Docs & productivity: build, buy or switch?
4 tools compared on 3-year cost, cheaper options and risk. Prices checked October 2026.
| Tool | Verdict | From | Buy, 3 yrs | Build, 3 yrs | Cheapest option |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Workspace | BUY | $7/seat/mo | $2,520 | $22,045 | Zoho Workplace (cheaper) |
| Grammarly | SWITCH | $12/seat/mo | $432 | $3,265 | Harper (open source) |
| Microsoft 365 | BUY | $7/seat/mo | $2,520 | $22,645 | LibreOffice (open source) |
| Notion | BUY | $10/seat/mo | $1,800 | $9,025 | AFFiNE (open source) |
3-year costs use each tool’s typical plan and team size and $30/hour for your time. Open a tool to change them.
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
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
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
Paying for more than one of these?
Stack Scan spots tools that do the same job and shows what you’d save by keeping one.
Verdict key: BUILD = Build it · BUY = Buy it · HYBRID = Hybrid · SWITCH = Switch. How we score.