Deciding whether to build a custom software solution or buy an existing SaaS platform is a critical strategic decision. Based on our extensive experience guiding businesses through this process, the optimal approach follows a clear, logical sequence. Our primary advice is this: always start by rigorously evaluating off-the-shelf software. If that isn't a perfect fit, explore customising an existing product. Only when those two avenues are exhausted should building a bespoke solution be considered.
Choosing to build or buy isn't just a technical discussion; it's a decision that will shape your budget, your timeline, and your competitive standing. After decades in this industry, we’ve distilled this complex choice into a framework that prioritises efficiency and strategic alignment. We advise clients to follow this distinct hierarchy:
The UK SaaS market has exploded, making the "buy" option more appealing than ever. It's projected to hit a staggering £62.40 billion this year, a massive jump from just £2.73 billion back in 2015. This thriving ecosystem means there’s a rich variety of mature, reliable solutions for almost any business need you can think of.
Building your own platform offers one powerful strategic advantage: you own the intellectual property (IP). If you create a tool that solves a widespread industry problem, you can then commercialise it by selling it to your entire market. This move can create a substantial new revenue stream, but it's a major commitment, as it effectively transforms part of your business into a software company.
When weighing your options, it's also worth thinking through different development scenarios. For example, getting your head around the complexities of navigating the pros and cons of building for third-party stores can offer some valuable perspective.
To help simplify that initial choice, we've put together a quick decision matrix. It boils the key factors down to their essence, giving you a clearer picture of which path might be right for you.
Ultimately, this table is a starting point. Your final decision will depend on a much deeper dive into your specific business context, long-term goals, and how much risk you're willing to take on.
For most businesses, the most sensible and efficient path is to buy an existing SaaS solution. It's a compelling choice because it puts speed and predictability first, letting you focus on what you're good at—your core business—instead of turning into a software development company overnight. This approach drastically cuts down on your initial risk and financial commitment.
The biggest win here is immediate deployment. While a custom build can drag on for months or even years, you can get a purchased SaaS solution up and running in a matter of days or weeks. This speed slashes your time-to-market, allowing you to start serving customers and bringing in revenue almost instantly. Think of a growing e-commerce brand; adopting a powerhouse CRM like Salesforce or HubSpot immediately gives them a solid framework for managing customer relationships. Building that from scratch would burn through an immense amount of time and money.
Another massive plus for buying is financial predictability. Off-the-shelf platforms usually run on a subscription model, which means you have a steady, predictable operational expense (OpEx). This is a world away from the hefty capital expense (CapEx) needed for a custom build, which almost always comes with surprise costs and the very real risk of blowing your budget.
By choosing a pre-built solution, you are also outsourcing the immense responsibility of maintenance, security, and compliance. The vendor handles server management, bug fixes, and crucial security updates, which is a full-time job in itself.
This managed approach is a critical advantage. Security is a huge deal, and some studies show that over 60% of certain expensed SaaS applications have poor security protocols. A reputable vendor pours money and resources into security measures, a task that's often far beyond what a non-tech business can handle. A deeper look at the specifics can really highlight the differences between custom software development vs off-the-shelf packaged software.
Vendors build their platforms for thousands of customers. This means their products are usually packed with features that have been tested and refined by a mountain of user feedback. You get instant access to a mature, feature-rich ecosystem that you’d find almost impossible to replicate on your own.
For instance, if you need to integrate specialised functions like crypto payments but don't want to build it all from the ground up, exploring a top crypto payment gateway API is a smart "buy" decision. This strategy lets you tap into specialist expertise without pulling your own team away from their main jobs.
At the end of the day, buying off-the-shelf SaaS is the default choice for a reason. It delivers speed, cost certainty, and lets you stand on the shoulders of giants, using proven tools to grow your business effectively.
A proper financial analysis of buying a SaaS platform has to go much deeper than the monthly subscription fee. To get a real sense of its value, you need to calculate the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). It’s here you’ll find the significant savings hiding just beneath the surface. When you choose to buy, you aren’t just getting software; you’re sidestepping a mountain of hidden expenses.
Think about what it really costs to run a custom-built platform long-term. You’ve got ongoing maintenance, urgent bug fixes, and constant performance tuning. These costs are unpredictable and can quickly spiral out of control. With an off-the-shelf solution, these responsibilities—and the bills that come with them—are all bundled into one predictable subscription fee. You’re effectively handing over the financial risk of upkeep to the vendor, whose entire business model relies on keeping their platform running flawlessly.
The upsides extend well past simple maintenance. Consider the specialised team you’d need just to keep a custom platform secure. If you build it yourself, you are solely responsible for protecting it from threats. Reputable SaaS vendors, on the other hand, invest millions into their security infrastructure and expert teams, giving you a level of protection most businesses couldn't dream of replicating in-house.
Opting for an established SaaS platform isn't just a cost-saving measure; it's a strategic move that outsources immense operational and regulatory risk. You gain immediate access to enterprise-grade security and compliance without hiring a single specialist.
This risk mitigation is a massive deal. SaaS vendors live and breathe complex regulations like GDPR. They handle all the legal and technical heavy lifting to ensure their platform is compliant, shielding you from potentially ruinous fines and legal headaches. This built-in compliance is a powerful, and often overlooked, benefit.
From a strategic point of view, buying a platform gives you unmatched speed. You get to bypass the long, drawn-out development cycle and get immediate access to tools that can drive efficiency and growth from day one. In a fast-moving market, that kind of agility is crucial.
The robust UK SaaS industry is a testament to this, with forecasts suggesting it could be worth a staggering £80.6 billion by 2026. This rapid growth fuels a mature ecosystem of powerful integrations, meaning your new platform can easily connect with the other tools you already use, creating a completely seamless workflow. You can find out more about these UK SaaS market trends and see how they impact business decisions.
Ultimately, buying an established SaaS platform is a powerful lever for efficiency. It allows you to tap into the vendor's specialised expertise, slash your operational burden, and focus your capital and attention on what really matters: your core business.
While buying an off-the-shelf solution is often the sensible default, let’s be clear: building a bespoke SaaS platform can be a game-changing move in a few very specific situations. This path isn’t for everyone. It demands a rock-solid strategic purpose and a full understanding of the long-term commitment you’re making.
The decision to build should really only stem from one of two core motivations: protecting a truly unique competitive advantage or spotting an opportunity for commercialisation.
If your core business process is your secret sauce, then you have a strong case for building. I’m talking about a workflow so unique and so central to your success that no off-the-shelf product could ever replicate it without watering it down. Trying to force a proprietary method into a generic tool would be like asking a world-class chef to create their signature dish using only a microwave. It just doesn't work.
Think about a logistics firm that has developed its own routing algorithm, one that consistently cuts fuel costs by 20% more than any competitor. Or consider a fintech company whose unique risk-modelling engine allows it to profitably serve a market segment everyone else overlooks. In these situations, the software isn’t just a tool; it's the very embodiment of their intellectual property.
Building a custom platform is both a defensive and an offensive strategy. It shields your most valuable processes from being easily copied and lets you build an operational moat that competitors simply can’t cross with standard software.
Choosing to build ensures this unique advantage remains yours and yours alone, completely secure and fine-tuned to your exact needs. Exploring the wider benefits that custom software development can bring to a company can give you more context on this kind of strategic choice. It’s a serious investment in creating a durable, long-term competitive edge.
The second powerful reason to build is the potential to sell the platform itself. If you've solved a problem for your own business that you know plagues your entire industry, you could be sitting on a potential goldmine. By building it from the ground up, you hold the keys to turn an internal operational cost into a completely new, recurring revenue stream.
This is a major strategic pivot, and it’s not to be taken lightly. It means:
This completely changes the discussion from a simple "build vs. buy" analysis to a much bigger conversation about market disruption and diversifying your revenue. It's a bold move, no doubt. But for the right company with the right solution, it can redefine its position in the market entirely.
Deciding to build a custom platform is a massive undertaking, loaded with significant and often underestimated complexities. The idea of a perfectly crafted solution is tempting, but it’s crucial to have a reality check about the challenges involved. The journey goes far beyond initial development costs, locking you into a long-term commitment that can easily drain resources and pull focus from your core mission.
When you take the ‘build’ path, your organisation becomes permanently responsible for every single bug fix, security patch, and feature update. This isn't a one-off project; it’s the birth of a new, ongoing operational burden that can siphon away the very capital and attention you were trying to support in the first place.
One of the biggest hurdles is accurately scoping the project from the get-go. It's incredibly common for initial plans to underestimate the complexity, which almost always leads to delays and spiralling budgets. If you choose to build, knowing how to handle this is critical. Learning about managing project scope creep is a good first step to keeping your timelines and costs from getting out of control.
Choosing to build your own software is like deciding to build your own office building instead of leasing a space. You gain ultimate control, but you also become the sole party responsible for the foundation, the plumbing, the security, and every future repair.
Once your platform goes live, the real work is only just beginning. The technology stack will age, new security threats will inevitably pop up, and the market will demand new features. Your team has to be ready to handle this relentless cycle of maintenance and innovation—a job that off-the-shelf SaaS vendors manage for thousands of customers. While avoiding the common pitfalls of purchasing software solutions is one thing, the risks of building are often an order of magnitude greater.
Security is another area where the risks multiply. Even with managed SaaS applications, inefficiencies and security gaps are common problems. Research shows that within many UK enterprises, a shocking 53% of SaaS licenses go unused, and over 60% of certain expensed applications receive poor security scores. What's more, almost 85% of SaaS apps remain unmanaged, creating massive blind spots.
When you build your own platform, you inherit all these challenges and then some. You are entirely on the hook for securing user data, maintaining regulatory compliance like GDPR, and defending against an ever-changing landscape of cyber threats. This is a monumental task that demands specialist expertise and continuous investment—resources that are almost always better spent on growing your actual business.
Right, so how do you actually make the final call? This isn't a decision to be made on gut feeling alone. You need a structured, logical way to think it through, one that turns all the theory into a clear evaluation process. This is about making a confident, data-backed choice that truly lines up with where your business is heading.
First things first, you have to be ruthless in separating what makes your business unique from what's just a standard operational need. If a process is simply how you operate day-to-day, an off-the-shelf solution is almost always the smarter, faster, and cheaper option. But if that process is why you win – the secret sauce your competitors can't replicate – then building your own platform becomes a serious contender.
Once you’ve made that distinction, it’s time to do your homework. Dive deep into the market and see what existing SaaS solutions are out there. This needs to be followed by a brutally honest Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) analysis, comparing the long-term financial reality of both paths, not just the upfront price tag.
Next, you need to take a long, hard look in the mirror. Does your organisation genuinely have the technical firepower and internal resources for this? A multi-year development project isn't a side gig; it demands a skilled, dedicated team and unwavering focus from leadership. Lastly, properly weigh the strategic value and potential risks of owning the intellectual property. Is there a real opportunity to commercialise the platform later, or could it just become a massively expensive distraction?
This simple decision tree can help you visualise that initial, high-level choice, mapping it against project complexity and your budget.
The key takeaway here is pretty stark. Building only really makes sense when you're dealing with high complexity and you have a substantial budget to back it up. In almost every other scenario, buying an existing solution is the more pragmatic and sensible route.
Ultimately, choosing between buying a ready-made SaaS platform and building a custom solution is a strategic crossroads. Treat it with the weight it deserves. Follow a disciplined framework, stay focused on what gives you a real competitive edge, and keep your long-term business goals front and centre.
By following a structured process, you can cut through the noise. It ensures your final choice isn't just a technical one, but a powerful business strategy that sets you up for success.
When you're at the crossroads of building or buying, a few key questions always come up. Let's tackle the big ones head-on, drawing from our experience helping businesses make this exact decision.
Thinking about cost isn't just about the initial price tag. Buying a ready-made SaaS solution sets you up with a predictable operational expense (OpEx) – a recurring subscription fee you can easily budget for.
Building your own platform flips this on its head. It starts with a hefty capital expense (CapEx) to get the software developed. But the spending doesn't stop there. You'll have ongoing operational costs for maintenance, hosting, and support, which can often creep up to be much more than a simple subscription. It's easy to overlook these "hidden" costs, but they can make the total cost of building significantly higher in the long run.
This is where the difference becomes stark. Getting an existing SaaS platform up and running can take anywhere from a couple of days to a few months, depending on how much you need to integrate it with your current systems.
Building from scratch is a much longer game. You're looking at 6-12 months just to get a minimum viable product (MVP) out the door. A polished, full-featured version? That could easily take years of development, testing, and refinement. Buying gives you a massive head start.
One thing you absolutely must remember: when you build, you effectively become a software company. You're now on the hook for everything—sales, marketing, customer support, and endless development cycles. This is a fundamental shift in your business model, not just a one-off project.
Yes, and this can be a game-changer. If you build a solution that solves a common pain point in your industry, you can absolutely commercialise it and open up a brand-new revenue stream.
This is a powerful move, turning what was an internal cost into a profit-making asset. But don't underestimate the shift—it's a massive strategic pivot that demands serious investment in both capital and expertise.
Deciding whether to build or buy is a huge strategic decision, but you don't have to make it in a vacuum. At Make IT Simple, we live and breathe this stuff, turning innovative ideas into scalable, market-ready SaaS platforms.
If a custom build is on your radar, book a consultation with us today. We can show you how our experience can bring your vision to life, complete with a guaranteed budget and a clear delivery timeline.
If you are looking for a bespoke software development company, please get in touch by phone by calling +44 (0) 1905 700 050 or filling out the form below.