url": "https://formbricks.com/pricing" } ], "downgrade_tip": "Most teams never need Pro. Stay on the free plan unless you want your own domain, no Tally branding or shared team workspaces.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 870, "build": 1465, "assumptions": "typical plan, 1 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 12, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 1, "scope": [ "Your forms as pages, with conditional logic", "Responses in your own Postgres (Supabase) table, plus an admin view", "File uploads and Stripe Checkout for forms that take payments", "Email alerts and CSV export" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Tally’s editor, which non-technical teammates can use", "Signatures, calculations and partial submissions", "Ready-made links to Google Sheets, Notion, Airtable, Zapier and Make", "Drop-off analytics and version history on Pro" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Payments", "level": "high", "note": "Paid forms need Stripe Checkout, webhooks and refunds handled correctly." }, { "label": "Spam", "level": "medium", "note": "Public forms attract bots. Add a honeypot field or a captcha." }, { "label": "Who edits forms", "level": "medium", "note": "Only someone who can code (or prompt) can add a new form." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Switch to BUILD if the forms are part of your own product and the data must live in your database. Move to Google Forms instead if you only need plain surveys inside a Google Workspace you already pay for.", "sources": [ { "label": "Tally pricing", "url": "https://tally.so/pricing" }, { "label": "Tally plans and pricing (help center)", "url": "https://tally.so/help/plans-and-pricing" }, { "label": "Tally billing info (help center)", "url": "https://tally.so/help/billing-and-payment-info" }, { "label": "Tally pricing 2026 (Jet Admin)", "url": "https://www.jetadmin.io/blog/tally-pricing/" } ] }, { "name": "Trello", "slug": "trello", "category": "Project management", "verdict": "BUY", "headline": "Buy it. The free plan covers up to 10 collaborators, and building costs more time than it saves.", "from_price": "$5/seat/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "Up to 10 collaborators and 10 boards per Workspace, with unlimited cards", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/trello/", "summary": "A kanban board is a fun weekend build. But drag-and-drop, real-time updates, mobile apps and notifications add up. At $5 per user per month, five people pay about $900 over 3 years. That’s roughly what it would cost to build and maintain your own.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "official", "plans": [ { "name": "Standard", "monthly_annual_billing": 5, "monthly_monthly_billing": 6, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Premium", "monthly_annual_billing": 10, "monthly_monthly_billing": 12.5, "per_seat": true } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "ClickUp", "kind": "free", "price": "Free Forever plan has unlimited members; paid plans from $7/user/mo billed yearly", "note": "Imports Trello boards as Spaces and has no member cap, but the free plan has only 60 MB of storage.", "url": "https://clickup.com/pricing" }, { "name": "Microsoft Planner", "kind": "included", "price": "Included in Microsoft 365 business plans, from $7/user/mo billed yearly", "note": "Boards and task lists for teams that already pay for Microsoft 365, with far fewer integrations than Trello.", "url": "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/business/microsoft-365-business-basic" }, { "name": "WeKan", "kind": "open-source", "price": "Free to self-host (MIT license); you pay for your own server", "note": "A close Trello clone for teams that want to own their data, but you run the updates and backups.", "url": "https://wekan.fi/" } ], "downgrade_tip": "The free plan is enough while your team has 10 or fewer collaborators and fits in 10 boards. Standard removes the board cap and adds more automation runs.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 900, "build": 925, "assumptions": "typical plan, 5 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 12, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 0.5, "scope": [ "Boards, lists and cards with drag-and-drop", "Real-time updates for your team", "Assignees, due dates and comments", "Email notifications" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Polished mobile apps", "Power-Ups and integrations", "Calendar, Timeline and Table views (Premium)", "Guests, permissions and admin controls" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Real-time sync", "level": "medium", "note": "Two people moving the same card is where homemade boards break." }, { "label": "Mobile", "level": "medium", "note": "A good phone experience is real extra work." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Switch to BUILD if the board is part of your own product, for example customers tracking their orders on it.", "sources": [ { "label": "Trello pricing", "url": "https://trello.com/pricing" } ] }, { "name": "Typeform", "slug": "typeform", "category": "Forms & surveys", "verdict": "BUILD", "headline": "Build it if your forms rarely change. A form plus a database is a weekend job.", "from_price": "$28/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "10 responses a month across all your forms", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/typeform/", "summary": "Most teams use Typeform for a handful of forms that rarely change: a lead form, an application, a feedback survey. Each one is a database table and a page. Plus costs $56 a month, about $2,000 over 3 years, for something you could own outright, with the data in your own database.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "official", "plans": [ { "name": "Basic (100 responses/mo)", "monthly_annual_billing": 28, "monthly_monthly_billing": 39, "per_seat": false }, { "name": "Plus (1,000 responses/mo)", "monthly_annual_billing": 56, "monthly_monthly_billing": 79, "per_seat": false }, { "name": "Business (10,000 responses/mo)", "monthly_annual_billing": 91, "monthly_monthly_billing": 129, "per_seat": false } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "Tally", "kind": "free", "price": "Free for unlimited forms and submissions; Pro from $24/mo billed yearly", "note": "The closest free swap, with logic, file uploads and payments on the free plan, but less design polish.", "url": "https://tally.so/pricing" }, { "name": "Fillout", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Free plan: 1,000 responses/mo; Starter $15/mo billed yearly for 2,000", "note": "A builder close to Typeform’s with unlimited forms and seats, though a Fillout badge stays on the free plan.", "url": "https://www.fillout.com/pricing" }, { "name": "Google Forms", "kind": "included", "price": "Free with a Google account; included in Google Workspace", "note": "Fine for plain sign-ups and surveys, but there is no one-question-at-a-time layout and little design control.", "url": "https://workspace.google.com/products/forms/" } ], "downgrade_tip": "If you collect under 100 responses a month, Basic at $28 a month is enough. The free plan stops at 10 responses a month.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 2016, "build": 805, "assumptions": "typical plan, 1 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 8, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 0.5, "scope": [ "Your specific forms as pages, one question per screen if you want", "Responses stored in your own Postgres (Supabase) table", "An email or Slack alert for each new response", "Conditional logic for the paths you already know", "CSV export" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "A drag-and-drop builder for non-technical teammates", "Drop-off and conversion analytics", "Over 100 ready-made integrations", "Hosted file uploads, payments and video questions" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Spam", "level": "medium", "note": "Public forms attract bots. Add a honeypot field or a captcha." }, { "label": "Personal data", "level": "medium", "note": "Responses often hold personal data. Lock the table down with row-level security." }, { "label": "Who edits forms", "level": "medium", "note": "Only someone who can code (or prompt) can add a new form." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Switch to BUY if non-technical teammates create new forms every week. That flexibility is what you’re really paying Typeform for.", "sources": [ { "label": "Typeform pricing", "url": "https://www.typeform.com/pricing/" }, { "label": "Typeform Free plan (help center)", "url": "https://help.typeform.com/hc/en-us/articles/360032972852-Free-plan" }, { "label": "Typeform pricing 2026 (Jet Admin)", "url": "https://www.jetadmin.io/blog/typeform-pricing/" } ] }, { "name": "Vercel", "slug": "vercel", "category": "Developer tools & hosting", "verdict": "SWITCH", "headline": "Switch to Cloudflare Pages or Netlify. Cloudflare has a free plan and Netlify Pro is $20 flat for the whole team, against $20 per developer on Vercel.", "from_price": "$20/seat/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "Hobby plan: free for personal, non-commercial projects, with 100 GB of data transfer a month", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/vercel/", "summary": "Vercel Pro is $20 per developer seat per month, so three developers pay about $2,160 over 3 years. Netlify Pro is a flat $20 a month for unlimited members, about $720 over 3 years, and Cloudflare Pages has a free plan with unlimited static requests. Vercel’s free Hobby plan only allows personal, non-commercial projects. Running your own deploy pipeline would cost about $4,700 over 3 years, so building loses.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "official", "plans": [ { "name": "Pro (per developer seat)", "monthly_annual_billing": 20, "monthly_monthly_billing": null, "per_seat": true } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "Cloudflare Pages", "kind": "free", "price": "Free plan: unlimited static requests, 500 builds a month; Workers Paid $5/mo", "note": "Free hosting for static and most framework sites, but server features such as Next.js middleware need extra setup.", "url": "https://developers.cloudflare.com/workers/platform/pricing/" }, { "name": "Netlify", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Free plan; Personal $9/mo; Pro $20/mo flat for unlimited members", "note": "The closest match, with Git deploys and previews, and the flat price wins once you have two or more developers.", "url": "https://www.netlify.com/pricing/" }, { "name": "Coolify", "kind": "open-source", "price": "Free to self-host; Coolify Cloud $5/mo for 2 servers; you pay for the server", "note": "A self-hosted Vercel-style deploy flow on a cheap VPS, but you run the server and its updates.", "url": "https://coolify.io/pricing" } ], "downgrade_tip": "Hobby is free but only allowed for personal, non-commercial projects. Any business site needs Pro.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 2160, "build": 4705, "assumptions": "typical plan, 3 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 30, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 3, "scope": [ "Git push triggers a build in CI", "Preview URLs for every branch or pull request", "Environment variables and one-click rollbacks", "TLS certificates and custom domains", "Basic logs and uptime alerts" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "A global edge network that scales without you", "Preview deployments with team comments", "Built-in DDoS protection and a web application firewall", "Zero-maintenance deploys and rollbacks" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Servers and uptime", "level": "high", "note": "Your app goes down when your server does, and you are the on-call team." }, { "label": "Security and TLS", "level": "high", "note": "You own patching, certificates and attack protection." }, { "label": "Preview builds", "level": "medium", "note": "Per-branch previews need build queues and cleanup." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Switch to BUY if you have one developer and rely on Next.js features such as ISR and image optimization working out of the box. Switch to HYBRID if bandwidth or function usage drives your bill: keep Vercel for the app and move big files to a cheaper CDN.", "sources": [ { "label": "Vercel pricing", "url": "https://vercel.com/pricing" }, { "label": "Vercel Pro plan docs", "url": "https://vercel.com/docs/plans/pro-plan" } ] }, { "name": "Webflow", "slug": "webflow", "category": "Websites & link pages", "verdict": "SWITCH", "headline": "Switch to Framer or WordPress.com. A plain site costs $8 to $10 a month there, against $25 on Webflow Premium.", "from_price": "$15/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "A webflow.io address, 2 static pages, 1 GB of bandwidth and 50 form submissions", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/webflow/", "summary": "Webflow Premium costs $25 a month on yearly billing, about $900 over 3 years, and the no-CMS Basic plan is $15. Framer Basic and WordPress.com Premium give you a visual editor and a custom domain for $10 and $8 a month, which saves about $540 to $610 over 3 years. Building your own costs about $1,800 once you count upkeep, so staying on a hosted builder beats it.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "official", "plans": [ { "name": "Basic (no CMS)", "monthly_annual_billing": 15, "monthly_monthly_billing": 25, "per_seat": false }, { "name": "Premium (CMS)", "monthly_annual_billing": 25, "monthly_monthly_billing": 39, "per_seat": false }, { "name": "Ecommerce Standard", "monthly_annual_billing": 29, "monthly_monthly_billing": 42, "per_seat": false } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "WordPress.com", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Free plan; Personal $4/mo and Premium $8/mo billed yearly", "note": "The cheapest paid route with a custom domain and a blog, but it gives you less design control than Webflow.", "url": "https://wordpress.com/pricing/" }, { "name": "Framer", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Free plan; Basic $10/mo on yearly billing", "note": "The closest visual builder, with 2 CMS collections on Basic, but extra editors cost $20 a month each and you rebuild every page.", "url": "https://www.framer.com/pricing" }, { "name": "Google Sites", "kind": "included", "price": "Free with a Google account; included in Google Workspace", "note": "Fine for a simple brochure site you edit yourself, but it has no real CMS and little design control.", "url": "https://workspace.google.com/products/sites/" } ], "downgrade_tip": "Basic at $15 is enough for a site with no blog or CMS. The free plan only suits a test site on a webflow.io address.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 900, "build": 1777, "assumptions": "typical plan, 1 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 20, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 1, "scope": [ "A 5 to 8 page marketing site on free static hosting", "A blog edited through a free headless CMS or Markdown files", "A contact form with spam protection", "Meta tags, a sitemap and privacy-friendly analytics" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "The visual designer and interaction tools", "A built-in CMS editor that non-developers can use", "Hosting, forms, backups and SSL in one bill", "Add-ons such as site search, localization and A/B tests" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Editor experience", "level": "medium", "note": "Non-developers need a safe way to edit content without breaking the site." }, { "label": "Forms and email", "level": "medium", "note": "A contact form needs spam protection and reliable email delivery." }, { "label": "SEO and speed", "level": "low", "note": "Static sites do well here, but sitemaps, meta tags and image sizes are on you." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Switch to BUY if your site relies on Webflow’s custom interactions, large CMS collections or several editors, because those parts don’t move. Switch to BUILD only if a developer on your team will maintain a small static site.", "sources": [ { "label": "Webflow pricing", "url": "https://webflow.com/pricing" } ] }, { "name": "Wix", "slug": "wix", "category": "Websites & link pages", "verdict": "SWITCH", "headline": "Switch to WordPress.com or Framer. A plain business site costs $8 to $10 a month there, against $29 on Wix Core.", "from_price": "$17/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "A site on a wixsite.com address with Wix branding and no way to take payments", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/wix/", "summary": "Wix Core costs $29 a month on yearly billing, about $1,000 over 3 years, and adds payments and 50 GB of storage over the $17 Light plan. WordPress.com and Framer give you a visual editor and a custom domain for $8 to $10 a month, so a switch saves about $700 over 3 years if you don’t sell through the site. Building your own costs about $1,650 once you count upkeep, so staying put beats it.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "third-party", "plans": [ { "name": "Light", "monthly_annual_billing": 17, "monthly_monthly_billing": 24, "per_seat": false }, { "name": "Core", "monthly_annual_billing": 29, "monthly_monthly_billing": 36, "per_seat": false }, { "name": "Business", "monthly_annual_billing": 39, "monthly_monthly_billing": 46, "per_seat": false }, { "name": "Business Elite", "monthly_annual_billing": 159, "monthly_monthly_billing": 172, "per_seat": false } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "WordPress.com", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Free plan; Personal $4/mo and Premium $8/mo billed yearly", "note": "The cheapest paid route with a custom domain and no ads, but a store needs the $45 Commerce plan.", "url": "https://wordpress.com/pricing/" }, { "name": "Framer", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Free plan; Basic $10/mo on yearly billing", "note": "A design-led visual editor with hosting included, but extra editors cost $20 a month each and there is no built-in store.", "url": "https://www.framer.com/pricing" }, { "name": "Google Sites", "kind": "included", "price": "Free with a Google account; included in Google Workspace", "note": "Fine for a simple brochure site you edit yourself, but it has no store and little design control.", "url": "https://workspace.google.com/products/sites/" }, { "name": "Carrd", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Free plan; Pro Standard $19 a year", "note": "Best for a one-page site with a form and a custom domain, because it is not a multi-page builder.", "url": "https://carrd.com/pro" } ], "downgrade_tip": "If your site takes no payments, Light at $17 a month is enough. The free plan works for a test site on a wixsite.com address.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 1044, "build": 1657, "assumptions": "typical plan, 1 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 16, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 1, "scope": [ "A 5 to 8 page marketing site on free static hosting", "A blog or news list written in Markdown", "A contact form with spam protection", "Meta tags, a sitemap and privacy-friendly analytics" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Drag-and-drop editing that anyone on the team can use", "Built-in payments, bookings and online store tools", "Hosting, SSL and uptime handled for you", "Templates and an app market for add-ons" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Editing", "level": "medium", "note": "Every text change needs a code edit or a prompt unless you add a CMS." }, { "label": "SEO and speed", "level": "medium", "note": "Wix handles sitemaps, redirects and SSL for you. You would set up and test each one." }, { "label": "Forms and email", "level": "medium", "note": "A contact form needs spam protection and reliable email delivery." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Switch to BUY if your site runs a store, bookings or memberships through Wix, because those tools are the hard part to move. Switch to BUILD only if developers on your team will edit a plain marketing site.", "sources": [ { "label": "Wix plans", "url": "https://www.wix.com/plans" }, { "label": "Wix premium plans (Wix blog)", "url": "https://www.wix.com/blog/wix-premium-plans" }, { "label": "Wix pricing, Sept 2026 (Website Builder Expert)", "url": "https://www.websitebuilderexpert.com/wix-pricing" } ] }, { "name": "Zapier", "slug": "zapier", "category": "Automation & databases", "verdict": "HYBRID", "headline": "Hybrid. Move your two or three busiest Zaps into code and keep Zapier for the rest.", "from_price": "$19.99/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "100 tasks a month, two-step Zaps only and 15-minute checks", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/zapier/", "summary": "Don’t try to rebuild Zapier’s thousands of integrations. But most of the bill usually comes from a few high-volume Zaps, like new signup → CRM → welcome email. Rewrite those as webhooks or scheduled jobs in your own backend, and you can often drop to a cheaper tier.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "official", "plans": [ { "name": "Pro, 750 tasks", "monthly_annual_billing": 19.99, "monthly_monthly_billing": 29.99, "per_seat": false }, { "name": "Pro, 2,000 tasks", "monthly_annual_billing": 49, "monthly_monthly_billing": 73.5, "per_seat": false }, { "name": "Team, 2,000 tasks", "monthly_annual_billing": 69, "monthly_monthly_billing": 103.5, "per_seat": false }, { "name": "Pro, 10,000 tasks", "monthly_annual_billing": 129, "monthly_monthly_billing": 193.5, "per_seat": false } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "Make", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Free plan: 1,000 credits/mo; Core $9/mo for 10,000 credits billed yearly", "note": "The closest visual match, at $9 a month for 10,000 credits against $49 for 2,000 Zapier tasks, but you must rebuild each Zap as a scenario.", "url": "https://www.make.com/en/pricing" }, { "name": "n8n", "kind": "free", "price": "Free to self-host under a fair-code license; paid hosted plans also available", "note": "A visual editor you control, but you run the server and the updates, and the license is source-available rather than open source.", "url": "https://n8n.io/pricing/" }, { "name": "Activepieces", "kind": "open-source", "price": "Free to self-host (MIT); cloud free plan with 1,000 credits/mo; Plus $20/mo flat", "note": "An open-source Zapier-style builder with a smaller app library, so check your key apps first.", "url": "https://www.activepieces.com/pricing" }, { "name": "Power Automate", "kind": "included", "price": "Included in Microsoft 365 business plans for standard connectors; Premium $15/user/mo", "note": "Best if your team lives in Microsoft 365, since premium connectors and many non-Microsoft apps need the paid license.", "url": "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/products/power-automate/pricing" } ], "downgrade_tip": "If you run under 750 tasks a month, Pro at $19.99 is enough. Under 100 tasks with two-step Zaps fits the free plan.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 1764, "build": 1345, "assumptions": "typical plan, 1 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 8, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 1, "scope": [ "Webhooks or scheduled jobs (e.g. Supabase Edge Functions + cron) for your top Zaps", "Retries and a failure log", "An email or Slack alert when a job fails" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Thousands of ready-made app connectors", "A visual editor non-developers can change", "Built-in task history and replay", "Login handling for every connected app" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Third-party APIs", "level": "high", "note": "Every API you call can change or rate-limit you." }, { "label": "Silent failures", "level": "high", "note": "Without monitoring, a broken job fails quietly for weeks." }, { "label": "Ownership", "level": "medium", "note": "Non-developers can no longer change the automation." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Switch to BUY (keep everything) if your bill is under about $20 a month or non-developers own the automations. Switch to full BUILD only if every automation runs between systems you already control.", "sources": [ { "label": "Zapier pricing", "url": "https://zapier.com/pricing" } ] }, { "name": "Zendesk", "slug": "zendesk", "category": "Customer support & feedback", "verdict": "SWITCH", "headline": "Switch to Freshdesk. Growth is $19 an agent against $55 for Zendesk Suite Team.", "from_price": "$19/seat/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": null, "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/zendesk/", "summary": "Zendesk Suite Team is $55 per agent a month on annual billing, so two agents cost $3,960 over three years. Freshdesk Growth is $19 per agent, and Zoho Desk is free for up to three agents. A homemade help desk costs about $3,400 over the same period and means you own inbound email parsing, spam and customer-data security. Zendesk earns its price when you need phone support, many channels or strict SLAs.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "third-party", "plans": [ { "name": "Support Team", "monthly_annual_billing": 19, "monthly_monthly_billing": 25, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Suite Team", "monthly_annual_billing": 55, "monthly_monthly_billing": 69, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Suite Professional", "monthly_annual_billing": 115, "monthly_monthly_billing": 149, "per_seat": true } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "Freshdesk", "kind": "cheaper", "price": "Growth: $19/agent/mo billed yearly", "note": "A ticketing-first help desk for 65% less than Suite Team, so check how its AI and chat features are packaged.", "url": "https://www.freshworks.com/freshdesk/pricing/" }, { "name": "Zoho Desk", "kind": "free", "price": "Free for 3 agents; Standard $14/agent/mo billed yearly", "note": "Free covers a three-person team, and paid plans add messaging, a knowledge base and custom reports.", "url": "https://www.zoho.com/desk/pricing.html" }, { "name": "Chatwoot", "kind": "open-source", "price": "Free to self-host; cloud free for 2 agents, then $19/agent/mo", "note": "An open-source inbox for email and chat, but the free cloud plan is live chat only and self-hosting means you run the server.", "url": "https://www.chatwoot.com/pricing" }, { "name": "Tawk.to", "kind": "free", "price": "Free live chat, ticketing and help center; removing branding is $29/mo", "note": "Free chat, ticketing and a help center suit a very small team, though expect fewer integrations than Zendesk.", "url": "https://www.tawk.to/pricing/" } ], "downgrade_tip": "Support Team at $19 an agent is enough if you only handle email tickets. It keeps ticketing, routing and automations, but drops AI agents, the knowledge base, messaging and phone.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 3960, "build": 3445, "assumptions": "typical plan, 2 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 30, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 2, "scope": [ "A shared inbox that turns incoming email into tickets", "Assignment, statuses, tags and internal notes", "Saved replies and a simple help center", "A contact form and basic response-time reports" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Phone, chat and social channels in one place", "SLAs, skills-based routing and automations", "Hundreds of integrations and a mobile app", "AI agents and agent copilots" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Email in and out", "level": "high", "note": "Receiving and sending support email reliably (threads, attachments, spam, SPF and DKIM) is harder than it looks." }, { "label": "Customer data", "level": "medium", "note": "Tickets hold personal data and need access control and backups." }, { "label": "Missed tickets", "level": "medium", "note": "A failed email webhook drops customer requests without any warning." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Switch to BUY if you need phone support, many channels or strict SLAs. That’s where Zendesk beats the cheaper tools.", "sources": [ { "label": "Zendesk pricing", "url": "https://www.zendesk.com/pricing/" }, { "label": "Zendesk pricing 2026 (Macha)", "url": "https://www.getmacha.com/blog/zendesk-pricing-explained" }, { "label": "Zendesk pricing 2026 (Desk365)", "url": "https://www.desk365.io/blog/zendesk-pricing" } ] }, { "name": "Zoom", "slug": "zoom", "category": "Chat & meetings", "verdict": "SWITCH", "headline": "Switch to Google Meet or Microsoft Teams. Both come with the suite most small teams already pay for.", "from_price": "$14.16/seat/mo (annual billing)", "free_plan": "40-minute meetings for up to 100 people", "url": "https://buildict.com/build-or-buy/zoom/", "summary": "Five people on Zoom Workplace Pro pay about $2,549 over 3 years. Google Meet comes with Google Workspace and Microsoft Teams comes with Microsoft 365, so the extra cost is $0. If you only want meetings, Teams Essentials is $4 a user. Building video yourself would cost about $6,900 over 3 years, and call quality would become your problem.", "prices_checked": "2026-10-26", "price_confidence": "official", "plans": [ { "name": "Workplace Pro", "monthly_annual_billing": 14.16, "monthly_monthly_billing": 16.99, "per_seat": true }, { "name": "Workplace Business", "monthly_annual_billing": 18.33, "monthly_monthly_billing": 21.99, "per_seat": true } ], "alternatives": [ { "name": "Google Meet", "kind": "included", "price": "Included in Google Workspace (from $7/user/mo); free with a Google account", "note": "Calls for 100 people on Business Starter and 150 on Standard, with recording on Standard; group calls on free accounts end after 60 minutes.", "url": "https://workspace.google.com/products/meet/" }, { "name": "Microsoft Teams", "kind": "included", "price": "Included in Microsoft 365 (from $7/user/mo); Teams Essentials $4/user/mo; free plan", "note": "Meetings, recordings with transcripts and chat in one app; the free plan limits meetings to 60 minutes.", "url": "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/compare-microsoft-teams-business-options" }, { "name": "Jitsi Meet", "kind": "open-source", "price": "Free at meet.jit.si; free to self-host", "note": "Free, open-source video calls you can host yourself; you give up cloud recording, scheduling add-ins and AI notes.", "url": "https://jitsi.org/jitsi-meet/" } ], "downgrade_tip": "Zoom Workplace Basic is free and is enough if every meeting stays under 40 minutes.", "three_year_cost": { "buy": 2549, "build": 6865, "assumptions": "typical plan, 5 seat(s), $30/h" }, "build": { "hours": 60, "upkeep_hours_per_month": 3, "scope": [ "Meeting rooms with video, audio and screen share on a hosted video service", "Invite links and a waiting lobby", "Chat inside the room", "Cloud recording saved to object storage", "Calendar invites with a join link" ] }, "you_would_lose": [ "Zoom’s call quality on weak networks", "Breakout rooms, polls and whiteboards", "Live captions and AI meeting summaries", "Calendar add-ins for Google and Outlook" ], "risks": [ { "label": "Call quality", "level": "high", "note": "Video breaks on weak networks and strict firewalls unless relay servers are set up well." }, { "label": "Recording and storage", "level": "medium", "note": "Recordings need processing, storage and a player, and they grow fast." }, { "label": "Cost at scale", "level": "medium", "note": "Hosted video bills by participant minute, so a busy month raises the bill." } ], "verdict_flips_when": "Stay on Zoom if you run webinars, breakout rooms or calls with hundreds of guests. Switch to BUILD only if video calls are part of your own product.", "sources": [ { "label": "Zoom pricing", "url": "https://zoom.us/pricing" } ] } ] }