Buy SaaS when the process is a commodity that works the same in every company, such as email, expense reports or ticketing, and you can live with the vendor's workflow. Pay a systems integrator (SI) when you are already committed to a large platform like Salesforce, ServiceNow or SAP and need it rolled out across the business. Build custom software with a senior team when the workflow is a differentiator, when no product fits without heavy bending, or when SaaS licensing and platform customization costs keep growing faster than the value they deliver.
SaaS stops winning when the workarounds pile up: spreadsheets beside the tool, manual copy-paste between systems, and add-on modules bought to cover gaps. That is the signal to re-run the comparison.
The SI path goes wrong when the platform is bought to solve one narrow workflow it wasn't designed for. Heavy customization turns a standard platform into custom software that only runs on someone else's product, with every release adding regression risk. If that's where you're headed, compare it with building directly. Our Accenture alternatives page and alternatives to big consultancies list cover options for engineering-led builds.
Compare all three over the same horizon, usually three to five years, and count everything. We won't quote market prices for licenses or SI rate cards because they vary widely by contract, but the structure is consistent.
Seats × price per seat × years, plus expected annual price increases, premium tiers or add-on modules, implementation and configuration, integration work, internal admin time, the cost of the workarounds people run beside the tool, and the cost of migrating off it later.
Platform licenses (same formula as SaaS) plus SI fees (people × duration × rate card), change orders as scope moves, regression testing for each platform release, an ongoing support or managed-services agreement, and internal admins certified on the platform.
Team size × duration × monthly rate for the build, then cloud hosting, any third-party components, and a smaller team for maintenance and improvements. With Ryz, mid-level engineers are typically $7,000–$10,000 per month, senior engineers $10,000–$15,000 and leads $15,000 and up, quoted per team. For example, three senior engineers cost $30,000–$45,000 per month combined, times the months the build needs. You get a plan, a price and the names of the people before work starts.
The useful question isn't which option is cheapest in year one. It's which line keeps growing. SaaS and platform costs usually scale with users and documents. A build's cost scales with the change you ask of it.
A global investment manager needed compliance review for its marketing materials: more than 8,000 pieces a year, with 700+ reviewed every month across three teams that each had their own process. The firm had the usual three options. It could pay an SI to customize Salesforce into a review workflow, buy an expensive compliance SaaS and change how the teams worked, or build exactly what it needed.
It chose to build. A Ryz AI pod started from zero and grew to three engineers, working in the firm's environment alongside its team. They built:
Reviews went from days to hours. Two things made custom the right answer here. The review process was specific to the firm's rules and teams, so a generic product would have forced compromises. And licensing costs for third-party components were large enough that owning the code paid for itself. See our case studies for this and other production work.
We're on the build side. Ryz custom software development teams and AI pod teams are senior engineers, the top 1% of the engineers we interview, who work on your team, in your repos and cloud, on US business hours. Fortune 500 engineering teams trust us, and we serve enterprises across industries. If you're unsure which path fits, our AI consulting work starts by scoping that question honestly.
We're not the right fit for a commodity process that SaaS already handles well, or for a board-level transformation program or a global platform rollout, where a large SI is built for the job.
In year one, usually yes. Over three to five years it depends on how SaaS costs grow with users, add-ons and workarounds compared with the build team's cost and the smaller team that maintains it. Run the arithmetic for each option over the same horizon before deciding.
When you've already committed to a platform such as Salesforce, ServiceNow or SAP and need a large, cross-functional rollout with data migration, training and change management. If you're buying the platform only to customize it heavily for one workflow, compare that with building directly.
Yes, and most companies do. Buy SaaS for commodity processes and build the differentiating workflow, connected to those tools through their APIs. The worked example above runs as a PowerPoint plugin, which is custom software on top of a tool people already use.
The code lives in your repos and runs in your cloud from the start, so your team can maintain it, extend it or hand it to another team. Engineers work on your team, reporting to your leads.
Cost is team size × duration × monthly rate. Typical cost is $7,000–$15,000 per engineer per month, with senior engineers at $10,000–$15,000 and leads at $15,000 and up, quoted per team. You get a plan, a price and the names of the people before you start.
Questions we didn't answer? Email info@ryzlabs.com.
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