Build vs. Buy SaaS Calculator
Compare TCO for SaaS build versus buy - including renewals!
What this is
A calculator comparing total cost of ownership between building software in-house and buying a SaaS solution, including renewal costs.
Our one-line summary — not the founder’s tagline.
- How it works
- An AI agent (Harry) that calculates the total cost of ownership for building software in-house versus buying a SaaS solution, including renewal costs.
- Pricing
- Free.
- Best for
- Teams evaluating whether to build or buy software, factoring in long-term renewal costs.
What we measured
Nobody else publishes this — it comes from knocking on the door every day.
- Watched by us
- 16 days
- Last checked
- 10d ago
The numbersIs it still shipping, is it overpriced, where did it land — and what the price is built from.
League price & chart
No money. No seat. It goes on your record — and in 28 days reality settles it.
Calls are closed while we rebuild accounts. You can still read every one of them.
Other. Launched 16d ago on PeerPush, where it placed #546. Today, it's been quiet for 15 days and the price has started to bleed.
Already bleeding a little every day, and it accelerates the longer it stays quiet.
We check this site every day, ourselves. A founder can post “still working on it” — a claim like that doesn't price. What we price is what we can verify from the outside: evidence, not announcements. The real question isn't “will this be huge?” — it's “will they still be moving in four weeks?”
The market viewHow this launch is priced and ranked in our league — the investor side of the page.
ranked by the reality anchor, not the market price
It placed #546 on PeerPush with 8 votes.
No matter how much money goes in. There is no pump here — you can't make yourself right by buying more. The line only moves on things that actually happened: an award, revenue that grew, a new platform, code that shipped — or silence.
En eski 4 hareket bu listede yok — toplam 16 olay var. 1 quiet day in between are left out — nothing happened on them. A launch that goes quiet eases down a little at a time — never a cliff you could have run from the night before.
How the launch is moving on its own board, day by day — the crowd's attention.
A flat line is normal: votes stop within a day or two of launch, on every board. What's unusual — and what actually counts — is a launch that keeps pulling votes long after its day is over.
About
For decades, the build vs. buy decision followed a familiar script: buy commercial software when a vendor solves the problem well enough, build internally when your needs are too unique or strategic to outsource. The calculus was mostly about cost, timeline, and internal capability. AI just tore up that script. Today, a small team with access to foundation models and modern development tools can build sophisticated, custom software in weeks — not months or years. At the same time, AI-native SaaS vendors are embedding capabilities into their products faster than most enterprises can evaluate them. The old framework — the one built on assumptions about build cost, vendor lock-in, and competitive differentiation — wasn't designed for this environment. That's the problem Harry is built to solve. Harry is the AI agent at the heart of the Differential Factor Build vs. Buy Calculator. He doesn't just run you through a checklist. He asks the right questions, listens to your specific situation, and helps you think through the decision with the nuance it deserves. Harry guides you through the key dimensions of any build vs. buy decision: Strategic fit — Is this capability core to your competitive differentiation, or is it infrastructure? The answer matters more than ever when AI can commoditize entire software categories almost overnight. Total cost of ownership — Not just license fees vs. development costs, but the full picture: integration, maintenance, talent, opportunity cost, and the hidden costs of vendor dependency. Time to value — In a fast-moving competitive environment, speed matters. Harry helps you think through realistic timelines for both paths, including the AI-assisted build scenarios most traditional frameworks ignore. Risk and lock-in — Vendor concentration risk, data sovereignty, switching costs, and the growing risk of under-building in areas where proprietary capability may become a decisive advantage. AI leverage — This is where Harry is different. He explicitly factors in how AI tools are reshaping internal build economics, and whether AI-enhanced vendor solutions actually deliver the differentiation they promise. Enterprise software is in the middle of a classic disruption cycle. AI-native tools are entering from below, offering good-enough functionality at dramatically lower price points. Meanwhile, AI-assisted development is collapsing the cost and time required to build custom solutions internally. The result: the traditional "buy unless you have a really good reason to build" default is no longer safe. Neither is reflexive building. The right answer depends on a careful, context-specific analysis — and most organizations are making this decision with outdated mental models. The Build vs. Buy Calculator exists to change that. It's grounded in Christensonian disruption theory and practitioner-informed research into how AI is reshaping enterprise software economics. Every conversation with Harry contributes to a growing body of research on how organizations are actually navigating these decisions in the AI era. The Build vs. Buy Calculator is designed for: * Technology and product leaders evaluating whether to build AI-native capabilities internally or adopt a vendor solution * Founders and operators deciding where to invest scarce engineering resources versus where to buy time-to-market with commercial tools * Strategy and finance teams stress-testing assumptions in software investment proposals * Innovation and transformation teams inside enterprises trying to move faster without accumulating vendor dependency debt If you're staring down a software decision where AI is either part of the solution being evaluated or part of the internal build capability being considered, Harry can help you think it through. The Build vs. Buy Calculator is FREE. No paywall, no sales funnel. Harry asks questions, you share your situation, and together you work toward a clearer decision framework. Differential Factor is an AI-native research and advisory firm focused on disruptive innovation. The calculator is both a practical tool and a research instrument — helping organizations make better decisions while generating insight into how the build vs. buy calculus is shifting across industries in the AI era. The old framework had a good run. Time to build a better one. Try Harry at bvb.differentialfactor.com
Where it launched
1 platform| Platform | Votes | Counts toward price | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| PeerPush | 8 | sets the price | ↗ |
The board it did best on sets the price. Every other board only adds to it if the launch also placed high on that board too — because just showing up somewhere isn't an achievement. Listing on twelve directories is free; placing well on them isn't.
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