Article
Business owners keep asking whether they should buy software or build it themselves. With AI and coding tools becoming more common, the question comes up even more.
After two decades of doing this work, my answer has not changed much. Build versus buy is too rigid. Software decisions sit on a spectrum, and most businesses will use a mix of both.
Where you land depends on your abilities, your team's abilities, your budget, what you are trying to create, and the market you operate in. The answer can also move as the business changes.
Move the needle instead of picking a side
I am building a sales tool that crawls a company's website, extracts useful information, and reports it back to a central system.
While working on the complicated search piece, I realized someone had probably solved that problem already. They had. I integrated their service into my system because it could handle that job better than I could.
The sales tool is still custom, with one rented part. That moved the needle a little closer to the buy side while keeping the parts worth building.
This is why the spectrum matters. A black-and-white decision creates unnecessary anxiety. People assume custom software means they must build and maintain every piece forever. A custom system can connect to outside services that make the work easier.
The same applies when you begin with rented software. You can add custom pieces as the business grows and the need becomes clear.
Start with what already works
Most small businesses should begin by connecting something that already exists, especially for commodity software such as a website or CRM.
Those tools have already been tested, used by many businesses, and had plenty of bugs worked out. A subscription can save time and money while you learn what your business needs.
Starting with an existing tool leaves room to change. If the business develops a requirement the standard product cannot handle, you can move the needle toward custom software.
Build where it creates an advantage
Custom software makes sense when it can give the business a unique advantage.
Even then, you can combine custom work with outside services. I built a custom e-commerce website for Cookies by George because, at the time, available providers did not support the complex features they needed.
That custom framework still uses external tools for shipping address verification and AI bulk-order cleanup. Those services save time and money while the custom system handles the work that made it worth building in the first place.
That is a useful way to make the decision:
- Use proven software for common needs.
- Build the parts that could create a real advantage.
- Connect outside services when they can handle a piece better.
- Revisit the mix as the business grows.
Decide where your business belongs on the spectrum today, then move the needle when the value is clear.