Build it, buy it, or switch?

Build it for one stable workflow. Five editors on Team cost about $3,600 over 3 years.

Buy, 3 yrs: $3,600
Build, 3 yrs: $2,485

Canny

Customer support & feedback

Build it. Posts, votes and a status column are basic database work, and Pro starts at $79 a month.

Buy, 3 yrs: $2,844
Build, 3 yrs: $865

Linktree

Websites & link pages

Build it. It’s one static page, and the real win is your own domain, not the $12.

Buy, 3 yrs: $432
Build, 3 yrs: $253

Typeform

Forms & surveys

Build it if your forms rarely change. A form plus a database is a weekend job.

Buy, 3 yrs: $2,016
Build, 3 yrs: $805

Intercom

Customer support & feedback

HYBRID

Hybrid. Build your help center and AI answers, and keep a small inbox for live chat.

Buy, 3 yrs: $3,870
Build, 3 yrs: $2,755

Zapier

Automation & databases

HYBRID

Hybrid. Move your two or three busiest Zaps into code and keep Zapier for the rest.

Buy, 3 yrs: $1,764
Build, 3 yrs: $1,345

Adobe Creative Cloud

Design & creative

Switch to Affinity. It is free for photo, vector and layout work, against $69.99 a month for Creative Cloud Pro.

Buy, 3 yrs: $2,520
Build, 3 yrs: $3,925

Ahrefs

SEO, social & analytics

Switch to Mangools, and use Ahrefs Free for audits. You’d pay $26 a month instead of $108.

Buy, 3 yrs: $3,888
Build, 3 yrs: $8,005

Asana

Project management

Switch to ClickUp or Trello. ClickUp’s free plan has no member cap, and Trello costs $5 a user against Asana’s $10.99.

Buy, 3 yrs: $1,978
Build, 3 yrs: $2,725

Cursor

AI tools

Switch to GitHub Copilot Business. At $19 a seat it costs 37% less than Cursor Teams at $30.

Buy, 3 yrs: $5,400
Build, 3 yrs: $8,845

DocuSign

Documents & e-signatures

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.

Buy, 3 yrs: $900
Build, 3 yrs: $2,005

Dropbox

Files & storage

Switch to Google Drive or OneDrive. Both come in a suite that costs less than Dropbox alone.

Buy, 3 yrs: $2,700
Build, 3 yrs: $4,225

Grammarly

Docs & productivity

Switch to LanguageTool if spelling and grammar are what you use. It costs about half as much as Grammarly Pro.

Buy, 3 yrs: $432
Build, 3 yrs: $3,265

Hootsuite

SEO, social & analytics

Switch to Buffer. Ten channels cost $50 a month there, against $99 for Hootsuite Standard.

Buy, 3 yrs: $3,564
Build, 3 yrs: $5,845

Hotjar

SEO, social & analytics

Switch to Microsoft Clarity. It records sessions and draws heatmaps for $0, with no traffic cap.

Buy, 3 yrs: $1,404
Build, 3 yrs: $5,185

Jotform

Forms & surveys

Switch to Tally. Its free plan covers what most small teams use Jotform’s $34 plan for.

Buy, 3 yrs: $1,224
Build, 3 yrs: $1,525

Kit

Email marketing

Switch to MailerLite. At 1,000 subscribers it costs $17.10 a month against Kit’s $33.

Buy, 3 yrs: $1,188
Build, 3 yrs: $3,085

Linear

Project management

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.

Buy, 3 yrs: $1,800
Build, 3 yrs: $5,053

Loom

Chat & meetings

Switch to Cap or ScreenPal. Both cost about half of Loom Business for the same screen recordings and share links.

Buy, 3 yrs: $2,700
Build, 3 yrs: $3,745

Miro

Design & creative

Switch to Microsoft Whiteboard, FigJam or Excalidraw. Each is free or a fraction of Miro’s price for everyday whiteboarding.

Buy, 3 yrs: $1,440
Build, 3 yrs: $3,745

monday.com

Project management

Switch to Trello or ClickUp. Five seats on monday.com Standard cost $60 a month; Trello is $25 and ClickUp has a free plan.

Buy, 3 yrs: $2,160
Build, 3 yrs: $3,565

Otter.ai

AI tools

Switch to Fathom. Its free plan records and transcribes without a cap, which saves about $1,500 over 3 years for five people.

Buy, 3 yrs: $1,499
Build, 3 yrs: $8,065

Pipedrive

Sales & CRM

Switch to HubSpot Starter. At $20 a seat it costs about half of Pipedrive Growth’s $39.

Buy, 3 yrs: $7,020
Build, 3 yrs: $3,445

Semrush

SEO, social & analytics

Switch to Mangools. It costs $26 a month against Semrush’s $117, and Google Search Console is free.

Buy, 3 yrs: $4,224
Build, 3 yrs: $8,005

Squarespace

Websites & link pages

Switch to Framer or WordPress.com. For a site without a store they cost $8 to $10 a month, not $29.

Buy, 3 yrs: $1,044
Build, 3 yrs: $1,657

SurveyMonkey

Forms & surveys

Switch to Google Forms or Tally. Both are free, and both handle a typical team survey.

Buy, 3 yrs: $1,404
Build, 3 yrs: $1,825

Vercel

Developer tools & hosting

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.

Buy, 3 yrs: $2,160
Build, 3 yrs: $4,705

Webflow

Websites & link pages

Switch to Framer or WordPress.com. A plain site costs $8 to $10 a month there, against $25 on Webflow Premium.

Buy, 3 yrs: $900
Build, 3 yrs: $1,777

Wix

Websites & link pages

Switch to WordPress.com or Framer. A plain business site costs $8 to $10 a month there, against $29 on Wix Core.

Buy, 3 yrs: $1,044
Build, 3 yrs: $1,657

Zendesk

Customer support & feedback

Switch to Freshdesk. Growth is $19 an agent against $55 for Zendesk Suite Team.

Buy, 3 yrs: $3,960
Build, 3 yrs: $3,445

Zoom

Chat & meetings

Switch to Google Meet or Microsoft Teams. Both come with the suite most small teams already pay for.

Buy, 3 yrs: $2,549
Build, 3 yrs: $6,865

1Password

Passwords & security

Buy it. You should not build a password manager, and the Teams Starter Pack is $24.95 a month for 10 people.

Buy, 3 yrs: $898
Build, 3 yrs: $7,705

beehiiv

Email marketing

Buy it, but stay on the free plan until you need paid subscriptions or automations.

Buy, 3 yrs: $1,764
Build, 3 yrs: $4,645

Buffer

SEO, social & analytics

Buy it. At $25 a month for five channels, Buffer costs less than the API breakage you’d chase.

Buy, 3 yrs: $900
Build, 3 yrs: $4,825

Calendly

Scheduling

Buy it. At $10 a month, Calendly costs less than fixing the bugs you’d ship.

Buy, 3 yrs: $360
Build, 3 yrs: $1,705

Canva

Design & creative

Buy it. Canva Pro is $12 a month, and a homemade design tool costs nearly 9 times that over 3 years.

Buy, 3 yrs: $432
Build, 3 yrs: $3,745

ChatGPT

AI tools

Buy it. At $20 a seat, ChatGPT Business costs less than running your own chat app on the API.

Buy, 3 yrs: $3,600
Build, 3 yrs: $5,245

Claude

AI tools

Buy it. A $20 Team seat includes Claude Code, and a homemade setup on the API costs more.

Buy, 3 yrs: $3,600
Build, 3 yrs: $5,245

ClickUp

Project management

Buy it, or start on the free plan. At $7 a user, ClickUp costs far less than building even a slice of it.

Buy, 3 yrs: $1,260
Build, 3 yrs: $4,363

Figma

Design & creative

Buy it. A shared design canvas is one of the hardest things to build, and the Starter plan is free to try.

Buy, 3 yrs: $1,728
Build, 3 yrs: $12,025

GitHub

Developer tools & hosting

Buy it, or stay on Free. GitHub costs $4 a user, and hosting your own code server costs more in your time.

Buy, 3 yrs: $720
Build, 3 yrs: $2,641

GitHub Copilot

AI tools

Buy it. Copilot Business is $19 a seat, and a homemade assistant costs about twice that once you pay for the API.

Buy, 3 yrs: $3,420
Build, 3 yrs: $6,865

Google Workspace

Docs & productivity

Buy it. Email, docs, storage and video calls for $14 a user is hard to beat, and none of it is worth building.

Buy, 3 yrs: $2,520
Build, 3 yrs: $22,045

HubSpot

Sales & CRM

Buy it. At $20 a seat, HubSpot Starter costs about the same as keeping a homemade CRM running.

Buy, 3 yrs: $3,600
Build, 3 yrs: $3,445

Jira

Project management

Buy it, and start free. Jira costs nothing for up to 10 users, and Standard runs about $8 a user beyond that.

Buy, 3 yrs: $2,851
Build, 3 yrs: $5,425

Lovable

AI tools

Buy it, one month at a time. Lovable Pro starts at $25, and you can cancel when the build is done.

Buy, 3 yrs: $750
Build, 3 yrs: $8,905

Mailchimp

Email marketing

Buy it. Sending email is easy. Getting it into the inbox isn’t.

Buy, 3 yrs: $468
Build, 3 yrs: $2,095

Make

Automation & databases

Buy it. At $9 a month for 10,000 credits, Make is the cheap end of automation.

Buy, 3 yrs: $324
Build, 3 yrs: $1,345

Microsoft 365

Docs & productivity

Buy it. At $14 a user you get email, Teams, desktop Office apps and 1 TB each, and nothing home-built comes close.

Buy, 3 yrs: $2,520
Build, 3 yrs: $22,645

Notion

Docs & productivity

Buy it. A shared editor with databases is hard to build, and Notion Plus is only $10 a user.

Buy, 3 yrs: $1,800
Build, 3 yrs: $9,025

PandaDoc

Documents & e-signatures

Buy it. Starter is $19 a seat, and the legally valid signature is the part you should not build.

Buy, 3 yrs: $3,420
Build, 3 yrs: $3,085

Slack

Chat & meetings

Buy it, unless you already pay for Google Workspace or Microsoft 365. Then Google Chat or Teams is included.

Buy, 3 yrs: $1,305
Build, 3 yrs: $6,265

Tally

Forms & surveys

Buy it, or stay on the free plan. Tally Pro costs $24 a month and mostly removes branding and adds a custom domain.

Buy, 3 yrs: $870
Build, 3 yrs: $1,465

Trello

Project management