The numbers have moved
For a decade, the default answer to "should we build or buy?" has been "buy unless there's a strong reason to build." That default was correct until very recently.
What's changed: the cost of building bespoke software has fallen dramatically for the kinds of organisations that were previously priced out of it. Small teams using modern tooling and AI-assisted engineering can deliver in weeks what would have taken months even three years ago.
The implication isn't "build everything." It's "the buy-by-default rule of thumb is no longer reliable." Decisions that were obviously buy in 2022 are now genuinely closer to even.
Where build is suddenly more competitive
- The "almost-right SaaS", when a 90% fit is costing you in workarounds and per-seat fees.
- Operational systems that encode your competitive advantage.
- Customer-facing software where the SaaS aesthetic is hurting brand.
- Integrations between systems that don't talk to each other.
Where buy still wins
- Commodity functions (payroll, accounting, identity, payments).
- Heavily regulated areas with mature, certified vendors.
- Anything where the SaaS is genuinely best-in-class for your scale.
The right answer is usually "buy the commodity, build the differentiator". But the line has shifted, and it pays to look again.
