Build vs buy

The choice between paying for a ready-made product and building your own software, including what each costs over time.

Buying costs a subscription that grows with users; building costs the build and then maintenance, hosting and someone who knows the code. AI tools made the first version of a custom app much cheaper, which makes building tempting, but the later costs did not disappear. Some reasons to build are not about money: data location, integrations, a process that is your advantage.

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Related terms

MVP (minimum viable product): The smallest version of a product that tests whether people want it enough to use or pay.
Reference class forecasting: Estimating from what similar finished projects actually cost, instead of from your own feature list.
Time and materials (T&M): Paying for the hours actually worked; scope can change, cost and timeline move with it.

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Przemysław Zalewski · 15+ years shipping software

“a true bias for action” client CTO, public LinkedIn recommendation

Confidential by default. NDA is standard. I never show your project, name or screenshots without written consent, which is why this site names no clients without permission.
Your code, your accounts. Code and data stay in your repository and accounts. AI tools run with training on your data turned off, and secrets never reach a model.
A handover you can use. Every project ends with the same checklist: a README that gets it running, one architecture diagram, written decisions, CI, a runbook and a recorded walkthrough. It is done when someone outside the project can run it from the docs.
Boring technology where it counts. I pick a stack you can hire for. Anything experimental needs your yes and an exit plan.
Approach matched to your risk appetite. Prototype, product or regulated: the level decides how much autonomy the agents get and how much review and validation each change needs.
Everything checkable. Every number on my pages links to its source. My tools are free, and the idea validator skill is open source (MIT).

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