Infographic 5 · ZANISS SOFTWARES
Build vs buy is one of the most expensive decisions a growing company makes — and most teams get it wrong in both directions. This infographic gives you a clear decision framework, the true 5-year cost of each path, and the five questions that almost always settle the debate.
Buy when the process is commoditised (accounting, email, generic CRM). Build when the process is your competitive moat or your workflow doesn't fit any vendor without 40% workarounds. The infographic visualises this as a 2x2 of 'process uniqueness' vs 'process criticality' — top-right quadrant builds, bottom-left buys, the other two go hybrid.
SaaS looks cheaper on day one but per-seat pricing scales with your headcount, and integration tax adds up. Custom software has a higher upfront cost but flat ongoing cost. Past ~50 active users in a niche workflow, custom usually wins on TCO. The deep-dive — custom software vs ready-made — shows the math with real numbers.
The best architectures use SaaS for commodity layers (auth, email, payments, helpdesk) and custom code only for the workflow that earns money. This minimises both upfront spend and long-term lock-in. The infographic shows three reference architectures for ops-heavy SMEs, B2B SaaS, and marketplaces.
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