Article
I think software might actually be getting more expensive, not less.
You can get a Codex or Claude account for 300 Canadian funny money and be off to the races as a developer. That makes the coding part look cheap and accessible.
The account price is easy to see. The time around the coding is where the cost starts to pile up.
Coding is only part of the job
If you want other people to use what you build, you still have to deal with data integrity, tenancy, networking, API integration, and the polish that makes software feel finished.
That last 10% is tremendous. People absolutely underestimate it.
The AI account can help you write code, but it does not make those surrounding jobs disappear. You still have to work through them, and they take time.
The business pays for your time too
I have seen business owners go down this route because they are trying to save money. On the surface, it seems cheaper. Then the project starts taking their attention away from the business.
That is the opportunity cost. The software costs whatever you pay for the tools, plus the time you are no longer spending on the rest of the business.
I know this because I built Scout. It took me three months.
Looking back, I do not think that SaaS was going to win me more customers. I feel like I wasted that time. The tools made building possible, and I still spent three months on something that was unlikely to win me more customers.
Count the whole cost before you build
Not all is lost. The warning is to account for the whole job before deciding that building software yourself will save money.
Count the coding, but also count the data work, tenancy, networking, integrations, polish, and the final 10%. Then count what your attention will be pulled away from while you finish it.
If you leave those costs out, the cheap route can hurt you in the long run.